The classroom door rattled open as I slid it aside, and Aoki-kun immediately called out to me.

“Kaname! Man, school’s barely started and you already got lucky—wait, no. I mean, that really sucked.”

Aoki-kun, who normally showed up just barely in time for class, was already at school.

“Good morning. You’re early today.”

“Yeah, morning practice started. First period hasn’t even begun yet, and I’m starving. Seriously, starving.”

As he spoke, he pulled a bread roll out of his bag and took a huge bite.

“You’re going to get in trouble if a teacher sees you.”

“Nah, it’s fine. They’ve already caught me plenty of times. I was doing this all last week, too. I think the teachers have pretty much given up on yelling at me.”

He burst into his usual booming laugh.

Apparently, this sort of thing was common among students in sports clubs, so the teachers seemed willing to turn a blind eye to it.

Still chewing his bread, Aoki-kun asked,

“So what was it? The flu?”

“No. I just wasn’t feeling well, and it took a while to get things under control.”

“Well, the weather changes like crazy this time of year. And you look pretty delicate to begin with. You feeling better now?”

“Yeah, completely. And I’m not delicate, thank you very much.”

Aoki-kun stared at me for a moment.

“Hey, we’re in the same year, you know. And at least I think we’re friends, so you don’t have to talk to me all polite like that. The girls in class call me Monkey and Lanky and whatever else they feel like.”

He laughed.

Aoki-kun was on the volleyball team, so naturally, he was pretty tall.

And honestly, when he kept quiet and looked serious, he wasn’t bad-looking either.

“Okay, then. I won’t hold back anymore! But… you really think of me as a friend? That makes me kind of happy. Thanks.”

“What? You didn’t think we were friends? Don’t tell me you’re some kind of loner.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m a loner… I just haven’t had much experience socializing with people. Sometimes I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to act around them.”

I sat down and began putting my textbooks inside my desk.

“I told you, don’t hold back with me! You can say whatever you want.”

Then Aoki-kun suddenly leaned closer and studied my face.

“But seriously… you were out sick for a whole week, and somehow you came back looking kinda… sexy.”

He whispered the last word into my ear, making my heart jump.

“What? Do I look different?”

“I dunno. Somehow you look even cuter than before.”

“Cute isn’t a compliment you give a guy!”

I protested, and Aoki-kun burst out laughing.

“Yeah, but what else am I supposed to call you? It fits you better than anything else.”

He was obviously enjoying teasing me.

“No, seriously. Your hair looks shinier or something… and your cheeks are kinda pink…”

Then he hurriedly added,

“Wait! I’m not saying you look like a girl or anything! I just mean… you’re really pretty for a guy. Seriously, why’d you have to be a guy? If you were a girl, I’d be hitting on you already!”

“Oh, come on!”

I said it with an embarrassed smile as I finished putting my textbooks away and hung my bag from the side of my desk.

I had ended up missing an entire week of school.

Fortunately, the medicine had worked, but the side effects had been a little rough.

The doctor told me my body would get used to it before long.

Even so, I was still a little worried.

And during that entire week—

Yano-senpai had come to see me every single day.

After school, he would stop by my house as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

And because of that, I had no choice but to face it again.

The feelings Senpai had for my mother.

He really was in love with her.

And at the same time—

I was beginning to realize how I felt about him.

“Hey, that reminds me.”

Aoki-kun’s voice pulled me back to reality.

“While you were gone, we picked the class committee members. I’m on the sports committee. And you…”

“Me? Did I get put on a committee?”

For some reason, Aoki-kun lowered his head.

Then, wearing an unusually solemn expression, he placed a hand on my shoulder.

“You’re the class representative. I’m sorry. I couldn’t save you.”

“Huh?”

A girl who happened to be walking past overheard us and stopped.

“Excuse me? What are you talking about, Monkey? You’re the one who nominated Akagi-kun!”

“Huh? What? What does that mean?”

As I looked back and forth between them in confusion, the girl explained with an exasperated expression.

“This idiot wanted to get to his club as fast as possible, so he dumped the class representative job—the one nobody wanted—on you.”

Slowly, I turned toward Aoki-kun.

He grinned.

“Oopsie. You caught me. ♥”

He didn’t look guilty in the slightest.

He was so completely shameless about it that I couldn’t even get angry.

“Hahaha… Fine. I guess it’s partly my fault for being absent.”

And just like that, I accepted the fact that I had somehow become our class representative.

“Hey, I went to the first committee meeting for you, though! You weren’t here, remember? When was the next one again?”

The girl immediately cut in.

“You went, sure. But I bet you slept through the whole thing.”

“Ah. You knew?”

Aoki-kun stuck out his tongue and laughed.

“Hahaha. That sounds exactly like you, Aoki-kun. I can picture it.”

The girl chuckled too.

“You really are a nice person, aren’t you? You probably forgot everyone’s introductions from the first day, so I’ll introduce myself again. I’m Hitomi Okuno. Nice to meet you—for the next year, anyway.”

She held out her hand.

“Thanks. I’m—”

“Kaname Akagi!”

She said my name before I could.

“Oh… you remembered my name. Thanks. It’s nice to meet you again, Okuno-san.”

“Of course I remembered. For better or worse, you kind of stand out.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

I tilted my head, and Okuno-san studied my face.

“You’re actually really pretty, you know. Has nobody ever told you that?”

“What? Not really… Well, Aoki-kun teases me about it all the time…”

“You really have no idea how you look, do you?”

Okuno-san laughed in disbelief.

“Actually, while you were absent, there was this little rumor going around. People were saying, ‘There’s a really pretty first-year who just started here.’”

“What?”

“So quite a few upperclassmen came by asking, ‘Which one is it?’ And a lot of them were guys.”

“What?!”

My voice cracked.

“And then Yano-senpai came all the way here personally to see you, remember? After that, it got ridiculous. The girls kept coming by one after another asking, ‘Who’s Yano-senpai’s favorite?’”

“That’s right!”

Aoki-kun nodded emphatically.

“My seat’s right by the door, so I had to put up with it every single day. Seriously, they were driving me nuts.”

He looked thoroughly exhausted just remembering it.

But what surprised me more was that Okuno-san knew Yano-senpai.

“Okuno-san, you know Yano-senpai?”

“You don’t?”

This time, she was the one who looked shocked.

“He’s incredibly popular! Rumors about him were already going around right after school started. He’s an alpha, he has that face, his father works in the entertainment industry, and his family’s rich. Of course there are tons of girls who want to get close to him.”

“What? I had no idea. I didn’t know Senpai was that popular…”

It felt a little strange.

The senpai who had been sitting at my house almost every day, drinking tea and talking with me, was apparently seen completely differently at school.

“And that’s not all.”

Okuno-san lowered her voice.

“The student council president is supposed to be seriously handsome too. He’s rich, and apparently his family has a ton of influence. I heard so many girls applied here because of those two that the competition among female applicants was really tough both last year and this year.”

“Wow…”

“And this stays between us, okay? It’s only a rumor.”

Okuno-san leaned toward me slightly.

“Apparently, the student council president already has a fiancée.”

“A fiancée?”

“Yeah. Seems like everybody knows about it. But there are still plenty of girls who don’t care and want him anyway.”

“Oh… I see.”

At the time, to me, it was nothing more than another piece of school gossip.

“Wow, Okuno-san. You know everything.”

I glanced at Aoki-kun.

“Well, most of what she said is true. Girls’ information networks are terrifying.”

Aoki-kun shook his head in disbelief.

Then, after a brief silence, he muttered,

“Man… I wish just one of those girls would notice me.”

Okuno-san and I looked at each other.

And at exactly the same time, we burst out laughing.