Chapter 42

“High School Boys and Career Paths” is the 42nd chapter of the manga.

Cover Page
End scene of Chapter 41. The Literary Girl continues to lie on the riverbank. Hidenori has left his jacket behind as a cover for her.

Detailed Summary
The homeroom teacher has distributed career path surveys to the students, which she asks them to return. While collecting and stacking them, she pauses. She asks the students if they’ve taken the forms seriously, and the room is completely silent, with no response from them. Fearing the worst, she declares that she’ll be inspecting the forms right there.

The first response she sees under the ‘Plans after Graduation’ section is “Middle school student”. Exasperated, she holds it up to the class and tells them this is exactly what she feared and begs them to take it seriously. The next form has “Ghost” written on it and she wishes instant death upon the respondent. The third says “Sports Adventurer”, and she throws it to the floor, asking which of the two it was supposed to be.

The teacher is creeped out by the fourth form, which says “Teacher’s wife”, and she exclaims in disgust. The fifth ("Science entertainer") confuses her once more, while the sixth (“I don’t want to become a lawyer”) infuriates her so much that she punches the desk in frustration. She yells at the culprit not to write anything if he didn’t know what he wanted to do. Slowly, she picks out the next form.

This one says “Go to a university”. The teacher, now unable to deal with even semi-serious responses, regards it blankly. Irritated by the lack of a joke, she topples her desk in rage.

Characters
In order of appearance:
 * The Literary Girl (Cover)
 * The homeroom teacher