10 years had passed since I started playing the game of sekkusu with my childhood friend.

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Chapter 5: Yes, I am an introvert. You got a problem?

Our school, Tomomori Gakuen, is a few train stops away from our house. Until elementary school, we went to school together, but ever since Haruhime started going to morning practice for the track team, we have been going to school at different time.

Her deviation scores are among the mid-range.

I chose a school that I could get into without studying very hard, and enrolled myself there. While Haruhime, who was more diligent with her studies, could have probably managed to go to a a slightly better school, but she chose this school apparently because it had a larger schoolyard.

When we sat down ten minutes before the start of the school day, Fukuo Kurusu, who was sitting behind me, tapped me on my shoulder.

“Tetsu-dono, were you able manage your math homework?”

With a sneaky voice that didn’t suit his huge frame, Fukuo approached me. I silently handed him the notebook, and the man bowed his head in deep respect.

“Kuu, you really saved my life here. You see, last night I got so absorbed in my new ero-game that I went on playing it until whole night.”

“Never mind that, hurry up and give it back to me when you’re done copying it.”

“A good friend is something you must have, isn’t it?”

Saying so, Fukuo happily began to run his pen fast and furiously.

Kurusu Fukuo, who talked in a very strange way, was one of my few friends, and for Fukuo, I was his only friend. Given his strange accent and nerdy outfit, it was unlikely that anyone would come close to him. Neither was Fukuo interested in matters related to three-dimensional things, so he didn’t approach them as well.

However, just his figure is very large.

Whatever the reason, Fukuo has been in the same class since the first grade, and naturally we get along well with each other since we are both loners.

“So sleepy……”

Since there was nothing to do until class begins, I decided to plop down on my desk and go to sleep.

One thing that Fukuo and I have in common is that we are both below the bottom of the caste system. A mute, brooding, and thick nerd. Today, he’s dusting himself off in the corner of the class.

Well, that’s fine as well.

Hanging out with Fukuo was easy. It was not the picture-perfect youth life, but it was much easier than getting hurt or being hurt by someone else.

“Good morning!”

While I was dozing off in a daze, a group of the class’s yo-kya group entered the classroom in a rush. The morning practice of the club activities usually ends at the same time, so they would generally come in just before the start of the school day.

When the yo-kya group entered the classroom, the quiet classroom became noisy at once. I and Fukuo were the exact opposite of that kind of energy.

A little after the clumping yo-kai group, Haruhime entered the classroom.

With her hair tied back in a single knot, she was talking with her friend. Her bare skin, visible through the sleeves of her school uniform, was coated with sunscreen as it absorbed the light from the fluorescent lights.

Haruhime looked at us and smiled (or seemed to smile) at us.

“O~Oh, the Princess smiled at us!”

Fukuo’s expression lit up at that gesture.

“It’s a good omen, surely. Surely something good will happen today, no doubt.”

“I wonder.”

“She’s one of the five most beautiful girls in Tomomori Gakuen.”

“Who decided that?”

“It was I.”

So it was arbitrarily.

“According to rumors, there is a secret fan club revolving around her, that I’ve heard.”

“Of course not. It’s not some manga after all.”

“Although it quite a rather reliable source, that I am giving from.”