CH 51

It was nearing the end of lunch break when I returned to the classroom. I couldn’t afford to attract attention, so I quickly activated my only useful skill, stealth, and returned to my seat.

Just as I let out a sigh of relief, a shadow fell over me. When I looked up, I saw Shinozuka-san standing there. She had her usual cheerful smile and her brown hair was tied neatly in a ponytail. As she leaned forward, shaking her ponytail, she closed the distance between us.

“Where have you been?” she asked. “I didn’t see you around Minato-kun during lunch break.”

“Uh, well… that is…”

“Oh, if you don’t want to say that, that’s fine. I’m not the type to impose any restraints on people,” she said, tilting her head with a smile.

“Oh, okay,” I replied.

Shinozuka-san seemed to be revealing information I hadn’t asked for. I would have thought that someone who doesn’t impose restraints on others wouldn’t openly announce it… but I suppose it’s not worth thinking about too deeply.

Shinzuka-san raised an index finger with a mischievous smile.

“Well then, I actually have something to report to Minato-kun today,” she said.

“Report?”

“Yes. You see, I really love Minato-kun~♡”

“Wha… wh-what are you saying…”

After confessing to me yesterday, Shinzuka-san has done it again today. She had previously hinted at her feelings, but I never expected her to be this direct.

My eyes opened wide in shock and my mouth felt instantly dry.

After all, we are in the classroom during lunch break. Various conversations are being held in various places, but that doesn’t mean that anything can be said anywhere.

Naturally, it seemed to have reached the ears of the classmates around me,

“Ehhhh……?!”

For a while after that, our class was in a festive uproar.

“Ah… sorry, Minato-kun. I think I got the timing wrong… Hahaha”

“It’s not something to laugh about…”

With a worried smile, Shinozuka-san couldn’t do anything but sweat profusely.

☆☆☆☆☆☆

The last class on Monday was “Integrated Studies.”

In this class, we make decisions within the class and divide roles for events. When there is nothing special to do, it is free time called self-study.

Today, our class was supposed to change seats.

The way to decide on seat changes is extremely simple. It is decided by drawing lots.

Draw a lottery with numbers written from one to forty, and the place that hits is your seat. The first one is the frontmost window corner, and the fortieth is the last tail on the hallway side.

Normally, you just rely on luck and draw lots. Just pray to God that the back is better, but today was a little different.

My feelings towards seat changes are not the problem. The atmosphere in the class is.

In the latter part of lunch break, Shinozuka-san publicly conveyed her goodwill, and it instantly became a hot topic in our class. 

Originally, the interest that was supposed to be focused on seat changes was directed towards me and Shinozuka-san.

Girls seem to have an interest in romance-related topics, but boys are different.

Boys who glared at me as if they wanted to curse me to death after Shinozuka-san, the school’s number one beauty, confessed to me.

I knew that Shinozuka-san was popular with boys, but I didn’t know it was this high…

Well, I suppose it’s because I didn’t give a definite yes or no to Shinozuka-san’s confession that things got heated up.

Ah, just to be clear, I’m not keeping it, okay?

If I could, I wanted to steer the conversation towards rejecting the confession, but Shinozuka-san wouldn’t allow it. By telling the raging boys, “I’m appealing to them now. I’d be happy if you left me alone,” I couldn’t reject the confession.

This became quite a long preface, but anyway, it’s time when the seat changes begin.

One by one, we drew the chits from the box which was placed in front of the teacher’s desk. Sakuramiya-sensei was sitting in front of the teacher’s desk and was watching over the classroom to make sure there was no cheating. Well, there is no cheating in drawing lots, but still.

When it was my turn to fish for a lottery, Sakuramiya-sensei quietly whispered to me.

“Hey, is there something wrong with the atmosphere in the class? Did something happen?”

Although there are people waiting for their lottery in the back, Sakuramiya-sensei still talked to me without worrying about it. Everyone’s thoughts were absorbed by the incident of Shinozuka-san’s confession, so it should be okay.

“Well, various things happened.”

“Various things?”

“To put it succinctly, Shinozuka-san publicly confessed to me earlier.”

“What!?”

Sakuramiya-sensei frantically tried to cover her mouth, but it was of no use.

With the sudden loud outburst, Sakuramiya-sensei is getting a lot of attention, so I quickly returned to my seat and drew a lot.

When I check the number on the lot, it’s seven. It’s the last seat in the row by the window. To put it mildly, I hit the jackpot.

It’s the best luck I could ask for. As I secretly pumped my fist in triumph, I realized that Sakuramiya-sensei was looking at me with a worried expression.

I guess I shouldn’t have said anything in front of the other classmates… Sakuramiya-sensei is really flustered.

Well, I don’t think anyone would normally confess their feelings in front of the rest of the class, so I guess she’s just shocked by Shinozuka-san’s boldness.

As I re-examined the paper with the assigned seat number, lost in the afterglow of my amazing luck, someone tapped me on the shoulder. When I turned around, it was none other than Shinozuka-san.

“Which seat was it? Minato-kun.”

“Sorry, but I can’t show you this. If someone else finds out, it won’t work.”

“Nobody would steal a seat reassignment lot.”

“Well, this is something worth stealing.”

“Oh. So it’s seat number seven?”

“…”

“You need to try harder to hide it if you don’t want it to be obvious, Minato-kun.”

“I tried to put on a poker face, at least.”

“It’s not working at all. Your eyes are giving it away.”

She says this with a casual smile, lightly touching my shoulder as she does.

She looked at me with piercing eyes, then held out her right hand, on which she held her lot in which the number 35 was written on it.

Number 35 is the seat right in front of the corridor. It’s across from my seat.

“Now, here’s the question.”

“Oh, okay. That’s unexpected.”

“What’s the probability that Minato-kun and I will end up sitting next to each other?”

“What? Isn’t it 0%?”

Despite being called a question, it didn’t really seem like one. If Shinozuka-san were to draw a lot now, the result would already be decided.

“Well, normally you’d think that. People with bad eyesight might already have chosen their seats.”

“I’ll ask just in case, but what’s the correct answer?”

“100%.”

“No way, that’s not possible.”

“Look, I’m a professional when it comes to magic. I’ll show you the magic that turns this lot into number 14.”

She says this with a playful smile, waving the lot around in the air.

“Magic… can you really do stuff like that?”

“Well, yeah~♪”

As she placed her index finger on her lips, Shinozuka-san stood up and left her seat.

I watched her as she walked away, and in the corner of my vision I saw Sakuramiya-sensei, who is constantly releasing a dark aura as she sat on her chair in front of the teacher’s desk, glaring at me with hateful eyes.

Ah, um… it’s kind of uncomfortable to be looked at like that…

Since I’m in the classroom, there’s no point in trying to defend myself, and there’s nothing I can do about it.