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Hi, I am Arisa Ayame, a 1st Year at Kurasuno High, Miyagi Prefecture. It's our 3rd or last semester of the school year, anything special? Nope, nothing at all, well it is the first day of the semester and it's spring so I guess maybe I would go see cherry blossoms after school.

We quietly walk down the side of the road for a bit then while waiting for a pedestrian light to turn to green on a intersection Sawako spoke up.

"So, excited for the new sitting arrangements?"

It's not something important in my point of view, I don't really care if I am in the back or the front. I think she brought this up just to crack the ice, if that's the case I feel guilty for it, cause' I don't have exceptionally good communication skills but it's still unusual for us to walk in total silence for this long. We would usually talk about random stuff, but I guess I can blame the long break between semesters for this one.

"Well, not too much, how about you?"

I just gave my honest answer about it

"Oh really? You said Hinata-kun was cool, don't you wanna sit next to him?"

I honestly thought she would disregard my opinion about it and will just go on with the latter but apparently she is more interested in me.

And for the Hinata part, I usually just go with the flow of the conversation whenever we talk about boys, and well that resulted in me remarking Hinata-kun as "cool", to be fair he is the class representative and is quite good at academics and sports but I don't really feel romantically interested in him (which, by the way, many girls are, even from other classes), I just thought he was cool as a person to balance academics, sports and class management all at once.

"No—I mean I don't mind sitting next him, it's just not what you think."

I said that because I don't wanna sound like I hate sitting next to him, it's just that I don't really care whether or not he sits next to me or across the class.

"Hmm, I see."

And just like that, thanks to me the awkward silence begins again.

We continue our walk to the school in silence again.

I met Sawako in middle school we were together for two years in during that time, we also formed a group with some girls in the class but all of us (except me and Sawako of course) went their separate way for high schools, that's why I usually spend time Sawako and same goes for her. She has long brown hair, with long eyes lashes and a perfectly defined face, last we checked we were pretty equal in height (She was 5'5 and I was 5'4), maybe she is a bit taller now. If we talk about looks and personality alone, people would say we are pretty equal but I still feel inferior to her on the inside, in academics I would say we both have our strengths and weaknesses, again pretty equal, the only area in which we are totally different comes down to sports, Sawako actually excels at sports (She even joined the tennis team) while I am just pretty average, maybe lower.

Her and my parents know each other, we used to crash at each other's homes for sleepovers often, but since the onset of high school, we rarely do that, I don't get how and when we got this distant. She also has a younger brother in middle school, who is apparently in the same class as my little sister, they both are pretty good friends and sometimes even remind me of me and Sawako in our days of middle school.

We reach the entrance of our school.

'KURASUNO HIGH SCHOOL'

I look at the school, same as always, It's three floors high, each floor is dedicated to a specific school year, if you count the ground floor (our is on the top), with a dull yellow and brown as primary colors and blue tinted windows, it's your plain-old high school color scheme, though the classrooms are painted with white in the inside.

I picked Kurasuno High due to its influence all over the state, If I get good enough grades on graduation from this school, my rates of getting into a good public college will sky rocket, I don't know about Sawako though, I don't think she followed me here or anything, and I don't think following someone, even if he or she close to you, to the high school, college etc., is good idea.

I take a deep breath to smell the fragrance of the cherry blossoms in the air, also to calm my mind.

"Well here we go again."

Sawako says as she starts marching towards the main gate, I follow behind.

We enter the room marked with '1-B' outside the door.

The teacher isn't here yet so the students who have arrived are just chatting to their friends, some of them are close enough that I can safely say that would have definitely hung out during the break for example the Hinata Group, we girls usually just call the boys who hang out with Hinata a lot The 'Hinata group', this group includes Daisuke Kakeru, Haruno Haruka and Yu Sukishima, there are a lot more boys friends with Hinata-kun but they don't usually hang out outside of school.

From the girls, I would say the most popular girls in our class, Kei Kakashi, Yui Saito, Aoi Watanabe and Sakura Ito, those are the so called 'beauties' of our class, well except some boys who have a major crush on them no one really calls them that, but if I were pick the most beautiful girl in our class, it would be Kei Kakashi no doubt and I can surely say majority of the class would agree with me.

I pull out the wooden chair which used to be my seat in the previous semester, near the window (the new sitting arrangements have not been displayed yet so I just sit where I sat previously), the person who sits next to me is Yosuke Hirata, we don't usually communicate other than greetings, he is a pretty decent student in class but communication wise I think we are pretty similar.

"Hi!! Oh my god, Arisa have you lost weight?"

I quickly snap out of my usual space out routine while looking at the blackboard in front of me, the voice belonged to Watanabe-san. She is taller than me, with short curved hair, she has a decent figure too, her most intimidating feature are her sharp eyes.

"Hi, Watanabe-san, good morning."

I ignored the comment she made, I say 'comment' even though it was a question because whenever Watanabe-san is confirming about you something she noticed on her own, she is basically telling you what she sees in you, and really doesn't care about your answer, it's like her way of greeting you.

"Yeah, good morning, how have been? Got a guy yet?"

Immediately a question about my love life, I guess if I were to differentiate between a real and fake Watanabe-san I would definitely use this to make my decision.

"What do you think?"

I instead question her about what she thinks my love life standings would be, but being Watanabe-san I would think she would not answer correctly.

"Well, I guess you have a crush on someone maybe."

That—is really unexpected of Watanabe-san cause' she would usually jump to a conclusion of me having a boyfriend, but still, she is off the mark this time too.

"What? No. I don't have a crush on anybody."

"Aww, really? but you did kinda made it sound like you actually had a boyfriend and I still lowered my thoughts to be on the safe side, come on" she says as she sits down on the empty sit in front of mine.

Well, I have to admit I did not give a clear answer, again, not too good communication skills.

"What about you? Do you have a boyfriend?"

I asked her the same question, I gotta say I am a little bit curious in others' love life, I wonder if this curiosity is what others feel when they are asking about mine.

"Ah, no, not yet, but I am kinda interested in Daisuke-kun since the last semester, I might ask him out soon."

Watanabe-san interested in Daisuke-kun? That's like a expected surprised (if that's a thing), to clarify, I am surprised that Watanabe-san is actually interested in someone herself, but the fact she is interested in one of the popular guys in the class is pretty fair and expected.

"Oh that's—"

Suddenly, the we all hear the bell ring indicating the commence of the first period, all the students hurriedly started returning to their seats, the students from other classes begin exiting our class.

"Oh, well catch you later."

"Yeah."

Watanabe-san too gets up and leaves, most of the students in our class have already arrived by this point, our homeroom teacher, Ms. Suzune, must be on her way to the classroom too.

Soon after she arrives carrying her bag and a sheet of paper rolled up in her arms. We all greet Ms. Suzune.

"Good Morning students, I hope you all had wonderful break." She announce in the class.

She began organizing stuff on the teacher's desk, soon after she took the sheet of paper and attached it to the notice board in the front, we all knew what it was from the start despite that she announced it anyway.

"As you all know, your sitting arrangements will be changing this semester so please take a look at this chart and proceed to your respective seats and then we will all began the start of the semester."

We all took a look at the chart for our seats, My seat apparently was at the very back, in the second row from the windows (our class have 6 rows by the way), but as I said, I do not particularly mind sitting anywhere, if anything I would like Sawako to sit next to me but that wasn't the case, she was in the third seat from the front in the same row.

'Oh well' I think to myself as I make my way over to the seat.

Wait, something's off, from what I know, there shouldn't be any empty seats left after everyone is settled but the next to me (the one in the row directly beside the windows) is empty, 'Is someone absent today?' I think the best possible explanation for the situation.

But no matter how much I look, it looks like everyone is present, well of course it's the first day of the semester. I can't think of any other possible explanation other than school actually put an extra seat in our class by mistake, that is, if no one's absent.

Well, it's not like it's making me uncomfortable or anything so I instead focus on the course book I have opened up on my desk.

Suddenly a Boy enters our class.