"Ding dong…"
Tsuna felt the vibration of his phone in his pocket. Under Shouko's puzzled gaze, he took out his phone and opened LINE at an angle she could see.
"There should be a lot of people at the bulletin board now, no need to go see it. I've checked it for you. We're all in Class 1-2."
"Picture"
"Awesome, Nishikata."
"(Clapping.jpg)"
He tapped the picture sent by Nishikata, quickly scanned it, and handed it to Shouko, who was still confused, beside him.
"Nishikata took this picture of the class list early this morning. Take a look, there's a surprise."
"!"
Shouko took the phone and immediately spotted her and his names in the picture. A few lines below were the names of Ajitani and the others, which filled her with pleasant surprise.
"Let's go, let's go to the classroom first. I heard they've already saved seats for us." Tsuna rubbed her bowed head and put his phone away.
"Mhm, mhm."
She nodded. She had just seen a very unexpected name on the class list, but Tsuna didn't say anything about it, and she felt it wasn't a big deal.
Following the posted signs, the two walked for five or six minutes to the classroom on the far left of the second floor of the second teaching building.
Through the window, the light wood desks in the classroom could be clearly seen, arranged in neat rows with residual chalk dust on the surfaces.
The metal chair legs cast long, thin shadows on the floor, intertwining with the rhombus-shaped light spots filtering through the glass windows to form geometric patterns.
There were unwashed water marks on the bottom right corner of the blackboard, like ripple-shaped patterns left by someone repeatedly wiping with a wet cloth.
Three board erasers were stacked on the windowsill by the corridor. When the white linen curtains were lifted by the wind, a gray-blue storage cabinet was revealed in the corner, its cabinet door handle reflecting a matte finish.
On the beige linen floor, the shadows of the thirty-seven sets of desks and chairs were as sharp as lines drawn with a pen.
Tsuna saw that many students were already sitting inside, a few clustered together chatting, but most were quietly sitting in their chosen seats.
His gaze, surveying the classroom environment, met that of Ajitani, who was chatting in the back row.
Before he could remind Shouko, he saw her silently waving her hands at the two. This action naturally attracted the attention of Nishikata and Takagi.
It also caught the attention of the scattered students around Ajitani.
Tsuna held Shouko's hand and quickened his pace, walking into the classroom towards the three of them.
The two had already attracted the attention of many students in the classroom when they were at the classroom entrance, not to mention that both of them had high appearances.
Looking at the two standing side by side outside the door, everyone was still judging whether they were a couple, until they walked into the classroom holding hands.
Only then did they become completely certain that the two were in a relationship.
"They're a couple…"
"What a pity, I just gave that girl a high score. Now I can only silently remove the points."
"Honestly, that girl looks so cute…"
The two ignored the whispers of the boys clustered on the other side of the classroom. Shouko gently pulled away from Tsuna's hand as they approached the three.
"I can't believe we're in the same class!" Takagi said while pointing to the seats they had saved for them.
"When I first saw the picture Nishikata sent, I thought it was a prank. The probability is too low."
"Thinking about being pressured by Miyamura's grades for the next three years, it makes me scared just thinking about it…" Ajitani whispered softly, feigning disappointment.
Unfortunately, these words were clearly heard by the few people present.
"Sorry, I brought you such pressure." Tsuna pulled out a chair and sat down, speechless.
Their seats hadn't changed much from their third year of junior high; they were all in the back row. Behind them were Takagi and Nishikata, and in front of them was Ajitani.
Unlike the natural conversation among the five, many students in the classroom, who were clustered together, were discussing the few of them. The boys' focus was on Ajitani, while the girls' focus was on Tsuna.
Among the five, these two were the most outstanding in terms of appearance. Shouko was naturally excluded by most boys because she had a boyfriend.
Moreover, judging by her appearance and her little expressions while chatting, she must be an outgoing little sun.
As time passed, more and more students filled the classroom, until a special student walked in, attracting everyone's attention.
"Tsuna, look quickly, that girl's other eye…"
Shouko lightly nudged the person beside her who was in a daze. After he looked over in confusion, she pointed in a direction at the front of the classroom.
By the time he looked over, the girl had already sat down, and from his angle, he could only see her back. He simply withdrew his gaze.
"She should be injured." He shrugged.
As that girl sat down, the whispers in the classroom shifted toward her.
Most people were concerned, while a few were curious about what was wrong with her eye.
"Dong… dong… dong…!"
As the class bell rang, all the students in the classroom had arrived.
At this moment, a girl with deep brown shoulder-length hair, slightly curled at the ends, wearing a light beige suit jacket paired with a white shirt, and a dark knee-length pencil skirt, walked into the classroom holding a notebook.
Her smile was gentle, with the unique approachability of a teacher and a subtle hint of laziness.
This was Tsuna's first impression of her.
"Dong dong…" She walked to the podium, casually placed the notebook in her hand, slightly bent her index finger, and tapped on the desk. "Minasan! Look at me!"
She briefly scanned the students below, and only after seeing that there were no empty seats did she withdraw her gaze, turn around, and write her name, 'Nanase Tsukumo', on the blackboard.
"Clap clap…" She turned back and clapped off the chalk dust. "I hope everyone can get along well in the next three years. My name is 'Nanase Tsukumo'.
Whether you call me by my last name or first name, remember to add the word 'Teacher.'"
As her words fell, she gave the students below a sweet smile.
"She doesn't seem very strict, so the next three years will be very easy for us, right?"
"I feel like she's smiling but hiding a knife…"
"Why didn't I encounter a teacher like this at my previous school?"
"She looks like she hasn't been beaten up by society…"
"Let a student go and confess to her, then you'll know. Let her feel the brutality of society."
"…"
"By the way, can we date in high school?"
"Isn't that nonsense? They were dating in my elementary school. How could you not be allowed to date in high school?"
After a minute or two, after the discussion below had died down, she lightly coughed, drawing attention back to her.
"Alright, now come up one by one and introduce yourselves, starting from the leftmost side."
From the first person who shyly walked up to the podium, time began to pass minute by minute. After each self-introduction, there was warm applause.
Tsuna always went through the motions until a boy walked up to the podium, which surprised him slightly.
He had been chatting with Shouko and the others at the time and hadn't paid attention, so he didn't expect that person to be in the same class as them.
"I… I…"
"I… My name is Ishida… Ishida Shoya…"