No jokes—at schools in this country, where clique culture ran exceptionally deep, freshmen would split into different little circles the moment they enrolled. If someone failed to join one and didn't have absurd social skills, then congratulations in advance: they could enjoy three years of "peace and quiet"—provided they didn't get bullied...
The same applied to transfer students.
Don't be fooled by how smoothly Sogo Doma had fit in upon arriving. When he had first come, hadn't Fujigami been unwilling to pay attention when he tried talking to him? So, seeing Sakura Yamauchi eating her bento alone during lunch because she had no clique of her own, what could Sogo Doma do? Though she had transferred here on a whim, he couldn't just watch her go eat a toilet bento, could he?
This wasn't making a mountain out of a molehill. In this country, anyone who dared eat a bento alone in public would be looked at differently. Even if nobody said anything, the stares alone could make someone break down—let alone the fact that they absolutely wouldn't say nothing...
Being alone got you bullied!
Not even Utaha Kasumigaoka had possessed that kind of courage back then, much less Sakura Yamauchi. So before Sogo Doma transferred in, Utaha either slept through lunch break and bento time, or, if she was truly too hungry, went to the rarely visited rooftop. Without either option, those who were alone could only hide in the restroom to eat.
Sogo Doma had even wondered why Shizuka Hiratsuka had been willing to step forward and help Yukino Yukinoshita establish a one-person club. Maybe she had wanted to give Yukino a place where she could eat her bento alone. After all, Yukino did not have many friends either. Just imagining that frosty, snow-cold girl hiding in a