Her Youthful Charm Won't Work on Me!

The day after the entrance ceremony.

"Remember Haru, you'll be moving into the dorm by the end of today." Haru's mother speaks to him whilst packing their lunches in cute little lunchboxes, Haru's is yellow with a SonBird sticker on the side, the humanoid parrot sticker stares into his soul whenever he eats. 

'When the void stares at you, stare right back, or something.' His gaze is fixed on the sticker as they engage in a battle of attrition, meanwhile his mother continues talking to him."Make sure all your stuff is packed before you go out... Oh and keep it by the door."

She closes the lid on Haru's lunchbox and notices something strange ongoing in the kitchen, "your eyes are going to shrivel you know."

Water clouds his vision as he loses the battle, however he swears to himself that the war isn't over. 

With a slight sting in his eyes, Haru carefully finds a spot for his lunch inside a navy blue sukuba (a sort of over the shoulder handbag used in school) 

Haru thanks her for the food and walks off, however he stops at the door, turning around as his mom asks a question from behind. "How are you liking your new bag?" 

A faint smile draws itself on his face when he looks at her, "I'm liking it, thank you."

One minute later, Haru puts on a pair of black loafers and exits the front door, just in time to notice a familiar face walking past the outer gate.

Although wearing a brown cap that covers half her face, Haru realizes the one under the hat's shadow. 

'Huh? Is that the girl from yesterday?'

Feeling uneasy about her presence, Haru decides to wait until she passes before following closely behind her. With every step she takes, he makes sure to time it with his own. 

Not having gotten far from his home, the girl suddenly pauses, making Haru instinctively stop walking as well. She turns around.

However to her surprise there's nobody behind her, so she turns back around and continues walking down the road. 

Haru slowly takes several deep breaths as he moves on the tips of his toes, 'if she turned around anymore I wouldn't have been able to stay hidden...!' He closes his eyes to steady himself.

"Are you some kind of modern ninja?" 

The question quickly registers in his mind and panic sets in as his eyes dart open, "I'm sorry I wasn't following you I swear, this is ju-" Haru bites his tongue and looks up at her whilst reeling from the pain.

"What are you so panicky for? This is just the way to school right?" She says in a monotonous tone.

Haru's eyes widen as he's caught off guard by her nonchalant demeanor, "yea, that's what I was going to say, hahaha..." He scratches at the back of his neck whilst awkwardly laughing his prior anxiousness away.

"Then..." He raises a finger towards the end of the road, "do you mind?" The girl turns around, her hair swipes past his face, "feel free."

Without another word, they walk down the road with Haru still following closely behind her, his sukuba hanging off his shoulder whilst matching her pace.

He looks down at the girl in front of him, 'should I ask for her name...?' He continues to ponder the risks of this action, although doesn't get to finish as they reach the front gate of school.

'What kind of marching band is this, a two person one?' Haru looks directly to the person sitting in front of him as they both take their respective seats by the back window. 

Haru lowers his bag and hangs it on a metal hook beside his desk, all the while thinking to himself, 'I followed her through the gate, into the locker room, up the stairs, through two hallways and into class.'

His gaze nearly drills a hole into the back of her uniform's blazer, 'she put her hat inside her bag and now she's sitting in front of me.'

All of a sudden, the entire classroom erupts into a torrent of chatter as students all around them look at her whilst whispering amongst each other. Haru manages to catch a few lines said in the crowd.

"Look over there by the window, it's the girl from yesterday, I'm actually surprised she showed up today."

"For real? Which one? I was sitting on the far right, I couldn't see."

"Butler girl, hey Hana, you should go ask her to service you hahaha."

As Hana's name is mentioned, Haru looks around and sees four students grouped together at the front door of the classroom, among them is Saito Hana.

"You're right, I'll try talking to her again." Hana gets off her friend's desk and plops her feet on the floor before walking towards Haru's table.

Hana briefly smiles at Haru along the way. 

He crosses his arms on the table and buries his head inside, pretending to be sleeping. Hana's smile drops slightly as she reaches Ketsuki's desk, just in front of Haru's.

She places a hand on the desk's wooden surface, before speaking to Ketsuki in a hushed tone.

"Hey, your performance was entertaining yesterday, could you do it for my friends again? We want to try some roleplay with you during lunch, I think it'll be fun."

Ketsuki turns her head upwards to face Hana, "really...?" She stops for a moment before speaking again, "yeah, sure!" 

She forces herself to smile whilst maintaining eye contact with Hana, a 'tch' sound seems to come from her after hearing Ketsuki's reply. 

Haru lifts his head slightly so that his eyes poke out over his arms, he watches as Hana walks away without a word.

'How naïve is this girl? Saito-san's clearly lying to her.' 

As soon as he decides to actually get some rest, their homeroom teacher walks in and orders all the students to sit back at their desks.

With a single sheet of paper in his hands, the teacher introduces himself first.

"Good morning students, I will be your homeroom teacher from now on, please refer to me as Takahashi-sensei, or just sensei is okay." (Sensei is a term used by students to refer to teachers in general)

"Now we have a new student with us today, they should be sitting by the window..." The teacher looks up the row beside the windows, "ah, second last row on the right by the window, could you introduce yourself first? Then we'll all take turns so you guys better think of something to say alright!" 

He curls up the sheet of paper and gently taps it in his hand as he looks across the classroom.

The girl in front of Haru stands up, scraping the chair's legs against the floor before taking a shallow breath.

Seemingly nervous, she pulls on the left side of her hair, bringing it forward to cover her neck.

Warm light fills the classroom through the glass paned windows, the curtains drawn back. A gentle breeze swirls around the classroom due to two spinning overhead fans, everyone stares at the new student.

"My name is Kyuu Ketsuki, I transferred here from the nearby prefecture of Kanagawa." 

"Sorry could you repeat that again? I think I might've misheard your name." The teacher leans in closer towards Ketsuki.

Haru looks up with Ketsuki's back facing him, 'what?'

She feels her face warming and grabs onto her blazer using her right hand. Ketsuki's words feel as if they don't want to leave her mouth, yet she speaks anyway.

"My name is... Kyuu Ketsuki, Takahashi-sensei." 

"Kyuu... Ketsuki? I see, thennn uhh, let's start taking turns doing introductions now shall we? Glad to have you here Kyuu-san."

Haru hears snickering from around the classroom, especially from Hana's corner, as Ketsuki pulls her chair forward and pats her skirt before sitting back down.

Although this was only their first day, Haru imagines it can't get any better from here onwards.

'She's gotten herself in a bad situation... What's Kyuu-san going to do now...?'