First Impressions

The morning passed in a haze of lectures and note-taking, but Haruto couldn’t focus entirely. Every now and then, he found his gaze drifting to the girl beside him. Haruka Mizushima. Even in the silence of a classroom, she seemed to radiate a kind of warmth that made the light streaming through the windows feel brighter, more inviting.

She tapped her pen against her notebook thoughtfully, her dark blue eyes scanning the page as if she could see the story behind every word. Haruto noted the way her fingers lingered on the pen, how she tilted her head slightly when thinking, and how the sunlight caught her hair just right. Each movement felt deliberate, gentle, and impossibly alive.

He shook his head slightly, trying to refocus on the math problem the teacher had written on the board. But every time he glanced back at her, there was that small, fleeting smile, the polite yet confident tilt of her head, and the quiet curiosity in her eyes. He didn’t understand it, but he felt… lighter.

Haruka, meanwhile, had her own thoughts. She remembered him—the calm, protective boy who had stepped in without hesitation when danger appeared that day years ago. The memory was vivid, though she kept it buried, a private story no one else knew. And now, sitting beside him again, she felt a strange mixture of excitement and nervousness. She wanted to speak to him, to break the ice, but at the same time, she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.

So she began small. “Uh… you’re good at basketball, right?” she asked during a quiet pause.

Haruto blinked. His hands paused mid-note, and he turned to her, scratching the back of his hair. “Yeah… I guess. Why?”

“I… just heard from someone,” she said, fidgeting slightly with the edge of her notebook. “You’re really fast. And… well, disciplined. That’s impressive.”

Haruto felt a strange heat rise to his cheeks. Compliments weren’t something he often received, especially not from someone like her—someone who seemed bright, confident, and effortlessly polite all at once. “Thanks,” he muttered, voice low.

Her smile didn’t waver. “You’re welcome,” she said softly, returning to her notes as if nothing had happened. But Haruto noticed. He noticed the way her smile lingered in his mind, like a warm echo he couldn’t shake.

The rest of the morning passed in a similar quiet rhythm. Occasionally, their elbows brushed when reaching for textbooks or sharing a pencil, and each time, Haruto felt that familiar prickle of awareness. He looked away quickly, focusing on his notebook, though he found his thoughts wandering back to her.

During a short break, Haruka leaned slightly closer, pointing to a problem on his paper. “You wrote this part wrong,” she said, her tone gentle, almost teasing. “It’s supposed to be like this.”

Haruto glanced down at her corrections, his eyes flicking up to meet hers. She was smiling softly, but there was a confidence in her gaze, a boldness hidden behind the politeness that made his chest tighten. “Ah… okay,” he said, scratching his hair nervously. “Thanks.”

That small exchange, though trivial to anyone else, lingered longer than it should have. Haruka’s attention felt… different. Warm. Safe. And for reasons he couldn’t quite name, Haruto felt himself wanting to notice more—to pay attention to every small gesture, every quiet smile.

By the time the lunch bell rang, a strange tension had settled between them—not uncomfortable, but electric in its subtlety. Haruka packed away her notebook carefully, placing it beside her bag with a neatness that made Haruto silently admire her attention to detail.

As he gathered his things, he realized something unusual: he was looking forward to the rest of the day. Normally, he barely noticed the passage of time in class, but with her beside him, every moment seemed just a little bit… brighter.

And somewhere deep in the back of his mind, a thought lingered, unspoken and unexplored: maybe, just maybe, having her there wasn’t as disruptive to his routine as he would have expected. Maybe it was something… good.

As the students filed out of the classroom, Haruto walked beside her silently, matching her pace. Neither spoke much, but the air between them was charged in a quiet, unspoken way. Haruka stole a glance at him, her heart fluttering, her secret smile hidden from everyone else.

It was only the beginning, but for the first time in a long while, Haruto felt the edges of his carefully ordered life blur—not in chaos, but in something unexpectedly warm and… promising.