An after school affair with an unattainable flower - Chapter 1 (Lilac): Part 3

After walking on a familiar road for about 30 minutes, I arrived at my destination.

I changed my shoes in the shoe-cupboard and headed to the classroom, but as a given, no one was in the classroom yet.

I took my usual seat in the usual classroom and started my usual habits.

About my usual habit, it was nothing but just reading books.

The book I’m reading now is In the world where the face was already gone, a pure love novel about a blind girl, and a boy whose face was severely burned in a fire that happened in the past.

The blind girl is congenitally blind, but she has a beautiful face and a beautiful heart.

While the boy who suffered the burns tends to be shunned by those around him because of his appearance, and in time had become somewhat servile.

In the chapter I’m reading right now, it was the part where the boy happened to save the girl who was clearly in trouble, it’s almost as if the gears of destiny for that boy and that girl had started turning.

ーーーAnd so, I get sucked in, in that immersive world of books.

As I keep falling, from what is real—-……

People say that when they are concentrating, the sounds around them disappear from cognition, but in my case, that happens when I am reading.

I feel like I’m diving underwater.

And just like divers also need to come above the surface for a breather, even my focused reading needs a periodic breather from time to time.

When I come to a sharp point, I place my bookmark in the book and close it.

Simultaneously, I start hearing my classmates’ loud voices all at once.

It seems that I was reading just until the time before homeroom.

When I turned my eyes forward, at that moment, my eyes met someone’s.

“Yo~, Good morning!”

“Good morning”

“As usual, your concentration is just so amazing. I’ve been trying to talk to you so many times by now, but you can’t hear me at all. Arre~? Could it be, you did that on purpose?”

“It wasn’t intentional, but if I did offend you nonetheless, I apologize. But even for Taichi, who doesn’t react when I talk to you while you’re reading, so isn’t this something that in fact goes for the both of us?”

“Nope, in my case I can hear it faintly, but I’m ignoring them on purpose.”

He smiles wryly.

“That’s on purpose? You’re mean dude.”

“But in my case, although I do hear it from afar, but then again as I am reading, I couldn’t really feel and care less about that faraway voice. I mean, I’m enjoying the new world right now, so I don’t want anyone to get in my way. In that sense, I feel like mine is a bit different from concentration.”

“I think that’s also a form of concentration.”

“Well, I am thankful when you interpret it in such a favorable way. By the way, what were you reading earlier, Amane?”

“A~h, this? This is a romance novel called In the world where the face was already gone about a blind girl, and a boy whose face has been burned badly and ugly.”

“That sounds kind of interesting. Who is the author?”

“It’s Ikeda Akinobu. He’s not very famous right now, but I like his stories because they have a lot of vocabulary.”

*Keen Korn Khan Korn

As the chime rang, signaling the start of homeroom.

“Well, when you’re done reading, can you lend it to me?”

As he saw the homeroom teacher come in, he spoke that out rather quickly.

“Sure.”

I also responded quickly and briefly.

Sato Taichi.

One of my few friends.

He has a very bright personality and has the same hobby of reading as I do.

At first glance, anyone might think that he seems to prefer sports to reading books. However in reality, he has no sense of athletics and hates exercising.

“Well then, I don’t have anything in particular to say today, but make sure you take classes properly, got it?”

Saying that, the homeroom teacher quickly left the classroom.

“If only there was a notice about some accident, and we didn’t need to come to school for a while. Don’t you think so too, Amane?”

“Hahaha, well, you’re saying that to a teacher who is quite serious to say “None” at your face when you come and him that; wai– Taichi–?”

Somehow he whispered in my ear secretly while grinning.

“My eyes just now met Takamine-san’s.”

“…Eh?”

“Iyaa~, I feel so lucky today to have met the most beautiful girl in school, That Takamine-san’s gaze~”

“Um, so… is that all?”

“What do you mean by ‘only that’ huh? What do you even mean by that! Look at that face properly!”

He grabbed my cheeks and forced me to turn around and look that way.

Ahead of my line of sight that got forcibly changed, there was Takamine Hana chatting with her friend.

Taichi did say that she was famous for being the most beautiful girl in school, but, from a single instance I could tell that, it wasn’t just some exaggeration or something like that at all.

Her beautiful appearance has captivated god knows how many men till now, and moreover, a personality that is able to get into the good side of the girls who are supposed to ostracize her, managing to make even them, of the same gender, have an attraction to her. An existence that can be said as the ideal of human beings itself.

And on top of that, even her grades are the highest of the class in my grade, a person so perfect that it makes me smile at her unconsciously.

In my first year, I was in a different class from her, but even I, who had little to no contact with her, knew her name right after I entered high school.

When we actually passed each other in the hallway, that transcendental beauty certainly seemed to almost steal my heart right then and there.

And with such experiences, I became friends with Taichi being in the same class in the first year. Well even after getting into the second year, after having our class shuffled, we were still in the same class again.

Although at the same time of the shuffle.

I also happened to be in the same class as Takamine-san.

Naturally, the boys in the class were expressing their joy in secret, and so was I and Taichi, who were also happy in our own ways.

But It had been two months since then. Even though it is said that one gets bored of beautiful women in three days.

Yet, well, even though I wouldn’t say that I’m particularly tired of her beauty, but, I still believe that it should’ve been about time that everyone would get used to the fact that she’s our classmate.

Or rather, I already got used to it.

Even so, whenever Taichi’s and her eyes meet, he looks and feels so happy about that, that even his breath gets irregular.

No, it’s not just Taichi. All the boys in my class are like that.

Am I the only odd one out?

“Iyaaa~ She’s such a treat for sore eyes every day. Don’t you think so as well?”

“Don’t you get used to it, watching her for two months already?”

“You basta–d already have a cute little sister named Ayane-chan whose looks are on par with Takamine-san, so you don’t know how much grateful we feel, damn it!”

“Well, it’s true that Ayane is really cute, even though I look at her from the perspective of an elder brother, but isn’t this and that completely different?”

“What the he–k do you even mean by, ‘Ayane is really cute, even though I look at her from the perspective of an elder brother’ huh!? Stop speaking fondly about your love affairs already damn it!?”

“No, rather, why are you getting so excited about this? Isn’t that just weird?”

“Haaaah… After all, people are creatures that don’t appreciate things unless they lose it.”

“No, what are you even talking about?”

“I’m talking about how blessed you are right now.”

“I don’t understand a bit though.”

After receiving Taichi’s full-on unreasonable resentment, today will be quite a lively day. Such was my thought.

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