Naturally, when Kei returned to the classroom, he was swarmed by his classmates. In particular, it was just the girls whilst the guys were just staring daggers at him. Most of the girls who were surrounding him were asking him how he had made it into the basketball club whereas the others were asking him to ask Yanagi-sensei to let them watch their practice games.
It had seemed that they had caught on that Kei was in the basketball team during their previous game yesterday and tried to enter the basketball court to watch the game but was barred from entering the basketball court to watch the match. Little did they know that, as a special request from Kei, Yanagi-sensei had requested the guards to keep out any non-basketball members so the match wouldn't be disturbed. In truth, it was to keep Kei's status as player from the other students.
'Tch, it's not like the basketball team is any good in this school anyways.'
'Yeah, it's not like they won anything at all.'
'We baseball club members should be the ones receiving this attention.'
The boys, mainly from Keigo's group, could be heard complaining with each other about Kei. In truth, Tachibana Private High School's athletics department only excelled in two different sports, the first were the track team, and the second was the baseball team. As this was the case, they did not understand why the attention that they received from the girls were so much less compared to Kei.
"Everyone, to your seats. We will be beginning homeroom shortly." Shiki-sensei could be heard as she slid the door open and entered the class.
"Today we will be welcoming a new student to our class. As the other classes are full, this is the only class with an opening available. I hope you all will be able to treat the new student nicely and make friends with her, even if she enrolled late. Now, please come in."
Kei who was seated at the back corner of the classroom did not pay attention to what the teacher was saying. After all, he didn't really communicate with anyone in class other than Chihaya, so he wasn't interested in the slightest. Just then, he had realised something when Shiki-sensei said that this was the only class with an available opening.
'Wait a minute… isn't she—'
While Kei had just caught on to what was happening, a student with long, silky, white hair came into the class. Her hair and fair skin coupled with her elegant demeanour and way of walking caught the eyes of all her classmates.
"Greetings everyone. My name is Fujinomiya Azusa, it is a pleasure to meet you! I enrolled through the athletics qualifications. I hope we can get along as classmates!"
'Whoa! Is she a foreigner?'
'Wanna try asking her out?'
'Let's start as friends man, have to play it careful to ensure maximum success!'
'Nice! I wonder what club she is going to join? Maybe she's going to join the baseball club. Athletics department FTW!'
As the boys were scheming ways to get closer to her, one boy in particular was trying to hide his face by looking out the window and trying to cover his face with his hand. Kei was trying his best not to get noticed by Azusa as he wanted nothing to do with her. It was not that he disliked her, it was that he couldn't handle her explosive attitude and would often get dragged into whatever she wanted to do one way or another.
"Now then, as the introductions are done, what shall we do about your seating…"
"You can sit beside me!"
"No way! She's going to sit beside me!"
As the boys piled on each other to convince Azusa to sit next to them, Keigo included, Azusa seemed to look around the class before giving an 'Aha!' look on her face as if she had found what she was looking for.
"Sensei, if you do not mind, would it be okay if I sat next to somebody I already know? Since it's already the second term, the social circles will have already been formed among the girls, so I think it's best if I start off sitting next to someone I already know."
'!' Kei suddenly felt a chill down his spine.
"Hmm? Ah is that so? Very well, who is this person you mentioned?"
As Kei continued trying to hide himself, Azusa lifted her hand in the air and started waving in his direction.
"Kei-Kuuun! ~. Let's get along as classmates again, shall we?! Heheh~"
""Eeeeehhhhhhhh?!"" The whole class had erupted.
"Ah, so it's Amane-san is it? Alright, in that case I shall allow it since Amane-san barely talks to anyone in the first place… Also, Amane-san, stop trying to hide yourself. She already noticed you." Shiki-sensei said as she grinned at Kei.
As Azusa walked towards Kei, she was receiving jealous stares from all the girls. Meanwhile, Kei was receiving even more death stares from the other boys. 'I could just see myself dying in so many different scenarios in their heads right now', Kei thought to himself. As he was trying to remain a stranger, Azusa walked up to his table and looked at Kei.
"Please take care of me from now on okay, Kei-kun?~" Azusa said as she gave an enchanting smile at Kei that caught the eyes of all the boys in the class. Yet they felt defeated that Kei was the one receiving it.
Kei sighed in exasperation as he thought that his dream of a peaceful life was being pushed further and further away. As he was thinking this however, he felt a slight ominous aura being emitted from the front corner of the class. When he looked over, he could see Mai smiling at him. Only this time, her smile couldn't reach her eyes as he thought 'Yeah… it's over…'
During lunch break, Azusa was naturally surrounded by girls who were trying to make friends with her and boys who were also trying to make friends with her but sending passionate looks towards her.
"Which middle school were you from?"
"Fukutsuku Middle School in Osaka"
"Are you going to join the baseball club?"
"Would you like to hang out after school with us for a celebration party?"
As Azusa tried her best to answer all the questions presented before her, she would be overwhelmed by even more questions. While she was basically being interrogated by her classmates, she glanced over at Kei's empty seat and thought, 'I only wanted to spend time with Kei-kun to catch uuuuuupppppppp!!'
Just as she was about to get up to try and excuse herself from the group and find Kei, a muscular figure pushed through the crowd and approached her with an intimidating aura.
"Yo, you may have heard of me. Takeshi Keigo, ace of the school's baseball team. Nice to meet you. Let's talk in private!"