Ichinose and I walked slowly toward the aforementioned seat. By now, almost half of everyone had found their seats. Some were exploring the classroom, and others either were sitting in silence or talking with new friends.
I happened to see Saki. Her seat was actually next to the spot I wanted. If that place happened to be mine, it would be the perfect sanctuary for me. I eagerly picked up the pace, and Ichinose followed me behind.
Saki then noticed my presence. "Hiryu-kun!" she waved energetically.
"Are you happy with this spot?" I walked up to her.
"Yeah! I've sat in the front row for far too long. The fear of being called by teachers is torture, you know…" Her expression suddenly turned dark as if she was traumatized by the war or something. "Anyway, where is your spot? And who is that?" she looked at Ichinose.
"I'm Ichinose Yui. We only got acquainted minutes ago."
"Fufu~, to think that you could do that in a matter of minutes. I thought you were the difficult-to-approach type," she narrowed her eyes. "Oh! I'm Hirawa Saki!" she outstretched her hand to prompt a handshake with Ichinose.
I facepalmed. I knew that minor possessive trait of hers. Well, we were very close after all, so I could understand that. But sometimes she implicitly showed it through her passive-aggressive behavior which worried me.
I glared at her to calm her down. She shivered and backed down a bit.
"Anyway, it's time for me to check that seat. Ichinose, you should go find your seat. Thanks for the help, I appreciate it."
"I'm betting on the seat in front of your favorite one, so I might as well go with you," Ichinose replied.
"You got a knack for guessing, huh?"
"I'd say 'foreseeing' is a better word to use. It's hard to believe, I know, considering it's your first time witnessing it. I want to show the results."
"Well, it better be good results."
She smugly smiled in confidence. I stopped at my dream table, while Ichinose walked past me to check hers. The only way to check whether it was your table or not was to open the tablet. I figured that the name would appear once I turned it on since there was no other indication.
Saki excitedly came over to check it out. She leaned in and grinned at me. Well, I was a bit nervous so the smile calmed me down. Without words, I slowly brought my index finger to the black screen.
*taps* [Hinode Hiryu, class 1-B]
"YOU GOT IT!" Saki instantly cried out. Some students heard her shout and looked awkwardly in our direction.
"Keep your voice down."
"Sorry… I couldn't keep my excitement down," she nervously looked down to the ground.
I let out a satisfied sigh. Maybe what Ichinose said was true after all. She might be a psychic in disguise. I sat down in my seat and told Saki to return to her spot as well.
"The odds of this happening are like one in a million! Now I pray that the seats won't get reassigned next year."
"Do they actually do that often? Why would they alter the seat arrangement?"
"For some reason, yeah. I hated it so much. Every time, after I started to be familiar with the place, they reassigned me to a different location where I had to sit around people I didn't even know of. It was literally like riding on a roller-coaster nonstop!" she grunted.
"How could you not know your classmates?"
"Let me explain to you in cinematic analogy, okay? So, in a school setting, there are plenty of characters. The protagonists only know the main cast, whereas the others are background characters. Why are they just for decoration? It's because they are dull and uninteresting. In my case, a class consisted of 60 students bound to have some people who went unnoticed."
"Harsh but true. Thanks for the excessive explanation," I smiled ruefully.
"No problem!" she beamed with pleasure.
Thanks to this school, I had seen some new sides of Saki. The educational system definitely did something wrong to her because acquiring her hatred was very difficult. She was an optimistic person at heart, so I hope the academy would be an unorthodox system that suited her character.
Done with the conversation, I looked around the class filled with students wandering around. Right then, Ichinose abruptly stood in front of me, blocking my sight of the classroom. She pointed at the table she previously predicted, declaring that it was her table. Well, I had to admit that she predicted both correctly. I was flabbergasted internally.
"It certainly returned with excellent results," I said.
"Do you believe me now after witnessing it in action?"
"With an incredible ability like that, I wish for more to truly believe in it though."
"Really? How much is enough?"
"I don't know, but I look forward to seeing more of what you could do."
"Same goes for me. You're rather mysterious in my eyes," Ichinose lowered her tone.
"Is this another hunch of yours?"
"Perhaps."
She gently smiled before returning to her seat. I felt bad for Ichinose since I indirectly said that I hadn't believed her yet, but it was justified though.
Imagine Ichinose's ability is a natural ore like diamonds. These diamonds when first discovered are covered in dirt, the shapes aren't even, and the surface isn't polished, but the miners know that they are valuable once they reach the surface and get refined into gemstones. The process is not elementary because the cutting process is extremely delicate. One minor incorrect angle could drastically impact its value.
That was the way I saw it. The customer was me and the one who would provide the perfectly shaped diamond was Ichinose. This image could be applied to many situations, mostly things that could have great potential but are not that believable yet. It wasn't exclusive to her ability. Still, I was impressed.