The students who heard her instantly fell silent.
You could hear a pin drop in the classroom.
No one dared to make another sound.
Sakai Shion’s cool gaze returned to Natsume Chikei.
“Natsume-kun, you may continue.”
Natsume Chikei gave a slight nod.
His thin lips parted.
He didn’t actually have any particular hobbies, but thinking about how he needed to register for the shogi tournament in the afternoon and might need to take time off later, he changed his answer on the spot.
“My current hobby is playing shogi.
My dream is to get into Tokyo University.
That’s all.”
When Sakai Shion heard this, a nearly imperceptible trace of confusion flashed across her serious expression.
Natsume Chikei liked playing shogi?
She lowered her gaze.
Her fingertips quickly skimmed over the “Special Talents and Hobbies” section on the student file—indeed, it was blank.
Her eyes moved downward.
When she glanced at the family information, her eyebrows twitched slightly.
Oh.
His father was an amateur shogi player…
She understood in her heart, yet she secretly shook her head.
If his father was an amateur player, how strong could he possibly be?
The records clearly showed that Natsume Chikei had never participated in any shogi tournaments.
Truly excellent players had already stood out in elementary or middle school, just like the student council president of this very school—the one who had already reached the women’s 5-dan rank in her second year of high school, Midou Orihime.
And he said his dream was to get into Tokyo University?
Sakai Shion’s gaze landed on the glaring “D-” grade rating in the academic records column.
Her lips unconsciously pressed together, and her expression turned slightly strange.
As a University of Tokyo graduate herself, she knew better than anyone how strict the threshold for that institution was.
Even students with “A-” grades weren’t guaranteed admission.
Those who could reliably get in were at least consistent “A+” level top students.
Given Natsume Chikei’s past “D-” grades, the hope was extremely slim.
However…
Sakai Shion changed her mind, and her gaze softened slightly.
The dream itself was good.
It was a positive, upward goal.
She had no reason to deny it.
Instead, she silently noted it down in her heart.
Her seat neighbor Nishizonoji Nanase blinked her lively eyes, her long lashes trembling slightly.
She also hadn’t expected Natsume Chikei’s dream to be Todai.
Her exceptional memory immediately recalled the grade sheets posted on the middle school bulletin board—Natsume Chikei’s name had always seemed to appear among the last few spots…
A bead of sweat formed at her temple, but she still silently cheered for him in her heart.
No matter what, having a dream was a good thing.
Soon.
Homeroom teacher Sakai Shion picked up her lesson plan and left the classroom at a composed pace.
The moment the door closed, the class instantly erupted like boiling water.
The new students seized the time to get to know each other and chat.
Natsume Chikei had originally wanted to take out his phone and write during this gap.
But the moment his fingertips touched the cool surface of the screen, he was suddenly surrounded by a group of girls from the class.
A barrage of questions came flooding in like a tide.
“Natsume-kun, which school did you go to before?” one girl asked, tilting her head curiously.
“Natsume-kun, I have some snacks here.
Do you want some?” another girl asked with a red face, offering a beautifully packaged bag of candy.
…
From not too far away, several boys’ gazes were filled with obvious envy and poorly concealed jealousy.
This situation continued for the entire morning, leaving him not a single moment of peace.
By the time lunch break arrived.
Natsume Chikei had been thinking the whole time about finishing The Devotion of Suspect X as quickly as possible, so he desperately needed quiet alone time to write.
But if he stayed in the classroom during lunch break, he would most likely be completely surrounded by that enthusiastic group of girls again.
He had no choice but to seize the brief opening before the girls could completely close in, quickly grab the bento box he had prepared earlier, and leave the classroom as if fleeing.
Nishizonoji Nanase watched his hurried departing figure.
Her lips parted slightly, but in the end it only turned into an almost inaudible soft sigh.
A trace of regret flashed through her heart.
She had actually been wanting to ask Natsume Chikei something all morning, but he had been surrounded by layers of girls the entire time.
She had never found a good opportunity.
She had thought lunch would finally give her a chance to talk, but it seemed that wasn’t going to happen…
On the other side, Yukimura Suzune had been deeply immersed in the world of her book the entire morning and had paid almost no attention to most of the chatting and commotion around her.
In just one morning, it was as if an invisible wall had been built around her, radiating an aura that kept strangers away.
Almost no one dared to approach her easily anymore.
There was a faint sense of cold isolation, as if she had been “ostracized” by the entire class.
Nishizonoji Nanase, as Yukimura Suzune’s old acquaintance, had always had a very good relationship with her since childhood.
And now that they were fortunate enough to be in the same class and sitting so close, she smiled and suggested, “Suzune, want to have lunch together?”
Yukimura Suzune’s attitude toward her close friend was completely different.
Upon hearing this, she immediately lifted her face from the pages and nodded slightly.
“Mm.”
She closed her book and stood up, preparing to move her desk over to join them.
Just then—
A short-haired beautiful girl with healthy wheat-colored skin appeared at the classroom door.
Fujiwara Aoi leaned in, her gaze sweeping left and right around the classroom as if searching for someone.
Her appearance was like a stone dropped into calm water.
The previously noisy classroom instantly quieted down a little.
Quite a few gazes were drawn to her sunny and energetic figure.
A rather handsome-looking boy in the class, Minamimura Tomohiko, felt his heart race.
He felt like his “first love” had finally arrived.
He couldn’t help but raise his hand to fix his hair, took a deep breath, and stepped forward with a smile.
“Um… who are you looking for?
I can help you!”
Fujiwara Aoi turned her head at the voice and asked curiously, “I’m looking for Natsume Chikei.
He’s in this class, right?”
When he heard that name, the smile on Minamimura Tomohiko’s face instantly froze.
Then, like a deflated balloon, his shoulders slumped.
He felt that the “first love” that had just begun to sprout had already ended completely before it could even start.
If she had been looking for someone else, he felt that with his own looks he might still have been able to put up a fight.
But the person she was looking for was Natsume Chikei… That was a gap he couldn’t even bring himself to compare against.
If girls thought a guy was handsome, there might still be the influence of the opposite-sex filter.
But when even guys genuinely felt from the bottom of their hearts that another guy was really extremely handsome, then that guy’s looks were already beyond doubt.
Natsume Chikei was exactly that kind of case.
In fact, it wasn’t just him who thought so.
The boys in the class all privately acknowledged it.
And most importantly, this girl had come on the very first day of school carrying a bento specifically to find Natsume Chikei.
Her intentions were already crystal clear.
No matter how hard he tried, it probably wouldn’t mean anything.
Minamimura Tomohiko’s tone carried a hint of poorly concealed sorrow as he explained in a low voice, “Natsume-kun… the moment the lunch bell rang, he grabbed his bento and left.
I don’t know where he went…”
Fujiwara Aoi froze for a moment.
Her face instantly filled with the regret of “arriving one step too late.” Her shoulders drooped slightly.
“I see…”
Still, she politely bowed her head in thanks.
“Thank you.”
With that, she turned and left the classroom, her steps carrying a hint of disappointment.
Inside the classroom, whispers about the relationship between this unfamiliar beautiful girl and Natsume Chikei instantly spread like a tide.
Could she be his girlfriend?
This question almost lingered in many girls’ minds.
School had only just started today.
If they hadn’t known each other before, how could she come specifically looking for him so clearly on the very first day?
And looking at the bento clearly in Fujiwara Aoi’s hands, it was obvious she wanted to have lunch together with Natsume Chikei!
However, without knowing the real situation, quite a few people in the class still didn’t dare to be certain that Fujiwara Aoi was Natsume Chikei’s girlfriend.
Because he had clearly said with his own mouth that he currently didn’t have a girlfriend.
Nishizonoji Nanase ate her delicate bento in small bites while blinking her big eyes, watching Fujiwara Aoi’s figure disappear around the corner of the hallway outside the door.
Yukimura Suzune only belatedly lifted her gaze at that moment and realized that Natsume Chikei’s seat had long been empty.
No wonder the commotion and whispers that had surrounded his seat all morning had quieted down quite a bit since earlier.
The quiet was actually a good thing.
A trace of understanding flashed through her heart, and she immediately refocused on the action of joining desks with Nishizonoji Nanase.