Book 8: Prologue: Asamura Yuuta
The cherry blossom avenue was now completely covered in leaves.
As I walked along the narrow street that served as my school route and up the gently winding slope, I could see Suisei High peeking up from beyond the hill.
I glanced at my watch – still plenty of time to make it to the gymnasium before the opening ceremony kicked off. Late or not, I picked up my pace and hurried to the school entrance.
My class would change today, so the first thing I needed to do was check which one I’d landed in. A little ahead of the shoe lockers, students crowded around a large piece of paper stuck to the wall, which listed the names of students in class order.
As someone who had hardly any close friends at school, or rather, especially at school, it was a little nerve-wracking. Up until our second year, Maru had been in the same class as me, so it was relatively easy to feel comfortable in class.
I wouldn’t say I’m particularly bothered about feeling lonely, but as a student, there are lots of times where group work is required, and knowing that there’s someone there that has your back makes life a whole lot easier at times like that. So, to say that I should come out of my shell a bit and be more friendly with my classmates day-to-day would be a reasonable argument. But then again, sometimes I feel like investing too much energy into relationships isn’t worth it.
Well, I do think having a few friends to fall back on during exam season is rather convenient. On the flip side, though, I’m probably just overthinking it all way too much, and Maru would say something sarcastic like, “Your tolerance for loneliness is too damn high."
As the crowd thinned out a little, I slipped into the flock of students and carefully scanned the class roster for my name, starting from the beginning. Since our names were listed in alphabetical order, having "Asamura" as my last name was pretty convenient at times like these. Just by following the list from the top, I was bound to find my name quickly.
Let’s see... not in Class 1. Not in Class 2. Not in Class 3, either. I slid my gaze further to the right, and—