After arriving at school, the morning was uneventful, and before long, it was lunchtime. Hayakawa ran into Furuhashi on his way to the library and called out to her to join him for studying.
"What's wrong, Furuhashi?" Hayakawa looked at Furuhashi, who was walking ahead of him, and was puzzled. He quickly caught up to her to look at her face.
"Tch!" Furuhashi Fumino quickly turned her head away, refusing to look at Hayakawa's face.
Hayakawa was a little confused. Furuhashi had been inexplicably gloomy since the morning, and now she was ignoring him outright. This wouldn't do; they couldn't continue their study session like this.
"Are you angry?" Hayakawa Haku asked, walking around to Furuhashi's other side to look at her.
"I'm not angry," Furuhashi Fumino immediately replied, but when she tried to turn her head away from Hayakawa again, he reached out and gently held her head. Instantly, a pretty face with puffed-up pink cheeks, like an angry hamster, appeared in Hayakawa's sight. Her sulking was obvious.
"You are angry after all." Hayakawa quickly let go. With that expression, Furuhashi might bite him the next second.
"I said I'm not angry!" Furuhashi Fumino smiled, but the sound of her teeth grinding was audible.
Hayakawa Haku: "…"
"However, even though I'm not angry," Furuhashi Fumino looked at Hayakawa with a strained, insincere smile. "I still hope Hayakawa-kun won't show too much favoritism. Of course, I don't care at all, but if Hayakawa-kun does that, his reputation might be questioned if word gets out."
"What exactly do you want?" Hayakawa Haku was expressionless. "I don't recall ever showing favoritism toward anyone. I'm always impartial and fair to everyone, alright?"
"…" Furuhashi Fumino stared at Hayakawa for a long time before awkwardly spitting out two words: "The train…"
"The train?" Hayakawa Haku paused, then suddenly realized. He looked at Furuhashi with some helplessness. "You don't want me to give Ogata special tutoring, is that it?"
"I never said that! Rii-chan's studying is very important, of course," Furuhashi Fumino immediately denied it, but then her tone subtly shifted, and she whispered, her face slightly red, "But only Rizu gets individual tutoring time. You can't be so unfair."
"Uh." Hayakawa Haku thought, Didn't you ask me to pretend I didn't know you on the train? Now you're demanding individual tutoring time? I teach both of you together. Where am I supposed to find time for individual tutoring? Should I sneak into your room in the middle of the night to tutor you?
Hmm? Furuhashi's room?!
A light bulb went off in Hayakawa Haku's mind, and the image of the blue suitcase appeared.
Isn't this a perfect opportunity to inspect her suitcase for contraband? I'd have a legitimate reason to enter her room!
Oh! What a great chance!
"Eh, fine." Hayakawa Haku feigned reluctance and nodded. "Then I'll see if I can manage it tonight."
"Mph…" A tiny hint of a smile appeared on Furuhashi Fumino's face, only to vanish instantly. She tilted her head back with a dignified air. "Hmph, it's not that I care, but it's absolutely necessary for the sake of studying."
When did you get a 'tsundere' trait?
Hayakawa Haku led Furuhashi to the library with an expressionless face, where they joined Ogata for another day of studying.
"I'm going to the cafeteria," Hayakawa glanced at the time and said to Furuhashi and Ogata.
The cafeteria at Ichinose Academy was notoriously inconvenient, primarily due to the massive student traffic. All grades finished class at the same time, causing three grades plus some teachers to enter the cafeteria simultaneously. Since there weren't enough serving lines, it often led to long queues that wasted time. This was the case even though the school provided a small shop selling boxed lunches to relieve the pressure. Fortunately, while the cafeteria had few serving lines, the variety and quality of the dishes were sufficient, so students didn't have to eat leftovers.
Because of this, a unique lunchtime scene emerged at Ichinose Academy: first, the sprinters who rushed at the sound of the final bell of the morning class; and second, the students who, after failing to get food, simply gave up and waited until everyone else was done before slowly heading to the cafeteria. The former group had several cases of students getting injured from falling, and the latter often resulted in students oversleeping and missing lunch entirely.
Hayakawa Haku belonged to the latter group. Not wanting to waste time queuing, he went to the library to study first, then timed his visit to the cafeteria later.
As for Furuhashi and Ogata, they usually bought stir-fried noodle bread or similar items from the small shop to manage lunch. Hayakawa previously thought this was because they couldn't study while eating like him and were unwilling to waste precious study time during lunch on a full meal, which made him quite pleased.
But after the morning train incident, Hayakawa suspected Furuhashi was simply worried about her reputation and was afraid of being seen entering the cafeteria with him.
How troublesome, this Furuhashi girl.
"One grilled meat set, plus a bowl of udon soup, and an orange juice, please," Hayakawa Haku said at the serving line. After getting his food, he carried his tray and started looking for a seat.
Even though he had studied for a while, the cafeteria was still crowded, which showed how severe the lunch seating pressure was at Ichinose Academy. It seemed a cafeteria reconstruction project was urgently needed.
Finding an empty spot in a corner, Hayakawa sat down and began eating while looking at his vocabulary book, as he always did.
"Excuse me, is this seat taken?" A sweet and cheerful voice suddenly spoke next to Hayakawa's ear.
"No, feel free to sit," Hayakawa said without looking up, concentrating on the English notebook in his hand.
"You're studying so seriously. Are all students at Ichinose Academy this hardworking?" Someone sat down opposite him, followed by a sigh of admiration.
Hayakawa looked up and saw that two girls had sat down in front of him, two very cute girls who looked exactly alike.
One had silky red hair that fell to her waist and beautiful deep blue eyes. She was proper, gentle, and adorable. The girl with star-shaped hair clips and a serious expression had a slight baby face. The other girl, who wore a green ribbon, had a bright, carefree smile and looked physically very flexible and healthy, brimming with vigorous energy.
Hayakawa's expression didn't change when he saw the girl with the star clips (Itsuki), but when he saw the girl with the ribbon (Yotsuba), his expression briefly faltered.
Twins.
"And you are?" Hayakawa Haku asked, looking at the two.
"We are transfer students who just transferred to Ichinose Academy yesterday. I am Nakano Itsuki, and this is Nakano Yotsuba," the girl with the star hair clips introduced herself. "Because we didn't know how the school cafeteria works, we're only eating now, and we couldn't find a spot, so we had to bother you by sharing a table."
"It's no problem." Hayakawa lowered his head to continue studying, unconcerned. "Help yourselves."