Ordinary Enrollment Day (2)

"W-What's wrong... Hajima-kun?"

Ichinose lowered her head, her hair strands at her ears being twirled around by her small fingers.

"Ah... it was rude of me to stare so long."

Hiss, was it because of the gradual rise in temperature?

I felt like my face was burning hot—it must be the sun's fault.

Ichinose was the same as me, it was just the weather!

I calmly (forcibly?) averted my gaze and looked at the notice board beside me.

I found my name near the top of Class 1-B, while Ichinose was the very first.

By the way, this arrangement didn't seem to follow the gojuon order (similar to pinyin in Japanese).

I remembered that the first in Class 1-A was Sakayanagi Arisu, and glancing at the names after hers, they also didn't match the traditional phonetic arrangement.

Was there some special ordering method, or was it based on entrance exam scores?

I glanced at Ichinose, who was admiring the school scenery, and asked.

"Ichinose-san, would you mind telling me your entrance exam score?"

The girl watching the cherry blossoms turned her head in slight confusion.

"Why would Hajima-kun suddenly ask about that?"

"Just curious."

Ichinose nodded cutely.

"Of course, it's not something I need to hide."

"Since the entrance exam was reasonably difficult, I scored about 490 out of 500."

"That's an impressive score—I didn't expect Ichinose-san to be so outstanding."

"I wouldn't say outstanding; studying is a student's duty, I just do my best to accomplish what I need to."

"But in my heart, you're already an outstanding person."

Setting aside her personality and looks, just this straightforward character alone was likable.

With that, I gave a sincere evaluation.

But Ichinose seemed distracted for some reason, blanking out for a moment before snapping back.

She stepped back a little, looked me up and down.

Then she leaned in again, tilted her head, stared at me for a while, and nodded thoughtfully.

"Hajima-kun, you're more skilled than I imagined."

"Why do you say that? Sincere praise is just..."

"Saying to a girl you've just met: 'In my heart, you're already an outstanding person.' Doesn't that feel like a somewhat ambiguous and direct advance? I know you didn't mean it that way, but it's easy to misunderstand."

Huh? Was this some kind of unique female brain circuit?

"Why can't it just be a simple compliment to you?"

Ichinose brushed her side hair and thought for a moment.

"I know that, so what I'm trying to say is: for me it's fine, but it wouldn't be good to say that to other girls."

Huh? That was clearly more likely to cause misunderstanding.

"You've already caused a misunderstanding."

"Eh? What's wrong?"

"The fact that Ichinose-san wants to be the exception."

"Ahh, I mean, because I understand the meaning behind your words. If it were another girl, she might misunderstand."

"P-Please don't joke around."

Her face flushed red, and she hurriedly waved her small hands.

"I'm not joking."

I put away the faint smile that had been hanging at the corner of my mouth and spoke seriously.

"Because Ichinose-san really is a very cute girl, so that sentence wasn't just simple praise."

"As you said, it's a somewhat ambiguous and direct advance toward Ichinose-san."

I winked my left eye, but I clearly overestimated the defensive stats of the girl before me.

If this were depicted in a manga, Ichinose-san would probably have turned into a cute steam engine by now.

"Alright, that was all a joke. Please don't take it to heart."

"But... the part about Ichinose-san being very cute isn't a joke."

"Eh!!!!"

"So this is Class 1-B. Looks like quite a few students have already arrived."

I tried to strike up a conversation with Ichinose, who had been silently following me the whole way without a word.

I waited a while, but heard nothing from her.

Ah, I guess I went a little too far earlier.

"Yeah, well, at least we made it in time."

I barely managed to pull myself together. I'd already braced myself for the awkwardness of talking to myself.

"Let's head inside then. By the way, are you really okay now?"

"Hmph."

Ichinose let out a light snort.

"Don't bring that up in front of so many people!"

She tried to look angry, but her slightly furrowed, pretty face only made me want to tease her more.

Before I could reply, she walked into the classroom ahead of me.

Maybe I really did go too far. I should probably find a chance to apologize to her properly later.

My gaze followed Ichinose's figure as she entered Class 1-B.

Speaking of which, from this moment on, I was about to start my brand-new high school life.

Studying together with all the students in Class B for three years, then graduating.

Well, honestly, it wasn't anything grand, but I couldn't help feeling a little excited.

I didn't know what kind of feelings I'd have on the actual day of graduation.

Books said that after graduation, you didn't want to leave.

But I didn't really understand what that meant.

I guess you could say I graduated from the White House, but I didn't really...

No, there were still plenty of memorable things.

Regret, remorse, joy, anger, relief.

These tangled emotions might one day come back to me in memories.

But I still didn't feel the slightest urge to go back.

Would graduation bring feelings I'd never experienced before?

Probably, but.

But maybe the result didn't matter that much after all.

After all, this is the present tense. If I want my future memories to be more vivid, I need to make every second of the present count.

Only by striving to make every moment now worth remembering might I truly understand those feelings then.

Sorry, but even though I was thinking all these passionate thoughts at the door, once I sat down in the seat with my nameplate, I was at a bit of a loss.

Speaking of which, this seat was really giving me a headache.

If it were a bit off to the side, that would've been fine, but why did it have to be right in the middle?

I didn't think of myself as some novel protagonist, but this seat was pretty eye-catching.

And since I'd arrived a little late, the seats around me were already filled with classmates.

Everyone was chatting and getting to know each other.

It wasn't that I didn't know how to talk. I had plenty of techniques for naturally joining conversations.

But! Being able to join a conversation and having the courage to do so were two different things.

And I didn't know if this seating arrangement was intentional, but there were really a lot of girls around me.

It wasn't like they were all girls, but I really didn't have the guts to casually jump into a conversation.

Especially with a group of girls.

Yeah, you two guys in front of me, how about looking around a bit?

I could only sit upright, pretending not to care about my surroundings, silently praying that some guy would come talk to me.

Huh? You're asking about my deskmate, since everyone else has one?

Come on, I'm starting to wonder if I contributed too much to global cooling in my past life.

My deskmate was a cute girl, and pretty popular too. She naturally existed as the center of conversation.

Normally, that would be something to be happy about, but she happened to be the one person who didn't want to talk to me right now.

My gaze inadvertently fell on a lonely soul in the first row whose deskmate hadn't shown up, stuck in a similar situation to mine. Just as I was about to give him a sympathetic look, I saw him getting approached by the boys and girls around him.

What the hell? His looks were only average. I was clearly the better-looking one here.

Just as I was about to give up and wait for the homeroom teacher to arrive, I faintly heard the two people in front of me whispering.

"But you lost, so take your punishment like a good sport."

"Hey, isn't that cheating? Who said you could do that?"

"You didn't notice this loophole in the rules beforehand, so don't quibble with me. You set the conditions yourself, so don't weasel out."

Then the boy in front of me turned around and smiled at me.

"My name's Tetsuya Hamaguchi. My hobby is soccer. I've been lucky enough to have a lot of seniors guide me along the way, and I've stuck with it so far. Looking forward to studying together from now on."

"Hajime Kashima. My hobby is reading. Likewise, nice to meet you."

The boy in front of me was named Tetsuya Hamaguchi. I could see his passion and confidence in sports, and I could also feel his warmth and ease with his classmates.

As we talked, his deskmate turned around too.

"Oh, right, I forgot to introduce you. This is my deskmate."

Hamaguchi pointed at the boy beside him.

"Hello, I'm Ryota Beppu. My hobby is studying. Pleased to meet you."

Ryota Beppu adjusted his glasses and extended his hand to me.

"Hajime Kashima. Pleased to meet you."

A hobby of studying, huh... well, that's a rare one.

He looked like someone who'd keep others at arm's length, but once we started talking, that impression vanished.

"Let me tell you, even though he usually wears a straight face, he's actually really easy to get along with."

"Is having no expression the same as wearing a straight face?"

At first glance, they didn't seem like they'd click, but somehow I felt they got along surprisingly well.