As we were walking, I saw a silver-haired figure far away in the crowds in front of me.

 

I stopped and narrowed my eyes to see if I'm imagining things, but the silver-haired figure disappear.

 

Then Naoki, who seems to be able to calm down, after all the shenanigans that happened earlier— spoke to me.

 

"What's the problem?", Naoki asked me in worry.

 

"Ah, nothing, I just thought I saw someone familiar.", I said.

 

"Someone?"

 

"Yeah, but don't mind, I think I'm just seeing things.", I said while waving my hand deniably.

 

"Um, okay then, we are almost there anyway. By the way, are you joining a club?", she asked.

 

"Hm... I actually don't know..."

 

"Why don't you join me?"

 

"At looking clubs?", I asked.

 

"Ah, yeah, but I'm kinda hoping you would join with me at the club.", she shyly blushed a little bit as she said that.

 

"Okay, since I'm pretty new to this club thing. I would love to."

 

"Okay! Hehe~", she and smiled happily.

 

The intense glares that I'm getting all this time, became more vigorous. Her smiles are too deadly for society, even me right now are having some problems. Though I look indifferent my insides feel fuzzy.

 

We continued our walk until we reached the gate.

 

I could see a huge banner, saying, welcome students. And some 2nd-year students, who have armbands on their arms with the word spelled out committee. If I remember, schools have like public moral committee council? like the student council? Though I could only remember a fraction of my freshman year at middle school. But, I'm pretty sure that's what they are.

 

As we walk through the crowds, I feel the crowd's stare got divided some of them are looking at Naoki beside me, but as soon the violet-haired girl appeared from her luxurious black car.

 

Following the crowds, I instinctively looked at her too, because of my curiosity. I scanned her appearance and I could say that she's an heir of a noble family, well mostly because of her noble aura vibe emitting from her. Her face could be even compared to Naoki who's beside me, and her eyes are pure black which I think was a contrast from her hair, in spite of that it still looks beautiful to look at. It gives a vibe of the whole vast universe on her eye pupil as if it wants to swallow your entire existence.

 

And then I got pinch from my side— It was Naoki. Who's glaring at me intensely.

 

I gulped and I could feel bullet sweats forming in my forehead. I looked like a husband who caught cheating by his wife.

 

My intuition is telling me to not look at the violet-haired noble girl anymore. Because of that, I stopped looking and only looked at Naoki who's beside me.

 

"So, you interested her?",  who's glaring at me.

 

"Eh? Aah, no, people just looked at her, so I got curiously looked at her too.", I said panicky.

 

Well, technically I did look at her out of curiosity and nothing more.

 

"Really?"

 

"Y—yeah."

 

"She's quite a beauty though, she got a noble vibe from her.", she said.

 

"Yeah, I could tell that too."

 

"By the way, Aunt Ayaka told me, that you knew?", I added.

 

"Eh? Ohh, y—yeah."

 

"So, what do you think about it?", I shyly asked.

 

"A—ah, don't worry about it, I only knew how you only have the trauma, the triggering stuff, etc. Hehe~", she said to me with a funny face.

 

I'm not that gullible to not notice how guilty her face is, right now. But, I guess she's trying to be considerate towards me— I let out a faint smile.

 

But, I heard something from her, that I wasn't expecting at all.

 

"Don't worry, I'll protect you.", she said in a serious tone.

 

"O—okay.", I replied, my face slowly turned red.

 

"That's why I'm here.", she said while giving the smile, the smile that she gave me the other day—the deadly smile of hers.

 

I could feel my whole face burning, she looks like a prince charming. If I'm a girl, I would totally be all over her, right now. I tried to calm myself, but it didn't work. I'm so glad my hair bangs are blocking half of my face or else... People will stare at my shamefaced that I have right now. God, I swear one of these days. She will kill someone with her smile. Though, at the back of my head, I thought of what she said 'That's why I'm here'. As if, she just went here just to protect me. But, I knew that's practically impossible. Maybe, she felt bad for me. I'm very thankful for having her as my first friend.

 

"Thanks.", I replied—my mouth jerked upwards slowly, and formed a gentle smile.

 

"Y—yeah, n—no problem.", she was stunned by my smile, and her face flushed with redness.

 

With our interaction, the intense glare that I have since earlier turned into a murderous glare. I felt goosebumps all over my body. Now that I think about it, don't I supposed to have an average and peaceful high school life? With all these stares, looking at me I could feel that I was being marked. I can't just leave Naoki alone, just because of this. I'm very antsy right now—I don't know what will I choose. There are only two choices it's either to live a peaceful life or not, but if I chose the 'not' I need to leave Naoki and I can't do that since I started seeing the Ikeda family as my own family too. And, Naoki is my very first and only friend right now. I guess I could only say goodbye to my peaceful and quiet high school life. Naoki's natural beauty and that smiled she showed earlier was very deadly—the deadly smile. Sacrifices have to be made, at the cost of my blissful life—I got a friend. Not bad overall, I guess? With all these murderous stares looking at me, I swear—Someday, I will get myself killed.

 

As I was thinking all of these, I could feel an imaginary tear forming in the corners of my eyes.

 

And the one who caused it was happily humming beside me.

 

Throughout our walk, with her humming like that, the bloodlust from our surroundings rose once more.

 

 

✯ ✯ ✯

 

 

We reached the gymnasium in time.

 

Before that, we checked our names first on the list of students, that was posted outside. Luckily, Naoki and I are in the same class—Class 1-A.

 

With all of that, we sat beside each other in the back-end row of our class seats. And of course, my situation still didn't change.

 

Why me though!? I could totally see a guy sitting with two beauties in the front. Look, he got two! Just go glare at him, not me. I thought to myself inwardly crying.

 

The principal showed up at the podium, thus all the students became quiet.

 

"We hereby, welcome you to our school, new freshman students.", the principal announced.

 

And, he continued with his speech.

 

Following the speech of the principal, a black-haired beauty showed at the podium. Who I instantly recognized. She was the girl from the ramen shop!

 

 

I was surprised, that she was the student council president. Well, it does fit her though. She looks strict and only revolves around rules.

 

 

After that, we proceeded to our classroom.

 

Apparently, the school campus had 3 buildings, the main building which was the general education building where we will be staying. Next, will be the Club building, well the name says it all, and lastly, the administrative building where it's mostly where the staffs stay and other stuff.

 

The building we will stay in has 4 floors, the first floor will be the lockers. And after that, each floor is split up by student-years. Like, the second floor will be for the first-years, the third floor is for second-years, and lastly the fourth floor which for the seniors.

 

After getting in the classroom, the one who supposed to be our homeroom teacher? I can only guess, raffled the seats, and each individual needs to pick a paper.

 

I picked my paper and proceeded to my seat.

 

And as I was about to take a seat, the guy behind my seat called me.

 

"Hey, nice to meet you, I'm Arima Koichi."

 

"Oh, hey, I'm Okita Tatsuya. Arima-san", I replied.

 

"Okita Tatsuya, huh, what a cool name. Just call me Arima, no need for the formalities."

 

"O—Okay."

 

"Okita, I'll be your back buddy from now on.", and he smiled.

 

The guys seem familiar...

 

"Haha, I guess, but hey, you look familiar though.", I said.

 

"Me? This is our first time meeting though?"

 

"Hmm...", I pondered on my thoughts.

 

Then suddenly a click rang on my head.

 

"Wait, I saw you bickering with your girlfriend at the public park."

 

"Huh? At the public park?", then he started thinking putting one hand to his chin and tilting his head slightly to the side.

 

"Yeah, last week, if I remember—you're with the short brown-haired girl bickering at each other near the gates.", I said.

 

"O—oh, s—she's not my... girlfriend...", he said while looking down.

 

"Ooh, I thought you guys were— Sorry.", I said in an apologetic tone.

 

"Nah, it's okay, some people do mistake us, as a couple. Speaking of the devil, she's right there.", then he pointed his fingers towards the front.

 

There are basically 40 seats in each classroom, 5 rows and each row has 8 seats. And we're at the back-end of the classroom near the windows. And each seat is gender divided like the first row will be for the males and the next will be for the females.

 

But as I was about to look, Naoki blocked my view and smiled at me. Then she took a sit.

 

"Tatsuya, I guess we're seatmates."

 

Arima was stunned by her appearance, only said, "Oh, wow."

 

"Ah, Naoki, what a coincidence, we'll be seatmates too, haha."

 

"Hehe, oh, who's this?", she asked.

 

"Oh yeah, this is Arima Koichi", I said.

 

Arima who snapped out of his dazed suddenly said, "Aah, y—yeah."

 

"Hello, I'm Ikeda Naoki, a pleasure to meet you, Arima-san."

 

"A—ahh, me too, Ikeda-san"

 

"Wait, Okita, are you the one people talking about this morning?", Arima added.

 

"Huh?", I said confusingly.

 

"What talk?", I added.

 

"That there's a beautiful foreigner walking with a dude, that shattered the hearts of countless men.", Arima said.

 

What?! I thought to myself.

 

"And, how did you come to that conclusion?", I said.

 

"Duh, Ikeda-san is the only foreigner in here."

 

There are like hundreds of students here and she's the only one? 

 

"Well, she's not technically a foreigner, right, Naoki?", I asked Naoki.

 

"Yep, I grew up here."

 

"Oh, I thought you're like a foreign exchange student or something, sorry about that, hahaha.", Arima laughed.

 

"It's okay, I'm used to it."

 

"By the way, what's with the thing you said about, shattering hearts?", I asked Arima.

 

"What? Are you stupid? You're going out with, Ikeda-san, right? And, you're telling me that? Of course, they would be heartbroken, a new beauty is taken, who wouldn't be heartbroken. Their chances got blown off at the start. Plus, I heard that you two are lovey-dovey while walking, and that probably added the fuel in the fire."

 

What?! The heck?! Lovey-dovey?! We are just walking like normal people!! How could they mistake that as a lovey-dovey scenario?! I thought to myself while inwardly cursing the people who spread that.

 

Then I exclaimed, "N—No, we're not going out!"

 

"Really? I doubt that.", Arima said.

 

Arima pointed at Naoki.

 

I followed him and saw Naoki's flush beet-red face blushing hard.

 

"Hehe~ going out.", she said happily holding both of her cheeks.

 

"And?", Arima said with a doubtful face.

 

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

 

N—Naokiiii!!! I thought to myself inwardly crying.

 

Then Naoki snapped out of her daze and realized what's happening. All of our classmates are looking at us, right now. She then covered her face at her seat's table.

 

I could feel the gazes transferred to me, the girls are looking at me with disgust and while the boys are looking at me the same but with bloodlust.

 

"You know...", then Arima patted my shoulders, and continued, "...no need to lie."

 

I inwardly cried.

 

And surprisingly, I was saved. A teacher came in and announced herself, "Class I'll be your homeroom teacher for this school year, I'm Arita Sakiko."

 

I became confused about what happened to the dude teacher from earlier. Because I thought he's our homeroom teacher.