The air in Sakura High was thick with that pre-exam dread. Not the heavy, silent kind, but the buzzing, anxious sort that made everyone just a little bit more on edge. Even Tanaka seemed to feel it. She walked into class, slides already up on the smartboard, a cheerful "Morning, everyone!" that was met with a chorus of groans and mumbled replies. Just another regular day, ready to dive headfirst into quadratic equations.
Regular for most, anyway.
Haruto slumped in his chair, trying to look attentive, but his mind was about a million miles away from parabolas and polynomials. He was smart, probably smarter than he let on. The kind of smart where you could coast by, get good grades without actually trying all that hard. But today, even that wasn't happening. His brain was just elsewhere... Specifically, it was stuck on last night. The details were fuzzy, like trying to remember a dream right after waking up, but the feeling of it, that weird, electric hum, was still lingering. Something about a flickering taste, Akiko's whisper... And then just waking up, feeling like he'd missed something huge.
He traced circles on his desk with his thumb, completely oblivious to Tanaka rattling off formulas. Across the aisle, he could see Akari, one of the top students, meticulously copying down notes, her brow furrowed in concentration. Next to her, Kenji was already half-asleep, his head propped on his hand, a tiny trail of drool threatening to escape the corner of his mouth. Haruto almost snickered. Kenji was a legend for sleeping through anything, even her pop quizzes.
"Haruto?"
The sudden sound of his name snapped him out of his daze. He blinked, looking up to see Tanaka peering over her glasses, a knowing smirk playing on her lips. "Care to share with the class how you solve for 'x' in this equation, or are you too busy contemplating the mysteries of the universe?"
A nervous titter went through the classroom. Haruto felt his cheeks warm slightly. "Uh, sorry, Sensei. Just… thinking."
"Thinking, are we?" Tanaka chuckled, not unkindly. "Well, let's try thinking about this equation then." She pointed to a complex-looking problem on the board. Haruto squinted at it, his brain still not quite connecting.
Suddenly, a soft voice whispered next to him. "Haruto-kun, it's a simple substitution. If y = 2x + 1, then you can plug that into the second equation."
He turned his head slightly to see Ayumi, her long, dark hair falling over her shoulder, a tiny pencil held delicately between her fingers. She was leaning in, close enough that he could smell her faint, sweet shampoo. Her eyes, usually so shy, were bright with a helpful, almost eager, glint. Another girl, Mika, on his other side, was also subtly nudging her notebook closer, pointing to her perfectly written notes with a reassuring smile.
Haruto quickly scanned their notes, the answer clicking into place almost immediately. "Oh, right. Thanks, Ayumi-chan, Mika-chan." He gave them a quick, polite nod.
Ayumi's face, already a little flushed from leaning in, went an even deeper shade of red. She practically melted into her seat, mumbling something inaudible and scooting her chair a tiny bit closer to him, her knee brushing against his. Mika giggled, covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes sparkling as she watched Ayumi's reaction. It was like a ripple effect; a few other girls in the rows around them subtly shifted their gaze towards Haruto, some whispering to each other, others just smiling sweetly in his direction.
Jun, sitting a couple of rows back, watched the whole scene unfold with a sour look on his face. He gripped his pen so tight his knuckles went white. "Seriously?" he muttered under his breath, glaring at Haruto's back. "Girls falling all over him just for saying 'thanks'? This is exactly the kind of cliché, main character stuff you see in anime, isn't it? Like he's got some invisible harem radar or something." Jun smirked.
The math lesson droned on, Haruto eventually managing to answer Tanaka's question, though he still felt a bit out of it. The girls around him, particularly Ayumi, continued to cast furtive glances his way, their smiles widening whenever he accidentally made eye contact. It was a lot. He just wanted to get through the day.
Finally, the bell rang, signaling the end of classes. The classroom erupted in a flurry of activity—chairs scraping, bags zipping, students chattering excitedly about the upcoming exams, or more likely, what they were going to do after the exams. Haruto was halfway out of his seat, already planning his escape to the relative peace of the school courtyard, when Tanaka's voice cut through the din.
"Haruto, a word, if you don't mind. In private."
Haruto stopped. He turned to see her standing by her desk, arms crossed, her expression uncharacteristically mysterious. The rest of the students were already filing out, not paying much attention, but Jun, who was just about to leave, paused at the doorway, a look of suspicion on his face. He shrugged it off a second later, probably thinking Haruto was just getting lectured for not paying attention in class, and then disappeared down the hall.
Haruto could tell she had something serious to tell him, since he knew he hadn't done anything wrong. Nothing that would warrant a private meeting with Tanaka, at least. He slowly sank back into his chair, waiting for the classroom to empty. The last few students trickled out, leaving him alone with his math teacher. The silence that followed was suddenly heavy, the afternoon light streaming through the windows feeling oddly out of place.
Tanaka didn't say anything for a moment, just studied him with a critical gaze. Finally, she spoke, her voice low, almost a whisper. "Haruto. We need to talk. Somewhere… less public."
Haruto simply nodded.