Chapter 10: Uncomfortable.

The entrance ceremony happened without a hitch. Shocker.

One small thing bothered me through the whole thing, though: someone stared daggers from somewhere else. Since I’d become sensitive to people’s stares, I dismissed it as being just my mind playing tricks at first. However, it persisted, and whenever I’d turn around, that feeling would just poof into thin air.

Yup, I was probably being watched.

There are only two souls I know here. One is Soga, who’s right in front of me, and Momiji. I glanced back only to have our eyes meet, and she waved with a tinge of modesty. I pretended not to see and looked back at the podium, cutting off these suspicious thoughts.

I mean, it was probably just Momiji trying to look at me or something. Maybe a stranger looking at my general direction with dead-bored eyes. Even if I think it over a thousand more times, I won’t be able to find the answer. That’s that.

I’ll just pay attention to the teacher.

“As depicted in the booklet, the school has a cafeteria and a store. The diagrams alone should be enough to give you an idea, but after homeroom today, all you’ll have to do is go home, so take your time and get used to the school. Have a look around.”

All the students, including myself, looked at the booklet that had just been handed out. It wasn’t terribly thick, but it contained a handful of useful info and some maps to boot.

“As some of you may know, everyone here will be asked to join a club. The booklet contains a list of active groups, so you can check those you are interested in and visit during the observation period, which starts next week,” the teacher paused. “You can look around today, but some clubs just aren’t always active, so even if you do, they might not give you a good tour due to being occupied. You have until the end of April at most to decide which club you’ll join.”

My eyes wandered for a bit, and only a few students were surprised by the club activities being obligatory. Was it only me in my feeble-mindedness? Oh, but there’s, fortunately, an observation period, so I’ll be sure to check out what kind of groups are available. Depending on where I land, my school life will change greatly.

“Any questions…? Oh well, that’s all I have to say for now. Some of you may not have lost that holiday feeling yet, but I hope you’ll get right back into the rhythm in these next few days and enjoy the school life ahead of you. That is all.”

As soon as the teacher stepped out, Soga turned to me.

“Back with that girl, you said you haven’t decided on joining any clubs yet. Would you wanna try judo?”

“Eh, I’m not sure about that one. I’m thinking the Culture Club might suit me best.”

“I see. Well, I did judo in middle school, and one of my seniors is here. He invited me to meet his club, so I’m going right now. See you on Monday, bro!”

“Mkay, see ya.”

Judo, huh? No wonder you’re so big. Well, in my case, since I don’t have anywhere I wanna go, I might as well just walk home.

“Yuu~! Come home with me~!”

“Sorry, I was thinking of looking around school right about now. You should just go home first.”

“Who are you going with?”

F*ck, I’ve done goofed.

“Uh… alone.”

“Then let’s walk around together!”

“…Fine.”

After my quick-thinking did the talk, I realized this meant we’d eventually go home together after some time of touring. My dumba*s brought me to the worst solution.

One thing though. Aren’t you a bit more aggressive now that we’re in high school, Momiji? I asked no one in particular. We stopped being together in general after that whole incident in middle school, but with the way she’s acting, we might start walking together again…

Well, I know it’s also the fault of my lukewarm responses…

“I was just going to the diner and concession stand, that’s all I’m gonna do. Unless you leave to go somewhere else, that’s the only place I’ll go to.”

“Welp, I read in the booklet there’s the ‘Resting Place’ there! I wanna go!”

Sure, that place exists. Ugh.

“Righty, let’s go to these places and then we’ll go home, yeah?”

“Okay!”

We left the classroom… together.

I hate this obligatory club thing, but I know it happens in some schools. Just pure BS, I tell you.

Also, poor protag. Can’t catch a break lmao.