章 248: The Gaze
Hearing the voice, Sasaki looked up.
As the warm light from the window flooded into the classroom, a female figure came into view.
The girl wasn't very tall, probably around 160 cm, with long, light brown hair tied into a slender ponytail with a pure white hair tie, cascading down her back.
Her naturally curled bangs covered her eyebrows, revealing a pair of large, bright dark brown eyes beneath.
She had a cute and delicate face, with full, round cheeks and a slightly pointed chin, giving her a gentle and demure appearance.
Perhaps because she exercised regularly, her skin tone wasn't as milky white or jade-like as the other girls around Sasaki.
Her complexion was somewhere between wheat-colored and cool white, but leaning more toward white.
And because she got enough nutrients from exercise, the area under her red bow tie was well-developed.
Although not as large as Chifuyu's, it was still above average compared to most girls.
The uniform shirt tucked into her skirt clung to her flat, slender waist, and along with the red plaid skirt that flared out below, highlighted the beauty of her youthful figure.
Sasaki glanced at the girl in front of him and recognized her as Sunohara Shizuka, who ranked fourth in popularity in their class.
(Tbh, I don't know if it's the same girl or not..)
He didn't know much about this gi, only that she was the sports committee member for the girls and was also responsible for arranging the girls' duty rosters.
Hmm… it should be about time for his turn on duty as well.
It had been over a week already, but he wasn't under the girls' management.
Sasaki, who was a bit puzzled, asked:
"Sunohara-san, is there something you need?"
During adolescence, most of the affection between boys and girls stems from appearances.
As long as you're not particularly unattractive or have a terrible personality, there will always be one or two people who secretly admire you.
Sunohara Shizuka didn't exactly have a crush on Sasaki, but because of his looks, she had a favorable impression of him.
Moreover, before this conversation, they hadn't interacted at all so, the fact that he knew her name was a bonus.
Being able to remember someone's name without having a conversation indicated that, at the very least, this person wasn't cold or difficult to approach.
Handsome, approachable, and making a good initial impression, Sunohara Shizuka's tone became even more naturally friendly:
"It's like this, according to the duty roster, today is Sasaki-kun's turn."
As she spoke, she pulled out a list filled with names from her skirt pocket and handed it to Sasaki.
After glancing at it briefly, Sasaki handed the list back.
According to the schedule, everyone would be assigned to clean the classroom or the designated area once every two weeks.
If a student had taken a leave of absence, the schedule would be moved up a bit.
It was fair.
Now that it was his turn, Sasaki naturally had no objections.
Seeing her fold the paper and put it back into her pocket, he asked:
"I remember Sunohara-san is in charge of the girls' side, right? How come…"
"Because the male student in charge of the boys' duty, Yoruku-kun, took a long leave, and no one else was willing to take over, the teacher asked me to manage it temporarily."
Well, you've got your hands full.
Realizing that the guy wouldn't be coming back, Sasaki nodded at her to show he understood.
The girl then walked past him, pulling out another piece of paper from her pocket and pinning it on the duty board at the back of the classroom.
Because Sasaki was watching her the entire time, after she posted the duty list, she turned her head and met his gaze.
The ambiguities of adolescence often start with a look or a small gesture, especially with the occasional eye contact between young men and women.
The emotional fluctuation that occurs in the instant of eye contact can easily lead to misunderstandings, giving rise to different feelings.
Adolescents, ignorant and naive about love, often mistake the blush and heart-pounding feeling as liking.
Once this thought arises, you'll subconsciously pay more attention to the other person.
The more you focus on them, even if it isn't love at first, it gradually evolves into it.
However, adolescent boys and girls are also shy.
This kind of potentially ambiguous eye contact is often broken the moment it happens, with one of them—usually the boy or girl—pretending to look away unintentionally.
Unless there's really no interest at all, the one who averts their gaze first is often someone lacking confidence or introverted, someone who easily feels shy.
Such people don't dare to take the initiative, and if they are ordinary and blend in with the crowd, they can only remain as wallflowers.
Not speaking of Sasaki, just talking about Sunohara Shizuka, being a class committee member already proves she isn't someone with an introverted personality.
Someone like her wouldn't avert her gaze out of insecurity when making eye contact with someone.
As for being shy… she only had a favorable impression of Sasaki, not love.
So, she wouldn't shy away and nervously look elsewhere during sudden eye contact.
And as for Sasaki, this thick-skinned guy naturally wouldn't look away first when making eye contact with a beautiful girl.
So when their gazes met, both were momentarily stunned.
After a brief, inexplicable eye contact, Sasaki was the first to nod and smile at her, then turned away.
Under his smile, Sunohara Shizuka suddenly realized that she had been staring at a boy's face for quite a while… how embarrassing…
For the first time, having made such prolonged eye contact with a boy she had a favorable impression of, her heartstrings were slightly disrupted as she turned her slightly flushed face to the side.
Then, as if guided by some inexplicable force, she subtly moved her gaze back.
But coincidentally, Sasaki also glanced back with his peripheral vision at the same time.
Once again, their eyes met in the warm, gentle air.
But this time, the eye contact seemed to spark a fire, instantly burning the girl's fair, delicate face to a deep red, and causing her graceful, delicate body to tremble slightly.
Hastily retracting her gaze, Sunohara Shizuka pretended nothing had happened, took small steps, and quickly exited the classroom through the back door.
Without a trace of smugness from having stirred a girl's heartstrings,
Sasaki resumed browsing the shopping website after she left.
...
In the afternoon, after school, inside the classroom.
Since it was Sasaki's first time on duty, he didn't know the order for sweeping and cleaning, which was why Sunohara Shizuka had to remind him.
But for the other students, who had been attending classes for over two months, they had long since memorized their duty days.
Even if they weren't paying attention, they would glance at the duty roster at the back of the classroom as they passed by to see if their name was listed.
So, when it came time for duty, no one was absent.
Of course, another reason for the full attendance was the possibility of being talked to by the teacher if they skipped without permission.
The excuse of "forgetting" your duty didn't hold up well with the teacher, especially with the duty board prominently displayed.
However, duty tasks were not supervised by teachers.
The person checking the cleanliness only looked at the results, not the process.
This left room for some mischief.
For instance, right now.
In the storage room next to the boys' restroom on the second floor of the school building, a few boys were washing mops and discussing how to push their future cleaning duties onto the new student.
"Higashikawa, I don't want to mop the floor~"
"You don't want to, and neither do I. Let's just get it done and go home."
"Look around; no one else is sweeping or mopping. They're all slacking off," said another boy with a buzz cut, who was rinsing a rag, laughing.
"So, what do you want to do, Morishita?" he asked.
Morishita, the short-haired boy being addressed, was fiddling with the mop in the sink and quickly answered, "We find someone to take our place."
The three of them naturally got along well due to their shared tendencies.
After Morishita said this, the other two exchanged glances, and Higashikawa, whose eyes were hidden by his bangs, asked:
"Who do you have in mind?"
"Of course, the new guy. I mean, he doesn't have any friends yet, right?"
Letting go of the mop he was rinsing, Morishita turned his head and smiled at Higashikawa and Uchida.
"If we ask him for a little favor as friends, he wouldn't refuse, right?"
Seeing that he wasn't planning to bully the new student with numbers, the other two sighed in relief.
Although they were three in number, their builds were pretty average—average height, average size.
If they were to try bullying Sasaki, who was a head taller than them, it wouldn't be easy.
So, if they could get what they wanted without physical confrontation, that would be good.
After pondering for a moment and roughly guessing what Morishita intended, Higashikawa voiced his concern, "Sure, but what if he's a loner and hard to get along with?
It wouldn't work if we're overly friendly and get a cold shoulder."
"That won't happen," The latter said, lightly shaking his head with a smile. "I've seen him hanging out with that pretty boy, Haruno Ayato."
"If he can hang out with Haruno Ayato, there's no reason he'd give us the cold shoulder."
"He's more likely to lean towards us than that unpopular friend."
Seeing Morishita's confident expression, Higashikawa and Uchida exchanged smiles and asked him how they should proceed.
"It's simple. We find a topic that interests him, then…"
"But we don't know much about him. How do we know what he's interested in?"
"Don't be stupid. If in doubt, just steer the conversation towards girls.
What guy isn't interested in pretty girls?"
"Me!" Higashikawa, with his bangs covering his eyes, lifted his head proudly.
"Tsk~ Are you proud of that?"
Before Higashikawa could nod, Morishita said:
"Even 2D girls are still girls."
"…"
The boys' restroom was right next to the girls' restroom, and not far from the girls' restroom was the staircase.
Just then, Yoshida Saki, who had just come from her club activities and remembered she had left a novel in the classroom, happened to overhear the conversation coming from the boys' restroom.
Their voices weren't loud, so she didn't catch much, just the phrase, "I saw him hanging out with that pretty boy, Haruno…"
In the class, Haruno Ayato was ostracized by all the boys' cliques because of his appearance.
Even if the boys didn't strongly dislike him, they would still instinctively avoid someone who might make them the subject of jokes among their classmates.
So, in the class, both he and Yoshida Saki were isolated.
But that was before Sasaki arrived.
Because Sasaki was the first person to compliment her on her looks.
Since that first interaction, she had been quietly observing him.
Naturally, she knew that Sasaki and Haruno Ayato had a good relationship.
Upon overhearing their plans to cause trouble for Sasaki, she naturally wanted to rush and inform him.
She listened carefully for a moment, however, realizing that the boys had no intention of leaving soon, Yoshida Saki, sensing that this was a good opportunity, cautiously began to climb the stairs.
She decided to take a safer route by going up to the third floor and then looping back down to her classroom to tell Sasaki about the situation.
Step by step, she made her way up the stairs.
Upon reaching the third floor, Yoshida Saki sprinted to her classroom at a speed faster than she had ever managed in a physical test.
Slightly out of breath, she stood at the front door of the classroom and looked toward the back, where the boy was cleaning the windows.
Even though she had acted quickly, when she saw Sasaki, she suddenly didn't know how to approach him.
There were still a few other students cleaning the classroom.
Though not many, for someone as socially anxious as her, they felt like insurmountable obstacles.
As she hesitated, unsure of what to do, Sasaki, who had been facing away from her, suddenly turned his head,
As their eyes met.
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