Chapter 28 - School Caste ④

I don"t know if it is because we had such a foolish chat or because I was affected by the hit to my head, but I have somehow overlooked a serious matter.

As I became Tachibana"s neighbor, there can be no rest for my mind.
There is this relationship with blonde girl, but that is not all. It"s the same with the cla.s.s.

Nevertheless, I feel like in the past few days I have spoken with various guys. The amount of people in this cla.s.sroom who look like they have finally opened the textbooks for the first time one week before the tests is too big. And what was surprising, was that I had to teach truly basic stuff. Like this, it is already at the point where I wonder if they will be able to avoid falling mark if they start learning from now on. Although, if I put this into words, they will probably give up.

And also, there was one feature that these super failure brothers had.
And that is, even though we were supposed to have a study talk, our conversation would often deviate.

– Hee, so Ichijou listens to groups like ONE OK.1 Can I call you to karaoke next time?

– Eh, ah… yeah.

There were different guys.
Busy members of sports club, gloomy members of culture club, lax members of go-home club who have going to game center as a daily routine. Flashy fellow, plain fellow, shy fellow, and fellow who is on the contrary frank. Of course it is not everyone, but I feel like I have made an acquaintance with fair number of people. It should be ten something.

– Dyufufu… So Ichijou-shi watches anime too. Let"s go the comiket or something next time.

– Eeh… I don"t want to, it"s so hot there.

There are too many different people.
And that"s why there was a need to make an effort to remember the names of my cla.s.smates. In fact, every time I went home I had to check the list of names and recall the faces of people I have spoken with that day, otherwise I would forget them. Well, when anachronism plus slang are thrown at me like just now, there is no way to forget them, yeah.

Rather, you guys, you"re saying too much of next time, next time.
This is not a trial of me waiting for their invitations, so I end up thinking what kind of greeting is this?

As tests are right around the corner, the area around my seat was extremely crowded, perhaps because of the share added by Tenjuin-san. Apparently, this school is very strict in regard to failing marks. I didn"t think that they can be so desperate even just before the tests.
With this, I have a hunch that if I still call myself  loner, real loners will be angry with me. This is only until the tests are over, probably.

– Ichijou, weren"t you scolded together with Tachibana by Shiraishi-sensei, did something happen…?

Uncle, I hate brats like you who have a good perception.
Or should I say, yeah, sooner or later the cat will be out of the bag. I don"t know in which way we will get busted. For example, if people knew of the contents of the written apology, there would be a huge scandal. I have a stomachache just from thinking about it, so there should be complete control over this issue.

Well, far from being study talks, our conversations completely deviated.
We talked a lot about trivial things, but this one was so sudden, I was surprised.

– Ichijou… There"s no need to worry about someone like him.

One of my cla.s.smates has said so.
Somehow, a serious tone was used, as if there was a concern about me.

Still… someone like him? I asked for an explanation, but

– I"m talking about Nakamura!2 And he was laughing at you like an idiot yesterday. How can he do it, when you were injured… Previously he was constantly badmouthing you, just what is he displeased with?

Honestly, I forgot.
Even if I"m told to not to worry, I haven"t cared about him from the beginning.

– Most likely, everyone is on your side. You"re helping everyone after all.

– Haa… Thanks.

That"s why, it"s not unreasonable for me to make a unenthusiastic reply like this.
However, thinking back, that guy was certainly guffawing at that time. Hahahahaha, he was holding his sides with laughter, as if his daily resentment was cleared up.

Yet, why has Nakamura become silent during lunch breaks in the first place…?

I couldn"t even imagine that. And when I casually glanced in the guy"s direction, I was taken aback.

He was at his own seat, the loner seat on the window-side at the very front that I was using before, lying on top of his desk alone. All of the seats in the vicinity were empty. It gave an impression that the guy was left alone at the edge of the cla.s.sroom.

No, no, didn"t you have some friends? Did you have a falling-out?
Two guys that were frequently by his side were part of another group gathered at the window-side. Anyway, the guy was alone. Though I don"t know of any circ.u.mstances.

And on the contrary, I… can no longer be alone.

For better or worse, at least Nakamura is not in a situation where he is alone and is being made a fool of.
Well, location of my seat and tests matter, but in any case, as a result it came to me speaking with different guys. And being relied on, and being thanked to the point it made me feel embarra.s.sed.
However, putting aside how close we are, I haven"t felt that I was looked down on at all.

Well, Nakamura too, was probably like that by some chance, and only for today.
Tomorrow, he will for sure gather with the other two and play some game with them just as always — while I thought so, I was taken aback by what happened next.

It was during the fifth period - Math lesson.

-… Answer is ¼

The guy simply made a mistake in his solution. Though, this kind of a mistake is very frequent.
Even I make it from time to time. Normally, everything would smoothly continue.

And yet.

Giggle.

A kind of laughter that is held by a hand on purpose was steadily spreading inside the cla.s.sroom. I cannot properly grasp who is laughing. However, from the front of the cla.s.sroom and from its sides, I can hear people jeering.

The laughter didn"t stop until the teacher shouted "Oi, stop laughing!"

I was baffled from the bottom of my heart.
Just what the heck has happened. It wasn"t exactly pleasant. It wasn"t funny, nor was it something so amusing that it was funny.

By chance, does it have something to do with me?
a.s.suming it is so for the time being, somehow, I felt my stomach twisting. Of course, I don"t think that I am at fault, but… to some extent I am certainly the cause. That a rift is forming in the cla.s.s because of me gives me quite an unbearable, subtle feeling.

And above all, I don"t like when people gang up on someone like this.
I felt awfully irritated inside my chest.

I… Recently, being overwhelmed by the matters concerning one girl, it seems I haven"t seen my own feet. Stopping halfway again, I haven"t faced neither that girl nor the cla.s.s at all.

Shortly after the laughter calmed down.
Tachibana sitting before me turned around for a moment and having a downcast expression as if she was worried, asked "Did something happen?" with her eyes only.