The story unfolds around the loner and introvert (Kojuro taichi) who has a bad time frequenting people not because of how rotten his personality is .... he's smart but too smart because he reads into things , a coward because he cant speak up good looking but keeps his bangs on his face and avoids eye contact just so that he doesn't stand out . His philosophy is 'socialising is nothing but tedious what matters is you are perfectly average' and he stays true to it he does well at sports but not too well so that he doesn't stand out in fact he's reached a perfectly average point in sports in his life. He stays at about 10th in class underperforming because he can do better , his goals in studies is just too pass. An example of how bad he is at socialising is that even when asked a question he shudders away and keeps replies as short as possible even if he is faced with a goddess such as hana-san who is beautiful and is also 4th in the class shes the good girl who tires to keep up with her image as the diligent and model student of the school / class. He would just ignore her. Even faced with a genuine question he would just blatantly accuse the other person of extorting some type of information some sort of thing they want an ulterior motive of sorts. But life isn't that bad for him he goes to high school keeps up with his loner image goes to part time works fine plain and simple.
Taichi smirks "another perfect day i guess"
Homeroom teacher walks in " ok guys we have a new transfer student here"
Someone Walks in Writes on board " yukiko seda " , a short introduction with just the " words ill be joining you from today on " bows her head
Everyone look at her long sleeves even in summer bangs on her face wears glasses wears a face mask looks to be plain looking but you can tell she has that pretty and mysterious girl aura.
Sensei : "Alright since taichi san doesn't have a partner you'll sit with him and lets begin class everyone"
Taichi clicks his tongue
Yukiko sat down and their day went by she dint get a lot of attention because of taichi probably thats why he walked out after homeroom but that wasnt the case she too exhibited a similar unapproachable aura which made everyone avoid her except the model students of class 1-3 hana san the queen of the class and shou kun the king of the class shou kun was at the top of his class and had good looks ... a very smiling and cheerful personality which taichi hated a lot .
Hana san " yukiko san was it I'm hana iwamura this is shou kun the class rep and the top of our class"
Shou kun: "oh hello I'm shou"
Yukiko: "nice meeting you hana san"
Yukiko only answered to hana san
Shou being ignored backed off for a bit and said in a cheerful way "its nice meeting u too"
Yukiko san grunted away and only talked with hana and the other girls who walked up but kept talking to a minimum but ignored the boys
A few days passed taichi noticed that the crowd had slowly started to decrease near her.
He felt a bit relieved but looking at yukiko even taichi thought to himself maybe shes just like me , but he quickly nodded away the thought and just moved away to the vending machine to buy a juice after recollecting his thoughts he went back to class.
'Bell rings' huh today was a long day crossed taichis mind ... he took out his earphones and waited out till the rush cleared away he noticed yukiko was waiting too ... he usually left early because of the whole transfer student commotion but today he waited
It felt even awkward for him to sit down with a girl alone with nothing to say , he was about to utter a word but then yukiko got up and left ....
'Phew' he sighed with relief and also left for his part time job.
He arrived at the convenience store which is just around the block to his house he was about to get ready for his shift when the manager Nora san came and told me to cover for her at the cash register as she had to teach the new part timer.
Taichi , " huff alright but u owe me one nora san ill take care of it while walking out of the changing room his eyes glanced at the new part timer it was none other than yukiko san.
Geez why did it have to be her out of everyone in the world. Taichi who was a bit more cheerful in his work had to keep up with his loner and cheerful persona.
"What a pain"
Working together sitting together without uttering a single word felt weird a few days passed and something in taichi finally snapped and said "why did u pick this place" yukiko calmly ignored taichi , he naturally got a bit pissed and pressed on the girl still didn't answer. Normally someone ignoring you would usually get to you but to taichi it was different he smirked and said "fine stay quiet , you stalker" yukikos eyed opened a bit and she was about to burst out at taichi when suddenly a customer at the shop ordered The ramen bowl , taichi and yukiko while keeping up with the good employee persona dealt with the customer "that would be 485 sir "
Yukiko said i will talk to you outside the shop after my shift taichi said ok even though his shift was to end an hour before.
He waited a bit outside had a drink and was thinking that he was a bit too rude and he should apologise since he will be working with her for god knows how long
"Man nora san sure is late today" he glanced at the shop which was currently just being manned by yukiko he saw 2 men inside hitting on her and trying to get close. Taichi rushed in and saw the gentlemen taking off yukikos mask (yukiko oddly enough was frozen to the core unable to move) taich grabbed the mans hand and asked them to leave ... the men tried to resist but then taichi pointed at the camera and the men backed off and went away.
Taichi grabbed yukikos arm and said what were u doing why didn't u resist , he saw the uncovered unmasked face of yukiko seda... a face that didn't want to be seen by anyone else especially a man her mouth had scars 2 that were particularly noticeable one that stretched from the lip to the nose and one below it that went towards the chin. Yukiko was about to cry with tears glistening down her cheek taichi quickly put her mask up and wiped her tears when nora san walked in.
"You two are oddly close" said nora san. Taichi scratched his head and was thinking of an excuse when suddenly yukiko spoke up and said "taichi san was asking me to walk to the train station together since it was getting late"
Nora san alright lock the cash register before u go ill take it from here
Taichi waited outside and a few thoughts muddled his head he thought to himself thats why yukiko san never really takes of that mask not even when she talks. Yukiko came out and both started walking there was again an awkward silence and suddenly both at once were about to say something but they interrupted each other , taichi "you go on first" yukiko stopped at an empty park both sat down and yukiko lowered her mask a little she started with "back in junior high a year ago I wasn't like this i was a cheerful girl everyone liked me and i was nice to everyone I used to be a bit more pretty and there was this boy who had a crush on me naturally he asked me out but i turned him down he use to follow me tail me around even when going to the library at first this only happened at school but slowly he used to follow me outside too when i use to try to confront him he used to hide and run away... I paid it no mind and would go away but his stalker tendencies increased thats when I got scared and called the police things got out of hand and "
Taichi thought that was the end of her story but that didn't explain her scars he looked towards her and she started to cry again , taichi suddenly hugged her and said "if u don't want to talk about it you dont have to but I'm glad you opened up to me " yukiko felt a natural warmth and calmed down after a few minutes she whispered "I'm alright now taichi kun"
Taichi walked her home oddly enough she lived quite near him he dropped her off and went home.
Taichis mom shouted you back have something to eat taichi replied I'm gonna shower first.
While in the shower taichi thought of what happened with yukiko what could cause those scars what did she do to deserve them these questions huddled his head . He punched the wall and said with rage "damn" .... he even thought of something like she would be better off telling something like this to shou or hana what advice could I give I didn't even know what to say and my instincts just threw her off , he was very frustrated and so he couldn't sleep all night
The next day he was a bit late and got to school with his bangs even more of a mess his eyes had bags because of lack of sleep and his tie loose the girls actually thought he looked a bit handsome ... Satou the kid good at soccer "what happened to you , you are a mess today" taichi who never really answers back said "yeah i know" the class got shocked everyone were stricken out of their boots even taichi got shocked why did i answer that naturally whats wrong with me. He went to his seat the calm yukiko san beside him he looked at her and she said hi while facing forward ... taichi facing towards her with a relief face that shes back to normal said hi back at her. Meanwhile the whole class was shocked and a rumour started to go around that the cold taichi sans heart had finally been unfrozen by yukiko san i didnt want to live up to that rumour so i started to ignore everyone again except for yukiko i had small conversations with her we talked about work , the day , mostly futile things and I use to walk with her to school , to the convenience store and home. I thought she had gotten over that recent even but i know the scars remind her of these things again. I still didn't ask the complete thing from her and its best i keep it that way because I don't want what we have now to be broken. While thinking of this in my bed taichi thought again about the words "what we have right now" what do we have he questioned himself his social anxiety kicked in which only left him to reaffirm the situation at hand , are we friends , are we co workers , or are we more than both of these two relations. I went to sleep while thinking about that. I got up in the morning oddly made my hair today after i dont know how many years and went to school looking very proper.