"So cute~!" Her cheek got pinched. 8:15 AM. In front of Nanakusa Middle School's main gate. Fujiwara Meriodasu was surrounded by a group of third-year girls in an instant. "We got to see you again! You're so tiny today too." "I'm actually cool though." "Huh? But you're cute, that's the thing." With their laughter echoing behind him, Meriodasu started walking quickly. Minazuki City Nanakusa Middle School—nicknamed Nanakusa Chuu—had about 480 students. Despite being near the coast, the uniform was a navy blazer with a red necktie that was honestly kind of embarrassing. But he'd gotten used to it. The problem wasn't the uniform. Fujiwara Meriodasu, 13 years old. Height: 152 centimeters. Deep brown eyes, black short hair, small and slender build. He didn't think there was anything particularly wrong with it. Didn't think so, and yet. For some reason, the girls in his class, his senpai, his kouhai— They kept calling him "cute." --- Before first period started, Meriodasu gazed out the classroom window. In the corner of the grounds, a single dandelion was blooming. The May mid-month sky was unusually clear. May in Minazuki was always like this. A gentle breeze blew from the southern sea, and bird calls drifted down from the direction of Kasuga Mountain. Warm and peaceful, it made you kind of spacey. (I'm cool, right?) He checked once in his head. No answer came. --- Lunch break. The cafeteria "Nanashoku" was at the east end of the first floor. Today's set meal was 420 yen. Meriodasu chose the 380 yen curry instead. He pulled out a chair and sat. Alone. It wasn't that he had no friends. He just felt like it today. He stirred the yellow curry with a spoon, thinking vaguely. (I wanna become a cool guy...) A desperate wish he couldn't tell anyone. If he said it out loud, it felt like it'd be over, so he kept it locked away in his chest. At the next table, a group of first-year girls kept glancing over at him. Meriodasu pretended not to notice. "Um, can we take a picture together?" Here it comes. "...Why?" "I want to line it up with this plushie." In the girl's hand was a white rabbit plushie. It was huge. A huge plushie. Meriodasu froze for three seconds. "...I'm not a plushie though." "But the size is perfect." "Don't take it." He refused flatly. But even after refusing, the first-year girl quietly pointed her phone at him and snapped the shutter. He heard the sound. "Thank you so much!" She left with a smile. Meriodasu took a bite of curry. It wasn't spicy, wasn't sweet—just ordinary taste. --- After school. Walking through the covered corridor beside the gymnasium, he was stopped by Yoshikawa, the soccer club manager. She was a third-year with good grades, the type everyone kind of looked up to. "Meriodasu!" "What?" "If you don't mind, could you help me hand out flyers? You look like a small animal so it's easy to ask—" Meriodasu stopped walking. Small animal. Like a small animal. "...Am I not cool?" "You're cute though?" "That's not what I meant." "Huh? What do you mean?" The conversation wasn't connecting. Meriodasu swallowed a sigh and took the flyers. --- After finishing handing out flyers, he left the school building around 5 PM. Their homeroom teacher Kiriya—26 years old, a new teacher who always messed up lesson prep—had said something during today's homeroom. "A transfer student is coming next Monday." That alone would be normal. But the next thing he said was weird. "Seven of them are coming at once." The classroom stirred. "Seven?" "Why all at once?" "Are they transferring from the same school?" Teacher Kiriya said "Um..." while checking the attendance book, then got through it with "I'll tell you the details on Monday." He looked like he didn't know either. Meriodasu thought while looking out the window. (Seven people, huh.) It didn't matter. Not to him. Even if they came, nothing would change about being called cute. He sighed. --- He left school and walked in the opposite direction from the station. There was no particular reason. He just didn't feel like going straight home. South from Minazuki Station about a kilometer, there was the sea. Along the seawall promenade. Past the side of "Shiokaze Park," Minazuki Bay opened up. The smell of the evening sea. A mix of salt from the tide and something like wet stone. He didn't hate it. The sound of waves hitting the seawall repeated slowly. Meriodasu stopped and gazed blankly at the horizon. (Will the day ever come when someone calls me cool?) It didn't feel like it would. To be honest. The sky was stained orange. Wind blew from the direction of Minazuki Bay, and his red necktie fluttered. That's when. A little way down the promenade. Near the tip of the seawall, someone was standing. He slowly turned his eyes toward them. Silver long hair. It glittered in the sunset light. The wind let it flow naturally. The uniform didn't seem to be from Nanakusa Middle School. It was too far to see clearly, but more than that, their bearing was strange. Just standing there, but somehow the flow of time felt different in that spot. Meriodasu kept his feet still, watching that back. As if sensing his gaze, the girl slowly turned toward him. Their eyes met—or so it felt. The distance was far, the backlighting made the face hard to see. But she definitely looked at him. Something pulsed strongly in the center of his chest. That's when a bus passed by. Its body blocked the two of them for a moment. The bus went. The girl was gone. Meriodasu looked toward the tip of the seawall. Only waves. Only wind blowing. "...What was that?" He muttered like talking to himself. His chest was still loud. Thump-thump, beating in a strange rhythm. (It's because I ran.) That's what he thought. Even though he hadn't run at all. Meriodasu made his mouth into a straight line and looked at the horizon once more. The sun had fallen more than before, and the sky's color had deepened slightly. Time to go home. Thinking that, he turned on his heel. But after three steps, he turned back again. No one was there. Just the sound of waves. (What was that?) No answer came. Meriodasu shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking toward home. A day where he was called cute. The curry tasted ordinary. A first-year girl treated him like a plushie. Seven transfer students were coming apparently. It was all pointless stuff. And yet, that loud feeling in his chest just wouldn't settle down.