Thoughts swirled in her head as she tried focusing on her pocket book. There was someone looking at her, she could feel it, but she didn't dare looking up. Better to just ignore it. This creeping feeling.

But she had to know.

Kotonoha lifted her head and pretended to look out of the window. She quickly found him. He averted his gaze when he saw her looking at him. A faint blush appeared on both of their faces.

She let out a small sigh of relief. This was okay, just a boy from her school. Nothing to be concerned about.

She had seen him before, lots of times. Had he been checking her out all along? No that wasn't possible. People did not check her out.

The boy looked a bit dull, as if he was permanently bored, but he was also reasonably cute.

The boy had made her curious. What was his name? What song was he listening to? Why did he look so bored? And why was he looking at her?

She knew for sure now. He had looked at her a second time. His eyes had brushed past her, just lingering long enough to confirm her suspicion. This boy was definitely looking at her.

If she had the courage she would have walked up to him and asked him what song he was listening to, but even the thought made her knees shake a little.

Scenarios of what could go wrong danced around in her head.

The train slowed down with a screeching sound.

The announcement voice told them they were at Gakuenmae station, their stop.

Kotonoha shook herself awake from her spiralling thoughts. She quickly got off the train.

The boy was walking towards the school on a leisure pace. She made sure to stay behind him.

It turned out the boy was in class I-3, the one next to hers. She wanted to be in a different class ever since the first day of school. It didn't matter which other one, just not the one she was in now. But now, suddenly, her preference had shifted a bit to class I-3.

She looked through the open door. This class looked fun. There was a calm atmosphere as everyone checked their numbers with a scheme taped to the blackboard. She hated this. The teacher simply distributed the numbers randomly and then people sneakily changed their papers so they could sit together. Because their class was uneven, someone had to sit alone, and, somehow, she was always that someone.

This class looked a lot more-

Something hit her, hard. Kotonoha felt a sharp pain in her shoulder.

"Watch it," an annoyed voice said.

Katou Otome-san.

Kotonoha had no idea what she had done wrong, but ever since day one, Katou-san had picked on her.

Actually, she did know why. In the past, girls had teased her because of her chest size, but as she grew older (and even larger), the teasing had become more like bullying.

She wanted to say something (although she didn't yet know what), but then, she saw three girls trailing behind Katou-san. Now, it didn't seem like a good plan to say something anymore, and, let's face it, what was she going to say?

So instead, she just lowered her eyes and hoped they would keep moving, which they did. She let out a breath of relief.

She couldn't remain standing here. She had to go to class. As class representative, she couldn't be late.

The first hours were merciful on her. People ignored her during homeroom, so she was fine.

And then, PE came up.

They made their way to the changing rooms. Kotonoha stood in a corner, away from the others and turned their back to them.

She could hear Katou and the Trio speak about her, but she ignored them. There was nothing she could do about it anyway.

Kotonoha hated the PE uniforms. They wore the traditional bloomers (buruma). The shorts were cut of quite high, similar to the skirts of their regular uniform, however, they were required to wear short socks with these instead of the usual thigh high ones. This meant her legs were far more exposed than usual. As if this wasn't enough, the white shirt strained heavily against her chest, drawing even more attention. Luckily, PE was girls only, so she wouldn't have to endure any dirty looks from boys, only jealous/angry ones from the girls.

In the first week, she had told the teacher she was anemic and couldn't participate, but it had backfired a bit. She had assumed she would have an excuse not to participate, but the teacher had told her she could (translation: had to) participate whenever she 'wanted to' and if it became too much, she could simply sit down on the grass and watch, no problem. So now she was spending ninety percent of the time just sitting while the others mumbled about special treatments.

She had thought anemia was a clever way to get out of PE, but she still had to change in her uniform and then call even more attention to herself by sitting by the side. Being anemic had seemed like a plausible excuse; after all, her skin was quite pale and she looked a bit sick whenever she was at school.

Now of course, there was no way she could explain the situation. So there was nothing else to do than fake being anemic for the rest of high school. She sighed at the prospect.

Kotonoha sat down on the pavement, the grass was just behind her and some bushes were further away. At least she was a safe distance away from Katou-san et al.

If only she could read a book in the meantime. But obviously, that wouldn't be allowed.

She prepared for a full period of doing nothing, however, today turned out differently.

"You're Katsura-san, aren't you?" A cheerful voice asked.

She looked up and found a cheerful looking girl standing right in front of her. She looked very ordinary. Big blue-greyish eyes, brown hair, a little over average chest size, but nothing comparable to herself. There was one so called 'idiot hair' (ahoge) sticking out on the top.

"I'm not feeling too well, so sensei told me I could sit down. You don't mind if I join you, do you?"

Before she could reply, the girl sat down next to her.

"I'm Sekai by the way," she continued. "Saionji Sekai, from class I-3."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Katsura Kotonoha, from class I-4."

At first she had been a bit suspicious of this girl suddenly appearing, but since she was from I-3, it was possible she really had no clue about her situation. This girl really looked like a nice person.

She saw people looking at her and Saionji-san, but she didn't mind. For the first time in a really long time, it looked like someone willingly wanted to talk to her.

"Not feeling well too?" Saionji-san asked. Her eyes sparkled a bit in the sun.

"Uhm, I'm anemic."

Saionji-san flashed a smile. "Are you really?"

Her blood suddenly felt very cold. She knew?

Her throat felt dry. "Uhm, can you keep a secret?"

This was a terrible idea. She would get in so much trouble if the teacher found out. Or anyone else.

"Of course."

"Well...I'm not really anemic. It's just..."

"You don't like PE?"

"Something like that."

"Hm." Saionji pondered for a moment. "Or is it maybe that you don't like the rest of your class?"

Kotonoha felt her cheeks grow hot. This girl really was seeing straight through her.

"Uhm..."

"I see."

"Uhm, Saionji-san? Why are you talking to me? The others will notice."

The other girl shrugged. "Let them. I don't mind."

"You, don't mind?" This was very strange.

"You don't fit in well with your class do you?"

"Not really."

"Well, to be honest. Back in middle school I had the same thing. The girls avoided me, for no reason at all. In your case, it probably has to do with how cute you are."

"I'm not cute," she insisted.

That got her a sceptical look. "Look, I'm just saying, I know how you feel. I know how it feels to be lonely, and I wish someone would have been there for me back in middle school. So when I saw you sitting here by yourself, I thought, 'this girl could use a helping hand'. So here I am."

"Well, thank you, I guess." Something about this whole story felt off, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Did this girl have some kind of ulterior motives?

But that wasn't possible. What could anyone possibly want from her? She was just a lonely girl with an overly large chest size. Unless this girl was a lesbian with a fetish for girls like her, which she seriously doubted, there was no plausible explanation for this. Which meant… Kotonoha sighed inwardly.

Maybe she was growing paranoid. Maybe the girls in her class had made her believe everyone hated her. Maybe...Saionji-san really was just a nice person trying to help her.

"Are you okay?" Saionji asked, breaking the silence.

"Yeah," she said, coming back from her train/spiral of thoughts. "I'm fine."

"Look, if you ever want to talk about...anything at all, you can call me." She took out her cellphone.

"You're not supposed to have your cellphone with you in PE."

She smiled. "And you don't?"

She looked around. Everyone was preoccupied with running around on the track field.

Kotonoha took out her cellphone as well.

They exchanged numbers.

"Let's take a picture," Saionji-san suggested when they were done.

"Uhm, okay."

The picture wasn't half bad. Saionji-san smiled brightly, while Kotonoha looked a bit insecure. A faint blush painted her cheeks and she didn't look straight in the camera. Saionji had wrapped her hand around her shoulder, so at least they didn't look like two girls awkwardly keeping a distance from each other.

Had she just made a friend?

No, that wasn't possible. She was just fooling herself. Saionji-san was just being nice.

The bell indicated PE was over.

They got back to change, and somehow, she lost track of Saionji-san along the way.

See. Of course. What was she thinking? This was nothing. This girl was just being nice to her. Tomorrow would be the same as usual.

Her thoughts kept buzzing around as she got dressed, but, when she got outside, something else buzzed as well.

Kotonoha fished out her phone and flipped it open.

It was from Saionji-san.

[Can I call you tonight? There's something I need to ask.]

Wait, what?

What could she possible want to ask from a girl she just met?

A confession? On the phone? How would she have to reply to that?

She felt her cheeks growing hot. Her ears burned.

No, that was way too weird. Maybe it was just, uhm, something else. Something like...something. Anything really.

There's no need to worry. She just wants to call and ask something.

Her fingers typed back.

[Yeah, sure.]

She pressed send.

Breathe. Everything is going to be fine. She wouldn't ask for anything weird.

Maybe she just wanted to talk. Yeah, that made sense. That had to be it, she convinced herself. Just chatting. That's what girls did, right? Girls her age, they chatted. About important things like fashion and uhm, boys, and nail polish, and chest size.

Oh god. She really didn't know anything about all that. She did know some things about fashion, but mostly like, expensive fashion, not something regular high school girls would know about.

Maybe she could talk about the books she read?

No, there was no one who knew about those.

What could she talk about? Now that she thought about it, she really didn't have anything to talk about. Mom had insisted she gave up her hobbies when she entered high school so she could focus more on her school work. Horse riding, iaido, piano, ballet, calligraphy… she had basically stopped with everything.

Her life was actually pretty boring now that she thought about it.

The rest of the day past in a blur. Nothing really major happened. Katou and several others were gossiping about her, but she payed them no heed.

After the last class, she went to the train station.

She stopped in her tracks.

Two people were sitting on a bench. One of them was Saionji-san, and the other was the cute dark-haired boy that rode the same train as her. Saionji-san was laughing at something the boy was telling her. He waved his hands around as he told his story.

They knew each other?

Wait, of course they knew each other, they were in the same class.

Should she go talk to Saionji-san?

Before she could make a move, Kotonoha heard a warning on the announcement and a train stopped before them.

Saionji-san got on it and left. She waved to the boy and he waved back.

She rode the other train. The one going south, to Motehara, the opposite direction. That was why she had never seen her before.

Should she go to the boy and talk to him?

It was quite busy in the station. From the corner of her eye, she saw Nanami and several others she knew. They were watching this particular boy as well.

Strange. Was he that popular? He certainly didn't look like it.

Oh well, she shrugged. Let's just go home.

She made sure to get in another wagon so the others didn't notice her.

Back home, her little sister, Kokoro-chan greeted her.

"Onee-chan, there you are. I missed you so much," she said, overly excited. Her sister hugged her.

"Did you?" What could she possible need from-

Oh, of course.

"You forgot, did you?" Her little sister released her and pouted.

"Of course not, Kokoro. Who do you take me for?"

Kokoro immediately reverted back to her bright self. Really, she could spin around in the blink of an eye.

Like she had promised, she helped her sister with homework. Kokoro was bad at math. The way things looked, okaa-san would definitely send her to summer school, something Kokoro despised passionately.

They lost track of time, until suddenly.

"Onee-chan, is that your cellphone?"

"Oh, right." She gently guided her sister to the door.

"Who is calling you, onee-chan? Your boyfriend? Does onee-chan have a boyf-"

With a final push, Kokoro was outside and the door slammed shut behind her.

Kotonoha quickly picked up. "Mochi mochi?" She spoke the traditional Japanese greeting slightly out of breath.

"Hey, Katsura-san. How are you?"

"Saionji-san?"

"You seem surprised. I told you I was going to call you, didn't I?"

"Yeah, of course. I didn't forget. I was just uhm, preoccupied."

"I see."

"So," she swallowed hard. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh, yes. Would you like to have lunch tomorrow? There's someone I would like you to meet."

Someone? Who could that be?

Maybe…

No, that couldn't be it. Maybe another girl. A friend of Saionji-san. Surely, she had friends.

"Uhm, okay. Sounds fun."

"Great, see you tomorrow then."

Kotonoha tried finding something else to say, but she couldn't come up with anything.

"See you tomorrow," she said after a short pause. She hung up the phone.

Her heart was going faster than usual, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out why.

It had been a strange day. A very strange day.

She couldn't help but wonder what tomorrow would bring.

If only she knew back then, what the future would bring, she might have replied differently.