[Naoki Aiba POV]
Koharu stood up from her chair before I could even finish my breakfast.
After carrying her dishes to the kitchen, she picked up her school bag from the corner of the living room. Pausing with my chopsticks, I glanced at the clock on the wall. There was still a bit of time before she normally left the house.
"Leaving already?"
"Yeah. Our class has a morning meetup today."
Slinging her bag over her shoulder, Koharu called out as she headed toward the entryway.
"I'm off!"
"Have a good day. Take care."
"Yeah. Stay safe."
Just as Koharu was about to step out of the living room, she turned back toward me.
"Onii-chan, even if people around you start saying things, don't let it get to you too much, okay? If you're having trouble, come tell me."
"Don't worry. I'll be fine."
"Okay. See you later, then."
Koharu gave a small wave and slipped out of the living room.
After hearing the front door click shut, I reached for my remaining miso soup. Although I had told Koharu I would be fine, I wasn't entirely unconcerned about what kind of reactions awaited me at school.
Finishing my breakfast, I returned to my room and straightened the collar of my uniform. Just as I went to pick up my bag, the constellation guide on the edge of my desk caught my eye.
I had gone out with Serina-san on Saturday, and Hina and her mother had visited yesterday. Both had been wonderful days. Even so, this morning was one of the few times I didn't feel any lingering regret about the weekend coming to an end.
Please call me that at school too.
That was what Serina-san had said in front of my house.
Starting today, I would call her "Serina-san" at school.
Even though I had agreed to it myself, once I put on my uniform, I felt a different kind of nervousness than I had back then. It wouldn't be on the way home during a weekend; I would be calling her by her given name right in the middle of a crowd of students wearing the exact same uniform.
When we ran into each other, all I had to do was greet her like always. The only difference was the way I addressed her.
Turning that over in my mind, I grabbed my bag and headed down the stairs.
"I'm off."
"Have a good day. Take care."
Leaving the entryway behind my mother's voice, I saw thin clouds drifting across the morning sky. The sunlight was still strong, but the breeze blowing past the gate carried a faint trace of coolness compared to last week.
My steps toward school were naturally lighter than usual.
◇◇◇
Just before reaching the school gates, someone called my name from behind.
"Naoki."
Turning around, I saw Togo quickening his pace to catch up. He had neatly trimmed black hair and slightly sharp eyes. His somewhat blunt-looking face wore its usual easygoing grin.
"Morning, Togo."
"Yo. The weekend flew by, didn't it?"
"You say that every single week."
"If I don't say it, Monday just doesn't feel like it's started."
"What a troublesome habit to have first thing in the morning."
As I voiced my exasperation, Togo fell into step beside me without a care in the world. We passed through the school gates together.
The students walking ahead of us were making a racket over whether they had finished the homework they had to turn in. One of them, having answered that they were done, suddenly found a friend wrapping an arm around their shoulder in a display of sudden, shameless affection.
While I watched that scene unfold, Togo asked in a casual tone:
"By the way, Naoki, did you go near the station on Saturday?"
"You mean the one closest to school? Yeah, I was there."
When I answered, Togo's pace slowed slightly.
"You were?"
"What's with that reaction?"
"Nah. It's just that I heard something from a guy in another class yesterday."
Waiting until a bit of distance opened up between us and the students ahead, Togo lowered his voice.
"Apparently, the Mikage was at a cafe in the station building with a guy."
"...Huh."
"What's with that? You don't look very surprised."
Togo peered into my face.
"They said it was a tall guy with short black hair. They couldn't see his face well, but they felt like they'd seen him somewhere before."
"And you asked me just based on that?"
"Well, yeah. Hearing the description, you just kind of popped into my head."
He wasn't wrong.
We had entered the cafe in the station building shortly past noon. I recalled the time we spent talking about the books we usually read and what was going on at school. There were other customers around us, but I hadn't checked to see if there were any familiar faces among them.
"...Naoki?"
"Hm? What?"
"You haven't said 'that wasn't me' yet."
"...If I confess, you're going to pester me with questions, aren't you?"
"Well, of course I'd be curious....Wait, hold on. What did you just—"
"The guy with her was me."
"...Are you... serious?"
Togo stopped dead in his tracks, staring at my face as his body instinctively reeled back.
"You're the one who asked."
"No, I mean, yeah... but who'd actually think it was really you, Naoki? Besides, are you sure it's okay to tell me?"
"Well, it's not like it's something I need to hide."
—Even if I kept quiet, I had a feeling it would be exposed before the day was over anyway.
Togo started to say something, but noticing students approaching from behind, he resumed walking. I lined up beside him again and headed for the shoe lockers.
Until we reached the lockers, Togo was unusually silent. Only when I took out my indoor shoes did he finally open his mouth.
"So you and Mikage got close, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Before, you told me you barely even knew her name."
"Back then, that was the truth."
That was what I had told Togo when I saw Serina-san in the courtyard.
Since then, we had exchanged words countless times. At first, I had hesitated just to say hello, but now I was already looking forward to the next day we would go out together.
Thinking back, it was only natural for Togo to be shocked.
"When I heard the rumor, I thought, 'Nah, they must've seen someone else.'"
"Why?"
"Because they said the Mikage was sitting across from a guy and laughing happily. Anyone who knows how she normally is wouldn't believe that right off the bat."
Changing into my indoor shoes, I recalled Serina-san at the cafe.
She really had laughed a lot.
After laughing aloud at something I said, she would share stories about herself in turn. Our conversation continued even after we finished eating, and we spent the time afterward browsing the shops together.
Even though it was just a slice of a fun day for me, to a student from our school who happened to catch sight of us, it must have looked like something entirely different.
"Has that story spread pretty far?"
"I don't know how far, but when I heard it, a few people already knew. Though it didn't seem like they realized it was you, Naoki."
Togo changed into his indoor shoes as well and shut his locker door.
"Plus, depending on who you talk to, they're already saying she got a boyfriend."
"No, we're not dating."
"You're not dating yet. Got it."
"Don't go adding 'yet' on your own."
A grin softened the corners of Togo's mouth as he headed for the stairs. Walking beside him, I figured my correction had fallen on deaf ears.
Just as we began climbing the stairs, Togo spoke up again.
"Well, I guess that's how rumors go. 'She was with a guy' turns into 'she was on a date with her boyfriend' before you know it."
"Is that really how it works...?"
"Besides, it's Mikage. If the untouchable, boys-prohibited goddess gets a boyfriend, of course people are gonna make a fuss."
"...Wait, what did you just say?"
"The boys-prohibited goddess. That's Mikage. Some guys call her that. There are plenty of other nicknames too."
"Does she know about that?"
"Probably not. At the very least, I don't think anyone has the guts to say it to her face."
Togo paused for a moment before adding as if just remembering:
"Also, while we were talking about that, I heard that the three girls always hanging around Mikage—Rio Kuze, Kotoha Komiyama, and Miu Sahara—are pretty feared by the guys too."
"Why?"
"All three are stylish and cute, but they've got this intense aura, you know? It takes serious guts to talk to them. From what I heard, to even get close to Mikage, you first have to pass an interview by those three."
"An interview..."
"Except the moment you touch the door to the interview room... you get eliminated, apparently."
"Then literally no one has ever made it to the interview, have they?"
"And that's why they are feared..."
Togo dropped his voice low, staring intently at me even after finishing his sentence. His delivery was dead-on for the punchline of a ghost story.
"...Did you really hear that from someone?"
"Yeah. And I said the exact same thing to them that you just said to me."
"Someone's definitely blowing things out of proportion."
"Yeah. No doubt about that."
Glancing at Togo as he chuckled softly, I turned my gaze forward. When we stepped side by side into the hallway where our classrooms were, the sound of girls laughing reached us from ahead.
Looking up, I saw four familiar figures beyond the passing students. Beside the girl with swaying long chestnut hair who was chatting away stood Serina-san.
I had also met the other three girls in the nurse's office when Koharu collapsed. Knowing they had helped my sister, I couldn't find them intimidating the way the rumors suggested.
The morning light filtering through the window cast a faint, translucent glow through Serina-san's bright ash-beige hair. Smiling at her friend's story, she occasionally turned her face toward the black-haired girl and the short-brown-haired girl walking slightly behind them.
Watching the four of them approach us, Togo fell silent beside me.
Looking at Serina-san in her uniform, the words we exchanged when parting on Saturday came to mind: See you at school.
Serina-san noticed us as well.
The face she had turned toward her friend shifted toward me, and her steps slowed just a fraction. When our eyes met, her lips parted as if she were about to say something.
Before she could, I spoke up first.
"Good morning, Serina-san."
Serina-san's feet came to a halt.
She stared at me in surprise, her fingers tightening around the handle of her bag. In an instant, a flush of crimson spread across her cheeks.
When I called her by her given name for the first time as we parted on Saturday, she had looked at me with that exact same expression.
I wasn't entirely composed either.
The moment the words left my mouth, I became acutely aware of Togo right beside me and the other students walking down the hallway.
Serina-san cast her eyes down for a moment, but quickly looked up and met my gaze.
"...Good morning, Naoki-kun."
Hearing my name returned in a voice tinged with slight hesitation sent a wave of warmth through my chest.
Serina-san had properly called my name, too.
This wasn't the first time I had spoken with Serina-san at school. We had greeted each other in the hallways and at the shoe lockers before, and there had been other students nearby back then as well.
However, the atmosphere today was distinctly different.
The rumor that Serina-san had been alone with a guy on Saturday had already begun to spread. Right on the heels of that, the two of us had just addressed each other by our first names. What's more, Serina-san's cheeks were still bright red, and I wasn't at all confident that I was acting natural myself.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, I realized our surroundings had grown strangely quiet.
The boys talking near the entrance of a nearby classroom were staring our way. A passing girl tugged on her friend's sleeve, and that friend turned toward us as well.
Chatter could still be heard from further down the hallway, but the conversations right beside us had cut off mid-sentence.
Judging by these reactions, some of them had likely already caught wind of the rumor about the station that Togo mentioned.
I glanced at Togo beside me.
Togo was silent, too.
"...What is it?"
"Oh, go on, don't mind me."
What was I supposed to go on with?
While I was wondering that, the chestnut-haired girl peered into Serina-san's face. Was this person Rio Kuze-san, whom Serina-san had mentioned before?
"W-Wait a second. F-First names...?"
"...Yeah."
"You told us you'd explain on Monday so I waited, but... this, right off the bat in the morning?"
"That's why I said I'll explain properly later!"
Serina-san's cheeks flushed even redder than before.
The black-haired girl—presumably Kotoha Komiyama-san—looked back and forth between me and Serina-san as well, but eventually let out a small sigh and lightly touched her friend's arm.
"If we start grilling her now, we won't make it in time for class."
"We still have time, though."
"Rio, can you wrap it up quickly?"
"...Yeah, definitely not."
So this one really was Kuze-san. She admitted it without hesitation with a laugh, then took a step back while making sure to remind Serina-san, "Later, okay?"
Behind them, Miu Sahara—Sahara-san—watched their exchange with a faint smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Showing no surprise at the fact that we had called each other by our first names, she gave a small wave as if she had known all along.
"Good morning, Aiba-kun."
"Good morning."
"I heard from Serina yesterday. She said Saturday was a lot of fun."
Hearing those words, Kuze-san spun around to face Sahara-san.
"What?! Miu, you got the scoop first?!"
"Because I went out with Serina yesterday, just the two of us."
"Well, yeah, I heard about that, but—"
"Serina said she'll tell you guys today too."
When Sahara-san replied with that, Serina-san shifted her gaze from her friends back to me. The way her eyebrows dipped slightly as she peered at me made it look like she was saying, Sorry for all the noise.
Intending to convey that she didn't need to worry, I gave a small shake of my head and returned a smile. After looking at my face, Serina-san's cheeks relaxed in relief.
"...Did you two just have a whole conversation without words?"
At Kuze-san's voice, Serina-san snapped her attention back.
"W-We didn't say anything!"
"No, that's why I'm asking, because you didn't say anything!"
Beside me, Togo let out a breath as if he couldn't hold it in anymore. Looking over, I saw him covering his mouth and shaking his head slightly.
Sahara-san didn't butt in, simply watching our interaction.
"Naoki-kun."
"Hm?"
"Um... it feels a little different at school, doesn't it?"
Serina-san murmured in a quiet voice, lowering her gaze to the handle of her bag.
I didn't need to ask what she meant.
In front of my house, it had been just the two of us. But now, even while calling each other by the same names, our friends were right beside us, and both familiar and unfamiliar students were passing by.
"I'm more nervous than I thought I'd be, too."
"...You are?"
"Yeah. I intended to just say it normally, though."
When I answered, Serina-san looked slightly surprised before her expression relaxed into relief.
"So it wasn't just me."
"We only just changed it on Saturday, after all."
"Yeah. But... I like it this way."
With that, Serina-san looked up at me.
"Because I want you to call me that at school too."
Her voice was modest.
Even so, the end of her sentence came through crystal clear.
"I know, Serina-san."
When I called her name once more, Serina-san pressed her lips together. But a moment later, her mouth softened, and she gave a small nod, unable to completely hide her embarrassment.
Looking at her face, the awareness I had directed toward our surroundings easily drifted right back to her.
"...S-She's smiling."
A hushed voice reached us from nearby.
"Wasn't she the goddess who never implemented smiles...?"
A boy standing by the classroom entrance muttered, and the friend next to him replied while continuing to stare our way:
"No, she smiles normally around girls."
"It's implemented for guys too now...?!"
Another boy near the two tilted his head as if recalling something.
"Come to think of it, didn't they greet each other before...?"
Near the window a short distance away, another boy blurted out loudly:
"...W-Wasn't she strictly boys-prohibited?!"
Serina-san turned her face toward the source of the voice, and all the softness she had shown while looking at me vanished completely from her eyes. Receiving that icy glare, the boy by the window reflexively snapped his spine straight.
"S-Sorry! I'll take this idiot away right now!"
The friend beside him gave a quick bow toward us, grabbed the boy by the sleeve, and dragged him down the hallway.
Watching the two of them scurry off in a hurry, I looked at Togo to ask what that was about. But Togo simply shook his head slightly, as if to say he had no idea either.
"Serina, we should get going. We need to put our bags down."
"Ah, right."
Serina-san checked the hallway clock before turning back to me. When our eyes met, the slight narrowing of her gaze softened, and a small smile returned to her lips.
"Well, see you later, then, Naoki-kun."
"Yeah. See you later."
After replying, the phrase "see you later" lingered in my mind. Would it be okay for me to go see her during the break? Even before we had parted, I found myself thinking about that.
After exchanging greetings with the other three, we stepped to the side of the hallway.
As the four of them walked off, chatter gradually returned to the quieted section of the hallway. However, it didn't seem like everyone had returned to their original conversations as if nothing had happened; some students leaned in toward their friends while watching the four walk away. Two passing girls were whispering to each other as well, though I couldn't make out what they were saying.
After taking a few steps, Serina-san looked back.
Her eyes met mine as I saw her off, and for a split second she slowed down in surprise. Then, her cheeks flushing red, she let go of her bag handle and gave a small wave by her chest.
I raised my left hand in response. As Serina-san's lips curved into a smile and she turned back toward her friends, a long sigh sounded from beside me.
"...N-Naoki."
"What?"
"You told me earlier that you guys weren't dating, right...?"
"...I did."
"..."
Togo looked in the direction Serina-san and the others had gone, then turned his face back to me.
"And then you pull that?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"If I hadn't heard you weren't dating, anyone would think you two were a couple after seeing that..."
I couldn't immediately talk back.
I recalled how Serina-san's cheeks flushed when I called her name, yet she still smiled happily. And I had stood watching her from behind until she turned around, too.
"...Does it really look like that?"
"It totally does. Honestly, if you hadn't explained things earlier, I would've thrown both hands in the air and yelled 'Congrats!'"
As he spoke, Togo literally raised both hands high into the air. A passing student looked our way, making my cheek twitch involuntarily.
"Please, spare me from that."
Togo chuckled in amusement, lowered his hands, and started walking toward the classroom.
Falling into step beside him, the voice that should have been lost in the hallway chatter replayed in the back of my mind.
Good morning, Naoki-kun.
Well, see you later, then, Naoki-kun.
I still clearly remembered the brief pause before she called my name the first time, her flushed cheeks, and the way she turned to smile at me when parting.
Even a standard greeting or a casual farewell felt like something I wanted to replay over and over when my name was attached in her voice. Worried that Togo might tease me again, I quietly composed my loosening expression.
Even so, her voice lingered in my ears until we reached the classroom.
◇◇◇
When I entered the classroom, Sota Wakushima, who was by the window, looked my way. He was a petite, slender classmate in the literature club. Normally, our relationship consisted of exchanging greetings and occasionally discussing books we had read, so he rarely went out of his way to approach me. Beneath his ear-length black hair, his eyes blinked in slight surprise.
Beside him, Shuhei Narayama from the baseball club had his arm hooked over the back of a chair. He had a closely shaved head and a face tanned from practice. Though his club and general vibe were completely different from Wakushima's, the two often chatted during breaks. Narayama looked up as well, glancing between me and Togo.
He looked like he wanted to ask something, but it would be awkward for me to strike up a conversation just because our eyes met. For now, I headed to my seat, set down my bag, and began pulling out my textbooks, at which point Wakushima exchanged glances with Narayama, and the two walked over together.
"Aiba-kun. You were talking to Mikage-san in the hallway just now, weren't you?"
"Yeah. Just exchanging greetings, though."
"You called her by her first name, didn't you?"
Stopping my hands, I looked up. Wakushima was looking at me as if to confirm. He didn't seem to be teasing; he just appeared genuinely curious about what he had heard in the hallway.
"I did."
"...So I didn't mishear it after all."
Beside him, Narayama turned his body toward me as if looking at something unbelievable.
"With the Sub-Zero Goddess...?"
"Just how many versions of that are there today?"
When I blurted that out, Togo simply shrugged as if to say, Told you so.
Nodding at Togo's response, I placed my textbook on the desk, prompting Wakushima to tilt his head slightly.
"So the one who was with Mikage-san on Saturday was you too, Aiba-kun."
"Yeah. We went out together."
Nearby, the sound of a chair scraping back stopped mid-motion. Glancing over, I saw another boy who had been in the middle of standing up frozen with his hand on the back of his chair, staring at me.
It seemed there were students in this classroom who had already heard the rumor as well. Realizing that the person calling her by her first name in the hallway was me, they had connected it to the story from Saturday.
"I see. When did you two get so close?"
"We've been talking little by little for a while now."
"Is that so? It must be easy for Mikage-san to talk to you, Aiba-kun."
Wakushima nodded in understanding. When someone accepted it so straightforwardly, I didn't quite know how to respond.
On the other hand, Narayama held a hand to his chin as if pondering something deeply. After staring at me for a while, he spoke with an oddly serious expression.
"The man who set foot into that impregnable, boys-forbidden stronghold... Aiba, just who on earth are you...?"
"Your classmate, Naoki Aiba."
"That's way too casual a comeback...! No, but seriously, it's Mikage, you know? Normally—"
"It's really not that big of a deal."
When I replied, Narayama knitted his brows in bewilderment. I thought he was joking, but apparently, he was deadly serious.
"We just hung out together."
"...Aiba, you and I are talking about the Mikage from our school, right?"
"You're taking the conversation that far back...?"
Narayama stared at my face for a while, then brought a hand to his chin again. Lowering his gaze as if lost in thought, he muttered quietly:
"...Should I ask to become his apprentice?"
Just as I was about to ask what kind of apprentice he meant, a girl's voice came from the entrance.
"What are you guys talking about?"
It was Chiaki Tsukishiro, our class representative.
Her dark chestnut hair was tied in a low ponytail, and she held a stack of handouts in one hand. As Tsukishiro entered the classroom and looked around at us, Wakushima turned toward her.
"Apparently, Aiba-kun went out with Mikage-san on Saturday."
Tsukishiro's eyes widened slightly, and she turned her gaze to me. When I nodded at her questioning look, she smiled, looking surprised yet pleased.
"Huh. You're pretty close with Mikage-san, Aiba-kun."
"Tsukishiro, that's all the reaction you have?"
When Narayama asked, Tsukishiro glanced around my desk.
"I was surprised, of course. I ended up overhearing, but shouldn't you guys let Aiba-kun get ready for class now?"
Told that, I looked around and realized several people had gathered around my desk without me noticing. My bag was still open, and the notebook I had started pulling out was still inside.
Trying to squeeze through the gap, Tsukishiro lightly raised the handouts in her hand.
"Besides, I need to pass these out, so make some room, please."
"Ah, sorry. You were in the middle of getting ready, weren't you, Aiba-kun?"
Wakushima stepped aside, and Narayama headed back to his own seat as well. As Tsukishiro walked down the cleared aisle and began handing out prints from a nearby row, I pulled out the rest of my notebooks and sat down in my chair.
With the space around my desk clear, I could finally settle down and prepare. But when I squared away my textbooks and looked up, my eyes met a girl's from a seat a short distance away.
She hastily turned back toward her friend. It seemed that just because people weren't talking to me directly didn't mean they had stopped paying attention.
Noticing this as well, Togo leaned in slightly toward my desk and lowered his voice.
"I won't go spreading it around."
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Though that scene earlier had quite an audience."
"I know."
The stares directed at us in the hallway and the reactions after getting here were bigger than I had anticipated. I figured people would find out over the course of the day, but I hadn't expected it to become such a topic of conversation before even reaching the classroom.
Looking out the window, I could still see a few students hurrying from the school gates toward the building. One student walking beside a friend checked their watch, tapped the other on the shoulder, and picked up their pace.
As I watched them, Togo asked:
"Did you have fun on Saturday?"
"Yeah, I did."
This time, I didn't need to choose my words before answering.
Togo looked at my face and grinned slightly.
"Then that's all that matters."
"Yeah."
"I slept until noon that day. Then I played games and watched anime on Amopla."
"Sounds like you had plenty of fun yourself."
"It was fun, sure. Only, the ones experiencing youth were the people inside the screen."
Togo said it with such deep sentiment that I couldn't help but laugh.
Before long, the warning bell rang, and Togo returned to his seat. When the homeroom teacher walked in, the chatter filling the classroom subsided, and after morning announcements, first period began.
Once class started, the eyes that had been directed at me returned to the blackboard, and I listened to the teacher's explanations while taking notes. Serina-san's voice in the hallway occasionally surfaced in my mind, but I brought my focus back to my desk each time. Copying down what was written on the board and working through the textbook problems gradually made the morning's commotion feel distant.
When class ended and the teacher left the room, I closed the textbook on my desk.
Would it be okay if I went over to her during the break?
While recalling what I had been thinking when we parted this morning, I took out my smartphone to find a message from Serina-san.
Naoki-kun, is it okay if I come over to your classroom now?
Staring at the screen, my lips curved into a slight smile. It seemed I wasn't the only one wondering whether to head over.
Of course. I'm in my classroom.
When I sent the reply, it was marked as read immediately.
Pocketing my smartphone, I tidied up the notebooks still left on my desk while turning my eyes toward the classroom entrance.