Making Friends

As they entered through the entrance of the school building, they had to change their shoes. Yoichi and Keiko tried to find their respective shoe locker.

Each class has their own arrangement of shoe locker so they went into the small aisle for their class. On both sides were shoe lockers. It was for Class 1-C on the left side and Class 1-D on the right side.

Since they were both in Class 1-C, they searched their name tags on the right-sided lockers.

They started scanning each locker and after a few seconds, Yoichi was the one to detect his name first.

"Ah, found mine.....and what a surprise."

He had a mocking grin as he called over his sister.

"Keiko! Over here!"

Her head veered right and he saw his brother signalling him to come over. She approached him and looked at what he was pointing at.

Her face went into full disappointment mode.

"Ugh..."

Next to Yoichi's locker, there was a name tag that read 'Morita Keiko'.

"Seriously?" She sighed exasperatingly.

Since their lockers were close together, that means that their seating arrangement would also be close together.

With a grin on Yoichi's face, he proceeded to lock arms with Keiko like a girlfriend would do to his boyfriend.

"It's like we are fated to be together!!"

His overflowing enthusiasm irritated Keiko to the core. She felt like Yoichi's annoying level peaked.

"Buzz off!"

She tried to get rid of his arms but he was strong enough to be not fazed by her flailing.

In addition to her weak attempt of getting out of his brother's clutches, people around them would glance in their direction, intrigued with their relationship.

"People are looking!" She whispered furiously so that only Yoichi could hear.

"Oya? Are you embarrassed? How cute~!"

It only fuelled Yoichi to not get away from her. Teasing Keiko was a hobby to him. Furthermore, at this moment, he had an opportunity to make this more worthwhile.

Some people who were close by thought of them as a young couple and some who were afar and watched the commotion thought that the boy was bothering her.

None of them was correct, however, there was a certain someone that knew of their relationship.

"You are as close as ever."

Interrupting Yoichi's pestering behaviour, a tall boy approached the siblings and grabbed Yoichi's attention.

Using this chance, Keiko escaped from his brother's grasp quickly, which made Yoichi displeased.

"Ah, that's not fair!"

"You are so persistent!"

Yoichi wanted to scold whoever called out to them.

"You-?" Well, he was in for a surprise.

"Good morning, Yoichi."

Keiko, who hasn't yet noticed the boy, recognized that voice instantly. Her ears started to become red, redder than the embarrassment her brother made her feel.

'Eh? He is here? Is that actually him? Eh? E-Eh? What do I do!? I'm panicking!'

Keiko's mind was in shambles. She could turn and look at that boy but she had to be prepared mentally to see his face.

"Good morning to you also, Keiko-chan."

His sweet voice entered Keiko's ear. She screeched shamefully in her mind. She wondered how his voice can make her reach this state.

She mustered her courage and minimised her blushful face to face that boy.

It was so sudden and she did not think to meet him here, that is why she was finding it difficult to cope with her emotions.

Finally, she turned her head to him, looking as indifferent as possible, and greeted that boy.

"G-Good morning,...Asahi-kun."

Asahi is a tall guy, around 180 cm, has black eyes, brown hair, a good looking face and a sturdy body.

Basically, a handsome guy.

Since Yoichi was beside Keiko, he could see her ears drowning in red. Though, Asahi does not notice it because it was covered by her long black hair.

He knew about her attempt of being indifferent. It is not working too well for her but it was enough to deceive Asahi.

Yoichi wanted to expose her real feelings in front of Asahi. However, he retracted that idea given the current state Keiko was in.

If he did what he was thinking, then her head would explode.

So, he casually conversed with Asahi.

"I never thought we would be in the same high school. You told us you were going to another school."

He had a wry smile and explained his situation.

"I was going to, but at the last second, there was something that came up so I got here instead."

"Heeeee~" Yoichi's mischievous smile emerged and Asahi got a bad feeling about this.

He leaned near Asahi's ear and whispered, "You came here because of Keiko, right?"

To that, Asahi had an awkward laugh.

"Please do not tease me like that...Haha..."

Seeing that Asahi was uncomfortable with whatever Yoichi spoke to him, Keiko pulled his brother away from him.

"Stop inconveniencing Asahi-kun! What were you saying to him?"

"Hahaha...Nothing, just a boy's talk."

"What a pervert!"

"How am I a pervert now!?"

"Because that's all your brain could think of."

Before they could argue any further, Asahi intervened.

"Stop arguing. We are going to be late for class."

"...S-Sure."

Keiko agreed to his proposition and Yoichi reluctantly followed those two.

..........

"Wait. We are in the same class?"

"That seems to be the case."

Those three stood in front of class 1-C's door.

Keiko was surprised to see that Asahi was going to enter the same class as them.

'Well, aren't you happy?' Yoichi thought as she realized the fact that they were going to be classmates.

Asahi opened the door and revealed other students amongst the cacophony of talks.

They were already getting to know each other since it is their first year. They want to know as many people as possible.

Some even made a small group already.

This is like a miniature version of society.

Nobody noticed their arrival since they were too busy making friends. It was a good thing for them because they have time to look at where their seats were without any disturbance.

On the blackboard was information that they were looking for. Yoichi and Keiko went up front of the class with Asahi in the lead.

Asahi looked on the blackboard and informed the siblings.

"I am up front, near the door."

"Hahaha! You won't get the chance to sleep."

"That sucks."

"Where am I...?"

His eyes scanned the blackboard and detected his and Keiko's place simultaneously.

"Hmm... Seems like Keiko's seat is on the last row, in the last seat. Whereas for me, I am just in front of her."

Yoichi turned to Keiko and stated.

"Good for you, you are in the best seat ever."

"Hah? What are you blabbering? Anywhere near you is irritating."

"Gahaa-!??! ....huh....My heart.....it hurts...!!"

Keiko looked at Yoichi apathetically, "So exaggerated..." She decided to ignore him and went to her seat.

"...See you..... later."

She glanced at Asahi as she waved him off. To that, Asahi replied with his radiant smile and waved her off too.

"Later."

She quickly turned her head to hide her blushing face. She walked fast to the back of the classroom, towards her seat.

"Oi wait, don't ignore me!"

Yoichi followed Keiko behind leaving Asahi upfront. His seat was also upfront so he did not walk much.

As soon as he sat down, a boy noticed his presence. Asahi's good looking face and friendly demeanor made him approach Asahi comfortably.

Initially, they hit it off pretty amazing and they went to being friends so fast. Naturally, one by one, others started to flock like flies around a light bulb.

Meanwhile, the siblings already took their seats and got their eyes on Asahi attracting most classmates.

"Your boyfriend was popular in middle school. He still is now." Yoichi leaned backwards to Keiko.

"I-Is that so?"

She felt a sense of proudness as she said that. Dating a popular boy would instil some kind of pride or fulfilment for getting a partner like that.

Keiko was indeed, proud of being the girlfriend of Asahi.

It was quite a privilege for her.

"But isn't that bad if you look at the whole picture?"

"What do you mean?"

"If he is going to be that popular, then it is obvious that..."

"Hm?" Her sister was confused about where this conversation was going.

Yoichi wanted to share the possible scenario with her.

"...If a girl decides to flirt with hi-"

"That would be a huge problem."

The corners of her lips dropped. Her eyes lost light, enveloping Yoichi with an abyssal glare.

The atmosphere around her dropped too whereas her apathetic expression peaked.

"Oi Oi~ Don't make such a scary face. I am just stating a hypothesis that may or may not happen in the near future. It hasn't happened yet."

"The tiniest thought of that irritates me."

Although the tone of her voice sounded calm, he thought that came out from the depth of Hell.

"Ma Ma~ Calm down. Someone might see you."

".....Okay..." She snapped back and glanced at the group gathered around Asahi's seat. Then she veered to Yoichi's face.

All this time, Yoichi faced Keiko with his usual happy-go-lucky expression.

Keiko sighed again and warned his brother.

"Onii-chan, I know you like to tease me but that was going too far."

"I can't help it, that's just my bad habit. Hahaha! I'll remember it from now on."

"It would be way better if you get rid of that habit once and for all. Gosh..."

"Hahaha!! I just can't. Well, I have to say in advance, you have to let people know that Asahi already has a girlfriend, which is you. So that way, you can prevent anyone from attempting to flirt with him."

"Oh, such a straightforward method. I like that."

"You see? Your Onii-chan can be helpful sometimes."

"Don't get too ahead of yourself."

While their usual exchange continued, a boy looked at the group near the entrance of the class door and was surprised.

"Uwaaaah.....What's going on?"

With a concerned gaze, he observed the commotion. The siblings heard that boy mutter to himself while he proceeded to sit down.

The reason why they could hear him mutter was because his seat was next to Yoichi.

He wore a red jumper inside the brown blazer. He was as tall as Yoichi, maybe a bit taller and had a good body ratio. He had brown eyes and long brown hair which fit his good looking face, but not as handsome as Asahi.

"Ah, hello."

He noticed and greeted the siblings first. Yoichi took the initiative.

"Hello! My name is Morita Yoichi. What's yours?"

Yoichi leaned his back against the wall next to him and turned his whole body to that boy.

With his laid-back posture mixed with his cheerful response, the boy felt comfortable with Yoichi.

He raised his voice a bit higher for him to hear more clearly.

"My name is Sugiyama Ren. It is good to meet you."

"Good to meet you too," Yoichi pointed at Keiko behind him and introduced her also, "That's my sister, Keiko."

"I can introduce myself." Keiko's hand wanted to slap the back of Yoichi's head but she refrained to do so.

"As my brother said, my name is Morita Keiko. It is good to meet you."

"It is good to meet you too," Sugiyama responded casually.

Keiko remembered something important that she had to inform Sugiyama first and foremost.

"By the way, you can call me Keiko and him Yoichi."

"Immediately on a first-name basis?"

Keiko elaborated her suggestion.

"We do not want to get confused since our last names are the same."

"Oh, I see. Then I will be cautious with that."

Yoichi barged in and declared.

"Then we should call you Ren-kun. I don't like it since you are the only one calling us by our first names."

"No no it is fine." Sugiyama nervously put his hands and waved them off, saying they did not need to do that.

"Ren-kun, I'm looking forward to our school years together."

"Me too, Ren-kun." Keiko agreed with his brother on calling him by his first name.

"...Haaa....." Ren was dumbfounded as he saw the stubborn siblings making their own decision.

Well, it did not cause any trouble for him so he allowed them, unwillingly.

"More importantly, why were you so anxious when you saw that group."

Yoichi pointed at their classmates surrounding Asahi.

"Ah, that? I am not very good with crowds. In fact, I am glad my seat is up here with fewer people gathering. I am just.....shy...a bit."

"Shy? HAHAHAHA!! What the hell does that mean? You are talking normally with us!"

"I mean in crowds, I rarely talk!"

Sugiyama was flustered by Yoichi's mockery and tried to alleviate the matter but it did not go as he planned.

That was because Yoichi was laughing at Sugiyama's contradictory statement.

Just then, a girl came into their view and sat behind Ren, besides Keiko.

She had a stern look that went well with her pretty face and brown eyes. Her long black and silky hair swung majestically as she tried to fix her hair.

As soon as she sat down, Yoichi immediately tried to greet her in his manner since she sat near them.

"Hello! You sat on the best seat since you are close with us."

He was as friendly as he could sound. Even Ren was surprised by Yoichi's way of greeting someone.

But...

"On the contrary, this is the worst."

"Eh?"

Keiko and Ren were shocked by that girl's reply.

The bewilderment that Yoichi experienced was immense.

"Did.....I say something...wrong?"

"...."

"...."

"...."