Chapter 1: Youth Shining Like Early Summer
Chapter 1: Youth Shining Like Early Summer
The cicadas of June were singing, and clouds drifted outside the window.
Reflected in the glass was a handsome yet bored face.
Distinct, clean-cut features.
Yet this boy, at the very peak of youth, seemed to carry an untimely lifelessness.
He tugged at the collar of his white shirt, trying to dispel the oppressive summer heat lingering in the season.
“So hot.”
When the dismissal bell finally rang, this second-year high school classroom immediately became noisy, even bustling with voices.
But at that moment,
“Y, Yatsuno-san!”
The nervous voice made the lazy young man turn around.
Yatsuno Gen saw a petite, round-faced, adorable girl standing before him nervously, holding a letter in her hands.
Her flushed cheeks and trembling eyelashes all revealed just how nervous she was.
“And you are?”
Yatsuno Gen asked softly.
The noisy classroom quieted slightly because of the girl’s sudden appearance, and many gazes turned toward them. Yatsuno Gen did not add any further pressure on her.
“I, I’m Kato Mishin from Class Four next door! You probably don’t know me, but... but I’ve been paying attention to you for a long time. T, this is how I feel. Please accept it...”
Her voice grew softer and softer toward the end.
Kato Mishin had already begun to feel the stares and whispers from the surrounding spectators.
Yatsuno Gen glanced around. Most of those looks were teasing or encouraging. It was hard to call them kind or malicious. Watching a spectacle was simply human nature.
So he stood up and accepted the letter from her with both hands.
Then he said gently, “Thank you for your feelings. However, I’m not considering that kind of thing for now...”
“I know! I know Yatsuno-san wouldn’t like a girl like me, but I’m transferring schools tomorrow and returning to my hometown. I just don’t want my feelings to become a regret. I wanted to convey them to you properly, at least... at least leave a tiny bit of memory in Yatsuno-san’s heart... even a tiny bit is enough!”
The girl courageously raised her head and met the slightly surprised gaze of the young man.
She truly was brave.
But the price of that bravery was the redness slowly appearing in her eyes.
Yatsuno Gen put away the laziness on his face, and his smile became like a refreshing breeze.
“Mm. I understand. Kato-san, I wish you a smooth journey and a bright future.”
“Thank you...”
Within the girl’s rosy eyes were gratitude alongside her reluctance to part.
She turned around lightly and quickly left the classroom.
Yatsuno Gen knew that, very soon, she would become like most of the passersby one met in life, someone he would never have the chance to see again.
Who knew how many years later he might suddenly remember this moment?
He picked up his school bag.
“Yatsuno-kun is really gentle.”
A classmate remarked with emotion.
Yatsuno Gen smiled without replying and walked toward the classroom door.
“You really are popular, aren’t you?”
Just as he reached the doorway, a slightly dissatisfied voice appeared.
Turning his head, he saw a graceful figure outside. She seemed to have deliberately waited until he left the classroom before matching his pace.
At roughly 1.7 metres tall (~5 ft 7 in), she was already considered tall among her peers, especially in Japan.
Combined with her bright temperament and exquisite features, she was all the more striking.
Not to mention those long legs wrapped in black thigh-high socks. They made people feel that even if she had just run a thousand metres, her shoes would still smell pleasant after taking them off.
“Really? Is Kazama-san jealous?”
The young man smiled.
The radiant girl wrinkled her nose and proudly flicked her long hair behind her head.
“I’m popular too, okay? Heaven knows how many boys I have to reject every day. The letters in my shoe locker alone could fill an entire rubbish bin.”
“So you throw away the feelings people worked up the courage to express? That’s pretty nasty.”
Kazama Sakura gave a light snort.
“That’s still better than your hypocritical act just now. Just because someone likes me doesn’t mean I have to accept them. I’m not responsible for other people’s feelings. That’s not my obligation.”
The two walked through the long corridor and descended the spiral staircase.
Their footsteps beneath the setting sun unconsciously fell into the same rhythm.
Yatsuno Gen seemed not to notice that the girl beside him kept secretly glancing at his profile, his jawline, and the exposed part of his open collar.
He always wore a smile that seemed gentle, yet was actually distant.
“What’s wrong with hypocrisy? Taking every feeling seriously may indeed be exhausting, but when sincere feelings are brushed aside, it’s really pitiful.”
“Like that girl just now? Were you being so gentle because you felt sorry for her?”
“That’s a rather arrogant thing to say. I just hope she won’t lose the courage to express love in the future.”
“If one day you confess to someone yourself, you’ll know how useless that hypocrisy is.”
Kazama Sakura clearly scoffed at his reasoning.
As they stepped down the final staircase of Building One, the western sky seemed to be burning. The orange sunlight falling upon the shoulder of Yatsuno Gen’s white shirt looked remarkably beautiful.
It made her want to take a photograph and preserve the memory.
Yet at that moment, Yatsuno Gen turned around and looked at her.
“What if I were confessing to Kazama-san?”
“To me...? W, w, w, what kind of joke is that?! You...”
“Don’t be nervous.”
Seeing the girl’s face instantly turn red, the blush almost climbing to her ears, Yatsuno Gen waved his hand.
“I’m Yatsuno Gen, a man who never confesses first. What you’re worried about won’t happen. Though if Kazama-san were to express intense affection for me, I might be a little troubled.”
“Who would confess to you?! Stop being so full of yourself!”
“Really? I thought you were so focused on that girl’s confession because you were jealous. Apparently not. What a disappointment.”
Then at least look disappointed!
Looking at his face as he turned away again, the corners of his lips clearly curled upward. Kazama Sakura wanted to kick him to death.
My reaction just now seemed a little excessive...
The girl felt a little regretful.
“It’s not jealousy. Besides, what do you mean you’ve never confessed first? What about Asagiri Rin? Doesn’t everyone know you like her? Stop trying to distract me.”
The two stopped at the school gate.
A luxurious car was openly parked by the roadside.
A princess-like girl elegantly handed her school bag to her female driver.
Her long hair and nearly perfect figure were so breathtaking that even a glimpse of her profile could be placed in the world’s finest art museum as its crown jewel.
Kazama Sakura’s gaze was now fixed firmly in that direction.
Part of her hoped the girl would turn around.
Turn around and see that she and he were standing together.
Yet part of her was worried and afraid.
Because when an ugly duckling was seen by a true swan, its true form would be exposed.
In the end, the girl never turned around.
She got into the black car and drove away, leaving dust behind.
“I’ve never liked her. Do you believe me?”
Hearing the young man’s voice beside her, Kazama Sakura looked over strangely.
“Is there any boy who wouldn’t like her? She’s so beautiful, her temperament is amazing, and even her family background...”
“Oh, in that case, it sounds like I should like her.”
“You!”
People were like that.
They always wanted to confirm their worst suspicions, and once they were confirmed, they became furious.
But very quickly she saw the teasing smile on the boy’s face.
“If I don’t like her, then I don’t like her. Since when is there such a thing as should? Besides, compared to her, I actually think Kazama-san is very pretty. You have a good personality, you’re well-behaved, and you don’t suffer from princess syndrome. You’re the real swan.”
I’m a swan?
Her cheeks reddened slightly, and her eyes seemed to glisten.
“Then what does that make her?”
“A black-feathered chicken.”
Pfft.
“How can you say that about her? If she heard it, she’d be furious.”
“Why would I care whether she’s furious? I only know that saying it will make Kazama-san a little happier.”
So he said that just to cheer me up?
What a smooth-talking scoundrel.
She gave a light snort.
“I wouldn’t be happy just because you complimented me... By the way, want to go eat a parfait together?”
She tried hard to suppress the upward curve of her lips, to the point that her expression looked almost twitchy.
The tall young man, who always stood lazily without ever looking sloppy, said,
“No. I need to work and earn money.”
“Work? You know the school doesn’t allow part-time jobs, right?”
“So Kazama-san is going to tell the teachers and have me disciplined or even expelled, forcing me to leave this school that has Kazama Sakura in it?”
“You!”
Kazama Sakura felt this person was utterly terrible.
Especially that personality of his that was clever at times and deliberately dense at others.
She gritted her teeth.
“If you’re really short on money, I can lend you some.”
But the young man had already started walking away.
“I don’t have any plans to live off a woman for now. If I truly run out of options, I’ll consider it.”
“Then starve to death, you jerk!”
“It doesn’t matter if I’m a jerk, but Kazama-san, please stay this adorable forever. Goodbye~”
The young man’s wave seemed to drift at the horizon, at the end of the earth, between the fingers covering her blushing face.
Only after he completely disappeared could she lower her hands and let the redness fade from her cheeks.
There was an indescribable joy in her heart.
As if, at some unknown moment, a little deer had begun living inside her chest. Whenever she was with him, that little deer would rub against her heart, causing her to repeatedly lose her composure.
She probably understood what was happening.
But it seemed hopeless.
She took out her phone, opened the camera, and looked at her delicate, smooth face.
“Am I really cuter than her?”
“He’s definitely lying.”
“But he said he doesn’t like her, so how did those rumours start?”
”Sigh. I really don’t want to go home.”
The girl, who was far from carefree, walked home beneath the setting sun.
About thirty minutes later.
The young man who had said he was going to work.
His shoulders sank, his hands pushed forward.
Smack!
“Ron. Thirteen Orphans. Thirty-two thousand points.”