After a few dull weeks go by for Sasaki Haru, it is now early April and the new school year entrance ceremony is being held at Kanto Gakuin.
As parents and students alike enter a large hall filled mostly by chairs, the principal walks up on the front stage, where a large pipe organ is placed on the left.
In the center of the stage, there are withdrawn curtains that reveal a church cross on the back wall.
Students wear their uniforms, while parents wear suits.
When all attendees are seated and the principal stands before them on a podium, the entrance ceremony would've begun.
If it weren't for the sudden appearance of someone boldly entering late.
The hall's door creaks as it swings wide open and taps the wall beside it, everyone within the room turns towards the noise, along with Sasaki Haru.
They stare at a dark haired girl dressed in the school uniform, as she pants whilst clutching her chest, she speaks in between gasping breaths.
"I'm sorry...! I'm late!"
She turns her head up and her eyes pan the room, the awkward silence is interrupted by the principal at the podium, he gracefully extends a palm towards her, "would you mind introducing yourself to everyone, miss...?"
The girl places her right foot behind the left and bows down, with her right arm on her chest and left arm straightened into the air, 'is that one of those butler bows...?' Haru thinks to himself.
She quickly lifts her head up again, "my name is Kyuu Ketsuki, at your service!"
Ketsuki smirks, she knows she's done it now, 'I've followed the advice mom gave me, this should be perfect!' However what follows is a continued silence, she starts to panic whilst observing the looks on everyone's faces, especially the students.
They all continue to stare at her as she feels her face flaring up in embarrassment. Haru looks away, not being able to bear the weight of watching the situation.
The principal awkwardly laughs, before pointing her to an empty seat in the middle of the second row up front. Ketsuki quickly walks to her seat saying, "excuse me, sorry." As she passes by several students.
She eventually reaches her seat and looks at the students directly beside her.
Ketsuki offers a handshake to both, but gets outright ignored.
The students are introduced to their teachers, along with each class's respective homeroom teacher. With her spirits down, she stays silent until the ceremony and student orientation concludes.
As everyone leaves the hall, parents return home whilst students remain to tour the school, the main attraction being the classrooms Haru's grade will now be in.
The students also undergo a mock test.
'I'm sure I did so badly...'
With her head down, Ketsuki traces behind an entourage following their homeroom teacher, along the way hearing whispers among her fellow students. "Is that the girl from earlier?" One of them asks, the other responds, "yeah that's her, I was sitting right next to the door just now so I got a front row seat."
A student walks up in between the two, "who's who?" The three appear to be close friends so Ketsuki pretends not to hear whilst thinking to herself, 'surely it's just a few other students...'
Upon arriving outside one of their new classrooms, Ketsuki slowly positions herself closer to a group of four girls, eventually approaching them with an optimistic smile on her face.
"Hey! I'm Kyuu Ke-" She introduces herself but stops when she notices the girls looking at her strangely, the two girls at the back whisper to each other, "ah... That's the girl that was late, what was her name again?"
"It was something weird, ask her." One of the girls, seemingly shy, hides behind the only girl standing in front of Ketsuki now.
They extend their hand for her, and Ketsuki awkwardly looks down at it before returning the gesture. "What was your name?" The girl asks.
"My name is Kyuu Ketsuki, nice to meet you!" She flashes a beaming smile at them, happy to have made friends.
The girl notices something odd about her hand, 'it's cold...'
Suddenly the girl retracts her hand to her side and rubs her forearm awkwardly, "ah... Kyuu Ketsuki... San? My name's Saito Hana."
Haru overhears their conversation and notices his past crush was now talking to Ketsuki, though he soon tries to shove any thoughts aside.
Their teacher finishes talking and the group move onto another area, meanwhile the three girls behind Hana start to whisper amongst each other again, "Kyuu Ketsuki? What's up that name? She's a vampire?" One of them says in a sarcastic manner.
Another retorts, "yea right! Her parents probably just hated her or something..." Ketsuki hears this and retracts her own hand, she glares at the girl who'd mentioned her parents.
Their expressions become frightened before turning away to follow the group as they move further away, leaving Hana behind with Ketsuki in front of the empty classroom.
"Well uh... Kyuu-san-" She snorts as she says Ketsuki's name, Hana wipes her eyes slowly, "sorry sorry." All the while Ketsuki silently watches her, "I look forward to seeing you for the next three years, if you stay enrolled here, of course."
Ketsuki remains silent as she watches Hana run back to her friends, Ketsuki's arms now hang limply by her sides as they laugh together not too far away, although now she doesn't know what they are laughing about.
Slowly, she turns her gaze towards the empty classroom beside her, sunlight peers into the room as open windows allow a gentle wind to keep the green curtains waving at a constant flow. She feels her longing for the precious glow's warmth begin to fade.
After a moment, she hurries and catches up to the group, although now lagging slightly behind.
Haru looks back at Ketsuki, and although feeling a slight guilt after seeing her seemingly subdued appearance, he manages to shrug it off as, 'not my problem...'
The tour later passes by many features of Kanto Gakuin, mainly showing off each club and their location, before ending in front of the gymnasium. Haru turns his head and looks at the entrance of the gymnasium, a single memory from last month resurfaces.
His gaze lowers to the floor with tired eyes as the guide continues speaking to the students, and as Haru looks back up, he notices Hana looking at him with a grin on her face.
It makes him blush, why? 'This can't be right, she rejected me already, so why is she looking at me like that...?'
'Saito-san has a boyfriend too, am I really still...?'
As Haru struggles with his feelings, Hana turns back to her friends.
"Did you see the look on his face?" She giggles as one of them speaks, "he's totally still head over heels with you Hana, that's so creepy!" The four girls start to gossip amongst each other until the guide's talk is over.
Ketsuki stands slightly behind the majority of students, who are bunched up in front with Haru intermingled somewhere inside the mass. Ketsuki's long dark hair drags down the sides of her face, a male student beside her turns and jumps in fright, "Sadako?!"
She turns her head and faces him, the male student looks into her emerald green eyes and suddenly feels their heartbeat calming down. However they start to inch away from her, "sorry... Thought you were someone else haha..."
After the male student walks away from her and to his friends, she squints up at the bright hot sky shining down from above, 'ugh... My skin feels so prickly...'
The guide soon brings the students back to the hall, where an Easter worship is held.
The worship soon concludes and students are allowed to return home for the day.
"Guess I'll stop by the convenience store before I head back." Haru shifts through his blazer's right pocket and takes out a small brown wallet, however something drops from said wallet which goes unnoticed by Haru.
As he walks away from the crowd of students going home or to celebrate with family, someone behind him picks up what he'd dropped and smiles as they notice what it is. "Sasaki Haru's student ID?" They search around for Haru and just barely notice him turning the corner far away.
The sliding doors open by themselves as Haru steps into the air conditioned convenience store.
"It's nice to have a place like this inside the school itself... Haaa~" He breathes in the cool air for a moment before walking down the third aisle.
Haru looks around the shelves for a suitable snack for the day, as he hears the sliding doors open, alerting Haru of someone other than him being inside the store.
'That's weird, I do this every year and this is the first time anyone's come in here other than me.' He shrugs it off when he finds a fitting snack, 'PopPy' he bends down and picks up the cardboard-like packaging.
"Ahh..." He hears a girl nearby breathing out in relief, causing him to flinch before standing up straight and looking around, although he sees no one.
'That scared me, I thought it might've been Saito-san...'
He turns around and notices a pair of green eyes looking up at him from around the height of his collarbone. "D-do you need something...?" He takes a step back with the PopPy and wallet still in hand.
"You dropped this." The girl hands him his ID card, to which Haru quickly opens his wallet and finds it missing, "oh thank you." He takes the card and puts it back where it was.
An awkward silence ensues as both stare at each other, until the girl speaks up, "could you grab me one?" She points toward the shelf beside Haru, "get you what?" He looks to his side and realizes she's actually pointing to the PopPy in his hand.
"Oh, same flavor?" He asks, to which the girl nods enthusiastically.
They both walk to the front counter, where the male cashier flaunts a knowing look at Haru, "what's this? Haru already got a new girlfriend~? What happened to Saito-san??"
Haru slams the PopPy down on the counter, "shut up! You know there's no way that's the case."
"Yeah you're right, there's no way that's the case." They continue to tease him whilst scanning the items.
"That'll be 336 yen please."
"Wait what? I only bought one, did you double scan it?" Haru's confused tone makes the girl behind him try to see over his shoulder. "No, you're buying for your friend there right?"
Haru adopts a serious tone, "we just met, she's not my friend."
"Woah man, that's a harsh thing to say, how about you make it up to them by paying this time? Hm?"
Reluctantly, Haru sighs as he pays for both their PopPys.
Upon exiting the store, he glances over at the mysterious girl beside him.
"Thank you for paying for me." She says, before quickly walking away whilst fiddling with the opening part of the PopPy.
"Ah-" Haru watches as she turns around the corner and hurriedly walks towards the entrance. 'I didn't get to ask for her name yet...'