There’s no rule that says that cool, handsome girls can’t carry around cute little handkerchiefs, though! And if there were a rule that said everything you wear has to suit you, then people like me who aren’t cute or cool would be stuck living our lives in the buff! So y’know what? Let this be her handkerchief! I’ll stand tall and proud and shout it out loud! I don’t even care how embarrassing it’ll be if it turns out I’m wrong!
The handsome girl just stood there for a moment, seemingly petrified. The idol-like girl next to her was just staring at me as well, and before long I started getting really, really nervous. I gulped. Gaaah, hurry up and take it already! I’d really like to run away now, so the sooner the better!
Finally, after an instant that felt like an eternity, the handsome girl said, “Thank you,” and took the handkerchief. She still seemed a little surprised, but apparently it was hers.
Oh, good. Looks like I wasn’t wrong after all. Okay, time to make a break for—
“This is mine, all right. Heh—I appreciate it. Seriously, thank you.”
Oh... Oh, wow, her voice is perfect... If love at first sound is a thing, then I think I probably experienced it the moment I heard her speak. Her voice wasn’t too high or too low—it sat in the perfect middle ground, its tone reverberating within my heart. I don’t exactly know how to put it in words, honestly, but her voice was incredible enough that for a moment, I genuinely thought that if my eardrums were to rupture at that very instant and her voice ended up being the last sound I ever heard, I’d basically be okay with that.
And not only was her voice certifiably swoon-worthy, not only had she turned out to be the handkerchief’s owner after all—on top of all that, she’d been something like ten times happier to receive it from me than I ever could’ve imagined! I was swooning so hard, in fact, that I completely forgot about the bit where this was my only chance to make a break for it.
“Wait a minute...aren’t you the pencil girl?!” Suddenly, the idol-like girl piped up out of the blue and grabbed my hand. And her voice was perfect too! It was the sort of voice you’d expect to hear coming from an anime character: high-pitched in just the right way and charming as all get-out. It was the sort of voice you’d hear once and never forget for the rest of your life.
“Bwahuh?!” Holy crap, her voice is as pretty as she is! Her voice had a totally different thing going on than her handsome counterpart’s, but I would’ve really struggled to pick one over the other. I’d been sort of exaggerating with the whole eardrum-rupturing scenario before, but if I could’ve had both of them whisper into my ears at the same time? Then I would’ve been totally, literally okay with having that be the last sound I ever etched into my memory.
“What do you mean, the pencil girl?” asked the handsome one.
“I told you about her, remember? The weird—I mean, mysterious girl in the entrance exam who spent the entire time rolling a pencil around on her desk!” the idol-like girl said, speaking in an incredibly fast and excited tone. She turned back to me, her eyes sparkling with glee. “If you’re here, that must mean that you passed, right? That’s incredible!”
In contrast with her excitement, I was totally overwhelmed. I also had to laugh, albeit internally and in a distinctly self-deprecating way. She really was talking about me after all. My smarts weren’t even close to the level that a prep school like Eichou was looking for, and the questions on the exam had all looked like so much incomprehensible gobbledygook to me. With my back up against the wall, I’d chosen to rely on the one tool I had available to me: my pencil.
Happily enough, the exam’s answer sheet was one of those automatically graded scan sheets and the questions were all four-option multiple choice. That meant I could mark the sides of my pencil with the numbers one through four and surreptitiously roll it across my desk when the proctors weren’t looking to pick my answers to all the problems! That got me through to the end of the test with my answer sheet filled out, at the absolute least. Imagine my surprise when I learned that I’d also actually passed.
“Oh wow, oh wow!” exclaimed the idol-like girl. “Did you buy that pencil at a shrine or something? Maybe there’s a god dwelling inside it! Ooh, and maybe you could use it for other stuff, like, like...like picking lottery numbers!”
“L-Lottery numbers...?”
“I don’t really know how they work, but you see commercials for them on TV all the time, right? I think they call it the Number Six Lottery, or something, and pencils have six sides, so I’m sure you could work something out!” she exclaimed, squeezing my hand tighter and beaming as she continued her excited ramble. “And I’m sure you could do lots of other stuff with it too! You could predict just about anything, as long as there’s only six choices or less!”
“Wh-What? No, this is just a totally ordinary pencil, I swear! It came in a twelve-pack!”
“Oh, did it? Then I suppose you must be the lucky one! That’s just as amazing!”
“No, I mean, well...th-thanks, I guess,” I replied, shrinking awkwardly away so far it broke her grip. Luck didn’t really strike me as something worth praising me for, honestly, but I couldn’t help but get a little giddy about being complimented so openly anyway.
The thing is, though, her voice really carried. And even if it hadn’t, the two of them were still beautiful enough to turn just about anyone’s head. That, of course, meant that we were quickly gathering the attention of all the other new students who were on their way to the entrance ceremony. The handsome girl seemed to notice their stares and tapped the idol-like girl on the shoulder. “Hey, Yuna.”
“Oh, whoops! I guess we’re standing out, aren’t we? Let’s walk while we talk. Sound good, Rinka?”
Yuna and Rinka. I guess that’s what they’re called? Man...even their names sound beautiful somehow! Then there’s me: Yotsuba, as in “four-leaf clover.” If their names make them sound beautiful, then mine makes me sound like my luck is all I have going for...me...
Suddenly, I felt something touch each of my hands. “Wait...huh?” I looked down at one, then the other, only to find that for some reason the two of them were walking on either side of me and holding my hands, of all things! “Whaaat?!” I shrieked.
“My name is Yuna Momose. Nice to meet you! And the girl over there’s...”
“Rinka Aiba. How about you? What’s your name?”
“Er, I’m, ah...I’m Yotsuba Hazama,” I replied.
“Yotsuba? Got it!” Momose chirped.
“That’s a nice name. I like it,” Aiba said.
They praised me again... Actually, wait, they’re calling me by my first name already?! Holy crap, pretty girls really are built different! “U-Umm, Momose, Aiba...?” I said, still flustered beyond all belief.
“Oh, you can call us by our first names! We don’t mind! Right, Rinka?” said Momose.
“Right,” agreed Aiba with a nod.
“N-No, umm...sorry, but I think that’s, well, a little too high a bar for me to clear right off the bat, I guess,” I mumbled. I was completely caught up in their pace, but that was the one line I just couldn’t bring myself to cross. A girl like me—a person who had nothing but luck going for her—could never possibly end up on a first-name basis with incredible people like them!
If, just hypothetically, I go on to become friends with them, I’m positive that I won’t be anything more in their eyes than a fun little toy they happened to stumble across. I mean, look at them! They’re cute, cool, cheerful, and kind, all at once... I’m sure they’ll make a ton of friends before I know it—friends who are way better than the likes of me.
I resigned myself to the fact that this would be our one shining moment of contact and they were sure to forget about me soon afterward. It was kind of a depressing thought. Just a few minutes beforehand I’d been plotting to run away from them, but there I was, bitterly disappointed by the inevitable fact that we’d part just as quickly as we’d come together.