The very next day which also turned out to be the last day of the school year, there was a congregation of students that were surrounding a bulletin board that was in the main lobby of the school.
A lot of students would initially try to be absent on the last day since there would really be nothing to do, but many of them realized that the exam scores could make or break their grades.
As a result, almost every student in all grades was at school this morning.
That also included Takei, Akari, and their friend group.
Let's hope I did good...
Takei was extremely anxious about what placement he would receive as a result of his exam scores.
Previous to the exams, he had consistently studied and made sure to keep up with the content taught in the class.
Takei was sure that he did good on the test, but his anxiety was making him feel differently.
On the off chance that he got a low score even though he had studied really hard was causing a shadow to hang over his face.
"It'll be okay, you're just overthinking it."
Whispering sweetly into his ear, Akari gently reassured him that there was nothing to worry about.
"I've seen your effort first-hand, so I know how hard you've worked. That's why I can give you my goddess stamp of approval!"
In a joking manner, Akari tried to lighten the mood by picking fun at her nickname.
Seeing his girlfriend try her best to uplift him made Takei an incredibly happy man.
With his fears completely washed away, Takei grabbed Akari's hand and walked towards the bulletin board with an air of confidence.
When they got there, he could barely see the contents of the board due to the amount of students that were crowding it.
There were just too many people in front of him in order to see the board clearly.
Takei was about to lose hope as he began to sit down to wait for the crowd to die out, until someone called his name from deep within the crowd.
"Hey, Takei! Over here!"
Scanning through the top of people's heads in the crowd, he noticed someone that he knew waving at him.
Ryuto, man. You rock!
Using his body as a shield, Takei forced his way through the crowd with Akari safely following behind him.
He was trying to get to where Ryuto was in the crowd, which turned out to be near the front.
Once he reached Ryuto's position, Takei realized that there were also a couple more familiar faces there.
"Oya, Takeichi! We've been waiting!"
Helena energetically waved at Takei and told him to hurry up and come over.
In addition to Helena and Ryuto, Arisa was also there as well.
Eiji and Rikka ended up going home early since they both had a dentist appointment soon, but they told everyone else that they got relatively good scores.
While Takei and Akari were being caught up to speed, Arisa pointed to the board with a big grin on her face.
"It looks like your efforts have paid off. Congratulations, Takei."
Following Arisa's finger with his eyes, Takei examined the board to see what she was talking about.
Akari Akazawa, #1
Takei Tanaka, #2
"..."
An overwhelming feeling of happiness surged throughout Takei's body as he realized that his goal was finally realized.
With his grades almost on par with Akari, Takei was now capable of standing next to the goddess without shame.
"Good job, Takei. I knew you could do it."
With an enchantingly alluring smile on her face, Akari happily praised Takei by ruffling his messy black hair.
I did it. I did it!
Seeing that his hard work had paid off, Takei let out a sigh of relief.
He was incredibly elated to have ended off the school year on such a good note.
This was the best-case scenario that he could've asked for.
As he was happily rejoicing, Takei's phone buzzed with an incoming call.
"It must be Mom or Dad calling me, I'll be back in a second."
Takei excused himself for a moment to talk to his parents, to which his friends understandingly nodded.
Once he got a fair distance away from the crowd of students and into a place that was deserted and quiet, Takei answered the phone call.
"Hello?"
"Hoh, you sound older, dear son of mine!"
The person who called him turned out to be his father, Yuuto.
He hadn't heard his father's voice in a while, so Takei was feeling a bit sentimental.
"It's been a while, Dad."
"Yeah, it sure has."
For the next fifteen minutes, Takei and his father talked about everything and anything under the sun to catch each other up on what was going on with their lives.
It was something that Takei had intended to do for a while, but he kept putting it off since he wanted to show his father the fruits of his labor.
That ended up being a good thing since Yuuto got extremely excited when he heard about the good news from Takei.
Takei was laughing like crazy when he heard his father freaking out trying to find his mother to tell her the good news.
Ah, I've missed them a lot.
In the midst of all the laughter, Takei realized the one crucial thing that was missing from his life; his parents.
On the other side of the phone, Yuuto and Flora were celebrating Takei's success, but they were so far from reach for him.
With a slightly lonely gaze, Takei directly told them to come home when they could.
"You two... Come back soon, okay? It wouldn't be good if our future child never got to meet his grandparents~"
He teased them about the grandchild joke that they always made, to which Yuuto and Flora played along with.
""We'll be home ASAP!""
They're still the same...
Takei inwardly sighed to himself, but he was ecstatic at the thought of his parents coming back.
For a couple more minutes, they talked about a few more things before wrapping up the conversation with everyone's last thoughts.
Saying goodbye and everything, Takei prepared to click the "end call" button until his father's voice stopped.
"Takei."
"Hm...?"
"Take a look at this."
Looking at his phone, Takei realized that Yuuto had sent him a text with some information about an upcoming event.
Hm... A short vacation... at Grandma's?!
—
New Idiot Couple Meter: 22 -> 23%
And so it begins.
Serious-san: Wooooooo!
Sugar-chan: I can feel myself getting weaker...