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The absurdly eventful summer vacation has ended, it’s opening ceremony now. Showing up at the academy after a long time, I get a clear grasp of my current situation. More people greet me now, but there’s still people that grimace just seeing my face.

「There’s still a long road ahead…」

During summer vacation, I don’t really encounter those kinds of people, so I forgot just how hated I am as an individual. For now, I guess I’ll hurry to my room.

「Good morning.」
「Long time~」
「Long time no see. I saw you at your job!」

This class is seriously so accepting. Also, thank you for the increase of sales. It’s definitely spread through the academy now, the fact that I work part time.

「Many people got sunburn, it seems.」
「Well it’s summer after all, morning.」
「Good morning as well, Harumi.」
「Hmmm, it really does feel weird. It’s that one here at the academy?」

I didn’t think much about my way of speaking during summer break either, so I feel weird about it too. Still, strangely now that I’m here, I can speak like this easily. I guess it’s become a habit.

「It would be a bother if others were to overhear, so it’s this one.」
「So many hurdles to jump as usual. I personally think it’ll be fine here in our class.」
「Doing it the same way a certain someone does is well beyond my ability.」

Perfect information regulation and coordination so good you’d mistake it for brainwashing. Only a few would be capable of doing that. I don’t want to see her today. After all, when it comes to the bothersome-ness, she’s number 1 by a large margin.

「I have no idea who exactly you’re alluding to though.」
「Some things are best left unknown.」

Witnessing her true nature, even by accident, would be a bad omen. Since you’ll get wrapped into different sorts of trouble. I have no idea why she exposed her true self to me though.

「Well, okay. More importantly, what do you want to do for the campus festival?」
「Aren’t you being too excited? We still have the midterm test before that.」
「I could care less about the tests.」

You’re tying your own noose. You know that your test results can affect your club activities, don’t you? Come to think of it, I tutor Miyako and Kaori, but I don’t know how Harumi’s scores are.

「Do you consistently do well in the tests?」
「I can somewhat reach the average with a night’s cramming, so it’s fine. My parents haven’t particularly complained about it either.」

Then I guess that’s fine. If I invite her to study with us, she might find it to be annoying. Besides, Harumi seems like the type to just ask for help if she’s really in a pinch.

「By the way, are the planning per class for the campus festival?」
「We’ve already experienced it last year, how do you not know?」
「I decided to be absent, you see.」
「Oh yeah, you were like that last year. I completely forgot.」

Events? Kotone skipped them all since what’s the point of joining anyways? Or so. Thanks to that, even though I’m a second year, I’ll have to get a grasp of things like some sort of freshman.

「The class can decide whether they want to participate or not. If they do, it’ll be necessary to submit the class event plans to the student council, which decides whether you’ll be given a budget or not.」
「So it depends on the class’ eagerness.」

Rather, I’m probably going to be tasked to do student council work again. The president will probably be the one to give blessing to any interesting plans, but I’m going to have to work with the budget distribution.

「Our class intends to do a café.」
「Quite the staple. But wouldn’t many other classes go with that as well?」

Having too many of the same staple likely wouldn’t be fun for the president. If it’s something novel that no one has ever done before, he’ll probably take the initiative to help out even.

「I think a food stall would be fine too.」
「It’s pretty common. Rather, you didn’t even come last year, right?」

She says absolutely appalled, but it’s true so I can’t really talk back. I don’t really understand why Kotone kept away from events that much and even after digging out her memories, I don’t know.

「Guys, I know it’s been a while but homeroom’s starting.」

As we were chatting, I didn’t notice that Teacher Kondou came in. There were others that failed to notice him as well and everyone promptly went to their seats.

「As for the hot topic of the campus festival, I’ll give you time to discuss later. However, before that, don’t forget about your tests. If you ever get failing marks, it’s supplementary lessons for you.」

So it’s not like they can’t join the campus festival, but they might end up not being able to join during the preparation period. The preparation is pretty much another event in itself, after all.

「Today’s only program is the opening ceremony. The submission of assignments will happen only the on days where their respective subject is scheduled, so for those who haven’t finished yet, finish your assignments before then.」

There’s no way, I thought, then I looked around and saw several gloomy students. It seems like there really are people who haven’t finished yet. You reap what you sow.

「Now then, everyone. Go to the auditorium. After the program, make sure to return to the classroom.」

In the past, there was once where I didn’t return. Since there’s really nothing else to do after returning and you just get dismissed anyways. There was no reason to do it, so I just went home with the usual guys. The next day, the teacher, and the two mothers, scolded me.

「Let’s go now.」

Harumi and Miyako approached me but I didn’t plan on going out first. Just like with the first opening ceremony. I’ll go out last so I won’t stand out… or so I planned, but for some reason my classmates are staring weirdly.

「Why isn’t anyone leaving?」
「It’s because you haven’t even stood up.」

I intended to sit down until everyone has left, after all. Miyako knows that I did that before. Don’t tell me, they’re all waiting for me?

「Is it perhaps that no one is going outside if I don’t stand up?」

Asking so, everyone nodded in reply. I know that we’ve gotten close, but normally people don’t think of going this far, you know?

「What’s so different about this semester…」
「From our perspective, we have no idea what’s with last year’s Kotone either.」

As Harumi said so, everyone nodded. Ah, that’s a valid point. After all, when I first came I was beyond despised. I was just behaving as I always do, though.

「I won’t walk in front, alright?」

It’s troublesome for many reasons and it’s not like I’m leading this class. If anything, the one who has the initiative to lead others is Harumi, isn’t it?

「Now then, everyone, let’s go~」

So nobody really did leave the classroom before I stood up. I blended with the crowd as we exited the classroom, so I didn’t stand out in particular.

「Still, you’re sitting in the same place, huh.」
「The seat at the back is just right. To begin with, it’s not like where I sit would make much difference.」

Miyako and I sat at the same place as we did at the first opening ceremony. The only difference is that Harumi is with us. I didn’t have any common ground with Harumi, so I had no idea where she even was.

「For some reason, our class is in the back seats but you positioned yourself at the more inconspicuous place.」
「It’s not like I was trying to occupy the whole area.」
「It’s like this now, but back then there was no one sitting within two seats of Kotone from all directions.」
「Thanks to that, I instead stood out even more.」

Recalling that time, whenever I tried to be unassuming, I was isolated so it just made me even more visible. Still, I couldn’t take any weird action, so my goal was maintaining the status quo.

「In some sense, it was pretty amazing. Well, considering last year, it’s just natural.」
「Painfully true.」

I throw an agreement but it feels more like we’re talking about some stranger. After all, it’s not that I did any of that. Still, I have the contradictory role of having to take responsibility for those actions. Even now, I’m feeling stares from the surroundings.

「It’s about to start.」

The opening ceremony, that is, but that doesn’t change what I have to do. Starting with the principal’s greeting, the plans for the second semester and the student council’s directives followed. Honestly, seeing him like this, you’d really think that the president seems quite ambitious. But reality is different.

「Kotone, what’s your plans after this?」
「I’ll see the student council and then head to work.」