Okay, so next chapter is here! Whoop! And guess who finally get to meet~

This is a bit shorter than the other chapters, I think, but hopefully you'll enjoy it either way!

It's a couple of days after they start their second year of junior high that the English teacher asks Gakushuu to go get a couple of worksheets at the school's photocopier. Since he's the role model student, of course he accepts and goes himself. After all, the photocopier room is not too far from Class 2-A, and the man who runs it is pretty competent and cheerful. It's not too much of a hassle; it's better than having to deal with morons that have no idea how to do anything, anyway.

It takes him about five minutes to get to the photocopier, and when he enters the room, he's surprised to see a blue-haired girl standing there. He recognizes her instantly. After all, he's had to put up with Ren talking about her every once in a while.

Shiota Nagisa.

"Ah, Asano-kun!" The man in charge of the photocopier smiles at him. "I'm sorry to say, but this thing's been having a couple of issues lately. It shouldn't take long to fix, so why don't you wait with Shiota-san?"

Of course.

"Hello, Shiota-san," Gakushuu greets. It's funny how, even though Ren teases him a lot with her, this is literally the first time he's ever talked to her. "Were you asked to get some worksheets too?"

"A-Asano-kun…" Shiota smiles shyly. "Yeah. It seems the English department wasn't able to print all worksheets in time, or something…"

"A shame, really. One would think that they would have all the required material prepared for a decent class."

"W-Well, they can't do much if the printer doesn't work!" she laughs a little, and it's still a little shy, but he can tell it's genuine.

"That is true, yes," Gakushuu admits, smiling a little himself.

They don't really talk after that, waiting quietly for the photocopier to be fixed. The sooner they can get the guide, the better. He doesn't know what D Class is doing in their English classes exactly, but he does know that the A Class can't afford to lose time—not since their lessons are harder than the other three classes'. But unfortunately, things don't seem to go his way; the man frowns, looking at the photocopier with a look of annoyance—his cheerfulness seems to have left as he sighs and looks at the two students that are still waiting for the photocopier to work.

"Well, it seems it'll be harder to fix that I originally thought," he says exasperatedly, but still managing to smile at them. "You'll have to go to the computer room if you want to get those English worksheets quickly. Don't worry, I'll send them the e-mail with the worksheet, so you'll only have to wait for it to be printed. I'm sorry for the trouble, though."

Gakushuu forces a smile, and it seems nice a genuine, even though he's actually pretty annoyed. The computer room is in the other side of the school. It certainly is troublesome… "Ah, don't worry about it. Thank you for your help, anyway." Even though you didn't even help. He turns to the blue-haired girl that is standing back. She hasn't said anything, but he can tell by her eyes; she's observing. "Are you coming too, Shiota-san?"

Observing or not, Shiota seems startled. "A-Ah, yes," she says shyly. She thanks the man in charge of the photocopier as well and soon they are walking to the other side of the school.

There's something about Shiota that strikes to Gakushuu, and that's the fact that she's not making any effort to talk to him whatsoever. Usually, everyone tries to at least have a small conversation with him—well, not everyone, of course, but it's those exceptions that he finds… well, refreshing, in a way. It could be shyness that is holding Shiota back, but she doesn't seem flustered or nervous around him either.

Perhaps—since she's able to be close to someone like Akabane—she's not easily intimidated.

"I should ask for better maintenance of the photocopier to the student council. It's not the first time I've heard of such issues," Gakushuu says aloud. For whatever reason, he feels like talking. Maybe since Ren talks too much about her; he feels like he should at least know her a little.

Shiota blinks. "I didn't know it had issues before," she says, but then she shrugs. "But I think they'll listen to you anyway, Asano-kun."

Gakushuu smirks. "What makes you think that?"

Shiota smiles a little. "Call it a hunch, I guess. You're the second year representative, so they might take your opinion more seriously." Gakushuu can tell that there's unsaid words there; it's not the fact that he's the second year representative, it's the fact that it's him and he knows how to get people's approval. Even though they've never met before, Shiota could tell. Impressive. "Are you aiming for being president next year?"

Right, once again. Gakushuu was honestly a bit impressed. "I am thinking about it, yes," he says, going for the humble route. He's waited to get to third year so he could be the student council president since the very first day, but he doesn't have to tell that to her.

Shiota nods. "Figures. I think you'd be more capable than the current president."

"That's not too hard," Gakushuu comments lightly. Personally, he thinks the current student council is a train wreck; there's only a few capable people there. He doesn't even know how the president is surviving and not dead of a heart failure provoked by fear of having to face the Chairman to give him reports every once in a while.

Instead of calling him arrogant or mean, Shiota lets out a quiet, genuine laugh, and Gakushuu finds himself smiling at that.

Yes, Ren definitely talks too much about her. And he does have a way with words, he muses as they continue talking about nonsense as they walk, but even then, he finds himself thinking that honestly, he wouldn't mind having a conversation with her again.

I tried to make this as realistic as possible. XD I mean, there are over 180 students in their year, and Nagisa and Gakushuu have different social circles. So I just had to create a situation in which they could meet, and this was born. And it's just the start~

As always, thank you for reading, and please leave a review! :) You can expect more Ren and Karma next, so hopefully you can look forward to that!

Until next time!