When I arrived in math class the next day, I was surprised to find that the seat next to me remained unoccupied. Mr. Dumbass cleared his throat.

“We won’t be starting class right away,” he announced. “I have to introduce someone to you first.”

On that, the door opened, and a very unrespectable-looking person entered.

“His name is Aoki Moriyama. He’s of Japanese descent.”

Well, I wouldn’t have guessed just by looking at him; he looked just as French as the rest of us. He did have black hair, but it was obviously dyed. Mr. Dumbass didn’t think it was necessary to prolong the introductions; Aoki would simply have to introduce himself during recess.

“Your seat’s over there in the back, next to Pauline,” he added, pointing at me and my small table.

Aoki slowly made his way towards me, with a nonchalant stride. He looked like he had time-travelled here from the 2000’s, with his typical emo kid look: black everything, ripped jeans, eyebrow piercing, and, of course, the haircut concealing one eye. He dumped his bag and jacket on the floor, next to what was now our table, and sat to my right.

“Hey,” he tried.

I gave him a cold and stern look as my answer. He tilted his head, disappointed.

“Aw, no need to be so wary,” he said. “I don’t bite.”

I stared at my notebook and ignored him. That wasn’t enough to get him to give up, though.

“My name’s Aoki. Aoki Moriyama. What about you?”

“I know,” I finally snapped. “The teacher just told us.”

Although Mr Dumbass had asked me to be nice to Aoki, I had absolutely no desire to make friends with such a character. He had bags under his eyes like he hadn’t slept in three days, and a strong smell of… tobacco or something.

“Come on, you could at least say hi, Pauline… Renart, is that it?”

Wait, how’d he know my last name? Freaked out, I turned towards him. Without me noticing, he had snatched my contact book¹, and was browsing it as if that’s a normal thing people do.

“Hey, you weren’t punished a single time since the year started!” he carried on. “Not bad.”

“You two, in the back!” Mr. Dumbass shouted. “You’ll get to know each other later. Math first!”

I gave Aoki a dirty look. He was already starting to endanger my perfect record. He, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow at Mr. Dumbass, clearly thinking he could do whatever he wanted with no consequences, but thankfully didn’t talk back.

“How you manage to stand classes with that kind of teacher is beyond me,” he whispered, handing me back my contact book without breaking eye contact with Mr. Dumbass. “He really seems unbearable…”

On that note, he slumped in his chair, arms crossed, and spent the rest of the class observing Mr. Dumbass’ movements without speaking to me. After the bell rang and recess started, Aoki didn’t wait for me and disappeared God-knows-where. That didn’t bother me at all, on the contrary.

“Pauline!” Noémie called out to me while I was still packing my stuff. “So, did the new guy cut you up? He kinda scares me.”

“He does look a little suspicious,” I answered, “but I’ve talked to him a little bit, and he isn’t actually that menacing.”

“Really? Then that means the time has come for you!”

I gave her a confused look.

“What are you talking about?”

“Have you never read teen romance or what?” she said, fake-offended. “You know, good girl meets bad guy who just changed schools…”

“What?!” I nearly shouted, true-offended, feeling myself blushing. “N-no, wait, it’s not like that at all! He seems like a despicable character, and—”

“Don’t worry,” she giggled, “I won’t tell! Just don’t forget me when he becomes your boyfriend after you live some kind of cool adventure with him…”

“Stop it!”

She kept teasing me about it for the rest of the day, and I couldn’t help but notice that Aoki didn’t show up to any other class that day. Or the following day. He only reappeared on Friday, for the last class we had that afternoon.

Math class.

“So, what’s up?” he asked after sitting down next to me.

“Where were you all week?” I asked him in turn, ignoring his question.

“The classes are simply so boring,” he answered, digging a hole in his eraser with his pencil.

“They’re not optional, though,” I retorted.

“They are to me!” he exclaimed, slumping in his chair looking relaxed. “I have way more important matters to attend.”

He stopped for a moment to listen to Mr. Demasse, who was going on about what’s-his-face’s theorem.

“Really boring,” he muttered. “I shouldn’t have come, and done what I had to do instead.”

“And what better things do you have to do over preparing your future?”

He turned his head to look me in the eyes.

“What about you?” he asked.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“And I won’t. It’s stupid.”

“You think the future is stupid?”

“Some people simply have no future.”

I couldn’t answer, dumbfounded. Did he really think he had no future?

Aoki kept quiet for the rest of the class.

When the bell rang, Noémie went to see me, as usual.

“So, still alive?” she said with a smile. “What about Prince Charming?”

“That guy’s only getting weirder,” I answered, looking at Aoki exiting the classroom out of the corner of my eye.

“The plot thickens,” she joked. “But seriously, if he ever makes you feel in danger or anything, let me know, alright? I don’t want anything to happen to my living ‘good girl’ trope.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated.”

We each made our way home.

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¹ The “carnet de correspondance”, translated here by “contact book”, is a personal notebook given at the start of the year to French students, and is used for official communication between the administration, teachers, and parents. It lists all relevant information about a student, as well as punishments, missed classes, etc.