Rebirth of the Vulgar Couple - Episode 5

I’d finally figured out a way to make some money.
As long as I don’t get caught. It is a crime, after all.

“G-god, I’m nervous.”

It was the next morning. Mom had already left for work.
Before I left, she’d hammered it into me to actually go today, so skipping wasn’t an option.
But seriously. How was I, pushing forty, supposed to blend in with middle schoolers now? I was seriously anxious.

“D-damn it. I need a smoke…”

I’d been a pretty heavy smoker in my future life.
I’d managed to hold out yesterday, but I was reaching my limit.
I couldn’t exactly smoke openly. I am a middle schooler, after all.

“Ugh. Everything’s such a pain… I should’ve swiped a few from Mom while she was sleeping…”

I’d figure out a way to buy some later.
Luckily, Mom smoked too, so I could probably cover up the smell. Maybe. Hopefully. Maybe.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

I steeled myself and stepped outside.
I was weirdly worried my uniform looked like a cosplay. Walking around acting suspicious probably made me look like a total creep.

“Keita!!”

“Ah, Azusa!”

My savior appeared.
Azusa joining me partway made things way easier.

“Isn’t wearing the uniform embarrassing?”

“You’re overthinking it. Just act confident.”

Azusa seemed totally resigned to the situation.
No way could I reach that level of acceptance.

“Morning!”

“Mornin’!”

As we got closer to school, more students appeared.
People who seemed to know me greeted me, and I tried to reply without seeming unnatural.

“Sh1t. I seriously can’t remember who’s who.”
“Yeah. This is a problem.”

I recognized the faces. Oh yeah, that guy was around. But the names just wouldn’t come.
This was going to be tough for a while.

“What class was I in again?”
“Same as me. Class 3.”

Not even knowing where my shoe locker was? That was bad.
Luckily, there were name tags. Without them, I’d have been flailing around here too.

“M-my seat?”
“Like I’d remember that.”

Even getting into the classroom brought new challenges.
Wasn’t there a seating chart? What a regressor-unfriendly school! They should think about people who’ve come back from the future!

“Hey, Keita! What’re you standing around spacing out for?”
“O-oh! Yeah!”

Uh… Right! Masaru!
Nice, nice. I remembered this guy! We were good friends, though we drifted apart after high school.

“Come on! Sit down! Why’d you skip yesterday?”

He pointed to a seat. Seemed like that was mine. It kinda felt familiar.
I glanced at Azusa to see if she was okay, but she was already deep in some girl talk.
Her adaptability was insane.

“Alright then. So? What happened yesterday?”
“Woke up with a killer headache. It was already past time to leave, so I figured I’d just skip.”
“Oh. You good now?”
“Yeah.”

Masaru sat on my desk while talking to me.
He was definitely a good guy.
He was genuinely worried.

“Midterms are coming up. How you feeling?”
“To put it mildly? Terrible.”
“Cut it out, you always score above average!”

Midterms…
I had zero confidence I could pull that off.
Apparently, I was the type to score above average. With that, did I even have time for stuff like horse racing?
I couldn’t imagine handling third-year middle school work.

We kept chatting until the warning bell rang.
Then our homeroom teacher came in for morning HR.
After announcements, first period started.

(Phew. English is manageable.)

Listening to English class, I could understand it fine. The grammar was easy too.
Was third-year middle school English always this simple?

(Is this the Learning stat at work? It’s only 30…)

Maybe I could manage this.
Just as I thought that, Math barged in like it was determined not to let me off easy.

(? What’s a proof? Like I’d remember. Besides, you can just see they’re the same. Why even prove it? Fine. QED.)

Math required serious study.
Honestly, I barely understood a word.

So, I started reading the textbook from the beginning.
Slowly, vaguely, things started making a little sense.
Guess a Learning stat of 30 wasn’t useless after all. If I went home and properly studied from the first-year textbooks, I might actually get it.

Is Azusa okay? I glanced her way and saw her looking back at me.
Seemed Azusa was struggling too.
Pretty pathetic for two college graduates.
Let’s study together when we get home.

After somehow surviving the rest of the classes, the day ended.
Neither Azusa nor I were in a club, so we headed straight home. Club activities cost money, after all.

“That was rough.”
“I really felt my age regression. The topics were so outdated, it was hard to keep up.”

Same here. Stuff like popular dramas.
How could I remember? I did recall that era being fun, but…
No way I remembered specific scenes.
I just kept dodging with polite smiles.

“We seriously need to hit the books again. I managed to grasp the math by reading the textbook, but history and geography? The memorization stuff? We’re starting from scratch.”
“For me, chemistry and science are bad too. Even reading the textbook, it’s gibberish.”
“Tough road ahead. Let’s dedicate after-school time to studying. I don’t know how much ‘Learning: 30’ is worth, but ‘Appearance: 50’ got me this face, right? So 30 should be decent enough.”

Right. I’d been all excited about coming back to the past to do whatever I wanted, but I never saw this pitfall coming.
Time to buckle down and study. Suffer now, and the future will be bright.