Sasaki And Miyano: First Year Students

Translator: humu

POV: Miyano

The front row seats were arranged in alphabetical order. I was in the “M” row, so my self-introduction was at the end.

I pondered over what I should say. They told me to say the things I like and what appeals to me. But I was kinda bad at this sort of thing.

“My name is Kuresawa Tasuku. I came to this school to join the astronomy club. By the way, I have a girlfriend. I’m looking forward to working with you all.”

The whole classroom was buzzing with excitement.

While most self-introductions on the day after the entrance ceremony were mainly on safe topics, his speech had attracted quite a bit of attention.

――The astronomy club. Hm, come to think of it, this school had one.

Romantic motifs popped into my head, and I was a little impressed with him.

My reasons for applying to this school were pretty vague: It was an easy commute from home and it was an all boys’ school with a wide range of career choices. While my dreams for the future were still unclear, I wanted to keep a wide range of possibilities for where I could go in the future.

That showed that all of my classmates here might have entered this school with different motives, just like his speech just now.

This was the moment when I, Yoshikazu Miyano, first met Kuresawa.

But after that, without being in any particular contact with him, I was living a reasonably fulfilling life, belonging to the disciplinary committee and the literature club.

Until that day, I had thought that Kuresawa and I would spend a year together as mere classmates―― I thought that was how far our friendship would go.

***1

ーThey are after me!

ーIt’s only after school, not long after the final exam of the semester, and I’m being chased. Are you serious?

I moved to a place where I could hide at the back of the school building in the south wing, away from where the disturbance was taking place. I entered the school building while keeping an eye on what was going on outside.

Although I was being chased, I was actually fleeing with my classmate Kuresawa, who was being targeted by a group of people―― I have no idea why he was attacked.

All I knew was that I had chanced upon Kuresawa, who was next to me now, on my patrol shift and he was severely beaten up.

The infirmary is over at……. Calm down. I have to be the calm and composed one. Kuresawa’s injured.

This was the first time I have actually seen the sheer brutality of a person punching and kicking another.

There was a much heavier malice present than I had imagined or seen in my books.

I couldn’t believe that someone could keep their calm in this sort of situation.

Facing an assault with no one to stop him2 made me realize that using reason and common sense were not enough to help. I was so overwhelmed by the situation that I felt helpless as a deterrent.

I wondered if the person who came to my rescue was okay. He just happened to be there, but he did much more for Kuresawa than I did, because I was too flustered to do anything but call for help.

I called Hirano-senpai, a member of the disciplinary committee, for help before he intervened. It’s not like no one would ever find us and we would be left for dead, but I was scared.

The aftermath of the confusion still lingered with violent palpitations. Even breathing was somewhat labored with the wild throbbing of my heart.

“Excuse me, sir――”

“Come on, come in.”

I knocked on the door of the nurse’s office, which I finally reached. I was relieved to find that there was a response. The nurse’s voice was professional but soft.

I knew that I had to explain. But I couldn’t find my voice.

Even though I hadn’t confronted that hoodlum directly, my body couldn’t seem to get over the frozen tension and shock of facing school violence in such a close proximity.

I couldn’t seem to shake it off.

It hadn’t been long since the owner of the weight on my right shoulder, Kuresawa, was beaten up by several people. I wondered if I could convey the situation properly.

However, my worry was short-lived, as the nurse turned to look at me and his expression changed with a glance.

“Hey, what happened to you? What’s with the injuries?”

“He was beaten up by a group of people.”

“……Okay we’ll first get you cleaned and patched up. Can you tell me your name and class?”

“Okay.”

I was worried that he would not be able to lie down on the bed, but Kuresawa sat on the chair and looked steady as he answered the questions of the nurse. The reddish-black swollen cheeks and the distorted frame of his glasses looked so painful.

His posture was a bit hunched over, probably because he was protecting his abdomen.

I hardly had a chance to talk to him before, but I still remembered his cool profile and his good posture as he used his cell phone.

Without even looking at the nurse, I watched from his back as he pulled up his knitted sweater and shirt when the doctor said, “Show me your belly.”

I was sure it was nothing serious from the look of the nurse’s face, but the memory of him being rolled around like that chilled me to the core.

I was certain that he would be fine.

~

A well-proportioned body would be someone like that.

He was a well-built senior with an impressive broad back―― He was so cool.

The calmness in his keen eyes eased our anxiety, but it pained me to leave him there, leaving the rest to him.

Even though I was trying to get Kuresawa out of there, I left the broom and trash bag that he entrusted to me propped up against the wall.

I wonder what’s going on now. I hope he’s not hurt. When I started to worry about it, I couldn’t stand still.

I hurriedly opened my phone to find an incoming text message from Hirano-senpai.

‘I got to the scene, but they had fled. Are you safe there?’

I looked at the time and saw that it had already been five minutes since I received the text. I had to hurry up and reply to it.

‘We’re fine, I’m in the infirmary.’

After I finished sending the message in a rush, I almost gasped out loud.

Even though my thoughts were a confused heap of mess, I had forgotten something important.

‘If he’s still there, please tell him: Thank you for saving me.’

The reply arrived in no time.

‘I’ve told him. That’s my classmate. He’s safe too. I’m in the discipline room3, reporting to the teachers. Can you come over here with the injured student so I can get more information?’

Somehow, I felt that the tone of the message was softer than Hirano-senpai’s usual tone.

From the contents of this message, it seemed that they would treat it as an important and serious matter. I’m glad.

I’m afraid of retaliation if they just let it go. It might have been a 2D fictional or even a BL influenced thought, but it was a serious school violation. Heaving a sigh of relief, I put my phone away in my pocket.

“You’ve saved me, thank you.”

I lifted my head up when I suddenly heard a voice speaking to me. I saw Kuresawa’s face turning in my direction.

“Hey I’m still treating you! Look at me!”

“Yes.”

In response to the immediate reprimand, he looked forward without revealing any expression of cowardice. By the way, even when he was beaten up, he didn’t look down. He looked up.

“Thank you, Miyano.”

“Ah, yeah…… No, I didn’t… It was someone else who came in to help.”

I didn’t get the name of the senior who said he was a classmate of Hirano-senpai, so it was frustrating that I could only say something vague. After all, I couldn’t be of much help.

“No, I couldn’t walk because my stomach hurt and thanks for lending me your shoulder. I wonder if that guy is okay. I’ll have to thank him later.”

“Yeah. I just got a message from a senior member of the committee and he said he was okay. The other party seems to have ran somewhere though.”

I had no idea who these delinquents were because I’ve never seen their faces directly and that suddenly made me feel uneasy. 

I’m sure Kuresawa could testify, but would he be able to find him in a school with this many students? If one didn’t interact with each other through club activities or committees, even the faces of the neighboring classes were blurry.

“I see. I’m glad to hear that. Where’s the senior now?”

“He called the teachers and said he was in the discipline room. They want to know what’s going on and who his accomplices are. Can you come with me? They want to talk to you, too.”

Kuresawa slowly stood up, waiting for the doctor who had finished treating him to write down the record.

“All right.”

“How’s your wounds? Are you okay?”

I didn’t stare at it, but it was quite painful to see how carefully it was being treated.

“Yeah, well I can walk.…… It feels weird to be called ‘-kun’, so I’d like you to use my last name.”

“Eh, mm, Kuresawa.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you, Miyano.”

It took only a few minutes for the advisor and Hirano-senpai to interview Kuresawa and I.

Kuresawa refused the offer from the school to take him to the hospital, saying that he would call his parents and go by himself.

He said he could walk, so there should be no problem, but was he really okay?

“Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

“Have a safe trip home.”

In consideration of Kuresawa’s injury, the investigation was postponed until tomorrow. The homeroom teacher would also be involved in the investigation.

I wouldn’t be there tomorrow, partly because Kuresawa had been evasive about the cause of the violence.

It might be tough to voice it out. No one would be willing to delve into the details of the cause of the incident that triggered the beating―― It all happened because they were spouting unpleasant remarks that were painful to the ears.

After this, Hirano-senpai and the others had a meeting with the nurse who treated him, so they were on a very tight schedule. I felt that he was a senior I could rely on.

As far as the seniors were concerned, the incident of violence in school seemed to be rather irregular and it was perhaps beyond the control of the school disciplinary committee. The problem was that they hadn’t been able to identify the other party yet.

At any rate, neither I nor Kuresawa were acquainted with the other. We didn’t even know what grade they were.

Kuresawa, who was at close range, had his glasses damaged in the process. Due to his poor vision, he couldn’t even see their faces clearly.

The person who testified that the perpetrator was probably a first-year student was a senior named Sasaki who had come to help us. He seemed to be on his way to the infirmary at the same time as we were, so we couldn’t thank him in person.

I knew he was injured.

“I’ll go get our shoes. Kuresawa, wait for me at the entrance.”

Kuresawa shook his head at my words.

However, the action seemed to have an effect on him, as he held his neck in pain. I didn’t want him to push himself too hard.

“……No, it’s fine. I don’t want you to do that much for me.”

“It’s nothing heavy, so it’s okay.”

I forced a hesitant Kuresawa to wait for me at the entrance and then returned to the classroom to collect our things and shoes.

When I went back, the sparse number of students who had remained in the classroom had dwindled and the space was now empty.

It was just an hour later than the usual school dismissal time. Yet, the school building looked very different.

The assault might have been brief, since the duration it took for us to return had included medical attention and interviews. It happened during the closing of the short homeroom period and after-school cleaning time.

It was as if I had been having a bad dream.

“Thank you. Thanks for helping. Anybody back in the classroom?”

I guess what Kuresawa was concerned about was the classroom key. Normally, the person on duty for the day would be the last one to lock the door and return the key to the staff room. I just remembered that.

As I handed over his bag, I took another good look at Kuresawa’s entire body. The bruises on his face still looked painful.

“Yeah. Tashiro was still in the classroom, so I asked him to lock the door.”

Tashiro was one of my classmates and he was a cheerful mood maker. Whenever there was a lively topic in the classroom, he was usually at the center of the conversation.

He laughed a lot, had a lot of fun, and always seemed to be enjoying himself.

“You made a bad mistake.”

“He asked me if something had happened, so I told him that Kuresawa had been beaten and hurt. He was worried.”

Tashiro, who was surprisingly observant of others, could not have failed to notice that something was wrong when I tried to take home shoes for two people, including those of Kuresawa, whom I had not been particularly close to.

I told him not to say anything because we were still under the investigation of the disciplinary office. But I told him briefly about the situation. I was sure Tashiro would take into consideration the fact that I claimed that Kuresawa had been hit, so he wouldn’t make a ruckus.

It seemed painful to bend down, so he struggled to change his shoes.

“You’re always on your phone during breaks, aren’t you?”

“Oh yeah, my girlfriend.”

“Ohh, you have a girlfriend?”

I see.

Back on the day after the entrance ceremony, I suddenly remembered what he had said in his self-introduction. My first impression of him, which had been relegated to the corner of my memory, overlapped with the actual image of him in front of me.

Kuresawa was an intelligent man with black-rimmed glasses and was a passionate boyfriend who kept in touch with his girlfriend frequently. I see.

“You look surprised.”

“No, I don’t feel so but…… you’ve been in touch with her a lot, haven’t you?”

If anything, I had a strong predisposition for gap moe―― I couldn’t really say that out loud though.

“Am I? It’s fun to just talk to a girl you like, even if it’s not face to face.”

“Eh……”

We’re not in that situation right now. I know that, but I couldn’t help but feel my cheeks relax at the line that sounded similar to what a seme would say in a pure love story I just read yesterday.

“…… What are you smirking about? Miyano.”

“No? Nothing at all! I just thought it would be nice to have a little fun.”