The students who found their friends from the same middle school quickly formed a group and started chattering. Keita took out his phone and started playing with his games, until Itsuki peeked over.
"Oh, Puzzle Hazard! I know this one!" Itsuki said.
"Could you just mind your own business?" Keita snapped.
"Ehhh... Why are you so unfriendly?" Itsuki asked.
"I'm not used to people and I will never will." Keita responded.
"Wow, that's some anti-hero lines, you're so cool Keita!"
"Do you have any friends from your old school?" Itsuki asked.
"No. Never had any. So I wouldn't know." Keita said.
"Eww... That's so cold of you." Itsuki responded.
The bell rang, it is almost time for homeroom. The teacher entered the class, the students quickly moved back to their seats.
"Ogura Fuyuko. This is my name, nice to meet all of you." Ogura sensei said after she wrote her name on the chalkboard.
"I would like all of you to introduce yourselves." Ogura sensei said. Everything seemed fine until a girl started introduce herself.
"Mikoto Ayumi. Nice to meet you." A girl said. For some reason, Keita seemed to recognise this name. It's from a long time ago, but he couldn't pinpoint who she is.
"Ah, hello everyone, my name is Kiryu Itsuki. Let's get along well." The outgoing Itsuki introduced himself.
"Futaba Keita." Keita said and sat down as soon he finished introduced himself.
"Excuse me? Could you tell us your name again?" Ogura sensei asked.
"Futaba Keita, is that enough?" Keita stood up.
"Oh, Futaba Keita is your name. Alright, next." Ogura sensei said. It goes on until all the other students finished introduced themselves.
"Right... For the class committee... I need a student to act as the class rep, as well as another one as the assistant class rep. Any volunteers?" Ogura sensei asked.
"I would like to be the class rep, sensei." Said a girl.
"Me too, I want to be the class rep." A guy said.
"I have a candidate in mind." Itsuki said while pointing at Keita.
"Wha- Did you have a bone to pick with me?" Keita said as he was taken surprise.
"Futaba Keita, I think he is a fine candidate too." Ogura sensei agreed.
"Sensei, I want to be the assistant." Ayumi said.
"Eep! The two of them? They seemed hard to get along with, should we vote them off?" Some of the students whispered.
"So we have three candidates for the class rep, one for the assistant. Usually all of the candidates would want to be the class rep, so we would follow the will of the class then. Let's vote for them, everyone." Ogura sensei said.
"Usually, they will vote for their friends. If they doesn't know any of them, they will vote the ones who are more visually appealing to them. I should be the least appealing one no matter what I do. This will be an easy loss." Keita thought to himself. It took a few minutes for the students to decide on who to vote, submit the votes in a small box.
"Oh Futaba, could you tally the votes as I read out the results?" Ogura sensei said.
"O-Okay." Keita said. He wrote the names of the other candidates and separated them with a vertical line on the chalkboard.
"Okay, here goes. Futaba Keita, Futaba Keita, Natsuki Natsumi, Hiyama Hikaru..." Ogura sensei read the votes aloud. Keita followed what Ogura sensei said, the odd pattern was disturbing.
"So the results were: Futaba Keita with 16 votes, Natsuki Natsumi with 8 votes, Hiyama Hikaru with 5 votes. So it's decided that the class rep for class 1-B is Futaba Keita then. Any objections?" Ogura sensei said.
"A-are you kidding me?" Keita thought. According to his calculations, he misjudged the power of being recommended by another student. He was recommended by Itsuki, which those who don't know him will judge based on Itsuki, not Keita. It seems like the class is so keen on making him the class rep, there is no other options. Keita is not a irresponsible person after all. He took up the responsibility in the end.
"From now on, I'll be the class rep for class 1-B. Please bear with me." Keita said to the class. The class applauded, right after Itsuki started clapping his hands.
"So for the assistant, do any of you wanted to be the assistant?" Ogura sensei asked the other two students.
"No... I remember Ayumi-san wanted to be the assistant, I'll fill in any other spots if there is any." Natsumi said.
"Yeah, same. I guess I'll be a normal student then." Hikaru said.
"Then we'll have Ayumi Mikoto as the class rep assistant then." Ogura sensei said.
"Let's get along, Futaba-kun." Ayumi said to Keita. Keita felt weird for a little, but he had to hold himself together. The two shook hands and returned to their seats.
"Wow, that's the way, Keita." Itsuki nudged Keita.
"I'm in this situation thanks to you." Keita said.
"Well, I'm just helping you, to make some contact with our classmates, maybe you could even be friends with all of them!" Itsuki said.
"That's nowhere close to 'help' at all." Keita responded. Homeroom continued by appointing the remaining members of the class committee.
"Make sure to enjoy your time being in Hokutosei High, I'll be seeing you tomorrow, have a nice day." Ogura sensei said before dismissing the students. The students greeted the teacher before she left the class.
"Hey, class rep, let's exchange contact info, we'll form a group on RAINE." Natsumi asked.
"Oh, I'll do it." Keita took out his phone and began creating a group with his RAINE application.
"Your contact info?" Keita asked.
"Ah, here." Natsumi showed her QR code.
"There, done. I'll send a message when I finish adding everyone." Keita said.
"Thank you, class rep-san" Natsumi said. It annoyed him a bit for being called 'class rep-san', but he said nothing.
Keita began approaching every other student for their contact info, it seems like he is doing well in his first task of being a class rep. What bugs him is who is this Mikoto Ayumi, an awfully familiar name. Yet he couldn't recall who she is. The cherry blossoms blooms in the spring, which indicated the change of the seasons. While all the seasons in the past were the same to Keita, it seems like change is slowly coming to him. As if he was about to awaken from a repeating dream.