At the end of March, the Tokyo sun at 9 a.m. felt warm on the skin.
Yoru sensed trouble and, dragging his heavy body, hurried back to the warehouse in the main building.
He had lost track of time.
As soon as he ran inside, three gyaru-styled senior girls from Shuchiin Academy approached him with displeased expressions. Yoru immediately knew things were bad.
"Hey, where did you go? Does it take that long just to go to the bathroom?" The leading senior crossed one arm over her chest, holding a checklist in the other hand, which she thrust in front of Yoru.
"Sorry, senpai… I..." Yoru started to apologize.
But her expression quickly changed from annoyance to disgust.
"Take it."
She flung the list at him and said to the other two girls, "Let's go."
Yoru caught the checklist. It listed the supplies the four of them had to carry for the spring trip.
They needed to move them from the warehouse to the tour bus waiting at the school gate.
Most of the items were large and heavy.
Unfortunately, he had been grouped with the three senior girls from Shuchiin.
All the work had been dumped on him, likely because he looked easy to push around.
"They didn't carry a single thing." Yoru stared at the checklist silently.
The senior girls, meanwhile, walked away chatting.
"Is this really okay? What if he complains to the teacher?"
"Don't worry, if the teacher asks, we'll just say he was looking at us lecherously and tried to get close to us…"
"No one would believe that fat loser anyway!"
"Exactly, and he's just a junior from the 'impure' category. Don't worry about it. Let's go take a break…"
"Ugh, he's fat and disgusting, and he even gave himself a handsome-sounding name like he thinks that'll make him good-looking. What a joke."
Hearing this, Yoru clenched his fist as big as a sandbag, then slowly relaxed it and quietly walked into the warehouse.
The warehouse was large, with many students working in pairs to move supplies.
Many of the boys were busy and chatting excitedly.
For this spring trip, they had been assigned to a group full of beautiful girls, and even the two accompanying teachers were the beautiful Shizuka Hiratsuka and Mafuyu Kirisu.
They were all happy.
But no matter what, Yoru couldn't feel happy at all.
Shuchiin Academy was a long-established school located in Tokyo's Minato Ward, a prestigious institution designed to serve noble families.
The students who studied here were all children of high society—some of them even destined to shoulder the future of the nation.
In recent years, to comply with national policy, Shuchiin began accepting students from the outside.
Yoru's parents wanted to give him the best possible environment. Though their family could barely be called middle class, they gritted their teeth and donated a large sum of money to get their average-achieving son into the school through connections.
They also had to pay a hefty tuition fee every year.
Shuchiin's environment, facilities, and teachers—everything was truly top-notch.
However, the school referred to students who had studied there since childhood as "Pure Division," while students who transferred in later were called "Impure Division."
The gap between Pure and Impure Division students was like a chasm between heaven and hell.
Impure students had very low status at school and were usually looked down on by the Pure students.
There were a few exceptions.
For instance, Eriri and Kasumigaoka Utaha were both from the Impure Division.
But Eriri was the daughter of a UK diplomat. Her family background was more prestigious than many Pure students. She was also a cute white-skinned half-Japanese girl, so everyone tried to get close to her.
Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't come from a distinguished family.
But ever since she enrolled, she consistently topped both academics and athletics, standing out as someone you couldn't take your eyes off.
She was beautiful, and without question the most admired girl among the male students.
Privately, some students even offered absurd amounts to buy her used stockings and shoes.
Some even wandered in front of her hoping for a scornful "look at the bug" kind of glare from her. But Utaha always ignored them.
Yoru clearly didn't belong to that minority. He was at the bottom of the food chain—even in a regular school.
Yoru hoisted a packed camping tent onto his shoulder.
He was tall and fat, even stronger than most adult men. Doing the work of two people was no problem for him.
To his peers, he looked like an oppressive mountain, so no one dared to physically bully him directly.
The tour bus was parked at Shuchiin's gate. The walk back and forth with supplies was about 200 meters.
"Just think of it as losing weight," Yoru told himself.
After five or six trips, he was drenched in sweat and exhausted. He took shelter under a tree to rest.
"This year's spring trip is really something…"
Resting his hands behind his head and leaning against the trunk, Yoru quietly complained to himself.
To improve relations between Pure and Impure students, the school board had changed the usual spring trip, which used to be organized by class after the start of school.
Instead, they selected a few students from each class and grade before school began, combining them into multiple mixed groups.
Each group was led by two teachers to various locations for a spring trip focused on teamwork.
"You can't even skip it without a valid excuse."
"Is this really going to work?"
"I should've faked an illness and gotten a doctor's note…"
As usual, Yoru started mumbling to himself again.
...
With 20 minutes left before departure, Yoru finally finished moving everything.
He was careful enough to bring along an extra tent.
Because he figured no one would want to share one with him.
Afterward, Yoru went to the restroom to change into clean, dry clothes and wiped himself down to get rid of the smell of sweat.
Fat people sweat easily, and after carrying heavy loads under the sun, his previous clothes were completely soaked.
With about ten minutes left, Yoru took out his Switch and began playing Pokémon.
Soon after, he heard the teacher's whistle signaling assembly. He slung his backpack over his shoulders and walked over while still playing.
The bus led by Mafuyu Kirisu was nearly full and about to depart.
While checking the supplies, they realized a box of life jackets was missing.
Just as Kirisu was about to call for two students to retrieve it, she saw Yoru walking over leisurely, playing his game.
"Excuse me, student. Wait a moment," Mafuyu Kirisu said with a slight frown as she jogged over.
Why was he walking so slowly? Didn't he hear the whistle? Why wasn't he hurrying?
Kirisu hated this type of student the most.
"Kirisu-sensei, is... is something wrong?" Yoru shrank back, stealing a glance at the teacher in front of him.
Her waist-length pink hair was neatly trimmed with braid-styled sideburns. She was tall and slender with flawless skin—definitely a stunning beauty.
"We're short one box of life jackets. Can you go get it?" Kirisu said directly.
"Sensei, I wasn't assigned to carry the life jackets…" Yoru hesitated, wanting to refuse.
He didn't want to go back and get all sweaty again.
"I know, but right now I can't figure out who was supposed to bring it, understand?" Kirisu's tone turned commanding.
She looked at Yoru. He was holding a game console and didn't seem to have broken a sweat.
The bus was about to leave, and he was still calmly playing games.
She assumed he had been slacking off.
She had been standing under the sun and was sweating from just a bit of movement.
Everyone on her bus had helped with supplies. Who else had no signs of sweating?
Only Yoru looked untouched, and he was a fat guy—fat guys sweated easily.
Kirisu gave him a once-over.