#4 Transfer student

After Yuichi finally thought that everything was solved and he could go slowly to bed with a clear head, his mother stopped him before he could leave the living room and leave his father alone on the couch.

"Ehm!" His mother cleared her throat with crossed arms while glaring at Yuichi.

"...Good night?" Yuichi tilted his head to the side before replying with closed eyes and a bright innocent smile.

"I am fine with you using your free time by practicing martial arts however I don't want to hear anything about you getting into fights, is that understood?!" His mother asked harshly.

Yuichi wanted to quickly nod his head with an ecstatic expression but he quickly stopped.

"...I can't promise you that. What if anyone tries to bully me or one of my friends? I won't stand by and observe, however, I can promise you that I won't be actively searching for them" Yuichi replied while bowing his head a little bit to show his sincerity.

"...Heh, you know just what I want to hear, don't you, Yu-chan? You are actually a very smart kid, I don't get why you keep having those average marks at school" His mother stern expression was replaced by a gentle smile as she began patting his head.

"Um, you are thinking too highly of me, mom! I am quite exhausted so I will go to bed now." Yuichi said while scratching back of his head, acting humble. His mother wished him a good night and let him pass.

'I really hope this won't cause my parents to have bigger expectations of me!' Yuichi thought with cold sweat pouring down his back.

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The next day at school, there was a new transfer student in Yuichi's class and he was already aware who was it. Having so abruptly a transfer student was a very rare occasion for everyone so it was very typical for other kids to be excited. Yuichi wasn't exactly excited since he already knew it was a girl so no new addition to his soccer team.

When his class's homeroom teacher arrived, he arrived with a girl by his side. It was exactly Mei, Yuichi's new neighbor.

"Alright, let's greet each other first before I will introduce to you someone!" The young homeroom teacher said with a friendly smile and as he said, all kids greeted him by lightly bowing to him.

"As you can already see, we have a new addition to our class..." Teacher said while pointing at Mei with his hand, nodding his head at her to introduce herself.

"Um, M-My name is Mei-Yu Wang, pleased to meet you, everyone. Feel free to call me just Mei." Mei introduced herself with a flushed face, it was very apparent that she was shy and she might have trouble accustoming to the surroundings. However despite her not so interesting introduction, everyone started clapping, boys because they found her cute and girls because they always stand side by side with each other.

Mei was seated on the opposite side of Yuichi's seat however they never even made eye contact since Mei was too shy to even look at everyone in the classroom.

With the introduction of a new transfer student over, the class finally started and Yuichi as before tried his best to remember every little fact from this class since he was very rarely studying at home.

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After the class was over, Yuichi noticed a small commotion around Mei's desk.

"Mei-san, are you Chinese? How come you can talk so fluently in Japanese?"

"Why have your parents moved here?"

Mostly the girls started to question Mei who was completely surrounded while sitting in her seat. She had a bit panicked expression, not knowing whose question to answer first and as she was thinking, more and more questions were asked.

*sigh* Yuichi who could no longer bear the sight, sighed and got up from his seat and approached the crowd of girls surrounding Mei.

"Girls, she might be able to speak fluently in Japanese but wouldn't you feel overwhelmed in her position if you were surrounded by numerous people?" Yuichi said aloud behind the group, making everyone turn around at him.

"Iwamura-kun? I see...Are you saying that Mei-san is overwhelmed by us?" One of the girls exclaimed with a confused expression yet friendly smile, seeing Yuichi who was rather popular in the class.

Mei who finally noticed Yuichi had her expression brightened by hope a little bit however she couldn't bring herself to say anything.

"Try to imagine placing a puppy in the unknown surroundings with numerous unknown people surrounding it...You have to introduce yourselves one by one and slowly." Yuichi explained with a nod of his head, making a lot of girls have finally understanding expressions after hearing the comparison with the puppy.

Mei was feeling grateful for his words of help despite being compared to a puppy, however, when she wanted to thank him, the girls interrupted her as they started forming a queue to introduce themselves one by one.

"I also recommend writing down all your questions on the paper so Mei can answer them all at home in peace without any pressure." Yuichi recommended to the same girl that talked to him with a friendly smile before turning around to return to his seat.

"Oh?! That's actually really good idea, thanks Iwamura-kun!" The girl said with a surprised expression before thanking him with a grateful expression while he just waved her hand behind him to say that it was nothing.

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After classes ended for today, when Yuichi was about to leave the school grounds, he noticed someone waiting at the gate.

"Hm? Mei-san?" Yuichi called out to Mei who was looking absentmindedly into the empty space, holding a stack of papers in her hands together with her bag.

"Ah! It's just you, Yuichi-kun" Mei was a bit startled being called out to when she wasn't paying attention but she quickly recovered when she saw that it was just Yuichi.

'What do you mean by "just you"?' Yuichi thought with a weird look in his eyes but he quickly dropped it.

"What are you waiting for, if you don't mind me asking, that is." Yuichi asked with a curious expression.

"Ah, right! I was just waiting for you to thank you for today inside the classroom." Mei replied with a small smile and a flushed face.

"It was nothing and it seems that I just caused you more troubles..." Yuichi said while looking at the stack of papers in her hands.

"Hm? Not at all, it is actually nice to be able to answer all of their questions at home in peace as you said before. Anyway, how did you know what those papers are about?" Mei shook her head with a faint smile, making her twintails fly from side to side before asking with a curious expression.

"Hah? I mean...It was me who suggested the idea of writing down their questions, to begin with." Yuichi replied with a confused expression as if it was completely easy to tell to which Mei nodded her head in understanding while muttering "I see"

"...Do you want to walk home together?" Yuichi started feeling weird by standing near the school gate where all students could see them so he suggested with an awkward smile.

"S-Sure!" Mei nodded her head firmly, glad that she doesn't have to go home alone since everything here was still new for her.

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As they were walking side by side in silence, Mei started feeling a need to start conversation to keep Yuichi's interest or to not make him think of her as a boring girl.

"Um, Yuichi-kun, you are quite popular in our class, right?" Mei asked just a random question that she came up with just now.

"Excuse me? What makes you think so?" Yuichi looked at her with a dumbfounded expression and asked.

"Well, the girls seemed to have a favorable opinion of you and most of the boys were also gathered around you." Mei explained.

"Do those facts make someone popular? Those boys gathered around me at that time were my friends and my "soccer team". As for the girls' opinion about me...I have no idea since you are probably the first girl I am talking to without it being connected to the school assignments" Yuichi said while shrugging his shoulders.

"I see" Mei meekly nodded her head with a faint smile while looking at the ground.

Yuichi suddenly remembered Mei's parents' words and also his mother's words and thought for a little while before deciding to ask Mei something.

"Mei-san, do you want me to show you around? I can show you where to buy the cheapest yet tastiest ice-cream and many other things." Yuichi asked with a friendly smile.

"Huh? A-Are you sure?" Mei stopped walking and asked with a surprised expression to which Yuichi just nodded his head seriously.

"However, it won't come for free! I want you to act as my alibi in a case I will need your help." Yuichi said with a slightly sly smile.

"Alibi?" Mei muttered with a bewildered expression.

"Yes, in case my parents or yours ask something about me, you won't say anything bad about me even if that might be true, you will just have to portray me as innocent." Yuichi explained more with a bright smile, getting ready in case another matter like the one with him practicing martial arts arises.

"I see...Well, I don't know, Yuichi-kun...Doesn't it mean I will have to lie to my parents?" Mei asked with an uncertain expression while fidgeting with her fingers.

"That ice-cream is really good." Yuichi said with the most serious expression he could form as 9 years old kid.

"...alright" Mei looked down with flushed face and replied very weakly.

"Hm?" Yuichi didn't hear her so he tilted his head in confusion.

"I-I agree!" Mei suddenly exclaimed with her eyes closed.

'Nice! Father...I am once again a few steps ahead of you!' Yuichi thought with a content smile although he still had no idea what to do with this advantage since his only goal was to turn Mei to his side.