"Kotori, are you off already?"
Hearing her mother's voice drift down the hallway, Kotori looked up and smiled at the image of her mother at the end of the hall rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"Yes, Mother."
Today was finally Kotori's first day at Kouketsu high. If she was honest, she was more than a little bit excited. It was the setting of the game, after all, and where all the characters would finally be gathering, herself included. Though she didn't plan to stick to Kimiko Ueda's original script, she was still looking forward to a flowery high school life surrounded by handsome boys. The high school she experienced in her past life was boring, to say the least, and she was so consumed by studying that she felt she passed it by without having made any real lasting memories. Now, she would be sure to make every school day interesting.
"Don't dawdle then, or else you'll be late." Her mother muttered in-between yawns. "Have a good first day."
Kotori didn't waste any more time and waved to her mother before disappearing out the door. She made her way to the sleek black car and signalled for the driver to go, grinning the entire drive over to the school.
She arrived pretty early, but there were already students coming in through the school gate. Kotori arrived at the front of the school and took a deep breath, smiling absentmindedly to herself as she thought about how the game was finally starting.
Without her noticing, some passersby inadvertently got caught in her smiling expression, marvelling at the beauty of the unknown first year as they whispered amongst their friends. Girls and boys alike couldn't help but to stop and stare for a moment while Kotori was mostly oblivious.
While she was stood still at the open gates, her thoughts wandering, someone walked into her back and knocked her off her feet. Kotori was too shocked to react in time, but the people standing around who were watching her all gasped as she stumbled and fell to the ground.
Kotori frowned, internally berating herself for getting distracted, before she turned around to face the person who knocked her over.
"Oh!" A girl exclaimed, her eyes wide in fear. "I'm so sorry!!! I didn't mean to push you!!! Are you okay?? Are you hurt???"
It turned out that the person who bumped into Kotori was actually a cute girl. She had short brown hair curled at her shoulders, unlike Kotori's, who's hair was long, straight, and black. She also had big doe eyes, wide and expressive, while Kotori's were on the smaller but pointed and refined side. In short, they seemed to be complete opposites.
Kotori shook her head, smiling, and then stood back up gracefully. "It's alright, it was an accident, no need to apologise."
The spectators who had just witnessed the scene couldn't help but gush amongst themselves. It was just the first day and they already managed to catch a scene including an elegant beauty and a clumsy cutie.
"No, but, you're hurt! You're bleeding!" The cutie gasped, looking even more worried.
Kotori looked down to where the other girl's eyes were, and noticed that she seemed to have scratched her knee when she fell. "Ah... you're right." She honestly hadn't really felt it.
The girl seemed as if she wanted to say something else, but Kotori didn't wait before she turned and approached one of the older looking boys nearby. Seeing Kotori appear in front of him suddenly, he blushed. She ignored his reaction and asked for directions to the nurse's office, to which he replied eagerly with "Let me escort you there!". She didn't refuse his offer, and soon they were both walking away and into the school.
Left behind, the girl could only stare after Kotori's back, a strange expression flittering across her face.
When Kotori arrived at the nurse's office, she thanked the boy who lead her there, and then knocked on the door as he walked away flustered.
"Excuse me?" Kotori called when no one opened the door.
She frowned. Though it was before classes, there should still be someone inside already.
She waited another two minutes, but when there was still no reaction from the other side of the door, she simply opened the door herself and went inside.
Immediately as she entered the room she was greeted with the sight of an abnormally pretty man. Though his face was pressed against his desk and he seemed to be in deep sleep, she could tell from where she was standing that he had long lashes and a straight nose.
As Kotori stepped closer to him, her heart couldn't help but race. To think that she would be seeing a capture target so soon! She'd almost forgotten that he was here, but now that she was looking at him there was no way he could be anything other than the capture target Masao Fukunaga, the young and popular school nurse. His beauty was simply out of this world.
"Excuse me?" She tried again. "Sensei?"
Even though she was speaking so close to him, he still didn't stir.
Kotori furrowed her brows. Deciding that there was no other choice, she then reached a finger out to poke him. She started with his shoulder, but when that still didn't get a reaction, she then moved up to poke his forehead. Still nothing. She moved her finger to his cheek, then pressed down once, hard.
He twitched a bit at her last poke. Finally.
Knowing that she was getting somewhere, Kotori stretched her finger out again for his cheek, but before she could reach him, his eyes suddenly snapped open. Kotori froze in shock, but what he did next was much more surprising.
His eyes were unfocused, but it was if he could still sense Kotori's finger hovering in front of his face. Before Kotori had the sense to pull her arm back, his head suddenly moved forward and he opened his mouth to bite down on her finger.
Kotori's mind was completely empty. Looking at the school nurse in front of her, who had his mouth wrapped around her finger, she seemed to completely lose all her thoughts.
Fortunately, the bite seemed to have fully woken him up, and while Kotori was beginning to question if she was actually just dreaming or not, his teeth finally loosened its grip on her finger and he stood up slowly.
Instead of an explanation, or any kind of apology, what came out of his mouth instead was, "Is this a new way of flirting? It's not nice to take advantage of someone while they're half asleep, you know."
What.
The.
Fu-
"Excuse me??!!! You're the one that bit me!!!!!" Kotori couldn't help but yell, somewhat insulted by his response.
He thought that she was coming onto him? Please!
"Waving your finger around in front of my face like that... didn't you know I would assume it was a snack and try to take a bite?" He said lazily, as if that explained everything.
Kotori balked. "What- I- No! I was just trying to wake you up!"
"Alright. So, I'm awake now. What did you want?"
His attitude was so casual, it was as if what just happened didn't occur at all. Kotori was seriously starting to doubt her sanity around this man. Were all the capture targets like this? She really hoped not.
"You're the school nurse, aren't you?" Kotori asked, dubious suddenly. Would the school actually hire someone like this?
He nodded. "That's me."
"...I hurt my knee."
The finger biting aside, after Kotori told him about her injury, he finally seemed to get a bit serious. He cleaned up her wound and covered it up fast, working pretty expertly, as far as she could tell.
"There. All done. The wound will probably disappear in a few days, so don't worry."
Kotori felt as if she was getting whiplash. First he bit her, then he accused her of trying to take advantage of him, then he casually brushed everything side, and now he was acting serious like a proper school nurse. She had no idea what to think of the person currently in front of her.
"Okay..." Kotori replied meekly before racing out of the room.
She felt that the less time she spent in the presence of that particular capture target, the better.