This is my first year of high school in Takeda High. Hiro’s family were the founders of the Takeda school. The school has three branches, middle school, high school and a university.

I’ve been attending Takeda from middle up till now, high school.

School started a week ago when the cherry blossoms started falling. The trees looked so bright those days. The way it sways from side to side; leaving some of the flowers fall to the ground. I was with my brother and dad during my first day. Even if they didn’t get along, they went with me for my first day. I was a bit embarrassed when we took a photo in front of the school gate, but I was happy, nonetheless.

Still, I wished we had a picnic under the trees that time too after school. But they needed to go to work.

I recalled what had just happened earlier during breakfast.

I wish that dad gets over it, it’s getting harder and harder for me. Every single day feels like a soap opera at home. That place doesn’t feel like home. The floors are old, the kitchen is getting rusty from the many years we’ve been using it; I’ve been using it. There’s bugs everywhere no matter how many times I try to exterminate them with traps and sprays and the biggest problem I have are those two stupid and idiot of a family! Why can’t they just get along? I’ve been trying my best ever since mom passed away, but dad’s always stuck in the past and brother refuses to look back the past.

“Morning Hana-san.” a classmate greeted me.

“Good morning, Kazehaya-kun.” I smiled back at him.

I’m getting tired.

I had a small conversation with Kazehaya-kun on the way to school.

I arrived at school fifteen minutes before class started. I changed my outdoor shoes into my indoor shoes. I entered the west building and walked up to the third floor.

Our campus consists of three buildings:

The north building: the first floor is usually for staff, and the second and third is for clubs and empty classrooms.

The west building, from the first floor to the third floor, are all for students.

The south building has less rooms, because it has the court, indoor pool, and the cafeteria in it.

On the east side of the campus is the field and a little bit on the north of the field is the tennis court, where I often go for my club.

As I entered the class with Kazehaya-kun, the air was filled with laughter, conversations and greetings with the people they know. Some girls were talking about famous actors and movies they’ve recently seen. Some of the boys are writing and drawing stuff on the blackboard, Kazehaya-kun joined them, but when he saw that they wrote his name and my name with a heart between the names, he got all flustered and started to get mad at his friends. He wasn’t really mad, more like flustered.

For me though, I laughed it off.

I already knew about his feelings. But I can’t worry about my romance life right now, because I have bigger priorities than love.

“Sorry about that Hana-san.” He chuckled.

“Hmmmm?” I smirked at him, “That explains why you’ve been looking at me quite a lot.” I teased him, but not in a way that wouldn’t hurt him.

His friends teased him more about my comment.

“Anyways, have a good day Kazehaya-kun.” I ended the conversation. I didn’t want it to go on any further than that.

“O—okay.” He said.

I really don’t want to lead him on like this, but I can’t just tell him straight up that I don’t see him that way. That would be similar to public shaming. The only chance I can reject him is if he confesses. It would break his heart, yes; but that’s better for him, because I’m not for him.

I put my bag on my table.

“Good morning, Hana-san.” another classmate greeted me as I sat on my chair.

“Morning.” I replied.

My seat is beside the entrance of my class, so a lot of my classmates would greet me first as they enter.

As I dazed into my own thoughts and started to calculate the amount of seats in this classroom.

Our classrooms always have three rows and seven columns, a total of twenty-one seats for students. Our class has twenty students so only one chair is left. But there are some classrooms bigger from the old school building, instead of having three rows, it has four.

Now how many seats are in those bigger classrooms Hana? If we have three rows only and they have four, then I should just add seven more chairs. Therefore, the total will be twenty-eight.

I should probably stop thinking about math for now and save it for later.

Another student came in after me; someone I and Hiroshi know well.

“Morning Kaito.” I greeted him.

“Good morning.” His voice crack as soon as he finished his sentence.

Kaito’s name means soaring ocean. He told us that his parents just couldn’t stick with either the ocean or the sky, they both wanted him to be like both, they wanted him to be unique. He told us about this back in elementary. We were on a field trip, and we talked about stuff in the night sky when this topic came. Of course, I also told them the story behind my name and so did Hiroshi.

Back to Kaito, he has medium-length jet black hair. He’s at least 5’6 tall. Light tone skin and a round face that girls here would call cute. I agree, I’ve always teased him that he has a feminine face. But I don’t like him that way, I just like teasing other people, that’s all. And he’s already taken.

“Morning Hana.” Yuri said with a smile.

“Morning Yuri.” I said.

Yuriko Aoki, currently in a relationship with my good friend Kaito. She’s approximately 5’3, a B or C-cup? All that matters is that she’s getting bigger but I’m bigger. She has brown short hair. Some might say she’s the sporty type if she was put into a category, and they’re absolutely right. She likes the thrill of getting out of her comfort zone. You would never see her in one activity for a long time. Also, I consider her as my best friend ever since middle school.

“M—morning Yuri.” Kaito was hesitant to greet his girlfriend. Guess he did something. Maybe cause of a girl? I don’t really see Yuri being the jealous type though. She’s fine with Kaito talking with other girls, I’m an example to that. Maybe he lied to Yuri. She probably confronted Kaito and bluntly asked him about it, which leads him to lie even more. Kaito isn’t good at lying anyways, that’s why she knew immediately as soon as he opened his mouth.

But this mystery isn’t solve yet, I need solid evidence.

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Yuri went straight to her seat which was in the middle of the class. She placed down her bag on the table and started preparing her stuff.

I turned to Kaito who’s already seated in his chair behind me, “She hates you.” I teased him.

“She totally does.” Kaito’s forehead and his table are smooching very passionately.

“I think it’s because your forehead’s being too touchy with others.”

“Huh?” he lifts his head.

“Nothing.”

“Yuri’s birthday is coming right?” Kaito asked suddenly.

“Yeah.” As soon as he said that, everything clicked, “so you’re preparing a surprise. Yup, that will ruin the surprise if you tell her, and you lied about that.”

“But it’s not just me doing a surprise, her whole family is in on it too.”

“Oh!” another clue clicked in my head, “she felt left out by everyone around her.”

Now that I know, it’s going to be hard to talk to her about it without letting her know about it. She’s a sharp-witted person from my experience on dealing with her.

“Oh shoot! I shouldn’t have told you either!” Kaito acknowledges his mistake.

I sighed, “Too late.”

I looked at Yuri’s direction.

How is she so far?

Her pissed face now has turned into a sad face.

“Imma go talk to her.” I said to Kaito.

He seats straight, “You sure?”

“Yeah, no biggie.” I walked to her direction.

“So, Yuri got into a fight with Kaito.” I grabbed the chair in front of her, the owner of this seat isn’t sitting on his chair so might as well use it.

“Yeah, even my whole family is being suspicious. They’re all acting the same, like they’re keeping something secret from me that they all know.” Yuri's forehead has proceeded to smooch the table.

I looked over to see Kaito, he was doing the same thing.

They’re perfect for each other.

“I don’t think they’re hiding something bad; it might actually be a good thing.”

She looked at me while her head’s still touching the table.

“Hmm….” then she did her eyebrow twitching thing that suggest she figured it out.

“But if they are hiding something bad from you, I’ll beat them up until they tell me what they’re hiding, whoever they are.”

She chuckles and I made her crack a smile, “and when that happens count me on it too. I would beat them up too.” She shadow boxes.

I said it as a joke, but the way she said it sounded serious.

I looked at Kaito’s direction. I think he heard what we said. He looks scared.

I gave him a thumbs up.

“I’ll give you a call when I start beating them up, okay?” I sat up.

“Sure” she looked happier compared to before. Job well done! But I think she already knows about the surprise party.

As I went back to my seat, I unconsciously heard some gossip from some of my classmates, “I heard there’s a transfer student. It’s a girl.” One of the guys said.

“Same grade?”

“I don’t think so, she looks older.”

“A senior huh. There’s still a chance she’s same grade though.”

“I also heard she’s a foreigner.”

“Ohh~”

I sat down on my chair. Kaito heard it as well.

“A new student huh?” Kaito said.

“A foreigner also.”

“I heard that foreigner’s actually look older than they appear to be.”

“You think she’s the same year?”

“There’s a probability.”

“Hmmm…... so, you wanna try her when you already got yourself a cute girlfriend? Shame on you.”

“I didn’t said anything about that!”

“You looked like you did.”

“No! I was only wondering why they would look older compared to us. That’s all.”

“I guess so.”

But why would she transfer now? Why Japan? Why couldn't transfer last week when school officially started? Stuff like that I’m curious about.

As we finished our discussion, the door opened once again. But this time it was Hiro and our homeroom teacher, Tsuhgi Sakai-sensei, entered at the same time.

Hiro did something again that got him to the teacher’s office. He was smiling like a very guilty person.

Sakai-sensei didn’t look pleased with what he did, but it didn’t matter cause Sakai-sensei has a soft spot for him. Not only Sakai-sensei, but almost every teacher, staff and students either are friends with him or know him as a charming but intense person.

“This is the last time Takeda-san, next time I’m going to call your parents. I don’t care if your parents own this school.” Sakai-sensei’s words were serious, but her tone is playful. It’s like teasing but it’s also a warning.

“Hehehe, got it sensei.” Hiro went to his seat which is on the left side of the classroom right by the window.

He glanced at me and Kaito and raised both his eyebrows. It was like his gesture of greeting if he's far away.

I did the same thing. He chuckled after seeing me try to imitate him.

Then suddenly heard laughter in the corridor passing through in a rush. It was a group of guys. The group that makes trouble. Recently, this was the group Hiro has been hanging out with. I don’t know why Hiro hasn’t stopped hanging out with them, they do stuff which is extreme and most of them are uncomfortable for the everyone.

They’re messing with him again.

“All, stand!” I announced it to the class, they all stood, “Bow!” they all did what I told them to. We would all seat as soon as Sakai-sensei tells to.

“Thank you everyone, you may sit.” Sakai-sensei said to the class.

Tsuhgi Sakai-sensei is a full-fledged woman in her early thirty…. I think. I don’t really know if she’s older or not, but I know that she teaches English better than any teacher that I know from middle school.

She took our attendance first before she resumed her lesson from yesterday. But instead of teaching straight away after attendance she introduces a transfer student.

As the new student entered, everyone was quiet. All we could hear is her footsteps on to the wood floor that was just waxed clean last week which makes the floor shine than ever.

She wore her uniform the same as us with the white necktie that every first year here wears to indicate that the student is a first year. Of course, I have that same white tie. But despite her wearing the same uniform as us, she still looked different and would instantly capture your eyes with the color of her hair and her mature and refined facial structure. It was more cosplay than a uniform. She had big round green eyes, almost too big that if you look at her directly, your reflection might show. She a long dark brown hair down, longer than mine. Her figure is slightly smaller than mine. She was covering her chest with her shoulder bag blocking the view of her noticeably attractive figure as she walks in front of the class.

I do kinda wish I had a more delicate body type. Mine is more muscular, because I do a lot of physical activities. Especially tennis.

How good is her Japanese?

“Good morning, everyone. My name is Scott Isla. I came from the U.S. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.” She does know how to speak properly in Japanese but still has a slight foreign accent. It’s kinda cute.

Scott-san, I should go talk to her after the class.

Sakai-sensei told her where to sit.

She walked past me, continued walking past Kaito then greeted her neighbor, Sakagami, with a slight bow before sitting on her new table, behind Kaito.

She was sitting in the same column as me, but she was sitting at the very end of the class.

“Ok, let’s begin where we left off yesterday.” Sakai-sensei said, “but because we have a new student, Sakagami-san, can you help Scott-san for the rest of the day?”

“Hai~.” she replied cheerfully.

The lesson starts.