It's Hard To Talk To People

And so, to ensure that Kotori could successfully carry out her class duties, they launched a plan to help her learn how to greet Toba before their assigned day arrived.

The idea was that if she could manage a simple greeting, she would probably be able to recite the standard phrases required for class duty as well.

The following morning, Takumi arrived at school earlier than usual.

Kotori hadn’t arrived yet, so he took a paperback out of his bag, intending to read the book he’d borrowed from the library while sitting at his desk.

It was a light novel.

The story revolved around a group of high school students solving small mysteries hidden in their everyday lives. As they unraveled these mysteries, however, the characters gradually began misreading situations and misunderstanding one another, weaving an increasingly tangled web of relationships. Takumi was only partway through, but the promotional blurb on the book’s jacket—“Youth × Mystery! Best enjoyed a second time once you know the whole truth!”—hadn’t been exaggerating.

The misunderstandings between the characters were frustrating to watch, but as someone who was constantly mistaken for a delinquent by those around him, Takumi found certain aspects painfully relatable. The story struck a chord with him, and he couldn’t stop turning the pages.

He had originally started reading books to cultivate the image of a literary intellectual, but he’d gotten far more hooked than expected.

Since nobody around him paid much attention to him anyway, Takumi gradually lost himself in the world of the novel.

When the heroine, who had been dropping hints that she might have feelings for the protagonist, suddenly showed an interest in a teacher from another school, Takumi anxiously turned the page—only to notice a handwritten note tucked between the pages.

Wondering what it could be, he picked it up and scanned its contents—and his expression grew increasingly murderous.

“…Tch.”

Takumi couldn’t help clicking his tongue loudly.

The note read, “The letter the heroine delivers to the teacher is actually to help someone else’s romance along.” There were other notes as well, such as “The gyaru girl has always been devoted to the protagonist” and “The paper airplane is the source of the misunderstanding.”

Having read this far, Takumi immediately recognized every single one of them as spoilers.

Most likely, someone who had borrowed the book before him had written these notes while rereading it and accidentally left them behind.

Since it was a library book available for anyone to borrow, accidents like this were unavoidable. Even so, knowing that didn’t make his frustration any easier to swallow, and his emotions inevitably showed in his behavior.

Unfortunately, his classmates were intimidated by Takumi’s sudden display of displeasure, and the entire classroom fell silent.

An unbearably awkward atmosphere settled over the room.

Realizing what he’d done, Takumi turned his embarrassed face away from everyone, gazed out the window, and rested his chin on his hand.

Just as an unconscious sigh escaped his lips, a cheerful voice rang out, as though determined to dispel the tension in the room.

“So, get this. I had this dream last night where pouring milk into a teapot turned it into ice cream. Then, when I was eating breakfast this morning, I was still half asleep and actually poured milk into the teapot. The result was such a disaster that it woke me right up!”

The boys around him immediately burst into laughter, throwing out comments like “What the heck were you doing?” and “That’s so like you, Toba.” When Toba added, “Hey, maybe it would’ve worked if I’d been trying to make hot milk,” the girls joined in with remarks like “Well, there’s such a thing as roasted green tea lattes, right?” and “Isn’t there some kind of black tea you brew directly in milk?” The conversation quickly spread throughout the classroom.

The icy atmosphere from moments earlier vanished without a trace.

Toba had probably spoken up because he’d sensed the mood in the room. He was generally a pretty considerate guy.

Even if Kotori was awkward with words and came across as cold, Toba might be willing to stick with her through their class duties rather than abandoning her halfway.

Just as Takumi narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at that possibility, the classroom door slid open with a clatter, and Kotori arrived.

“Morning, Nabatchi! Girl, my bedhead was, like, totally awful today!”

“Oh, hey, Torichii, did you do the math homework?”

“Oh, right, listen to this! So, this stream I watched yesterday…”

Kotori was immediately surrounded by her usual group of popular girls, who bombarded her with completely unrelated topics. Looking thoroughly overwhelmed, she could only respond with brief answers like “No” and “Yeah.”

Up to this point, everything was exactly as usual.

However, Kotori apparently intended to try greeting Toba right away. She seemed unusually restless, her attention clearly elsewhere.

Eventually, Kotori waited for a lull in the conversation, deposited her bag at her desk, and used that momentum to head straight toward Toba.

Normally, Kotori associated exclusively with the popular girls and maintained a cool, aloof demeanor toward everyone else.

Seeing her take the initiative to approach someone so directly left not only Toba himself but also the surrounding students speechless with surprise.

Standing before Toba, Kotori narrowed her sharp, intelligent-looking eyes and clenched her fists. Her expression was stiff, although her cheeks were slightly flushed. Apparently, her nervousness made it difficult for her to get the words out.

“Um, Nabata-san…?”

“!”

Finding it strange that she was simply standing there staring at him, Toba tried speaking to her, but Kotori merely flinched, her shoulders trembling slightly. After a brief hesitation, she walked away without doing anything at all.

As expected, greeting a boy she’d never once initiated a conversation with was an intimidating hurdle for her. To Takumi, her retreating figure looked a little dejected.

However, the surrounding students apparently interpreted the situation very differently.

“Wasn’t Nabata-san looking kind of angry!?”

“Toba-kun, what was that all about!?”

“Dude, what the hell did you do!?”

“I-I dunno! I’m just as confused as you guys…”

The students gathered around Toba suddenly erupted into anxious chatter.

Kotori had merely been attempting to greet him, but her usual aloof demeanor combined with her tense expression had apparently made her look as though she were suppressing her anger. To an outside observer, it seemed like she’d approached Toba intending to give him a piece of her mind.

Oh, crap, Takumi thought, pressing a hand to his forehead.

Meanwhile, Kotori was facing her own interrogation, with the popular girls crowding around her and demanding, “What’s wrong!?” and “You can tell us anything!” Since Kotori had never previously gone out of her way to approach anyone in particular, the girls were especially intrigued this time and refused to let the matter drop.

Takumi sensed that things were taking a rather troubling turn.

Kotori apparently felt the same way, judging by the helpless look she sent him.

Even afterward, Kotori continued trying to approach Toba, but the most she could manage was to steal occasional glances in his direction. Unfortunately, whenever Toba or their classmates noticed her looking at him, it only reinforced their misunderstanding.

‘I’ve got to do something.’

If Kotori could simply approach him cheerfully and offer even one greeting, the whole situation would probably resolve itself immediately. But if she were capable of doing that, they wouldn’t have been struggling in the first place.

Just before lunch break, as Takumi’s anxiety continued to mount, a message arrived from Kotori.

“!?”

What appeared on his screen was a sticker of a cat stretching—Kotori’s signal requesting their routine.

‘Are you serious?’ Takumi thought, staring at Kotori with widened eyes. She gave him a small, apologetic nod.