Chapter 3: Mysterious Childhood Friend

After the little episode that transpired, the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.

"Amazing! It looks awesome doesn't it Hikaru?" Ai said to Hikaru after getting off the bus.

"It does." Hikaru said while looking at the school entrance which frankly saying, was nothing too impressive in his eyes.

"We will now have to go to the gymnasium for the opening ceremony." Ai said as she dragged Hikaru by the hem of his shirt.

"Oh? How did you know about that?"

"Well, it's written here so it would be stupid of me to actually not know about it." Ai said as she pointed to a notice by the entrance which explicitly instructed the students to go to the gymnasium for the opening ceremony.

"Alright. Where is the gymnasium anyway?"

"I don't know, I am just following the other students. It's better than not doing anything anyway." Ai said as she strengthened her hold on Hikaru's shirt.

"You are technically right, go on." Hikaru said as he examined his surroundings as Ai dragged him around.

"We actually arrived at the gymnasium. That's quite amazing since you just followed the others and we somehow ended up here." Hikaru said, genuinely confused as to how he reached this place.

"Hehe, I told you didn't I?" Ai said as the duo entered the gymnasium.

"Let's get into our positions." Hikaru said as he separated from Ai, shortly after which the Opening Ceremony started.

The opening ceremony proceeded without any difficulties and after countless speeches by countless important executives, it was finally time for the Student Council Presidents' speech.

"I am the Student Council President, Manabu Horikita."

"As a representative of the upper classes, I would like to extend words of welcome to our newest students."

"As I believe you know, our school is highly accomplished in all aspects and boasts a high employment and college rate."

"This is the pride of our school, accomplished through hard work of both are graduating students and those still attending. We expect the same from new students. Everything in this school is decided by merit, something which you will understand soon enough during your stay here."

"Once again, I welcome you to The Advanced Nurturing Highschool." Manabu said and that marked the end of the Opening Ceremony, which was boring for the most part.

"Hikaru! We are in the same class!" Ai said as she jumped onto Hikaru's back.

'Didn't you know about that already?' Hikaru thought.

"Yeah, it seems to be the case."

"Well, let's go to our class now." Ai said as she started walking towards the main school building followed by Hikaru.

"We will be sitting next to each other it seems." Hikaru said as he sat on his desk which was next to Ai's.

"Yup, we will be deskmates!"

There were 25 desks which were arranged in a 5x5 order. Simply speaking, there were arranged orderly in 5 rows and 5 columns. In addition to that, there were also nameplates engraved on every desk explicitly stating as to which desk belonged to whom.

"What are you going to do now?"

"Just going to wait for sensei, what about you?"

"I'll try to make some friends, you should do the same. It would influence your high school life and might even make it more eventful." Ai said as she got up from her seat.

"I'll just wait." Hikaru said to Ai, who just pouted and walked to some other female students, trying to initiate a conversation.

"Hello! I am Ai Hayasaka, it's nice to meet you!" Ai said as she introduced herself to the group of girls.

"Nice to meet you Hayasaka-san! My name is Kikyo Kushida, we were just talking about our favourite manga genre."

"Hmm, favourite manga genre? I like the Slice of Life one's the most. What about you guys?"

"Eh, really? That's quite unexpected, I like the mystery genre the most!" Kikyo said

"It's the romance genre for me, you know Shojo Manga and all." A blue-haired girl said.

"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself! I am Mei-Yu Wang, nice to meet you." The girl said.

Mei-Yu Wang as she introduced herself, is a girl of short stature. She had indigo-coloured hair tied up in twin ponytails alongside a pair of pink-violet eyes.

"Nice to meet you Mii-chan. I can call you that right?" Ai asked Mei, who just nodded with a smile.

"Your eyes are so beautiful Hayasake-san! Are you a foreigner?"

"Jeez! You are making me embarrassed and my mother was Irish, so that makes me a pseudo-foreigner I guess?"

"That's so cool!" Kushida said.

"Hehe, it's nothing noteworthy."

"That's just you, but I really wanted some of my friends to come to this school. It would have been amazing." Mei said.

"Ah, me too! But they either didn't want to come or didn't qualify. So that's a bummer for me, what about you Hayasaka-san?" Kushida said.

"Well, I am quite lucky regarding this. I came to this school along with my childhood friend, we have been together since forever from what I can remember."

"Eh! You are so lucky Hayasaka-san! Who is it anyway?"

"Hehehe, are you curious?"

"Of course!"

"Well, I am not going to tell you in that case. Figure it out yourself." Ai said while laughing mischievously.

"You can't do this to us! At least tell us how he looks." Kushida said, curious about this mysterious childhood friend.

"Well, he is a handsome, fairly tall guy with black hair. That's all I can tell you! Figure out the rest yourself!"

"Oh come on! You can't do this to us!" Kushida said as she grabbed Ai by her arm and started to shake her.

'These guys are so noisy! How can they be so noisy in the morning?' Hikaru thought as he laid his head down on his desk, in search of the holy treasure named silence.

'Where is Ai? Ah, she already made some friends. Good for her.' Hikaru said as he briefly glanced at Ai before looking out of the window.

"Everyone, may I have a moment?" A boy said, loud enough for everyone present in the class to hear him. He is a young man of average height and had brown coloured hair and eyes.

"I was hoping we could all introduce ourselves to get a jump on getting better acquainted."

"The teacher hasn't come yet anyway, how about it?"