“Good morning!” The lecture hall door slid open and a girl with a big smile on her face stepped in—her brown ponytail swaying as she did.

The girl was Yui Nakagawa, one of Katsumi’s current classmates along with being a previous one from high school.

Jackson broke away from his conversation with Saki to see who entered the classroom. “Oh, Nakagawa, good morning.”

“Jackson, Kiki good morning,” Yui replied with a smile.

“You’re in high spirits today. Did somethin’ good happen?” Saki asked.

Yui Nakagawa put a finger to her chin, contemplating a reason for her happiness. “Mm~ nothing in particular I guess. I’m just glad it’s finally sunny, there’s been too much rain this week.”

“Kiki?” Jackson laughed. “That’s a great nickname, it’s so cute.”

“W-what? Jackson don’t say that so loud. It’s embarrassing…” Saki made an attempt to cover her face.

“You’re turning so red,” He teased back.

“You two… so early in the morning…” Yui sighed.

After Saki took a moment to compose herself, she proposed a question. “A-anyway, after we get out of class, I wanna check out the café that recently opened near campus. Will you come Jackson?”

“I’ve got nothing going on so sure, why not.”

Yui gave a small wave and departed from her conversation with Saki and Jackson, making her way over to a girl with short black hair.

“Ah, and good morning to you too!” Yui then latched onto the girl.

The girl bookmarked the page in her book and set it down. “Yes, good morning Yui. But do you mind?”

“Eh-heh, sorry…”

After a few minutes of idle chit-chat, Hasegawa-sensei entered the lecture hall and asked everyone to take their seats. He spent the next few minutes taking attendance.

“Please remember everyone that since this is your first year, attendance is part of your grade. So please show up.”

After a few more seconds of looking over his sheet he looked up, back down, and back up again. “Is Murakami here? Murakami?”

All the students in the lecture hall blankly stared back at him.

“If anyone sees Murakami please tell him to come see me, thank you.”

A student in the back of the lecture hall raised his hand.

“Yes?”

“Hasegawa-sensei, I thought you were the Modern Japanese professor, why’re you teaching Physics?”

Hasegawa-sensei sighed, “Please don’t ask stupid questions like that. Now let’s begin today’s material.”

The student was left speechless, unsure what to make of the answer.

VZo4Cz1.png [https://i.imgur.com/VZo4Cz1.png]

“Wakey-wakey sleepy head, it’s time for class,” A voice whispered into Katsumi’s ear.

He bolted up, breathing erratically. “What the—”

The voice that woke him up came from someone far too familiar—Nara.

“Don’t do that. And please don’t tell me I’m late…”

“Well, for classes yesterday, yes. You slept through the entire day. But right now it’s five in the morning, so you’re fine.”

Katsumi grumbled in response to this. He got up and headed towards his bedroom door where he directed Nara to leave.

He laid back down and pulled his comforter over his head. It only seemed like mere seconds in between then and the loud beeping of his cellphone’s alarm clock was piercing his ears.

The disheveled Katsumi tried to stop the noise but ended up rolling out of bed and onto the floor.

“Seven-thirty. Nice timing.”

The bathroom mirror came into focus as his eyes finally started adjusting to being awake. He stared into his reflection, lingering there for minutes, becoming entranced by his own blinking.

After finally breaking out of the trance, he hurriedly readied himself for the day. Brushing his teeth and changing into something a little more presentable than what he had on.

As he crossed his apartment to the front door, Nara was nowhere to be seen.

Katsumi slipped on his shoes and stepped out the front door. Seeing clear blue skies and bright natural light was always a calming sensation to him. He put a hand in front of his eyes and squinted.

“A little change never hurts I suppose.” With bags under his eyes and a messily put on outfit, he started walking towards the elevator.

“Hasegawa-sensei said he wanted to see you when you get to campus.”

“Mm, right.”

No, wait, not right! Who the hell is that!?

A black-haired girl was leaning against the railing of the hallway—the same girl that lent Katsumi her umbrella.

Katsumi still had no clue what that girl's name was. When they first met on their walk home either she mentioned her name and Katsumi wasn’t paying attention, or she never did. Nonetheless, he had no clue what it was. So he decided to guess.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Uhm, excuse me, Ms—”

“Arata,” The girl cut him off.

“W-what?”

“My name, it’s Mayumi Arata.”

“Ah— right…” Katsumi scratched the back of his head and smiled nervously. “Right, Arata… Why’re you here?”

“Because I live here.” She pulled out a key with a tag on it that read 87.

Eighty-seven… Katsumi slowly turned around pondering why that number sounded familiar.

The number eighty-seven was on the door next to his apartment.

“What!?”

Mayumi had already begun walking towards the elevator without Katsumi noticing—he rushed to catch up with her.

“What do you mean, what? I am your next door neighbor.” She sounded slightly disappointed in the fact that Katsumi hadn’t known this.

The two exited the elevator and walked through the lobby, now on the street they were side-by-side.

“When did you move in? I think I would’ve remembered this.” Actually, I’m not so sure, I don’t remember much of what happened over the past week. Just that Nara had come over almost every day.

“Clearly you don’t.”

“Alright, fine, I don’t remember. So when did you move in?” Katsumi had no interest in playing this girl’s game of ‘him figuring it out’.

“It’s been four days now.”

“Four? How come I’ve never seen you in the hallway?”

“That's what I was going to ask you. The past two days I’ve been going in and out of my apartment quite a bit, and I have not seen you once. However, I have seen a girl going to and from your apartment quite a lot.”

“Honestly, I don’t remember her being over at my place much at all recently.”

“Mhm…”

For a while the two carried on in silence.

“You know you didn’t have to walk with me all the way to campus. I’m assuming you normally go with friends?” Katsumi asked.

“It’s fine. I just want to make sure that you don’t get sidetracked.”

What the hell does she mean sidetracked? I don't get sidetracked…

“Are you alright?” Mayumi asked, seemingly out of the blue.

“W-wh— Huh? Yeah why?” Did I say that out loud?

“You were making a weird face.”

“Ah— Uhm, yeah, it’s nothing.”

Katsumi slid open the door to their classroom and the two of them quietly made their way to their seats. He took off his backpack and looked over at Mayumi. “Hey—”

She seemed to already have tuned out the world around her—quietly tapping on her cell phone.

This is the girl that went out of her way for me? Really?

“Wow~ look who showed up today.” A new voice introduced its presence, one coming from the last person Katsumi wanted to see.

“Actually, I really wish I could tune out the world like Arata too.”

“What was that?”

“Good morning to you too, Akito.”

“I guess it was a good morning.”

Yui Nakagawa approached the two and joined the conversation. “Hey hey, come on now Kiki, no need to be so rude to Murakami. I mean, didn’t you two used to be in the same club back in high school?”

“That’s exactly it Yui, you just helped my point. Used to and back in high school. Did you ever talk to him during the last semester of high school? After he started hanging out with that Takagi girl from the sticks?” Saki had fully switched into her Katsumi hating mode.

“Mmm~ I suppose not,” Yui responded.

“See? Then I don’t think you’d be a good judge of Murakami.” Saki crossed her arms.

Yui turned to face Katsumi. “Sorry about that Murakami, you’re fine. I guess Kiki just holds grudges for a long time or something.”

“Holds grudges!? I—”

“Come on Kiki, it’s fine…” Yui guided her away from Katsumi.

Shortly after their altercation, class began, but Hasegawa-sensei was nowhere to be seen. The only sign of instruction was written on the chalkboard at the front of the classroom. Modern Japanese Group Project — Groups of two to three!

Group project huh? Isn’t that a convenient way of saying I don’t wanna teach today.

Katsumi scanned the classroom to see what the situation was. Everyone seemed to be happily following the provided direction. Some couples got together to form groups while other groups were just boys or just girls—some with a bit of each.

Jackson moved over to Saki and Yui—forming their group of three.

A few more minutes went by of students figuring out their groups when Hasegawa-sensei entered the room with ruffled hair. He held a coffee mug with the phrase I Love Teaching written on it.

“Uhm, alright let’s see… Okay, is everyone in groups?” He asked while scanning the classroom. Hasegawa-sensei’s gaze landed on an alone Katsumi, which prompted him to sigh.

Hasegawa-sensei’s attention was directed to Mayumi, who also sat alone. “Arata, do you mind partnering up with Murakami?”

“Alright,” Mayumi’s response was nonchalant.

She always seems to play it cool, but I bet inside she’s embarrassed because she just got called out like that. Having to partner with me. Look, I bet she’s trying to hide her face because it’s red or something… Isn’t that a bit too self-deprecating?

When Katsumi looked over, she was simply staring straight ahead, resting her head on her hand—uninterested.

I suppose this is more realistic…

The class officially began and a boring hour passed with Katsumi almost falling asleep twice.

Hasegawa-sensei dismissed the class and students quickly filed out of the room—including Katsumi. However, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

Katsumi came out into the hallway from Hasegawa-sensei’s office. “That damn teacher, behavior correction program… Work with others around you. What a load of shit.”

“I can hear you, Murakami! These walls are thin!”

“Y-yes… Sorry sensei.” Katsumi put on his backpack and walked down the windowless hallway alone.

Or so he assumed.

“Murakami?” A girl’s voice asked.

“Huh? W-what? Arata?”

Katsumi spun to his right, where the voice had come from. However, the next time Mayumi spoke her voice came from his left.

“Where’d you come from?” Katsumi asked.

“I was waiting next to the door, you passed right by me.”

“You’re so sneaky, what's up with that? I mean maybe it’s just me being dense but it’s like you have no presence at all…” Well it’s probably me, I didn’t even notice Jackson opening the door to the roof.

“What did Hasegawa-sensei say to you?”

“What’s got you so curious?”

“Well, from what I heard…” Mayumi trailed off her sentence.

“Oh, that’s right. Paper-thin walls.”

“To me it seems you have some issues…”

“Yeah well, it would probably seem like that to someone who only heard that conversation. But it’s really nothing. He’s over-exaggerating.”

“Is that so?”

When the two got to the front entrance it was raining, just like his and Mayumi’s first encounter there.

Rain again? Luckily I brought my umbrella this time. It should be right here— Katsumi reached for the side of his backpack where his umbrella should’ve been located. However, he felt nothing.

A sigh escaped his mouth.

Something suddenly tapped on his shoulder, causing him to spin around. His face was met with the tip of an umbrella mere centimeters away. He jumped back slightly and let out another sigh.

“Quit that...” Katsumi said.

“Quit what?”

Katsumi raised an eyebrow at this. “Being so sneaky.” He accepted the umbrella and opened it, stepping out into the rain.

It’s only my second day at school this semester and I’ve relied on her both times… What’s with this coincidence? And now I have two of her umbrellas!

Mayumi pulled out her own umbrella and followed suit.

Because of the wind, rain was coming down at an angle making it so their umbrellas were only effective at keeping their upper torsos and heads dry. The harsh storm accented the city incredibly well—neon lights shone through the storm like beacons, office lights dotting skyscrapers that rose up into the cloudy sky, out of sight.

Continuing on in silence for a short while longer, Katsumi and Mayumi turned left and walked under the canopy over their apartment building’s front door. This awning only slightly helped keep the rain away, as it still pummeled them from the side.

“I guess you really do live here…”

“Why would I lie about living here?”

“...Good point.” Katsumi gave up this pointless argument before it even started—knowing it would go nowhere.

They navigated through the nicely flourished lobby and to the elevator. A short ride later, the display in the elevator read eight, and preceded by a ding, the door slid open.

“Hey, look who it is.” Mayumi gestured towards the end of the hallway.

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