Chapter 211 - That Time Of The Year

It was the start of a new month and, coincidentally; it was a Monday too. Winter was slowly creeping upon us as it was already 1st November and the mornings were getting quite chilly. It was quite refreshing as the window was open and a subtle breeze would pass by every now and then.

I was looking at my mobile as the name of Shiraishi was on top of my chat list. Last week, I finally got an opportunity to talk with her and realised that she was even crazier than I assumed her to be.

She was actively cheating on her boyfriend with several other dudes, and for some reason, all of that seemed normal to her. There was something wrong with her, or maybe it was as Shig said that commitment meant nothing to her.

If that was indeed the case, then capturing her will become relatively difficult because a heart that doesn't belong to anyone will never get tamed, no matter what might be done.

But it appeared as if she had taken an interest in me. Considering her, it might be a short-term attraction she was feeling for me, but the fact that a girl like her was attracted to me was weird and that gave rise to many questions in my mind.

Ever since I've got this contract and started capturing girls, for some reason it appears like my appeal for these particular girls is quite high because stirring someone's heart shouldn't be this easy in the first place.

The fact that each of them was interested in me was suspicious. I was starting to feel like I was the protagonist of one of those rom-coms. A girl like Naoto shouldn't have fallen for me, but somehow I was dating that girl. The only explanation that my human brain could think of at that time was that the contract was giving me some sort of charm to attract these girls in particular.

But all of that seemed quite far-fetched. Then again, my whole situation was unbelievable if I was to think from my human perspective.

Our homeroom started as Ms Tachibana entered the class with a soft smile on her, as usual. I could never understand how she even got the will to wake up every morning and come to teach a bunch of brats like us.

Now that I thought about it like that, it appears like I'm not really cut out for the job of a teacher.

She was holding a box in her hand, which she kept on the table, and her eyes shifted at us. We pretty much knew what was going to happen, since it wasn't the first time that was happening. It was that time of the year.

Since it was the first day of November, we were supposed to have a new seating arrangement. Last year, my seat was next to the window and Tsūmen's seat was next to me. Before that I used to sit at the back corner of the class because I didn't have many friends at the start.

A wave of chatter washed over the class and everyone started discussing and hoping that they would get seated near their friends. But it was completely dependent on our luck since we basically had to choose a strip of paper from the box that was placed on the teacher's table.

The system was quite simple and I doubt that any other class used to do this. Ms Tachibana believed that we should change seats once a year to get to know different people in the class and be friends with them. 

For an introvert like me, it was nothing but a pain in the ass. Though I knew most of the students in my class, I would rather not talk to them. I didn't hate them or anything, but the idea of socialisation just drains me.

Students from the right side of the class were already starting to walk up to the box and pick their paper strips from the box. Everyone was talking among themselves, and Ms Tachibana was watching over the class with a small smile on her face.

Her eyes were wandering around, from student to student. Her eyes suddenly shifted towards me, but I moved my eyes towards Tsūmen. It was weird to get stared down by a teacher. Tsūmen was sitting quietly, with his eyes staring at the whiteboard.

Not paying much attention to him, I looked towards Kizhashi as she was talking with her friends who appeared to be already holding their paper strips. She got up from her chair and headed towards the box to draw her number, too.

The box had 20 pairs of paper strips with numbers written on them and those who got a pair of numbers were to be seated together. It was quite a simple and effective method, as we couldn't even complain since it was, after all, our luck.

It was Tsūmen's turn and soon my turn came too as I walked up to the table and stared at the white box kept on it. I didn't really care who I was getting paired with because I won't be talking either way.

I looked up at Ms Tachibana as she was staring at me with a soft smile on her face. Not giving it any second thoughts, I inserted my hand into the box and picked up the first strip that I could get. The box was quite empty since my turn came towards the end.

"Try to be friends with others this time." She said. As I looked towards her, she had this unreadable smile on her face. I bowed to her and started walking back towards my desk.

Opening the paper, I noticed the number 8 written on it. I knew that I wouldn't be sitting next to Tsūmen this time as he got 15 on his paper. I put the paper in the pocket of my shirt and waited for the lottery to get over so that we could move over to our new places.