Shizunomiya Natsuki should have been studying with Yamano Yuta right at this moment.
But he had been taken away by his friends.
Which resulted in them not being able to study together.
Shizunomiya Natsuki knew in her heart that if she had insisted on Yuta-kun coming to the library with her, he would have agreed.
However, doing so would have caused friction between him and his friends. Yuta-kun's popularity at school was average—neither bad nor particularly good—and those guys were the ones he hung out with.
She didn't want to be the reason for any unpleasantness between them.
But this was just letting him be for now; with finals approaching, she would definitely make Yuta-kun study hard at least by tomorrow.
While Shizunomiya Natsuki was making these plans and solving problems, she heard someone sit down beside her.
There were many people in the library, but it wasn't full; at least half the seats were still empty—but for the Hachijojima High School library, this could already be called a bustling scene, something only seen when finals were approaching.
Shizunomiya Natsuki didn't find it surprising that someone sat next to her.
But she still snuck a glance at the person.
In fact, there had been someone in this seat just a moment ago.
It was just that the previous student seemed tired of it and left early... Shizunomiya Natsuki understood her advantages in appearance and knew that many boys in this school had a crush on her. She only hoped that the person sitting next to her now would behave properly and, at the very least, not disturb her studies.
As it turned out, one look was all it took for Shizunomiya Natsuki to reveal an expression of astonishment.
It was Hayato.
...It should be Hayato. Shizunomiya Natsuki couldn't be sure at first, until she blinked several times and realized that the person who sat down was indeed the boy Nanao Akane had brought back from out of town. But why was he wearing a Hachijojima High School uniform?
Obviously, he couldn't be a student here.
Shizunomiya Natsuki watched Hayato sit down, adjust his chair, and then rummage through his bag, pulling out a series of things: reference books, textbooks, test papers, and a pencil case.
Just as he put the cap on the end of his pen and prepared to write, the tip of his ballpoint pen had already slid onto the white paper.
He seemed to sense something, his thick eyelashes trembled slightly, and those somewhat listless eyes turned toward her.
Then, he locked eyes with Shizunomiya Natsuki.
"...Ah." Hayato made a faint sound.
Perhaps because the library itself wasn't very large, the seats were very close to each other.
Between him and Shizunomiya Natsuki, while they weren't exactly elbow-to-elbow, it was no more than thirty or forty centimeters.
But even so, he had only just realized that the person sitting next to him was actually Shinomiya.
How should he put it? It was slightly awkward.
Hayato thought of a scenario.
The sun was setting.
He was walking along the river embankment reading manga, and because the breeze was just right, he prepared to walk down to take a short break on the grass of the embankment and properly read the manga.
When his attention was entirely on the manga, he belatedly noticed something.
After he sat down, there was a literary girl sitting seventy or eighty centimeters in front of him.
In the vast lawn, he had coincidentally sat right next to her.
The literary girl might think he was interested in her, which was why he specifically chose this spot...
What... is he trying to do? Shizunomiya Natsuki's attention immediately pulled away from the problems.
Hayato had indeed helped her before, but in Shizunomiya Natsuki's view, even if he hadn't intervened back then, she could have handled Oshika Masaru herself. As a result, the gratitude in her heart had faded quite a bit.
The remaining gratitude wasn't enough to make her hate him, but she really couldn't bring herself to like him either.
First, it was because he was good-looking.
She had to admit, apart from the idols she saw on TV, Hayato was probably the most handsome boy Shizunomiya Natsuki had ever seen... Perhaps compared to idols, he was no less impressive.
Second, he came from a big city.
Yuta-kun always blindly worshipped people from big cities, but Shizunomiya Natsuki was particularly wary of them.
Third, good looks + big city created the impression that he was a ladies' man, and in fact, he hadn't even bothered to ask about the situation before beating up Oshika Masaru and saving her—and she, Shizunomiya Natsuki, was indeed a fresh flower.
This made Shizunomiya Natsuki have to wonder what exactly Hayato's intentions were.
Be vigilant, be vigilant.
And then, he just brazenly appeared again, less than fifty centimeters away from her side.
Moreover, under normal circumstances, this person would absolutely not appear in the Hachijojima High School library.
It was hard not to suspect what he was up to.
Shizunomiya Natsuki felt she had been looking for too long; even if he really was up to something, staring like this wasn't very polite.
So, just as she was about to look away, she saw Hayato curl his lips, as if wanting to explain something.
"The wind is really noisy today."
Shizunomiya Natsuki:?
Then she saw Hayato lower his head and start writing furiously.
Hayato had originally wanted to explain to Shizunomiya Natsuki why he was here, but after thinking about it... Explain my ass, what a waste of time!
His time was precious; he came to the library just to study Japanese ancient history.
Dammit, why did he transmigrate to Japan instead of America?
If it were in America, people were still hanging on trees three hundred years ago—why would he need to study any damn ancient history!
Seeing Hayato start studying as if no one else was around, Shizunomiya Natsuki bit the end of her pen and began a new round of contemplation.
She heard from Nanao that their school should be releasing results today... Could it be that Hayato had poor grades and was forced by Nanao Akane to come and study?
Thinking about it this way, it made sense. As for him happening to sit next to her, perhaps it was an unpleasant accident, or maybe he only realized she was here after entering the library and sat over on purpose.
At least it was alright; he wasn't intentionally coming for her.
Otherwise, she would really be in a difficult position.
If he did anything inappropriate, and she beat him up, it might make things awkward with Nanao Akane. Although her relationship with Nanao Akane was just average, they were neighbors after all.
But if she didn't beat him up, she felt like she was letting Yuta-kun down.
Thinking of this, Shizunomiya Natsuki smiled slightly, and the heart that had been hanging in suspense settled down.
She was just about to focus on solving the problems when she immediately noticed something wrong.
At the same time she withdrew her gaze, Hayato next to her wasn't studying properly anymore, but was casting a burning gaze... onto her!
Shizunomiya Natsuki wasn't wrong!
Hayato was indeed staring at her!
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