“Hey, did you read the book I showed you last week?”

The young teen boy asked while staring at the school ground, not batting an eye at his friend who was leaning against the window rail. 

“Which one? The one that grows beanstalk until the sky?” The other boy followed the question with another question. 

But still, it answered the first question. The young teen boy looked happy, “Yeah, yeah. You did read it after all! Even after saying you will throw the book in the drawer.” 

The friend replied to him in a friendly yet annoyed tone, “Of course, I did! Who is the one that keeps bugging me about it?”

The young teen boy finally took his eyes from the school ground, finally looking at this friend who he was sharing most of his childhood. “Everyone is suddenly into the hype! You might not want to be left behind.”

“So lame. Why do people suddenly want to read children's books? And what was that, climbing the beanstalk until the sky? How is that possible?” The friend replied playfully while waving his hand up and down. Such a gesture was normal for these two long-time friends. 

Then, the school bell chimed, signalling the start of the first class of the day. All the student who were hanging at the school corridor, hasten their pace to their own respective classrooms along with the two close friends.

But it didn’t stop the conversation. 

“You idiot! That’s why it’s called a fairy tale! Wait, could it be the fairy is the one telling the stories?” The teen boy called out to his playful friend. 

“In your dream! Does a fairy even exist?” The friend laughed, enjoying messing with the other young boy.

*********

The two friends returned to their classroom, only to meet another noisy chattering space as their teacher still didn’t arrive yet. 

The chattering students then switched their attention when their class representative suddenly poked his head at the door, bearing exciting news. “I heard that we are going to have a new student today!”

It soon attracted more attention from the class. 

“What, who? In a rural school like this?”

“I heard that he’s coming from a big city?”

“Is it a girl? A modern beauty? Is it Amane-chan?” That playful friend sounded the most excited of them all. Pretty sure he was joking. 

“Definitely not your idol,” the serious-looking girl cut him off, knowing fully well her playful classmate was such a joker. 

“Good morning, everyone,” the middle-aged man, who was their classroom teacher automatically cut off the classroom's festive mood.

All the students came back to their seats while shutting their mouths like the good students they were. 

The teacher observed his students, “Hmm, I see all of you in high spirits today.” His eyes then stopped at this one athletic boy who was spreading peanut butter on his bread. “Hey, Tachi! Stop eating, class has already started!” The teacher called him out. 

The boy who was enjoying his bread finally noticed that the class already started. What a free attitude. “Yes, sensei!” Tachi, or by his full name, Tachibana Hiro, quickly finished his last bread while putting back his breakfast set. He probably didn’t have enough time to eat breakfast at home. 

But the teacher didn’t mind though. It was not his first time seeing that. 

“Okay, first thing first.” The teacher observed his class again. A pair of expecting eyes, another pair of expecting eyes. He saw another pair of expecting eyes. “Why do everyone's eyes beam with expectation?” 

Everyone didn’t answer him. But he already knew the answer. He sighed, “Sigh, seems like you already heard the rumour.”

Rumour did spread like wildfire. 

“Okay, then. Let me introduce him first.” The expectation energy just rose higher. “Watanabe, please enter!” He called the new transfer student who was already waiting outside. 

Then, the new boy entered the classroom, inviting the classroom’s eyes all over him. With mixed reactions, some were happy, some were disappointed and some purely didn’t care. The last one was the minority though. 

Standing before them was a teen boy, with dark blue hair like a night sky, yellowish eyes shined lightly like dim stars, looked so gentle yet distant. 

“Please introduce yourself first.”

His eyes met with all of his classmates. “My name is Watanabe Shuya. Nice to meet you.”

Thus, the prologue of his own fairy tale was starting.