Only the princess of the school notices me, who almost does not exist

TL note: Dialogue in “()” is whispering.

After that? There was nothing in particular.

As you know, I, Ebato Ren, was of desperately thin-presence and my name was unknown. I was already a master of shadows, was there anyone else like me?

That kind of me getting together with Shirakawa Sayo? Impossible.

Now, back to the school. It was lunch break in early October. From the start of the school year, I always sat in the back of the class. Sitting by the window, I would rest my chin on my hand. Hmm? No, it was not like there was no change in the sitting order. It was just called student number and luck, and those are constant.

Oh, the bell rang. The 5th period started, and I went to sleep.

“The exams are over, so let’s change the seating order.~”

By the way, last week, there were midterm exams.

Let’s get this over with, so I can sleep again… Well, my seat probably won’t change.

The seat change was over.

As expected, my seat didn’t change. Well, the reason was clear; the homeroom teacher just shuffled the current seat order, so a homeroom teacher who couldn’t remember my name wouldn’t change my seat. (tl: I have no idea how it works)

Huh? If that’s so, shouldn’t the seats have changed? No, the seats changed, but not mine.

It became noisy, and the reason was:

“A-, Ebato-san. Please take care of me.”

Huh?

Surprised, I looked to the right, and unexpectedly the “princess” was smiling as she sat in the seat on my right.

“Aa, take care of me too.”

I wondered, somehow, lately, I had been in a lot of contact with her. Also, this was the first time I was greeted by another student. Well, I didn’t care about that, so I went to sleep. I had heard that this teacher was strict with sleeping students, but the teacher didn’t notice me. Aha, very pleasant.

“(Ebato-san, you can’t sleep.)”

A whisper came from Sayo.

I glared at her.

“This doesn’t concern you.”

“(It does concern me because we are in the same class.)”

Like before, she stuck to her own opinion, whatever it was. This time I gave in, so I just looked towards the front of the class.

“I understand~” I waved my hand unfriendly until Sayo was happy.

————

Afterwards, I couldn’t sleep in class; it was hell.

I arrived at the apartment building and walked down the corridor to my apartment. When I turned to the right, at the corner, Sayo was sitting on the same bench from last time at the end of the corridor.

“Yo.”

I greeted her properly.

“Good evening. So, we are seat neighbors.”

“Well, even if we are neighbors, I don’t want others to see me with you.”

There was no reason to be seen with her. After I said that, Sayo gazed at me with wide eyes.

“Ebato-san is not interested in me, right?”

“Not particularly. I don’t care if you are a princess or a goddess. I don’t care. Well, anyway, why did you ask me that?”

I didn’t really understand the benefits of listening.

“No, I’m certain… I may be popular, but the eyes that look at me are usually ill-mannered…”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Since it was another person’s affair, it didn’t concern me.

“Well, if I was like Ebato-san, then I wouldn’t be worried.”

“That’s right. I’ve always been lonely and I’m fine with it. I don’t need such things like romance or youth.”

“Is that so?”

Princess said that with a smile.

She smiled all the time; couldn’t she make other facial expressions? No, there were times when her facial expression changed, but it was mostly this expression…

“I was thinking, can you make any other facial expressions?”

“E-? Why are you asking that so suddenly?”

“You’re smiling all the time. No matter what you do or where you are. It’s creepy.”

On that, her expression changed, or maybe I saw it wrong.

Sayo’s face suddenly became serious.

Hmm? Have I… stepped on a landmine?

“Is that so? That was very rude. By the way, you always sleep in class, but you shouldn’t sleep, isn’t that right?”

Unlike today in school, I thought about it more deeply:

“If no one notices, it doesn’t hurt anyone, right?”

“How is it that you are in 2nd place in the grade?…”

That’s right. I was above average in academics and sports. Even so, no one knew me…

“Why do you know my rank?”