𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓
You walked back to the main course building, waving goodbye to Hinata and Nanami, the latter still focused on Gala Omega as she waved goodbye. She was probably going to be late to her class. The bell hadn't rung yet, so you walked a little slower, heart heavy. For some reason, seeing how Hinata had focused on watching Nanami play her game and the fact she was so good, upset you in a strange, but not unfamiliar way. You never were able to show off your talents.
Fujimoto was a figure skater. Maeda a paranormal investigator. Akagawa (who you had a terrible interaction with when you had mistaken him for a girl) was an abnormally amazing liar. Ishikawa an instrumentalist, Kazuki a cosmetologist, Kato a volleyball player, Airi a criminal psychologist, Akihiko a doll maker, Gen a puppeteer, Hachimitsu a clock maker, Ruruka a confectioner, Seiko a pharmacist, Sonosuke a blacksmith. Everyone had a talent they could actually show off. Everyone except for you and Maki, the SHSL lucky student. You guys had momentarily bonded over that source of insecurity, but it was all you really had in common. He was a generally dry person, so your "friendship" never went past that one moment.
At some point while your thoughts had spiraled, the bell had gone off and you had already made it to the classroom. Once more, you push those dark thoughts to the very back of your head and walk in. The class filled up not long after. Airi turned to you as she sat down.
"Do you think Mr. Himura's gonna be on time today?"
Fujimoto walked in behind Maeda, sitting on his desk. "Is he ever on time?"
Airi looked down in defeat and you smiled. "I suppose not..."
𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐅𝐄𝐑
Within roughly 24 hours, you had successfully pushed your talent insecurities to the very dark corners of you mind. No late night crying or anything, so you definitely filed it as a win in your books.
"I hear we're getting a transfer student!" Airi skipped alongside you, Fujimoto, Akihiko, and Hachimitsu early that morning.
Hachimitsu brightened at this. "Oh? Did you see what they look like?"
"Sadly, no. It's just what I've been hearing."
"And who exactly did you hear this from?" Fujimoto questioned.
Airi hesitated before providing her answer. "Kyo Akagawa." This pulled a groan from all of you.
"Airi, he's a major liar. The best, in fact. He's didn't get the title of SHSL liar for nothing." She pouted at your response.
"He'd never lie to me." You sighed as Akihiko patted her shoulder.
"Lets just... give him the benefit of the doubt, alright guys?" Akihiko suggested. "Who knows, maybe Akagawa was telling the truth!"
"For once." Fujimoto mumbled under his breath, earning a glare from Airi.
"You'll see!" Airi pointed her finger in Fujimoto's direction "The transfer student will be there and you'll eat your words!"
"I hope for a snack, because I'm starving." He smirked as Airi started wildly waving her arms at him, trying to get him to believe her. The entirety of the walk into the main course building was spent with Hachimitsu and Akihiko trying to calm down Airi and you trying to get Fujimoto to just... not respond like a smart ass.
By the time you three had accomplished that and had gotten Airi and Fujimoto to form a truce for five minutes, you had already reached the door to the classroom. You opened it, expecting there to be a new student, but, sadly, that was not the case.
"Huh, guys he really was lying." Fujimoto looked so smug.
"You better wipe that look off your face before I do it for you." Airi held up her fist menacingly, but you knew she was too soft to actually punch the guy, no matter how much he deserved it. Fujimoto held up his hands.
"Hey hey hey! Truce remember!? Truce!" Airi decided he wasn't worth it and just rolled her eyes playfully before walking to her desk. You, Hachimitsu, and Akihiko sighed in relief. Someday she'd punch him, you guys just knew it.
As usual, Mr. Himura was ten minutes late to class. He made it a point to never be fifteen minutes late because of one time when that'd happen and he had come to an empty classroom. Hey, if the teacher was fifteen minutes late, the class got to leave. That was just the rule. Himura took the role as he tried to get everyone to wear the tinfoil hats. Some students had given up and had joined Ishikawa in just wearing the cursed things.
"Satomi Setsushi?" He called out a name that they were unfamiliar with. You could physically feel the look of triumph on Airi's face and the look of disbelief on Fujimoto's. "Not here huh?" As he was marking the student as absent, the classroom door slammed open. Not as aggressively as Mr. Himura always opened it, but pretty close.
There, in the doorway, stood a navy blue haired girl who was breathing heavily. Her hair was messy, like she had just rolled out of bed, and in a braid that reached to about mid-thigh. She was like Rapunzel 2.0, except not blonde and shorter hair.
"Sorry I'm late." She huffed.
"Satomi, right?"
"Yeah." She breathed out. "Whew, I'm really out of shape." Satomi said it louder than she intended, but it made Kato snicker so any embarrassment she may have felt dissipated.
Himura smiled. "Would you like to introduce yourself?"
"Sure just-give me a second." She leaned over with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. When she finally did, she straightened up and walked over the the chalkboard and wrote her name.
Her handwriting is so pretty, jeez!
Satomi turned around the face the students. "Hey, I'm Satomi and I'm new here. Which you obviously knew I didn't have to state that haha." You noted that she seemed fairly awkward, but whether it was her personality or for comedic effect, you couldn't really tell. "I'm the SHSL Book Collector, though I don't really like reading books so much." She scratched the back of her ear. "I hope we can get along!"
"Thank you, Satomi. You can sit," Himura looked down at the seating chart. "next to Maeda. Yikes, good luck." He poked fun at the girl, earning a small laugh from everyone.
Satomi thanked him and took the seat behind Fujimoto, next to Maeda. You turned to smile at Satomi and wave in her direction, which earned you an enthusiastic wave in return. She definitely seemed full of energy.
Mr. Himura started his daily rant of whatever crazy conspiracy he had either found or made up, so you and most of your classmates just quietly talked to each other. You turned in your seat to face Satomi, Airi opting to half crawl over to her desk.
"I'm Airi!" She stuck her hand out in Satomi's direction and she took it, both of them exaggerating the shake, almost as if they had both planned that before even making contact.
"I'm [Y/N]." You said, shooting yet another smile in her direction.
"I'm Satomi, though you both already knew that." She laughed a little before trying to make eye contact with Maeda. "And you are?"
Maeda flicked her eyes in Satomi's direction before going back to furiously tapping whatever she was playing on her phone. "Maeda Natsuki." She still sounded just as dead and monotone as she had their first year. Maeda seemed to try to repel people's attention, staying as far away from everyone as she could. You weren't even sure if she hung out with anyone, let alone had any friends. Though, you could tell it was entirely by choice so you never felt too bad for her.
"What are you playing!" Satomi asked, leaning over in an attempt to see what it was. You and Airi watched in amusement, no one had tried to befriend Maeda since their first year, so this was a strange sight.
"A game." She was certainly trying her best to cut off any conversation with the blue haired girl, but it obviously wasn't working since Satomi knee-crawled over to her to see what she was playing.
"Bandori!? I love Bandori!" Satomi's excitement seemed to peak. "Who's your favorite band!"
Maeda made a few more taps before she stopped completely and looked down at her. "Poppin Party."
"Really! You seem more like a Roselia kind of girl."
"Well, I'm not." Maeda turned back to her game and put her other earbud in, turning up the music in a final attempt to cut off the conversation. This time it worked, because Satomi pouted and went back to her desk.
"Don't mind grumpy hoodie there, she's been like this since we met her." Fujimoto turned around in his desk. "I'm Fujimoto by the way."
"It's nice to meet you!" She beamed.
"Seriously, Maeda's not the easiest to be friends with. She won't let you have a conversation with her long enough!" You joked, earning a small laugh from the group.
"Oh, don't worry," Satomi started "I've never met a person I couldn't befriend. By the end of this week, I'll have cracked her shell and started on a one-way trip up to friendship town!" She shot her arm out, like it was a car driving on a road, and smiled at you. Her smile was blinding.
𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒
You decided to get closer with Satomi and show her around along with Airi. Fujimoto decided he was too antsy to get lunch so he ended up not joining you three. You were going to shoot a quick text to Hinata that you wouldn't be joining him (and maybe Nanami) for lunch thatday before realizing you never got his number. Making a mental note to get it later after school, you continued hanging out with your friends.
After school, you walked over to the reserve course building and waited outside the doors to catch Hinata. Many of the students stared at you, whether in wonder or envy, you were unsure, but it definitely felt strange. It didn't have the same ambiance as the main course. Here it was more.... solemn. You realized you hadn't ever been over to the reserve course building and you found it odd that you had only encountered one student from said course. It wasn't like it was that hard to just walk in.
Catching a glimpse of the familiar strange hair spike you had begun to refer to as an ahoge, you gently shouldered your way through the crowd before catching up to him.
"Boo!" You grabbed his arm to make sure you didn't lose him in the crowd (more so to ensure that you wouldn't get swallowed up). He jumped a little, looking down at you, shock written across his features.
"[Y/N]? What are you doing over here?"
"I just came to apologize for not hanging with you during lunch. I would have texted you, but I completely forgot to get your number." You smiled up at him.
"Ah, I see..." He trailed off, eventually gathering that you wanted his number, and he took out his phone, you doing the same. You guys quickly exchanged your numbers. "...What were you doing?"
"Hm?" You looked up in confusion.
"I mean, at lunch. Why weren't you there?" He scratched the back of his neck.
"Oh! We got a new transfer student named Satomi! She's really nice! We just showed her around school and stuff."
"Transfer student?" Hinata raised an eyebrow. "That's not very common in the main course, is it?"
"Now that you mention it, it actually isn't." You looked off in thought. "I wonder why she was scouted so late?" You shrugged it off though, moving on. "I'll ask her later I guess. Anyways, which direction do you walk?"
Hinata pointed to the right, just outside the school gates they were quickly approaching. "That way."
"Great! I walk that same way as well! Or at least that general direction." You laughed at his kind of vague answer to your question (though you'd later realize he answered your previous question, so was it really that vague?). "Would you mind if I walked with you?"
"Uh... no, I guess not. I'm not sure I'll be very good company but..." He trailed off and you lightly punched his arm.
"You'll be amazing company, don't sell yourself short." Hinata paused before giving you a small smile.
"Alright."
—
—AUTHOR'S NOTE.
whew ! another chapter out ! I'm doing good ! and this new bittersweet playlist i made really gives me that much needed motivation ! bless my new music finds. after listening to this playlist a bunch and roughly four cups of coffee, i finally finished it ! not gonna lie, since i hadn't written for these characters in so long, i completely forgot airi was the shsl criminal psychologist, like a fool. i also realized that i never mentioned class 76's shsl's ? which isn't too big a problem but i felt it was kind of important. but it's okay because that's been fixed !
anyways ! i hope you enjoyed this very, very late bittersweet update !