Chapter 3: Not So Fast

After everything that happened on Saturday and a day’s break on Sunday, Monday arrived. As usual, I made my way to school.

There wasn’t much to do even if I arrived early, but I’d rather not leave at the last minute and end up rushing, so I reached the classroom about ten minutes before the warning bell.

By this time, about two-thirds of my classmates had already arrived, and several groups were chatting away, making the classroom as noisy as ever.

But today, the atmosphere felt slightly different.

Conversations were flying around, so it was loud—but it was more like a restless buzz, if that made sense.

Hard to put into words, but the mood was just… off.

My seat was in the ideal spot—the very back by the window. On my way there, it would’ve been easy to casually ask someone, "Did something happen?" but unfortunately, I wasn’t on those kinds of terms with anyone.

Unable to pinpoint the source of the weird vibe, I reached my seat and idly scanned the room, eavesdropping on nearby conversations.

Then, my gaze landed on the two most striking girls in class.

Kotobuki Hikari and Kotobuki Yuzuki.

A pair of twins—a rarity in this world. Well, maybe not that rare, but still.

Hikari had wavy, chestnut-brown semi-long hair, a slender build, and the athletic look of someone good at P.E.

Yuzuki, on the other hand, was the picture of a Yamato Nadeshiko with her straight, jet-black long hair. Her model-like figure had all the right curves, and she gave off serious, studious vibes.

I didn’t interact with them much, so I had no idea who was the older sister and who was the younger. But from how they usually acted around friends, I could guess—Hikari was the outgoing one, while Yuzuki was quiet and composed.

"What’s everyone talking about?"

A black-haired girl who had just arrived joined her group and effortlessly asked the question I couldn’t. Since they were clustered nearby, I tuned in to their conversation.

"This. You seen it?"

A blonde girl held up her phone to show the black-haired girl. Hey, what’re you showing her? I can’t tell if you don’t say anything.

"Oh, yeah, I’ve seen it. It popped up in my feed too."

Popped up?

Were they talking about a river or something?

"We were just saying, isn’t this our uniform?"

"Oh, right! I thought so too. But I don’t know who this is."

"Well, we don’t even know what grade they’re in. Might find them if we search the whole school."

They were clearly hyped up, but I still couldn’t figure out what they were talking about. I tried eavesdropping on other groups, but the important details had already been discussed, leaving me with no answers.

I let out a frustrated grunt, unsure what to do—when someone called out to me.

"You’ve got a real dumb look on your face first thing in the morning."

Only one person would go out of their way to say something that rude this early. I didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was, but I glared back anyway—returning the morning insult in kind.

"You might look slightly less pathetic if you took off those glasses."

The speaker was Hibino Sumomo, her short white hair and languid voice unmistakable.

My one and only friend in this school.

"Not your concern."

"While you’re at it, if you styled your hair a little, you might actually look halfway decent."

"Here, look," she said, shoving her phone in my face. The moment I saw what was on the screen, my eyes widened in spite of myself.

A familiar scene played out. The video she showed me was a clip from that incident on Saturday—the one I’d stuck my neck into.

"This is you, Kirishima, right?"

Hibino had taken the empty seat in front of me, her voice slightly raised. She seemed… amused.

"No way. That’s obviously not me. I don’t wear contacts, and I don’t style my hair."

"So, if you took off your glasses and fixed your hair, this is what you’d look like?"

"……"

Apparently, in Hibino’s mind, this was a rock-solid conclusion. No amount of dodging would change that.

"That said, most people wouldn’t recognize you unless they actually paid attention to your face. I was surprised you’d do something so out of character, though."

"……Someone collapsed right in front of me. Not exactly the time to stand around debating."

Seems like someone in the crowd had filmed the whole thing. If they had time for that, they could’ve at least helped. But complaining now wouldn’t change anything.

The bigger issue was that this video was circulating. And it was the topic in class right now.

"You should just come forward. You’d be the talk of the school."

"You saying that knowing full well I hate attention?"

"Obviously."

She grinned without hesitation. I shot her a half-lidded glare, but she didn’t even blink.

"Besides, the ones you helped were the Kotobuki sisters. Any guy would kill to be in your shoes. I wonder what kinds of thanks they’d give you~"

"Why is it automatically something erotic…?"

I fired back at her nonsense while sneaking a glance at the Kotobuki sisters.

The dream girls of every guy in school, huh?

With looks like theirs, I guess that made sense. Every guy had probably fantasized about some rom-com scenario with them at least once.

Hell, even a realist like me had.

"Hirano-san, do you know who this is?"

Kotobuki Hikari was asking a classmate. "This person" had to be referring to the guy in the video—me.

But Hirano just shook her head. Hikari slumped her shoulders. "Yeah, figured…"

A couple seats over, Kotobuki Yuzuki was asking someone else.

"Nonoka. You don’t know him, right?"

"Hmm… If he were that hot, I’d remember. So nope."

Yuzuki sighed at Nonoka’s response.

If I stepped forward now and said, "Yeah, that’s me," like Hibino suggested, maybe I would get some kind of thanks.

Or, who knows? Maybe that rom-com fantasy would start playing out.

But.

Doing that would mean standing out. With this much buzz, coming forward would guarantee endless questions.

It’d been six months since enrollment.

I’d grown comfortable in this role—the kind of guy who blended into the background, unnoticed.

I didn’t want to lose that.

Besides, I didn’t help them for a reward. It’d be better if it just stayed some anonymous good deed. Probably. Maybe. Who knows?

Ideally, this whole thing would blow over in a few days, my involvement fading into obscurity.

Unfortunately, my prayers went unanswered.