"Everyone, can you please listen to me for a moment?"
As the boy stood up to address the class, everyone turned to look at him. I guess there was a kind of natural leaderlike quality to him that drew everyone's attention.
"Starting today, we're all going to be classmates. Therefore, I think it'd be good for us to introduce ourselves and get to know each other as soon as possible. It'll be good for the whole class to be better friends, don't you think? We still have some time until the entrance ceremony. What do you say?"
It was a little quiet at first, most of us thinking over his suggestion, and a few murmurs of agreement could be heard being passed around. It wasn't until someone else also spoke up that people started being more open with their own opinions.
"I think that's a great idea! After all, we're going to be classmates for the next three years, so it'd be nice to get to know everyone. We don't know anything about each other, not even our names," Kushida said.
Once two attractive and social had spoken up, the ice was broken. Everyone, who had been terribly hesitant just moments ago, began to voice their own opinions as well, mostly in support of the idea.
"My name's Hirata Yousuke. Back in junior high, lots of people called me Yousuke, feel free to use my first name if you'd like! My hobbies include a lot of sports, but I especially like soccer. I played soccer in junior high and I'm planning on playing it here, too. Nice to meet everyone!"
Short, to the point, but also shows a lot about his personality. I could already tell that Hirata will be really popular with girls. Hell, the one next to him is practically already drooling. It'd be nice to have someone like him be the "leader" of our class.
Seems like a pretty nice guy just off first impressions.
"Well then, I'd like everyone to introduce themselves, starting from the front. Is that okay?"
The girl at the front of the class looked panicked. Like a frightened rabbit, she shrunk into herself as her eyes frantically darted all over the class as if looking for a place to run away. Feeling the pressure from all of the eyes on her, she slowly got up and stood in place, slightly shaking.
I couldn't help but feel a little bad.
"S-so...um, m-my name is...Inogashira Koko--Ko..."
This Inogashira girl seemed to be on the verge of tears as she stumbled over her words in an attempt to form a coherent sentence. It was rare to see someone get so nervous.
"It's alright, take your time!"
"Don't panic! You're doing great!"
Words of comfort and kindness began flowing from all corners of the class and I barely managed to suppress a snort that threatened to escape my mouth and nose. If anything, they were just making the situation worse for the poor girl.
Five seconds passed.
Then ten.
And then another.
Some of the girls began giggling and whispering to one another, which certainly did not help in the slightest. My eyes then trailed over to watch Kushida, who had left her seat to comfort the frightened girl. She pat Inogashira on the shoulder and whispered a few comforting words of advice that I couldn't quite pick up. Judging from the way her lips moved, it seemed to be something along the lines of "It's alright, just take your time. You don't need to rush anything." After that, Inogashira whispered back a word of thanks before Kushida returned to her seat.
