0𝙁𝙇𝙐𝙊𝙓𝙀𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙀ˢʰⁱⁿˢᵒᵘ

𝕘𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕗𝕠𝕠𝕕ᶠᵒᵘʳ

GOOD FOOD —

chapter four

"Saito..." Shinsou's voice was so gentle and smooth, it made Korei sit up a bit straighter when hearing. At first, she thought the quiet whisper was just in her imagination. I mean, she did have a tendency to drift off during maths class. "Saito!" There it was again! This time, she knew it wasn't in her head.

Turning in her seat, brown met indigo as their eyes locked. A small smile was on his thin lips. Korei glanced back at the front, seeing that the teacher had taken a seat now. His teaching was technically over and the rest of the class period was for completing the short personal survey provided. Most of the teachers were doing them so the kids flew through the questions. "Are you calling for me, Shinsou-san?" Her hand gripped the back of her chair, other hand fiddling with the hem of her skirt. She felt so uncomfortable as she hunched over herself.

"Do you have any extra lead? The pencil--" he lifted the black mechanical pencil and gave it a light shake to signal that it had run out. "--ran out." He wasn't about to tell her that he held the three pieces of lead tightly in his opposite hand. "Happen to have a refill? I still need to answer the last question."

"Oh, y-yeah! I'll get it for you." She leaned down to grab her backpack. Once again, she rummaged through it for the small case that held her lead refills. No one bothered to tell her that she'd be switching to strictly pen in less than a month. "Here," She held out three pieces of lead to him. "This should do the trick."

Shinsou was facing a serious predicament now. He had backed himself into a corner. He'd have to place the lead on the table to collect what she was offering, thus giving away his whole scheme. The boy just wanted to talk to the pretty girl in front of him! Deciding it wouldn't matter, he dropped the lead on the desk and then reached out for the other pieces. Korei noticed this and felt her brows furrow. Why would he lie to her about the lead? That's not very nice.

"Thanks," he spoke, his fingers brushing against hers and making her stomach flutter. Korei had never noticed that before. Perhaps she had gone too far with the crush? "You came pretty prepared, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I mean, it is school." She shrugged, putting everything back in place. Slinging her elbow over the back of the chair, she leaned a little closer to him. Shinsou didn't mind, subtly scooting his desk closer to her anyway. "My old school didn't provide anything so I didn't exactly know what to expect. Also, I didn't want the teachers to think I was a bad student."

"Heh," he chuckled, refilling the pencil with all six pieces of lead before sitting it aside. He had finished the survey a little bit ago, he just wanted a reason to talk to the green-haired girl. "Where was that exactly? Your old school?"

"Oh, uh, well, Veruna Middle is pretty close to Nabu Middle." Another shrug was sent Shinsou's way. He propped his head up onto his hand, listening to Korei's soft voice. She spoke so quietly that the teacher didn't even hear her. Shinsou could definitely fall asleep to the sound of her talking. "So it's near Kawaguchi but far enough away from Kawagoe for me to have to take the train there."

"So you live in Kawagoe?" He wasn't pressing her for the information, she was just handing it to him on a silver platter. He happily ate it up, enjoying the conversation. "I heard it's nice there."

"O-oh yeah! It's pretty neat there. I don't live in Kawagoe but my Gran owns a house on the outskirts. It's a really pretty place." She nodded, smiling as she thought of the city she grew up in. "It's relatively far away from here though, so I ended up catching the early morning train just to get here."

"Sounds like it was quiet," Shinsou hummed, gaze breaking from Korei as he observed the other students starting to get up. Had they been dismissed for lunch? He was so engrossed in talking with the green-haired girl that he didn't even notice.

"Yeah, it's relatively quiet. No one bothers anyone at that time. You see some interesting people on the train at four in the morning, though." Her giggle was cut off by the sound of chairs scraping on the floor. Korei fiddled with her right pig-tail, collecting her belongings and placing them into her bag. She didn't even realize that Shinsou was standing next to her desk until she stood up.

"You'll have to tell me more about it at lunch?" His question was more of a statement and it made Korei's stomach flutter. Did he actually want to talk to her or was he messing with her? Shinsou watched as she tugged her skirt down in the back, his eyes quickly darting somewhere else in the room. A soft pink dusted the tips of his ears as he realized just how bad that could look to anyone watching.

"Y-yeah, sure." Korei nodded, placing her bag in her chair before following Shinsou out of the classroom. As they walked down the hall, she couldn't help but mentally congratulate herself. She was talking to her crush! Sure, he didn't realize that they kinda knew each other but that's alright. "What type of food do you think they'll be serving, Shinsou-san?"

"Hopefully good food."

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