Volume 1 - CH 1.2

Turning back time slightly to just around two weeks ago.

Like in the present, Kuya had had a very troublesome living circumstance.

He was living in a place away from his parents.

It wasn’t because of anything like his parents had gone on a business trip overseas, much less it was meant to be a roundabout saying that his parents had passed away.

It was because his parents had been worried about his elderly grandmother who had been living alone after losing her husband a few years ago.

As a result, Kuya had had to move to a partially developed town, which neither could be called a city nor a rural area, where his maternal grandmother, Kurei Koyori, lived.

So of course, right now he was living together with his grandmother—not.

To make matters worse, his grandmother lived in her own house, and Kuya lived in a former cafe nearby that she used to run.

If it were to be said that he was living alone in that case, that was not the case either.

He would have his meals at his grandmother’s house, so he couldn’t possibly be called to be living alone.

Such a living circumstance that would take time to explain relative to having only a slight difference from the ordinary was the living circumstance that Kuya was in.

Anyhow, Kuya, who had moved for this reason, was of course attending high school, and not just a middle school graduate.

Toukakan Private Academy High School Division.

As indicated by the antique-looking school building built with red bricks, it was a venerable academy.

A school for daughters and sons of the upper class, promising to provide them with an opportunity where they could cultivate and improve themselves in nature, removed from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Though, such a thing was a story of the past.

Unable to fight against the declining birth rate, the school had opened its door wide. It was now a very ordinary school with the exception of its remote location, but… the elegance of its old days still remained, and it wasn’t impossible also to spot a daughter or son from a well-off family.

“Though after all said and done, my opinion is that it’s a remote and isolated institute. In the first place, it’s about why my grandmother is among the graduates of a school that had catered to the upper class.” It was Kuya lying slouched over his desk who had voiced out his assessment in a not serious manner.

It was in the period just after moving up to the next grade. And since it was before the start of homeroom as well, the surroundings were busy with all kinds of things like students trying to talk to an old friend or make a new friend, but Kuya didn’t care about such a thing.

“So, doesn’t that mean that your grandma is upper class, Ku-chan?” It was Narasaki Koyo who had replied so.

Like the saying that names and natures do often agree, he was a boy with red hair.

Furthermore, he was wearing his uniform untidily, and his necktie was crudely tied as well. He was the very picture of a delinquent, but… he was not one.

Far from it, he was a good natured one instead.

He just liked that kind of style.

Kuya knew that well.

After all, Kuya had known him for a long time.

They had gone to the same middle school, joined the same club as well, and for some reason or other, ended up in the same high school even though it was in a remote place. To add further, they were still in the same class after moving up to the next grade. It was an unimaginable, inseparable relationship.

If they had known each other for that long, that much was understandable whether one liked it or not.

“C’mon, Ko-chan. That’ll mean that I’m also upper class.” Kuya raised his face and said to his inseparable friend who liked delinquent fashion. “Now then, with that into account, can you say it once again?”

“Right… Man, I’ve known you for long enough already, but I’ve never met your grandma.”

“You’ll probably get to see her at my funeral. Whether it’s due to an accident or old age, the chief mourner’s surely gotta be my grandma.”

Kuya sighed at his friend who wasn’t able to say that Kuya was upper class even as a lie—no, Kuya sighed at the future scene that was partly meant as a joke.

In the very first place, Kuya was here because his parents had been worried about his grandmother, who had lost her husband and also closed the cafe she had been running up to that time, that she might be depressed.

But despite all that, Koyori was still hale and hearty.

She was so lively that he thought she might be contracting some kind of a bad disease.

At this rate, she would probably be alive and kicking for another hundred years.

“Well in addition to that, I wonder what she’s thinking…”

Kuya glanced at the seat next to him while remembering his elderly grandmother’s roaring laughter.

No one was sitting there.

Not that the person was somewhere else having a chat, it was simply vacant.

“Speaking of which, seems like there’s a transfer student. I think it’s a weird timing though, like it’s the day after the opening ceremony.” Koyo spoke, as he probably picked up on Kuya’s gaze. 

“…It took time to verify the documents,” Kuya murmured to him, with half-opened eyes. “It’s not something an elderly would do, and it’s only natural for the authorities to be suspicious, but I wonder if they couldn’t be more efficient…”

“Nn?”

“Don’t mind it. If possible, I hope you’ll try to not mind it from now on, too.”

“Nnnn?” Koyo tilted his head at Kuya who had spoken about a circumstances-filled matter on top of having a know-it-all airs.

Just like Kuya understood Koyo’s nature, Koyo also understood Kuya’s nature to a certain extent.

In other words, he knew that Karasu Kuya was misanthropic.

To be precise, Koyo knew that Kuya extremely disliked being pried into about this and that, and being asked inquisitively.

Though… it was weird that he wanted Koyo to not mind it.

As long as Kuya wasn’t involved with the transfer student, his words were weird.

“Even so, you’re not gonna open your mouth if I press you with a question anyway…”

“It’s totally like you said.” Kuya deeply nodded to Koyo’s involuntary grumble. And then while at it, he added, “Having said that, don’t try to ask the other party, too. That is one misanthropic stray cat. Try anything funny, you’ll get scratched.”