COTE: A Mute Guy

Vol. 4 Chp. 1: End Of Peaceful Days

'You shouldn't worry about me being a bridge between you and Horikita. It would be best if you gave her some time. It was already difficult to have her admit that we were allies and friends.'

Hirata laughed, "I understand. The morale of the class is soaring. I think the number of students who like Horikita-san has also increased, which is a huge change from before."

"Right now, I feel like together with me, Horikita-san, you, and everyone else working together, we can climb up to Class A," Hirata says optimistically.

'Hirata... I'm no leader, but I will help the class.'

"I'm sorry, I invited you out here only to listen to my selfish request; let's eat, shall we?" Hirata said.

Perhaps he noticed, too, but after a while, Hirata also became aware that someone was approaching us and looked at me with an embarrassed face.

"Ah... so you were here, after all, Hirata-kun. Let's eat lunch together!" A happy voice called out to us.

It was Karuizawa who was approaching us.

"Umm... Karuizawa-san, I called you a while ago to tell you about canceling the lunch, but..." Hirata was stumbling over his words.

Karuizawa and her friends pulled another table and joined it with our table, but Karuizawa quickly pushed me out of the group.

The lunch suddenly became rather noisy.

I picked up my food and quietly left.

I returned to my room with no one to hang out with or talk to. I used the stairs instead of the elevator to return to the ship to the third floor, where my room was.

I noticed wet stains in the corridor. It wasn't just my room, but the stains stretched through the corridor. I walked along the stains, following them, and noticed a man walking gracefully through the corridor wearing nothing but swim pants. His entire upper body was naked.

Kouenji...

"S-sir! If you walk through the corridor while wet, this is a problem for us!" One of the staff, noticing the emergency, rushes down to talk to the man. The staff member was already carrying a towel as if he'd always been carrying it in situations like this.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. It looks like you've found me," Kouenji declared.

"Yes, sir. It's the fourth time I've found you like this. I've told you countless times before, but please wipe your body off before returning to the ship. D-doing something like this will greatly inconvenience the other guests," the staff said.

"Ah, if it isn't Silent-kun? What a coincidence," Kouenji grinned.

"I will excuse myself," the staff boy said as he shuffled away.

"It looks like my fan has left," Kouenji stated.

'He was attempting to give you a towel since you're wet.'

"I see. So he was attempting to take care of me?" Kouenji noted. "

I nodded.

I opted to turn right instead of left and chose to return to my room some other time. Hirata, Yukimura, and Kouenji, who also share my room, should be returning shortly. Instead, I went to the nearby guideboard on which the ship's map was illustrated clearly, describing the various escape routes in case of an emergency. As I listlessly walked through the corridors on the second-floor area, it seemed there were not many students at this time. Then the mobile phone in my pocket vibrated. I took it out to see that I had mail. A certain girl had called me out. Since I had nothing better to do, I accepted and headed out to meet her.