The stretches that Hestia and I always did as we walked back to our dorms were no more for now. We were too focused on studying. Instead, we ended up staying in the library until the night curfew to study.
When classes ended for the day, I grabbed a blanket, coffee, and other my study items and headed over to the library. Hestia now knew more history facts and was better at in our empire language class. When we were studying, Hestia always helped with my history and language classes while I helped Hestia with her beginner magic, math, and other classes.
Cory looked at the two us in awe.
"You guys really don't look good. Relax."
Cory said, frowning worriedly. He was looking at magic-related books in the library.
With his unkempt hair pulled lightly back into a ponytail, Cory stared down at with a stiff expression. Then, he put down the book he was holding and walked to the librarian. After speaking to them for a while, Cory borrowed a ruler from them and stood in front of .
With the clear ruler in his hand, Cory carefully placed it next to my face. I tilted my head towards him, confused.
"Stay still."
Cory put one hand on the back of my head to keep it in place. So of his hair covered his face as he faced downwards to look at .
Face down and leaning towards , he pulled in closer to check sothing. Then, he put the ruler back to my face and looked back and forth between the two.
What, was he trying to asure how big my face was? When I asked what he was doing, he didn't reply and instead muttered, "It's too serious……" to himself. My face contorted into a scowl when I heard that. Was the size of my face supposed to be sothing serious?
Cory placed the ruler exactly under my eyes. It was cold. Not too long after, Cory placed the ruler in his uniform pocket and sighed. Kind of like how a doctor sighs during a check-up.
"3.45 centiters."
"What is?"
"That's how long your dark circles are."
"Why would you asure that?"
"….anyone who had longer dark circles than always ended up passing out."
Cory said that his dark circles usually asured at 3 centiters.
After listening to sothing that sounded like superstitious nonsense, I took the ruler and walked over to Hestia to asure her dark circles. Wow. It was 4 centiters.
That was a bit of a shock. I stared at Hestia's and my reflection on the mirror. The two of us had dark shadows under our eyes. Our hair was a total bird's nest that was tied back, and we didn't even eat proper als so we were both looking pretty hungry.
Cory's worries seed pretty sound. I smiled slightly.
Cory, who had continued to watch the two of us study with an unpleasant expression, ended up joining our study session. We had ford a small study group. The reason why Cory ended up joining was simple.
"Don't you dare get another nosebleed like last ti."
He was our security guard.
Cory had seen my bloody nose last ti and had joined us in case we went too far.
Once Cory joined our study session, he began to study for history–sothing that he didn't even care about before. Of course, I had asked him to help us study.
Cory had zero interest in anything that wasn't magic, so he thought long and hard before agreeing to study history with us. But as it stood, Cory definitely wasn't proficient in the arts–he just stared at the textbook before turning his head away from the book and dozing off.
So instead, Cory began to practice on his handwriting. His handwriting was such a ss that he had extra points docked off because the teachers couldn't read it.
Cory took out an empty notebook and practiced writing down the nas of various fruits again and again, as neatly as he could. He furrowed his brow in concentration as he wrote the word 'orange' over and over again.
Cory couldn't help us with any language or arts-related subjects, but he was better than in math and science so he was a great help there.
His writing was ssy so his notebook didn't help too much, but he was great at explaining and ended up teaching us what we didn't understand.
Even Hestia seed to understand the basics of magic after listening to Cory's explanations.
For so strange reason, however, Hestia never tried to start a conversation with Cory during our study sessions. Not even once.
Instead, she would glare at him or looked at him warily.
Later, though, when Cory proved to be a big help, she spoke to him with a haughty tone.
"Honestly, you looked like you'd be really an, but you're pretty nice, aren't you?"
"…..is that supposed to be a complint or what?"
"But I'm the one that's closest to Shushu, just so you know."
Cory looked at her with a dumbfounded look. Then, he seed deep in thought for a while before he pointed at the piercing in his ear. He began to speak.
"You see this? Shushu made it for herself."
Then, Cory put his arm on of my shoulder and pointed to the orange piercing in my ear. He slled sweet. I ended up shoved next to Cory for a bit. He slled sweet.
"And I made her this one."
With his arm still on my shoulders, he rested his head next to mine and shot Hestia a smile.
"What about you?"
Hestia scowled at Cory's attack. At his words, Hestia took out the fountain pen I gave her before putting it back.
Hestia and I never properly gifted each other friendship items. I always gave her things. Hestia never gave sothing back.
Oh, wait, no. Hestia always baked cookies whenever she wanted to thank .
Hestia seed extrely jealous as she looked at Cory's and my ear piercings. She stared at my ear.
"Keugh………. Shushuuuuuuu……"
Hestia couldn't erase the upset expression on her face as she linked her arm through mine.
"We need sothing like that too….."
She kept whining. The scene resembled one where a child whined to their parents about sothing they wanted to buy in the toy store.
I told her that we could get matching accessories after the exams.
At my response, Hestia seed to want to run out of the library and get sothing matching, but rembered the bet and didn't beg to go to the store right then and there.
We continued to study hard until the ti had co. We finished our midterms, and our grades also ca out.
And in the end, I ended up winning.
To be honest, I only won because Hestia had never really sat down to study before and got too nervous during the test. She ended up getting sick mid-exam, and it got so bad that she had to put her head down on the desk and moan quietly in pain throughout it.
Hestia ended up barely finishing the test. She was dragged out of the classroom as soon as exams were over.
Thankfully, my dark circles were only 0.45 centiters longer than Cory's. Maybe that superstition wasn't fake after all.
Hestia was shipped off to the sick bay. She later read through her report card with a bitter smile.
Hestia sighed deeply, lunch in front of her.
"Shushu, it's like you said. Life really is hard."
"Shut up and eat your food."
Hestia shredded her bread into the soup and played with her food without eating it.
She had tried so hard, but for her to have ssed up on the actual exams….. My heart ached for her.
Hestia wasn't the only one who had pushed too far, though. I couldn't sleep when I saw Hestia foregoing sleep to study. I ended up studying through the night as well. Cory tried to force to sleep during club activities, but I just kept studying.
Usually, I would have been the one to mother Hestia and tell her that her health was what mattered most, but there was just sothing about that bet that made feel guilty about taking a break. I always ended up taking everything a bit too far when it ca to competition.
Both Hestia and I were an absolute ss by the ti the bet was over.
When Hestia just blankly stared into thin air without eating, I took out two sheets of paper from my pocket.
I didn't know how much this would help, but I showed the papers to Hestia.
The two papers were my report cards.
One was my report card from our last midterms, and the other was our most recent midterms.
"Look at this."
"…..?"
"Look at the teachers' comnts and my grades."
"Ooooh….. Shushu, you really improved!"
Hestia looked surprised at my grades. Before, a lot of teachers complained about my attitudes in the comnts. Now, most of them were filled with complints. Moreover, my grades had improved a lot from last ti. We also received partial grades for efforts, and that made my grades rise a lot compared to last ti.
I stroked Hestia's hair as she exclaid, "As expected, Shushu's amazing!" while comparing the two grades.
"It's thanks to you, Hestia. Truly, thank you."
Hestia's eyes grew round at my words. Then, her expression turned shy as she squird in happiness. Hestia smiled, looking extrely pleased.
Hestia raised her spoon and drank a mouthful of soup. I watched Hestia smile at my words with a smile on my own face.
Hestia humd sothing before suddenly rembering sothing.
"But Shushu. You won the best, what's your wish?"
"I dunno, living long and healthy?"
"Noooo. Sothing that I can do."
Well, I had won the bet. I had to tell her a wish.
The last one was a joke. I had actually prepared a wish that I wanted Hestia to make co true for . I wondered long and hard what I could ask her to do for . …to be more exact, I had prepared this from last week.
"I can say anything?"
"Yeah!"
At my words, Hestia shot a grin full of exhaustion, and I gave her a grin back. The two of us basically shared the sa expression on our faces.
I took out a thick folder full of paper from my bag.
"Here."
I threw it onto the bed. It was so heavy that the blanket was weighed down. Hestia, eyes wide with surprise, grabbed the folder and stared at .
"…..what's all this?"
"The application for the school journalism club."
"A club application?"
"Get in and advertise my club please. We still only have two mbers."
I said it was only one wish, but there was a lot more that I wanted. I took out a book that discussed the most influential households in our empire with a detailed explanation of each family and the political party they were in, and other history-related texts and laid them out in front of Hestia.
"And here are so books that I personally want you to read. Read them and write a review on them please."
"What?"
"With your writing skills, you can probably get good money for your writing. Earn so money so we can buy everything on the nu in that one dessert shop. Oh, but if I ask that, would that be two wishes? You can tell one too."
Hestia's face turned bright red when she heard that I read the contents of her notebook. She lowered her head as she looked at the papers and books in front of her.
"Shushu, you're really……"
Hestia's delicate, pale hands shook as she grabbed the school's beige-colored blanket.
"Really, you….you haven't changed."
Hestia put the items I had given to her in a pile and hugged it tight. Then, she placed it beside herself and promised to read everything when she had the ti.
"You asked for one wish, right? Then I'll tell you what I want."
"I'm good with anything except for those matching dragon tattoos you ntioned last ti."
"……pi. That's not the wish I want granted this ti."
T/N: We get Hestia's point of view tomorrow! Hurray!
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