In the afternoon, B Building Art Classroom, during the consecutive art classes.
“Class! Today’s art lesson, we’ll be having it together with the Special Course students, okay?
Students from both classes can mingle and interact with each other!”
Art teacher Koizumi Seika stood at the podium, announcing today’s lesson plan to Class D of the regular course and Class A of the special course, both second-year students.
According to Teacher Koizumi, to foster better communication between students, today’s theme was “Portrait Exchange.”
The idea was to pair students up in twos, draw each other’s portraits, and then have them collectively graded.
Normally speaking, this should have been a completely ordinary daily lesson.
But Aoba Toshie happened to be a student in Class A of the second-year special course, which meant she shared the same class as Hiiragi Shuichi.
And Aoba Tomoyo…
“Let me introduce everyone!
This is… haha, I suppose an introduction isn’t necessary?
I’m sure you all know her!
She’s our student council president, Aoba Tomoyo!
She’ll be serving as a teaching assistant this period, offering suggestions on your artwork, and she’ll also be in charge of your overall evaluations, okay?
Let’s give her a round of applause~”
“Hello, everyone~”
“(A burst of enthusiastic applause)”
Hiiragi Shuichi stopped clapping his hands together and thought to himself:
‘Good thing she agreed to come…’
During lunch, just before the break ended, Hiiragi Shuichi had asked Aoba Tomoyo about her schedule for the afternoon.
Fortunately, just as he’d expected, she had no plans.
The special course and regular course had different educational philosophies.
The special course often didn’t schedule afternoon classes, leaving that time open for students to study independently, pursue their own research projects, or participate in club activities and student council work.
It was fair to say that the special course’s education was elite education.
Hiiragi Shuichi had asked Aoba Tomoyo if she’d be willing to “gracefully attend” the afternoon art class.
Aoba Tomoyo hadn’t hesitated in the slightest, accepting with pleasure, and then she’d managed to convince Teacher Koizumi with a little sweet talk.
This woman could even handle teachers…
Hiiragi Shuichi glanced across the classroom, spotting Aoba Toshie standing in place with an aura that screamed “keep your distance.”
With both sisters present, things would be easier to handle.
“Hey, Shuichi!
Pair up with me!
I…”
Asuka Ryunosuke’s previously spirited voice trailed off.
After Teacher Koizumi announced… wait, it was Aoba Tomoyo who’d announced the start of the lesson…
Anyway, Asuka Ryunosuke had rushed over excitedly, saying he wanted to pair up with Hiiragi Shuichi, but he immediately found himself suppressed into silence by a group of nearby girls who were eager to invite Shuichi to pair with them.
Their glares screamed, “You piece of trash!
Don’t you dare get in my way!”
“Shu-Shuichi… They can’t do this to me!” Asuka Ryunosuke whined.
“Alright, alright…”
Hiiragi Shuichi patted Asuka Ryunosuke’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry, I’ll find a cute girl to pair up with you.”
“Really?!
Shuichi, you’re the best!!!”
Hearing that, Asuka Ryunosuke’s eyes immediately sparkled, crying tears of gratitude toward Hiiragi Shuichi.
After resolving Asuka Ryunosuke’s problem, Hiiragi Shuichi still needed to deal with the other girls’ issues.
He walked straight toward Kawasaki Yuki, who looked a little forlorn, and asked if she’d like to pair up with him.
“Really?
That’s great!”
Kawasaki Yuki’s eyes lit up instantly, her aquamarine hair even seeming to brighten by a few shades.
Seeing that Hiiragi Shuichi had completed his pairing, the other girls slunk away dejectedly, each finding a partner among their closest friends.
So it came as no surprise to Hiiragi Shuichi that, aside from Asuka Ryunosuke, there was one more person in the classroom whom absolutely no one wanted to pair with.
Hiiragi Shuichi led Asuka Ryunosuke over to where Aoba Toshie stood.
“Hello, Aoba!
I’m Asuka Ryunosuke!
Just call me Asuka!”
Aoba Toshie, facing Asuka Ryunosuke’s enthusiastic self-introduction, only shot him a glance as if he were trash, then said flatly:
“Scram.”
Nearby, Aoba Tomoyo, who’d been watching Hiiragi Shuichi’s every move, couldn’t help but shake her shoulders in quiet laughter.
Hiiragi Shuichi maintained his smile with some awkwardness.
He took a deep breath, steadying himself, before negotiating with Aoba Toshie:
“Look… Aoba, the assignment requires us to work in pairs.
You two are the only ones left without a partner.
Wouldn’t it be better to prioritize the lesson?”
Upon hearing this, Aoba Toshie’s chin lowered by an almost imperceptible fraction.
She remained silent for a long while before agreeing.
Hiiragi Shuichi had finally settled everyone into their groups.
Just as he was about to start his plan, Aoba Tomoyo suddenly waved at Aoba Toshie with sunny cheerfulness, saying:
“If you’re short on a partner, big sister can pair up with little Toshie, you know?”
After a round of back-and-forth bickering between the Aoba sisters, the groups were finally finalized.
The sisters ended up together, with Asuka Ryunosuke tagging along as a “burden” (as Aoba Toshie put it), forming a group of three.
Asuka Ryunosuke then found himself squeezed between the two sisters’ razor-sharp glares.
A forced smile plastered on his face, the scene was as if two people had clamped a torture device on his fingers and pulled in opposite directions—an experience of pure agony.
The pressure was crushing.
Hiiragi Shuichi returned to his own group, choosing a seat at the very back of the classroom against the wall.
As long as he sat there, no one would try to take his spot, and Kawasaki Yuki, seated across from him, wouldn’t be able to see what he was doing.
“Shuichi… please take care of me!” Kawasaki Yuki greeted.
“Yeah, same to you, Yuki.”
The drawing began.
As Hiiragi Shuichi taped up his drawing paper, he moved with quick hands—slipping out the small scrap of notebook paper he’d stored in his pocket beforehand, and placing it at the top of the drawing board, behind the sheet of drawing paper.
For ease of maneuvering, he didn’t tape down all four corners of the drawing paper.
He only secured the top edge and half of each side edge, making it easy to flip up.
As for the scrap of notebook paper, he used only a tiny piece of tape to hold it, making it easy to remove later.
Kawasaki Yuki noticed nothing.
Her mind was entirely focused on how to draw Hiiragi Shuichi as handsomely as possible.
Hiiragi Shuichi, meanwhile, pretended to look up at Kawasaki Yuki, measuring with his pencil before drawing on the paper.
All the while, he wrote Aoba Toshie’s name on the notebook scrap, and beneath her name, recorded the behaviors that would occur before love took root.
“Aoba Toshie → Hiiragi Shuichi”
“Cause: After arguing with Hiiragi Shuichi in the student council, developed a sense of empathy toward him”
“Subsequent behavior: After recalling her sister Aoba Tomoyo’s series of actions toward Hiiragi Shuichi, felt displeasure, argued with Aoba Tomoyo over their drawings during art class, and threw Aoba Tomoyo’s eraser out the window”
‘This should be enough…’
‘Now he just had to wait for 6 minutes and 40 seconds to pass.’
‘After writing down the behavior, he’d need to wait even longer.’
“Shuichi?”
“Hmm?
What’s wrong?”
Kawasaki Yuki’s sudden call made Hiiragi Shuichi’s hand tremble slightly.
He pressed the slightly lifted drawing paper back down, covering the notebook scrap.
“Could you lift your head a little?
I… can’t see your face…
It’s hard to draw.”
“Oh… Sure.”
The contents on the notebook were already written.
Hiiragi Shuichi needed to leave the classroom before the event occurred.
He quietly peeled the notebook scrap off the drawing board, crumpled it into a ball, then turned around and pulled a few tissues from his bag as a cover.
“Sorry, Yuki, I… need to use the restroom.”
“Huh?
What’s wrong?
Did you get a stomach ache from eating Senior Aoba’s bento at lunch?”
Kawasaki Yuki finally voiced her jealousy-fueled complaint.
“Uh, y-yeah, probably…
How embarrassing.
Yuki, you’ll have to remember to make me a bento next time, okay?”
Hiiragi Shuichi fired back without missing a beat, then went to report to Teacher Koizumi and left the classroom ahead of everyone else.
Aoba Toshie watched Hiiragi Shuichi leave the classroom rather hastily, and sneered at her sister Tomoyo:
“Big sister, has your cooking gotten worse?”