“I’d like to introduce our newest student…”
She lifted her head, and their eyes met.
It was so sudden and unexpected that a thrill ran through her.
A boy in a collared shirt stood next to Mr. Minamino the teacher. His limbs were long and lanky. While he wasn’t beautiful, his features were well-shaped and not particularly ugly. If anything, his eyelids were a little swollen and sleepy, giving him a hesitant look. Although perhaps hesitance was to be expected of a transfer student on his first day in class.
He was on the tall side. When he stood next to Mr. Minamino, who was a squat sort, they kind of looked like an odd-couple comedy duo. The one concerning point was his shaggy hair. This was his only chance to make a first impression, and it suggested he didn’t much care about his appearance.
The stand collar shirt was a different look; maybe his uniform hadn’t arrived in time. At this school, all students wore khaki jackets. Boys had neckties, and girls had ribbons.
Taken aback by the awkward moment of eye contact, Mio broke it off in a way she hoped wasn’t unnatural. Mr. Minamino turned to the new student.
“Go on, Shiraishi.”
“Yes, sir,” the boy replied, recognizing the prompt to introduce himself. His voice a whisper, he said, “I’ve transferred here because of my father’s work. It’s nice to meet you all.”
“Your name.”
“Huh?”
“What’s your name? Aren’t you going to tell everyone?” the teacher teased.
“Oh,” the new student muttered. Without raising the volume of his voice, he stated, “Kaname Shiraishi.” Just his name. No other words.
Mr. Minamino wrote the kanji for Kaname Shiraishi on the blackboard.
“You all saw he can be a little scattered, but I’m sure we can all get along,” the teacher said cordially in an attempt to smooth over the awkward situation. No one laughed.
Then Mio noticed something odd.
The boy was looking at her again. Maybe he just happened to glance over multiple times. Or perhaps Mio was mistaken, and he was watching something behind her…
“You’ll sit in the second row, all the way at the back.”
A new desk and chair were waiting at the rear of the classroom. The boy mumbled something in reply. His eyes weren’t focused on the seat, but on Mio.
Shiraishi strode toward his desk, his school bag bobbing. Only then did he finally take his eyes off her.
Mio figured she was overthinking it. However, she wasn’t the only one who noticed the new boy’s gaze.
No sooner did she open her boxed lunch to eat with her usual crowd than her best friend, Hanaka Sawada, leaned in close and whispered, “Hey! Hey!” Her long hair dangled before Mio’s face. “That gloomy-looking new kid was totally staring at you.”
“What? No way. Really?”
There were three of them eating lunch together. They sat near the classroom windows—Mio faced away from the outside, while the other two faced her. This was how they always sat when they ate lunch.
At Hanaka’s excited tone, Mio’s other best friend Saho Imai turned back to peek at the transfer student’s desk.
“No! Don’t look!” Hanaka hissed. “He’s going to know we’re talking about him. Don’t turn around.”
“Wait, doesn’t this mean he’s, y’know, in love with Mio?”
“…It was probably just a coincidence,” Mio insisted, smiling weakly. He’d only looked her way a little. “I haven’t spoken a single word to him yet. He can’t be in love with me.”
“No, no, no,” Hanaka and Saho said in unison. They waved their hands emphatically in front of their faces.
“Love at first sight is totally a thing. But it’s kinda crazy, right? In a manga or a movie, love at first sight is so romantic, but the idea of it happening in real life, without even talking to the person, is creepy. Total stalker stuff.”
“Stop it. Don’t say it like that.”
Saho had always been an avid reader of romance stories, and Mio knew from a lifetime of experience that she could get carried away. However, it didn’t seem prudent to speculate so wildly about a person they’d barely spent minutes around.
“Sorry, sorry.” Hanaka was the one who apologized. “Anyway, I’m sure Shiraishi’s really smart. I heard the standards to transfer to our school are super high. Remember last year, when someone transferred into the grade above ours, and they immediately became the top student in the class?”
Mitsumine Academy was a private high school. It was a prestigious school for students who intended to go to college, one of the oldest in Chiba Prefecture. Transfer students were rare at private schools, but not unheard of. And rumors claimed that the transfer exam was far more difficult than the regular entrance exam.
“If they accepted his transfer, it means the school thinks he’ll do well in college and win some prestige points for the school, right? So Shiraishi’s probably really smart.”
As a private institution for college-bound students, Mitsumine Academy was very picky in this regard. The college-test scores of the latest graduating class were always tacked up on bulletin boards and on the outside wall of the building. It was like how a major cram school showed off its successful track record.
“Probably. But he just transferred here, and it’s not right to judge whether someone’s smart or gloomy or whatever.”
“Aww, c’mon,” Saho protested, her medium-length hair draped over her ear.
A new voice suddenly called, “Harano.” Somehow, Mr. Minamino was standing right there.
Hanaka and Saho went silent, looking guilty.
“Yes?” Mio asked very naturally.
“Would you help Shiraishi out for me? Show him around after school with some other kids. I would’ve asked Miyai, but he’s not here today.”
Miyai was the class’s vice representative in the student body. Mio could feel Hanaka and Saho sending her meaningful looks, but she pretended not to notice them.
“All right,” she agreed.
“Good. I’ve already given him a general rundown of what clubs and sports we offer and the special events we hold, so you can just focus on showing him where everything is.”
“Yes, sir.”
Once the homeroom teacher was gone, Hanaka and Saho smirked. “Look at you, class rep,” they whispered.