HS Chapter 41: The hopeless sister studies (in the library)

“”…Haaa””

“Oi, oi… This time it’s quite a big sigh.”

The second night after starting the study session for the final exam with my tutor, Koma-sensei. Koma and I, who have already hit a major wall and are currently having a very difficult time, were both letting out a big sigh even though it was time for a fun dinner.

“Why are both of you so depressed? In the morning, you girls were all excited saying, ‘I’m going to study properly today!’…. Ah, after school, you stayed at school, studying until just before dismissal time, right? How was it? Did you make good progress?”

In response to my aunt’s question, Koma and I looked at each other, and then we sigh again.

“About that… None.”

“Un? None, you say… Oi, oi. Don’t tell me Mako’s brain is that broken, Koma? Is it already too late? So, that’s why you girls are lamenting?”

“I’ll send you flying, Aunty.”

Aunty looks at me with pity in her eyes and says rude things such as that. I think I’m going to have to punch her and put some of my everyday resentment in it.

“No, it’s not like that, Aunt-sama. It wasn’t a study session, it was bad in that sense…”

“Haa? It wasn’t a study session?… Don’t tell me it became like yesterday?”

“Un, you guessed right. I think it went better than yesterday, at least… But a lot of other stuff… Haaa…”

“Other stuff, what? What happened, Mako?”

“…. After school, we—”

Aunty asks me a question and I start to talk about what happened today with Koma. Yes, that was three hours ago.

◇　◇　◇

“—Thank you for waiting, Koma. Sorry, was I a bit late?”

“Not at all. It’s okay, I didn’t wait at all, Nee-sama. I just finished the preparations, too.”

After, all of the classes ended. As soon as it was after school, I hurriedly packed up my belongings and ran out of the classroom to visit my neighboring class, second year B, where Koma was. When I visited class B, Koma was already waiting for me, having finished getting ready.

“Do you have all that you need to study? Notebooks, textbooks, workbooks? And of course, your writing tools.”

“Un, I have them all. Let’s go to the library, quickly.”

“Yes, Nee-sama.”

After meeting up with Koma, I grab my stuff and head to the library to study. I don’t have to go all the way to the library, since I can just study at your own home, especially if I have my little sister tutoring me, is what you’re thinking but there is a deep reason for this.

“Now, let’s properly study today!”

“That’s right… I’m really sorry for yesterday, Nee-sama. You asked me to teach you how to study, and then I said so self-pridedly, ‘I will teach you strictly’… I volunteered to be your personal teacher, but I was not able to concentrate at all…. I’m really pathetic…”

“Ah, no, no, no! What happened yesterday wasn’t Koma’s fault at all!? It was my fault for being distracted by the photos, bringing out the dessert, and even asking Koma to clean my ears, even though I was the one being taught.”

That’s right… Last night’s study session revealed a fatal problem, when we study together, we are more conscious of each other’s presence than when we study alone, and we can’t concentrate on our studies at all.

After all, there was so much ‘Avoid red marks! I can’t repeat a year!’, but last night, I found myself throwing away my study tools and flirting out with Koma to my heart’s content…. Really, what am I doing? Ah, a bit of self-depreciation.

“Anyhow, let’s forget about yesterday! Let’s study hard from today with a renewed spirit, Koma!”

“Yes! This Tachibana Koma, I will make a sincere effort to be of service to you today, Nee-sama!”

If things had gone according to plan, I was supposed to go home right after school and go straight to Koma’s room to have her teach me how to study… There’s a big chance that I won’t be able to progress in studying as I did yesterday if we went home.

So, in order to avoid a repeat of yesterday, my tutor, Koma-sensei, suggested this in the morning.

‘From today on, we will use the school library to study math until just before dismissal time, and then study other memorized subjects when we get home.’

For the rest of the subjects that I need to memorize, I will use the special handout that Koma made for me, which summarizes the main points of each subject in an easy-to-understand manner, and work hard in my room to memorize the important points on my own.

If there is something that I really don’t understand, I can ask Koma as needed— This is Koma’s proposal. This way, I can go home and study, and naturally Koma can have time to focus on her own study for the exams.

She chose the library as a place to study mathematics because it is air-conditioned, comfortable, and very quiet, so we can study calmly. What’s more, we can concentrate on our studies because we have people around us who are studying for exams or reading books just like us.

It’s true that if I’m in a library where someone’s eyes are always watching, I won’t be flirting around with Koma like I did last night… Probably. I’m not sure whether I’m going to be able to keep my hands off my sister, but today is the day I’m going to suppress my desire to flirt with Koma at all costs and focus on my studies…. Study hard, me, fight, me.

“—sama, Nee-sama.”
“Fueh!?”

“We are at the library, Nee-sama.”

While I was thinking that, before I knew it, I had arrived at the library. Oops, not good. I can’t be dozing around, I have to study hard from here on.

“Now, let’s find seats where we can sit together so that we can study easily.”

“Understood. Let’s find a good place… Still, there’s a lot of students here. We rushed to come here after class, but the seats are already pretty full.”

“That’s correct. They were thinking the same thing as us.”

“Ahaha, it seems so.”

There were already many students in the library with their study materials spread out on their desks. Some of them are students who usually would be hard at work in their club activities right now. Since the exam is a week away and we are in the exam preparation period, all club activities have already been suspended since yesterday. I’m sure the students that belong to clubs are also thinking of using this precious time off from club activities to study hard and get good grades. I’m the same.

“Nee-sama. That place is open.”
“Oh, we’re lucky. We can sit side-by-side.”

I look around for an empty seat for a while, watching everyone studying, and Koma discovers two empty seats in the back of the library. We can sit side by side, which is convenient for her to teach me… She found the perfect place.

I put down my luggage, spread out the textbooks and other materials that were assigned to me by Koma on my desk, and prepared myself to study.

“Then, Nee-sama, let’s immediately start with the math study session. We can’t waste a second or a minute.”

“Yes, treat me well, Koma-sensei.”

I reply in a very quiet voice so as not to disturb the people around me, and the math study session begins.

“The topic of this year’s math exam is exactly ‘simultaneous equations’. Well, first of all, I want to see how much Nee-sama understands about this topic… I want Nee-sama to solve these exercises in the textbook.”

Then Koma opens the back of the textbook to a page of practice problems and asks me to solve them.

“Even though it’s just practice problems, please try to think of them as the real thing. It would be helpful if you could write not only the answers but also the equations, so that they can be used as a basis for grading. I’ll also measure the speed of your answers at this stage, so please keep that in mind…. Are you ready?”

“All right, I’m ready! Anytime, Koma!”

“Okay. Then—-Start!”

I start working on the questions as if I’m taking an exam, just like Koma told me to. I decide to take my time and to read all the questions on the designated page first.

Let’s see? Umu… Fumufumu, I see.

“Yes! Koma-sensei!”

I look at the problems for a while, then close the textbook with a slam and raise my hand Koma that is staring at me.

“It’s a very nice hand raise, straight and tall, Nee-sama. So… How did you do? Did you already solve all of the problems?”

“Uun, you’re wrong. That’s not it, Koma-sensei.”

“It’s not that?”
“…. I’m sorry. I don’t understand the meaning of the problems…”

I stumble early in the first step and shamelessly and honestly confess that I can’t solve it. Koma-sensei, I’m sorry that I’m a hopeless student(sister)…

I didn’t think that I wouldn’t understand the problems at all… I thought I was listening to the class itself, even though I didn’t want to, what’s going on in my brain…

“…Fumu. Nee-sama, what exactly do you mean when you say you don’t know the meaning of the problem?”

“Etto… That is. I think I can barely understand the equations themselves… I don’t understand what it means when it says to solve the problems using the ‘addition and subtraction method’ or the ‘substitution method’… I just don’t understand these parts… I’m sorry, Koma…”

Oh no, I’m going to make Koma mad at me… Or maybe she will be surprised and say ‘Can’t you even do this?’

I get teary-eyed and apologize to Koma, but…

“I understand. Fufu… It’s okay, Nee-sama.”
“….Eh?”

Unlike the reaction I had feared, Koma smiled and encouraged me. Eh? Eeh? She’s not angry nor is she… surprised?

“Nee-sama. I believe you just said ‘I understand simultaneous equations’? Then, you’re doing fine.”

“Eh?… No. What part of what I said makes you say that, Koma?”

“… It’s not that you don’t understand everything, right? In Nee-sama’s case, I think you are just confused by the words ‘addition and subtraction’ and ‘substitution’. First of all, Nee-sama. Can you try to solve the first problem in a way that you can use, without thinking about ‘addition and subtraction’ or ‘substitution’?”

“Ah, un… I got it. I’ll try to solve it…”

Even though I didn’t really understand what she meant, I decided to try to solve it as Koma told me to, without thinking about anything difficult.

“Hmm… I’m pretty sure I have to match X or Y to the other one in the equation… This becomes this. And then… Okay. Koma, I probably solved it…”

“Thank you very much. Yes, I’ll check it. Ah, Nee-sama. I like to check the process, not just the answer, so please show it to me.”

I spent a few minutes working hard to solve it, and then asked Koma to verify my answer. I’m not sure if it’s correct… How is it?

“… Yup, it’s correct. Well done, Nee-sama. As I thought, you properly understand them.”

“Oh, I’m glad. It’s correct.”

I’m relieved to hear her say it’s correct. I’m really glad, since if I got it wrong this time she’d definitely be disappointed…

“Now, Nee-sama. Now that you’ve successfully solved the problem, I’ll go back to what I was talking about earlier. The solution that you have just used is the ‘addition and subtraction’ method, which is one of the methods that you mentioned earlier that you don’t understand.”

“Ah, is that so? This is it?”

“Yes. And there’s another method to solve the simultaneous equations. I’ll solve the problem you just solved with the other method, so please watch me.”

After saying that, Koma begins to solve the problem in her own notebook. I was trying to figure out how to solve it like Koma, but I couldn’t…

“Yup, I finished it.”

“Fast!? Koma solved it so fast!? A-Amazing…”

Without even having time to check it, she finished it three times faster than me and showed me the equation and the answer.

I know I’m saying this a lot, but we’re twins still… What’s up with this difference in abilities(specs)…?

“No, not at all. You get used to this with practice. If Nee-sama solves a lot of problems, you will soon be able to solve them as fast as this…. Leaving that aside, the method I just used is called the ‘substitution method’”

“Fumufumu, this is the ‘substitution method’”

“That’s right. The ‘addition and subtraction’ method that you just used, and the ‘substitution’ method that I used. As Nee-sama can see from the fact that both Nee-sama and I got the same answer, even though we solved the equations in different ways, Nee-sama can basically solve simultaneous equations using either method. That’s why—-”

This is how Koma sometimes practices how to solve a problem, but she also teaches it so carefully, gently and patiently that even a hopeless person like me can understand it.

Thanks to her, the questions that remained unanswered in the class were being cleared up in my mind. Koma is excellent at teaching… I think Koma would make an amazing teacher or something.

“—— That’s why. What’s wrong? Do you have something else you don’t understand?”

“Nope, I’m fine. You were very clear and helpful. This proves Koma’s teaching methods!”

“Oh my… I’m honored that Nee-sama would say that ♪ Now, all Nee-sama has to do is practice the exercises. Now, I’m going to ask you to solve a number of similar problems from the textbook and workbook.”

“Yeah!”

“The best way to understand the content is to solve a lot of similar problems. If you keep solving like this, you’ll also increase your solving speed. I know it’s hard for Nee-sama, but let’s make sure you learn what I just taught you.”

She has taught me so well and thoroughly. The rest is up to me. I need to work hard and solve as many questions as possible so that I don’t waste any of Koma’s teachings.

I open my notebook, take out my mechanical pencils, and get to work on those difficult and bizarre questions!