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Eventually, Monday arrived, the first day when Kou would be able to attend school in person.

“Well, Mitsuki, could you come in now?” Asai, their homeroom teacher, called Kou to enter.

Kou had been standing in front of the classroom’s door, reminiscing about everything that happened until then, but then she quickly snapped back to reality when she heard the teacher’s voice.

Taking a deep breath, she slid the door open, only to instantly freeze as an urge to turn around and run away took hold of her.

I can’t do this, I definitely can’t do this, it’s way too embarrassingggg.

She could feel thirty pairs of eyes all focusing on her. Having so much attention focused on her made her feel extremely self-conscious, almost like they were judging her attempt to crossdress.

She had already done her best to clear her image from being seen as a sickly girl, but now she knew that it was also impossible for her to appear like a regular girl too.

Her skirt would not stop bothering her, so she could not help but take very short steps while using her school bag to press down on her skirt at the same time, making it look like she was just toddling forward.

At the same time, she started overhearing comments from her classmates, calling her cute and pretty, subjecting her to even more embarrassment. She wanted to run away, but had no option but to keep moving forward, almost like she had some sort of humiliation kink.

Amidst her bewilderment, she noticed the back row, where Hijiri was cheering her on, and Subaru seemed to be enjoying himself as he watched.

Right…I need to pull myself together for their sake too.

Not wanting to make her friends worry, she approached the whiteboard to write down her name as the teacher instructed, and then turned to face the class. Taking another deep breath, she smiled and began introducing herself.

◇◇◇

My name is Gotou Kasumi.

I come from a middle-class household, and I wouldn’t say I’m a genius or some prodigy, I’m just an average person who does her best and works hard with anything I do.

Still, I put a lot of effort into studying, and somehow managed to get accepted into Morinomiya High, where I’m surrounded by a lot of talented students. So I had to continue working hard to keep up, and somehow that ended up giving me the position of class president. Now everyone just calls me prez.

In a way, that’s the perfect role for someone as plain as me, who could easily pass as just another Village Girl A. But well, that’s alright. You often hear that rich people avoid fights, and all the kids in this school are either rich, smart, or both, so they all behave nicely in class.

So everyone gets along with each other, and there really aren’t any hardships to speak of in class. But there is one student who stands out in our class. Her name is Mitsuki Kou. She was hospitalized earlier this year, so she wasn’t able to attend in person and always took online classes since the school year started.

She’s also rather quiet and reserved. I’m pretty sure that she’s also a hard worker though. It’s really easy to get distracted or not pay attention when attending remotely, but even with such limitations, she’s claimed the top spot in class for herself, and she gets the best scores in tests too.

Now that she’s finally discharged, and today she’ll come to school for the first time. Everyone’s been talking about her since they arrived, excited to see her, and the classroom got quite noisy before homeroom started.

The Furuya twins are friends with her, so they know what she looks like, but the sister Hijiri only said that Kou looks cute when asked about it, so everyone began picturing the girl as best as they could with the limited information available.

That’s starting to make me feel bad about Kou though, as everyone’s expectations for her just keep going up. But I’d be lying if I said that I’m not curious to know what she looks like too.

“Well, Mitsuki, could you come in now?”

Finally, our homeroom teacher Asai invites her to enter. The entire classroom fell dead silent, and I could almost hear everyone’s breath. She had surpassed the high expectations everyone had, and without breaking a sweat.

When I first saw her, I couldn’t help but wonder if she really was human, or if she had been taken out of some sort of fantasy world. Just the colors alone were unexpected, her skin and hair being pure white like powder snow. Only her eyes are a deep crimson, glimmering intensely as if sucking me in.

Her body is rather petite though, I’d even wager she’s the smallest girl in the classroom. Her shoulders and hips are also narrow, making me think of an ice sculpture that might break if I blow on it too hard.

Even her uniform stands out, looking like it’s made of a different type of fabric compared to ours, and a thin lace chemise is faintly visible underneath her skirt, making her look even more like some sort of princess. I guess her whole uniform is custom made?

She’s also walking with really short but elegant steps, which make her long white hair flutter like silk threads, which glitters radiantly.

And…I recognize her appearance.

“She’s adorable…”
“And so small…is she really a high schooler?”
“She’s like a doll…”
“Is this what an albino looks like? She’s so white and pretty…”

As soon as everyone recovers from the shock of her unexpected appearance, the whole classroom erupts with such comments. And it’s clear that she can hear them too, as her face quickly starts turning red.

I guess she really is a shy and easily embarrassed girl like I thought.

Then she turns around and starts writing her name on the whiteboard (though it’s actually an AR display that looks that way), while standing on tip-toes and hopping slightly with each letter, probably so it’s easier for all of us to see. Somehow I feel like every single one of her actions is just too cute.

All of our hearts are racing as we watch her, and once she’s done she turns around and smiles to everyone. All of the boys and most of the girls turned red and averted their eyes seeing that smile, and I don’t think anyone was unaffected by it.

But at the same time, that confirmed my earlier suspicion, she also plays that online game I secretly dabble in during my free time, and she’s really famous there. She’s Crim-chan, the Ditzy Lord.

But wait, does this mean that she actually used her real-world appearance and modeled her character to look identical?

“Ermm…I’m glad to finally be present here, instead of just having a device standing in for me. I’m Mitsuki Kou-”
“HUHHHH?!”

My brain finally managed to reboot and work again, but the confused voice I let out interrupted her introduction…

…The fact that her shocked and teary-eyed reaction looked so cute is something I’ll keep secret.

◇◇◇

There was a bit of a hiccup, but Kou managed to wrap up her introduction.

“As you can probably see, Mitsuki has a hereditary condition that makes it hard for her to be exposed to the sun. She won’t be able to participate in outdoor activities very much, and will always require a parasol at hand… But she’s still a fellow Morinomiya High student, so be nice to her, alright?”
“I’m sorry for any trouble I might cause, but I hope we can get along.”

Once the teacher concluded mentioning the precautions everyone needed to keep in mind, Kou finished her greeting with a bow.

“Got it!”
“I’m sure everything will work out!”
“Maybe we could go hang out sometime!”
“Feel free to reach out to us if you need anything!”

Everyone in the classroom clapped and voiced their support for her. Seeing that, Kou let out a breath of relief, glad that she was able to finish on a good note.

She had been a bit bewildered by the class president’s sudden outburst, but thinking about it again, it was that idiotic voice that managed to reset Kou’s nervous thoughts and made it easier for her to finish introducing herself without feeling like a fool.

I guess she decided to take the role of a jester to disarm the tension.

While the class president was embracing her head in shame on her seat, Kou’s impression of her somehow ended up improving greatly. Feeling indebted to her, Kou could not stop herself from opening up her NLD’s messaging system and sent out a simple message to the class president.

«Prez, thanks for earlier.»
«…Huh? What do you mean?!»

The class president’s hasty reply made Kou chuckle. In her mind, the class president was feigning ignorance so Kou would not feel like there were any favors owed. It was almost like Kou’s impression of the class president had evolved from a koi fish into a dragon.

Afterword:
The custom uniform and chamise are to protect Kou from sunlight, and definitely not because of the author is into them ﹥.﹥