I was Thrown into an Unfamiliar Manga

"Welcome, welcome."
As we entered the mansion, the first to greet us at the entrance were Karen and her father.

It wasn’t our first meeting—I had already seen him back when he was trailing Karen and Sakamoto ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) on their date, disguised in various outfits along with his subordinates.
But since acting like I knew him might make him feel awkward, I bowed politely and pretended this was our first meeting.
"My name is Kim Yu-seong."

"Ah, you seem like a reliable young man."
"...?"
His strangely gentle tone made me lift my head, and then Karen’s father pushed her forward and said,

"By the way, do you happen to need a girlfriend? My daughter here may not look it, but she’s very domestic—Guhak!"
"What the hell are you saying, you dumb old man!"
Karen, blushing furiously, punched her father in the gut without mercy for making such a shameless joke.

"Come on, follow me. I already prepared the room."
"O-okay."
As Karen started leading the way, she seemed to notice Boris standing there awkwardly and turned to Sasha.

"He can follow my father. He’ll find him a place to rest."
Sasha nodded and translated Karen’s words to Boris.
Once that was settled, we followed Karen’s small back down a wooden hallway.

***
"This is it. This is the room we’ll use for studying today."
"Wow! It’s huge!"

Rika shouted in excitement.
Sure enough, just as she said, the tatami room Karen provided was incredibly spacious.
It felt like a banquet hall in a high-end ryokan.
"This smell! This texture! I love it!"

Rika immediately flopped onto the floor and rolled back and forth gleefully.
Because of that, her knee-length skirt rolled up dangerously high, but Sasha suddenly covered her eyes, so I didn’t get to see anything important.
"Rika! Your skirt! Your skirt!"

"Ah."
With Karen’s scolding, Rika quickly shot up, and the situation was resolved.
We all gathered around the large desk in the center of the room.

"I was thinking of pulling out a kotatsu, but if it’s too comfortable, we might fall asleep halfway through, so I held back."
"Ah! A kotatsu! That’s a shame!"
"…True, it’s a bit disappointing. Would’ve been perfect to sit in there and peel mandarins."

As the three of them suddenly launched into kotatsu talk, I couldn’t hide my awkwardness.
My house uses ondol floors, so I’ve never used a kotatsu before.
"Wait, Sasha, you’re a foreigner. How do you know about kotatsu?"

In response to Rika’s sudden question, Sasha smirked and raised her chin proudly.
"I saw it in anime."
"Ah~ yeah, they show up a lot in anime."

Rika nodded, arms crossed like she understood perfectly.
Watching these two girls, who both looked like foreign beauties, talk like this honestly felt a little surreal.
That’s because Karen, the only normal one among us four, couldn’t keep up with the conversation at all.

"I-I’ve seen anime too! That one where the white-clothed and black-clothed magical girls fight bare-handed!"
"Oh, you mean Pr○Cure? Didn’t know you liked that kind of stuff. You’re surprisingly into niche shows, Karen."
"Amazing. Still watching magical girl shows at that age."

"Huh? I was talking about something I saw as a kid, though?"
Suddenly, silence fell between the two.
"Let’s talk about something else."

"I can’t hold a conversation with someone at this level."
"…Huh? Did I say something wrong?"
I placed a hand on Karen’s shoulder, who still looked confused, and shook my head.

"Sometimes, it’s better not to know."
Karen, please just stay innocent.
***

Though Rika and Sasha's otaku talk about kotatsu had caused some noise, we got back on track and officially started our study session.
There were only two days left until the exam.
Honestly, at this point, rather than understanding and solving problems, it was more efficient to just memorize everything and go with that.

Before diving into full-on studying, we checked each other’s weak subjects again.
"First, Rika."
"Yes!"

"You’re bad at math, yes, but more broadly you’re weak at all science-related subjects. There are a lot of students who’ve given up on this area, so just memorizing formulas properly can get you an average score. So your goal today is to thoroughly memorize all the formulas in the exam scope."
As I said that, I handed Rika a summary I had prepared at home with all the math and science formulas neatly organized.
"I’m giving you a quiz in one hour, so don’t slack off—memorize them. Once you’ve got the basic formulas down, we’ll move on to easy sample problems."

"Yes…"
Though she’d responded energetically at first, Rika’s voice noticeably dimmed. I ignored it and moved on.
"Next, Karen."

"Okay."
"Your grades are pretty average across the board. Nothing you’re particularly bad at, but also nothing you’re really good at. And you struggle with memorization. So I recommend changing your memorization method. Most people use association techniques. There’s that famous one with 'mu-sa-go' meaning ‘no accidents’ to remember the year 645."
"Oh, I know that one. That’s the Taika Reform, right?"

"Exactly. Try making your own goroawase mnemonic devices like that. It’ll make things easier to remember."
"Alright, I’ll give it a shot."
I smiled at Karen’s fired-up expression as she clenched her fists, then turned to the last and hardest case—Sasha.

"Yu-seong, what about me? What should I do?"
"You…"
Unlike the other two, Sasha didn’t have many options.

Classical Japanese literature is already hard even for native students because it’s written in archaic language, so for Sasha, a foreigner, it would be even worse.
Fortunately, the subject usually focuses on a limited set of works and poems, so practicing similar question types repeatedly helps you get used to the patterns.
I used to be a science-track student myself, and classical literature was the hardest for me too, so I felt some solidarity with her.

I took out a packet of 200 practice problems I had printed during the week and showed it to her.
"Honestly, there’s no use explaining it now—it’ll be hard to understand. The only way is to just solve a lot of questions. I originally made these for myself, but we can do them together."
"Alright. Got it."

Now that we had a rough direction for our studies, we all buckled down and got to work.
***
[1 Hour Passed]

Rika fidgeted a bit in her seat, but she managed to hang in there.
As promised, I gave her a quiz, and she seemed to have memorized the formulas properly, so we started solving some of the easier problems from the practice packet.
[2 Hours Passed]

Rika’s concentration clearly started to fade, and her pace at solving math problems slowed down significantly.
Same for Karen—she began flipping through her history book more frequently than before.
[3 Hours Passed]

Rika, having completely lost interest in studying, began doodling on the last page of her math notebook.
Judging by her surprisingly skilled drawings, she definitely inherited Kishimoto-sensei’s genes.
As for Karen, maybe it was the constant memorizing, but she now had a book on her head and was lying face down on the desk.

The only one still functioning normally was Sasha, sitting next to me and working on classical literature.
Unlike the other two, she had impressive stamina and seemed totally unfazed by the continued problem solving.
I pulled out my phone, which I had set to vibrate, and checked the time.

3:31 p.m.
This felt like a good point to take a break.
"Alright, we’ve studied hard. Let’s rest for an hour."

I said that, woke up the sleeping Karen, and pulled Rika away from her doodling so she could stretch.
Staying in one position for too long is bad for the body.
Just sitting for extended periods can put strain on your lower back, so it’s important to stretch now and then.

Crack! Crack!
My joints made satisfying popping sounds as I twisted my waist and looked around.
The others were begrudgingly following along because I was making them, but usually cheerful Rika and physically active Karen were visibly drained.

It seemed like some emergency intervention was needed.
"Karen, mind if I use the kitchen?"
"…Huh? I don’t mind, but why the kitchen all of a sudden?"

"Well, everyone looks worn out, so I thought I’d make a snack for once."
When your sugar levels drop, you need something sweet.
Resting passively is fine, but doing something active to release stress can be just as helpful.

"I’m making red bean shaved ice. Anyone want some?"
As I looked around while saying that, Rika, who had been slumped over, instantly sprang to life and shot her hand up.
"Me! Me!"

Sasha, beside her, tilted her head and asked,
"Shaved red bean ice? I’ve never heard of that before."
Well, of course. A princess from a winter country wouldn’t have had it before.

I gave her a confident smile.
"Just try it once—you’ll see."