The hallway looked like a battlefield. Every step was a push and a shove. There was no space, no mercy. The chaos had the press and surge of a packed concert crowd, with the music stripped away and no joy to soften it.

Class had just let out, and now it was a flood of people spilling into the corridor. It was a sea of elbows and sideways glances loaded with quiet suspicion. Shoes slapped tile, lockers screamed, voices crashed. It was noise layered on noise. Nobody listened. Everyone yelled just to be heard.

Outside the classrooms, someone was already arguing about karaoke plans for Saturday. A laugh burst out from somewhere near the stairwell. It was too loud, too sharp, a sound that never belonged in that cramped passage.

And of course, that kid from 3-6 stood in his usual spot. Same corner, same routine. He had his backpack halfway open, already pulling out snacks and laying them out neatly. He talked to someone, clearly in his zone, moving through this ritual like it was a gig he had done a thousand times before.

Yeah. This was the after school rush.

There was a steady drone of voices, footsteps, and lockers thudding everywhere, a noise that swept everything along with it. Until something cut through.

One voice rose above the rest.

Heads turned. Conversations broke off. Even my feet hesitated, pausing mid-step.

“Yo, Kira!”

Right there, halfway out of the boys’ restroom, my jacket swung. For a second, I felt I had stepped onto a stage I never auditioned for, with someone shoving a mic in my face.

At the end of the corridor stood Taiga Watanabe.

Tall and loud dude. The way he moved was all jumpy and it felt like he owned the whole place. He had this confident smile, like he was used to being mobbed by fans, and I felt like that forgotten merch table no one bothered with.

Then, suddenly, everyone nearby stopped looking at him and turned to me. In that instant, I was a side character in Taiga’s stupid high school drama. Spotlight stolen, lines gone.

Let’s hit pause for a second before this spirals into some bottom shelf anime pilot.

Name’s Akira Sakamoto. Or just Kira, if you don’t want to sound like you’re reading a roll call. Senior year at Haruhiro High, a quiet little school tucked somewhere in the calmer corners of Fukuoka.

Life here? If I had to press a comparison into words, the days moved with the dull drift of lukewarm miso that lingered too long and lost any reason to be remembered. No love triangles, no evil council kids with perfect hair. Just me, cruising by on a decent smile and slightly above average BS skills.

But enough about me, back to the madness of the hallway.

Taiga came storming over, practically vibrating with pent-up energy.

“Yo, what’s chewing your nuts, bro?” I asked, leaning on the wall, trying to look chill even though I still felt the eyes of everyone around us.

“Today’s the day, bro. I’m asking Saki out.”

I just stared. “Saki?”

My mind scrambled, sorted through names and faces, trying to pin down which one fit.

“You mean that girl with the squeaky voice?”

“Nope,” he replied.

“Skinny girl whose skirt went past her knees?”

“Nah, not her.”

“Hmm.” I paused, rubbing my chin. “Booger-faced girl you called out during the school assembly yesterday?”

He looked at me like I had crossed a line.

“Not that one either, you jerk!”

Seriously. Look at this dude. Who was he calling a jerk?

I shot him a smirk, not even bothering to hide how much I enjoyed this.

“Then which Saki are we talking about?”

“Saki Nishimura from Class 3-4.”

Oh, that Saki. I nodded, pretending I was totally in on it.

“Come on, Kira, you know her,” he said, running a hand through his hair, trying to make this sound less ridiculous. “Cute face. Always wears a ponytail.”

I sighed and gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “Taiga, Taiga, Taiga,” I said, shaking my head. “Told you many times, bro. I’m just not into chicks with flat runways.”

Yeah, I went there. Not proud of it. Not exactly ashamed either.

Allow me to paint a picture of the kind of girl I’m usually drawn to. I have always been a huge fan of a woman with a bit of a figure. Big fan of peaches. The bigger they are, the more I appreciate them. You live, you cringe. Sue me.

Taiga groaned. “You and your shallow taste.”

“Appreciation for geometry is a personality trait,” I said, nudging him with my elbow. “Don’t kink shame me, bro.”

He chuckled, but the determined spark in his eye had not faded.

“Anyway, I’m going for it,” he said, standing firm. This had been his big moment.

“You dipping already?”

“Yeah, you know me. The second the bell rang, I was halfway out the gates in my head.”

“Later then.” He jogged off, muttering to himself while I shook my head, watching him go.

My man, Taiga. He carried himself with the swagger of someone convinced he starred in his own romantic comedy, yet he wandered through each scene without a script and with too many surprises waiting to trip him. Still, I had to respect the confidence. Flat chests and all.

I was mid-turn and already thinking about what to grab from the vending machine when my body locked up. Everything slowed down. The noise faded. My thoughts stalled. All I could do was stare.

At her.

A girl with a chest that held a smooth shape, and the sight created the feeling of a runway ready for takeoff without struggle.

Yeah, I know I’ve got preferences. Curves. Shapes that fit together in a way that felt meant to remain joined.

But this girl, I didn’t mind her not following those rules. I could’ve watched her all day, even if her chest looked flatter than my gaming chair after three raids that lasted all night.

Three girls wandered past, caught in their own lazy conversation, as if none of the feverish excitement around them mattered. And right in the center stood Rei Fujimoto.

My classmate. My possible something. My complete contradiction.

Let me be real with you. Main character vibe? Off the charts.

She did not just move through the crowd. She rewrote it. People looked once, then twice, then again, their attention dragged back by a force they never named. It was not only her looks. It came from the way she bent gravity around herself, her presence carrying the reality of someone who understood her place and never felt the need to justify it.

Total queen of Haruhiro High. No competition. Not your usual crush material either. I mean full-on fandom status, with posters, forums, and some suspiciously detailed theories. It sounded wild, but it felt real. Every time I saw Rei, the world around her seemed to kindle in a way no one else noticed. Only me.

We barely talked. Maybe a nod. A halfhearted good morning if fate was in a generous mood.

But every time we crossed paths, my heart kicked into overdrive. The moment transmitted a charge that warned me something waited on the other side of it.

And then it happened.

She looked at me.

Not past me. Not through me. At me.

The world just stopped.

I tensed. No cool lines. No grin. Just static in my head and full-blown panic in my bloodstream.

But then she smiled.

“Hey there, Zipper-kun,” she said, waving.

I blinked. “Uh… hi, Fujimoto-kun.”

Smooth. Real smooth. I could’ve dropped dead right there, and no one would’ve questioned it.

She and her friends laughed, tossing glances over their shoulders with the poise of individuals fully aware of the effect they created.

And me? I just stood there, a total geek, my face burning, brain blank.

But wait a second. Did she just call me Zipper-kun?

I scratched my head.

Didn’t matter. The point was, she noticed me.

Rei Fujimoto actually acknowledged my existence, and that counted as a win, right?

I puffed myself up a bit. Not because I was confident, just pretending I was. But I went with it.

Might have whispered a quiet “Level up, boys,” like I had unlocked an achievement just for existing near a girl.

Then something tapped my shoulder.

I turned fast.

Boom.

My face hit something soft. My brain stuttered as it tried to catch up, but my body had already signed up for a subscription. I did not move. I just froze.

Then, on instinct, I leaned in, just a little bit.

A warmth spread across my face. It wasn’t weird or overwhelming, but rather a cozy feeling, like I’d finally found where I belonged.

Is this heaven?

I could not stop myself. I nuzzled. Once. Twice.

Then it happened.

SMACK.

A jab landed on the top of my head. Not hard, only firm enough to make the point. A universal sign that meant, “Get your creepy face out of there.”

I’ll give it to you straight. Reality didn’t simply tap me. It hit harder than my last math midterm.

And that one hurt.

I blinked my eyes open. That’s when I realized what, or rather, who, I had bumped into.

“Enjoying yourself down there, Kira?”

My soul almost left my body. I knew that voice. I knew it the way you recognize a final boss theme in a horror game.

I slowly tilted my head up.

And there she was.

Mai Oda.

She loomed with a presence that could wipe out my entire existence with one well-chosen sentence. Tall. Sharp-eyed. Dangerous in all the worst ways. She stood six foot two, and every inch radiated pure intimidation. Long legs, long hair, and a long-standing grudge against yours truly.

She captained the girls’ basketball team, and she had been my personal pain in the ass since diaper days.

Our families were tight, vacation-photo, shared-holiday-card tight, which meant fate kept throwing us together whether we wanted it or not.

The problem with this giant of a girl was that she took great pleasure in mocking me, and she still did, especially since she knew about my not-so-secret preference for a certain body shape. I might have slipped up and confessed my fondness for peaches during a conversation about girls with her.

Yeah. That little nugget did not go unnoticed.

She looked down at me, arms crossed, lips twitching into that smug smirk she always wore whenever she caught me doing something humiliating. Which, for the record, happened a lot.

And thanks to my modest five foot eight, her chest-level airspace was exactly where my face had been parked.

Yeah, just end me now. Bury me under the gym floor.

“Ack!” I yelped, springing back. “Ugh, not after seeing your face!” Not my best comeback, but at least I tried.

And yeah, ignoring the fact that my face was burning and that I had just motorboated her without a license.

Mai’s eyes narrowed. It was that look, the one she always got right before she went in for the kill.

“Caught you again, huh?” Her voice sounded sweet but gave enough smugness to choke on. “You never learn, do you?”

That tone. Always calm, always painful, slicing deeper than a knife ever could.

I rolled my eyes so hard I almost locked them in place. “Whatever, Mai. Don’t you have someone else to bother, maybe literally anyone else at all?”

She laughed, loud and grating. “Where’s the fun in that?” She tilted her head. “And what’s the rush? Off to your precious place again?”

I went stiff. She did not need to say it with air quotes like that, but she made sure to do it anyway.

“Oi, whatever I do after school stays my business,” I snapped, pointing a finger at her with the false bluster of someone pretending he had the upper hand.

You want the truth. I never had it. Not even close.

Mai gave me that look. The same one teachers had right before announcing a surprise quiz.

“You’re wasting your time with that stuff every day,” she said. “This is our last year, Kira. You’re always babbling about becoming a keisatsukan, but even your shadow looks underfed. Join a sport. Get some muscle on that flimsy frame of yours.”

She flicked my chest with one finger, and somehow it hurt more than getting hit with chalk.

Anyway, I knew she was right, even if I would rather have swallowed a tack than admit it.

My dream stayed locked in, crystal clear. I was not talking about some desk-bound cop. No way. I meant undercover, working the Nakasu red-light district. I would track down all those busty, flashy derijō if they turned heads and smirked like they were daring me to follow.

But I did not need biceps for that, did not need them at all.

I needed speed. And a tongue fast enough to sell sand in a desert.

Mai backed up a bit, arms still folded while some thought worked its way through her.

“Here’s a thought,” she said. “I’ll coach you basketball.”

I blinked.

Is this a joke? Are there hidden cameras somewhere?

“You know I’m good at it,” she said, flipping her hair back with smug confidence, her posture bearing the charge of someone ready for a showdown straight out of an anime. “I’ll talk to Okuda-sensei. Get you on the boys’ team. He’ll agree.”

Yeah, no doubt that creepy old coach would. He practically drooled over her every practice, probably letting her pick the starting five just to stay in her good graces.

I forced a grin and dialed up the sarcasm.

“Wow. How generous of you, Mai. I’ve just been dying to bounce a peach—”

And there it was. A full brain-to-mouth misfire.

I meant basketball. I swear.

Now my words ricocheted around the hall with the impact of a confession.

Before I could apologize for what I had said, a fist came for me with a vengeance.

But I was no rookie. Nope. My ninja reflexes saved me from total idiot status… barely.

“Hey!” I shouted, raising my hands. “No swinging in the halls, Mai. You’re one lawsuit away from detention.”

“And what about you? Burying your face in my peaches?” she said, voice sweet with that self-satisfied edge.

I tried to come up with something. Anything.

“That wasn’t on purpose,” I muttered, my face searing hotter than the sun. “And stop calling them peaches. It’s weird when you’re the one saying it.”

Mai grinned, wicked. A grin that said she had won this round.

“Fine. Whatever,” she said, waving me off with the ease of someone dismissing a minor irritation. “Go ahead. Do your after-school thing.”

Just as I turned to leave, she paused, eyes dropping to the floor for a moment before looking back up. She had that look again, the one that said she was about to ruin my life.

“Oh, by the way, Kira,” she said. “Your fly’s open.”

I looked down.

Oh. Oh no.

It was. Full-on air circulation going on down there.

I froze for a second, then scrambled to fix it, yanking the zipper up as fast as I could.

But then—

“YOWCH!”

Pain shot through me. I doubled over, hands cupping the damage as the hallway erupted in laughter. Students pointed their fingers at me. Whispers spread through the crowd with a speed that burned like wildfire.

I could almost hear the headlines on tomorrow’s school bulletin board. The kind that make you wish the floor swallowed you whole.

And Mai. She only shook her head as if it became my fault.

“See?” she said, grinning. “Flimsy.”