Toshi was wearing his best phony grin of steel.

 

He had this well-practiced grin from when he was a salaryman. You need the perfect neutral expression to blend into the background, not too detached with just a hint of an upward curl to the corners of your mouth. He was so glad he had perfected it, considering what he was about to endure. Kenko had dragged him over to the table where the cool boys hung out.  It was two long tables pulled together and was in the center of the room where they could be seen, and see all. Over a dozen boys gathered here to talk and decide the fate of every girl's future relationship until they graduated. Well, not only that but the way they talked about the unpopular boys and how they rated the girls, it was clear this was the primary focus. The conversation was lively and jumped around, occasionally dividing up into smaller groups, then the entire group would listen to one boy tell a story, and then people would jump in with private anecdotes. Round and round it goes.

 

It was boring as fuck.

 

Toshi was having that feeling he got when he got stuck at a girl's table in school. Back in his old world, If there weren't enough seats, he'd wind up at a lunch table with mostly girls. They'd ignore him, he'd ignore them right back. Why? Because they talked about the most inconsequential shit you could imagine. The conversations were about clothes, boys, and otome games, and boys and horrible things that happened to them, like... having to go shopping with their mom... oh yeah... and boys.

 

First-world problems.

 

If this WAS a table of girls, Toshi could fade into the background, but he couldn't do that here. People kept talking to him. They kept asking questions and Toshi was not a talker. He kept things short and to the point. This usually leads to him giving a short one-sentence (sometimes one-word) answer. Next would follow a period of awkward silence as the conversation ground to a halt, then someone else would jump in to keep the conversation going.

 

Toshi was confused.

 

On top of that, the girls kept staring at him. At first, he just returned the gaze with a short head nod, then a smile, maybe a short wave. However, the way the girls all reacted was starting to set off warning bells. He looked around with squinting eyes trying to figure out what was going on.

 

"Is there a reason you are flirting with my girlfriend?"

 

Everyone at the table stopped talking. Toshi took a moment to figure out something had changed in the social dynamic. He turned back to look at the table, only to find everyone looking away, with one exception. The exception snapped his fingers at Toshi, "Hey. I asked you a question!"

 

Toshi stared at him for a few moments before replying, "I'm sorry. I missed it."

 

He growled, "I was wondering why you are flirting with my girl." Toshi looked around at everyone else. Nobody was making eye contact. He looked back at the other kid and said, "I'm not flirting with anyone."

 

A few boys at the table laughed with derision. The angry kid narrowed his eyes, "Who do you think you are fooling? You're flirting with every girl in the room!"

 

Toshi tilted his head to the side, then looked around the room quickly then back at the kid, "I'm sorry, but what are you talking about?"

 

Kenko sitting next to Toshi cleared his throat, "You are flirting with every girl that stared this way. It's embarrassing."

 

Toshi looked at Kenko and asked, "Are you on drugs?" Toshi gestured in a circle to indicate the room, "In order to flirt with someone, they have to flirt back." He shook his head, "Ain't nobody flirting with me."

 

The angry boy started to stand up, "Now look-"

 

Kenko cut him off, "Hold it a sec, Eizan." Kenko looked at Toshi and studied him, "Are... you serious?"

 

Toshi looked back, "Uh... yes?" He gestured at his face, "Who'd flirt with this?" The guys all started looking at each other growing confused.

 

Eizan looked annoyed, "Uh... all the girls? You look amazing!" Toshi looked at Eizan, then at Kenko, then around the table, then back at Eizan.

 

Toshi burst out laughing and nearly fell out of his chair.

 

The boys all started looking at each other, appearing even more confused. Toshi was doubled over laughing and now attracting attention from around the room. He wiped at his eyes, "Oh my GOD! You guys got me! Damn! I actually was worried for a second there!" He started to talk in a funny voice, "Why are you flirting with my girlfriend?" Then let out a series of strangled snorts, "Oh my god, you had me going. I'm like, 'what? Someone's flirting with me?'" He pointed at Eizan, "Good one! Really!" Toshi's laughter trickled off when he realized nobody else was laughing.

 

Kenko eyed Toshi, "You... okay?"

 

Toshi was about to reply when his sister stepped up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder, "Is there a problem?"

 

Toshi looked up at her and sighed as his expression turned neutral, "No. Just a practical joke. Will you relax?"

 

Hinako replied cheerfully, "Around you? No."

 

The boys seemed to quiet down and were rather respectful towards Hinako. Toshi sighed as he gestured off-handedly, "Everyone, my sister Hinako. Hinako, everyone." He hooked a thumb up at his sister, "My sister is super overprotective and doesn't accept-" He looked up at her, "That I Can Take Care Of MYSELF."

 

Hinako's eyes went wide and she slowly turned to stare down at Toshi with an incredulous stare, "Excuse ME?"

 

Toshi stared back for a few moments then looked away, "Okay. There was that one time."

 

Hinako glared, "You. DIED."

 

Toshi held up two fingers an inch apart, "SLIGHTLY... Dead. And I got better!"

 

Hinako looked around the table, "I'm sorry. I should-"

 

Toshi cut her off, "I REALLY don't want to talk about this!" The area went silent. People nearby tried their damndest to ignore the conversation. Everyone at the table just watched the unfolding drama, and not without a certain degree of curiosity. Toshi suddenly folded his arms on the table and buried his face in them. In a muffled voice to his sister, he mumbled, "Damnit. Too late now. Just tell them."

 

Hinako looked pained and patted her brother on the shoulder in a comforting manner. She looked around, addressing the entire table at once, "He had a violent allergic reaction to some medication and nearly died. He was declared brain-dead and remained in a coma for nearly three days. He has suffered a great deal of memory loss so sometimes he doesn't understand things everyone else takes for granted." She squeezed her brother's shoulder, "I hope you will take care of my little brother."

 

The boys at the table all started to make the 'OH' sound and nodded as if this explained a great deal of things. Kenko tapped Toshi on the shoulder, "I'm sorry."

 

Toshi lifted his head, "Why? You didn't do it." He rubbed his face, "Look. I'm just... trying to adapt so can we skip all the pity and just move on with our lives?"

 

Eizan's expression had softened, "So... how much you forget?"

 

Toshi squinted with one eye and looked at the ceiling as he concentrated, "Functionally? Math, sciences, and languages, are not a problem. Personal experiences? uhh... everything. Or rather, I remember things but it's all screwed up. I remember buildings that don't exist and people I never met as my mind tries to follow a train of thought and gets everything muddled up. I only know the past few weeks for certain. Anything before that? Gone."

 

Hinako nodded, "He didn't even know who the prime minister was. He thought it was some man named Yoshihide Suga."

 

The whole table froze for a second then burst out in near unison "WHAT???" Before degenerating into laughter. Toshi covered his eyes out of embarrassment.

 

Kenko let out an 'Awww' and gave Toshi a pat on the arm, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to laugh." Everyone else started to nod and apologize as well.

 

Hinako smiled around the table, "So, you think you could watch over him?" The table all started to nod and agreed to do just that.

 

Toshi looked unhappy as his sister gave him a hug from behind, "I'm sorry but even I could tell things weren't working out."

 

Toshi sighed, "I'm not weak and I don't need help."

 

Hinako squeezed harder, "I know. But make me feel better and accept the help all the same." He grumbled, "FINE." She ruffled his hair as she let go.

 

"That's my brother!"

 

---

 

Over the next week, things fell into a routine that was getting increasingly impossible to ignore. Hinako had a lot of pull at the school and the students quickly fell in line with her 'plan'. The plan involved every girl either being told that Toshi was suffering from brain damage so trying to date him was morally wrong, or being threatened with immediate physical harm if they didn't back off.

 

The other boys in his grade quickly picked up on Toshi not having a damn clue how the world worked and in a way this made them like him more. Toshi might be better looking than every other boy in the school, but if he wasn't smart enough to be a threat, then he wasn't. In fact, many of the boys in Toshi's class took up the cause of 'protecting him'. This 'protection' usually took the form of blocking any attempt by girls to talk to him.

 

 

 

 

This situation was increasingly annoying to Toshi.