Chapter 2: Scribble

 

After the lottery event, I quickly carried my desk to my new seat.

　My new seat was at the far end by the window.

　When I came here, I found it to be quite nice.

　As I didn’t want to be a part of the class circle centered on Saegusa, the corner of the classroom was perfect for me to have a space to be alone.

　Then, another miraculous thing happened.

　To my surprise, the seat in front of me was occupied by Takayuki, who I have know for a long time.

　Takayuki was the “ya” in Yamamoto’s name, so he was the last one in the lottery order, but I thought it was fate that the number 6 remained until the end.

“It’s true what they say, there’s good fortune in leftovers! Nice to meet you, Takuya!”

　Takayuki walked over to the seat in front of me, looking happy.

I was happy just like him, so I said, “Oh! Nice to meet you too!”

　I heard the sound of a desk being carried next to me.

　As we were talking, Takayuki and I reacted to the sound and turned around to look next to me.
It was Shion Saegusa bringing in her desk.

I’ve been going to school for a couple of weeks now but the situation of a real idol that I’ve seen on TV so many times, wearing our high school uniform is sitting right next to me, still didn’t feel real, or it was a strange feeling.

“I’m Yamamoto, and this is Ichijo!”

“I know!”

　Takayuki, who has always been able to get along with anyone, greeted Saegusa as usual, even if she was a former idol.

　I thought Takayuki was an amazing in that regard.

　However, Saegusa-san’s face turned a little red as she replied, “I know”.

　No, no, no, what do you mean, “I know” in response to someone’s greeting?

　She then looked straight ahead and didn’t look at me at all, as if she was embarrassed by the exchange we had just had.

　I was grateful that she knew about it, but I didn’t understand why she reacted like that.

“Oh, that’s right.
I broke my phone the other day and had to replace it, but I forgot my Lime password, so I made a new account.
I will show you my new QR code.” [Lime is messenger app]

“Well, that’s unfortunate.”

　Takayuki showed me the QR code of his new lime account and I scanned the code with my phone and exchanged contact with him.

　I felt like Saegusa-san, who is sitting next to me, was staring at us, but I must have been imagining it.

“Okay, so please exchange answer sheets with the seat next to you and grade them.”

　The first period was Japanese.

　The teacher instructed us to exchange our answer sheets with the person sitting next to us and grade each other’s answers as we solved the quiz that came around at the end of class.

　So I ended up exchanging answer sheets with Saegusa-san.

　Saegusa-san held out her answer sheet to me with a gesture similar as taking out a 1,000 yen bill at a convenience store.

　With a wry smile, I accepted the answer sheet and handed her my own in exchange.

　Saegusa’s handwriting was very beautiful.

　I was impressed that a beautiful girl could also have beautiful handwriting.

　I used a red pen to grade the answers according to what the teacher said.

　As I graded, I realized that I had made a mistake on this question.

　I glanced sideways at Saegusa-san, who was grading next to me, but she was grading with a smile on her face for some reason.

　I wondered what was so fun about this kind of grading, but I pulled myself together and continued grading.

　As it turned out, Saegusa-san got a perfect score.

　I, on the other hand, got three out of ten questions wrong and got 70 points.

　I didn’t want to neglect my schoolwork because I was working part-time, so I was frustrated with this result.

　I knew I had to work harder, so I tightened my focus on my schoolwork.

　At any rate, it was important to review the questions I made mistakes on.

　I looked at my sheet returned by Saegusa-san and reviewed the questions where I got it wrong, and noticed that there was something written in small red pen next to my answer.

“shion-s.1012”.

　…… Hmm? What’s this?

　Shion is Saegusa-san’s name, right? What is this code?

Or should I say, do you usually write something weird on people’s sheets?

　I was once again troubled by Saegusa-san’s mysterious behavior.

　I didn’t know what it meant, and when I looked at Saegusa-san, I saw that for some reason she was looking only at the front as if she was frozen, even her ears were red.

Please give me a break.
…… I quickly put the answer sheet in my backpack for now, without even reviewing it.

　Saegusa-san, who was looking at me sideways, had an exquisite expression of surprise and sadness, and her suspicious behavior was still alive and well today.