Silent Thoughts

PART ONE

I was sitting on the bench with Nura-san.

“Back when I introduced myself I pretended that it was the first time I saw you, any idea why?” She asked me out of the blue.

I didn’t know why she did that.

“No, I don’t,” I replied.

“I did that because I wanted to give you another chance, maybe you were a little anxious because of the ceremony. So I pretended that it was my first encounter with you.”

She thought I felt uneasy before the ceremony and that’s why I didn’t reply to her in a friendly manner.

“No that wasn’t my reason, I simply didn’t bother to have a deeper conversation with you. Even if you wanted to become friends I’m just not interested.” She looked at me, not understanding me completely.

“Can I ask you why you enrolled at this school?” She asked while still looking at me.

“To get my diploma, just as simple as that.”

She didn’t believe me.

“You’re hiding something aren’t you?” When I heard her say that I got up and left her behind, it was not important if I had a reason to attend this school. Telling her my reason could give me a disadvantage.

I arrived at my apartment.

After a long first day at school, I was sitting on the couch and I got a call from my father.

“Where are you?” My father asked.

“I just arrived at my apartment.”

“I heard the news from your mother, so you have decided on your own that you will be joining high school? I clearly said that you can’t enroll at any school because I had different plans for you.” He said frustrated.

He wanted me to go abroad to a different country and study there.

“I know that but I didn’t have a choice, I had to join this school.”

Needless to say, I didn’t want to leave Japan. So this was also an opportunity for me.

“We are going to see about that, next week I will be coming to school to sign you out!” He shouted and hung up after.

He will come and get me out of school, and later sent me abroad to study elsewhere.

I need to come up with a plan.

PART TWO

I, Sakai Rumi, arrived home from a long day at school.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this new transfer student, Nage Gazo. He humiliated me at the ceremony and to make it even worse… He is in the same class as me! That means I have to see him every day for the rest of my school year.

I took a seat at the table, my mom made us some dinner. “How was school?” She asked.

“It was alright, did dad still not arrive home from work?” I asked her.

“No, he told me that he had some extra work to do so he will be late.”

He is working harder now than ever, I hope it doesn’t wear him out.

I finished my plate and have gone straight to my room to do some homework. But even then I couldn’t stop thinking about Nage-kun. This guy is rude and disrespectful, it makes me so frustrated. But something is different about him, he is very good at math, in class, he took a test and had a perfect score. I couldn’t believe my eyes, he sat next to my table. I noticed him being finished much earlier than the rest of us, I thought that he gave up. I made a stupid bet, to try and get him to be my slave to embarrass him even further. But he won that bet instead and insisted that he didn’t want me as a slave to begin with.

I was shocked.

To be honest, I was a little reassured to hear that. But the fact that he didn’t want me as a slave did hurt me. Am I not good enough? Does he hate me? All sorts of questions popped up inside my head.

After he left me like a nobody in class, he walked to the cafeteria together with Nakata-kun. They ordered some food from the menu and sat at a table he ordered the Miso-soup menu, I never tried that option. Then I saw Nakata-kun’s girlfriend joining his table with another girl, it looked like they had a great time.

Nura-san was sitting beside me while we had our food, as we always sat next to each other in the cafeteria. But didn’t notice me looking at them.

When the bell rang Nura-san have gone ahead as she wanted to be the first in the classroom like the true classroom representative she was. And then he appeared in front of me to tell me that I should stop looking at him, how did he know I was watching him?

The next day, I was walking beside Yori on our way to school.

“Another confession?” She asked when my phone rang.

It was my mother that sent me a text not to forget about going to the supermarket to buy some vegetables for today’s dinner.

“Nahh, just my mom telling me to do something after school.”

We arrived at the main gate and saw the new student enter ahead of us.

“I hate him,” I said to Yori.

“Why’s that? I don’t dislike him.”

“What! You don’t hate him, Yori? He has done rude things to you!“ I said with an angry tone.

“I don’t think so, he has his way of thinking. He clearly said he doesn’t want any bonds, that’s why he is so bold to everyone.”

I looked at him while he entered the school

“Yesterday, I showed him around the school. Then a small inconvenience took place, Kojima-san and Obara-kun from Class B spoke abusively to Nage-kun. He ignored them and walked passed them, then suddenly Obara-kun swung a right hook at him, but he blocked this hook with his palm, this fast reaction got me amazed,” She continued.

I looked at her with full disbelief.

“Do you mean he almost got into a fight?” I asked.

“Yeah, but he had this dominant look on his face, so Obara-kun just stepped back and followed Kojima-san.”

Kojima-san left? She isn’t the type to let it go, she must’ve seen something at that moment.

We both took our seats in class and waited calmly for the teacher to arrive. After a little while, Misaki-sensei came through the door.

“Everyone sit down on your seat, I have some important news about the upcoming test.”

The remaining students that were standing quickly took their seats when they heard our home-run teacher speaking.

“In about two weeks from now, there will be an exam. This exam will determine who is eligible to join the school’s team for the first year’s award.”

I waited for a long time to hear about the school competition, that’s my reason for enrolling in this school. I want to win the grand prize and get access to the best university in the whole country.

I want to join the team.

“This exam will be a written exam, so you need to study for it if you want to have a chance to join the team. This team consists of seven students per year, which means that the second and third years also have seven students that will participate in the competition.”

I have to join the team.

“There are in total four prizes that a school can win, one for every year students. For example, if our first-year team wins over all the other school’s first years teams we get the ‘First-Years Award’ for the school and it’s the same for our other years. Then the school with the most overall points gathered from all the years in the competition will win the grand award: ’The Best High School of The Year’ that is what we as a school are going for.”

I need to join the team.

“That’s all for homerun, we start with the class now so take your textbooks out.”

My dream is to enroll in the best university. I’m going to do everything that I can to join the first-year team!

It was time for lunch so I and Yori waited in line to order our food.

“We both want the French omelet menu and two coffees with it please,” Yori told the clerk.

“No, I want the miso-soup menu.”

Yori looked at me while she slightly tilted her head.

“Rumi you always order the French omelet menu…— Are you sure?”

“I just feel like trying the miso-soup out,” I said

We paid for our food and drinks and sat at a nearby table, many students were looking at us.

“It’s so frustrating being watched all the time, I can’t even eat in peace,” Yori said a little frustrated.

“Just ignore it, after a while, you get used to it,” I said while slurping the broth of the miso-soup.

In the beginning, it was bothersome. All those eyes constantly watching me every step. But after some time I just got used to it and accepted it.

“I thought you hated soup? You never ordered this before, why the change?” She asked.

While we walked into the cafeteria I saw Nage-kun ordering the same thing again so I wanted to try the same thing.

“I just felt like it okay!” I can’t tell her that I wanted to eat the same thing as Nage-kun. I glanced over at his table and saw that the same three people as yesterday were at his table, the remarkable thing was that Sashi-san cheeks were red, while she listened to them three talking.

The bell rang, time for the next class.

Just as I got up I felt like Nage-kun looked at me for a slight moment, did he notice me again looking at him? That can’t be possible this time I did my best not to stand out.

The last lesson just finished and it was time to go home. “Let’s go home together Rumi!” Yori said to me with a friendly smile.

“I can’t I need to get some groceries for my mom.”

“Ahhh, yes I forgot that. I see you tomorrow then!”

I said goodbye to her at the school gate and walked towards the supermarket.

While I paid for the vegetables that my mother asked for, I spotted Nage-kun walking with flowers. I decided to follow him and see where he would go, I kept my distance, so as not to stand out.

After some time following him, he entered a neighborhood and walked up the stairs to an apartment. He knocked on the door and waited for someone to open it when the door opened, a girl appeared.

I was stunned. This girl had dark brown hair and light blue eyes, she was simply beautiful. Did he lie about having a girlfriend?