The rest of the week passed with a surprising lack of urgency.
During the past few days, most of the school made peace with the fact that Kaori Shirasaki, one of the most famous girls in the school just hung out with Hajime Nagumo.
That didn't mean they liked it, nor did it mean that Hajime got fewer glares with every passing moment in school.
But at least, most of the students didn't outwardly challenge them. Not after Kaito Mikasachi was shot down by a surprisingly aggressive Kaori the first day.
Combine that with the natural showmanship of Kaito, Hajime secretly wonders if the whole thing was a cover-up because he didn't harass him before or after that one faithful day he tried.
Or maybe he was just bad at it. Who knows?
Shizuku didn't change a bit in her frosty attitude towards him even after revealing that she used to have a crush on him.
To be fair, neither she nor Hajime didn't bring up the conversation they had with each other. It was a touchy subject for them both.
Additionally, Hajime zipped his mouth over witnessing Kaito's charity performance in the slums, or the fact that he lived in it.
He'd stopped nagging him and Kaori after the first day, so Hajime was thankful for that, at least.
Apart from that small change, everything was seemingly the same.
Hajime always got glares from the majority of the school, Hiyama and his gang did their best to make up a valid reason to torment him, much to Kaori and Shizuku's frustration for different reasons—etc, etc.
Then everything changed when the last day of the school week arrived.
The sign of change arrived as soon as the homeroom teacher opened the front door.
"Today, a newcomer is transferring to our class."
A murmur of excitement passed around the class. A newcomer? In the middle of the spring?
"I wonder who it might be, don't you Shizuku?"
The iron-clad girl, however, only scowled at Kaori's innate cheerfulness.
Kaori quickly noticed that the two most unenthusiastic people about the news were Shizuku and the homeroom teacher.
The latter of whom sighed at the buzzing classroom.
"Yes, yes. I know it is exciting, but I must have you know..."
And then, the teacher closed her mouth.
"You know what? I'll let the person in question speak for himself. Come on in."
Everyone except Shizuku turned to the front door. Shizuku turned to the windows in line. Sure enough, a hand suddenly smacked one of them.
"Aahh!!!"
The poor girl who happened to sit right next to one, namely Eri Nakamura, screamed in terror as the hand calmly knocked against the window.
Before the commotion grew out of hand, Shizuku opened the front window. Tatsuo Satoru squeezed himself through the window with a broad smile.
"Hey, what's up everyone? Sorry about the jumpscare, by the way."
Eri barely managed to nod in midst of her shock.
Then again, nobody could blame her for being in one, because the class was on the 3rd floor of the school.
It was incredibly difficult to either climb up or climb down from the outside—not that any one of them was bold(or an idiot) enough to try.
Satoru stepped over the front row of desks and landed on the floor.
"So! Introduction:
My name is Tatsuo Satoru. I own a guitar shop downtown.
I like doing stuff because reasons, also I'm 4 years older than all of you because the educational system can shove one up their a—"
The homeroom teacher cleared her throat loudly. She wasn't even fazed by the fact that one of her students just climbed through a window.
"Please, watch your language, Mr. Tatsuo. Are there any...questions you might have for him?"
Oh, the class had a myriad of questions. The only problem was, that they were still processing much to gather the courage to ask one.
Then, Hiyama raised his hand and asked without permission.
"Is he on crack?"
Satoru huffed exaggeratedly.
"You know, It's rude to talk about a person when they're right in front of you."
"Are you on crack?"
"Good guess, but no."
"That is enough."
The homeroom teacher scanned the room and appointed Satoru to the one empty chair at the very back.
'Oh god.'
Which also happened to be right next to Hajime.
"Hey, He-man! Long time no see!"
"We met four days ago..."
"And I call it a long four days. Definitely feels like...I dunno, 5 mouths?"
Hajime suppressed a complaint on how that comparison made sense.
To call Satoru a 'free spirit' would be one of the tamest ways you could describe this guy. In Hajime's book, he was more chaotic than a summer storm.
He was certainly glad that it was Friday.
He only had to endure today, and hopefully, the school would figure out what to do during the weekends.
If he could only get through today without any trouble...
* * *
Lunchtime was much more painful than usual for Hajime.
One, being next to Satoru meant he wasn't going somewhere vacant such as the roof because Satoru insisted Hajime stay next to him.
Secondly, Satoru was surrounded by many students curious about the newly transferred student.
After the initial shock of his entrance had worn off, most of them were more than thrilled to have someone as excited as his classmates.
The words spread so much in fact, Shizuku was busy keeping students from another classroom from being bombarded entering theirs'.
It didn't help the matter that the man in question was on average, more mature and good-looking.
More than half of the students surrounding him were girls, though none of them could follow Satoru's deranged wordplay.
"Sorry, excuse me. Pardon, let me through."
Kaori apologized for her way through the mass of students and managed to reach Hajime, all the while desperately defending a set of lunch boxes.
Thankfully, as chaotic as Satoru was, he had enough decency to quietly move the commotion away from the couple.
At this point, Hajime didn't even bother to remind his girlfriend that there is no need to bring his portion of lunch as well.
Not only did his stomach heavily prefer a healthy balanced tasteful meal over a simple Jell-O, but Kaori also insisted that it wasn't a huge bother like Hajime was concerned it would be.
"I'd appreciate a thank-you more than sorry, Hajime."
And, you know what? That was a fair argument. Hajime knew he'd prefer being thanked over getting an apology for his hard work.
That came from experience...though it might not match perfectly with the situation at hand.
So Hajime received the lunchbox without any gripes and opened the lid.
A lovely set of rice, rolled eggs, cooked fish, and presented themselves, making Hajime's mouth water despite himself.
"You're getting better at this. Not that it was bad any time before, but..."
"Really?" Kaori beamed, fiddling with her chopsticks.
'That smile alone is worth it.' Hajime thought to himself as they started to dig in.
However, not everyone was focused on the new student.
"Kaori!"
Hajime barely managed to suppress his groan.
Kouki Amanogawa made his way over to them, all the while eyeing the massive crowd around Satoru.
He had his trademark handsome smile in tacked, but Hajime didn't miss the distinct lack of 'smile' in his eyes.
"I see you're looking after Nagumo."
"I just gave him lunch, Kouki. It's nothing to make a fuss about."
Kokuki slid in next to Kaori, effectively drawing a frown over her forehead. He either didn't notice or didn't care.
"I'm not making a fuss, I just think Nagumo can bring his own lunch, can't you?"
Hajime gave a short nod, even though he certainly couldn't.
With his parents working in the literature industry, it would be a miracle if they come home by regular work time.
Once, he tried to make one by himself, but that only ended in various cuts over his fingers and an insanely messy kitchen.
Kaori wasn't comfortable with her childhood friend semi-accusing Hajime of being lazy when she was the one who insisted on the idea.
She was about to snap a retort when she suddenly remembered what Shizuku had said just last night.
"The more you defend him outright, the more people will get spiteful. Try being more subtle."
"Kouki, do you know where Shizuku is?"
"I'm here."
Just in time, Shizuku came in through the backdoor, looking even more agitated than usual.
She scanned the situation of the classroom, huffed at the gathering around Satoru, then raised her eyebrow toward the odd gathering.
"Kouki, what are you doing?"
"I'm just sitting here, why?"
"..."
Shizuku suppressed an impulse to punch a wall.
She already had more than enough on her plate; she can't afford a childhood friend to be jealous when she was dealing with it on her own.
Right when Shizuku was about to tell Kouki to man up for just this once, however, something caught her attention.
Her mouth hung agape, perplexed at the thing shimmering in the middle of the classroom floor.
It was a silver circle with diverse geometric shapes drawn inside. Hajime stood up from his seat, noticing what it was immediately.
Unnoticed to anyone, a lone student looked up as well. Hajime couldn't bother remembering his name as the circle quickly grew larger.
By now, the bulk of the class was noticing the expanding problem as well. Including the social studies teacher, Aiko Hatayama.
For the first time, Hajime raised his voice for the entire class to hear.
"Um, guys?! I think we should leave—"
But before that sentence could finish, the circle gave off a blinding flash of bright light, swallowing everyone in the classroom.
When the light subsided, no single human was left behind. All gone, disappeared without a trace.
It went on and became known as one of the biggest disappearances cases that have happened.
Ever since the one that took place five years ago...but that's a story better saved for another time.
Yeah, I'm back. Sorry for the sudden disappearance.
To be truthful, I totally blanked out on how to continue the story thread from where I left it.
On top of that, real life problems started catching up, and some other projects I'd been working on needed more attention than this.
But now, most of the things are sorted. My life is at steady(for now), I've redrafted this story(a bit), so hopefully I'll be a bit more rhythmical in following updates.
I'd also address some of the changes:
I changed the ratings from T to M, mostly to feel less limited while writing.
I have another fanfic in rating T, and while I adore that story, it sometimes get challenging to write while minding the restrictions—especially since they are very subjective.
I don't think scales of violence or sexual things won't get higher than the original novel, but if it does I'll put a warning ahead.
Now, one more thing.
I know I've written 'no harem' at the description, but while redrafting, I noticed that many characters would be left stranded in that case.
Yes, I know romantic relationships aren't everything, but I for one think it does take a larger portion in character building.
So, I'd like to ask all of you readers; how about a harem? If so, I'd think there would be...four entitled to Hajime including our girl Kaori.
Leave a review on the matter, and I'll take it into consideration.
That's all I want to say.
It's good to be back.
I hope you had a fun time reading, I'll see you all in the next chapter.
Ta ta~
