Today is officially the second day Ms. Yukizome had arrived, replacing Mr. Kizakura's role as Class 77-B's homeroom teacher. Compared to her predecessor, well…she's definitely had some very, VERY different ideas on approaching students. As far as everyone's first impression of her went, all they can say is that it left a pretty damned big impact during her first day's (mandatory, if Hajime might add) redone class introductions.

Speaking of first impressions, when he sees the way some of his classmates flinched towards Ms. Yukizome before the start of class, Hajime thought his mind was playing tricks on him at first. Sure, she used to be a boxer and a former Ultimate student at that, but she can't be that bad, right? He can understand why Mitarai still feels nervous around her (and honestly, who wouldn't be after being tied up, dragged along the ground, and overall being manhandled by someone who looks silly and harmless at first?)

But for someone like Kuzuryu? He isn't sure if he wanted to know. Then again, neither he nor his classmates know what to expect from their new teacher anymore. One thing is for certain, one that he's sure he'll keep in mind for this school year and the next ones if he survives this one.

'Never let my guard down.'

Hajime continuously reminds himself about that as he and everyone else in the class stared at Ms. Yukizome's next oncoming hjink. Whatever is in store for them, he's sure everyone else had a bad feeling about it too.

"Uh, Ms. Yukizome?" Nagito Komaeda, the Ultimate Volunteer if Hajime remembers correctly, raises his hand. "...what's up with the box?"

The counselor figures that it felt fitting that a guy like Komaeda is the one who spoke up first about that. It helps that his talent is, well, it's pretty self-explanatory.

Ms. Yukizome turns towards the volunteer with her typical attempt of a motherly smile. "Oh! You're the first one to point that out. I'm surprised no one commented about it."

'Maybe it's because no one in here wants to somehow piss you off or worse?' The counselor inwardly deadpans. He didn't make an outward show of it, though; there's no harm in being too careful.

"To answer your question, Komaeda," She begins, gesturing an arm towards the box. "I've placed several pieces of paper inside. Each paper is folded in half and inside each one, is a number. I could tell you what it's for but—" Their teacher playfully places a finger over her lips. "There'd be no fun in that, don't you think?"

'Great. Now I'm even more concerned.'

Ms. Yukizome then gestures towards the student who asked about the whole thing first, complete with sweetness laced in her tone. "Komaeda, if you'll be so kind, would it be okay for you to go first?"

There isn't even a second of hesitation. "Oh, sure." Komaeda gets up from his desk. "I don't mind."

'Don't worry Komaeda,' Hajime salutes in his mind. 'I don't think your selflessness will backfire on you for today.'

"Oh, and by the way," Ms. Yukizome asked, "Is it alright if no one opens the papers until I make sure everyone has one?"

Though the question wasn't personally directed towards him, Komaeda answered with a smile and shrug. "It's okay. That sounds reasonable."

Call it paranoia, call it a gut feeling; Hajime can't help but have a feeling their teacher set Komaeda to go up first on purpose. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't be as willing and so, make everyone else just as uncomfortable. It'd be even worse if it was someone like Kuzuryu.

Once the first bite is in, it's only natural the others would follow. When his turn came, Hajime inwardly sighs as he quickly plucks one folded piece of paper from the box to get things over with.

As soon as everyone's accounted for, Ms. Yukizome then tells them, "Alright, everyone! You can open your papers now. If your number matches, please group together as soon as possible!"

When everyone eerily began opening up their folded papers, Hajime resigns himself to his fate. He can only hope things don't end up a train wreck today.

"I-I'm so s-sorry!" Tsumiki wails. "I-I shouldn't h-have i-imposed!"

"No, it's okay." Komaeda is trying his best to placate her. "It's alright, really. No need to apologize, please."

Souda, the Ultimate Animal Breeder, repeatedly chants a mantra to himself. His fingers twitch in a mix of anxiety and anticipation as he slowly unfolds his chosen piece of paper. "Please be Miss Sonia." He softly repeats, "Please be Miss Sonia. Please be Miss Sonia. Please be Miss Sonia—" His head shoots up with a full grin, fully expecting to be paired up with her—

His grin dramatically drops and deforms as quickly as it was made.

Ms. Yukizome, completely oblivious to the spoiled mood, sneaks in to take a peek towards his partner, and then towards their unfolded papers. "Oh, looks you like you got Hinata as your partner for today, Souda!" She delightfully clapps her hands.

Hajime has no idea how to feel towards this weird arrangement.

Souda has a face that wanted to scream at the heavens.

For the next pair that shortly followed, Sonia graces her chosen partner with a polite smile. "I believe that this shall become the start of a beautiful friendship between us, Koizumi." She holds her hand out. "This is the standard custom in greeting, correct?"

"Sure." Koizumi takes her hand, replying fairly amicably. "Guess so."

Souda sulks into the corner, the color drained from his body even when his two rats kept rubbing their tiny noses against his neck to try and cheer him up just a little bit. Hajime feels awkward throughout the whole phase.

Hajime visibly winces when he saw the next pair that formed.

"What in the actual fuck!?" Kuzuryu shoots a glare towards the pint-sized nurse. "There's no way in hell I'm going near that lolicon bait!"

The feeling is mutual, as Saoinji protests just as loudly, if not more. "Ms. Yukizome, you can't seriously put me next to that bitch! Especially not after you just heard her call me that!"

"Oh?" Ms. Yukizome somehow looks genuinely confused, but for all they know, it could be just an act. "But look how well you two are getting along."

"NO! WE'RE NOT!" The two equally bratty and childish blondes insist. Their agreement only sparks an even more heated argument.

Meanwhile, as Tanaka introduces himself in his usual bombastic Eighth Grader Syndrome way, Pekoyama hadn't fully paid attention to that. Instead, she looked as if she wanted to leave right away to help the young mistress. Except, somehow Tanaka took that either as a challenge or a big offense towards him. Maybe even both.

Either way, it was obnoxious, and so, Hajime tunes out their one-sided conversation. It's too damned early for him to get migraines on this day.

It's kind of creepy, to watch the way Teruteru Hanamura, the Ultimate Gardener, talk and make suggestive moves towards Nekomaru Nidai, the Ultimate Cook. Hajime has no idea whether to feel bad that Nidai got stuck with the creepy gardener, or feel relieved that it's Hanamura who got stuck with the muscle-bound cook instead of anyone else.

Compared to everyone else, the last group that formed is composed of three students rather than two. It felt less like they're together due to matching numbers and more like because they're the only ones left, and so they had to stick together or else one of them would be left out. If other guys saw Mitarai, they'd probably remark how lucky he is to be grouped with two girls. Those two were Akane Owari and Ibuki Mioda, Ultimate Blacksmith, and Ultimate Pianist, respectively.

And so, that concludes their haphazardly-made groups.

He can't understand what the hell their teacher was thinking. Somehow, Ms. Yukizome thought that 'having a random tag-along buddy' might've sounded like it could be a good way to start fostering friendships between his classmates. To be fair, it did sound good on paper.

In actuality, Hajime felt like he doesn't need to explain why he knows that idea will fall flat on its face sooner than later.

Now that their respective groups have been settled, things have been a bit-okay, a lot-awkward ever since. Well sure, some are coping with it better compared to others (he can hear a few of the disastrous groups going off in the background), but as for him?

Hajime stares at the window that's right by his seat's side, pretending to pay attention to what's happening outside instead of the guy poking his shoulder.

His classmate didn't stop with the poking. "Hey, so you're Hinata, right?"

Poke. Poke. Poke.

"This is kinda weird to ask since we've had to redo our introductions yesterday, but do you remember me?" That same classmate asks. The pokes haven't slowed down even a bit. "You remember me, right?"

He had a feeling that those pokes won't stop anytime soon. As he questioned all of his life choices that led to this, Hajime takes a deep breath but doesn't turn around to face that classmate.

"You're Kazuichi Souda, aren't you?" A little bit of annoyance is laced in his voice as he says that. "Ultimate Animal Breeder?"

"Ah, so you did remember!" That classmate lets out a relieved chuckle. "That's good. I was about to go and tell you my name again."

'Do I look like a goldfish to you?' is what Hajime had been tempted to reply with. But since he's in a classroom and that classmate's pretty harmless for now, he reins that biting reply in. Instead, he replies with, "No, it's okay. It'd be rude of me if I forgot about it after you've told everyone twice now." On the inside, he follows it up with, 'Then again, I did forget about you the first time, but that was over a month ago.'

That boy adjusts his seat, leaning a bit closer to him. "So, you're the Ultimate Counselor, right?"

Okay, maybe a bit too close. What's up with everyone and their lack of personal space when it came to him? "As far as I remember, that's what the school assigned my talent as. Why did you ask?"

"Well, I was wondering…" That classmate follows it up with, "Your job is to talk to a lot and different kinds of people, right?"

"I'm pretty sure that's what a counselor is." He deadpans.

That flies over that classmate's head. "Then," That classmate grabs onto his shoulders without warning, nearly making them meet from eye-to-eye. "Can you help me with approaching Miss Sonia?!"

Even for a whisper, that was pretty loud; it's kinda impressive no one else in the class heard that. "The Ultimate Swordswoman, right? You ever tried talking with her before?"

"I can't do that!"

He raises a brow. "Why not? I mean, yeah, carrying a fake weapon around would make anyone a little bit intimidating, but she's still our classmate—"

That classmate interrupted him with a quarter-whisper, mostly-screech, "Are you forgetting she's from another country? I'd look stupid in front of her if I did that!"

A few beats of silence goes by them.

'Oh, that explains everything.' He mulls over that, before going with, 'Except it doesn't!'

"Come on, Hinataaa," That classmate begins to rapidly shake his shoulders, voice full of desperation. "You've got to help meeeee…"

Thankfully, the shaking wasn't strong enough to make him dizzy, but it still didn't feel nice to have that happen in the first place. "Okay, okay, I'll see what I can do."

"You mean it?" That classmate immediately stops shaking him. Light shines in his eyes. "You really mean it?"

He nods. "Yeah, I mean it." Inwardly, he grimaces at the situation he got himself into. 'Please don't make me regret this.'

The plan should be simple. It is simple; all that classmate of his has to do is approach Sonia like a normal person does; overall, he must act natural. It'll happen right before lunchtime.

It's so simple; it should be doable even for a guy like that classmate he's stuck with.

He doesn't want to jinx things but come on. No one is dense enough to screw that up, right?

Right?

It's right around fifteen minutes before noon.

Hajime remains in his seat, observing from afar as he watched that guy walk over to Koizumi and Sonia's seats. 'So far, he isn't freaking out like I thought he would by now. That's good.'

"Yo!" Souda greets as he waves a hand. "Hey there, Miss Sonia!"

At the sudden greeting, Sonia momentarily pauses her lively conversation with the artist. She faces him. "Oh, Souda, what brings you here?"

"Well, I—uh," Souda nervously begins, twiddling his thumbs around, "I was wondering if, you know, maybe we can—"

Koizumi rudely cuts in with a dismissive gesture, "Whatever you're about to say, she's not interested."

'Well, that looks bad.' Hajime notes. 'There's always next time, so I think backing out, for now, would be the safest option.'

"Hey, I wasn't talking to you!' Souda suddenly snaps towards the artist.

Just as Koizumi is about to retort back, Sonia places a hand in front of her. "That's alright, Koizumi, allow me to handle this." Refocusing on the boy, she doesn't notice the hope that she unintentionally built up for him. Clearing her throat, she then tells him, "I hate to sound rude at the moment, I truly, truly do, but would you kindly leave us be?"

The hopeful smile that was once on Souda's face starts to falter. "Oh, um, uh, why? Was it something I said?"

The counselor remains completely stumped in his seat. 'What the hell are you doing?' If things get worse, the swordswoman could easily bat or even whack her fake weapon against Souda if she wanted to; not hard enough to cause serious damage, but firm enough to send a warning.

Thankfully, it didn't come to that, but at a cost.

"Hey, will you quit that already!?" Koizumi shouts at him so suddenly and forcefully. "Can't you see she doesn't want anything to do with you, you creep!"

"You creep."

Those two words held so much impact on Souda at that moment. The animal breeder's mouth is agape, his body completely still, and his mind, totally blank.

"You creep. You creep. You creep. You creep. You creep."

"Creep. Creep. Creep. Creep. Creep. Creep. Creep."

Those words repeatedly echo, taunting him in his mind. And then, those very words shot straight into his chest.

That classmate collapses onto the floor by his knees. The two girls he was speaking with only seconds ago completely forgot about him.

From his seat, Hajime puts his palm over his head as he shakes in disapproval.

'Well, first of all, that was a disaster. Second of all, my God, this guy is more hopeless than I thought.' Hajime sets his sight towards the moping boy. 'I don't know whether I should feel revolted or sad for him.'

Souda gives up his ghost shortly after that.

.

..

...

Lunchtime came shortly after that disaster.

For the trouble his classmate stirred up (plus Koizumi's overzealous complaints, which didn't help their case), Ms. Yukizome sent them on an errand to go and buy some snacks and drinks for everyone.

At least she was nice enough to provide them with money for it, instead of making them pay with their own pockets.

It doesn't mean he's happy with the 'assignment' of getting meals for everyone. Now that he thought about it, it's unnecessary because they have a classmate who's literally the best chef in there with them.

"Hinata," Souda mumbles right next to him. His arms hang limply as his body carelessly slouches over; he's still sulking over it. "I'm sorry. I screwed it up so bad."

Sighing as his classmate wallows in self-pity, Hajime lightly pats his back. "Hey, don't beat yourself over it. It's kinda my fault too; I didn't warn you about Koizumi beforehand."

Souda lets his lips tug up into a small smile. "Heh, you're right." The animal breeder pumps his fist up. "Next time, I'll get to ask her out! Just you wait!" His two rats squeak from his pockets, cheering him as well.

'That was fast.' Hajime then remarks, "I think you should focus on making Sonia less uncomfortable around you first, and then getting to be friends with her."

"Right, you're right." Souda nods his head in complete agreement.

At the moment, the two are outside of the buildings but remained rather close to the school's property. As they look for any nearby vending machines, something pulls at the back of Hajime's mind. He can't help but think, it feels like he's forgetting about something. But, what was it?

He closes his eyes, rummaging the deepest parts of his mind to try and look for what it was. He wonders if he should forget about it altogether if he can't figure out what it was.

"Hey, I found a vending machine! Let's go over there!"

It's only once he hears his classmate's voice call out to him that he finally remembers. As soon as he did, Hajime mentally kicked himself in the head a hundred times over. 'Crap, I was so caught up with everything today, I almost forgot about what I've promised!'

He doesn't follow his classmate. "Hey Souda, mind if you pass the drinks to everyone first?"

"Wait, what—" Souda stops himself mid-run, turning his head back towards him. "What's wrong?"

Hajime tries to think of a perfectly good excuse. Scrunching his face up the best way he could, he clutches his stomach. "I'm sorry, but…" He fakes a grunt. "I…I have to use the bathroom. Don't worry, I'll…I'll try to be back as soon as I can."

"Is it that bad?" At his nod, Souda holds a thumb up. "Go on right ahead, Hinata! I'll explain everything to Ms. Yukizome when I get back!" As he runs towards the vending machine, he also adds from a distance, "Take your time!"

"Thanks, Souda!" Hajime replies as he hurriedly dashes out of the place.

Once Kazuichi got everyone's drinks accounted for (he saved two, one for him and one for Hajime), he can only say a quick "Sorry, excuse me!" to Ms. Yukizome as he dashes through the hallways and into one of the men's restrooms.

His two rats are a little fussy during his mad dash; he'll make it up to them later with lots of treats and an hour-long petting session. But right now, there's a friend who needs him!

He knocks on the restroom's door. "Hey, Hinata? Are you feeling alright in there?" When he dosn't hear any reply, he goes over inside. He expected Hajime to be in one the bathroom's stalls, and so, patiently waits for him.

When there are no signs of him coming out any time soon, he begins to knock on the stall's door, only to jump back when it opens.

"Huh, Hinata?" He says, thoroughly confused as he then checks each remaining stall. "Hinata?"

They all turn out to be as empty as the first one.

Kazuichi's next outburst has enough impact to send a couple of sparrows to fly off in a hurry.

"HINATAAA!"

'Almost…Almost there!'

Yeah, he knew that technically abandoning Souda to fend for himself during lunchtime is not only very mean-spirited but also a dickish move of him to do. Then again, it's not like the choice was easy to make.

Either let Nanami wait out in the cold and turn himself into a dick that way, or let his classmate go with him to a very private meeting with someone he made a promise to, which will result in more misunderstandings than a standard shoujo manga can contain. There was no way out of the hole he dug himself into.

To be fair, he never thought that Ms. Yukizome would do something as crazy as this.

Hajime sprints as quickly as he can. He shouldn't be too late. He can't be too late. The reserve course's building grows closer and closer. He dashes by a handful of surprised reserve course students along the way; he didn't pay any attention towards them.

He soon spots the familiar fountain. Right in front of the fountain is the public bench, and right on that bench, is the girl who's been waiting for who knows how long.

It must've looked awkward in her point of view, to see a guy like him running and look like he's almost out of breath as he forced himself to get there.

"Sorry…" Hajime places his hands over his knees, keeping himself from looking directly into her face. "Sorry…I kept you…waiting." He manages to say in-between his constant huffs and puffs.

Nanami stares at him in total bewilderment; the game she was occupied with has been lost since, evident by the beeping 'game over' tone that followed. "You..." She visibly swallows. "…You really came."

"I…" He takes a deep breath, putting himself up. "I…did promise that I…would." His breath steadies. "It'd be crappy of me to not go through with it, won't it?"

She pauses for a second or so before replying, "I guess it would."

"Anyways, again, I'm sorry I was late." He takes a seat next to her. "Something came up today."

"It's fine." Her shoulders shrug, her tone remains neutral. "You could've explained it tomorrow. Maybe."

"But," He counters, "Then I'd leave you hanging there for more than an hour. Sure, I could've explained it to you tomorrow, but it won't change the fact I made you wait here for nothing."

"You have a point there."

Hajime leans himself back onto the bench. "Tough day today, isn't it?"

"Hm, maybe."

As he lazily placed his arms behind his head, he glances at her from aside. "So, how was your day?"

She yawns, rubbing one eye with the back of her hand. "Same as yesterday." She starts up a new game. "So, what happened to you today?"

He closes his eyes in thought. "Do you remember the woman from yesterday?" The counselor let out a chuckle. "She's the thing that happened today."

"She did something crazier than tying one of your classmates up?" It's probably just him, but he swore he hears her lightly chuckle back.

"It wouldn't be unbelievable if it was, but nope. Sorry to disappoint you, but it's less insane compared to that. I don't know why, but somehow Ms. Yukizome thought it'd be a good idea to randomly group everyone up."

"Did she give out a reason for doing that?"

"My memory's a bit hazy, but I think she explained it yesterday with a long-ass speech. I'll be honest; the only thing I remember from that is 'youth spirit' this and 'rotten oranges' that."

Nanami unapologetically lets a snicker out of that. "Well, with the way you're talking about your teacher right now, Ms. Yukizome sounds rather lively today."

The boy lets out a relaxed grin as he admits, "You have no idea. You'll probably think I'm crazy for saying this, but I think I'm starting to miss Mr. Kizakura. You know, just a little bit."

"Huh? Wasn't he the guy you called a 'useless drunk idiot'?"

"Uh, well, yeah, but now that I think about, that was pretty dickish of me to say. Sure, he has a problem or two when it comes to holding his drink—actually, scratch that, he has a lot—but he's still.." Hajime's brain struggles right there. "Well...what was that word...?"

"Laid-back?" She suggests.

He thought about that word for a moment, and after deciding it was the one, he nods. "Yeah, that one. He's more laid-back compared to Ms. Yukizome. I don't miss that 'drunk at random times' part of him, that much I'll say."

"Yeah, I can understand why. Do you think that maybe Ms. Yukizome won't be so bad after a while?"

"Maybe. I hope so. At most, everyone will probably just have to get used to her enthusiasm." He shrugs. "Then again, most of my classmates are around the same level as her, so who knows?"

'I guess it's because I was so used to a normal life, it feels weird to be surrounded with so much craziness.'

As their conversation went on, Hajime hears the beeping game over noise from her game once again. "Hey, Nanami," He calls out from her side.

The reserve course student turns towards him. "Yeah?"

"Um, how do I put this...?" He pauses, mumbling for a moment before asking, "Would you mind if I try that?"

Nanami's a bit taken aback by this. She looks down at her console, and then back at him. "Oh, uh, sure." Without much hesitation, she hands that pink console over. "Here you go, Hinata."

Hajime graciously takes it in his hands. "Thanks." He looks down on the console's screen to check on the game's title. He exclaims as another rush of nostalgia hit him, "Potholer? Wow, I remember this one too!"

"You do?" She says in a mix of awe and disbelief.

"Yeah." He nods. "But, I never managed to beat it because it was way too hard for me back then." The counselor lets out a good-natured laugh as he recalled faint memories. "I kept dying so much."

Nanami leans a bit closer, peeking on the screen. She watches his in-game avatar navigate through the area. "I don't know. Looks like you're doing well so far."

His avatar falls through the crevices shortly after that, losing a life. "See? Told you so." Although he lost that part, he keeps his smile and such.

The rest of their time is spent on that old game, with Hajime slowly getting a bit better at it as Nanami gave him a few tips now and then. This might've been the longest he lasted on this game.

They had so much fun, time pretty much became a blur to them. The counselor only remembers as soon as his game character died once again. "Ah, crap! Lunch is almost over." He looks back at her as he stands up. "Sorry, Nanami, but I've gotta go now."

"It's okay, Hinata. I understand." She reassures him. "You don't want to get on your teacher's bad side, right?"

He nods, mouthing an almost quiet "Yeah," in response. Just as he's about to sprint back to his class, he hears her ask,

"So, same time tomorrow?" A bit of hope slipped in through her voice as she asks that.

Hajime thought about it, and without wasting a second, nods once again, "Yeah, let's go with that." He's about to take off once again until he looks onto his hand and remembers, "Oh, before I forget, here's your GGA back." He turns back, placing the console back into her hands.

Waving his hand goodbye to her, he rushes out of there with a, "Well then, see you tomorrow!"

Chiaki watches him hurry off into the distance. Hinata's silhouette became smaller and smaller as he scurries further away, until she can no longer see a single sign of him. She glances down on her GGA.

She wonders if she should bring the blue one tomorrow.

Hajime never thought he'd be running at the speed that would've made a blue hedgehog turn red in envy twice in a day now. He wondered how the hell Mitarai managed to do it with a former Ultimate Boxer just a day ago.

He hurries back into the main building, with only a few minutes left to spare if his estimations were correct. He hasn't entered the building yet when he bumped into someone.

Both he and that someone collided with each other so much, they bounced apart from each other and caused them to land (rather painfully, if he may add) on their rears.

Hajime's reaction is a bit subdued compared to the normal person. He winces; he bites his lip as the dull ache throbs down at that lower region.

As for that someone, their voice is decidedly masculine. That someone groans out, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," while one of his hands reach back to soothe the rear that's fallen hard.

The counselor forces himself up, having recovered enough from his momentary stupor to recognize that someone right before him. "Souda?"

That someone, who turns out to be that classmate of his, also got up once he hears his name. In his case, it's a bit less graceful, as he visibly winces and ends up showing off his sharp teeth. "Hinata! I finally found you!"

Hajime hates to think this, but it's a little hard to take Souda seriously, not when he's still rubbing his hand over that sore spot.

"Where have you been, Hinata?" Without any warning, that classmate grabs onto his shoulders for the second time today. "I've been looking everywhere for you!" He vigorously shakes the counselor, also for the second time that day.

As he went through that rough treatment again, Hajime can only think, 'Uh, yeah. About that...' He barely hears whatever else his classmate was ranting about. "Please…stop that…"

"Oh, sorry!" Rather mercifully, Souda lets his shoulders go. "But really, where have you been? You took an awfully long time out there."

'He does have a point.' He inwardly admits. "Uh, well, you see—"

"Wait," Souda holds a hand up to interrupt him. "Don't tell me," He suddenly yells, "You have a secret girlfriend around here, don't you!?"

It takes him a while to process that classmate's words, and once he did, he didn't like it one bit. 'How the HELL did you get to that conclusion?!'

Hajime sputters, "Wha—no, I don't!" The counselor clamps Souda's mouth shut with both of his hands, ignoring that classmate's noises of protest. "And not so loud, you idiot!" Hajime searches around to check if anyone had heard that.

That classmate says, "Well, I think I know where this is going," but it's somewhat muffled by the counselor's hands.

After a while when that classmate calmed himself down, Hajime lets him go.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." Souda wildly gestures his hands to make a point. "Not even Ms. Yukizome, I swear!"

Hajime lets out an exhausted sigh. "Again, I don't have a secret girlfriend or whatever you're thinking of."

That might've gone straight through Souda's ears. That classmate looks around their surroundings and then whispers, "You know, it's no wonder you knew what to do with winning Miss Sonia over. I mean, you look like the kind of guy who had plenty of experience with girls and you're probably hanging out with one—"

"For the last time, Souda," Hajime irritably reminds, "I don't have a secret girlfriend."

When they finally got back to class, they'd been late by a minute. However, since it's their first offense (and again, it was only by one minute), Ms. Yukizome had been nice enough to let it slide for that.

That said, she not-so-subtly implied a threat towards them, as well as everyone else in the class, not to be tardy so carelessly and repeatedly without valid reasons to back it up.

A/N: Yes, 'Potholer' is actually a Spelunker. Never played it myself (and I'll admit I only knew about the game's existence because I saw it in a another anime).

EDIT: Did a slight rehaul of chapters 1-3. By that, I mean replacing mentioned characters from first names to last names, to make things a bit more consistent. Only exception to this is Sonia's; let's just say she insisted everyone to call her by her first name, which happened offscreen.