Ch.2 Why is she talking to me?

"Sato, you don't have a partner yet? I know how you feel, all my friends had already paired up when I was in the bathroom... Ah! I know! Why don't you and I pair up? It'd be a great chance to get to know each other better! Don't you agree?" The girl said, drawing nearer to my desk by the second.

The girl in question was...

"Saito? You're the last person I thought would have no one to partner up with." I said, looking at the girl who was now standing in front of my desk.

Sakura Saito.

She is one of those girls is could probably befriend anyone with just her smile.

Due to her cute nature, she was ranked 4th in looks by the boys.

Due to her personality, she was ranked 1st in popularity among boys and girls alike.

She has a relatively small figure, short in height, long blond hair, her chest is on the... flat side, if you know what I mean. But I don't care about that sort of thing. Besides, her gentle and kind attitude towards everyone would make you immediately take a liking towards her.

"What makes you think that?" Saito said, tilting her head in confusion.

That's a good question.

Why do I think that?

Maybe it's the death stares from the boys.

Maybe it's the "gross" and "eww, why is Saito talking to... wait who is that again?", from the girls.

But maybe I'm just looking too much into this.

"Nothing, just thought someone would jump on the chance of being your partner." I said, keeping my voice sounding as indifferent as possible.

"Aww, stop, you're making me blush~." She said, putting her hands on her cheeks, making the point that she is indeed flustered.

Forget the gossip from the girl's side of the room, I could practically feel the anger, envy, and resentment from the boys.

What is happening?

One minute, I was sitting at my desk, alone, thinking who my partner would be for the project, and the next minute, one of the most popular girls was asking me to be her partner.

This is so cliché that I'm gonna throw up.

I've never talked to her before, but now all of a sudden she wants to partner up with me.

Why?

This isn't some manga where the popular girl comes up to the loner protagonist, asks them to be her friend, and they end up getting together in the end.

This is real life.

The loner is supposed to stay quiet, be alone, and not talk to anyone.

But it seemed like Saito had different plans for me.

"So what do you think? Wanna partner up with me?" She asked, showing off her near-perfect smile.

I tried to speak, but someone spoke before I could get a single word out.

"Saito! Is this boy bothering you? Are you okay? You should partner up with me! You don't have to talk to this possible serial killer!"

Possible serial killer?

That's a little offensive.

If I were an actual serial killer, no one would find the body.

"That's not very nice Tanaka! Sato looked like he needed a partner, so I thought he could pair up with me. You shouldn't judge your classmates when you haven't even talked to them before!"

"B-but look at him! He's pale, has bags under his eyes, and his hair is unkempt. He definitely has some dark secret!"

I could only assume the girl whose name was "Tanaka" apparently didn't like the way I looked.

Doesn't the way I look just makes me a night owl who likes to spend most of his time inside?

The class had already ended, and it was time to go home.

But where was I?

I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, the rock being a girl who wants to partner up with me for an unknown reason, and the hard place being a girl who thinks I'm a creep and should stay away from the previous girl.

To be honest, I don't care if I'm Saito's partner. If it's gonna cause this much drama around me, I might as well run away while I can.

"Saito, thank you for worrying about me. But are you sure you don't want to pair up with someone else? From the looks of it, Tanaka seems to think I wouldn't be a very good partner." I said, trying to convince her that it was in her best interest to pair up with someone else.

But Saito wouldn't give up that easily.

"Nononononono, I want to partner up with YOU. I've gotten to be friends with everyone in our school year, except you Sato!"

Everyone is our school year?

That's quite the accomplishment.

I'm almost impressed.

What do I do now?

Do I accept, partner up with Saito, receive death glares from everyone in the class, and then go on about the rest of our days like nothing happened?

Or do I decline, rejecting her offer, and saving myself from the rest of the class. But there's always the chance she might want to try to convince me to work together with her again in the future.

"Well if you insist..."

I picked the first option.

It's better to rip a band-aid off fast, rather than leaving it to rot because you were too scared of the pain.

"H-hold on! There's still a killer on the loose! This creep is probably salivating at the idea of being close to you, waiting for the perfect moment to take advantage of your kindness and do nasty things to you!"

What started as concerns for Saito, basically became bullying directed straight at me.

I get that she was suspicious of me due to the events that took place last week, but did she have to go so far as to label me a "potential rapist"?

Tanaka kept trying to convince Saito to not be my partner, repeatedly calling me names like "incel" and "creepy", all while Saito was trying to make the point that Tanaka should be more trustful of her peers.

I had the sneaking suspicion that this project wasn't going to be as simple as I hoped.