6 Chapter 6: Meditation at a Peaceful Rice Paddy

Classes flew by swiftly on the second day at Advanced Nurturing High, with Sudou sleeping through most of them, and Yukio waiting for an opportunity to begin his plans.

As mathematics rolled around right before lunch, Yukio, confident in his academic abilities from his previous life, decided to enact his plans. Focusing in this particular class would be optional henceforth.

Jotting down an unreserved question, Yukio signalled to Chiaki with a hand gesture. When the girl became aware of his blatant attempts at seeking her attention, she looked at him dubiously.

The teenage boy then passed the note over to the girl, providing a clear view to the students seated behind him.

Chiaki quickly read the note, becoming even more confused at the eccentric actions of her desk-mate, before exasperatedly filling the note with two phone numbers- hers and Nene's to be exact.

Yukio had asked for their numbers, given the fact that they had hung out all day yesterday and it wouldn't come off as inappropriate or misleading to do so.

Once the note was passed over to him, the seemingly unruly teenager brought out his phone and didn't bother to check if the teacher had seen him doing so. He placed the phone in a conspicuous position and added the contacts of the two girls to his register.

While Chiaki watched him with mild interest, Yukio side-eyed the idiot trio, consisting of Ike, Yamauchi and the currently sleeping Sudou, to his right.

'Now I just have to keep this up until at least one of them notices, before operation sabotage class D is complete.'

As he waited for one of the boys to notice his presumptuous actions, he made a group chat with himself, Chiaki and Nene as the participants. Sending a brief waving gif to the chat, he eyed Ike looking over at him in curiosity.

The boy leaned forward to tap Yamauchi and directed the confused boy's gaze towards Yukio's phone. The, now enlightened, teenager looked at the maths teacher who seemed uncaring about the blatant disregard for classroom manners before looking back at Ike with a grin and raising his thumb.

Pocketing the trusty phone, Yukio gave himself a mental pat on the back at a job well done.

— — —

By the end of math, the atmosphere in the classroom was relaxed, with the math teacher concluding the class, and the many studious and not-so-studious students packing up for lunch.

"Hey, Yukio-Kun! What was that in class just now?"

Chiaki exclaimed to a meek Yukio who was rubbing the back of his neck, while Nene approached the duo from her seat in the front row.

"Hey, Yukio-Kun. Why did you make a group chat in the middle of class?"

Nene asked, two parts bewildered, and one part excited. Chiaki looked at him pointedly and decided to reply to Nene in his stead.

"That's exactly what I am trying to establish Nene-Chan. He randomly asked for our numbers in the middle of class, pulls out his phone, and makes a chat, all in clear view of the teacher."

Nene looked at Matsushita like she was mentally ill, before realising the rankled girl was not lying. Swivelling her head back to the tall, foreign boy still sat down and surrounded by two girls on either side, she had a sparkle of mischief in her eyes while looking at him.

"My, my, Yukio-Kun. I didn't take you for that… type of person. It seems you're hiding quite the delinquent behind that friendly facade."

While saying her piece, the confident girl grabbed onto his firm biceps and gave them a light squeeze.

Yukio was ashamed to admit the situation, with Nene's sudden mature look and words, as well as the random hold on his muscles, had made him slightly excited. The growing flush on his cheeks was immediately dispelled, however, when an even more exasperated remark came from the girl on his right.

"Hey, stop teasing him Nene-Chan. And you, Yukio-Kun! Explain yourself, please. I'm still confused here you know, while you're off being seduced willy-nilly."

Yukio deflated at the back and forth between the two girls as he hardly followed the conversation. Sighing deeply, he looked toward both of the girls. Chiaki had her arms crossed in wait, while Nene winked at him playfully.

"I was just testing something, to be honest. I noticed the teachers didn't care that Sudou went to sleep, so I decided to test the waters by using my phone. It seems now that we're not in compulsory education anymore, the teachers aren't concerned whether or not we focus in class."

'A decent smoke screen to hide the actual reason- destroying the class's classroom manners. I used that final explanation from Ayanokouji's thoughts on the situation in the light novel though. While it logically makes sense, it doesn't account for the 'evaluation' we discussed yesterday. I wonder if either of them will pick up on that.'

Chiaki looked conflicted while Nene looked thoughtful but ultimately, neither of them decided to continue on the topic.

"Well then, why don't we head over to the cafeteria to get something to eat?"

Suggested Chiaki, who had recovered from her thoughts.

"That sounds good. Just wait a moment while I grab my bento."

Replied Yukio, who got up to retrieve the wooden box he was not accustomed to.

"Bento? Did you buy it from the convenience store?"

Questioned Nene, curious about when he had the time to do so.

"The box? Yes. I made the lunch though."

"You can cook, Yukio-Kun?"

Cooking wasn't a skill that was rare among the students of Advanced Nurturing High since many of them would have prepared for the dorm lifestyle, but Nene was still curious.

"Yep, I have been doing so for years now Mori-san."

After retrieving his bento, the trio made their way towards the cafeteria, through a bustling corridor filled with first-year students.

"Years? So I suppose your lunch tastes good, Yukio-Kun?"

Asked an intrigued Chiaki.

"I guess so. It's mostly about nutri-"

"Hey Kobayashi-Kun, Mori-san and Matsushita-san. Are you guys also headed to the cafeteria?"

The trio turned around to spot a group led by Karuizawa, who had asked the question, and a lone boy- Yosuke Hirata.

"Yep, we were just headed there now. Are you guys going there too?"

Replied Chiaki.

"Yes, would you like to join us?"

The group consisted of the three girls from yesterday and Hirata. I wasn't too fond of the idea of joining them, but I reasoned I could at least finally have a long conversation with a boy of my age.

The trio of friends looked at each other. With Nene nodding and Yukio shrugging his shoulders, Chiaki turned back and accepted the proposal.

As they made their way to the cafeteria, Hirata fell into step with Yukio, desiring to interact with another male classmate.

"Hey, Kobayashi-Kun. Nice to meet you! I was a little surprised at the familiarity between Karuizawa-san's group and your group."

"Nice to meet you too, Hirata-Kun. The six of us hung out at Keyaki mall yesterday so we became quite close I guess."

Yukio watched Hirata's facial expression slowly turn to one of admiration as he looked at Yukio, which the 18 turned 16-year old boy understood and quickly replied-

"Hey, don't look at me like that! I struggled with the five of them yesterday. It's not easy. Though, the girls in our class have a particular passion when it comes to accompanying you so it must be tough. Good luck!"

And while laughing insidiously, the duo found a table and lead the group there.

Once everyone was sat, some conversation was exchanged, to which Yukio replied when he saw fit. The group was very large at this point and so the dominant personalities of Karuizawa, and the all-encompassing and friendly Hirata chatted the most at the table.

The conversation naturally leads to the attitude of the teachers, with Nene asking-

"What did you guys think of the teachers? They seem really… relaxed."

"They are friendly, aren't they? But, weirdly, they don't care about our behaviour."

"Mhm. Did you see red hair-Kun sleeping through every class? The teachers barely even glanced at him."

Satou and Shinohara said, adding their observations of the lax teaching environment.

"Honestly, who cares? I saw Yukio-Kun and some boys at the back on their phones and the math teacher said nothing. So I don't think there are any rules at this school. Hm… I wonder if we can cheat in the exams as well?"

Adding her own astute observations of the class, weirdly enough from students sitting behind her, Karuizawa put an interesting theory forward.

"But don't forget that they might be evaluating us, remember?"

Reminded Chiaki, while feeling odd about the way she could vividly picture the classroom discipline deteriorating in the future.

Her reminder brought the mood of the table down, as each of the girls brooded upon the idea of being evaluated raised in yesterday's mall exploration.

"I don't know what you guys are referring to by this… evaluation, but what I do know is that we can get through it if we all work together. So let's not worry too much right now."

A few of the girls looked at the blonde-haired boy with doughy eyes, while he radiated friendliness and maturity fit for the class representative in the light novels.

"You know, Hirata-Kun. You would make a great class representative. I can see the class turning to you when we face any problems in the future. Please take care of us."

Karuizawa agreed with Yukio, who mock bowed, while the girls parroted their compliments to the embarrassed teenager, and with some further light conversation, the lunch break was nearing an end.

'Karuizawa has been looking between me and Hirata oddly quite a few times when she thought I didn't notice. That's weird. I wonder what's up? My senses can smell a troubling situation. Hm… I'll leave the thinking to later.'

"Will you be going to the club fair later Hirata-Kun? You were planning to join the football team, right?"

"Yes, I was, Yukio-Kun. Why don't we go together? Are you planning to join any clubs?"

"I'm not too sure. I was considering a martial arts club, though I would like to see the options available in a Japanese school. Why don't you girls join us? It would be fun to see what the fair is all about anyway."

And with the confirmation received from the entire group, the seven class D students made their way back to class for the afternoon lessons.