The sky was perfectly clear, and the sun, having shed its youthful spring face, was already shining powerfully as if in a rehearsal for the next season.
The school grounds buzzed with an energy that seemed completely untouched by May sickness.
However, the moment Takumi entered the classroom of class 1-3, silence fell.
"............"
But it was only for a moment; the conversation quickly resumed.
Takumi glanced around, confirmed that no one was looking at him, and headed to his seat.
He was completely used to commuting by train now, but he felt like he would never get used to this reaction.
Takumi clearly stood out. It seemed he was perceived as a person with bad behavior, though not quite a delinquent.
He frowned at his reflection in the window.
He had inherited his mother's pale pigment, which was quite rare for a Japanese person, and his hair was naturally a dull dark brown. However, combined with his apathetic expression from a young age, from the outside he looked like someone who had bleached their hair to look cool. At a prestigious school like Gorobogakuen, he must have seemed like a very rare species.
His greeting on the first day of school hadn't helped.
The day before, he hadn't slept well due to nervousness and was emitting a grumpy aura. His natural awkwardness with words only made it worse, and his greeting of "Ugh... 'sup" was probably perceived as an attempt to intimidate others. Because of his appearance, he was completely shunned.
If he had the communication skills to actively talk to people, make clever conversation to turn his image around, and make friends, he wouldn't have spent his elementary and middle school years alone.
To show that he was a harmless and serious person, he would often open his textbook and study during breaks.
However, he heard from Kotori that everyone thought he was the type of person who didn't do their homework at home and was always frantically doing it at the last minute at school. It was completely counterproductive.
Since then, he had started reading novels or going to the library instead, but the effect so far was unclear.
As Takumi sighed internally, he heard the sliding door open.
He looked over and saw that Kotori had arrived.
"Oh, hey Nabacchi!"
"The new drink from Futaba yesterday, wasn't it super strawberry-y?"
"I might have preferred it without milk to get more of that strawberry flavor. How about you, Kotori-chan?"
"Hmm, it was okay..."
Unlike Takumi, who was a loner, Kotori was immediately surrounded by girls as soon as she arrived.
They immediately started asking her questions about Futaba from yesterday, but she answered curtly with a cool expression, saying things like, "Is that so?", "Sure," and "It was fine."
Her seemingly grumpy responses were accepted as her character, someone who didn't chase after fads, with comments like, "Nabacchi is the type who just keeps up with trends," and "She wants to find things she can really get into." The girls didn't seem to mind at all.
Other classmates eavesdropping also had a good impression, accepting her as the "Ice Princess on a High Peak," with comments like, "Nabata-san really has her own firm opinion," and "It's cool that she doesn't follow the crowd."
But knowing Kotori, she probably didn't even taste the new drink properly due to her nervousness. In fact, Takumi could tell that her eyes were darting around every time someone brought up Futaba.
Just then, his eyes met Kotori's. Noticing that Takumi was looking at her, Kotori blinked and then looked away, a little awkwardly.
Her friends around her were completely unaware that they were leaving Kotori behind and continued to excitedly talk among themselves.
From the outside, Kotori was just coolly nodding along.
But Takumi squinted, looking at her as she stood in a circle of friends, unlike how she was in middle school. She looked radiant.
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