After lessons ended and the time came for club activities to begin, someone approached me as I rose from my desk.
"Itou-san, are you ready?"
With cascading black hair that smoothly ran down her back from the half updo at the top, holding her school bag with both hands in front of her waist, the cheerful girl was one I had recently become familiar with.
"Yes, hold on."
Sorting my bag for a moment, I zipped it up and slung it over my shoulder, upon which the classmate and I left the classroom and headed down the hall.
As we walked to our destination, the Cooking Club clubroom, I felt many dozens of eyes peer in our direction.
I found it unpleasant, but it was not unexpected. Recently, I had come to understand that the classmate I was accompanying, Shizuko Aikawa, held a sort of celebrity status within the school.
