Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai CONNECT - Time Flows Again
One morning in mid-May.
One month has past since the new school year has began. By now, most of the students in St. Chronica Academy High School Class 2-5 have already established their groups, and have begun to enjoy their youth to their fullest in this new environment.
Friends both old, from the previous year; and new, from this new year; joyfully chatting with each other.
The hot topic this morning was regarding the transfer student transferring in today.
"One month late?" "I wonder if it's a guy or a girl." "I want a suave guy!" "No way, a cute girl!" "A fun guy!" "A smart girl!" "What kind of sports does he like?" "Would be nice to have a musician."
......distanced from all the excitement brewing across the classroom, was a single girl reading her book in silence, with a frown on her face.
A girl with beautiful long black hair, and a composed yet imposing face.
Her name is Mikazuki Yozora.
Her eyes slowly glanced through a book with a rather plain cover without much interest, as she occasionally showed displeasure at the noise around her. Noise like the bright voices of her classmates, or the sounds of morning club practice.
Ever since the start of her second year --- nay, ever since she entered this academy, Yozora had always spent her time in class like this.
Due to her striking appearance, there were still classmates who tried to talk to her at the start. But even that stopped once they learnt that she would only ever reply with the bare minimum (and sometimes not even the minimum) words with a distant tone.
Despite that, she was never a victim of bullying, owing to her distant aura, her achievements in both studies and sports, and above all her stone-cold stare should anyone ever tried anything funny with her.
Her attitude in class could be said to be lacking, even though the teachers pardon her on account of her good grades. Mainly, she would always ignore instructions during English lessons to pair up and practice their conversational skills, and instead chose to stare out the window alone.
The lone wolf. Likes being alone. Dislikes company.
These 3 points basically summed up the position Mikazuki Yozora had built up for herself in Class 2-5.
A school life with no friends, no one to talk to, no one to care for.
It would be a lie to say that this was enjoyable to her.
Likewise, she did not feel any disinterest in an enjoyable school life.
'Enjoyable' is always better than 'boring'. That is a given.
She did not hate company, not did she enjoy being alone.
But ultimately, she would rather throw away an enjoyable school life than experience something like that.
Forget friends. Forget love.
I'm fine being alone.
This was what Yozora thought to herself. This was what Yozora tried to convince herself.
The bell rang, signalling the morning homeroom.
Their form teacher entered the classroom 3 minutes late, announcing that the transfer student hadn't arrived, triggering a slight commotion.
Not my concern, thought Yozora.
A mere transfer student would not change my current school life in the least bit.
As the homeroom ended amidst the commotion, Yozora pulled out her History textbook and study material, and resumes her reading.
She did not hate reading, but she had never enjoyed reading either.
She had developed a habit of only reading obscure translated novels or technical books in school. Books that nobody her age would find much interest in.
In fact, Yozora herself found reading such books a pain. She would often read such books without understanding them at all.
The reasoning is simple.
As long as she could explain what her book was about to anyone who asked and got them to only say "Oh, I see..." and walk away awkwardly, she would read it in school.
To Yozora, reading was her shield against company.
She knew a lot of miscellaneous facts due to this habit, but it was pointless as she had no one to show this off to.
In truth, she favored much simpler books..
She preferred reading genres like mystery, fantasy, Chinese and Japanese historical drama. But more than novels, she enjoyed reading manga. Especially shounen manga geared towards kids.
Where the hero will always be victorious. Where hard work will always pay.
And, where friendship is eternal and invincible.
Victory, hard work and friendship. Yozora loved stories bound by these 3 words.
Because the real world isn't like that.
If only the world was as simple as shounen mangas...
Yozora was not simple-minded enough to truly think that, but she was still innocent enough to sometimes wish so.
The bell signalling the 1st period rang.
The history teacher, Miss Asada (a somewhat frail-looking young female) began the lesson.
The way she taught was word-for-word with the textbook. It was not a problem, besides the fact that it was boring.
And for someone who has never slackened on her daily revision like Yozora, it was more than boring.
Miss Asada is beautiful, so a few male students would tend to be rather active in class. Other than that, the lesson was monotonous.
Students began to nod off as the lesson hit its half-way mark.
With her face propped up on her elbows, Yozora herself began to find her eyes sinking shut as her eyes the text in her textbook. And eventually, her eyes went completely shut.
Suddenly, the whole class got noisy.
Someone had opened the front door.
Ah, who cares...
Yozora thought to herself. I'm tired.
"Um, excuse me, you are...?"
And the reply to Miss Asada was,
"I'm dhe dranzfer studend Hazegawa Godaga."
Woah!?
The deep, intimidating voice of the transfer student felt so life-threatening, Yozora had to open her eyes in shock and looked at the source of the voice.
In that instant, Yozora's drowsiness was blown away.
That faded blond-brown hair that looked like he failed at using a commercial dye spray. Those eyes that look like he was glaring all the time.
As if his face wasn't already scary enough, for some reason his eyes were blood-shot, contributing further to his bad image.
---This is bad. This is very bad.
That was the common thought of everyone in the classroom at that moment, including the shivering Miss Asada.
Everyone, except Yozora.
I know this guy.
I remember him. I've always remembered. I've never forgotten. I'll never forget.
Taka!
The name of Sora's best friend, who disappeared abruptly 10 years ago.
The guy who still has those same trademark hair and eyes even after 10 years.
His name was Kodaka, so she called him Taka.
She did not reveal her name back then, only calling herself Sora.
As the days go by with their friendship growing while she was hiding her gender, she could no longer bear the prickly feeling --- guilt, she was sure --- torturing her. And one day decided to confess the truth to him, only to have him disappear the day before.
Yozora's pitiful days following that could only be described as a black mark in her life.
She pulled off several stunts in order to fill the gap left by Taka's disappearance.
Actions that would cause her to roll about in embarrassment if she were to recall them now...
At the end of it all, Yozora chose to simply --- give it all up.
Deciding that she could no longer lead a normal happy youth, Yozora chose to give up on striving for a bright childhood and wasted her youth away, while clinging on only to the beautiful memories she had with Taka.
"Um, y-you can have t-that empty seat there..."
Miss Asada beckoned for Kodaka to take his seat.
Before Kodaka moved to his designated seat, he took a look throughout the classroom. With that vicious smile of his that resemble a demon choosing his next meal. The entire class went into a deeper silence than before.
The only one who was relived to see that smile was probably Yozora.
10 years hasn't changed you one bit, Taka.
You've always sucked at smiling, and the more you try to be friendly, the more it backfires on you.
......just like me. And I like it.
Hasegawa Kodaka headed towards her direction to his seat.
As the other students look away, Yozora alone continued to fix her eyes on Kodaka.
Kodaka began to past her, still with that awkward and evil smile on his face.
He did not notice Yozora staring at him at all due to his nervousness.
She was slightly disappointed that he did not recognize her at all. But on the contrary, Yozora felt herself feeling very excited in a long... a long, long time.
Taka is back once again.
Time for me had stopped 10 years ago, and now it is finally flowing again.
Yozora began to smile to herself.
My youth has just begun!
☺
My youth has just begun!
I once thought that. But.
"HE DOESN'T REMEMBER!!"
"HE DOESN'T REMEMBER!!"
[to be continued]
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