“Hey, Takasu! You’re too fast! Wait for me, you’re going too fast!” Noto waved his hand widely as he ran. Ryuuji slowed his speed slightly to let him catch up. “Where’s Tiger?! You’re not with her today?!”
“Taiga had something she needed to do. She might already be at school.”
“I-I’m glad…so uh, you know, there was something—” In order to keep his glasses from slipping down, Noto held them with one hand as he kept pace with Ryuuji. He fumbled slightly with his words (which wasn’t cute). “Takasu, could you ask the master something but without letting him know it’s coming from me?”
“What is it?”
“Whether he got chocolates.”
“From whom?”
“I-It doesn’t matter! Hmph!” (He wasn’t cute.)
“Sorry, sorry, that was just a joke, I totally get it.” Ryuuji ran after Noto, trying to soothe his friend, who had taken offense and started running ahead. They had just made it through the school gate when they ran into someone else.
“Oh! What do we have here but a traitor?!” Noto exclaimed.
“Hmm? I was wondering who the military grunts doing laps were, but I see it’s just Noto-chi, Taka-chan, and Kushieda. Yo!” In his usual idiotic style, Haruta wore a grey parka hood that he had forced under his school jacket. His long hair had dried in the wintry air.
Noto crossed his hands in front of his chest and, with his legs working in tandem, jumped slightly to the side to signal his complete and utter rejection of Haruta. In a low voice that made his inferiority complex obvious, he groaned, “Youuuuu traaaaaaiiiitoooooor!”
“What?! Stop name-calling! It wasn’t like I was hiding it~!”
“Tch, what a lewd aristocrat! Just go ahead and build your slimy, carnal tower of Babel while you slip and slide with that middle-class girl! You’ll get your divine punishment before long…!”
“Noto-chi~! Please wait! Please, you’ve got to believe me, I’m pure as the virgin snow! I haven’t done any carnal sliding, I’m telling you, she hasn’t let me do anything!” Haruta dashed sorrowfully after Noto.
“Haruta-kun has a girlfriend?! Seriously?! Wait a second! Come tell your uncle Minori your story!” Her eyes glittering at the scent of scandal, Minori also started chasing after Haruta.
“And she’s older, and kind of pretty! I can’t let it happen…!” Noto answered Minori in place of Haruta. “You could at least have told me ahead of time! You just suddenly appeared in front of me. Do you know what a shock that was?! I felt like I was being left behind! I felt like I’d been betrayed! Do you get that?!”
They all headed to the shoe cubbies, making a scene as they ran. Ryuuji gently patted Noto from behind. “Noto, I’ve actually got something I need to get off my chest. So—”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!” His friend leapt into the air. “It’s fine, I don’t want to know!”
Breaking into a sprint with terrific speed, Noto ran away. Well, if Ryuuji told Noto that he’d proposed to Taiga and she said yes, his friend really might die of indignation on the spot.
He ran up the stairs and sped through the school building’s entrance, only to hear Noto yell again, followed by a girl’s voice raised in complaint. “That hurt my ears! Was that you, Noto?!”
The sound really was chafing. Smoke almost seemed about to rise up from the soles of Noto’s shoes from the force of him spinning around. The girl standing before him raised one eyebrow coldly.
“You’re a nuisance!”
It was Kihara Maya. She raked up her smooth and straight long hair and pouted her glossy lips. She then buried her sullen chin in a purple scarf that had a slightly metallic sheen to it. It was flashy and didn’t seem to suit her.
“Y-you think I’m the one in the wrong?! Damn it, and you’re going around wearing a scarf like you’re that drag queen Miwa Akihiro!”
“What?! No way?! I don’t look anything like Miwa-san!”
Ryuuji pretended to cough to cover his laughter as he got to the shoe cubbies. Meanwhile, Maya frantically signaled for support.
“Umm, well, uh, well.” Toying with her long, curled, and soft hair, Kashii Nanako ambiguously tilted her head next to Maya.
“It’s okay, Maya!”
“Ami-chan…!”
They all turned around at the sound of Ami’s resonant voice. She seemed to have come to school with the other two.
“You’re not like Miwa-san, Maya! It’s just that your scarf is!”
“You serious?!”
It was a direct hit. Maya took off the scarf and put it in her bag. Haruta spoke up, possibly because he had a girlfriend now: “I think it’s nice! It kind of gives you a sense of mystique!”
“I don’t care what you think…”
Like a cat having a flehmen reaction, the bottom of Maya’s nose scrunched up as she watched Haruta go. Ryuuji put his shoes in an ecobag instead of in the shoe cubby. He started to follow after Noto and Haruta, then hesitated.
“Kihara, are you still on bad terms with Noto?” he asked.
“Have we ever been on good terms?”
“I guess not. Did you give Kitamura chocolates or anything?”
“What does that have to do with you, Takasu-kun?”
“You’re the one who said we’re fellows in arms, Kihara. Well, I’ve got something to report to you: I confessed.”
“Even though I said that I…hm? What? What?! Well, I didn’t give him any, but…actually, what?! What was that? In other words—basically, you mean to…Tiger?! AHHHHHHHHH!” Maya shrieked in a high-pitched voice. Her eyes glittered as she pounded on Nanako’s back. “Oh no, oh no, oh no, Takasu-kun and Tiger!”
“Gimme the deets!” Nanako burst into a grin. Wait a sec, tell us more! Ryuuji ran quickly up the stairs, the two girls making a commotion as they followed. When he turned back at the landing, he saw Ami and Minori talking behind him.
“Ahhh ahhhh ahhh, everyone’s so happy… What’s going on with them?!”
“So, I just heard, but apparently Haruta-kun’s got a girlfriend… What’re we going to do about that?”
“Whaaaat?! No way?!”
“It must be the end of the century.”
“But we just started a new millennia… Ahh, how is it that even that idiot has one and I don’t?! I feel like I’m about to get depressed for reasons I don’t comprehend…”
Ryuuji evaded the girls’ pursuit and opened the door of 2-C. “Yo, what up,” he greeted the new faces in order.
“Takasu, morning. We might have…a slight issue.” Kitamura sounded anxious.
There was no sign of Taiga in the classroom. During the morning homeroom, another teacher appeared in place of Koigakubo Yuri. Their first period started and then their second.
But Taiga still didn’t come.