A new day dawned. Naritu went to school and thought that he would have to move to another classroom today. He was rarely in the common building, so he was a little worried.
He remembered Shuichiro. He could not get him out of his head. In any case, Inui should be finished now. It should finally be calmer around him.
The girls who passed him laughed, and he shuddered. Sometimes he forgot that there were girls here. He needed to get to class quickly.
The girls noticed him, and one of them said that he looked completely different in the photo. They started discussing his glasses and his hairstyle, after which they came up to him and asked him to take off his glasses and comb his hair back, like before, which made him feel very uneasy. He realised that there was some photo that the whole school knew about, and so he decided to get back to class urgently.
Covering his face with a book, he ran off, and because of this he did not see where he was going and collided with a girl named May. She dropped the milk out of her hands and fell.
Naritu apologised to her in a fluster and picked up her milk. She took it and stared at him somehow thoughtfully, and in surprise, as did he. She seemed familiar to him. He could have kept looking and tried to remember who she was, but she asked why he was staring at her like that.
He immediately turned away from her and apologised, and she stood up with a displeased look, sucked on her carton of milk again and left.
And he thought, it isn't nice that I stared, but isn't this behaviour excessive? He decided not to dwell on it. In this place, both the boys and the girls are total scumbags. I won't get involved with her again anyway.
May returned to class. Her friends did nothing but discuss buying new clothes, and money. Saki Akagi boasted that her dad gave her money every month, and asked May about her parents. How much did they usually give her?
She was confused, and with an awkward smile answered that they gave her very little. She was not on good terms with them.
Saki noted that despite this she looked like a real young lady. She had thought they gave her a lot of money. She was cute, so they probably spoiled her.
She waved her hands excitedly and began to deny everything. Her family did not take care of her at all.
The girls called out to Saki, telling her that her boyfriend was calling her, and she headed for the classroom door. Everyone immediately started discussing their relationship, calling her boyfriend bad. Someone even said that he was just using her for money — although if you're a guy, you're supposed to pay.
After listening to them, one of the girls called out to May and asked whether she thought so too. She started mumbling, unsure what to answer, and her friend said that such a question should not be asked. May was innocent.
The girl, perplexed, said that it was impossible to be innocent after getting into this school. Her IQ and her sense of shame were on a par.
While they chatted, May looked out of the window and thought about something.
After school, Naritu went to his exam prep class, and the entire time he was waiting for class to start he was haunted by the empty seat next to him.
Ranzuki said that a new girl would be joining their class, and that she had scored the same as him on the prep school entrance test.
He was very surprised by this and thought, does that mean the seat next to me is free because we have the same scores?
Ranzuki said that was amazing. If she started preparing on these courses, how much would she grow?
Naritu nervously adjusted his glasses and thought, this is bad. She might overtake me. They say a person's abilities become the average of the five people around them. I can't sink to the level of those guys.
Just thinking about it made him feel sick, and the girl asked worriedly what was wrong. He looked strange.
He laughed nervously in response. Then he took a deep breath and thought that he realised he had been too immersed in the life of a delinquent lately. That was why, in order to raise his average level, he must make friends with this new student at all costs.
Finally the teacher arrived with the new student. The students greeted her with applause, and Naritu's expression was one of shock.
The new student was May Narumiya, the same girl with the milk he had run into at school.
She sat down next to him.
Class had already started, but his thoughts were completely elsewhere now. A student from Shaon High with the same scores as him. The same high school. The girl he bumped into between classes in the common area. Even if she studies there, maybe she's actually different from the others. I mean, I had my own reasons for getting into Shaon High too. So there's a chance she's an ally. But still, her appearance and behaviour didn't match her academic performance.
Ranzuki noticed that Naritu was uneasy, and May constantly felt as if she was being watched.
By the time classes finally ended, it was already dark.
He walked Ranzuki to the car and said goodbye to her. And when she had left, May came out of the school and asked whether he was waiting for her.
He started denying everything, and she said that if he wanted to offer to carry her heavy bag, she would refuse. She could easily walk on her own.
He said worriedly that it was not that at all, and in the end he just followed her.
He felt awkward the whole time, but he had to find out whether she was his enemy or not.
She threw an angry look at him and asked why he was silent, and why he was following her. He became worried, because he did not know how to explain everything, and she asked what he was even doing in a cram school. He was the Freshman War champion. Studying in a place like this was not for him at all. So why did he come here?
He told her that it was quite the opposite.
And she looked at him in confusion and said that today she had bumped into him. Then she had thought about what he would do to her, and got really nervous, because this school was full of impudent guys like that. But he had just normally given her the thing back and run away without saying anything.
Now he understood what she had thought of him, and she hit him on the back of the head, thanking him for his help, but he was really weird.
He responded by saying that she was not very normal either. Why had she entered Shaon?
She covered her smirk and said mysteriously that she also had difficult circumstances. Although at least now she knew that he was not like them. So they were classmates now, and they could be friends.
The next day he waited for her at the exit of the cram school. She apologised to him for being late, and they left.
He had a strange feeling. Somehow they were walking home together again today.
May remembered something and asked, that girl, Ranzuki — does she always come by car?
He answered her that it had only been like that lately.
She wanted to know why. She said they had talked during recess, and she had said that she lived pretty close.
He awkwardly scratched the back of his head and told her that it was all because of one incident. Basically, some strange guys had bothered her on the road — or rather, almost dragged her away.