Ishida's reaction caught everyone's attention.
Glancing at him for only a brief moment, the other students turned their attention back to Nishimiya.
Haruya turned his head slowly, his expression flattening into something sharp and blank.
"You can sit over there," Takuomi-sensei pointed towards the empty seat in front of Haruya. "Sumeragi, Kubo, Kudou, please assist Nishimiya should she need anything."
Takuomi asked the three friends whose seats surrounded Nishimiya's.
"Yes, sensei."
Shouko walked towards their direction, directly standing in front of Haruya, Nagisa, and Hazuki.
Haruya stood up and helped set Nishimiya's chair down.
"Nice to meet you, Nishimiya-san. I'm Haruya Sumeragi. This here is Nagisa Kubo and Hazuki Kudou."
"Hi there! It's a pleasure to meet you!" Kubo smiled brightly.
"Hello," Hazuki sent out a usual, calm but polite greeting.
Nishimiya opened her notebook and wrote a few lines.
"Thank you for your help, Sumeragi-san. It's nice to meet you all. I hope we can all be friends."
"Of course!" The three of them immediately agreed, sparking a new friendship.
The first interaction between two FMCs.
After Nishimiya had sat down, class finally started.
Sitting behind her, Haruya assisted Nishimiya in catching up on what she had missed and even gave some of his pointers.
As uneventful as ever, class passed quickly.
Haruya went for a quick bathroom break, and when he returned, he saw people gathering near his desk. He leaned in the doorway, quietly listening to their conversation.
Curious about their new classmate, the girls started to gather around Nishimiya.
Not just Nagisa, Tamao, and Hazuki, but it also included others like Kawai and Ueno.
Ueno sat on a desk in front of Nishimiya's seat with her legs crossed.
"Hey, Nishimiya-san, can you speak Japanese?" She called out.
"Nao-chan, be careful of what you say," Kawai replied with a slight laugh.
"Hey! Don't be rude." Tamao, being the one who speaks her mind the most out of Haruya's group, called them out.
Ueno sheepishly grinned and apologized. "Sorry, sorry."
To their surprise, Nishimiya wrote something in her notebook and turned towards Naoka.
"Can you repeat that?"
The girls around her, including the eavesdropping Haruya, were a bit surprised.
'So she's not totally deaf, huh? Doesn't that mean that she can still learn how to speak?' Haruya thoughtfully looked at the new girl.
"Wow, so you can still hear us?" Nagisa and Tamao chimed in.
Nishimiya nodded with a smile.
Kawai tapped Nishimiya's shoulder and asked, "Do you have a nickname?"
Nishimiya wrote a line in her notebook and showed the contents to everyone.
"Shou-chan."
Kawai clapped her hands in delight, "Shou-chan, huh!"
"Same as Ishida, then," Ueno added.
Ishida, who was playing with his friends far away on another corner of the room, heard his name and looked towards the girls' direction.
"Huh?" He looked at Ueno.
"Her nickname's also Shou."
Kazuki, who was watching Ishida and Keisuke roughhouse each other on the sidelines, commented. "That's nice."
Ishida was easily instigated once more and complained. "What? There's nothing nice about that."
He ignored Ueno and the others and got back to playing with Keisuke.
Soon enough, the next class started once more.
Everybody went back to their seats as Takuomi-sensei started discussing in front of the class.
Haruya, who had already learned the lesson he was teaching, pondered whether he should just take a nap or not.
Just as he was about to lie down, he noticed Nishimiya in front of him looking around confusedly.
"Ah, that's right..."
He stretched his arms and patted Nishimiya on the shoulders.
Nishimiya turned around and smiled at him.
Haruya gestured towards her notebook, and Nishimiya quickly understood what he wanted to do and handed it over.
Writing speedily, he wrote what Takuomi was currently discussing and the rest of the lesson's contents in a simple way so that Nishimiya could understand.
"Here you go. If you need more help, feel free to ask me." Haruya handed back the notebook with a kind smile.
Nagisa, who sat beside him, looked up from her notes and noticed Haruya and Nishimiya's interaction.
She wrote something down in her own notebook and raised towards Nishimiya.
"Feel free to ask me as well!"
Hazuki, who sat on the right of Nishimiya, noticed the commotion behind her as she joined in with her own notebook raised. "Count me in, too."
Seeing everyone around her so eager to help her, Nishimiya couldn't help but excitedly nod her head.
"Thank you to you all," she wrote.
Ueno and Ishida, who sat near each other from a distance, noticed their interaction.
"Ehh, looks like they're quite friendly to her," Ueno muttered to herself.
Ishida overheard this but didn't say anything, keeping his eyes on Haruya and Nishimiya.
...
After Takuomi's class, the next class was music class.
Today, the class was preparing for a choir competition held against other classes.
Everyone stood in two lines accordingly to the music teacher's arrangement.
Haruya, Yuma, and Hazuki stood at the back on the right side, while Nagisa, Tamao, and Nishimiya stood together at the front, with Nishimiya standing directly at the center.
Kazuki sat by the piano and slowly started playing.
Nishimiya looked around with a confused face, not knowing when she should start singing.
Nagisa noticed this and quietly whispered to her, "Follow my lead, Nishimiya-san."
The girl happily nodded as she patiently waited for Nagisa's signal.
She had seen the song's lyrics and had practiced memorizing it beforehand.
Her confidence through the roof, the singing part started. Nagisa tapped on Nishimiya's hand, as the girl started to sing along.
Nishimiya opened her mouth and started singing in broken, unfamiliar tones.
The music teacher was immediately surprised, and the rest of the class looked at Shinomiya.
Ueno, who stood directly behind Nishimiya, looked up and complained.
"Forget about winning the choir competition. We're screwed."
Haruya and his friends at the back heard this, side-eyeing Ueno for her lack of empathy.
Wanting to win a class choir was one thing, but directly saying something like that out loud was another.
Music class soon gradually ended, and Haruya and the rest of the class returned to their classrooms.
The next class was under Takuomi-sensei once more, who called out students to stand up and read out loud.
Soon, Naoka Ueno's turn came.
"I didn't do anything wrong, so I will never apologize—" Ueno read in a lazy manner before being cut off and scolded by Takuomi.
"You call that reading, Ueno?" Takuomi interjected. "Forget it. Next."
Ueno sat back down with an upset expression on her face. "Damn you, four-eyes."
"Nishimiya," Takuomi called out the next reader.
Hazuki, sitting right beside her, reached out and tapped Nishimiya on the shoulder.
Nishimiya stood up with the book in her hands.
"You can start over here," Hazuki pointed at the line Nishimiya was meant to read.
She inhaled a bit and started reading out loud.
Once more, her tone of speaking was hard to understand and sounded almost like gibberish.
As a somewhat deaf girl, Nishimiya could barely pick up sounds even with hearing aids, and had minimal practice in speaking, making it hard for her to know the exact pronunciation of things.
Haruya was awoken from his nap as he stared at Nishimiya's back, a plan slowly starting to form in his mind for this new friend of his.
Takuomi-sensei said nothing and only adjusted his glasses.
When Nishimiya finished reading, he slightly praised her, "Good job."
When Ueno heard this, she muttered in an unhappy tone. "Are you kidding me?"
"Next, Ishida," Takuomi called out the next reader.
Ishida stood up.
Looking at the frowning Ueno beside him, he noticed her unhappy expression, as a mischievous idea slowly took over.
"Wah-wah-wee, woo-woo-weh."
With his book wide open, he started to read in a way that mockingly mimicked Nishimiya's speaking issues.
Quiet laughter suddenly revolved around the room, with most of the students laughing.
Shouko Nishimiya looked around with a confused expression, not knowing she was the target of a cruel joke.
Nagisa and the other girls from Haruya's group looked at her worriedly.
"Take this seriously, Ishida," Takuomi warned.
Ishida's joke was about to be swept under the rug quickly, but someone at the back wasn't gonna let it happen so easily.
Haruya aimed and flicked an eraser towards Ishida's head.
The eraser hit him cleanly on the side of his face.
Bullseye.
"Ow!" Ishida rubbed the side of his face. "Who threw that?"
He looked towards the direction from which the eraser came, his eyes suddenly locking with Haruya's cold gaze.
Haruya stood up, compared to his usual easygoing, lazy, or kind vibe, a different energy was emanating from him.
"Hey, Ishida," Haruya leaned on his desk. "Bow your head and apologize to my friend."
"Haruya, please get back to your seat," Takuomi interjected.
However, the usual smart but lazy boy didn't listen to him.
Feeling a little annoyed at Takuomi's easy brush-off of Ishida's disgusting actions, he snapped back.
"Takuomi-sensei, you know my family is a big sponsor of the school and my mother is part of the school board, right? If Ishida doesn't apologize, I'll have him suspended from this school for bullying before the end of this week. Or worse, expelled," he threatened.
The entire classroom suddenly erupted, realizing how big the situation had suddenly turned.
Nishimiya looked around with confusion on her face, to which Hazuki, beside her, slowly explained the situation.
Understanding what was going on, her big eyes stared towards Haruya, with amazement mixed with happiness and confusion on her face.
Why would anyone go so far for a deaf girl like her?
No one had stood up for her before, even in her previous schools.
Bullying came from left and right, prompting her to keep moving to different schools.
This time, she came with little hope of ever making new friends, but not only did Haruya and his group accept her, but he was also protecting her as well?
Shouko felt a different feeling forming inside her heart.
Hearing Haruya's words, Takuomi finally realized the seriousness of the situation.
He knew that the boy threatening him was usually easygoing and friendly; he was very smart and always at the top of his grade.
His only flaw might have been that he paid little attention to class due to his advanced knowledge, but other than that, there had been nothing else.
His student's casual behavior had made him forget about the behemoth standing behind the boy.
The Sumeragi Family.
A major power deeply rooted in Japan's political and business sectors.
Even in history books, although with no direct proof, the Sumeragi Family was listed as being historically associated with the ancient imperial family during its formation in the Yamato Period.
Nowadays, although it has been stated that the imperial family has no surname, if there was ever one, it could only be one thing.
Sumeragi.