It was the next day after classes. I was at the service club, reading a book and I could see my fellow club members doing the same.

The air inside the room was serene and peaceful, unlike the classes where the sounds of loud chattering fill the room the second any teacher leaves.

Speaking of classes, today was one heck of a day. At lunch break, I thought that I would be with the same group from yesterday but before I could even get up from my seat a lot of the girls swarmed my desk and started to overwhelm me. They kept trying to convince me to join them for lunch and at the end I couldn't resist.

The girls kept asking me a lot of personal questions and I tried to act like how I did in ANHS and be vague with my answers. I thought that they would eventually find me boring and leave me alone, but as time went by, their eyes shone even more, and they kept muttering something about me being mysterious.

Girls are scary!

I felt a lot of hostile gazes on me from the boy's side, and I could already tell that I was about to be shunned by them. I would've been hurt by that if not for the fact that I was already acquainted with Hikigaya and the boys from Hayama's group.

Hirata, I can finally understand your pain now.

Suddenly, the tranquil atmosphere inside the clubroom was interrupted by loud knocks on the door before it slid open to reveal a peach-haired classmate of mine.

"Yahallo!" Yuigahama entered the room while letting out a strange greeting of sorts.

Seeing her, Yukinoshita let out a deep sigh before speaking.

"What is it?"

"Huh? What? That's not much welcoming Yukinoshita-San, do you hate me?"

Yuigahama's voice turned sad and depressed at the end. Yukinoshita rubbed her chin with her finger as if deep in thought before speaking.

"I don't hate you. But I don't like you either."

"That's the same thing in girls speak!" Yuigahama exclaimed while flailing her arms.

Do the girls have their own speech or something? Or is it something Yuigahama just made up at the spot. I feel like it's something I would never know.

"So, why are you here?"

"Well… I am like really into cooking right now, right?"

"Yes? … I mean given that I told you to practice it, then yes."

"Well… I thought as a thanks for the other day, I would bake some cookies for you guys, want some?"

I was not sure if Yuigahama's cooking could improve much within a day. Given her skills, it would take a few days at the least to notice a positive progression in her cooking. The thought of tasting those cookies again sent a shiver down my spine. All I could do now was just pray that the cookies are not as bad as yesterday. Though I would be happier if we could refuse it.

I glanced at Yukinoshita and Hikigaya and saw that they went pale after hearing Yuigahama's words. It's not surprising, since the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Yuigahama's cooking are those darkened charcoal-like cookies from yesterday.

"I don't really have much of an appetite right now, so it's okay. Though I am grateful for it." Yukinoshita probably lost her appetite when the word cookies came out from Yuigahama's mouth.

Yuigahama didn't seem to mind the refusal and removed a cutely wrapped package from her bag with cookies in them and handed it to Yukinoshita.

"It was so fun you know, like the tips you gave were so helpful. I am thinking I'll try making a bento lunch or something next."

NO Yuigahama! Please don't, at least for the sake of chefs out there.

"Oh, speaking of lunch lets have lunch together Yukinon!"

'Yukinon'? She's already giving out nicknames to a person she is just barely acquainted with.

"No, thank you, I like eating my lunch alone and please stop with that 'Yukinon' name you got for me, its creepy!"

"What?! No way, don't you… like feel really lonely like that?"

"No, I don't, it's how I prefer to have my lunch."

"It's okay Yukinon, from tomorrow onwards I will spend my lunchtime with you. Ah, I am free after school hours and have nothing else to do, so I can help with the club stuff too."

She is not even giving Yukinoshita a chance to respond at this point. She is just announcing her intentions and pushing it towards our club president.

Yukinoshita looked conflicted and didn't know what to do. She turned towards me and Hikigaya, as if pleading for help.

I didn't want to go against this superhuman level of a social butterfly, so I tried to stealthily get up and leave the room since the club hours were about to end anyway and it looks like Hikigaya had same idea as me.

We opened the door and exited the room, but Yuigahama called out to us from the inside.

"Hikki! Wait!"

More like called out to Hikigaya.

Yuigahama walked out through the door and turned towards us. She rummaged through her school bag and took out two more packages before passing it to us which we almost dropped.

"Umm… Hikki and you too Ayanon, you guys helped me yesterday too, so I made this for you both."

What's with this girl? She is assigning nicknames to everyone as easily as she is breathing.

In any case, I peeked at the cookies inside the plastic package.

And… Oh! The appearance looks way better than the ones from yesterday, it's still not on Yukinoshita's level, however.

I glimpsed at the ones Hikigaya got, and Wow! it looks better and bigger than mine. Not that I am complaining though, who knows what kind of ingredients she might have used.

We bid Yuigahama farewell and started walking towards the school gate. On the way I pulled out a cookie from the package and reluctantly took a bite.

It was surprisingly… okay? I mean its way better than yesterday. I wouldn't say it's good enough to be served as a treat to others since it still retained a bit of bitterness, but unlike last time it's still edible, nonetheless. Seems my earlier thoughts about her cooking were quite incorrect, these are different from the ones she made yesterday and in a positive way too.

Sorry for badmouthing you Yuigahama, I will try to make it up to you one day.


The days passed by and now it was Sunday. The days following Tuesday were a hassle. If the lunch break during Tuesday was a slight nuisance, then the next days would be chaotic.

Many girls from other classes and even from other years started to come into the classroom to apparently see the 'Hot Transfer student' which was surprisingly or unsurprisingly myself, it was not only an inconvenience for me but for my classmates as well.

I am not dense enough to not know that I have a fairly good-looking appearance courtesy of Kushida and Kei, but that doesn't make me an object to be viewed as if in a public exhibition. I severely underestimated Hirata's situation; I don't know how he put up with this.

Actually, now that I think about it, it was even more dire than Hirata's situation. It's unbelievable how a simple thing such as introduction can have such a big impact on your social standing.

Still, my respect for you has grown immensely Hirata.

During the later days, I had to flee to the service club's clubroom to have my lunch. I was grateful that Yukinoshita allowed me to have lunch with her alone. Which was just us silently eating, or we were sometimes joined by Yuigahama, it also helped that the room was kind of isolated from the rest of the school.

I said it once and I'll say it again.

Girls are scary!

Anyways, that aside, I thought back to the first day and recalled that I had to go shopping for a phone, a laptop, and some clothing for myself and seeing that it was the weekend I decided to go to the shopping mall nearby.

Unlike the Keyaki mall in ANHS, which was inside the school grounds, this shopping mall was in the central commercial area of the city and since it was Sunday, it was a given that it would be busy. Ultimately, it was a new thing I could experience, so I didn't mind the crowd occasionally.

Along the way to the mall, I noticed a variety of people. Some were groups of teenagers and young adults from Middle schools, High schools, or Colleges, some were Families consisting of kids and their parents, or some were alone, like me.

I could hear many of them laughing and chatting with their friends or kids, while sharing jokes and memories. Watching them, I wondered if I could be like that one day. A future where I could express myself and genuinely laugh, smile, hang out and have fun with friends without having any underlining motives.

Whether I could unlock my sealed emotions and regain my humanity someday. I truly wished it from the bottom of my heart.

But at the end of the day, it's just wishful thinking. Changing oneself or their core values is almost impossible. No matter how much people grow or how much they outwardly change, they tend to stick to their core beliefs and ideals. Especially when its someone like me whose lack of emotions hinder any changes inside.

Yet, I still want to change, be a normal human, make genuine friends, maybe even have a girlfriend, and have fun in general.

"Haaaahh"

I let out a deep sigh and shook my head. It was better to push these thoughts into the back of my head and focus on the job in front.

After around 20 minutes of walking, I reached the front entrance of the shopping mall and what instantly caught my attention was the number of people flowing in and out of the mall. It was busier than I expected.

Not wanting to waste any more time, I entered the mall.


"Thank you for your purchase, hope you will visit us again next time."

The woman bowed while greeting me farewell. I waved my hand in return and exited the electronics store with a bag in my hand.

It wasn't that hard to get what I wanted. It was easy to research about this kind of stuff beforehand and find the best possible device for the best price. In this case, I spent a lot of my money and bought one of the more high-end Laptop and Phone for myself. Not because I wanted to flaunt them, but I didn't want to be bothered later when if it gets damaged easily.

The next thing on the list was the more grueling task, which was choosing clothes for myself.

I know my strengths and weaknesses better than anyone else, and fashion sense is something I terribly lack. I did learn from the Internet that you can overcome this by asking the employees present inside the store for advice or just purchase the outfits displayed on mannequins. But I find it quite embarrassing.

I wish I could bring over friends in this kind of situations, if I had any that is. The only numbers I have in my contact belonged to more than a dozen girls (which is already a no), Hiratsuka-Sensei, and Hayama, who did seem like an expert in this subject, but I didn't want to trouble him unnecessarily.

Having no Idea of what to do I sat down on an empty bench near a fountain and took out my old phone to search for some clothing stores with good reviews inside the mall.

"Ayanokoji-kun?"

A few minutes later, I heard a familiar voice calling out to me. I averted my gaze from the screen on hand and turned towards the direction of the voice.

What greeted me was the sight of a beautiful bespectacled brunette clad in a pink colored peasant blouse and a long red skirt reaching below her knees. Noticing my gaze on her, she gave me a small wave with a smile on her face and started walking towards me.

"Ebina? What are you doing here?"

It's not unusual to go outside during the weekends., but I just wanted to make some small talk with her. She probably understood it too.

"Oh, I am here with Yumiko. We decided to hang out, since it is a day off today."

"I see… where is Miura though? I don't see her nearby."

"Oh, she went that way, probably got a phone call or something." Ebina replied while pointing towards a direction of an empty alley inside the mall. Just as she pointed, Miura came out and appeared in our sights.

"Woah, speak of the devil." Ebina muttered before shouting out again. "Yumiko! Over here."

Miura noticed us and walked over to us. She, unlike Ebina who wore her outfit in a somewhat modest way, decided to wear something a bit daring. She wore a sleeveless white top that was also revealing a lot of her shoulders and a dangerously short black skirt that reached just below the middle of her thighs. Her appearance made her stand out among the sea of people inside the mall and she was easily garnering a lot of attention on herself, mostly from the men. It wasn't unexpected since she really was one of the more beautiful girls I have seen.

Miura gave a surprised look when she noticed me but didn't show any irritation. I thought she would surely be annoyed by my presence but that didn't seem to be the case.

"Ayanokoji? Why are you here?"

Not having the need to be secretive about it, I was about to open my mouth, but before I could, Ebina interrupted "Fufufu… isn't that obvious Yumiko? He is waiting for his boyfriend, or maybe even better… A DATE WITH HAYATO!"

Blood dripped from her nose following her outburst. Miura immediately took out a handkerchief from her skirt pocket and raised it to Ebina's nose.

"Haaaah… Seriously? Hina, you should really like… tone down your BL imaginations and fantasies and stuff." Miura said while holding the cloth on Ebina's nose and gave me an apologetic look.

I, for one, remembered the time when I searched the 'BL' term up online when Hayama mentioned it the other day, and I can say without a shred of hesitation that it is one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen. For some reason, a lot of the girls liked to romantically or even sexually pair boys with other boys, and I don't even know what kind of pleasure they get from it.

Ebina seemed to be belonging to that group of girls and for that unknown reason, she started to include me and Hayama in her fantasies. I don't care what she likes to do, or she does not, but that behavior of her does somewhat creep me out.

"I just bought a new phone for myself, and since I just moved here, I don't own many clothes, so I planned to go for some shopping next. What about you guys?" Not knowing what to say, I decided to answer the question Miura asked a few moments back.

Miura wiped Ebina's nose and returned the handkerchief to where it was previously stored before replying. "Hmm, I was just bored and didn't have anything to do, so I decided to call Hina to hangout."

"But what about Yuigahama? isn't she always with you girls?" I asked.

"I did, but she said she had something to do with her parents, so it's just me and Hina today." Replied Miura.

So, they are here without any purpose huh. Come to think of it, this would be the perfect solution to the previous predicament I was in. I didn't know if the girls would accept my proposal or not, but I mentally shrugged to myself and just decided to ask them anyway.

"Can I ask you guys a favor? Don't worry, you don't have to do it if you are busy right now."

"Fufu… what kind of favor Ayanokoji-Kun? Are you perhaps trying to score a date with us~." Ebina said with a teasing voice while Miura was just scrolling through her phone.

"Ah, it's not something like that. You see, I don't have much knowledge in fashion, so I think I am going to have a bit of difficulty choosing my clothes. You guys look like you are way better than me in that aspect, so I was just trying to ask if you could help me with it. So…um… can you?"

"Again, you have the option to refuse if you don't want" I added hastily.

"Huh, that's a surprise, I thought that someone popular like you won't have that kind of issue." Did they really perceive as an extrovert? I thought that I didn't give off an impression of an outgoing person, seems like I was wrong. "Hmm… what do you think Yumiko? We don't have anything planned for today anyway."

"I don't mind, but…" Miura replied and again I was surprised by her unexpected behavior. I for sure thought she would refuse to help me, but it looked like that she was okay with it. There seemed to be a condition, however. "How about this Ayanokoji? We will help you with what you need, and you will treat us to a café of our choice. How does that sound?"

It wasn't a bad offer. It was just a small price to pay so I decided to accept.

"Alright, it's okay with me."

"Great! Hurry up let's go."

With that decided, I stood up from my seat and faced the girls. They just kept silent and stared at me as if waiting for something. I was confused by their behavior and gave a confused stare of my own.

"What?! Why are you just staring like that? Come on let's go, lead the way already." Miura gestured me to take the lead.

"Uh, but this is the first time I am in this mall, so I don't know which kind of store would be good. Wouldn't it be better if you guys suggest some?"

"Haaah… fine, follow me." Miura sighed and motioned me to follow her while Ebina gave me a reassuring smile.


We walked for a while and entered an expensive looking clothing store. Apparently, the brand is one of the largest and most popular retailer chains in Japan. It sold all types of clothes, ranging from children to adults and from men to women. Since summer was approaching fast, most of the clothes were themed after it too.

We entered the store and immediately navigated our way to the men's section. I started browsing through some shirts and took out a grey checkered one and presented it to the girls.

"How's this?" I asked.

Miura looked at me blankly for a few seconds and then exhaled heavily.

"You are really bad at this aren't you? Now try to pair it with something for the inside and choose a bottom to go with… Actually, you know what, I'll just do it for you."

"O-oh, okay." Out of us three, she looked like the one with the most experience in fashion, so I just let her do whatever she wanted. I was already lucky enough to receive her help and I didn't want to tick her off this soon.

[A.N: - I am bad at this stuff myself so forgive me if it appears weird.]

While all this was happening, Ebina just kept quiet and gave us an amused smile. Miura went ahead and browsed through some t-shirts and took out a plain white one and handed it to me.

Next, she asked for my size and picked up a slim fit black jean and passed it to me. I took what was given and threw them into the basket.

"What are you doing?" Miura suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?" I was confused by her question. Didn't she give me this outfit, so that I could buy it? Or is there some kind of step I missed.

"Go to the trial room and try these on."

"But aren't the clothes my size? Why do I need to do that?"

"Gosh! It's like you never went shopping for clothes or something, you need to check if the clothes match and if it looks good on you, now hurry up and go." Miura finally appeared annoyed by my ignorance with this stuff.

She was somewhat right with her statement though; I never seriously went shopping before. But I wasn't going to tell her that. When I did go, I just picked up what I thought would look good on me, checked the size, and bought it. I didn't try them on before buying. And that was what happened inside ANHS.

Before that, in the White Room, we didn't have the privilege to choose what we wear, it was just a simple white gown most of the time and a Keikogi when practicing martial arts. That is all there was. I wish there was at least a book to learn about fashion in the white room but unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

In any case, I gave a reluctant sigh before giving a nod and replying.

"Fine."

I really need more time to integrate into the modern society. I thought my 1 year stay in ANHS would have been enough but that doesn't seem to be the case. Shopping is just one aspect of it, there are still a lot of things I need to experience to get used to them.

I Picked up the clothes from the basket and went into the trial room to try it on.

Soon, I came out of the trial room to ask for their impressions on my outfit, But I was astonished to see Miura already waiting with another set of clothes on her hand and this quick too.

She work's fast.

"Where's Ebina?" I asked. It was just Miura outside and I couldn't see the girl in question anywhere.

"She went to look for some other clothes for you." Huh, that was a pleasant surprise. I assumed that Miura would do most of the work while Ebina would just wait and watch. At least it's a good thing that they are taking it seriously.

"So, how's it?" I asked for her comments, while raising both my hands to give her a better look. The outfit was pretty comfortable. It was perfect for summer in my opinion, the shirt was kind of loose and not too thick, it allowed air to pass through easily, so I don't have to worry about getting a heatstroke or something.

Miura scrutinized me from top to bottom before giving me her opinion. "It's looks good, but… maybe if..." she closed the distance between us and started to adjust the collar and the front of the shirt. She was so focused on what she was doing that, she didn't seem to realize the position she was in. She gave off a scent of citrus that wafted through my nose which I assumed was her perfume, The outfit she wore was already revealing a lot of her pale skin and adding to that her natural beauty made me very conscious of her.

I may have a lot of self-restraints but at the end of the day I was just a teenage high-school boy, so I really had to control my desires from taking over my rationality.

"Alright, now it looks better." She finally let me go and gave me her approval, for which I let out a sigh of relief internally. After that she handed me the set of clothes she brought and sent me back to the trial room.

This went on for a while where mostly Miura and sometimes Ebina would hand me a set of clothes, I would try them on, and they would give some comments at the end. We even the attracted attention of employees working at the store.

After I felt I had enough, we made our way to the counter where i paid for the clothes and we exited the store. I bought a lot of clothes for myself this time, which can be seen by the number of bags in my hand. Come to think of it, this reminds me of the time when most of the girls in my class went on a shopping spree during the first month in my previous school.

Fortunately, unlike them I don't have much of a limit on my budget, which was a good thing. But I wasn't going to act like a spoiled kid and spend huge amount of money on unnecessary things.

"So, it's to the café you mentioned earlier, right?" I was not sure where we were headed next, but I assumed it was the café, so I asked Miura to confirm it.

"Yes of course, where else would we go?" I didn't know how to reply to that, so I just nodded my head and continued on.

The two kept chatting about mundane topics in front of me while I just kept quiet and walked behind them. Now that I think about it, this is the first time I am hanging out with people of my age in the outside world. But I never thought it would be with two beautiful girls. I wasn't displeased with the fact however, far from it, If I had to be honest, I was glad. I mean who wouldn't want to go out like this with two cute girls.

Wow! I just sounded like Ike right there. Damn you, Ike!


We were now standing in front of the café that Miura mentioned before. It didn't look too small nor too large, just the perfect size. From the exterior itself I could see that it had a welcoming and calm environment inside it. The café was themed after gardens and greenery which could be seen from the plants covering the sign outside and from what I could see through the glasses, it also had a modern vibe to it due to the design of the seats and tables.

"This looks like a nice café." I commented, letting out my honest thoughts.

"Right? I found it the other day when I was walking through the street here but didn't have the time to visit it. The reviews said that the café was a bit expensive, but the quality of the food items was good, and it apparently made up for the high prices. The atmosphere inside the café looks very good too." Miura said. The way her eyes shone with excitement when she was talking about the café showed how much she was looking forward to it. She also looked like she knew a lot about cafes.

If you think about it, Miura really is your stereotypical popular High school girl. She is at the top of the food chain in her school, is very knowledgeable about fashion, has a lot of social skills, and really knows her stuff when it comes to outings and such, not to mention she is breathtakingly beautiful too, exactly the characteristics you would expect from a popular girl.

On an unrelated note, it also has to be mentioned that we were outside the mall right now. Initially, when Miura spoke about the café, I thought that we were going to visit a café inside the mall. But I was surprised when we exited the mall and walked for another 5 minutes to come and stand where we are right now.

I wasn't dissatisfied with it however, the location of the café was in the direction of my apartment, so I had no complaints.

"Come on, let's go." Miura said while walking through the entrance. Ebina and I followed after her.

The smell of fresh roasted coffee reached my nose as soon as we entered the café. The interior really did give off the feeling of a peaceful and relaxing environment. The insides were clean and there were a lot of plants in layers and rows on the walls, there were also pots of different shapes and sizes containing plants hanging from the ceiling. I could already tell that the employees working here takes great care of the café.

"Welcome. How may I help you?" A waiter that looked like he was in his early twenties suddenly greeted us with a smile.

"We need a table for three please." Miura said.

"Yes of course, this way."

The waiter led us to a table by the windows and sat us down. He gave each of us a menu and went away while saying that he would return for our orders.

"So… What're you guys getting?" Ebina asked while scanning through the menu on her hand.

Miura narrowed her eyes at the menu for a while before replying. "I think I'll get a Chicken salad and a strawberry cheesecake for dessert with a latte, what about you?"

"I am not feeling too hungry now, so I'll just get a coffee cake and a latte as well." Ebina replied.

The waiter returned and asked for orders. I decided to get a few chicken sandwiches since it was already past lunch time. I also ordered an ice cream sandwich for dessert because my body was craving for something cold and a black coffee. The waiter noted down our orders and bid us farewell.

Looking around, I could see a moderate number of people inside the café that looked like college students doing their work. It is probably safe to assume that the café is more popular with people around the age of twenties.

While we were waiting for our orders. I suddenly noticed that Miura looked a bit sullen. I was bewildered by it since she looked cheerful just moments ago.

"What's wrong Yumiko?" asked Ebina. Looks like she too noticed the sudden drop in Miura's mood.

"It's nothing. It's just that I wanted to show this place to Hayato too." Miura replied in a somber tone. And of course, she would want to do that, wasn't she the girlfriend of Hayama?

But for some reason It didn't seem like they were dating. I also never heard anyone talking about their relationship in school. It couldn't be that they were pretending since Miura looked like she was genuinely head over heels for Hayama.

"So, how long have you been dating Hayama for?" I decided to ask her directly to clarify my doubts.

"Ah!" Miura widened her eyes and let out a startled sound. The cheeks on her face were slowly turning to a shade of light pink. "D-d-da-dating! N-no we are not dating!... at least not yet." The last part of her sentence was said in a low voice, but I still heard her. At least she confirmed my doubts.

I could see that her mood turned depressed again which was an unusual reaction from a hot-headed girl like her, but it was probably due to my question, I probably shouldn't have asked it. Ebina looked a bit worryingly towards Miura and was about to raise her hand to Miura's shoulders to console her when the waiter returned with our orders.

He set our orders on the table and promptly left without saying anything probably sensing the mood. Noticing the food on the table, the light in Miura's eyes slowly returned, although not fully. Ebina silently picked up the fork and Miura followed her. I felt that I should most likely apologize to Miura for my question to dissipate the awkward atmosphere between us, but before I could, a feminine voice that I was familiar with called out to me.

"Ayanokoji-Kun?!"

I turned my head towards the way the voice came from. My eyes subconsciously widened slightly when a person I didn't expect fell on my sight.

"Tachibana-Senpai?"


Hello again, and uhhh I am really sorry for the very late update.

You know what? I'll just be honest. Although I was busy with my studies, the late update was mainly due to my laziness and again sorry about it.

I will try to update the fic a bit quicker next time.

Thanks for reading the chapter.

Adieu.