A Riot of Self-Introductions

Rude, reckless, ill-mannered, idiot...

In an instant, every insult you could think of to describe a bad student had been slapped onto the red-haired boy.

To make matters worse, he had publicly snubbed Yosuke Hirata, who was quietly becoming the center of the class.

"Who does this guy think he is? What's with the attitude?! Like any of us even wanted to hear his self-introduction!"

"Exactly! We tried to be nice, and he threw it back in our faces. Why did someone like him end up in our class?!"

The class quickly erupted into a chorus of criticism aimed at the boy. But surprisingly, Hirata himself didn't look upset at having been snubbed.

Instead, he spoke up to make excuses for him:

"Everyone, please calm down. I think he probably just hasn't gotten used to the new environment yet. I'm sure things will get better once we get to know each other. After all, we're classmates now. Don't you agree?"

Since Hirata had said as much, the others couldn't very well keep complaining. They settled down, following his lead.

Still, their first impression of that rude idiot couldn't have been worse.

After that brief interruption, the self-introductions continued in an orderly fashion.

"My name's Haruki Yamauchi. I made it to the national table tennis competition in elementary school, and I was the ace pitcher for my middle school baseball club. I wore number four! But then I got injured during the high school league, so I'm still doing rehab. Nice to meet you~"

Haruki Yamauchi seemed like a frivolous sort of guy. He went on about his past achievements, but...

Why would a middle schooler have competed in a high school league?

Given the impression he made, Katsuya Shinjo immediately realized that aside from his name, the rest of his story was probably all made up.

"I'm next!"

A cheerful voice rang out. It belonged to the girl who had helped the old woman on the bus that morning.

"My name's Kikyo Kushida. None of my middle school classmates came to this school with me, so I'm all on my own. I hope I can learn everyone's faces and names soon and become friends with you all."

"I love making friends, so I hope you'll all exchange contact information with me after your introductions! My dream is to be friends with everyone!"

And with that, the energetic girl's self-introduction came to an end. With her sweet face, cute voice, and innocent dream, it was only natural that she immediately became another focus of the class.

Once everything had settled down, Hirata went over to the blond boy from this morning's seat-offering group—the one who hadn't given up his seat.

"Could you go next? Would you mind introducing yourself?"

Since the boy had been using a comb and a small mirror to fix his hair the whole time, Hirata wasn't sure what sort of personality or habits he had.

Fortunately, the boy didn't seem irritable. He slowly opened his eyes, struck an exaggerated pose, and replied:

"Very well. My name is Rokusuke Koenji. I'm the only son of the Koenji Conglomerate, and one day I'll shoulder the future of Japanese society. I look forward to your guidance, young ladies~"

The Koenji Conglomerate was a household name on Sakura Island. Everyone knew it.

As the conglomerate's young heir, Koenji had access to wealth and power beyond anyone's imagination. But the girls in the class didn't look at him with sparkling eyes. Instead, they seemed to think he was a weirdo.

Even Hirata's eye twitched. Just as he was about to say something, Koenji added:

"Also, if anyone does anything that displeases me, I'll punish them without mercy... You'd all do well to keep that in mind."

"Koenji, what exactly do you mean by that?"

"Ha! I hate ugly things more than anything. Put that way, even you should be able to understand, with your limited intelligence."

Understand, my ass!

Who knew what this bizarre guy meant by "ugly"?

Appearance, personality, or something else entirely?!

Katsuya Shinjo had dealt with Koenji plenty of times, and all he could conclude was that Koenji was absolutely insane!

The guy seemed to have his own unique system for judging beauty and ugliness, and it had caused Shinjo plenty of unnecessary trouble in the past.

"Ah, I see. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for introducing yourself."

Hirata was truly something else. He hadn't understood Koenji either, but he still politely nodded to him before coming over to Katsuya Shinjo.

"You're up next."

After meeting so many oddballs in a row, even Hirata was starting to feel a headache coming on. All he could do was hope none of the remaining classmates would be strange.

Fortunately, Shinjo seemed like a normal person. (Did he, though?)

"All right. My name is Katsuya Shinjo. I like listening to music and reading novels, and I especially love all kinds of sweets. I hope we can all become good friends and study and live together!"

"That was great, Shinjo! Thanks for introducing yourself!"

Hirata secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If everyone could be as easy to deal with as Shinjo, that would be wonderful.

But as soon as his self-introduction ended, Katsuya Shinjo felt that unnatural gaze again... In an instant, goosebumps crawled all over him.

The perverted Flying Fish Head sitting in the dark corner was staring at him with an expression that was hard to describe.

The guy was probably just envious of how easily Shinjo had managed to introduce himself like a normal person. But to Shinjo, there was no doubt that he was gay!!

And for some reason, he'd set his sights on him in particular!

While Shinjo's mind spun in circles, the gloomy boy finally began his own halting self-introduction:

"Um, my name is Ayanokoji... Kiyotaka... Ah... I'm not particularly good at anything... Nice to meet you... Ah... That's all..."

If the guy had social anxiety, his voice was so calm and even that he didn't sound nervous or afraid at all.

But if he didn't have social anxiety, it was hard to imagine a normal high school boy giving such a strange self-introduction.

Was he just naturally bad at talking?

Of course not!

Katsuya Shinjo was certain there was something wrong with this guy!

Whatever anyone else thought, Shinjo was convinced that this boy named Ayanokoji was the brooding, secretly passionate type! He was using some inborn condition to attract everyone's attention. Add his icy tone and unapproachable aura, and the people he attracted would surely be cheerful, outgoing guys!

Late at night, the pitiful Ayanokoji nestled in Hirata's sunny, handsome embrace:

"Yosuke... I'm scared..."

"Don't be. I'm here!"

At that point, everything clicked for Shinjo. This scheming Ayanokoji—had he actually had his eye on Hirata all along?