Saho teased, “If you’re nice to him, I bet he’ll fall even harder for you.”
“Don’t be stupid. And if you don’t eat quickly, you won’t have time to go to the restroom before lunch ends,” Mio shot back, playfully annoyed.
Hanaka said, “You’re such a model student,” and Saho added, “Mio gets all the guys.”
She knew they weren’t serious, and she turned away to brush off their teasing.
Huh? And that’s when she noticed something.
Kaname Shiraishi was looking in her direction.
The boy with the collared shirt and different uniform stood out like a sore thumb. Mio looked down, afraid they might lock eyes again, and acted as though she were unaware of his staring.
“Ugh, I don’t wanna go to class after lunch. I just wanna go home.”
“Argh! I told Mom not to put cherry tomatoes in my lunch.”
The other girls had already moved on to different topics, and they didn’t notice Shiraishi’s gaze or Mio’s reaction. She played it cool and examined the boxed lunch her mother had made.
She still felt his eyes on her. If she looked up, she risked meeting those eyes. The only thing she could do now was stare at her desk. Out of the corner of her eye, Mio spied a navy-blue collared shirt, utterly still.
Her heartbeat grew louder, more out of discomfort than out of fear. Perhaps Shiraishi had overheard their earlier conversation about him. Mio wished Mr. Minamino hadn’t asked her to help, at least not while Shiraishi was right there in the room.
Then something occurred to her.
It was the transfer student’s first day of school. The boys in the class joked around a lot, but most of them were hardworking and good natured at heart. Had none of them invited lonely Shiraishi into their social circle? Had they left him to eat lunch alone?
The figure in the collared shirt sat in solitude. Mio didn’t sense anyone near him, and from what she spied out of the corner of her eye, he never moved.
Later, Mio learned why Shiraishi ate by himself.
Before the end of school, she brought up the topic with a boy she was on good terms with, and he explained that some others had spoken with Shiraishi. They’d asked if he wanted to have lunch with them.
Shiraishi had replied, “Huh?” in total bafflement, like he’d heard a foreign language. When he saw the boxed lunches the other students had brought and the plastic-wrapped pastries from the convenience store, he’d exhaled sluggishly. “Ohhh… I didn’t bring one.”
Maybe he was planning to attend for only half the day. Or maybe his old school had a cafeteria system. That was common in middle school, but paid-for school lunches weren’t really a thing for the high schools in this area. Perhaps they were more common elsewhere. A few people had asked Shiraishi about it, but he’d only answered, “No,” to all their questions. He’d seemed annoyed.
The good-natured boys in the class were, understandably, a little put off by this, and decided to leave Shiraishi alone. They told him where to find the student store window and where he could buy some packaged pastries, too. However, he only bobbed his head, showing no inclination to go to either place. Eventually, he was abandoned at his desk.
After hearing this story, Mio found herself flustered as she walked with Shiraishi. The boys she talked to refused to take over the task of escorting him around the school. Their previous interactions with him must have left a sour impression. Hanaka and Saho had an important after-school club meeting and a prior engagement with a boyfriend, respectively.
“Sorry, Mio! Good luck,” they said, smirking.
That was how a frustrated Mio found herself all alone with the sullen transfer student, taking him on a tour of the school.
Kaname Shiraishi was even quieter than she’d imagined.
“I’ll be showing you around, Shiraishi. Mr. Minamino told you I’d help with this, didn’t he?” Mio had said to the boy right after class ended.
He’d merely looked up at her and nodded. Not a single sound had escaped his throat. Feeling a bit taken aback, Mio had told him her name and that she was class representative, but his only response had been an inclination of the head so infinitesimal, it was hard to know if he meant to do it at all.
Where before, Shiraishi had watched Mio, now he refused to meet her eyes. He seemed to be quite shy.
“The third floor has all the special-use classrooms for things like music and art. Usually, when we leave the homeroom, it’s for the third floor,” Mio explained as they walked. However, the transfer student’s expression never changed. He’d nodded silently at first, but now it was challenging to know if he was doing even that much.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Mio asked with a smile, hoping to get some kind of response. Shiraishi seemed to turn his head the tiniest bit toward her. “I heard from the boys that you forgot your lunch at home. We’re all worried that you might be hungry since you haven’t eaten anything all day.”
The last bit was an embellishment on Mio’s part. The boys had said only that Shiraishi was creepy; they hadn’t offered any further concerns. Under her close scrutiny, Shiraishi nodded. Just barely.
Having finally elicited a reaction, Mio followed up with “Did you bring lunch from home at your old school?” There was no response this time. His face was turned away, and he kept silent. Mio’s words were left hanging in the air.
Her cheeks flushed.
If someone had seen that, it would’ve looked as though Mio was being ignored. She felt humiliated but recovered quickly and managed to say, “Well, next is the music room. Down at the end.” She started walking, and Shiraishi followed mutely.
Shiraishi kept pace, but his total lack of reaction to anything made Mio feel like he was insulting her.
School clubs were already gathered in the third-floor rooms.
A brass section was practicing in the music room. Mio was on the track team. She’d asked another girl to tell the others that she’d be late to practice, but she worried the upperclassmen would think she’d ditched.
People often called Mio an honor student.
She realized it was probably true, yet she didn’t consider it a compliment.