Thank you so much for your kind reviews, knowing that someone is reading this gives the motivation to update! Now I am not going to set orders like "three reviews and I'll post the next chapter" but I just want to let you all know how happy they make me! (*wipes tears away with tissues*)

Alright enough silliness. Again it'll be following the manga, I changed things to my liking and its Murao's point of view. Short little parts about Murao's journey to friendship (oh man I sound pathetic).

Enjoy!

"You know, about Futaba, right?" Murao looks up when she hears two girls enter the bathroom. "The only reason we can hang out with her like this, really, is because she so completely lacks femininity."

"Ah yeah! That might be sort of true."

"She's got a cute face, so if she was girly as well she'd probably piss me off."

Murao flushes the toilet even though she didn't use it and leaves her bathroom stall. She approaches the girls in front of the mirrors, they are so busy gossiping about others that they don't even notice that Murao's there at first. "Hey, if you're done now, could you get out of the way?"

"S-Sorry!" The girls quickly grab their makeup bags when they recognise the person in front of them and leave the bathroom. Murao exhales a sigh and washes her hands, she's aware of her 'scary' reputation among the other students, especially the female ones, but she can't bring up the effort to care about it. Those girls are even worse at high school. They are all fake, trash speaking back stabbers. They were talking about Yoshioka Futaba; Murao has seen her before, always surrounded by these two girls. If she'd only know what those 'friends' of her are saying about her behind her back. This just proves her right: girls cannot be trusted.

When she leaves the bathroom the girls are still standing there, with Yoshioka Futaba, it seems like she overheard the other girls talking about her. She's laughing and brushing it off like it means nothing to her. Is she really that desperate to be liked? Pathetic. The girls freeze when she passes them. Murao stops and turns her face to the girls to give them a well-earned glare. "You're too noisy."

While she's walking away she can hear the two girls whom she sent away earlier whisper to each other. "Murao Shuuko is kind of scary, isn't she?"

"She's really intense."

Yoshioka Futaba-san, always hanging around with those girls. She doesn't think she can understand someone who is fine with being surrounded by fake friends.

Murao places her inside shoes in her locker, today's the day of the closing ceremony and honestly, Murao is relieved. One more day in her current class and she would seriously consider not attending anymore. It's not that they did something to annoy or hurt her; she's just not that interested in spending time with people she hardly knows. They are a waste to spend her time with; she doesn't want to get to know them. She just wants to finish high school as quickly as possible and leave this place behind. Yet, she's moving slowly today, the thought of not seeing Tanaka-sensei for two weeks makes her heart ache.

"A teacher is hitting on a female student right here!"

Murao's head jolts up, together with a lot of other curious students. Tanaka-sensei is standing there with his little brother and Yoshioka-san, making apologising gestures and trying to clear up the misunderstanding while his brother drags the girl away from the scene. "Eh, that's not true! It's a misunderstanding! I really wasn't—" She feels sorry for Tanaka-sensei, having to deal with such a rude sibling, everyone knows Tanaka-sensei would never make a pass on a minor, even she is aware of that.

"Ah Murao!" Murao's heart skips a beat when she hears his voice, cheerful as ever like his brother didn't just run away from him. "I hope you didn't hear that." She smiles at him. "I did. He was quite noisy." Tanaka-sensei pouts. "Ah, that damn guy, well there's nothing I can do about it. –Ah, Murao!" Tanaka-sensei smiles again and looks around, then he suddenly places his hand on her shoulder and leans in to her. "I know you are not my student but I secretly peeked at Murao's English results and you aced it! As an English teacher that really warms my heart!" He whispers. Murao's eyes widen, he's touching her and his face is so close to her that she can almost touch his cheek with her nose. She can smell his sweet scent, he smells like shampoo and something she can't place but it makes her feel calm and comfortable. It's a smell that suits Tanaka-sensei. She can see that his lips are dry, probably because of the cold weather for this time of the year. Tanaka-sensei's closeness makes her feel a little dizzy all of the sudden, she has to grab onto something in order to prevent herself from falling. Something that turns out to be Tanaka-sensei's blazer. "Murao!" He immediately reacts and puts both of his hands on her upper arms to support her. Murao can feel her heart beat fast in her throat. Her face is pressed against Tanaka-sensei's chest and it remains there because neither of them is moving. "Murao?" He repeats, softer now. "Are you all right?" If her hands wouldn't be clenching Tanaka-sensei's clothes so tightly they'd be shaking, her legs feel like they could collapse any moment but as brave as she is she raises her head and nods. "Ah, I'm relieved, can you stand on your own?" There's something about her teacher's face that seems so different, his expression exudes concern but she also sees something more than just worry and his cheeks have a light, red colour on them. "Murao?"

"A-ah," she automatically steps back. "I think so." Her voice sounds weak, she almost doesn't recognise herself. "I am just a little tired."

"Take good care of yourself these two weeks, I wouldn't want Murao to get sick!" Even though Tanaka-sensei removed his hands a little moment ago she can still feel where he held her and she really has to refrain herself from touching the spot on her arms. "I will, Sensei, I'll rest as soon as I get home. You don't have to worry about me."
He nods, the faint hints of a blush on her teacher's face completely disappeared and he's back on his usual unreadable smile. "I'm needed on the second floor, there are still some things I have to take care of before I can go home. I'll see you soon again!" Murao nods at him as good bye and turns back to her locker. Murao can feel the red colour on her cheeks slowly fade. Did she see it right or was she imagining his blush- if it's right what she saw then why was he blushing? When she closes her eyes she can see his face being so close to hers again, she could have been able to kiss him. She can't help but glance at him one more time as he leaves. She really, really loves him.

"Murao." Her classmate, Kominato Aya, head pops up from behind the lockers, just how long has he been standing there, did he see them? There was nothing to see, there was nothing suspicious she tries to reassure herself. She was only feeling unwell and he happened to catch her. There was nothing special ... "Are you coming for the gathering later?"

"No."

"You're skipping out on all class get-togethers. Today's the last day of the class, so at least make it for the final gathering event."

Murao looks down, he's pushing her too much again. This is one of the reasons she doesn't want to come with them. They are all expecting her to do things she doesn't want to do, get involved and then they put their noses in her business. "I don't really have a lot of good memories with this class anyway. I don't want to remember anything about my current class."

"But..." Kominato tries but Murao interrupts him before he can even start with his sentence. "It has nothing to do with you" She closes the door of her locker and turns away from him. "Well, bye then, Kominato-kun." She says before she quickly takes her leave.

It was nice of him to try, but Murao rather forgets about this year. It's not like she made any friends. She doesn't need to attend a stupid karaoke event with her classmates, she would only feel left out again. Choosing to be on your own is better than feeling left out after all.

Two weeks went by way too fast, although Murao did miss Tanaka-sensei, she can't say that she's happy to be back at school again. Murao is one of the first to arrive in her new class. The new year just started, vague familiar faces enter the classroom one by one, talking like they haven't seen each other in months and didn't meet up during in their free time at all. Annoying. A cute and shy looking girl chooses the table right in front of her. She's alone, just like her. The girl smiles and tries to greet her but Murao stubbornly looks away. If she thought she would be making friends by sitting in front of her, she has made a huge mistake.

"Yoshioka-san!" The cute girl says, even her voice sounds adorable.

Ah, it's that girl again. Yoshioka Futaba enters the classroom next, it appears that they are in the same class this year. Murao is relieved, now she doesn't have to pretend to be friendly or anything. The girl and Yoshioka-san seem to be pretty close already, it might be easier this year to avoid talking at all—

"Murao! Ah yeah!" Oh no. Kominato storms in with a huge grin on his face. "We're in the same class again! It's nice to see you!"

Murao looks up with a rather bored expression on her face, she really doesn't want to hold up a conversation with this guy. "Hello."

"During our first year you said you didn't want to remember anything about your class, but I won't let you say that about our class this time! I'll definitely won't allow you to!" What an obnoxious guy he is, and so hyper, does he really feel the need to raise his voice when he's merely a meter away from her?

"Say, do you want to meet up after school?" He never stops talking too.

"No."

"Then what about tomorrow?" He won't leave her alone. Just how many times does she have to explain herself to him... "I didn't say that I can't today, I just don't want to. Not now, not tomorrow and not the day after it. No means no, Kominato-kun." ...until he finally gets a clue?

"Heeh," Kominato leans over her desk. "alright, you win this round! But I'll be back with the same question tomorrow, and the day after it, heck, next week I'll still be standing here!"

"If that makes you happy."

"Un, it does! And you'll see Murao! At the end of this year you will be smiling too!"

This guy obviously doesn't know what he's talking about. At least he stopped talking and is forced to pick a table on the other side of the class, but at this rate; it's going to be a long year for her.

The next morning is not really different, but this time; Murao is prepared.

"G-Good morning Murao-san!" Yoshioka greets her. Murao puts her bag on the floor and looks up. "Morning." The least she could do is greet them. These two girls don't particularly look that bad, after all, they are outsiders too. The cute looking girl, Makita Yuuri, often got ignored during their first year because she was 'too cute'. She dragged the attention of all the guys with her cute attitude and slowly the female students started to hate her.
The other girl, Yoshioka Futaba, was always surrounded by her friends, until they got into a huge fight at the last day of school. The rumours about Yoshioka-san were spreading fast, apparently she had said some awful things about her so-called 'friends', but that's only what Murao heard, and out of experience she can tell that you shouldn't believe everything you hear. Especially not from conniving high school girls.

Yoshioka smiles, surprised but also somewhat happy too. "Murao-sa..."

Murao shoves the earplugs from her iPod into her ears and takes her book from her bag; 'The Rowdy Gang Leader Goes on a Journey'. Tanaka-sensei had recommended it to her last year after she told him about her plans for the future but didn't start reading in it until two weeks ago. She had no-one to spend her free time with so decided that she could at least give it a try. It's not that bad, so far. It's about a noisy and disorderly leader of a gang who is on a journey to find his purpose in life after he got out of jail. The book is exactly as dull as it sounds, but it kills the time, and it also helps her create an unapproachable aura. She is completely blocked out from the rest of the class now. She doesn't specifically mean to be rude to Yoshioka-san, but she needs to be prepared in case—

"Muraoooo!"

Kominato arrives.

"Mornin'! Whatcha readin'? Whatcha listenin' to?"

Murao turns the page even though she didn't read everything on it yet, she just want to give him the impression that she's too concentrated on her book to hear him.

"Anyway," he continues when Murao doesn't respond. "I was thinking that we are really lucky to be in the same class in our second year too!

That's right! The other day I want shopping and I saw something that reminded me of Murao!" She must admit that it's quite impressive that he can hold a conversation this long with just himself, even after a full year of getting rejected over and over again, he still didn't give up on trying to have a proper conversation with her. He hasn't succeeded yet though, not even once.

The bell rings after the fourth period, lunch break at last. In order to avoid having a small talk with Kominato-kun again she gets up and leaves the classroom as fast as she can. She hears him yell after her but she does the one thing she is extremely good at: ignore his existence and keep walking. She is aimlessly walking around for a while, waiting for the next period to start. She has to find something to do because she can't keep doing this every break. Maybe she can find a good spot in the library. Then she suddenly sees a man with a white sweater and 'Nya-Nya Brothers!' printed in pink of the back of it, with in the middle of the shirt a huge paw of a cat, so she assumes. There's only one teacher who dresses like that to school; Tanaka-sensei. Every vein in her body wants to follow him but something holds her back. Maybe she shouldn't, it's only been two weeks and she would appear as too eager if she would approach him now. But then one of the papers Tanaka-sensei is holding falls out of his hands and he doesn't seem to notice. This could be her sign; she quickens her pace to catch up with him after picking up the paper. "Sensei, you dropped your printout." She says as calmly as possible, trying her best to control her fast beating heart.

"Ah, Murao! Sorry, sorry, thanks!" Murao wonders why he's apologising and quickly lets her eyes slide over the paper so she doesn't have to look at his face. "What is this leaders induction course about?" She asks more as attempt to expand their time together than actual curiosity.

"Ah, about that course, this is meant for students who are class and events representatives. It's a training course that boosts the leadership and events management skills."

"I've never heard about this before," she looks back at the paper "there is even an overnight camp for this?"

"This is actually our first year with this course." Tanaka-sensei laughs. "The purpose is to strengthen the relationship between the class and the event representatives. When that is achieved, it becomes easier to bond the entire class together. It's easier to have a final goal and settle everything in one go, than to look into individual cases one at the time."

"Sensei is really enthusiastic about this, isn't he?"

"Naturally, it was me who came up with this after all! I'll be supporting the class and event representatives, and I'll go with them on the camp of course!"

"I see."

"But that's enough about me promoting my own project!" He takes the print out from Murao and puts it back between the rest. "How's your new class, have you made any friends yet?" Murao shrugs. "It's the second day, do you expect me to make friends this quickly? I'll need
more time to get to know them, if I'd be interested."

Tanaka-sensei tilts his head playfully to the side. "And are you interested?"

"It's not really different from last year, I don't see how this is going to work. It's not like I have anything in common with my classmates."

"And did you put effort into this matter already, Murao?" Murao blushes and stares at her feet, he sees right through her- even the tone of this voice sounds like he's mocking her, but when she looks up she sees no sign of ridicule on his face. Murao's silence says enough for him and he continues. "I hope Murao isn't giving up already, it's just the second day, after all." Murao twitches, he is using her own words against her. She hates it when he does that, he is always able to push her into a corner somehow. "Ah! How about Murao tries for class representative?"

"Eh? Sensei, you can't be serious! Of all of them, I am the least cut out for that role!" Tanaka-sensei bursts out in laughter again, amused by his student's frustrated reaction. "The way I see things, Murao might be suited for that role more than she thinks! You are kind and sweet, and you have a lot of guts!"

I'm sorry sensei, but that person you are describing is just the person I am around you, I am not that kind, nor sweet. "I'll think about it."

"Anyhow Murao, your life as a high school student will be over sooner than you actually think it might be. So put forth all your heart to fulfil every single thing that you feel like doing right now." If he only knew what she'd like to be doing right now, he would definitely not approve her thoughts. "I'll remember that."

He smiles contently when the sound of the bell reaches his ears. "It seems our time is up for the day, I have to get back to class and you too Murao. Let me know what your decision will be! I'd be super sad if I would have to go on camp without Murao!" and with that said, he turns around and walks away, disappearing in the crowd of students.

This is what he always does; confuse her with those ambiguous remarks. He says one thing and means the other, and this time; she isn't even sure what he exactly meant to say. But even so, only the thought of being the class representative makes her quiver but the idea of indirectly spending the night with Tanaka-sensei gives her a complete different feeling. She might think twice about this matter before she makes her final decision.

"Is there anyone who would want to volunteer for the representative positions?"

Murao keeps her gaze at the school board. She had a lot of time to over think during the last periods today and she could only come to one conclusion: being a class- or event representative is not suited for her. She's not...sociable enough. She'll have to disappoint Tanaka-sensei, but there is no way she is going to volunteer for this position.

"No candidates at all? The sooner we decide on this, the earlier you can go home." The class protests and the teacher lets out a frustrated sigh again. "I'm not happier about it than you are."

The students either look around or keep their eyes on their notebooks, it seems that even though the teacher threatened them to stay longer, no-one is really interested in becoming the class representative. All the extra work they'll have to do- and then there is that camp too. They have a social life you know, and some even a part-time job! There is homework to do and studying, no way they are going to do more for school than this.

"Oh, Yoshioka. You want to do it?" The students all turn around to the girl at the back, except for Murao. "Yes sir!" Is coming from behind her. "Then in that case, the class representative for the girls will be Yoshioka!"

Yoshioka gets up from her chair and approaches the teacher to take over the call for the remaining candidates. "All right! So, I just need one more male student to take up the call rep' role! Is there anyone who would like to volunteer himself for this?"

A dead silence follows through the classroom.

"Is there anyone? There will be a lot of work to do once you're a class or events rep'...!" Murao feels a little bit of sympathy for the girl, if there's anything she shouldn't have said it is that it will going to be a lot of work. Every male student seems to avoid eye contact with her. She is the only one who sounds like she's about up about this, it must feel so embarrassing to stand there alone. Murao is glad that she is not in her position.

"Is there someone who would be willing to take this class and achieve greater things with me?!" Yoshioka's voice has a slight hint of desperation with it.

"I don't mind doing it." Mabuchi Kou, Tanaka-sensei's younger brother, speaks up. "If there are no objections then Mabuchi-kun will be the male class rep', then! Mabuchi-kun, will you please join me in handling the procedure?" While Mabuchi stands up to join Yoshioka the class applauds. Morons, they are only being this enthusiastic because they'll be able to go home sooner.

"All right! We need three more events representatives! Anyone keen to do it?" Mabuchi takes the role over from Yoshioka.

Subconsciously, Murao's thoughts wander off to what Tanaka-sensei said to her earlier today. He is doing his best for her, trying to get her involved with activities, and she has never thanked him for his efforts, let alone done something with it. But he has never given up on her, he asks how she's doing and comes with new suggestions, he gives her all the time, space and comfort she needs. But spending more time with him has caused Murao's feelings to only grow more, and instead of making friends she closed herself further from the outside world. Just to spend time with Tanana-sensei.

"Me." Makita's soft voice breaks through the silence. "I will do it."

This first day of the new year; nothing's started yet, and she hasn't started anything either. If she really wants to start something new it goes without saying that she'll need more power than usual to get things going. She watches Yoshioka and Mabuchi argue, apparently he didn't know that his brother would be leading the camp and he is showing signs of objections already. Tanaka-sensei..., he would have wanted her to come too. Now she understands what he was trying to say. He would be disappointed, not because he'll miss her presence during the camp, but because he hoped she'd take the opportunity to change something.

If she stays like this, she will never be able to change.

Murao slowly raises her hand

She finally realised that now it's absolutely necessary for her to summon up the courage and start these changes. "I will take up the role as member of the events team." Around her she can hear the surprised reactions from her classmates. "Are you sure you want to do it?" Murao nods, almost directly after the sound of a chair falling follows and Kominato's voice blares through the classroom. "Me too! I'll take the events coordinator position as well!" She was certain that this would happen, as soon as Murao volunteered Kominato, who usually already bursts with enthusiasm, would follow her example and volunteer too. But his enthusiasm could make this group of different individuals work. A particular process is needed to bond different people in a class together, and they will be the best example for it.

"All right, this will be the class- and event representatives: Yoshioka Futaba, Mabuchi Kou, Makita Yuuri, Murao Shuuko and Kominato Aya." The teacher says.

First things first; from this moment forward, with these people, Murao will start a new chapter in her life.