A long chime of the first break rang through the school grounds, ushering in a first day of school for the students, and to the chorus of people stomping in the hallways, the medium-sized classrooms began to fill with a crowd of students.
A young man with wavy hair and a tall stature entered the classroom last. A mature teacher who noticed his presence called him to the blackboard and ordered him in a masculine voice to stop the noise in the classroom, whereupon the students sitting at their desks quieted down and turned their attention toward the teenager.
"Please introduce yourself," the teacher painstakingly stated.
Ryou lifted his eyes and reluctantly turned to his classmates with a resigned look.
"My name is Ryou Hayashi, nice to meet you," the young man declared to the entire class, bowing in respect, after which the class fell completely silent.
Soon, there were whispers from some of the students, wondering if he was the only newcomer to their class. It was understandable, since from the early conversations among themselves before the class started, everyone was on the same page.
All except one student, who looked serenely in Ryou's direction. She seemed aloof, but her gaze was one of coldness and indifference all around her. Rather, it was she who was untouchable to the rest of the people.
"Surely he's not a model?" whispered between the students, to which the students threw strange glances at the young man. "I heard about him yesterday from my friends. Ryou Hayashi, and this handsome man will be in the same class as us…!"
Ryou thought if they think he won't hear them talking, turning his gaze tiredly to the girls in his class. He didn't want to draw attention to himself, so he wondered why they wouldn't shut up.
Indeed, Ryou had genes perfectly aligned with natural beauty, and no wonder why he had distinctive facial features from the rest.
"Some people are lucky…"
"Was his name taken non-serious by his parents?"
"What desk would he be sitting next to?"
"I think the desk in the last row next to Yumiko-chan is free."
The conversations didn't stop. Looking over the faces of his classmates, the young man stopped at the brown eyes and slightly lipstick-covered, bright pink lips of the girl he didn't know, who was sitting at the last desk by the window. Their gazes met, leaving Ryou with a sense of sweet humility that made him slightly dumbfounded.
"Okay, stop making noise!" the teacher rumbled harshly and then the class quieted down again. "Come on, sit at an empty desk. It's time for class time."
Ryou nodded and headed toward the desks. He walked slowly, being on the lookout for a vacant desk, and so, when he reached the last row, he found a seat and sat down at his desk. Clapping his hands, the teacher began his lesson. To his left sat the same girl whose darkish-brown hair color Ryou noticed when he glanced unobtrusively over her. The teenager noticed her writing something on her notebook with a pen, but he didn't care about that.
Thus, Ryou got to know his new class.
The class barely made it through the first day, and the first day for Ryou was, in his opinion, a smashing failure. He had expected calm in the classroom, but he received a whole bunch of attention from his classmates, even during class, which made him angry at himself for no reason.
When recess rang, the teacher finished his lesson and left the classroom, followed by half the students. As he waited for the quick end of the first day of school, Ryou put his cheek to the palm of his hand and looked at his classmates interacting with each other, and realized that his class was cohesive, which made him slightly happy about the fact that there were no bullies.
Suddenly there was a shy girl next to him, whose look the young man could tell that she wanted to start a conversation with him.
"Hayashi-san, would you like to take a walk together at recess…?" she asked confusedly, hoping for a better answer, and noticed Ryou flinch.
"Um, no. I'm busy right now."
Not at all. Ryou was completely free at this time and had no plans. He could only timidly say no to his classmate, whose arrival he could not expect.
"Ah… Okay, then, I'll… go!" she replied, breathlessly.
The stranger literally almost gave the young man a heart attack.
This was immediately followed by a call from the other three students, and coming down in front of him.
"Hayashi-san, can I have a moment, please!"
"You take such painstaking care of your appearance, Hayashi-san!"
Ryou was puzzled by the influx of interest in his direction that he lost his grip and was confused by the arrival of the other students. How was he to know that the girls wanted to make new acquaintances with him when the situation he was now in appeared to be a novelty to the young man. He was completely inexperienced in talking to strangers.
A girl sitting on the next desk was interested in what was happening near the newcomer's desk, and the delight that emanated to Ryou managed to surprise her wondrous eyes as well. Deftly twiddling her pen with her fingers, she wondered slightly what had caused Ryou to become a favorite among her classmates.
She thought to herself, frustrated, that the newcomer seemed to be giving her no peace now with his presence at the next desk. But, of course, he was not to blame.
***
All Ryou wanted was to be alone with himself, with no extra faces around him.
This evening, cornered by negative thoughts, Ryou sat wrapped in a blanket, staring relentlessly at the bright candles from the car headlights that cycled along the sides of the streets.
He was torn up inside by the fact of how far away he was from his hometown. Negative thoughts flowed out of his head, manifesting in him a sense of depression.
No feelings, he continued to declare. No screams from his father emanating from his room in the house. No desires to run away when he is surrounded by people who disgust him, and no primitive treatment of him as a human being. Closing his eyes, he clumsily covered his ears with a blanket, as if he wished to expel the hateful memories. No shouting in the house, he thought. In an unsociable place. To burrow into a hole, and spend his last year of high school unnoticed.
He concluded in his head that Tokyo disgusted him. Initially, this city did not bode well for him when he moved. The unwelcome move for him revealed his desire to return to Kyoto, where his friends awaited him. On the other hand, the only thing that rejected the decision to return was his family, which the young man hated in the aftermath of recent events that signed him to make his choice.
Thus ended his first day at his new school.
***
The next morning, during the big school break, Ryou, angered by the resulting problem of students from the school stepping into his personal space, stealthily stood near an empty table, at which his desk mate was also sitting modestly.
"May I sit here and eat?" asked Ryou with a weary look.
A silent girl immediately accented him, and after thinking briefly, nodded. Ryou sat down at the table, and straightening his back slightly, breathed a sigh of relief.
"But you didn't take anything to eat."
"Never mind. I could barely get away from people. At least I'll rest here."
"Why, is your situation with the students bothering you?" the girl wondered in a modestly expressive voice.
"Of course. What else could it be?"
She gave a thoughtful look, pointing her index finger toward her chin. The schoolgirl had a decent look and a delicate, fragile appearance, which made Ryou think of her as an ordinary girl, no different from the others upon first meeting her. But the young man couldn't get her gentle eyes out of his mind, looking nonchalantly in his direction.
"I thought guys liked overprotection from girls."
"Maybe, but I don't really care about that, somehow."
"I see."
The young man was not disgusted by the conversation with his girl classmate, and at least for this moment he could feel at ease. Stopping to think, Ryou took a more serious look and folded his arms.
"Yumiko Sato, my desk mate. I always see you sitting busy during class, and from the looks of it, you have a tight social circle. My name is Ryou Hayashi, I'd love to meet you."
"Yes, I'm glad to meet you, too. Is there something you need from me?"
"Hmm? No… Although, yeah, you're right. I want to address you."
"And about what?" she asked with the same unfazed gaze, crossing her legs with rankness. "Is it about your circumstances?"
"Apparently. My plans are to graduate quietly."
"Quietly? Well, I suppose my answer will depend on what you suggest."
On the one hand, Yumiko was really disturbed by the unnecessary noise in class. Though she didn't know what he might demand of her, he would have liked to quiet his groupies, Yumiko pondered to herself, digging into her thoughts the benefit of her cooperation with the young man.
"And they are not my groupies at all. However, I already know what will help me avoid interest from female students in the future."
"So that's it," Yumiko added interestedly, "So what?"
"You and I need to declare to them that we are dating."
There was no shortage of confidence in the young man's harsh words. However, he had no idea how much he had miscalculated his choice of emotion in this situation. She edged toward Ryou , and in surprise at this suggestion, which cannot even be called a suggestion, lowered her eyes slightly.
"I see. Nevertheless, I will not be able to respond to your offer, for I see no profit in participating."
"It's true. I'm really at my wits' end when it gets annoyingly noisy around me."
"Anyway, Sato-san, I want you to think again. See if you can find a benefit in this, if you want, I can pay you monthly, too."
Ryou tried his best to persuade Yumiko to change her answer. He was not in the mood to look for a better person for the role. A serene and perpetually thoughtful snow princess in the role of a young boy's girlfriend caught up in the inevitable attention from the opposite sex.
"No, no way!" she exclaimed, waving her palms. "It's not about the money. Now, let me think…"
Yumiko thought that on the one hand, if she took part in this farce, she could get back into her sphere of habitat. On the other hand, she was worried about something else.
"Sato-san, are you worried about being bothered by angry girls after you confess? I don't think that's a problem, because whoever I've met of the students at this school is all modest, though a little selfish."
"Yes, I've wondered about that. Look…don't you think you'd be better off swapping desks with another person?"
"No. The problem might take root and grow if I don't do something about it. I could go crazy like that! Besides, there won't be any benefit to me."
The damsel with a slightly disappointed look wondered if he was being selfish. "Ahem, I see. In that case, I accept your offer, Hayashi-san."
Ryou flinched at her unexpected reply. Smelling the scent of victory, a blush appeared on his face and his eyes shone.
"Thank you, I knew I could count on you!"