Natsukawa Sosuke stood in front of the vending machine, the cold metal panel reflecting his slightly thoughtful face. His fingertips danced on the buttons, and a can of soda dropped with a 'clunk.' He paused, his gaze sweeping over the dazzling array of drinks, eventually settling on a box of pink strawberry milk.
"Hmm... I wonder what the drinks from Sakurajima taste like. This stuff, Sakura should like it, right?"
After thinking for a moment, he bought another strawberry milk and turned to head towards the classroom.
The classroom door was gently pushed open, and Natsukawa walked in. The afternoon sun shone through the windows, cutting the air into blocks of light and shadow. Most of the students were still in the cafeteria or wandering outside, and there weren't many people in the classroom. His gaze precisely locked onto a seat in the back row—Sakura Airi was like a small animal, shrinking in her seat, pretending to read a book, but her slightly red ear tips betrayed her unease.
Natsukawa walked over, his footsteps very light, but still caused Sakura's shoulders to tremble almost imperceptibly as he approached.
"Here, Sakura, this is for you." He placed the pink strawberry milk on the corner of her desk, the bottom of the box making a soft sound as it touched the surface.
Sakura froze as if someone had pressed the pause button. She slowly raised her head, her large, clear blue eyes behind thick lenses filled with confusion and a hint of flattered surprise. Her gaze flicked rapidly between Natsukawa's face and the strawberry milk on the desk, and finally she asked cautiously:
"Ah... this... this... for me?" Her voice was as thin as a mosquito's hum, and her cheeks flushed red at a speed visible to the naked eye, spreading all the way to the roots of her ears, like a ripening peach that made one want to take a bite.
"Well, I saw you seemed to be choking a bit while eating just now." Natsukawa casually made up a reason, trying to make his tone sound natural. "Strawberry flavor, you shouldn't dislike it, right?"
"No... I don't dislike it! Th-thank you very much!" Sakura hurriedly shook her head, her hands carefully cradling the carton of milk as if it were a fragile treasure. The milk, fresh from the vending machine, still retained some warmth, forming a sharp contrast with her slightly cool palms.
She lowered her head and hastily opened the straw, inserting it into the milk, her long eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings. When she drank, she tried to cover most of her face with the box, but the slightly pursed lips as she sipped perfectly outlined the beautiful facial curves that she usually hid under her bangs and glasses.
She took small sips, the pink liquid slowly disappearing between her moist lips, occasionally accompanied by a soft 'gulp' sound. The slender, fair fingers holding the box formed a wonderful match with the pink packaging. The sunlight shone on her red hair, dancing with a warm halo, making her look like a still life painting that had been carefully toned, full of purity and a hint of unconscious, alluring charm.
"I-is it good?" Natsukawa asked subconsciously, feeling a bit stupid as soon as he asked, this didn't sound like something he would say.
"Mmm!" Sakura nodded vigorously, a little afraid to look at him, but her voice carried a hint of small joy. "Very sweet..."
Looking at her like this, Natsukawa felt as if he had unintentionally completed an "Achievement Unlocked: Feeding a Cute Little Animal," and a sense of satisfaction rose in his heart for no reason. He returned to his seat, opened his soda, took a swig, regained his composure, and began to think about how to get Ichinose to willingly pay the money. His expected price was 600,000 personal points, and the reason for quoting 1,000,000 was to ask for the sky and be bargained down. And what he had to consider now was how to make Ichinose feel that even if she spent 1,000,000, she wouldn't suffer a loss.
And the girl sitting two seats away from the boy was now wondering what kind of relationship the girl named Ichinose who had been sitting next to Natsukawa at noon had with Natsukawa.
'They should just be ordinary friends,' Sakura thought... At the same time, the atmosphere in Class B's classroom was much more lively. A group of girls were gathered around Ichinose Honami's seat, their faces filled with knowing smiles.
"Honami-chan~ who was that boy who was talking to you in the cafeteria just now?" A girl with a ponytail nudged Ichinose lightly with her elbow, winking and asking, "He looks very handsome, which class is he in? When did you two meet? Confess everything!"
"Yeah, yeah, we also saw you exchanging email addresses with him!" Another girl immediately chimed in, "At first, I thought you were getting caught doing something, after all, your expression was so serious when Ichinose you went over, and then you looked so shaken later, anyone who didn't know would have thought you were dumped on the spot. We were even planning to go over and back you up..."
Ichinose's cheeks flushed slightly from their teasing, and she quickly waved her hands, her movements so large that she almost knocked over the water glass on the table: "N-no, it's not what you think! He's just... just a friend I happened to meet when school started! His name is Natsukawa Sosuke, he's a student in Class D. He wasn't feeling well when school started, and I just helped him out!"
She tried to use sincerity to dispel their gossipy souls, but obviously her sisters weren't listening to her.
"Oh~ 'just friends,' huh?" The high-ponytail girl named Amakura Mako drawled, imitating Ichinose's tone, "Then why were you chatting so intently? We even saw you smiling so happily at the end?"
"That's because... we were discussing some... things about studying!" Ichinose came up with a clever idea, gesturing with her hands in front of her chest, trying to increase her persuasiveness. "Yes! Studying! He said he was feeling some pressure about keeping up with the school's pace after entering high school, and wanted to ask me for advice!" (Natsukawa: Achoo! Who's talking about me?)
"Really——" The girls expressed their doubts in unison, their faces filled with "I don't believe you".
Ichinose put her hands together in a pleading gesture: "Really! Please don't guess randomly, it will cause trouble for people!" The two red clouds flying on her face and her slightly flustered eyes only confirmed the girls' guesses, eliciting a burst of good-natured laughter.
At the edge of the noisy crowd, Shiraha Chihiro sat quietly in her seat, her fingers twisting the corner of her skirt unconsciously. She lowered her head, her bangs obscuring her expression, but the knuckles of the hand tightly gripping the paintbrush were slightly white. Listening to everyone teasing Ichinose and that unfamiliar Class D boy, a hard to describe sourness and stuffiness welled up in her heart, as if a beloved treasure was being coveted. She secretly raised her eyes to glance at Ichinose, who was surrounded in the middle and had a rosy face, then quickly lowered her head again, muttering to herself in a barely audible voice: "Honami-chan..."
...The faint laughter coming from Class B's window drifted to the classroom in Class A across the hall. The atmosphere here was completely different. Most of the students in Class A were already busy with their own things in the classroom, quiet, orderly, and even with a hint of coldness.
Katsuragi Kohei was standing by the window, his gaze calmly watching the lush zelkova trees downstairs, as if pondering some problem. His bald head was particularly striking in the sunlight.
His loyal supporter, Totsuka Yahiko, curled his lip toward Class B with a look of disdain.
"Katsuragi, listen to them, those people in Class B just know how to laugh and joke all day long, like a bunch of headless flies." Totsuka's tone was full of superiority. "No wonder they can only stay in Class B, they don't have any awareness of being elites at all."
Katsuragi didn't turn his head, his voice as steady as a rock: "Yahiko, don't judge a person or a group based solely on appearances. Noisiness is not synonymous with incompetence."
"Hey, I'm not just talking nonsense." Totsuka Yahiko crossed his arms in front of his chest, leaning back slightly, with an air of "I've already seen through everything." "I heard some internal news from a senior I happened to meet a few days ago—our Class A is the strongest class! We have the best resources and the highest starting point!" He emphasized the words "strongest" as if he were announcing a universally recognized truth.
He continued to talk non-stop, his tone becoming more and more contemptuous: "Moreover, when I helped Teacher Majima move things a few days ago and passed by Class D, I made a point of observing. Tsk tsk, that scene was simply a disaster. People were openly making noise during class, the seats were a mess, and that red-haired hedgehog head (Sudo Ken) even had his feet up on the desk! They're simply a bunch of hopeless trash, a rabble! They're not even on the same level as our Class A!"
He walked to Katsuragi's side and said in a gesture of loyalty: "Katsuragi, don't worry, I will fully support you in the upcoming class leader election! Many other people have the same idea. Only someone as steady and capable as you can lead our Class A to crush those insignificant classes!"
Katsuragi finally turned around, his stern face devoid of any emotion, and said only faintly: "Gathering information is a good thing, but overestimating yourself and underestimating your opponents will expose your weaknesses. Yahiko, stay vigilant until the real test arrives."
Totsuka Yahiko responded with "Yes, yes, yes" on his lips, but the dismissive expression on his face clearly showed that he had not taken Katsuragi's warning to heart. In his mind, Class A's superiority was an ironclad fact, and the other classes were just stepping stones to be crushed under their feet sooner or later on their way to the top.