May 10th, Monday.
Class 1-B's room was filled up with students. Their bustling conversations echoed across the place. Ayanokouji Kiyotaka was currently hanging out with his friends, Miyake Akito and Sudou Ken.
"Oh, Kiyotaka, Ken. Get this, I actually hit a bullseye last Friday," Miyake shared with a smile.
"That's pretty sick, eh? Ahh... I miss playin' basketball already. Can't you just implant yer knowledge into my brain, Kiyotaka?" asked Sudou.
"If I could do that, then I would've done so already," Ayanokouji replied with a shrug.
The noise gradually lessened but the three boys didn't really notice. The overall decrease in the sounds was caused by the girls. When they heard Ayanokouji's first name casually getting used by Sudou and Miyake, they were instantly intrigued. They abandoned their previous conversations and started whispering amongst each other.
"T-They're using Ayanokouji-kun's first name!"
"Oh my god! I want to, as well!"
"Kiyotaka... Such a cool-sounding name..."
"Ahh~, Kiyotaka-sama~!"
Apart from the girls' reactions, everything was fairly normal until their other friends, Sakura Airi and Hasebe Haruka, arrived at the scene.
"Oh, there you guys are! Good morning, Miyacchi, Kencchin, Kiyopon!" Hasebe greeted her three male friends with a smile.
The girls felt a disturbance in the force the moment they heard her.
"K-K-K-Kiyopon?!?!"
"What in the-?!"
"I'm so jealous!"
"I want to be tutored by him too! The amount of benefits is too much!"
"I wonder how she feels like, being so privileged."
The meek Sakura Airi bowed her head lightly and greeted the boys as well.
"G-Good morning, Ken-kun, Akito-kun, Kiyotaka-kun." It was her first time greeting boys using their first names with such feelings. At that moment, Sakura felt like they were really friends.
"Ahhh!!!"
"Even Sakura-san got ahead of us!"
"So enviable!"
"Kiyotaka-kun!"
"Kiyotaka-sama! Kiyotaka-sama! Kiyotaka-sama! Kiyotaka-sama!"
If it weren't for the other boys' loud conversations, the girls' whispers might've been audible to Kiyotaka himself.
July 1st, Thursday.
About half of the class were inside the room, feeling restless and happy. After receiving 78,900 points this morning, the students of Class 1-B began talking about it nonstop, both in the class group chat and in the classroom.
However, when the class's one and only Kushida Kikyou entered the room, the students' attention shifted to an entirely different topic.
"Good morning, Kikyou-chan!" greeted Mii-chan.
"Kikyou-chan!"
"Heya, Kikyou-chan~!"
Kushida was a very friendly girl. It was a natural occurrence for most of the class to greet her when she enters the classroom, much like the class's pretty boy, Hirata Yousuke, and their class leader, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.
"Oh, Kiyotaka-kun, good morning!" Kushida greeted with a beam.
Ayanokouji was busy talking with his friends, but of course, he noticed Kushida's momentous entrance. When she greeted him so intimately, the atmosphere of the entire classroom froze.
"Good morning, Kikyou..." Ayanokouji greeted with a nod.
"O-Oh! First names! You two have gotten really close, huh?" said Onodera Kayano.
"Like, so clooose~!" followed Azuma Sana.
"Well, I guess it was only a matter of time. I mean, we call each other by our first names or nicknames too, right, since we're close friends?"
"You're right!"
"Ahaha, that's true!"
Ayanokouji's female friends, Hasebe and Sakura weren't in the room yet. They would've been surprised by this, too.
The other girls weren't as shocked compared to that time when the two of them called Ayanokouji by his first name...
"I guess this would've happened sooner or later..."
"I was shocked, but after thinking about it for a bit, I'm actually surprised that they only decided this now."
"I wonder if something happened to progress their friendship like this?"
However, the boys thought differently. Yamauchi Haruki and Ike Kanji led some boys towards Ayanokouji's group, looking displeased.
"Ayanokouji, you snake! How dare you make moves on Kushida-chan like that?!"
"You did something behind our backs, didn't you?!"
The other boys didn't look as bothered, but of course, they were also curious (and envious).
"What? Why does it matter? It's just names," he mused.
"The hell? Why do you guys even care? You're not even that close with Kushida. Who're you to question what's happenin' with them?" barked Sudou.
"Wh-?! Don't involve yourself in this, Sudou. Ayanokouji has been in an alliance with us. We had a pledge!" said Ike.
"A pledge?" Even Miyake was confused.
"Yeah! You told us that you didn't like Kushida-chan, right, Ayanokouji? You broke that oath!" replied Yamauchi.
"First of all, that wasn't an oath or a promise. I just answered your questions. And my point still stands. I don't see her that way. I don't even see anyone that way..." Ayanokouji looked disinterested as he himself.
"As if we're gonna believe that! I bet this whole first name thingy was your idea!"
At that moment, Kushida approached them curiously.
"Is everything alright?" she asked. "I thought I heard my name, so I got curious."
"O-Oh, Kushida-chan we were just-"
"They're houndin' Kiyotaka because he's calling you by your first name or somethin'. I dunno, but they're noisy so it's annoying me," Sudou spoke with an irked expression.
"Wha-- Sudou!" The boys panicked instantly.
"Ah... I was the one who asked Kiyotaka-kun for it... Is there any problem?"
"N-No! We just got curious so we decided to ask him about it. Ahaha!"
The boys backed off with dejected expressions on their faces. It seems like they were thoroughly defeated.
"Well, it's Ayanokouji, so I guess it's only natural." was the only thing they could think of to justify this defeat.
At that moment, Kiyotaka thought; "First names are a pretty big deal, huh?"