"Make sure you don't forget your bag!" A mother called out to her son with a reminder.
"I know mom, I already got it." Her son answered back. It was the early morning, right before school. This song and dance had been committed dozens of times as the young boy prepared to exit the front door.
"And another thing." His mom came up to him. Today, there was going to be something different. "Our new neighbors will be moving in this afternoon. I expect all of us to be there to help them out."
"I'll be on my best behavior." He responded in a flat tone. The boy didn't know why his mother was so insistent on doing this. They didn't know who their new neighbors were going to be, so why should they care? "Anyway, time for me to head out." As usual, he took slow, but steady steps to the train station.
Who was this boy? Well, he was none other than Ishi Hirose. If you didn't know who that was, then good. Because to him, it's better to be some random nobody that no one cares about. Unfortunately for him, he had a bit of a reputation at school for his rather… Standoffish nature. So the no one cares about point didn't apply to him.
The boy yawned as he neared the station. His morning routine hadn't changed once during his two years at high school. There were no intentions to change it as he headed to his third year. The only thing he could come up with would be whoever this new neighbor might bring along. If they had a kid that was around his age, then he might get stuck with a lame morning walk with someone else.
It didn't take long for him to make it to his destination. Soon after he arrived, the train came and he got on along with many other commuters. Same as always, except for one minor detail.
There was a girl sitting across from him who was someone he had never seen before. She was looking at her phone, with no worry about the people around her as the train departed the station towards his school stop.
This girl appeared to be quite the fashionable type with her hairpin, but she had a girl's uniform that belonged to his school. So she must've been a new student that just transferred in.
Well wasn't he special, he sarcastically thought. Ishi got to be the first person to see the new student. Now, plenty of normal kids might take this as an opportunity to introduce themselves. Especially with an excuse of going to the same school. He figured many boys would take that chance, since he considered her pretty cute as well. However, making friends was never on his agenda, so he didn't bother.
While sitting at his spot, doing what he normally did, which was nothing. He took note of a few other people murmuring to each other. It seemed that they also noticed this girl, who did stand among the crowd.
"Sheesh, are boys really that allured by a pretty girl?" He muttered under his breath as they chatted. Not that he had much room to speak, seeing as he was also taking note of her. Perhaps a little too much, as she put down her phone to look around her surroundings. That was when their eyes met. Hers were a deep blue, like her hair, which felt like staring into a deep ocean.
She smiled at him and gave him a friendly wave. The girl must've noticed his uniform and realized he was a fellow student. Reluctantly, he gave a weak wave with just two of his fingers back to her. Then looked away and went to grab his headphones to go on ignoring the girl.
So his trip went by as he listened to his music. If there was one thing he learned, it's that no one bothers someone with headphones on unless it was important. That was his tactic to get this girl to not strike a conversation with him.
From the looks of it, it worked. She didn't say anything to him, but the girl did walk near him as they went to school. That wasn't a big deal to him, since they did share a destination. It couldn't be helped.
At least, he didn't think it was going to be a big deal until he took the first steps onto the school ground. There were a lot of students just hanging out just by the front door. That wasn't common, so something had to be going on. That was when he saw one of them point towards him.
Suddenly, they sprang to life and moved towards Ishi. Did he do something wrong? What happened to cause this type of reaction. The group closed the gap, but instead of saying anything to him. They all moved past him. Unfortunately, there were a lot of students were, and no room for him to dodge them. So this crowd ended up bumping up to him and pushing him around.
Were they mad? He couldn't think of anything he had done recently to provoke any anger. Soon, the crowd pushed him aside and onto the ground. Ruffled, he took off his headphones to see what they were so excited with. As it turned out, they weren't interested in him, but rather, the girl that was walking just behind him.
They were all enamored by her. All trying to speak over the other just to introduce themselves to her. Somehow, she had only taken her first steps here and already this girl was popular.
"Typical." He muttered irritated as the boy got back onto his feet and dusted off his clothes. "Some good looking girl walks in and everyone wants to be her friend." Ishi didn't care about her, so he picked up his bag and headed inside to get ready for class.
A common theme for this day was that things started off normal, as they should be. However, it also ended up being accompanied by a little twist that made him more unhappy.
"Hey, did you hear about the new student?" The normal event was his best friend chatting him up in the morning before class. "I hear she'll be joining out class." And there was the twist.
"Look, Otoya, it doesn't matter if she does or not." Ishi didn't care, and there was no way he was going to allow this to make a dent in his routine. "She's just some new girl that everyone seems to be in love with, why should I care?"
"Um, do you not know who she is?" His friend gave him an odd look. Apparently, he was greatly out of the loop here.
"I've already seen her on the way to school. For whatever reason, everyone wanted to get to meet her before we could even walk inside." He was going to be holding that grudge from the rude shoving for a long time.
"Wow, people already got a head start." From the tone of his voice, it was clear that he was regretting not doing the same thing. "Wait, what do you mean you saw her already?"
"I met her on the train." Well, it wasn't really a true meeting. "She waved at me, but that's about the extent of it."
"She greeted you!?"
"Yeah, so what?" He couldn't believe how crazy everyone was over this girl. "What's wrong with all of you? It's really starting to really bug me."
"Man, if you knew what we knew. You'd realize that we're all annoyed with how little you know." Ishi took great offense to that statement. He was no idiot. Not a genius or anything, but he was not stupid.
"Fine, why don't you tell me why you're all acting like simps for this girl?"
"Oh don't worry about that." He said as the teacher told the class to settle down. "I think you'll find out soon enough."
Class was to begin, but that wasn't the reason why Otoya wasn't going to tell him. No, that would be because of the young lady walking into this classroom to make her introduction. Immediately, the class filled with cheers, mainly from the boys, as she entered. Ishi had one big sigh in reaction to his classmates. Typical high schoolers.
"Hello." The girl finally spoke up once the teacher hushed everyone. So that was what she sounded like, he thought. Her voice was rather angelic and it only served to excite the people around him even more. The only thing that the boy would consider weird about these reactions would have to be how happy the girls seemed. They seemed even more joyed than when an attractive boy showed up.
Either way, he listened in on the introduction this girl was giving. "My name is Rinse Hattori, but I'm sure you all already knew that." That was a weird thing to say, is she that narcissistic? "My family recently moved here because of work reasons, which I suppose we should address that right now." The more she talked, the more confused he got. What type of person introduces themselves like this. That was when her next words answered his question. "I know that you might know of me from my idol work."
Did she just say idol? As in one of those singers that everyone seems to like? Now he was stating to piece things together. That's why people were so eager to meet the girl. "But please, try not to worry about that too much. While I'm in school, I'd like to be treated just like anyone else would."
"Heh, good luck with that." He murmured to himself. Judging from today's activities, Ishi was confident her wish wouldn't be granted.
"Now you see what I'm talking about?" Ishi felt the nudge from his friend behind him. Unfortunately, that was a normal occurrence that annoyed him. "Hattori is a huge name in the entertainment industry, but I have no idea why she decided to go to this school."
"I'm taking it that she's not known for her brains." He responded.
"Great." The teacher said when she was finished with her introduction. "Now, go ahead and find yourself a seat." He didn't think much of what the teacher just said. Until Rinse started to walk towards him. At first, he was bewildered, until he took one look over to his left.
There's no one there.
"Oh great…" He quipped to himself.
"Is this spot taken?" She asked him when she got close enough. He could feel the entire class staring at him, since he was the first person she officially spoke to before anyone else. Especially given the circumstance this was going to lead to.
"No…" He sighed, not even looking at her as he answered. "That seat's open."
"Great." She did tiny claps with her hands as the girl placed down her bag and sat besides him.
Well, this was a terrible start to his day.