Together... Right?

Dashing out of Kotori’s room, Takumi headed to school ahead of her.

Although it was earlier than usual, about half of the seats in the classroom were already filled, with classmates visible chatting away in their respective groups. Incidentally, because they always had trouble finding people to talk to and ended up with time on their hands, Takumi and Kotori always arrived at school at the very last minute.

Placing his bag on his seat, he took a quick look around, but Toba didn’t seem to have arrived yet.

“…’ning.”

Arriving at the classroom slightly later, Kotori murmured what sounded like a greeting.

The usual top-tier popular girls didn’t seem to have arrived yet, so there was no one to return Kotori’s greeting.

While having people noisily approach her would be overwhelming, lacking even that probably felt lonely. An indescribable look came over Kotori’s face. Then, looking around the room, she realized Toba wasn’t there yet.

Having arrived full of enthusiasm on the day of day duty itself, only to be left hanging, Kotori let out a small, disappointed sigh.

Unable to just stand there indefinitely, she heard a bright yet frantic voice coming from the hallway on her way to her seat.

“Crap, I almost overslept!”

The one who came bursting into the classroom while shouting that was none other than Toba himself.

As he spread his arms and struck a “safe” pose, voices of bantering and retorts rose from the surroundings, like “What are you doing?” and “Your arrival time is literally the same as usual anyway.” Toba scratched his head sheepishly with a goofy demeanor.

Noticing Kotori placing her bag on her desk, Toba gave a silly grin and walked over to her.

“Yo, Nabata! Good, looks like you just got here too?”

“…gh.”

Though she tried to reply, words failed to come out on the spot, so Kotori gave a small nod.

“In that case, you haven’t changed the water in the flower vase yet, right? I’ll run and take care of it!”

“?!”

Saying so with a broad grin, Toba tossed his bag onto his desk, rolled up his sleeves as if to say “leave it to me,” and headed toward the back of the classroom.

He likely wanted to show off a good side of himself to Kotori.

However, Kotori’s actual objective was to handle day duty together with him. Toba’s unexpected action left her flustered and bewildered.

As Takumi stared open-mouthed, his eyes met Kotori’s, who was desperately seeking help.

Even during this exchange, Toba already had his hands on the vase. There was no time to hesitate.

Regaining his composure, Takumi typed out instructions for the line she should say on his smartphone: 《Together!》.

Kotori checked her phone right away, her body trembling for a split second, and turned her eyes back toward him, prompting Takumi to give a firm nod to push her into action.

After a moment’s hesitation, Kotori shouted toward Toba in a loud voice completely uncharacteristic of her.

“T-Together!”

“Huh?”

Surprised, Toba stopped in his tracks. Kotori rushed right up to his side with the momentum of her blurted-out words, rattling on at a rapid pace—again, completely uncharacteristic of her.

“Let’s go together.”

“A-Ah, sure…”

And being completely overwhelmed on the inside, Kotori walked out of the classroom at a brisk pace toward the washing area.

Taken by surprise, Toba restarted his mental engine and hurriedly gave chase after Kotori.

Relaxing his tension once the two disappeared from sight, Takumi let out a grand, heavy sigh, “Haa~”

Although there had been an unexpected accident, it could be called a success as far as beginnings went.

However, Takumi was not the only one who let out a sigh.

Along with sighs from various spots around the classroom, voices laced with intrigue could be heard, saying things like “I knew it” and “That confirms it for sure.”

(…Eh?)

Takumi blurted out a dumbfounded voice in his heart.

Pricking up his ears, it seemed they were gossiping about Kotori and Toba.

Feeling another unexpected situation brewing, Takumi crumpled his face in dismay.