smile!

chapter 1 : first meet

"We have arrived, Seki-sama"

New school, new uniform, new color, new life, that's what she has in her mind right now. A wide white building surrounded by a lot of sakura trees, that's Sakurazaka gakuen, a place that she'll use to study this time for her last year in high school. It's already the third time for her to try a different high school, because of that incident on her 1st year of high school, she never felt comfortable with any school that she went to, gladly her parents still try to support their daughter by searching a good school for her, they're rich after all.

The driver went out of the car and immediately walked to the other side of the car to open the door. Seki stepped out of the car, she took her white bag and stood up in front of her car for a while to see her new school building and all of the surroundings more clearly. She blanked out, she remembered how her past two years experience of high school wasn't a good memory at all, and she already prepared herself to face another bad day in her last year in this school, she just need to be patient, that's all.

Her flashback immediately got ruined after she heard some girls voice who walked to the school gate. She could see a lot of students from every side of the road walking towards the same school as her with all of those bright, white uniforms. Seki turned and faced her driver, she gave him a small bow and then walked forward to the school gate because even though she doesn't really care about school anymore, of course she doesn't want to get a problem on her first day on this new school just because she was late for the class.

She walked straight towards the school building while trying to remember what she usually do on her first day every time she transferred to another school, just go to the teacher's room and meet the homeroom teacher — or at least that what she planned at first, until she realized that her new school's building is more bigger than she thought, and she couldn't find any school map or signpost around her either. Her previous school was big too, but at least they have a school map near the school gate, meanwhile here even though she already walked on the hallway for at least 15 minutes, she still couldn't find the room that she needed.

She was looking around for a while, thinking about what she could do about it. She could just continue walking around the school hallway and find the room by herself but she might be late for the class because of that, and she hate how her one and only solution in her mind was just to ask people about it, even though she already decided to talk with people as less as possible in her last year of high school, her plan immediately got crushed by her carelessness right before she start her first class.

She was already shy enough to approach other students and that's why she secretly hoped that someone would notice a new face and pretend to be friendly, just for a few minutes so that Seki will be able to find the teacher's room, find her homeroom teacher, start classes, and pretend that she's invisible.

Still walking around clueless about the room, the students around her started to lessen as it was almost time for classes. Seki certainly did not want to be left alone in the hallways because that would just attract more attention.

Suddenly, there was a loud voice that interrupted the whole place and shocked the transferee herself.

She looked ahead and saw this short-haired girl, grinning from ear to ear and greeting everyone that was in her way. Her voice was so loud that Seki could hear what she was saying to their fellow schoolmates from where she was standing. She was a bit envious of how outgoing and friendly that noisy girl was, a total complete opposite of Seki's personality.

"Good morning!"

Seki was once again surprised by the loud volume that made her and the unfamiliar girl match eye contact. She got nervous when the girl's expression changed to a confused one. Within that second of eye contact, Seki shifted her gaze downwards, hoping that the noisy girl wouldn't mess with her.

And of course, she didn't know who the girl was, so it was bold of her to assume that she won't be approached.

"Good morning!" Seki released a shaky sigh when she saw another pair of shoes in front of her and hear that cheerful tone. She looked up again and now see the noisy girl, grinning at her.

"G-good morning.." the transferee timidly greeted back.

"You're new, aren't you? Surely you are. I've never seen you here before." Seki was wondering how this girl doesn't get tired of smiling. At this rate, her cheeks should be hurting by now.

"Seki Yumiko", the girl read the transferee's name tag slowly before pointing to her own, showing it off proudly.

"My name is Inoue Rina! nice to meet you Seki Yumiko-san", she then bowed very lowly making Seki a bit confused of why she would do that. Inoue looked embarrassing like that to be honest, but it seemed like the other students around them were used to seeing the girl like this.

"Ahh it's hurt!" Inoue groaned when she was back to stand up straight, and when she finally back to her comfortable position, she went back to smiling like an idiot.

No one knows what's wrong with this girl.

"Nice to meet you too.." Seki gave a curt nod, avoiding eye contact with the weird schoolmate.

"So, which class are you in? Are we in the same year? Oh, I haven't even told you about which year I am in", Inoue chortled, continuing to talk about random personal things. Her chattiness is making Seki even more anxious so the girl had to gather courage and just ask about the teacher's room.

"U-um.. Excuse me!"

Seki abruptly interrupted, making Inoue stop talking. Seki turned red because she just realized how rude that was. She was about to blurt out an apology when she just noticed how Inoue's eyes glowed when she talked, not minding about how Seki cut her off like that. The girl hummed in response, anticipating what the transferee had to say. Seeing that Inoue was looking at her like that, Seki had to avoid her gaze yet again before she coughed and told her schoolmate of the business she has to take care of.

"I need to get to the teacher's room before classes, but I don't know where it is" Seki shyly admitted and Inoue's mouth forms an o.

"You must've missed it, it's on the first floor. At the other end", Inoue said and Seki wants to hit her own head because of her carelessness. Why did she even go to the second floor right away when usually the teacher's room is on the ground floor.

"Ah, i get it. Thank you". Seki nodded and bowed, wanting to go meet her homeroom teacher and go to classes. Away from that girl who calls herself Inoue Rina because she doesn't know anymore how to respond to her weird and random actions.

"I would be glad to accompany you!" Inoue cheerfully offered but Seki declined politely. Telling her that she could go find it by herself and thanked her once again. Leaving Inoue standing there with an intrigued expression.

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hello! 

Thank you for reading this fic. This story have been on my draft for 2 years, and big thanks for my friend for giving me an idea for this fic and even wrote it with me together since 2 years ago. The update might be slow because i'm kinda busy nowadays, but i will try to keep writing for the update when i have a time. Enjoy!