Early the next morning, when Lin Mu stepped into the Class D classroom, he was greeted not by its usual half-dead atmosphere, but by someone anxiously trying to explain himself.
"...I really didn't start anything!"
Ken Sudō stood beside his seat, his red hair sticking up like a lion's mane as he waved his hands at the classmates gathered around him. His voice was edged with irritation as he hurriedly explained:
"There were three of them! They came looking for trouble first!"
Yosuke Hirata stood beside him, brows furrowed, one hand resting on Sudō's shoulder as he tried to calm him down.
Kanji Ike and Haruki Yamauchi exchanged uneasy glances, while Kikyo Kushida watched with her hands clasped in front of her chest.
Lin Mu strolled over to his seat at an unhurried pace.
His short white hair hung over his forehead, and a half-eaten strawberry lollipop dangled from his mouth. He'd just unwrapped it that morning, and the strawberry-flavored stash was one candy smaller again.
He set his schoolbag beside the desk, leaned back in his chair, and wore a lazy look that said none of this had anything to do with him.
Here we go again.
He sighed quietly to himself.
Class D could never go more than a few days without something happening.
He glanced around the classroom, then let his eyes settle on the seat beside his.
The girl had her shoulders hunched. Her back was fairly straight, yet she seemed to want to bury her head as low as possible.
Her signature red-framed glasses sat on her face, and her pink bangs nearly covered half of it. She gave off an air of shyness and isolation.
When he was bored, he sometimes paid attention to his exceedingly timid deskmate.
From what he'd observed, she'd barely