CH 45

45. Talk with the other groups 1

At my raised voice, all the conversations in the class disappeared… not to mention, everyone looked at me in an instant.

This is a lot of attention…

But I can’t be scared here.

I was nervous, but I had an experience receiving this much attention in the original world.

It was when I appeared on the big stage at a judo tournament.

There should be more of this in the future. How can you be so nervous just by the size of the class?! Get a grip!

After scolding myself, I took a deep breath.

“Everyone, thank you for the self-introductions last time. It took me a while, but I’ve finally read them all.”

For a moment, the classroom was noisy.

I could faintly hear “He really read it?” here and there, so it wasn’t a bad reaction.

“I understand how everyone feels. And so, I thought that I would like to know more about all of you… not just by sentence in the paper, but by words from the mouth. A direct conversation.”

I couldn’t continue from there. My voice was drowned out as the classroom roared with “Woooo!”.

Somehow it reminded me of an idol concert.

I tried to raise my voice again, but gave up when I saw the girls slowly coming, without stopping.

The other classmates, who were outside the classroom, wondered what happened and joined them. Thus, the classroom was in an uproar.

Let’s wait for them to calm down first.

When I looked around, I found Atsushi in the corner of the classroom.

My bad. Really.

Anyway, I brought this up for a reason.

Going out to the central station shortened the distance between me and my group members.

As the friendship deepened, it became possible to speak naturally in the classroom.

I was relieved to have someone I could talk to normally in high school. So, my opinion about this group system was a good one.

In the original world, there was a time when I went to a festival. There, I played the scooping fish game. When I tried to scoop the goldfish in the tank, I was fascinated by the goldfish swimming inside, and couldn’t use the scoop well.

At that time, my brother told me, “Don’t look at the whole tank.”

And that was the thought I had about this group system. It was to narrow down the boy’s focus so that he wouldn’t be lost.

However, this system also had its drawbacks. This was especially noticeable in this high school where there were only a few boys.

The girls outside the group had to keep their fingers in their mouths when a boy talked with his group members happily.

In long term, this would increase their stress level.

The more friendly I talked to the group members, the more I got along with them, and the more the frustration of the other girls piled up.

And that was not my intention.

Then what should I do? I just needed to make the opportunity to talk to them. That was the answer that came to my mind.

But, I realized something after I went out with my group to the central station.

If a boy created an opportunity to get to know them, they would take advantage of it. No matter what the reason.

However, as expected, doing so all at once could lead to a negative result.

And even I wouldn’t be able to handle a severe effect, and it might cause trouble for Atsushi, my only male friend.

So, I was thinking of taking the time and going step by step.

I had plenty of time after all. I was vaguely thinking that it would be nice if I could get to know everyone before the summer vacation.

However, given the current state of affairs, it wouldn’t be a problem to advance the plan a little. At least that was what I thought.

Because I felt that the longer that I put this matter off, the deeper the riff between my group members and the other girls.

Thus, I started the plan to deepen friendships with my classmates.

Specifically, from today onwards, I decided to talk with each group in the common room that the student could use. To be honest, this wasn’t my idea.

Personally, I thought it would be nice to have a few people talk in the classroom after school, but after a girl came to me and said, “How about doing by group?”, and before I answered, another girl said, “I’m going to reserve a common room”, before running out. Really fast.

It reminded me of a ninja I saw in a movie.

After that, a fierce rock-paper-scissors game was about to begin, so I intervened, saying “Let’s start from group 1” and calmed them down.

“Even if it’s by group, it’s not compulsory. I don’t want you to misunderstand that. If you have any urgent things to do on the day, or if you don’t want to talk to me, you don’t have to join.”

I told them so, but to be honest, I thought that even people with plans would cancel them and force themselves to join. Well, that would be their problem.

◇

After school, I went to the reserved common room.

There were a few of them and anyone could use this place if they applied.

It was a plain room with only one table inside. Each person would need to take a folding chair. When they were done, they would need to clean it before returning the key.

In front of me, a group of five people was sitting side by side.

Why does it feel as if I’m gonna do a group interview?

“Hmm, can you sit more relaxed? Like, let’s form a circle.”

When I told them so, they sat down around the table. And I was made to sit in the birthday seat.

Guess it’s time to show my skill, “blowing the fire out in one breath”?…Anyway, who will be the first?

“…I’m the leader, Akemi Yoshimura. T-thank you fow…”

Yoshimura-san stuttered.

Hearing that, I thought that I should take the lead and make them relax. Actually, I was nervous too.

“Well… the reason I created this opportunity was that… I wanted to deepen my friendship with everyone as soon as possible.”

After much thought. I tried to speak as friendly as possible.

For some reason, I felt calmer when I knew that there were people who were more nervous than I was. I could even see their faces, even their eyes if I wanted to.

The five of them seemed very nervous, but from what I knew, they all lived in a Special Ward. So, it was quite unexpected.

“Since I went to an all-girls school up till now, I actually don’t have a lot of experience talking to boys…”

Yoshimura-san muttered embarrassedly.

“Ah……”

…Right, not all girls living in the special ward can attend the co-ed school.

Elementary and middle schools decide the number of female students according to the number of male students enrolled, so those who fail are inevitably sent to all-girls schools.

“…Well. you can talk about anything freely… Even if I said so, I don’t think you know what to talk about, right…? Hmm… is there anything you find difficult? Life, studies, exercise, hobbies. It doesn’t matter even if it’s about a relationship, or if it’s just about clearing a game. If you have one, you can say it.”

Perhaps my suggestion was surprising, they all tilted their heads. But, one of them quickly raised her hand.