11 Atmospheres inside classrooms are always tedious, and that holds true in any school.
That condition felt far more boring to Akira Fūju.
Through his maximum-level proficiency, he had already mastered all knowledge and lesson materials associated with the classes.
Driven by boredom, Fūju decided to find another activity.
He promptly pulled out his phone, opened a word processing application on the device, and began typing text.
He had already completed the entire writing process for 5 Centimeters per Second.
Right now, he was working on drafting another Makoto Shinkai masterpiece, Your Name.
Fūju judged that this work was a deeply touching masterpiece capable of bringing readers to tears.
Having successfully reassembled the story of 5 Centimeters per Second in his own writing style, he felt there was no harm in continuing the writing process for Your Name.
Once this project wrapped up, he also planned to try writing adaptations of Makoto Shinkai’s other cinematic works, such as Weathering with You and The Garden of Words.
Meanwhile, for The Place Promised in Our Early Days, Fūju hadn’t watched it yet, so he would struggle if he tried to compile text based on that film’s content.
“Tch.” Hachiman Hikigaya clicked his tongue quietly from his seat.
He watched Fūju right in front of him openly taking out his phone and typing word strings at breakneck speed.
The special treatment afforded to a genius truly differed vastly and made others envious.
Hachiman thought this way because Fūju never bothered hiding his capabilities.
Whether in entrance exams or monthly tests, Fūju consistently scored a perfect 100 points.
Even for essay assignments in National Language, Fūju’s score was never docked a single point.
Through such extraordinary academic achievements, Fūju solidly claimed the top rank at Toyogasaki High School.
While Fūju’s humble demeanor and tendency to keep a distance from his surroundings meant he didn’t have many close friends, thanks to those academic accomplishments, almost every student in his grade knew Fūju’s name.
The school administration and subject teachers also granted very loose dispensations to Fūju during classes, provided his actions didn’t disturb other students.
Fūju was permitted to listen to music, use his phone, or watch videos in class.
All such activities were allowed as long as Fūju didn’t generate noise that disrupted other students’ concentration.
That freedom was earned through his privileged standing.
Consequently, Hachiman greatly coveted the special treatment Fūju received.
Although Hachiman’s proficiency in the humanities was strong enough to place him in the top four of his grade, Fūju’s prowess in the sciences vastly outstripped him.
Hachiman frequently scored single digits or barely scraped double digits in science subjects.
As a result, Hachiman’s academic ranking didn’t sit at the top tier, but rather hovered in the lower-middle bracket near the bottom, making it impossible for him to secure special facilities like Fūju did.
If Fūju held first place in the grade, second place was automatically occupied by a member of the Service Club, Yukino Yukinoshita.
Regarding this, although Yukino felt dissatisfied with that placement, she still couldn’t consistently achieve the flawless 100-point scores across every exam like Fūju did.
Therefore, she had to resign herself to ranking below Fūju.
Even if Yukino could match Fūju’s achievement by scoring 100 points, the performance gap between them remained substantial.
This was because Yukino scored 100 points as the maximum limit of her capability, whereas Fūju scored 100 points simply because the maximum score limit on the exam paper happened to be 100.
The fundamental difference between the two was crystal clear from that illustration.
‘Man, I’m so jealous!’ Fūju’s activities weren’t just noticed by Hachiman sitting behind him, but also clearly observed by his innocent seatmate, Yui Hirasawa.
Yui likewise felt deeply envious of Fūju’s freedom.
However, Yui’s academic performance sat at the very bottom tier of her grade, even lower than Hachiman’s achievements.
Thus, Yui couldn’t possibly expect similar dispensations from the school.
Yui also lacked the courage to use her phone covertly in class.
Her method of operating a phone during lessons was clumsy and frequently generated conspicuous movements.
Based on past experience, out of ten attempts at sneaking her phone, Yui was guaranteed to get caught nine times.
As for the remaining single attempt, her probability of getting caught still hovered above 50 percent.
Hence, Yui—having been caught repeatedly for using her phone in class—lacked the nerve to imitate Fūju’s actions.
If she dared pull that off, she risked having her phone confiscated or the school summoning her parents.
Fūju sharply shifted his gaze toward Yui after noticing his seatmate continuously staring at his typing activity instead of focusing on the lesson being delivered at the front of the classroom.
To a certain extent, Fūju’s action could be categorized as a distraction since his activity drew another student’s attention away.
Yet, Fūju also knew that even if he put his phone away and focused on the lesson, Yui would naturally tend to lose focus, daydream, or make unnecessary movements anyway.
After flashing another warning look at Yui, Fūju chose to ignore his seatmate and resumed typing his manuscript.
The curriculum system in Japanese high schools schedules seven class periods in a single day.
Each period lasts 50 minutes, with a 10-minute break between periods.
The schedule for those seven periods is as follows: 09:00-09:50 First Period 10:00-10:50 Second Period 11:00-11:50 Third Period 12:00-12:50 Fourth Period 12:50-13:30 Lunch Break 13:30-14:20 Fifth Period 14:30-15:20 Sixth Period (15:20-15:40 Classroom Cleaning Activity) 15:40-16:30 Seventh Period After completing four exhausting morning periods, Fūju finally entered lunch break.
Under normal conditions, he usually brought a bento lunch prepared by himself.
However, because the food supplies in his refrigerator were currently depleted, he couldn’t cook anything.
If he forced it, he could only make plain salt onigiri.
Therefore, he decided against bringing a bento and opted to eat at school instead.
Toyogasaki High School provided a cafeteria for students.
Students who didn’t bring lunches had the freedom to choose where to eat.
They could visit the cafeteria or buy sandwiches and sweet bread at the school cooperative to consume quickly as a lunch menu.
Fūju had previously tried the cafeteria food at Toyogasaki.
The food quality there wasn’t terrible, but it couldn’t be classified as delicious either.
Although the nutritional content met balanced diet standards, the flavor tended to be very bland.
Consequently, Fūju had no interest in visiting the school cafeteria.
He chose to head to the school cooperative to purchase a portion of fried noodle bread (yakisoba pan) known for its very high calorie content, alongside a carton of Yasai Seikatsu drink.
Securing his meal, he immediately headed to the Light Music Club room, which served as his private space to enjoy lunch.
Arriving in front of the Light Music Club room and unlocking the door, Fūju spotted a female student he had met previously.
That student was Yukino Yukinoshita, whom he had crossed paths with yesterday and whose club room happened to be situated right next to the Light Music Club.
Yukino looked slightly startled upon seeing Fūju arrive.
The next second, Yukino shot a piercing glare toward Fūju.
This indicated that Yukino still vividly remembered every single statement Fūju had hurled at her the day prior, including his label of her as a problem student and her connection with Shizuka Hiratsuka.
Those remarks had felt highly critical and offensive to Yukino.
Despite receiving Yukino’s sharp gaze, Fūju’s concentration and composure remained unshaken.
He chose to ignore Yukino’s presence.
Pulling the key from the lock, Fūju pushed the door open and stepped right inside.
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