Romantic's Side

l

Hello Again

Naniwa's Biggest Idiot and Hyoutei's Hopeless Romantic


Hyoutei Academy.

A private school full of kids from well off families within Japan and internationally. It has a wide selection of food, lovely architecture and landscape, and a multitude of classes you can pick from. It was a lavish environment that Yuushi was progressively getting settled into.

If there was one thing that made it to his list of irritating things however, and it was the rabid fan girls spouting their love and admiration for their most recently appointed tennis team captain.

'Atobe-sama is so cool!'

'His serves are the most elegant!'

'Kya! He's looking this way!'

Those were the kind of noisy things he had to hear at the start of the week. The train ride to Hyoutei made him doze off every time and to hear such incessant, high pitched glorification when he attended morning practice was awful. On days he didn't sleep well, it would give him a lasting headache that persisted through the first half of the day. As he passed through the hall of classrooms, he overheard the conversation of two of his peers behind him.

"I just came back from the faculty room and it turns out we're going to have a transfer student in our class today."

"Really now~ It's already October and we have a new student coming in? A girl's voice asked excitedly. "Girl? Boy?"

"Girl. She's a pretty one too. From what I noticed she isn't international." The other guy recalled and entered the classroom following Yuushi. "She has this really thick Kansai accent."

"Eh~ No way~"

Yuushi walked away from his gossiping classmates and set his tennis bag on the floor beside his desk before settling in. To his side he noticed a new, unoccupied seat shining under the light filtering through the window.

'A pretty girl from Kansai, huh?'

The nine o' clock morning bell signified the start of their first class. Most of the girls were still crowding one side of the room, and the boys were standing by the windows and sitting on top of their tables chatting away.

The classroom door opened and Yuushi watched as the sound sent everyone scrambling to their seats. Their homeroom teacher walked in with his attendance folder in hand.

"Everyone settle down now." Their teacher commanded as he picked up a piece of chalk. "All right, we have a new student in our class starting today. She just moved from Naniwa, Osaka. Welcome her warmly."

The teacher moved to rewrite the date on the board when one of his students asked,

"Ono-sensei, where's the new student?"

Looking to his side, he sighed for a moment before excusing himself from the room.

"Please wait a moment."

Their teacher approached the door and stuck his head out into the hall.

"Katagiri? I understand you're very shy, but are you going to stay out here all day?" Ono-sensei made a come here motion with his hands,"Please come inside the classroom. Yes, this way. There we go."

Ono-sensei went back inside the classroom followed by a girl. She stood in front of the classroom with her hands clasped in front of her, head tilted down to the floor.

"Your name?"

"Hiyori Katagiri. Please take care of me."

The class greeted her in unison.

"I've prepared a seat for you beside Oshitari in the back row. He's from Osaka as well, so you two already have something in common."

It really was Hiyori. A smile formed on Yuushi's lips. The childhood friend he left behind reunites with him at last.

What a nice plot.

Her bangs were freshly cut and swooped just above her eyes and the winter uniform flattered her small frame nicely. The boy that was talking behind him earlier wasn't wrong about her beauty.

'Of course. She's always been cute though. The only pretty girl he knew in Kansai was Hiyori.'

He didn't pay much attention to any other girl besides her back when he was in Osaka anyway.

He watched as she set her back down inside of her desk and stare at the front attentively like she didn't notice him.

"You said I'd see you in Tokyo..." The bespectacled boy was leaning his head on his hand and expressed his surprise to her,"But I didn't think the first time would be here of all places. Why didn't you tell me that much?"

She tried to brush him off with a legit reasoning,"Class started, let's talk later."

"*Nan de ya nen, Hiyori? It's just Japanese history. It's quite boring, don't you think? I can finally see your pretty eyes now that your bangs-"

The led tip of her pencil snapped the second she pulled it out of her bag.

"Yuushi...!" Hiyori hissed between her teeth,"It's my worst subject...!"

The sound of Ono-sensei clearing his throat was heard at the front of the room, but most eyes were at the back watching the two friends interact so casually with each other.

"Oshitari. Katagiri. It seems you do know each other enough to call each other by your names, which is very exciting. I'm sure. But please wait until the passing period to resume your conversation and pay attention to me."

Yuushi adjusted the glasses on his nose. He got carried away, he'll admit that much, but he still blamed his carelessness. Hiyori just continued to stare at the front of the classroom and tuned him out for the remainder of their morning classes.


When the teacher left the classroom for morning recess, some girls crowded around Hiyori's table and bombarded her with their introductions and questions. It was amusing to watch; seeing her so popular on the first day of class. Yuushi knew Hiyori well enough that all she wanted was to get up from her seat and speed away.

That's where he came in.

"Hiyori." He sat up from his seat and weaved past the girls that surrounded her table,"Come here."

It wasn't a request, it was a command. Her face had lightened up considerably and he read it as a sign of relief.

'Good.' Yuushi had thought to himself. 'I'm doing a service.'

With an apology and a curt nod to the girls, she removed herself from her seat and followed Yuushi into the hall. After walking a few doors down from their class, he turned around and faced her.

"I was about ready to leave, but I didn't want to be so rude. It'd make a bad impression on my first day, you know?"

She made quite the impression already when she didn't follow the teacher into the classroom. She disliked situations where she was put on the spot, Yuushi knew that much. That hadn't changed since primary school.

"You're free from that now." Yuushi looked down at her with an amused smirk,"I couldn't stand how I was beside you the whole time and couldn't speak to you at all."

"You were also staring at me a whole lot during class. Were you even paying attention?" Hiyori was grumbling to him now,"It was embarrassing. Don't do that again. Please."

"I couldn't help it. I had trouble registering you were actually here because I was caught off guard. I'm quite upset."

And that was the truth.

"Eh? You're upset?" Her eyes dropped to the floor and she looked genuinely worried,"I just wanted to surprise you, that's all."

"If I had known you were going here, I would've skipped morning tennis practice to accompany you to school."

"Ah, you!" The vigor in her eyes returned and the girl hit his arm,"You sound like Kenya now."

Hiyori was comparing him to Kenya?

'No way.'

"How so?" Yuushi demanded an explanation to that comment.

"Saying idiotic things."

"Don't say that now. He's a different level of idiocy. A much higher tier of idiocy."

"As a former tennis team manager, I disapprove of such behavior." The serious side of her personality was coming back to berate him,"I'd definitely be unhappy if you really did that."

"I don't know if I can even take you seriously." Yuushi bent down a little to reach her height and teased her. "You're cute even when you're telling me off."

The two bickered as Yuushi showed her around the first year building. It was refreshing to have her around again. The boy made it so they looped around to make a stop at the library.

"I have a few things I need to check out here before I show you what's outside." He opened the door for her first and motioned her forward with his hand.

After entering first, Hiyori turned around with a funny look on her face,"Were you always like this?"

"Like what?"

"A gentleman."

"Only to you, ojou-san." Yuushi replied smoothly.

"Ah, there you go again!" She pouted,"That's weird! Stop it!

"What is?" He listened to her demands while she following him through the aisle of bookshelves.

"You know what!"

"I really don't know!" He threw his hands up and shrugged sarcastically. "You have to tell me!"

"Just quit teasing me..."

"Yes, yes." He complied as he traced a finger over the spines of books and scanned its titles,"I really can't help it though, you're too cute."

'That much is true.' Yuushi chuckled to himself.

"What are you smiling about?" Hiyori was sulking even more.

Could she possibly get anymore cuter?

'One, two...' Yuushi counted in his head,'And three.'

One by one, he pulled a few titles from the shelf until he held three books in his hand.

"All done."

After checking out them out, he let out a hum of satisfaction. As the two stepped out into the courtyard, Yuushi noticed Hiyori staring very intently at the books tucked under his arm. It was a good idea that he put the titles face down so she could not see them.

"What kind of books did you check out?"

"I'm not sure if I should tell you," He answered in all honesty.

"How come?"

"You might think of me differently if you did."

That was also true. Some time before entering Hyoutei, he entered the world of romance novels and engaged himself in their movie counterparts. No one knew of this past time yet. Not even his nosy older sister.

"Oh..." Hiyori drawled disappointingly,"That's too bad, but I still want to know."

If they were going to be in class together all year long, she was going to find out eventually. Yuushi decided to tell her, but not without teasing her a little more.

"All right, all right. But promise me you won't see or treat me differently afterwards, okay?"

"Is it really that bad...?" Now she looked like she had seconds thoughts,"Will it affect the innocent image I've had of you all these years?"

He almost choked on his saliva. 'That's been your impression of me all these years? She's really in for something then...'

"Prepare yourself for the answer then. Cover up your ears if you think you're not up for it."

"O-Okay." Her hands went up to her ears in a ready position, just in case she changed her mind.

"Romanc-"

"It's okay, Yuushi." Her hands flew over his mouth. "Even if you read erotica, I'll still be your friend!"

It was as if the whole world stopped there and became silent to look at them like they've done something completely wrong.


Yuushi was sitting beside Hiyori in the courtyard and held his head with both hands in silence. Not only was he embarrassed by her response, there were a few peers that overheard her outburst.

When she finished thumbing through the borrowed books, she scooted closer to him on the bench and patted his back in attempt to be comforting. However, the damage was already done.

"S-Sorry Yuushi. I shouldn't have been so quick to make assumptions." Hiyori tried explaining it to him,"You just made it sound so bad."

He placed his glasses back over his eyes and reflected upon his actions,"The fault is entirely mine. I couldn't help but tease you even more."

'And I still want to.'

"This is because you didn't listen to me..." She covered her face up with her hands,"I didn't think I'd say this to anyone but Kenya- especially to you of all people."

'Ah. She's not actually angry is she? Shouldn't I be? My reputation was the one on the line.'

It was hard to tell with that stern look she had on her face while she lectured him,

"You're such an idiot..."


A/N: *Nan de ya nen - One ofthe Kansai dialect's variation of saying "why", "why's that" or "what the hell/heck/etc."

Ah geez, Hiyori is calling Yuushi an idiot? She was the one who publicly embarrassed him in a hall full of people lmao. Her personality is quite shy upon the first few meetings. Get to know her better and you get a selfless girl who often doesn't know how to properly express her strong emotions. It gets her blood pumping and she ends up being seen as someone with a short fuse (similar to Kenya). As of late, she doesn't do very well with compliments. She's very thankful, but she can't say thank you without showing how overwhelmed she is. For those who are unfamiliar with this trait, it's quite concerning.

You know, reviews help me know if I'm doing things right with my life right now LOL.
*HINT HINT HINT HINT* (/ಥДಥ)/

Oh God, I also need to fix my anime canon timelines in my head. It's starting to affect my writing as well (But I know for one thing, Shitenhouji and Hyoutei start school in April; Shitenhouji being one week later than Hyoutei though)-

I'M NOT ALL RIGHT AND IT BOTHERS ME. (/lllಥДಥ)/

Next chapter is the second and most important part of the school day: lunch and afternoon tennis practice, hurrhurr-
And texts to and from Kenya who's been bugging Yuushi all day which is a change of pace, ahahahahaha.

I'm not going to blame my first language for my incompetence in English, but it gets in the way sometimes.

That being said-

If there's something that makes no sense whatsoever... please tell me. I beg of you as my readers. (ŏ﹏ŏ。)

'KAY BYE. ╮(´・ᴗ・` )╭