Chapter 1 – The Second Cutest Girl in My Class

Sometimes, I wonder what exactly makes a friend, a 'friend'.

Could two people who were in the same class and talked with each other often be called friends? Or maybe, two people who went to the school cafeteria together and had lunch together often?

No, right? Wouldn't that make them classmates? Acquaintances at most. I was still a student, so I might just be reaching by saying this, but I don't think those cases would be different from talking or having lunch with your colleagues at work.

With colleagues, while you might call them 'acquaintances', you would never call them 'friends' nor 'buddies'.

Personally, I think you need to have a more personal relationship with someone before you could call them a 'friend'.

Like hanging out somewhere after school or planning to meet up during our days off.

Only after crossing that line could an 'acquaintance' become a 'friend'.

With that thought in mind, the number of people that I, Maehara Maki, could call a 'friend' or 'buddy' was close to zero.

Well, considering I was that kind of guy who would think about those things from the wee hours… From back when I was still in grade school until now, when I've already entered high school, every day I would go straight back home after school and would spend my days off playing video games at home unless I had something else to do.

Of course, this rule also applied to my seatmate.

"Good morning, Maehara-kun."

"Mm, good morning, Ooyama-kun."

I did have a classmate who would talk to me like this. My seatmate, Ooyama-kun, we often made small talk like this because our hobbies matched. But, he had a friend from his middle school whom he had been hanging out with for lunch, so we never hung out during that period.

Well actually, he had asked me to do exactly that once or twice before this, but as you could see, I wasn't the most sociable guy, so I just made the atmosphere awkward for everyone. Since then, I've mostly eaten my lunch alone.

We've been classmates for a while now, but we still called each other with our surnames and '-kun' attached to it, that should give you a rough picture of our relationship.

"Haah… I'm tired… I hope Saturday comes soon. You're with me right, Maehara-kun?"

"You act like this all week long… Well, it isn't like I disagree with you."

I said that, but it wasn't like I would do anything special on the weekends. On weekdays, I would go to school, immediately go back home after it was over, then, I would play games or read manga until I fell asleep.

On weekends, just erase the whole 'go to school' part and that was how my days went. That was why I've never looked forward to weekends.

…Well, that was how I used to think…

"Everyone, good morning ~ ! Everyone is tired of Monday because the weekend just ended, but still, let's do our best together this week too ~ !"

As everyone languidly walked into the classroom one after another, a single cheerful voice echoed throughout the classroom.

"G-Good morning, Amami-san."

"Yo, Amami."

"Amamin, morning ~"

As soon as she walked into the classroom, the previously quiet atmosphere inside the classroom changed and became more cheerful.

"Mhm! Everyone, good morning! Ehehe ~"

The name of the girl who blew away the quiet atmosphere of the class with her smile was Amami Yuu.

Her grandmother was a foreigner, so she was a quarter-blood, though her foreign blood seemed thicker. While her face looked Japanese, her blond hair and blue eyes made her look like she came out straight from an anime or manga.

"As usual, our number one…"

"…Right…"

As Ooyama-kun said, Amami-san was called 'the cutest girl in class' by the boys.

Though, in her case, she could easily be the number one or two in the whole school.

Both her appearance and personality were almost perfect— That was why a lot of people flocked to her.

"Yuu, it's still early in the morning, while it's good that you're energetic at this hour, you need to turn down your volume a little bit, I could hear you from the hallway, you know? You don't want to be a nuisance to the other class, right?"

"Good morning, Umi! It's a beautiful morning today, isn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah, good morning. But that's the third time you greeted me like that this morning."

"Ehh, isn't it fine? You're my best friend after all~"

"Even best friends only need to greet each other once in the morning!"

"Boo, Umi is so cold!"

There were a lot of girls surrounding Amami-san, among them, a girl with a cool look caught my eyes. She was the one who had been having a friendly conversation with Amami-san for a while now.

Her name was Asanagi Umi, also known as 'the class' second cutest girl'.

"Okay, homeroom is about to begin! Everyone, take your seats quickly! Amami-san, that isn't your seat!"

The bell rang as our homeroom teacher entered the classroom. This was the signal for the whole class to return to their seats.

"Uee~ Umi~!"

"Yes, yes, I'll spoil you more later, okay? For now, just hang in there, Yuu-chan."

"What am I, a dog?!"

When Asanagi-san teased Amami-san like that, everyone burst into laughter.

This was the usual morning scene that unfolded every day in our class.

"Okay, I'll take your attendance… Number one, Asanagi-san."

"Here."

"Number two, Amami-san."

"I'm here!"

She was still on the way to her seat as she cheerfully raised her hand when her name got called.

While the eyes of almost everyone in the class were focused on Amami-san, she was like the class' mascot at this point, there were two pairs of eyes that were focusing on something else.

Good morning.

…Mm.

While the whole class was focused on Amami-san, Asanagi-san turned her gaze toward me, who was seated a bit further away from her seat and secretly waved her hand to greet me.

"Huh? Did Asanagi-san just look over here?"

"…It's probably just your imagination."

While deceiving Ooyama-kun, I secretly pulled out my phone from my pocket.

(Asanagi-san): Hey, Maehara, can I come over after school this Friday? 

If I were to say something about our relationship, whether we were 'mere classmates' or 'friends' based on the standard I stated earlier…

Asanagi Umi.

She was 'the class' second prettiest girl' and also the first person I could consider a 'friend.'