The Story of How I, a Guy Who Couldn’t Care Less About School Castes, Somehow Ended Up Making All the Five-Star Gals Fall for Me - Chapter 00: Prologue

Prologue: Stars That Don’t Cross

The world is overflowing with rankings.

Once upon a time, experts used knowledge and experience—numbers, quality, results—to hand out evaluations people could actually trust.

But in today’s info-drenched age, none of that matters anymore.

Professionals, amateurs—everyone just tosses their opinions into the void, and half the time, we swallow those shaky rankings without even questioning them.

Well, it can’t be helped.

Humans are creatures who just love to rank things.

Take a classroom, for example.

Even among classmates, some vague, who-knows-who-decided ranking system always ends up forming—the so-called school caste.

And at the very top of that? The so-called First-Tier Girls.

At Gingamine High School, in Class 2-D, there was a group of four such girls.

Everyone knew them as the Five-Star Gals.

Hari Suitengu — the cool, queen-like gal.

Hinawa Hiwatari — the bright, energetic gal.

Miyu Chigira — the small-animal-like healing gal.

Platina Kongouji — the lazy, mysterious gal.

Anyone glancing across the classroom couldn’t help but be drawn to them.

Like stars glittering in the night sky, they shone brightly, impossible to ignore.

These four dazzling girls were admired not only for their looks and striking personalities, but also because all their names carried a “starry” feel.

And so, crowned with the title of Five Stars to mark them as the absolute top, they became the school’s undisputed celebrities.

On the other hand, there were people who couldn’t care less about rankings.

One of them was Ikoi Kizuki.

A classmate of the Five-Star Gals, he was the very definition of a caste-indifferent boy.

Rankings, status, reputation, looks—none of it mattered to him.

He never got caught up in other people’s standards, never cared about how others judged him, and just lived his school life at his own pace.

Because of that, he never got nervous around girls.

He didn’t puff himself up or try to act cooler than he was.

Even when talking to the glittering, idol-like beauties of the class, he could respond calmly and naturally.

He never even thought about trying to be liked—his relaxed, down-to-earth attitude simply came out on its own.

And it wasn’t just with girls.

He didn’t bow down to the guys who acted “above” everyone.

He wasn’t fazed by the sports team muscleheads who loved showing off.

He treated the honor students the same as anyone else.

Even with the hardcore otaku crowd, his attitude stayed exactly the same.

He didn’t define himself by what kind of friends he had, nor was he some loner with no one to talk to.

Thanks to that overwhelming neutrality, he belonged to no clique, yet could freely mingle with every group.

Ikoi was a drifter—someone who existed completely outside the school caste.

The very top of the rankings, and the one beyond rankings altogether.

Stars that should never have crossed… would end up bound together by love.

This is the offbeat love story of how the Five-Star Gals—the queens of the caste system—fell head over heels for the boy who never cared about any of it.

Because, when you really fall in love… rankings don’t mean a damn thing.