Surprisingly more things occurred for Hakuta than he expected upon his moving in with Shiuka. He didn’t know what he expected by being forced to share a house with that girl, but it certainly wasn’t the adventures they had during the past several weeks.

One of which still had itself burned into his memory. Always reminding him as his lips heated up. As if she had yet again kissed him.

“Stupid gals…” He muttered to himself as the boy did the dishes they left from dinner last night. Hakuta only felt more of why he disliked gyarus in the first place. They know exactly what they were doing, taking advantage of the feelings of boys like himself.

To think that he was genuinely excited to be living back here with her when they thought he would be leaving with his father to return to a normal life. Though all his grumblings didn’t mean he changed his mind on that matter. Only that it was enough to get him to be muttering rather pettily on the matter.

“Heya!” Shiuka sneaked up behind him and gave the boy a bit of a hug, which caught him by surprise.

“Ahh!” He gave out a yelp, nearly dropping one of the bowls he had been cleaning. “Geez, don’t scare me like that.” Hakuta scolded her. “I could’ve broken something.”

“Ah, it’s just one bowl.” It was easy for her to not care as much about something breaking and them having to throw it away. After all, her home certainly showed her family could afford to replace something that minor. “Besides, it’s morning. Shouldn’t you be more worried about getting ready for school?”

“It’s always important to make sure we don’t allow this place to fall into disarray.” He responded. Hakuta sighed internally over his response. Here he was acting like some housekeeper or her mom on this matter. At this rate, they should be paying him for having to take care of this house while her dad was away on whatever it was his work needed him to do.

Still, she wasn’t wrong on the matter of him needing to ready himself for school. It was morning after all and they needed to be there in less than an hour. So the boy quickly finished up cleaning their mess from the day before while she left early so they wouldn’t appear to be walking to school together. All just to keep it a secret from the rest of their classmates about their living situation.

As he made the lonely walk there, Hakuta sighed. Even though he was fine with the living arrangements as they were. There was some part of him that wondered when he would be able to go back to living a normal life? Surely no one could say this was what most people would want out of their youth. Well, maybe most guys would be good with this because it meant living with someone as cute as Shiuka. But then again, he wasn’t like most guys.

Huh, when that thought ran through his head. It made him sound more pompous than intended.

Still, he could live with life not changing for a while. After everything he had been through, it would be welcomes to maintain his current routine for just a little bit longer. Unfortunately it would not be the case at all as he walked into the classroom.

There was nothing out of the ordinary inside. Most students were just chatting along, minding their own business. Shiuka just sat around on her desk table, laughing rather loudly with her friends. Meanwhile, he had not other place to go other than to his desk, where his own friends were waiting for him.

“You look pretty tired.” Yuusen said to greet him. “Let me guess, stayed up too late playing video games again?” He gave him a smug smile in what he assumed would be the obvious answer. This wasn’t the case, as Hakuta had spent most of it helping Shiuka with her homework. Them having to stay at a hotel was not conductive to taking care of important work assigned to them by their teachers.

“Sure, we’ll go with that.” Not that he could tell them the truth. So it was easier to take the assumed path anyone would’ve assumed he did based on their knowledge of his hobbies. On the bright side, at least that part came in handy for Hakuta in the situation he found himself in.

“Anyway, you should perk up.” His friend suggested, though not for anything relating to improving his mood. “I’m betting you haven’t heard, but we’re supposed to be getting a new transfer student.”

“Really?” It was an odd time to him for someone to be transferring to another school. Then again, they were teens, so it wasn’t like they had much control over where their parents needed to move to for the sake of work. Hakuta knew that all too well personally. “Any clues on what they’re like?”

“I only heard that it’s supposed to be a girl.” Said Itsuki. That got the other two boys to laugh between themselves as Hakuta rolled his eyes to the sight. Of course they would get excited over yet another girl. He could never understand why anyone would look forward to what seemed like a new opportunity. It would never work out 99% of the time.

“Sounds like another person I’m going to be ignoring.” He commented, slumping back into his desk. There were more important matters to him than some new girl. Especially since if he was really that interested in wanting to hang out with one, he already had one at home.

Hmm… It seems that today he’s thinking of things that sound really strange out of context. Fortunately these were all thoughts within his mind, rather than words spoken. So no one would think he was some kind of weirdo. Not that it stopped them from feeling this way already.

As the bell rung, their class got themselves settled down. They were unusually quiet compared to most days as the teacher walked inside. But this was mainly due to the fact that there was anticipation building as everyone, including Hakuta waited for the fated reveal.

“Class.” Their teacher spoke up as they placed papers onto their desk. “I’d like to inform you all that we’ll be receiving a new transfer student.” They beckoned towards the door to their classroom. “Please, if you would enter and introduce yourself.”

With this command, the door opened. Slowly a girl walked in, already a prediction was proven correct, but that was the only part anyone knew about her ahead of time. As she came in, the light hit her face, revealing her tanned skin. Her uniform matched that of all the girl’s uniforms for this school, though her blouse did struggle to contain her rather larger than average bust.

The longer Hakuta stared at this girl, taking in who she really was. The more he felt disappointed in what he saw. Even as someone who already had little expectations from his lack of care on who would be joining their class. There was a bit of him who held some curiosity on this new arrival. Unfortunately there was one thing which was plain to see for everyone that caused him a bit of grief.

There was no doubt about it, she was a gyaru.

“Hiya!” She spoke for the first time, revealing her bubbly and high pitched voice. To him, it was like seeing another Shiuka or one of her friends. “My name’s Iruka Noto.” The girl properly introduced herself, though in a manner much less former than most transfer students would do. There was little grace in her supposed bow as she continued to tell them the standard bits about taking care of each other and why she transferred here.

As expected from his earlier assumption, she had arrived her due to her dad getting a new job opportunity. Not that he took issue with her reasons of being here, and it wasn’t as though Hakuta hated this girl outright. Just that her kind left something more for him to desire. Not that it would save him, since her being a gyaru also provided more issues.

“Nice.” Yuusen gently leaned over and whispered to him. Knowing his two buddies, they certainly enjoyed this turn of events. Worst of all, even though he couldn’t hear the girls, Hakuta was certain the gal group of his class would want to absorb this girl into their ranks.

This made sense, but a part of him felt bad. Not that he believed Shiuka’s group to be a bad bunch, quite the opposite despite his personal disdain for gyarus. Just that this girl had only been at this school for mere minutes and already she had a spot neatly packed for her here.

“And so…” She finished up her quick introduction for the morning. “I hope we can all enjoy high school together.” Now she really sounded a lot like Shiuka.

“That’s lovely.” Said the teacher. “Now, we don’t have many open seats right now, but there’s one right behind Yamamoto.” The hairs on the back of Hakuta’s neck stood straight upon hearing the teacher’s suggestion. It was true there was no one would sat behind him.

There was nothing wrong with him, but what sat in front of him was the cause for this situation. His friend Itsuki was the tallest in their class, so most people wouldn’t want to struggle to see what was in front of them with him in the way. The only reason Hakuta sat here was because he didn’t care enough about seeing the lecture. Plus Yuusen was real smart and always helped him out by sitting next to him.

This arrangement had been fine for him during his time in high school. Now it was this very same arrangement he thought was safe, which would turn out to be his bane with the arrival of a new student.

“Yeah…” He said with a sigh. “That spot is free after all.”