Thump. Thump. Thump.
Then, it was Albert's turn.
Act normal. Don't say nerdy words. Hope that they will ignore me.
Albert stood up nervously.
"I'm Atherton Albert," he said.
"So, do you think Sterling-san has a girlfriend?" a girl two rows away whispered to her friend, completely ignoring Albert.
"I don't know, but Tachibana-san seems close to him," the friend replied.
"I like... computers and manga," Albert continued.
"Man, I hope I can sit near Tachibana-san during lunch," Fujita whispered to Koenji.
"Quiet, Fujita," Koenji hissed.
"Nice to meet you all," Albert finished.
He sat down.
Nobody looked at him. Kuzumi-sensei was already looking at his attendance sheet, waiting for the next person.
The whispers about Leo and Maya continued uninterrupted, effectively forming a wall of white noise that swallowed Albert's existence.
Perfect. The signal-to-noise ratio was less than 0.1. My vocal amplitude of 60 dB was completely masked by the 75 dB ambient chatter regarding Leo and Maya. I have achieved social stealth during the self-introduction phase. I am a statistical outlier that has been discarded from the dataset. Tactics I learned from psychology textbook actually worked.
Then, the last student stood up.
It was the girl by the window.
The sound of a chair scraping against the floor was sharp and deliberate.
Suddenly, the whispers died down. It wasn't out of admiration, like with Leo, or affection, like with Maya. It was a primitive reaction to a sudden drop in temperature.
She stood straight, her posture rigid. Her long, black hair was cut in a straight line (hime-cut), framing a face that showed absolutely no micro-expressions. Her skin was pale, contrasting sharply with the dark uniform.
She looked at the class. Her eyes were dark, observant, and cold—like a microscope slide examining bacteria.
"Himuro Leina," she said.
Her voice was low, flat, and devoid of inflection. It carried no emotion, no desire to be liked, and no social invitation.
She paused for three seconds. The silence in the room became heavy.
"I dislike noise."
She sat down and immediately opened her thick book again, effectively building a fortress wall between herself and the rest of the world.
The class remained silent for a full five seconds.
Kuzumi-sensei blinked, looking up from his sheet. "Right. Okay. Cheerful bunch."
Himuro Leina. Introduction length: 5 words. Social impact: High negative pressure. She just utilized a social 'cold shock' response to establish dominance over her personal space. By explicitly stating a dislike for noise immediately after the class was buzzing, she targeted the group behavior directly. Effectively, she just told thirty-nine people to shut up without raising her voice. Impressive efficiency.
Albert looked at his desk.
To his right, the radiant sun (Leo) and the glowing moon (Maya).
To his left, a black hole (Leina) that absorbed all light and sound.
Thermodynamics alert. I am the thermal bridge between a heat source of 1,000 degrees and a heat sink of absolute zero. The thermal stress on my structural integrity is going to be catastrophic. This is going to be a long year.
Kuzumi-sensei leaned against the chalkboard, checking his watch.
"We need a Class Representative," he said, his voice flat. "It's a clerical role. You attend the meetings, you relay the minutes, you keep the attendance log. Any volunteers?"
The silence was heavy. In a room of forty strangers, nobody wanted the unpaid labor.
"If no one steps up," Kuzumi-sensei sighed, "I'll just appoint a student randomly. How about you, Sterling? Do you want it?"
Leo leaned back, his chair creaking. He shot a playful glance at Albert. "Actually, sensei, I think
Atherton Albert is a better fit. He's meticulous. He notices things the rest of us miss. I nominate him."
"I second that!" Maya added, turning in her seat to smile at Albert. "He's the most reliable person I know."
The class shifted. The students who had been ignoring Albert now stared. The social pressure was a physical weight—a "soft" coercion common in group dynamics.
"I—no," Albert stammered. "The administrative overhead... I'm not the right choice."
"The nomination is on the floor," Kuzumi-sensei said, picking up a pen. "Atherton, if your friends are vouching for you—"
"This is an irrational allocation of labor."
The voice was quiet but possessed a high-frequency clarity that cut through the room. Himuro Leina hadn't moved. Her book was still open, her finger marking her place.
"Sterling-san's nomination is a misuse of the representative's primary function," Leina stated. She didn't look up, making the statement feel like a reading from a manual. "The role isn't about 'noticing things.' It is about influence. A representative must exert social pressure to ensure the class follows directives. Based on the initial data that I've visually seen, Sterling-san already occupies that spot; his commands carry a natural weight."
She finally closed her book with a muffled thud and looked at Kuzumi-sensei.
"By appointing Atherton-san, you are choosing a path of high friction. By appointing Sterling-san, you achieve immediate compliance."
The room went cold. She hadn't insulted Albert; she had simply categorized him as a "low-influence variable." It was more brutal than a joke.
Leo went completely quiet. His usual relaxed smile vanished. He stared down at his desk, his jaw tight. Down by his side, hidden from the rest of the class, his hand was curled into a tight, trembling fist.
"Exactly," Albert said, his voice barely a whisper. "He is the best choice."
Kuzumi-sensei scribbled a name on the board. "Fine. Sterling, it's you. Moving on. We need to discuss the cleaning duty schedule."
As the class returned to their low-level buzzing, Albert exhaled. The adrenaline was still receding.
Albert looked to his right.
Maya had her elbow resting on her desk, the heel of her hand pressed against her forehead. The angle cast a dark shadow over her upper face, completely hiding her eyes. To anyone else in the room, she probably just looked tired, or maybe sympathetic about what had just happened.
But she was dead, still. The bright, cheerful girl from a minute ago was completely gone. I noticed her other hand resting on her lap. Her fingers were digging so tightly into the fabric of her skirt that her knuckles were pure white.
Feeling a sudden chill, Albert quickly looked away from her and turned to his left instead.
"Thanks," he whispered. "You really saved me there."
Leina didn't turn. She was already back on page 142.
"I didn't save you," she said, her voice clinical. "I corrected a systemic error. If a bridge is designed for a five-ton load, you don't put a ten-ton truck on it just because the driver is 'reliable.' You'd just be waiting for the collapse. I simply don't want to deal with a collapsed class."
Time: 10:15 AM | Location: Zenith Academy Campus
Since there were no classes for the rest of the morning and the teacher allowed anyone to go outside, Albert decided to walk around the campus.
Maya and Leo wanted to go with him but he said he will go to the men's restroom and just buy water. He convinced them to stay.
He slipped out the back door of Class 1-4.
The hallway was already buzzing. Students were standing in small clusters, laughing loudly and exchanging contact info. The sound of their chatter echoed off the polished tile floors.
Albert navigated through the noisy crowd.
In anime and manga, the first day of high school is always full of random encounters. The most famous one is the rooftop scene. The main character goes up there to escape the noise and finds a mysterious, beautiful girl standing near the fence.
He climbed the stairs to the top floor, the noise of the crowded hallways fading the higher he went. He grabbed the handle of the heavy metal door and pushed it open.
The roof was completely empty. There was nothing but gray concrete, humming air conditioning units, and the distant sound of traffic from the streets below. He stood there in the breeze for ten minutes, watching the door handle. Nobody came.
Albert let out a sigh, went back inside, and walked down the stairs. He started looking for a vending machine area.
Another classic trope is finding a cute girl sleeping on a bench near the drinks, or maybe someone who needs help getting a stuck juice box out of the machine.
He found a row of brightly lit vending machines humming at the end of the first-floor hall. A couple of upperclassmen were loudly debating what soda to buy, but there were no sleeping girls or stuck juice boxes. Albert just bought a bottle of water, the coins clinking loudly in the slot, and walked away.
He kept wandering through the corridors, sidestepping students carrying boxes for club recruitment. He was actively looking for an accident to happen.
With around twelve thousand students on this campus, the probability of a random event happening isn't zero. And besides, I am so curious about high school. In romcom manga that I read a lot of times, the first day of school usually has the lucky first encounter. I'm dying to test that theory even though I know it is pathetic.
Albert was staring far away, spacing out about the theory, when suddenly, a sweet voice called.
"Hey!"
Albert ignored it because he thought the girl was talking to someone else but the girl continued to speak.
Of course it's not me. Why would a girl talk to someone like me.
"Why are you ignoring me?"
Albert froze.
Endnote of Chapter 3
The Psychology of Being Ignored
Albert being ignored (social stealth) during his self-introduction is explained by three cognitive and psychological concepts:
*The Contrast Effect: Human perception is altered by immediate comparison. Because Albert introduced himself immediately after the highly charismatic Leo and Maya, his baseline average presence was perceived more negatively. When evaluated next to positive extremes, standard traits register as deficient.
*Selective Attention (Inattentional Blindness): The human brain has a limited capacity for processing information. The class was hyper-focused on analyzing the high-value social stimuli of Leo and Maya. Consequently, their cognitive filters classified Albert's introduction as low-priority background noise and failed to process it.
*Social Eclipsing: In group dynamics, highly dominant individuals monopolize collective attention. Members who are positioned sequentially or physically adjacent to these individuals experience a drastic reduction in social visibility, resulting in a total loss of the group's attention.
Logic Engine Log
These are the parts (elements) of the Psychology Math Equation that will be used in future chapters. The Logic Engine (Computer Software) will process (solve) these raw data to compute the character dynamics. It doesn't make any sense now but it will be crucial later in this universe's math of destiny. Without these logs, the future chapters won't make any sense.
Logic Engine Log of Chapter 3
Constants:
*Leo's angry reaction when Albert is looked down.
*Maya's angry reaction when Albert is looked down.