Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai: Volume 8 Cowardly Pride and Pompous Shame

Cowardly Pride and Pompous Shame

Unfortunately, however, this is not where our story full of misfortune ends.

The end of the festival signaled the return to our usual daily lives.

Our extended vacation ended yesterday, on Monday, and upon reaching school today I quickly noticed that all the decorations at the school gate and in the school yard were gone.

That said, it was only the parts that you could see from the outside that had been completely cleaned up. Inside there were still tons of cardboard boxes and supplies lying around, and plenty of posters were still up on the walls too.

The entire school was full of that unique relaxed feeling you get after the end of a festival.

It feels like there are more students than usual close to falling asleep in the middle of class as well, myself included.

And on top of that, we're currently in the middle of modern Japanese, the number one class to put you to sleep, and just staying awake is taking all the energy I have.

The current subject we're covering is Atsushi Nakajima's Sangetsuki.

It's set in ancient China, and apparently it's about an amazing poet down on his luck who ultimately goes insane and turns into a tiger.

"...Then, Richou quit his job and cut off all contact with other people in order to focus solely on his poetry, however he had quite a hard time coming up with anything. What would you usually do in this situation? ...What do you think, Mikadzuki?"

The mild-mannered teacher was giving his lecture in a leisurely tone of voice as he slowly walked around the room, and then stopped to ask Yozora a question.

By the way, the teachers here pick on Yozora fairly often to answer questions.

If I had to say why... it's probably because they think that they can move the class along more smoothly by having an honor student like Yozora answer the question.

I figured Yozora would matter-of-factly state the correct answer as she always did, however to my surprise she went "Eh..." and seemed to be at a loss for what to say.

She flipped through her textbook in a slightly hurried manner, and then quietly answered in a voice lacking confidence,

"......Get mad at myself...?"

She must've chosen that as her answer because in the text it stated that Richou had self-derisive tendencies.

"Hahaha, it's not every day we get to hear a joke from you, Mikadzuki."

The teacher cheerfully laughed, honestly thinking she was joking.

However Yozora only fell further into panic.

"Eh... Ah... Um......... I don't know then."

"Haha..."

The teacher laughed again as Yozora answered with a straight face, however he appeared to have noticed that Yozora truly didn't know the answer, and then said, "How about you, Suzuki? What would you do?" choosing to ask the student sitting behind Yozora next.

"Umm... Talk to someone else about it?"

"That's right, normally in this type of situation you'd ask someone for help, however Richou——..."

Suzuki's quick, off-the-cuff answer appeared to be the one the teacher was looking for, as he then continued his lecture.

As for Yozora, she was staring straight downwards, glaring at her textbook, and her face was bright red all the way up to her ears.

☺

"Argh, I can't stand it!"

After school, as we were making our way to the clubroom, Yozora finally snapped once we'd made our way to where nobody else was.

"C-can't stand what?"

It was so sudden I was more surprised than anything.

"Isn't it obvious!? I'm talking about earlier in modern Japanese class!"

"Ahh..."

Modern Japanese was three periods ago... so about five hours ago now. How long has she been thinking about this?

"...Pretty rare to see you get a question wrong. Did you not read the story ahead of time?"

"No, I read it just fine. His stupid question wasn't in the book..."

Yozora said with a frown on her face.

"Well, it was more like a part of his lecture than an actual question about the story. Makes sense it wouldn't be in the book."

I said, however Yozora only got angrier.

"I can't believe he'd ask such a ridiculous question, that damn sadist of a teacher! Sneaky jerk! Moron! Baldy! Retard! Jerk! Idiot! Poophead!"

I'm guessing it's because she lost her cool, but Yozora's insults were pretty lacking compared to usual.

"And besides, if he was the kind of person who could just ask others for help when he needed it, he wouldn't have quit his job to become a poet in the first place, you damn idiot! That bald moron has no idea how Richou actually felt! That bald imbecile has no place talking about Richou's noble ambitions! That stupid idiot!"

"Y-yeah..."

I said, ignoring Yozora with a wry smile.

...I'd say he's actually a pretty good teacher myself, considering he noticed Yozora didn't know the answer and quickly moved to another student.

Yozora's complaining eventually moved from insulting our teacher and empathizing with Richou, to her own little theory on "What literature really is", and then to her criticizing Japan's education system.

She was so all over the place I had no idea what she wanted to say though.

"Also, how can you even measure how much somebody has to be suffering to turn into a tiger, I mean—— Kodaka, are you listening?"

"Eh? Oh, y-yeah. Authors sure have it rough~"

"Yeah, that's exactly right! Even the most skilled author will make a mistake or two when they're faced with overwhelming distress..."

"Like plagiarizing?"

"...Eh... Y-yeah... I-I s-suppose some authors m-might do that t-too... Jerk."

Yozora's flowing critiques came to a crashing halt as she quieted up like a cat that'd just been scolded. Guess I don't have to worry about her turning into a tiger like Richou...

...Actually though, as a matter of fact, back during class I was just as lost as Yozora on how to answer that question that our classmate, Suzuki, answered without even having to really think about it.

Asking others for help, huh...

...They make it sound so easy...

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