The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall

Episode 7

Third period was Japanese, and it passed for Sorata in a long blink of the eye. (1)

As she moved to exit the classroom, the teacher Shiroyama Koharu hit Sorata lightly on the head with a binder, and roused him from his desk.

"Come on, don't sleep so openly in the front roooww~~."

A coworker of Chihiro's, Koharu both looked like and talked like a rather fluffy fluffy type of character. For that, she drew a lot of fire from some the girls in the school, while she was insanely popular with some of the boys.

She could often be found around the school together with Chihiro, and it was quite well-known how close they were. Perhaps it was because Chihiro was often the one seen dragging the less responsible Koharu around, but Chihiro had been labeled as the level-headed one. Not that Sorata agreed with that.

"Sensei's lullaby was just so sweet, and you know..."

"Oooooo, talking like that even though you were the only student who didn't turn in their career survey... I'm gonna tell Chihiro-chaaaannn."

Puffing out her cheeks in dissatisfaction, Koharu left the classroom.

Without even watching her leave, Sorata collapsed onto the table.

"Uuuuuughhhhhhhh....."

"Hey, Kanda-kun. Would you please refrain from being an eyesore and groaning like that in my presence? You're going to infect me too."

The person who had come picking a fight was Aoyama Nanami, a girl who had also been in Sorata's class last year. Just like her tone, she had a stern-looking face. She looked every bit like an honors student, and if she had to be compared to a cat, she would be an Abyssinian. She was of average height, around 158 cm. (2) Her weight was unknown. According to Jin, her three sizes were 81, 58, and 83.

Her seating number was one. And, after Akasaka, Asano, Ikuta, Ogikubo, and Kawasaki, Kanda Sorata was number seven. So in a class with six columns of six seats each, Sorata sat right next to Nanami in the front row. They had been in the same arrangement the previous year as well.

Nanami didn't seem like she was finished, and watched Sorata.

Sighhh...

"Don't sigh either!"

"The classroom is one of the only places I can feel at peace. Give me a break."

"This is the thirty-sixth time."

"Hmm?"

"Thirty-sixth time you've sighed."

"Aoyama, you stalking me?"

"I'm going to kick your face in."

"Nobody around here says 'kick your face in,' you know." (3)

"I-I know that..."

It wasn't just Nanami, who came from Osaka, but many students came to live in the Suikou dormitories from other areas of Japan. Around half of Sorata's class had come from out of the prefecture to take the entrance examination.

If Nanami talked normally, she would fall into a heavy Kansai accent (4). It was like that a year ago. But now, in order to master standard Japanese, she forcibly kept her accent back. This made sense considering Nanami aspired to be a seiyuu (5), and in that line of work intonation was the most basic of the basics. Over the past year, the awkwardness of her standard Japanese had improved by quite a lot, but that didn't mean it was impossible to detect the Kansai accent when she spoke. It seemed that over the weekends, she was in the midst of receiving special training at her office, for her accent and for other things as well.