[Final chapter before Volume 2]
This short story is set a few months before the start of the current timeline. This was before Fujiharu really met Mizuhara.
(I'm still waiting for my contract to be verified so I can use Italics and Bold, otherwise, the next few chapters are going to be extremely hard to read.)
***
It was the first day of school when I, Kazuki Afford, was seated next to one of the cutest girls I had ever seen. She had long, flowing brown hair that cascaded down her back, framed by a pair of wide, sparkling emerald eyes that seemed to sparkle in the sunlight. A beautiful, radiant smile graced her lips, making my heart skip a beat. Someone like me could never be with her; she was far out of my league.
As I took my books out of my bag, I noticed that she was looking at me. We made eye contact for a split second, but I quickly looked away, my cheeks flushing with embarrassment. She really was cute.
"Hey, you're Afford, right?" she asked, her voice soft and melodic.
I couldn't get any words out of my mouth. I knew I should just ignore her, it would hurt less in the long run if I didn't get too close.
All of a sudden, she poked me in the arm. "I'm speaking to you, dummy."
Before the start of high school, I had decided that I was going to completely remake myself. I was way too naive back in middle school, and as a result, I had my heart broken in the most painful ways. I was determined to act cool, to ignore any distractions that might come my way.
This morning, I spent over twenty minutes trying to style my hair. It was harder than I had expected, especially since I had never done it before. I think I might have put a little too much gel on it; I couldn't even face my mom when I walked out to the kitchen. Although, I did think that my hair looked pretty good now.
Maybe all of my efforts were paying off... I wasn't the same person I used to be, was I really in her league now?
I couldn't take it anymore. I turned around and decided to greet her.
"Hey."
"Are you new here?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Yeah, this is my first day at this school."
"Ah, what old school did you go to?"
"I went to Yokusuka College."
"Ooh, I had some friends who used to go there as well, although they came here a few years ago."
Wait, was I actually good at socializing now? It was coming so easily to me. I looked over at her, and she seemed happy as she spoke to me.
"So, um, what's your name?" I asked, trying to steady my racing heart.
"I'm Fujiharu Sara, you can call me Sara."
I couldn't control the muscles on my face. Such a cute girl was letting me call her by her first name. Shoot, was my face turning red?
She was still smiling at me.
"O-oh, um, nice to meet you, S-Sara."
"Ehe, I hope we can get along."
"Likewise..."
The teacher walked in for the first class of the day.
"Alright, everyone, welcome to high school. Just to let you know, this is a big step up from middle school. For example, you'll have homework basically every night for each individual subject as well."
Ah, studying... I wasn't too bad at it, although I wouldn't exactly call myself smart.
After a short introduction, the teacher immediately moved into the first class of the day.
"I hope everyone's organised. Bring out your math textbooks and flip to page 3."
The class was filled with the sound of paper ruffling.
As she taught the class, everyone was frantically scribbling down notes. The pace had increased significantly from middle school. I was struggling to keep up with the speed as the teacher was explaining everything. I looked over at Fujiharu, who was taking down notes in an extremely organised matter, with different coloured pens and everything.
Wow.
Eventually, the class finished, and the teacher wrote the homework on the board. As I looked around, I noticed that the boy sitting on the other side of me hadn't taken any notes. His page was still empty.
I wouldn't want to be like him.
He's going to regret it later.
I looked at the name tag on his pencil case, Mizuhara Ayato.
"Alright, I want you guys to complete questions four to twenty on page 16."
With that, the teacher began preparing for the next subject.
"Hey, um, Sara..."
"Yes? What is it Kazuki?"
She just called me by my first name.
"O-oh, um, I missed a bit on the completing the square part..."
"Ah! You can have a look at my notes if you want."
"Thank you so much..."
She passed me her workbook, and I looked at her caligraphy-like handwriting. I scanned through the contents and quickly copied down what I missed. After a little while, I handed her workbook back to her.
"T-thanks."
"You're welcome!"
Ah, I still wasn't used to that smile.
As the next class began, I looked up at the board and began reading the PowerPoint that the teacher was showing. I didn't want to be left behind. If I just increased my speed a little bit, I'll be able to take clear notes on the entire class.
"Hey, Kazuki."
"Yes?"
"Do you want to have lunch with me today?"
Huh?
Where was this coming from?
No way...
Is this the start of my popular phase?
"Yeah, s-sure."
She smiled at me again.
Well, I can't concentrate on the class anymore.
"...the final phase of Mitosis is telophase, at this point the nuclear membrane reforms, and the chromosomes begin to decondense into their interphase conformations..."
The teacher's words were flowing in and straight out of my head.
ƥαṇdα- ηθνε|·ƈθm At the end of the class, I had hardly taken down any notes.
"Kazuki, you didn't take many notes during that class. Do you want to copy mine down?"
"O-oh, but it's recess..."
"That's fine. You can just give my workbook back next period~"
She was so nice.
With that, the class was dismissed.
Maybe this time... my broken heart will be healed by this angel.
[Continued]
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