PROLOGUE(sort of?)

It could have been fate or as some would call it, destiny. She had gotten away with it for so long, she should have anticipated this, been on guard, but no. Being lulled into a fall sense of security, Tomoko stopped checking. Her carelessness was why she was here.

Wait, no.

It was that damned teacher's fault for creepily looking at what a cute teenage girl like herself was doing with her phone.

A FEW HOURS AGO

It was lunch time and Tomoko was starving, but, today, food was not her priority. Today, she had another mission; to read the next chapter of "Steamy daydreams". It was serendipity, she had found the GLORIOUS piece of literary and artistic work when she was surfing through the net for something more to her taste when she stumbled upon it.

Tomoko hastily gulped down whatever food she had and headed to the library. There, she found a corner and took out a random book and made herself comfortable. The large book was now open in front of her.

Looking around, she noticed that it was silent and no one was in sight. A grin spread on her face as she took out her phone and searched up the manga she was reading. She downloaded the latest chapter and proceeded to read.

As the chapter progressed (one and a half page later), the two guys finally got down to business and Tomoko was feeling ecstatic. It was getting steamy, as the title had promised. Five seconds later, all hell broke loose and she might as well have been in a volcano.

'The author…she's creative'

It got better, the guys in the story were…..drool worthy, no, they deserved the galaxy.

'I love the internet!'

And as she grew more excited, scrolling to the next page, she suddenly felt the large book being lifted out of her hand.

"Wha-wha-?"

A teacher, the newly appointed History teacher had just taken the book away, leaving her phone fully exposed.

"I would like to know why this specific piece of literary work HAD to be read upside down. Surely, the history of paper making could not have been so complicated"

Panic flooded through her, and the phone she was holding, fell to the floor.

"S-s-s-s-s-sensei I-I-I-I-I-I h-h-ha-" stuttered Tomoko.

The teacher paid no mind to her attempt at an explanation and picked up the fallen phone.

He looked at the screen. His eyes widened. He looked at Tomoko.

Tomoko's soul left her body. People could see the grey thing with crosses as eyes going out of her if they squinted a bit.

"Meet me at the end of school day, Miss?"

"K-k-k-k-k-kkuroki"

"Kuroki. We will need to talk. Until then, I will keep hold of your phone" said the teacher as he walked away, leaving her life in shambles.

NOW

And so, here she was, at the teacher's room, searching for the teacher, whose name was "Sasaki". The teacher had spotted her and walked towards her. The two headed out of the room('Thank god', thought Tomoki).

The balding, stocky man stopped and turned to face Tomoko, a little distance away from the teacher's room.

"I am sure you are completely aware of why I have called you here"

"y-y-yes"

"I will be confiscating your phone." said the teacher.

Tomoko was doomed, how could she explain that to her parents?

"Fortunately for you, I will not be calling up your parents. I have seen your records and you seem to be a rather well behaved child. ". The teacher said this in an stern voice, not at all reassuring.

"This", he continued, "does not mean you don't face punishment. You will be cleaning up the school's gym room and the pool for the next two months. This was originally the class representatives' duty, but, I am sure they would make much better use of their now free time."

The gym room and the pool, by herself, alone.

'Torture! Blasphemy! Child labour! This is going against all laws of basic human rights! ', thought Tomoko

"You will have the help of Hayakawa from class 3. " said the teacher. He started walking away and signaled Tomoko to follow.

She did not know what was worse; working alone to clean up the entire gym on her own, or having to cooperate and interact with someone.

'Definitely working with someone'

The teacher headed towards class 3 and opened the door. Inside, sat a boy. He immediately stood up at the sight of Sasaki-sensei.

He had slightly short hair, almost like her brother's. Pimples spotted his face along with freckles and he was slightly tanned. He was so painfully average, his face wouldn't even be drawn if he were part of a crowd in an anime.

'Great, I need to work with this guy. Couldn't he have been a bit more hotter?' The gods were against her, she was never going to find the hot guy in this dating sim, not for a while anyways. She had a year, she had some time before she turned 17.

"Hayakawa, Kuroki, you two will be cleaning the gym everyday and the pool on Thursdays." The teacher reached into his pant pockets for a key. He placed it on a desk.

"Open the store room and take your supplies, I expect the gym to be spotless every, single, day. Got that?"

The two nodded. The teacher headed out.

The door closed behind the teacher and the two were left alone.

They stood there, staring at the key.

'What did this guy get in for? Talking too loudly? Not completing his homework for too long?'

Tomoko reached for the keys, but the boy reached faster, getting hold of the object, bumping into her.

"Sorry", he said.

Tomoko nodded.

"I guess, we better get to work then?" said the boy.

Tomoko, being the intellectual she was, nodded again. She took the first move to head out to the gym. The boy, 'Hayakawa', followed.

They walked in awkward silence. Hayakawa was now ahead of Tomoko, and he seemed like he was about to sprint. Tomoko did not know why, maybe they were being followed by a demon only he could see?

Hayakawa slowed his pace suddenly and started to walk next to Tomoko,like he heard her thoughts.

"So, what's your name? I know it's Kuroki, but full name?" asked he.

'He wants my first name? Why? I am not interested in background fodder bruh'

"Tomoko Kuroki" said she anyways, because, politeness and etiquette and shit.

"Which class? I don't think you'd be in 4 because I know everyone there, but 1 and 2 are a bit of a mystery to me. "

"Class 1"

"Oh, cool! I know one kids, he wears glasses, a total idiot, but he is a pretty nice guy once you get past his sleaziness."

"I-I, guess I know him". Honestly, she didn't, she did not remember half of her classmates, no, ignore that, she knew only the ones' sitting in her area, so that's three people.

"Man, you don't talk much do you? Your answers are so short."

Tomoko looked up, offended. 'Wait, should this offend me? Maybe it makes me seem like an intellectual. Smart people always get straight to the point. '

"Uhm, that is, what I meant was, it's refreshing! My friends are such loud mouths, they keep going on and on and on about the smallest of things. It gets annoying. Like, one guy wanted to talk about the pizza he had this other day which was mind blasting amazing! He goes on about it for an hour and we all fell asleep" said Hayakwa hurriedly.

'This guy…..what does he want?'

"Oh", said Tomoko(friendly reminder, she is an intellectual).

"Yeah….so…..". said Hayakawa, drawing out the 'so'.

"We should get to know each other, we'll be working together for a month or so right?", he continued.

'Am I a cheap substitute for his friends?'

Tomoko was confused. She did not want to talk to the guy, or interact with him in any way. She had to steel her nerves to get out a reply and it took all of her mental strength to not turn into a mess. Doing this for weeks straight would be hell.

"Okay" said she.

She was masochist.

Almost everyone can relate to Tomoko in one way or another. She reminds of me a lot. This story is very vaguely based on how I non-Tomoko-fied myself into an average, functional human being.

Hayakawa, I swear to any god up there will not be the usual type of guy in fanfics. Meaning, he is not special in any way or form. He is an average student, with an average life and average friends. He is NOT hot, he is NOT ugly. He is okay looking. He isn't really smart or really dumb. He isn't cold or too jovial. Just...an average guy.

This story, is about how Hayakawa and Tomoko become friends and how her socializing process is sped up because of Hayakawa. Simple.