“Whoa, aren’t you the lucky one! Getting the best seat at the back near the window and everything!”
It was the early morning of a school day, and Yuuki Narito was being held up by one of the select few people he spoke on a regular basis with in class, Keitarou Hayami, while he was changing his shoes at the entrance. Keitarou stood out a bit with his spiky hair, rolled-up sleeves, and rebelliously unbuttoned shirt collar. He was cooling himself off with a fan, despite it being particularly temperate outside that day.
“Yeah, the window seat is pretty nice,” responded Yuuki, very much uninterested.
“Don’t play dumb, we both know the window’s just the icing on the cake!”
It had already been two months since Yuuki had started his second year at Higashiseiyou High School. Just when the students were finally getting settled in, a raffle was held to switch up the assigned seating arrangement. Yuuki had seemingly gotten lucky with his new seat, which was why Keitarou was now hassling him about it. It turned out that Yuuki now had the privilege of sitting next to Yui Takatsuki, the most beautiful girl in the entire school.
“I’m not the only one who noticed, man. Everybody’s talking about it right now. What’re the odds, y’know? You’ve easily used up the rest of your luck for years to come, man.”
“I’d rather have used that luck to win the lottery, to be honest.”
“Why do you always gotta be like that? Would it kill you to, you know, not be a debbie-downer? Ever heard of this brand new invention called caring a bit?”
As far as Yuuki saw it, he didn’t want his potential fortune to be wasted so frivolously without his knowledge, and especially not on something so trivial. While Keitarou was always calling him indifferent, Yuuki in turn thought of Keitarou as much too energetic. In fact, Yuuki once told him that he looked like the kind of person who would go out of his way to use a tedious rip-off calendar, and Keitarou failed to see anything wrong with that.
“You may pretend that none of this matters to you, but I’m certain that gloomy dork brain of yours has been racing since last night. ‘Oh my, whatever would I do if she spoke to me? What should I say?!’”
According to Keitarou, Yuuki was way more passive than the average person. Also, he always looked like he hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before. Like his head was empty or something. But other than that, Yuuki was your run-of-the-mill average high school student. Or at least that’s what he thought of himself.
“I don’t think she has a reason to talk to someone like me.”
“Nah bro, you got it all wrong. She’s got a habit of sparking up conversations with any guy who sits next to her, regardless of if they’re as bland as you or not.”
“Wait, she talks to whoever sits beside her?”
“Rumor has it that all the guys that sat next to her ended up confessing their love to her and got utterly rejected. Actually, I feel like I’ve definitely mentioned this before.”
“I mean, she’s called ‘The Seatmate Killer’ for a reason, my guy. Speaking of, we’ve got a betting pool going on how many days it’ll take for you to fall victim to her. Consensus is three days tops, but you’re my dude so I trust you to survive a whole week.”
Keitarou continued spouting nonsense and violently patting Yuuki on the shoulder until they arrived at their classroom. As soon as they walked in, Keitarou started messing around all over the classroom as he usually did. And, as per usual, he was met with cold gazes from everyone around as they did their best to ignore him. Yuuki, on the other hand, made his way straight to his desk without greeting anyone at all.
One may ask how these two wildly different individuals became friends. The answer would be quite simple: it was by pure coincidence.
A long, long time ago, during a certain PE class in the first year of high school, everyone was asked to split into pairs for an exercise. Keitarou was shunned as he typically had been, and everyone simply forgot about Yuuki altogether, so the two had no choice but to partner up. Once the second year rolled around, the pair ended up in the same class. One thing led to another, and now they spent a fair amount of time together.
Yuuki was always of the belief that everything in life was a product of coincidence. Yui Takatsuki ending up as his seatmate was obviously no exception. I hope she isn’t too annoying, Yuuki thought as he made his way toward his seat by the window, letting out a sleepy yawn along the way.
“Mornin,’” said Yui with a smile while Yuuki got settled into his new seat.
“Good morning,” he coldly responded.
“Hehe, what’s with all the formality?”
“We barely know each other.”
“Oh come on, no need to be so cold. We’re classmates!”
“True, but we’ve also never spoken to each other before.”
“Well, now that we have, I guess you can be more casual!” she giggled and scooted closer to Yuuki.
About two months had elapsed since Yuuki had ended up in this class, but he certainly didn’t recall ever even interacting with Yui before. Not even a simple greeting came to mind. Their seats were far apart from each other, so they never had any opportunity to chat to begin with. In other words, Yuuki’s astonishment at her sudden friendliness was perfectly excusable.
Of course, he still saw her as just another classmate. Though now he was convinced that her nickname—The Seatmate Killer—wasn’t just for show.
Speaking of which, Yuuki had the tendency to not speak with girls who sat next to him. As long as they didn’t reach out to him, he never really had a reason to approach them either. He simply didn’t care much about his peers, which in turn led to him being somewhat isolated from the rest of the class.
Now that the greetings were hopefully over, Yuuki pulled out a book from his desk and began reading.
“Hey, what’cha you reading there?” Yui suddenly asked. She had noticed that Yuuki was completely ignoring her glances and elected to switch tactics.
“A book.”
“Oohhh, look who’s stingy today. It’s like you have a Berlin wall built up around you.”
“They took that down ages ago, though?”
“Huh, okay, nevermind then... But wouldn’t that mean that you’re defenseless now?”
“I still have two colossal ones left.”
“There better not be any titans in those walls, if you catch my drift!” she chuckled a bit before once more attempting to lock eyes with Yuuki. “Hmm, I didn’t take you for the referencing kind, Narito.”
“Hold on, before you say anything else,” Yuuki interjected as he extended his finger and drew a line on the side of the desk, “I believe that this much of the desk is my safe zone.”
“Zone? Ah, I see. The Narito Zone... What would happen if I accidentally entered it? Will I get drawn in and eat the people inside?”
“I’ll just be very... surprised, let’s say.”
“Uh-huh. Anyways, what kind of book is it? Are there any dirty things in there?” she asked. The question was so completely out of left field that it caught Yuuki completely off guard, but he managed to maintain his cool-headed appearance by focusing on his book harder. Yui took advantage and brought herself closer still to the boy so that she could get a better look at what he was reading.
“Oowah,” shrieked Yuuki. This was the second time she’d managed to shock him in just a matter of moments.
“What even was that noise you made?” she said with a quizzical look. She was now so close to Yuuki that he could practically see the tiniest strands of her sweetly-scented shoulder-length brunette hair fluttering around. It was nothing short of dazzling.
He noticed that Yui had her eyes cast down, as though she was reading the book alongside him. He wondered what she was really up to, but resolved to simply shut a book and put an end to this annoyance. Her reading material now gone, Yui returned to her seat.
“Thus Spoke Zarathustra, huh? Looks like a tough read... Are you a big fan of philosophy books, by any chance?”
“Nah, I don’t usually read them.”
“So then why are you acting like I caught you reading something naughty?”
Well, I mean, the book is extremely obscene in its own unique way, he thought to himself before saying, “I’m not. I just wanted to see for myself if it’s as good as they say it is.”
“Do you just have it out for someone who likes the book and desperately want to prove them wrong or something? Never mind that, how did you find it? And has it lived up to your expectations?”
“Not even. It’s so convoluted that it angers me,” Yuuki answered. He firmly believed that pretending to know about a topic while not actually having a good grasp on it led to the slippery slope that would kickstart all of the conceited nuisances out there. So ultimately, Yuuki wanted to give his honest opinion regardless of what people might think.
“... Then why exactly are you still reading it?”
She isn’t wrong. I feel like the rest of this book is shaping up to be a drag, he thought. He promptly stuffed the book back inside his desk. Yui, apparently feeling guilty over having ruined his fun, began fishing in her own bag for something to make it up to him. After a brief moment, she produced a book of her own.
“Hey, you know what? I have this book I just finished reading. How about I lend it to you? Here you go. It’s called I Want To Eat Your Liver.”
“Is that some kind of grotesque murder-mystery? Or a story that portrays characters under the influence?”
“Those are the first things that come to mind, right? But actually it’s a very moving love story.”
“I’ll pass. Not a big fan of the genre”
“Whaaa—?! Why’s that? Come on, give it a shot! I guarantee that it’s interesting, so read it!”
“I usually don’t accept anything from other people.”
“Is that some sort of ninja code? Scared that it might explode in your hands?”