It was an unexpectedly rainy day in the first week of December. School had just finished for the day releasing everyone late in the afternoon.
Due to the unexpected weather, many students did not bring their umbrellas to school that day. However, this was not a huge problem to most people since the school did rent out umbrellas for this very situation.
Takei Tanaka was one of those people who took advantage of the fact. He had woken up late and barely managed to reach school. It was safe to say he had no regard for the weather and didn't bother to check it.
Thus resulted in this scenario where he had just managed to grab the last umbrella that was remaining in the bucket.
"That was close, I could've gone home drenched today."
Takei sighed and double checked all of his belongings to ensure he had them all before he went home for the day.
After thoroughly searching himself, Takei started to walk towards the exit of the school until he heard a quiet murmur behind him.
"I forgot my umbrella at home today and there's no more left to borrow..."
A literal goddess had quietly complained to herself without noticing his presence. Most likely due to the fact that he had very little presence in the first place.
The goddess's name was Akari Akazawa. She was an all-rounder type of student who excelled in both academics and athletics. The revered goddess was always at the top of the test ranking leaderboards, but she never participated in any sports for some odd reason.
Akari had golden blonde hair due to the fact that she was half American on her mother's side. She had quite literally an hourglass figure that would put models to shame with that outrageous bust any high school girl would dream of having. Akari's height was nothing to be laughed at either, she clearly was taller than most girls at school. However, she was still shorter than most guys at school though.
The personality of the goddess was also not to be underestimated. She ruled the school with such gentleness and kindness that people were happy to be under her. There were also rumours circulating that talked about how she never joined any clubs to make sure that there would not be any uneven membership.
It turned out that she was also in a majority of Takei's classes. He never associated with her due to the huge difference in social standings. She tended to make friends very easily and was involved with many cliques in school. On the other hand, Takei decided from the first day of high school that being alone was the most energy efficient way of spending his time which resulted in him being an outcast to the class.
Build wise, there was no way Takei could hope to stand up to the goddess herself. He was a male of average height with common messy black hair and a slim build that showed neither fat or muscles. Simply put, Takei was the very definition of average while Akari was the very definition of a goddess.
It was safe to say that he tried his best to avoid her to ensure a peaceful high school life. He wished to never get involved with her at any chance because he didn't want his life to change, not again or ever. Takei hated change and for a very good reason.
However, Takei was about to find out the hardships that a good upbringing could do to a person.
"Ah, what do I do?"
Takei had a long internal debate whether or not to help her. On one hand, he didn't want a change to his peaceful life at school. On the other hand, he didn't want to leave a girl alone in the rain to fend for herself.
In the end, Takei's good upbringing won over his desire for a peaceful life and forced him to make a move. He slowly walked towards her making sure that she heard his footsteps so as to not startle her.
"Here, you can use my umbrella."
Takei tried to be blunt and forceful as much as possible to show he had no interest in anything else other than helping her.
Unluckily for Takei, the goddess was not one for short conversations.
"Your name is Takei, right?"
Deciding whether or not to continue the conversation, Takei continued to talk to make sure he didn't come off as a jerk or a weird person.
"Yeah, my name is Takei Tanaka."
"I see, we have many classes together but just for the sake of introductions... My name is Akari Akazawa."
Takei was extremely surprised at the elegant pleasantries that the goddess used.
"Got it, I'll make sure not to forget your name."
"Oh, aren't you a cheeky one?"
"Well, I just wanted to give you this umbrella I rented since it looked like you needed one."
Takei ignored Akari's tease and continued on with his main objective of giving the umbrella.
"Don't you need it since you rented one out in the first place?"
Akari's tone shifted to one that sounded very compassionate and caring.
"Don't worry about me since I live very close to school. The umbrella will help you a lot more than it'll help me anyways."
Takei explained the situation in detail to make sure she didn't feel guilty as he handed over the umbrella. In reality however, Takei lived quite farther from the school than he had mentioned. He had simply lied to make Akari feel less guilty about taking the umbrella.
"That's it for now, catch you later."
"Ah..."
Takei moved his book bag above his head to block out the falling rain drops as he ran in the opposite direction of the school.
As he was running, Takei heard a small voice behind him saying something. He strained his ears to barely be able to make out what words were said.
"Thank you."
Two words were registered in his head as he ran away. It was clearly thanks for allowing her to use his umbrella to go home. Those words made Takei unexpectedly very happy since he wasn't often praised due to his non-interference nature. Normally he would just usually stray away from interfering in the situation, but today something inside of him compelled Takei to take action.
Without knowing what future events would arrive as a result of today's actions, Takei ran home as fast as he could with a small grin on his face.
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Akari's Affection Meter: 5%
This meter is for measuring Akari's affection towards Takei. New affection meter changes will be recorded at the end of the chapter whenever an event happens to raise her affection meter.
Currently, 5% means that she only sees Takei as an acquaintance and a good person.