After her harrowing experience at the nurse's office, Kotori hurried to where her classroom was located without looking back.
The first person she recognised as she walked into her classroom was the girl who had bumped into her earlier. She was sitting right in the front and was glancing out of the window as if in deep thought.
Kotori didn't bother her since she seemed preoccupied, so she simply walked towards the back and found an empty seat.
Before long, the homeroom teacher arrived and introduced herself to the class. Then she did roll call. That was when Kotori discovered that the cute girl who bumped into her in the morning was none other than the heroine, Mari Suzuki. Kotori looked at her with new eyes, and thought about her own role as a villainess. Though she didn't intend to be anything like Kimiko, over the years she also secretly thought that it might be a little fun.
Perhaps her upbringing as Kotori Ueda had actually twisted her personality a bit, as in her previous life she would certainly have never thought of becoming a villainess. Kotori Ueda, however, seemed to understand Kimiko's actions in the game better, and thus was unintentionally tempted by that kind of behaviour.
As Kotori thought it over, her eyes were attracted to another person in the classroom. It was none other than Kazuki Ando, another capture target, the sweet, boy next door type. Kotori was not the only one in the class looking at him. It seemed all the girls, save for Mari for some reason, was taking a good look.
It was to be expected, given that Kazuki was gifted with good looks and a perfect physique. Even though he was sitting Kotori could tell he had a nicely toned body.
Initially, she had wanted to approach him, to see what he was like. Being in an otome game world, it would be pointless if she didn't approach the otome game characters at least once. But after her strange run in with Masao, she was second guessing.
Though Kazuki looked normal, and acted normal, part of Kotori was worried that the capture targets were just innately kind of crazy.
As she was weighing the pros and cons of approaching another capture target, the homeroom teacher began to ask about a class representative. Almost immediately there was a collective groan from the class, as nobody wanted to take up that role.
Mari volunteered for it before the teacher could say anything else.
Kotori's thoughts were then brought back to what was happening in the classroom. As a class rep, Mari would probably be frequenting the student council pretty often, where she'd have ample opportunity to run into Sosuke Hayama, the student council president, and one of the other capture targets.
Knowing that, Kotori then quickly volunteered to be the vice representative. She was not missing out on seeing Sosuke and the heroine interact if she could help it.
In accordance with the game plot, Kotori and Sosuke already knew each other. As two kids that came from rich, powerful families, they often crossed paths at social events. Kotori and Sosuke would end up trying to find each other at any event they went to for some reprieve and eventually it turned into a friendship. Though Kotori didn't develop any romantic feelings for him like Kimiko did, their relationship still seemed to be in line with what the game had intended for.
She actually hadn't seen Sosuke in a while. Not since she was twelve. By that time Sosuke's family finally let him stay home instead of forcing him to attend those annoying social events, while Kotori still had to go, and had to face them alone.
Kotori sincerely hoped that in the years she had not seen him he didn't end up developing some nasty personality traits like Masao. Despite Sosuke being a capture target, Kotori genuinely thought of him as a friend. If it turned out he went a bit crazy and ended up like Masao... she'd be pretty upset.
"Ueda-san? What are you thinking about?"
Kotori turned to look at her new friend and smiled. "I was just thinking that I'll be seeing an old friend soon."
"Oh? Who's that?"
"His name is Sosuke. I think he's the student council president?"
"...No way! Your friend is Sosuke Hayama?"
"Yes? ...Izumi-san? Are you okay?"
After she recovered from her shock, she explained to Kotori that Sosuke was one of the most popular students within the school, and that he got confessed to at least once a week every week. The only student that was more popular than him was probably Hiroki.
Kotori acted shocked, but really she'd expected that. The capture targets were just on an entirely different level.
"So... Ueda-san..."
"You can call me Kotori, if you want."
"Oh! Okay! Then you can call me Miwa! But um, can I ask... do you... like Sosuke senpai by any chance?"
"...I like him as a friend. Why?"
"I was just worried... if you said yes then his fan club might try to kill you! They're very serious about Sosuke, even though he already turned them all down. Any girl that confesses to Sosuke has to deal with his fan club's wrath after. It's not pretty..."
"Oh... well, thank you for the warning. I don't really feel anything special for him, though, so I think I'll be okay."
For the rest of the day, in-between classes Kotori would chat to Miwa about various things. Most of the time the topic seemed to revolve around boys, but Kotori didn't really mind. Having fun like this was exactly the kind of high school experience she wanted, so she had fun while she talked about nonsense.
After classes ended and the bell rang, Kotori bid Miwa farewell at the classroom before leaving to find the student council room. The teacher had said that the class rep and vice class rep would need to introduce themselves to the student council at some point, and Kotori figured it would be good to get it done early.
Kotori made her way there pretty fast, having recognised the room when she was making her way to the classroom in the morning. She could hear people talking behind the door so she knocked and waited patiently.
A second later someone from inside the room said "Come in." so she pushed the door open and walked inside.
Sitting behind a desk she could see Sosuke, who seemed to have really changed in the four years that she hasn't seen him. Though she knew from the beginning he was a capture target, when she knew him before he hadn't fully grown into his looks yet. Now, with his defined jaw and delicate features, she felt as if she was looking at an entirely different person.
While Kotori was marvelling at how different Sosuke looked, she didn't notice that he was doing the exact same with her. The Kotori that he knew was a young girl who used to fuss about how she was bored as she tugged onto the ends of his sleeve and would follow him around whenever he went, like an annoying little sister. The Kotori that stood before him now projected an entirely different image, and he couldn't help but get a little lost in her beauty, and those clear eyes that seemed as straightforward as ever.
"Kotori?" Sosuke spoke eventually, once he regained enough of his thoughts to completely push any strange fluttery feelings away.
"Sosuke." Kotori grinned, making a mischievous expression reminiscent of when she was younger. "I almost didn't recognise you."
Sosuke scoffed. "What are you doing here? If you've come here to mess around like when we were kids I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you."
"Hey! I'm not twelve anymore! I just came because my teacher said I should introduce myself to the student council properly, as the vice rep of my class."
"You? Vice rep? Why?" Sosuke asked, seemingly baffled by the revelation.
"Would you believe me if I said it was because I wanted to meet you more often?" Kotori teased, smiling.
Sosuke seemed to not know what to make of what she said for a moment, before realising she was joking and rolling his eyes. "Then I'll ask your teacher to find a replacement for you."
They chatted back and forth for a little while, Kotori poking fun at him every once a while and Sosuke pretending he was fed up with her every time. Like this it was as if no time had passed by at all, and they were both huddled in a corner of a crowded room, giggling to themselves as they tried to escape from the boring adults.
Sosuke had honestly never thought much of Kotori in the years he hadn't seen her, but now that she was in front of him once again, he felt as if he might've missed her presence just a bit.
Kotori was just glad that Sosuke seemed to be the same Sosuke that she knew, and that being a capture target hadn't driven him to doing things like biting people out of nowhere.