Chapter Twenty-six.
Don't you feel like skipping a few months of your life?

Six in the morning. The sun has not yet fully risen, but students are already coming in the open gates of the sturdy building in front of her. The smell of the morning air makes her stomach churn – from excitement, from anxiety, or maybe both. After all, this will be the first time she enters a new school, not wearing the usual uniform pants but a skirt. This will be a first time in a few years that she will be entering school without crossdressing. Yume shivers as she feels some sort of air brushing against her thighs. She stares at the gate and takes a deep breath.

"Okay," she says to herself before taking a step. "Welcome to Yamabuki High School, Kurumizawa. Welcome to a new life... once again."

Only a week after she graduated from her middle school back in Osaka, Kurumizawa Yume moved to Shinjuku, Tokyo with Yamazaki Shigeru, who had a tearful parting with his parents. After all, Zaki was only able to reunite with his parents for a few months and he had to relocate again because of his work. Yume and Zaki had left a lot of things behind in Osaka, which includes a few newfound friends and a life they had already gotten used to for the whole course of their stay.

"Class 1-D." Yume stares at the door of the classroom she'll be staying as a first year highschool student. Take a deep breath. She closes her eyes for a second. Then, she slides the door open. A gulp. A bead of sweat slowly flows down at the side of her face. Never has she felt that awkward in her life even if the number of people inside the room is barely half the total students of the class. Everyone has been staring at her as Yume makes her way to her designated seat.

"Wow. The legendary seat for main characters is real," she mumbles to herself. She sits at the desk nearest to the window at the back of the room. When she has taken her seat, the attention of most classmates has dissolved from her. Yume sighs in relief. She stares at the blue sky outside. "Great! How many days do I still have to stay here?"

"Yo! Good morning!" Another student enters the classroom. The other people inside greets the guy enthusiastically as he enters. He has orange, curly hair and blue eyes. He approaches his own seat, the one next to the seat near the windows. He notices a seemingly unfamiliar female stature with a short bob haircut, staring outside the windows. Sengoku smiles. "So, does this mean that you're the new main character of this class?" He chuckles.

Yume snaps out of her thoughts and turns to his direction. She gasps, and so does he. "You…"

Sengoku's smile becomes wider. "You're that mystery girl!" He chuckles. "I never imagined I'd meet you again here."

She sighs. "Yeah, right."

He sits. "So… are you free later during lunch? How 'bout a lunch together?" Sengoku grins as he gazes at her.

"Huh. That was so… straightforward." She raises her shoulders. "But why the hell not, right?"

He blinks in disbelief. "Wow. You're not turning me down?"

She chuckles. "Why? Is this a change of pace for you from all the girls who rejected you?" she jokes.

"N-no. I never really thought I would get this far in a conversation with you."

"We had one good long chat once before, y'know." Yume raises a brow. "As far as I know, we also had a casual drink that time."

"Oh! And that was the time when you weren't even telling me your name…" Sengoku swiftly takes a paper out from his bag and reads from the class roster. "… Kurumizawa Yume." He raises a brow and glances at her. "That's a nice name."

She rolls her eyes. "Well, surprise."

He laughs. "Pretty weird how it took me months before I was able to know your name."

"Right."


"Good day to everyone. You probably know me already, but let me introduce myself formally." Her classmates attentively listen to her short speech. She is, after all, associated with one of the most, if not the most, influential people in the whole campus. "My name is Shizuoka Fumiko. I previously studied in Shitenhouji Middle School in Osaka. Nice to meet you." She bows down.

Atobe, who sits beside the seat of his girlfriend, smiles proudly and stands up. He claps his hands to show his admiration. The whole class also follows. Jirou, who is usually sleeping even during the first day of class, has stayed awake and has enthusiastically joined the cheer. Fumiko's face turns red.

The teacher sighs, seeing the reaction of the whole class. "How did that even merit a standing ovation?" he mutters to himself. "Anyway!" he calls upon the attention of everyone as the teacher gestures them to sit down. "Thank you so much, Shizuoka-san." He bows to the girl in front of the class. "Let us all have a good year. You may sit down."

"Yes. Thank you, Sensei." Fumiko proceeds to her seat. She throws a few icy glares towards Atobe, who is simply smirking in response.

After the ceremony of her graduation back at Shitenhouji, Fumiko was surprised to see an unusually peaceful-looking Atobe Keigo awaiting her outside the school gate. Walking beside her is Yume, who was not even a bit surprised.

"Wow. He really did it," Yume mumbled softly to herself.

Fumiko glanced at her friend. "Did you say something?"

"Nothing." She simply smiled and shook her head. "Anyways, it seems that you have a visitor."

A grunt. The queen crossed her arms, showing her disinterest. "I'm guessing that he's probably here because Mom requested for him again."

"Sure. If you think that way…"

"Are you implying something here?" Fumiko raised a brow.

"I'm not." Yume looked at Atobe from a distance. "Are you not going to approach him?"

Fumiko sighed. "There's no way out of here anyway, right? Might as well get it over with."

Yume grinned. "Yeah, right. You talk as if you don't secretly like him at all."

Her face turned immediately red. "I-I-I don't! I just thought that he was attractive that one time." She protested. "But that was only one time!"

"Anyway…" Yume stretched her arms upward. "Someone slipped this inside my shoe locker this morning." She showed a neatly folded piece of white paper. "I guess I have to talk with someone under the tree behind the tennis courts."

"A love letter?" Fumiko snickered.

"Of course, I'm going to reject if it's a girl. I'm straight after all."

She rolled her eyes. "Something that I wish you really weren't."

"So, congratulations to our graduation!" Yume waved a hand to say goodbye to which Fumiko did the same, too.

As she was now left alone to walk outside and greet Atobe, Fumiko felt her heart pumping faster. She took a deep breath and swiftly approached the gates. As she came nearer, she saw Atobe's smile.

He suddenly knelt before her, which immediately made her halt. Atobe placed his left hand on his chest while his right hand was held out for her to reach. He stared straight at her eyes. "Fumiko, will you become officially my girlfriend?"


"I thought we were going to eat lunch," she glances at Sengoku as they both walk along the crowded corridors. Students began rushing outside their respective classrooms once the lunch bell has rung. Some are reconnecting with their middle school peers, who may have been designated to separate classes. Most students are rushing for the cafeteria. Yume walks with Sengoku without any idea where they are actually going to.

The orange-haired boy grins. "Just doing that would be a real bore." Sengoku places both his arms behind his head. "It's our first day as high school students. This is what we should be doing - exploring clubs and halls inside this building."

"Clubs? I thought you're already decided on entering a tennis club?" Yume raises a brow. "Why look around for other clubs?"

"Why not?" he cheerfully responds. "Plus…" Sengoku winks at a long-haired girl passing by. "…there are a lot of cute girls out there. I wouldn't miss that, of course." The girl, however, gives him a deadly girl and walks away.

Yume raises a brow. "Huh? Seems like you're not the popular type, are you?" she teases.

He simply chuckles in response. "We all know each other in this school, so people here will immediately know if there is a new transferee."

She nods. "Right. So I'll take that answer as a 'no, I'm not actually popular. I'm just simply known here because everyone else know each other.'"

"That is really mean." Sengoku smiles. "I can also flirt with the girls I like, y'know."

"But the girls actually flirting back with you is an entirely different thing."

"I thought you were a lot nicer than this." Sengoku looks at her.

She takes a deep breath and raises both her hands in the air for a moment. "Yep. I also thought that I am nicer than this until I realized that I could enjoy teasing you."

He blinks. "Wow. You know, for a second there, I thought of having you as a highschool bestfriend." Sengoku laughs as he stretches his arms upward.

Yume stops. "Oh, please don't do that."

He also halts and glances at her. "Do what?"

"Say that thing about being bestfriends, I mean." She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. "Geez, that just takes a lot of memories back." Yume shivers.

"Hmm… okay. If you say so."

~End Chapter~