"You guys... Appearance is not everything, you know? That's why, stop exaggerating my looks.", I said.

"I'm just kidding you know? But, are you one of those people with low self-esteem?", Arima said while leaning on his desk.

Looking at Arima with a complicated expression.

"No, I'm just telling you that my face only looks unique because my mother is a half-blood. And, I just inherited her face.", I retorted.

"Ah, I see. Sucks to have that eye condition thing, huh. You can't flaunt your handsomeness.", Arima said.

"Y-Yeah.", I replied.

"Eye condition?", Yokota asked.

"Yeah, he said his eyes are sensitive to light that's why he's hiding his eyes.", Arima replied.

"Eh...?", Yokota turned her head towards me while looking puzzled.

"Okay, as I was saying that I don't really give a shit about my appearance the only thing that matters was the charisma and your personality. I do admit that I'm handsome. However, you're more blind than a blind person if you judge a person by his outside appearance.", I said while trying to divert the topic.

Naoki nodded with a smile on her face.

"Okay okay, I get it already. Geez...", Arima said.

Meanwhile, Yokota was still looking at my face with a puzzled expression, trying to see if what Arima said was true.

"So... Where were we...? Oh yeah, so what do you guys think about this?", I asked.

"Maybe the sender is threatening you? Like, one of those scary things where they just send pictures of you?", Arima said.

"Hm... Not really, because this picture is just a coincidence. If it really wanted to threaten me that way, the culprit could just follow me all the way home or sent more pictures.", I answered.

"What if it's only at school? And, only managed to take one picture of you?", Arima asked.

"Then, that's nothing. If the culprit just sends pictures of me at school that's not threatening. Well, I don't know about the one picture, but that's plausible.", I replied.

The image of Yuki popped out of my head because of how she stalked me last week. In fact, I'm absolute that she's still stalking me with how she told me that she got access to the school's server. That girl...

"True...", Arima said.

"Blackmail? Because maybe the culprit thought that you deliberately hide your face?", Yokota said.

"Well, I do because of some certain reasons. However, I don't care if the culprit spread this picture of mine, to be honest.", I answered.

"Oh! Then—", Arima said but got interrupted by me.

"No selling.", I said sternly.

"Ah, what a downer.", Arima responded.

"Uh, anything?", I asked them.

Arima and Yokota contemplated while Naoki took the picture staring at it seriously.

"What if the sender didn't really send this to you with malicious intent?", Naoki spoke.

"Hm? Then why...?", I asked.

It's the same with Arima and Yokota, they looked at Naoki with a questioned expression.

"I mean... Look at this...", Naoki then moved the picture at the center of Arima's desk, "...Isn't it too weird that the person who took Tatsu's picture was too perfect?"

Looking at the picture, what Naoki said makes sense.

"If the person took this picture wanting to use it to blackmail Tatsu then the picture should've been taken quickly without caring about the quality. However, the way Tatsu was combing his hair with a magnificent pose, adding the angle, focus, and how perfect the shot was taken. It's easy to tell that this picture was taken with care and with passion in it.", Naoki explained.

Please don't say magnificent pose...

It's embarrassing...

What Naoki said was making sense since if it's used that way, some people would just take the picture without care. In addition to that, the sender could've just taken the picture of me sitting with my full clear face. However, that's not the case because the guy had sent me the one with me posing which made it weirder.

If I could rate the photography skill of the person who took my picture, I would say about 9/10 because any novice to the photography field could tell that this picture was taken by a professional.

My mind was too occupied with the blackmail and threatening thing that I completely ignore those parts. What's the purpose of showing the picture to me? Unless...

"That makes sense, but why would that person send it to me...? Is the guy trying to convey something...?", I asked.

"Maybe, the sender wants you to appreciate its work? Like, you know showing the photo to the model like sharing its work with you.", Naoki replied.

"Sharing...?", I tilted my head in confusion.

"Ohh, I get what Ikeda-san was trying to say.", Arima said.

"Huh?", I said.

"What Ikeda was trying to say Okita, the person who took this picture of you was thanking you or showing its art piece like it wants you to appreciate the final outcome of the art.", Yokota said.

"Appreciate? Thanking?", I became more confused.

"Are you familiar with painters?", Yokota asked.

"Yeah.", I answered.

"Painters and photographers are similar but different. But, they share the same principle of conveying emotions through art or the image. Though, photography is way more simple and easy than painting; it's still art nonetheless.", Yokota said.

"Okay..."

"Photographers and painters always show their final piece or finish product to their model. Of course, I am not a painter nor a photographer, I'm only speaking base on my opinion. Maybe, that's what Naoki was trying to say.", Yokota said.

"Ahh, that makes sense.", I said.

Clearing all the confusion from my head, I know now what they're trying to say. In spite of that, I have no clue why the person who took my picture didn't just ask me... Oh yeah...

"But, why didn't that person just ask me for permission?", I asked.

"I'm sure, you'll reject it, Tatsu.", Naoki said.

"Yeah, that person still did invade your privacy.", Yokota said.

"Maybe, that person is shy? Or, it wants the model to be natural as possible. From my experience, some models are too stiff whenever the photoshoot is starting, making them look like a statue with awkward poses.", Arima said.

"Wait, you did modeling!?", my eyes widen looking at Arima.

"Yeah, when I was in my freshman of middle school. I was forced to model for a magazine."

"Eh, forced?", I said.

"My brother was a model, then there's this one theme where he needs to take a picture with his siblings.", Arima said shyly.

"Oh, I see, if what you said is true then that must be it. I don't have any experience in modeling.", I said.

"The person who took picture of you Tatsu must have a lot since this shot is pretty impossible to take in one shot.", Naoki said.

"I agree.", Arima said.

"Me too.", Yokota agreed.

Thinking about it, I could feel the hair in my body standing up. Imagining a person taking pictures of me while I'm not aware of it. It gives me cold shivers all over my body.

"I guess that's it, huh.", I said.

"Don't end it yet, maybe check tomorrow or later if the person will send more pictures of you. It's only a hypothesis, we still don't have the final conclusion of whether what we said was actually correct or not. Think about it, what if the next envelope had a letter in it?", Yokota said.

"Yeah, I agree with Yokota. Be more cautious about it, Okita.", Arima added.

"Ah, I see, I'll be more careful about it, thanks.", I said.

"Soo~ Are you gonna keep it, Tatsu?", Naoki asked.

"No, you can have it, Naoki.", I replied.

"Really?! Thanks~!", Naoki happily smiled.

I let out a helpless smile.

Arima then looked at me with a stupid grin on his face.

"By the way, I thought there'll like a class representative.", I said.

"Tomorrow, I think. Our first period is homeroom.", Arima said.

"Oh, I see...", I said.

Then after that, I heard some large commotion coming from the hallway.

"What's that?", Naoki said.

Arima, Yokota, Naoki, and I looked at the ongoing commotion outside of our classroom. And then, a luxurious long black-hair gorgeous female student emerges from our classroom door—It's the president of the student council. She started scanning our classroom then her eyes stopped at our spot, walking towards us.

Upon seeing that, the other students started making an uproar.

The four of us looked at the student council president confused as to why she's approaching us.

Then she stopped near us; however, I could feel that she's staring directly at me.

Did I do something bad?

The Oye family incident?

Did I break something at the fountain when I fell?

My sister?

Was it because of the topless picture of me in the forum?

Don't tell me she knew about the white envelope?!

Several questions started popping out of my mind as I was trying to figure out why the student council president was looking at me menacingly.

"Are you Okita Tatsuya?", she asked.

"Uh, Y-Yeah.", I answered.

She then inhaled and said, "I'm sorry about what happened in the school forum. We're the ones responsible for moderating the site, but we only managed to notice the hate you're getting from the forum just until today this morning. Because of our incompetence, we let other students verbally abuse you in the forum."

"Eh...?", I looked at her dumbfoundedly.

"In addition to that, it's about your picture... I apologize for that one too. We deleted those posts that are related to you as a way to compensate for our incompetence on this matter. About the picture, we made sure to punish the one responsible for making the post. I ask for your forgiveness.", she bent her whole upper body.

Bowing to me, I was left dumbfounded. I was not expecting this.

I quickly responded, "It's okay, I don't really mind it."

She then went back to her straight posture from earlier, and said, "No. Our incompetence is unacceptable."

"It's not about competence. We're only humans and we're not machines. We fail on some stuff because we're not perfect.", I said with a wry smile.

"That's an acceptable reason if it's one man's job but it's been on our forum for two days when we had like 5 moderators, moderating the site."

Coming up with an answer...

"Haa... Okay... I can't think of anything. What you said was actually true since there are only like 1-7 posts in the forum this past 2 days, and none of the moderators noticed it.", I said dejectedly.

"You're a sensible man, Okita-san. I'm glad. We made sure that none of that will happen in the future, I assure you.", she smiled at me.

"Thank you for the compliment. I don't really mind it. People always have animosity towards others, it's just human nature. On the picture, it's only a topless picture of mine. No big deal. I'm a guy so there's nothing sexual with it. But, if it's a female then that would be a different topic.", I said.

"Yeah, what you said made sense. But, remember it's part of our job to ensure that students here will have a least decent school life without any problems."

"Then I shall bid my farewell to you, Okita-san. By the way, I am the student council president and my name is Nishimura Chika. If you have any problems, you're free to visit our student council room.", she added.

"Okay, Nishimura-senpai. Thank you.", I responded.

"Goodbye, if you want, you can visit our shop again whenever you're free. I'll ask my father to give you a discount.", Nishimura-senpai said.

My eyes widen upon hearing what she said.

Oh, she remembers me.

I let out a wry smile and said, "Haha, I shall visit it. I kind of miss the aroma of the ramen. Thank you for the offer. Goodbye, Nishimura-senpai."

Nishimura-senpai only smiled at me, then she went off on her way outside of the classroom.

"She's so well-mannered and kind, Tatsu.", Naoki said.

"Yeah.", I responded.