“Hey, Yashiro.” Someone came up to me as soon as lunch break started. Looking up, I saw a good-looking guy with a short haircut whose style screamed “athlete.”
“Uhh, you’re Hadori-kun, right?” Yukito Hadori—so popular at our school even I knew his name. He seemed to be the leader of Hanamizawa-san and Ido-san’s group of cool friends, and was a central figure in our class. He was a member of the kendo club, and even though he was just a first-year like the rest of us, they had high hopes for him to perform well at tournaments. He was the kind of person who would rather take charge of an event than be a committee member. Lots of girls had crushes on him, and I’d never heard a mean word about him from the guys. We lived in two completely different worlds.
“Just Hadori’s fine. When people use ‘-kun’ with me it makes my teeth itch,” he said, smiling broadly with a gleaming white set of said teeth. Jeez, he even has a “hot guy” personality.
“Sorry, force of habit,” I said.
“You can even call me by my first name if you want. I don’t mind.”
“That’s definitely taking it a step too far. Anyway, did you need something?”
“Yeah, but I can’t really talk about it here... Sorry, but do you mind coming with me?” Hadori-kun jabbed his finger towards the door. His tone of voice was friendly enough, but I could tell he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Just as I was thinking how I probably wouldn’t be able to get out of this, I heard the chair behind me clatter.
“All right,” I agreed, after a bit of hesitation.
“Great. C’mon.”
I followed Hadori-kun out of the classroom. Hanamizawa-san and Ido-san spotted us and said, “Huh?” and “What’s going on?” but Hadori-kun just brushed them off, saying, “It’s a guy thing.”
He took me to the landing of the staircase that led up to the roof. Since that’s where the tennis courts were, only club members were allowed up there. No one else was around. It was cramped, but brightly lit by the southern wall made of windows.
Hadori-kun faced me with his back against the windows. I looked at him, thinking his back must be burning up in the heat of the midday autumn sun.
“There’s something I’ve been dying to ask you.”