Sakura Airi's contact information was obtained from Kushida Kikyou. Although Sakura Airi appeared somewhat timid and unsociable, she had still been added to the class group chat.
Shikime Natsu had added Sakura Airi before taking a shower. As for the message he left, it was naturally just that one sentence.
"Are you... Natsu?"
Being able to call out his screen name meant Shikime Natsu could basically confirm Sakura Airi's identity: the netizen he met during his second year of middle school.
At that time, Shikime Natsu was surfing the web and happened to scroll upon Sakura Airi's blog, where she expressed her desire to become a net idol. She had just released her first work, and by a stroke of luck, Shikime Natsu was the first to see it.
At first, Shikime Natsu thought it was the common case of enabling beauty filters and the like—on the surface a youthful and beautiful girl, but in reality a catfish. That is, until Shikime Natsu casually flipped through a few pictures posted by Sakura Airi and discovered a school uniform hanging on the wall.
Although sailor uniforms in most places are largely the same, there are still slight differences. With the powerful tool of the internet, and considering the area was basically Tokyo, Shikime Natsu quickly pinpointed Sakura Airi's middle school. He then sent a private message to Sakura Airi, telling her to pay attention to the pictures she posted.
Shikime Natsu couldn't help but lament that young people nowadays had rather poor awareness of prevention. If a simple middle school student like himself could easily find Sakura Airi's school, wouldn't it be effortless for others to find her location once she became famous?
After receiving this sentence from Shikime Natsu, the young girl quickly locked all those photos. The fact that Shikime Natsu could deduce her school just from photos made Sakura Airi quite terrified.
Especially after hearing what Shikime Natsu said about the potential consequences of such matters, the young girl's heart, which had wanted to become a net idol, quietly shattered. Being a net idol was simply too dangerous!
However... the young girl still yearned to stand on stage, to show her other side and receive praise from others. After all, in reality, aside from having a somewhat large chest and a good figure, her personality made her unremarkable in class. Coupled with the fact that she often wore plain glasses to hide her looks, the young girl was a plain existence in the class.
Thus, she always yearned for a life she never had.
"Not bad, it seems I didn't recognize the wrong person."
For Shikime Natsu, this counted as meeting an old friend in a strange place. Of course, the two had never met offline. Shikime Natsu hadn't even posted photos online, nor had he told Sakura Airi his age. This resulted in Sakura Airi not recognizing Shikime Natsu when he arrived in Class D today.
Although Sakura Airi would occasionally send her photos to Shikime Natsu online to hear his praise, those were all images of the young girl dressed up. Shikime Natsu had never seen her true, daily appearance.
Mn, that's right. Since then, Sakura Airi's idol photo displays on online platforms were basically shown only to Shikime Natsu. In the young girl's subconscious, Shikime Natsu wasn't a bad person, so she asked him for advice on how to display her charm.
After all, the young girl still yearned considerably to become an idol. Shikime Natsu naturally accepted this readily. After all... who would refuse the chance to see photos of a beautiful girl for free?
"I didn't expect Natsu to be the same age as me; it really gave me a start."
"Shocked_Cat.jpg"
Being able to meet Shikime Natsu again in this school made Sakura Airi quite happy. Because this school stipulated that students could not contact people outside, Sakura Airi had been sad for a while.
"Since you recognized me, why didn't you tell me when we were in class?"
The young girl held her phone, her eyes looking a bit resentful. Clearly, he was sitting right next to her, yet he hadn't had any interaction with her.
But then... Shikime Natsu was truly quite popular. Sakura Airi recalled how Shikime Natsu had been surrounded by a group of cute girls in the class today. It seemed there really wasn't any time to chat with her. Moreover, during class, Shikime Natsu was very serious and didn't whisper to the people around him.
Actually, at the very beginning, Sakura Airi hadn't planned to get involved with Shikime Natsu because he was simply too dazzling. Just standing there, he made it hard for people to look away.
Aside from his character model, Shikime Natsu had directly become acquainted with the two major groups of girls in the class: the gal group represented by Karuizawa Kei, and the group represented by Kushida Kikyou.
As for the boys' side, although he seemed to have offended Yamauchi Haruki, that guy's existence was irrelevant; there weren't many guys in the class who liked that kind of fellow.
Of course, it was mostly the girls who didn't have any good feelings toward guys like Yamauchi Haruki. Among the boys, there were still quite a few who chatted happily with Yamauchi Haruki, such as Ike Kanji, Sudou Ken, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, as well as Onizuka Kenichi and Sotomura Hideo.
Truly a group of quite terrible guys.
"If I struck up a conversation with Shizuku in the classroom, it might bring you trouble, right? After all, Shizuku deliberately dressed up to look plain."
Shikime Natsu replied. He also knew about Sakura Airi's situation. She basically only dressed herself up nicely when online. As for reality, she generally maintained a low presence, and paired with those glasses without prescription, her presence was even lower.
If it were online, Sakura Airi could communicate very fluently, but in reality, she would stutter and even avoid crowds.
At that time, Sakura Airi hoped Shikime Natsu could help her, so Shikime Natsu simply mailed a sunflower schoolbag charm to Sakura Airi. It was also because of this small charm that Shikime Natsu could completely confirm that Sakura Airi was the Shizuku-chan he knew.
During the third semester of the third year of middle school, Shikime Natsu had basically stopped contacting her. Sakura Airi had said she needed to focus on preparing for exams, and even the blog visible only to Shikime Natsu hadn't been updated again.
It wasn't until shortly before school started that Sakura Airi mentioned she planned to enter a fully closed-off high school and, barring any accidents, wouldn't be able to contact the outside world for three years.
Shikime Natsu had thought of this school almost immediately. Of course, it was just a guess; after all, there wasn't just one fully closed-off school. Now it was good; it was a coincidence.
Only... looking at Sakura Airi's appearance, it seemed she still hadn't changed much. But that made sense. A semester was only a few months; wanting a person to change was still quite difficult.
"Natsu is really as considerate as always."
"By the way, Natsu, it's rare for us to reunite. Help me check my photography skills again—have I improved?"
"[Image]"
"I've always been troubling you, but... being able to let Natsu see my other side makes me very happy~"
____
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