Chapter 72: Teaching Moments

As Akuma had hoped, Hayai was able to swim ahead of the person from 2-A. Once Hayai touched the other side of the pool, Akuma immediately kicked off from the starting point and swam as hard as he could.

The person from 2-A ahead of Teki was able to finish at last. Teki finally started to swim. Akuma was able to make a sizable distance between him and Teki. Unfortunately, Teki was a really fast swimmer. He was able to catch up to Akuma in no time, although he was still behind by a little bit.

Once Akuma recognized Teki was right on his heels, he mustered all the strength in his arms and legs to push harder. He started to feel his muscles straining. He peeked at his competitor. He saw that they were now side by side. There was only a little distance left before they reach the goal. Akuma felt he was way beyond his limit. He thought that he couldn't keep up his current pace. His arms and legs were starting to tire heavily. Even though he hated the thought of losing to Teki, he understood that this was his limit. He started to let go of all the tension in his body and relax his movements.

Suddenly, he heard something unbelievable. He heard Angelie's voice. At first, he couldn't understand what she was saying. Angelie kept on repeating it until Akuma finally understood what she was saying.

"You're only allowed to lose to me! You better not quit!"

Angelie screamed from the top of her lungs while she had her two hands cupped near her mouth.

Akuma pushed beyond his limit. He continued to swim as hard as he possibly could. He couldn't see clearly where Teki was at that moment, but he was sure that he would win. He continued to swim fiercely until he reached the end.

Akuma raised his head out of the water. He quickly looked at his right side to see where Teki was. He saw both of them were touching the wall of the pool.

"I'm guessing this is a tie then, huh…"

Teki smirked at Akuma.

"Damn, I hate that there is no clear winner between us—"

As Akuma was talking, a male teacher shouted out loud.

"And the winner is… class 2-D!"

As the teacher made his announcement, all the students of 2-D around the pool area cheered and screamed their hearts out.

"What?!"

Both Akuma and Teki shouted and looked at the teacher. The male teacher shook his head and pointed at the swimmer of 2-D. It was Kiba. The two perplexed losers shifted their gaze to Kiba.

"Well… I'm sorry, I guess?"

Kiba smiled at Akuma as he scratched the back of his head.

---

The Help club members met in their clubroom in the afternoon. The swimming competition ended with 3-C winning the third-years' contest.

"I was so touched when Akuma did his best for Angelie-san! I didn't know he cared that much."

Sanaka was staring at Akuma with a smirk on her face.

"I wasn't! I wanted to beat that bastard Vice President!"

Akuma slammed his hand on the table as he glared at Sanaka.

"I'm sorry, Angelie. It was either your grades or my head. You saw how hardcore my classmates were, didn't you?"

Kiba bowed his head repeatedly at Angelie.

"Don't worry about it, Kiba-kun. Actually, I didn't really need the extra points from the swimming competition. I wasn't in any danger of failing P.E. class, after all."

Angelie smiled at Kiba.

"What?! You didn't need it?!"

Akuma turned his head toward Angelie.

"Yeah. I didn't understand why everyone assumed I needed the points. Including you, apparently."

Angelie raised her eyebrow as she stared at Akuma.

"But… you said our class needed to win since you failed the swimming exam?!"

Akuma furrowed his brows and clenched his fists.

"I just said that so that Mimi-san and Kiba-kun wouldn't worry about me failing the exam! And it's creepy that you're eavesdropping on me!"

It was now Angelie's turn to slam the table with her hand.

"Eavesdropping? You were talking loudly and I was standing nearby! Of course, I could hear you!"

Akuma fiercely glared at Angelie.

"I knew you were planning something when you riled up our classmates to win! What were you planning to make me do, huh?! I bet it was s-something lewd!"

Angelie's face turned red soon after the words left her mouth.

"Eh, he did all that so he could make Angelie do whatever he wanted? Damn, that's aggressive."

Kiba squinted at Akuma while having a large smirk on his face.

"It's a good thing that his nefarious plans were thwarted by you, Kiba-kun. For that, you have my gratitude."

Mimi looked at Kiba.

"Oh, is that so? Well, now that you're in my debt, how about we go—"

Suddenly, Mimi's notebook flew straight into Kiba's face. He fell to the floor. The notebook miraculously bounced back into Mimi's hands.

"I didn't want to hear the rest of what you were saying. My body just reflexively moved on its own."

Mimi resumed writing on her notebook, as if nothing happened.

Akuma, Angelie and Sanaka didn't talk any further. They feared that they might be the next victims of Mimi if they made any noise.

---

The weekend went by and it was the start of a new month and a new school week. During morning homeroom, the teacher of 2-B announced that the final exams would be in two weeks. When the class heard the term 'final exams', the whole class groaned collectively. The teacher then said that after the exams would be the start of summer break. The class, this time, celebrated with cheers.

During lunchbreak, the Help club members met at the rooftop. And as usual, Akuma was standing while the others were sitting down on the floor.

"Ugh, exams again? Why can't we just have one exam in a year?"

Sanaka was quickly consuming her lunch as she complained to the others.

"So, will you guys do another study group? I'll be a student again, if so."

Kiba smiled as he looked at Angelie and Mimi.

"Why do you sound so proud about that? It only means you're having troubles with your studies."

Mimi made a side glance at Kiba.

"It's because I wasn't hiding that fact."

Kiba laughed out loud.

"Maybe you should."

Mimi shook her head.

"Well, I think we should do another study group. I also think that the other students would be expecting us to do it, anyway. But I'm going to be much stricter with you three. You guys can't have failing grades, for the sake of this club."

Angelie glared at the back of Akuma. He felt a chill run up his spine.

"Whatever. Do what you want. I just want to get these exams over with."

Akuma continued to eat the hotdog sandwich he had in his hands.

"Wow, it seems that Angelie-san has finally domesticated him."

Sanaka smirked while also looking at Akuma's back.

---

That afternoon when classes were over, Angelie had to stay in their classroom for a bit. Everyone had already left the classroom. As Angelie stood up from her chair, the door opened. A female student with long, dark-blue, braided hair and wearing large, round-framed glasses, entered the classroom.

"Hi, Fukushuu-san. Good thing I was able to catch you here."

The female student smiled at Angelie.

"Oh, Hi. Um, you seem familiar but I can't recall your name. I'm really sorry."

Angelie smiled back.

"That's understandable. There were a lot of us during the study group for the midterms. I'm Hogo Miyori from 2-E."

Miyori bowed at Angelie.

"Ah! That's where I remember you from. You were part of our study group back then. So, is there anything I could help you with? It seemed like you were looking for me…"

Angelie bowed at Miyori as well and then looked straight into her eyes.

"Well, there are two things, actually. First, I just want to know if you guys will be holding a study group again for the finals?"

Miyori awkwardly smiled at Angelie.

"We just talked about it earlier. Yes, we do plan to do another study group. I just wasn't expecting someone to ask about it this early."

Angelie giggled for a moment.

"Really? Thank goodness… I was worried what I would do without you teaching us…"

Miyori breathed out a huge sigh of relief.

"I think you're giving us too much credit."

Angelie tilted her head as she continued to smile at Miyori.

"You've really helped a lot of us! Well, for me personally, that is how I feel…"

Miyori clasped her hands together as she stared directly into Angelie's eyes. Angelie blushed a little.

"I'm getting a little embarrassed… but thank you for your kind words. It really means a lot to me. To us, actually… So, what was the second thing you wanted to talk about?"

Angelie looked at Miyori in anticipation.

"Are you free during summer break? Since you're such a good teacher, I would like to ask for your help in teaching little kids!"

Miyori bent over and bowed down at Angelie.

"Huh? Me, teaching kids?"

Angelie pointed at herself while her jaw dropped.