Chapter 1:

Miru-senpai isn't all that scary!

Miru-senpai Doesn't Like Girls!


Oddly enough, for the rest of the way to their school, Ai and her three upperclassmen don’t talk at all, but they end up arriving at the front gates at approximately the same time. The opening ceremony is only a few minutes away from beginning and Ai was just about to head towards her class’ line when she overhears the upperclassmen’s conversation again.

“Uh… Miru, I think you’re bleeding.”

Ai nervously takes a peek towards Miru who’s currently wiping the edge of her lip with her thumb, smearing the blood on her bottom lip even more. The cut doesn’t look too bad, but Miru is somehow bleeding a lot regardless.

“Damn it, you’re right,” Miru curses. “I guess I’ll have to go to the infirmary after all. If I go to the ceremony, I’ll get scolded by the teachers anyway.”

Both of her friends look at her with concern. The guy with the brown highlights says, “Will you be alright going alone? If we miss the opening ceremony again like last year, the teachers said we’ll definitely be punished, so we kind of have to go.”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. You two go on without me.”

The three were just about to separate when Ai interjects, “Um, excuse me, I can come with you, if that’s okay?”

To be honest, Ai doesn’t really know where she just found the bravery to ask, let alone actually do what she’s proposing right now. However, she does pride herself on being a responsible person and she does feel somewhat responsible for Miru’s injury, so it only feels right for her to at least offer to help. It’s not like the upperclassman even wants her help, right?

Miru, who is standing not far behind Ai, tilts her head in confusion. “Huh? What for?”

“Well, I know it’s not really my fault, but I feel kind of responsible for your injury, so I can help if you’ll let me…?” Ai asks again, still sounding nervous and unsure.

She fully expects her offer to be rejected since Miru’s been mostly dismissive towards her after giving her help, but to Ai’s surprise, Miru replies, “…sure. I’m pretty incompetent when it comes to handling wounds, so some help could be nice.”

“Nice! Then we’ll leave her to you for now. Thanks for helping out, random kouhai!” The guy with the brown highlights says cheerily as he pushes Miru towards Ai.

The other upperclassman follows his two friends and as he pats Miru’s shoulder, he says, “Be nice to her, Miru.”

“Of course! What did you think I was going to do to her, huh Rui?”

Rui, the upperclassman with grey highlights, just shrugs. “Nothing. I’m just giving a friendly reminder.”

Ai is thankful for the ‘reminder’, but the implication that Miru might have been not so nice to other underclassmen in the past just makes her body grow even more stiff. Without saying much more, the two male upperclassmen leave for the opening ceremony on the other side of the school, leaving Ai alone with Miru near the front of the school building.

“You don’t know your way around yet, do you?” Miru asks.

Ai can only shake her head since she is a new student after all. She has no idea where the infirmary even is.

Miru doesn’t say anything else before she begins walking into the school. She just keeps on walking down the hallways without even looking back, just assuming that Ai must be following behind her.

“This way,” Miru says as they make a turn.

Even though she knows that Miru can’t see her, Ai just nods, not really wanting to say anything due to how nervous she actually is. She can’t help but to feel that her upperclassman is much more cold and distant compared to when she’s with her friends. Of course Ai kind of gets it, she is just a stranger who met her by chance after all, but usually people she’s encountered are at least a bit friendlier than Miru is.

After a couple of minutes of walking through the empty school building, they finally reach the infirmary. It seems like even the school nurse is out at the moment, probably at the field in case any of the students get sick during the ceremony.

As she turns the doorknob, Miru finally looks back and asks Ai, “Are you sure that you’re fine with missing the opening ceremony? The teachers will make trouble out of it, you know?”

Ai looks towards the ceiling as she thinks about the question. When she offered to help, she didn’t really consider the fact that she doesn’t exactly know how her new school works yet. Somehow, she just forgot that there’s a completely new set of rules that she has to follow here. She just assumed that she wouldn’t get in trouble for helping someone, at least that was the way it was in her middle school.

“Um…It should be fine if I can explain, right?”

Miru snorts. “It’s not that simple, you need to have a written pass for your absence to be excused.”

Despite hearing that, it’s already too late for Ai to turn back anyway at this point. Coming late to the ceremony that’s definitely already started is probably not much better than not coming at all. So when Miru walks into the infirmary, Ai simply follows along, though she immediately begins to look around the room, searching for something.

Her eyes light up when she finds the object she’s looking for. “Well, if we’re lucky, that shouldn’t be a problem either.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Miru asks as she opens the cabinets to find some cotton and disinfectant.

When Miru turns towards her underclassman, she just sees Ai rummaging around the school nurse’s desk. Ai seems to be going through a seemingly useless pile of old paper and documents, probably leftover from the previous school year.

“Ah! Found one!” Ai exclaims with excitement, holding a small piece of paper in her hand.

“One what?” Miru asks while approaching her, curious.

When she’s close enough, Miru sees that Ai is holding an old hallway pass, though she fails to see how a used hallway pass with someone else’s name and a different date can be of any help to them. Besides the pile of old documents, there’s a pile of new and empty hallways passes, but without the school nurse there to actually fill it out, they’re also pretty much useless.

That is, until Miru sees Ai take a fresh hallway pass and begins to write on it carefully with a ballpoint pen she got from the desk.

An old hallway pass is also laid down right in front of where Ai is writing and it finally registers to Miru that Ai is trying to copy the school nurse’s handwriting and signature, which is just absolutely stupid and ridiculous in her eyes, to be completely honest. The old lady who works as their school nurse has been there for forever and every teacher can definitely recognize her handwriting in a heartbeat. And so obviously, they can also recognize when it’s not her writing or a poor imitation of it.

Miru just watches with amusement as Ai delicately writes on the small piece of paper. Not long after that, the underclassman shows Miru her little creation. “Tada! Just made myself a hallway pass.”

She seems both happy and proud of her work, which made Miru want to roll her eyes at first. That is, until she sees the actual results of Ai’s copying.

To put it simply, Miru is just completely amazed.

“Woah! It matches sensei’s writing to a t! How did you do that?” Miru blurts out, genuinely impressed by how closely it matches the old nurse’s handwriting and signature.

As she’s analysing the piece of paper, comparing it to the old hallway passes, Miru also reads the underclassman’s name. “Huh, good work Nakahara.”

“Thank you,” Ai replies with the first genuine smile she’s made that day. Hearing her cold and scary upperclassman compliment her, she can’t help but to feel a bit thrilled about it. “Oh and if it’s okay for me to ask, what’s your name, senpai? I can make one for you too if you want.”

“Oh sure, that’d be nice,” Miru replies, feeling a bit awkward for some reason. It really has just occurred to her that even though they’ve been talking to each other for a while now, they still haven’t properly introduced themselves to each other. Well, it’s not like Miru thought that she’d have to deal with the underclassman for this long anyway.

“It’s Michiru Kurosawa.”

“Uh-huh. And how do you write that?”

“Michiru like this. And Kurosawa like this,” Miru says as she demonstrates on the back of one of the old hallway passes with another pen from the desk.

“Hm, okay,” Ai says as she begins to focus on writing another hallway pass. Her eyebrows knit together when she’s concentrating, Miru realizes. Before she knows it, after just moments of looking closely at the example and carefully writing, Ai is done with her copy. “All done!”

Miru’s hallway pass is almost an exact replica of the one she just made for herself. It feels like not even the school nurse can do her own handwriting that consistently. Miru is once again blown away by Ai’s skills (and this really doesn’t happen often to her). “Wow, you really are an expert, aren’t you Nakahara? It’s kind of scary.”

On the other hand, Ai is truly dumbfounded that one of the scariest people that she’s ever met in her life is calling her of all people scary. Scary? You’re calling me scary? Ai thinks to herself. Has this senpai ever looked at the mirror?

“I’ve always been good at imitating people’s writing,” Ai attempts to briefly explain herself. “It’s also become a bit of a weird hobby for some reason.”

“Huh,” Miru comments as she looks at the hallways pass Ai just handed to her. “Well, thanks for the pass. I shouldn’t get in trouble like this.”

Ai shakes her head. “It’s really nothing, senpai. I do owe you one.”

“What? You don’t owe me anything. Don’t think about it like that.”

For some reason, it has always irked Miru when she hears someone say that they owe her something. There’s no good reason for it, but she just doesn’t like it.

“You helped me today, so at least let me help you now, won’t you?” Ai says, huffing. “I don’t know why you won’t just accept my gratitude.”

Now isn’t this girl getting a little brave? Miru asks to herself, though she’s more amused than anything. I act a little friendly with her and she already thinks we’re friends?

“Hey, speak politely won’t you? I’m still your senior, Nakahara.”

Miru isn’t really using an intimidating or serious tone, but usually that would be enough to scare most students. And earlier, it definitely scared Ai too. This time however, it seems like Ai is just not as intimidated by Miru as she was earlier.

Ai bows politely in apology, but she isn’t shaking nor does she seem to be uneasy. “I’m sorry for my impoliteness, senpai.”

“Hm, I'll let it slide this time,” Miru replies rather coldly.

And yet, Ai still doesn’t seem to be intimidated anymore.

As Ai begins to help Miru with the cut, it becomes even more evident that Ai has made herself somewhat comfortable around Miru, not that Miru thinks it’s a bad thing. She’s just not used to people warming up to her or rather, not being scared of her, this quickly. Only her two best friends from earlier; Rui and Katsuki, have ever managed this feat before.

“All done, senpai,” Ai says as she gives the wound a couple more gentle taps. “The bleeding has stopped now.”

The two of them are sitting on the edge of the infirmary bed and Miru is looking to the side so that Ai can look at her injury properly. Ai is a fair bit shorter than Miru is, so when the latter turns to look down at the underclassman, Miru just sees Ai looking up to her with a soft smile.

It’s…odd. It feels like it has been way too long since Miru last experienced something like this.

However, Miru doesn’t like overthinking things, so she dismisses the thoughts forming in her head and stands up rather abruptly. “Well then, thanks Nakahara. I guess I’ll see you around.”

Before Ai even has a chance to say anything, Miru is already walking out of the room, leaving Ai sitting on the edge of the infirmary bed, a little dumbfounded.

“That sure was something,” Ai mutters to herself as she begins to tidy up the cotton balls they were using to stop the cut from bleeding.

For a second there, Ai thought that she and Miru were kind of getting along and that she’d maybe make a new friend in the upperclassman, but maybe she thought wrong. Well, it’s unfortunate, but it is what it is, Ai thinks to herself as she closes the infirmary door behind her.

Looking out the large windows in the school’s hallway towards the bright blue sky, Ai looks back at everything that’s already happened during her first day of school and concludes in her mind;

Huh, I guess Miru-senpai really isn’t as scary as I thought she was.

Ana Fowl
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Nellien
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tanktrilby
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