My name was Shoko Ieiri.
"Today was my first day partnered with the Spiky-Haired Man..."
Shoko Ieiri wrote those words in her diary.
"He had a handsome face, and his personality was so much better than those other two."
I had a habit of recording my life in a diary.
Not long after I enrolled at Tokyo Jujutsu High, I received a notice assigning me a mission partner.
At first, I kept praying that I wouldn't be paired with that guy.
But fate played tricks on me. Perhaps because Mr. Yaga had deliberately tried to bring us together, I ended up partnered with that guy named Ze Zenin anyway.
Friendships between boys were so strange, though. Why did a little roughhousing somehow turn into a bet?
"Today was my second day partnered with the Spiky-Haired Man. Sitting in his seat in the classroom, he told me... I was special."
I could clearly feel my cheeks burning then. It was the first time in my life that a boy had said something romantic to me.
Although I was shy and embarrassed, I didn't say much. I thought that no matter how smooth a talker he was, there was no way I would ever fall for him.
"Today was my first mission with the Spiky-Haired Man..."
I was utterly stunned by the boy before me. He shielded me behind him as naturally as breathing, and even in battle, he protected me despite the risk of getting hurt.
I asked him why.
The Spiky-Haired Man simply looked at me without expression, but I caught the look in his eyes, as though he were staring at an idiot.
Wasn't protecting your partner the most obvious thing in the world?
That look nearly drove me mad. This guy had practically laid out every thought in