Chapter 23: Chapter 5.1

I made my way to the café with Seishiro. It was just the two of us. I’ll admit that I did feel somewhat awkward due to this.

Mostly because we never really interacted with each other. There was silence between us as we navigated through the hallway of students.

Seishiro was the first one to break the silence.

"Yuki, how have you been adjusting in class?"

"Um, I’ve been adjusting pretty well. So, I have a question."

Seishiro gave off a little chuckle and said, "I believe I have an idea of what you’re going to ask, and the answer is that I didn’t want you to feel left out in class."

Heh? Is this pity friendship?

"Oh, I see."

"Yeah, Arisu told me that she thinks that you look lonely, so I figured that I would attempt to befriend you."

Is that the aura I give off?

I flashed a fake smile and replied, "Well, thanks for having me in your thoughts."

A little way into our journey, we ran into one of his friends from our class. Well, she is also Arisu Hariage's friend as well. I believe her name is Tori Nakazawa. They are always together, so I was surprised she was by herself.

Seishiro said, "Oh hey, Tori, where's Arisu and Kiyo?"

Tori lightly tapped her head with her right hand and replied, "I forgot to tell you, they went on ahead to reserve us some seats."

"Oh, that was a smart thing to do. You know, we should hurry and meet them. You know how impatient Arisu can get at times?

I pulled out my phone and pretended to text someone in order to look busy while they had their side conversation.

Finally, Tori noticed my presence and said, "Oh hey, it's the quiet guy from the backrow. What's his name again?"

Is that how I am viewed in the class? What a drag.

Seishiro sighed and replied, "His name is Yuki Amaya."

Tori laughed, then gently punched me on the arm, "I am messing around. I already knew his name."

Oh, it was a joke. That's good to know because I was about to question my entire school identity.

A nervous smile crept up on my face and said, "Nice to meet you."

Tori patted me on the shoulder and said, "No need to be nervous, Yuki, we're all classmates here at the end of the day."

Seishiro laughed at my awkwardness and said, "We should talk and walk so we can get to the spot in a timely manner."

Both Seishiro and Tori walked together while having a conversation. Meanwhile, I was a bit behind them.

They were talking about some new TV show they were looking at, I couldn't add anything of value to the topic, so I just took a step back to avoid feeling like the odd man out.

A group of students walked past us, and one of them stood out to me. It was the same male student that Minori was avoiding. I believe it's either her sibling or cousin.

As I walked past the student, he had a sense of self-conceit about him. I could tell from the way he walked.

My adoptive father works in law enforcement as a detective, so he taught me a bit about body language. It comes in handy at times when I want to get a read on someone. Sometimes I can be wrong in my conclusion, but everything is a learning experience.

My eyes continued to follow him until he got lost in the crowd of students. 

"Yuki."

"Earth to Yuki."

Seishiro broke me out of my deep concentration on the person.

"Oh sorry about that. I sort of zoned out for a minute."

After a bit, we made it to the café. It seemed a bit packed with students, so Arisu and Kiyo going on ahead to save us a table was great foresight on their behalf.

Kiyo waved her hand to alert us to where they were sitting. It was an outside table. I am actually thankful for that. I would have felt trapped if we were sitting in the congested interior of the café.

As the three of us walked closer, I noticed that one more person was sitting next to them. A male, he has glasses and short purple hair. I believe he's from our class as well. Umm, what's his name again?

*mentally snaps fingers while trying to remember*

Oh yes, it's Shunko Akiya. How rude of me to almost forget it.

Shunko Akiya is another quiet person in the class who only interacts with those students who are labeled as "nerds" in our class. I am surprised that I haven't been grouped in there as yet. Well, at least I know my standing in class, and it's along the lines of the local loner.

I am not sure if that is a great social image, but hey, at least it's something. It could be worse. I could be known as the guy who frequently talks to himself or as the super edge lord who hates the world and my life.

You are reading story My ‘Simplistic’ School Life at novel35.com

All three of us sat down at the table and placed our orders with an outside waitress who stood close by.

Tori briefly put her phone close to the edge of the table as she adjusted her school tie.

Arisu looked at me and said, "Oh, good you accepted the invitation. I was afraid that you would turn us down."

"I don't see any reason why I would even do that."

Kiyo looked at me with a bit of curiosity and said, "I am just as surprised. The only person I ever see you interacting with is Minori."

"Well, that's mainly because we're desk neighbors, so some interaction is required."

Arisu raised her well-maintained eyebrows and said, "Well, that's still better than the progress we made with her. She just speaks to us when it's necessary and just ignores us the rest of the time. So it's hard to gauge if we're actually friends or not.

Sigh. I told Minori to maintain her surface-level friendships, and she is doing a terrible job of it. You're supposed to allow the person to believe that you're friends even if you're not. This will make working together a lot more difficult.

I replied, "Minori runs hot and cold at times, so you just have to catch her at the right time."

Shunko still hasn't said a word, and it's starting to make me feel like we're excluding him. When I think about it now, based on our seating order, Arisu is next to Seishiro, Kiyo is next to Shunko, and Tori is next to me. It almost feels like we're on a group date. 

It's not like I would mind that. I do think Tori is quite an attractive girl. Perhaps this group hangout will result in something between us.

Sometime later, the waitress brought our orders. Seishi ordered a cappuccino, Arisu ordered an iced coffee, and the same with Tori and Kiyo. Shunko ordered green tea, and since I'm not a big fan of coffee, I settled on some iced tea.

Everyone had a few sips and talked about what was happening in the class, which included the new Grade Points system.

Seishiro commented on the possibility of our class suffering due to it. 

I believe his comments are actually valid. I can see the point deductions hurting me in the long run.

In a moment of forgetfulness, Tori, who had previously placed her drink next to her phone, accidently knocked it off of the table when she picked up her drink.

I instantly caught it with it falling too far.

Seishiro said, "Wow, you have excellent reflexes. Do you play any video games or sports?"

I gave Tori, who thanked me back, her phone while I replied, "I have never really been one to play video games or sports. The only reason I caught it that quickly is because I was already close to it."

Tori exhaled and said, "Once again, thanks Yuki, you're a life saver."

Arisu laughed a bit at Seishiro and said, "I think you forgot about the pool time assessment. Yuki doesn't seem that active, maybe average at least."

I took a sip of my iced tea and replied, "You're correct about that. I am not very active but I can do well enough to get by."

After around an hour or so, everyone prepared to head out.

Seishiro said, "Well, it was fun, so we should do this again."

Arisu agreed with that statement wholeheartedly. It appears she had fun getting to know me a bit.

As I was about to leave. Tori stopped me.

"Uh, hey Yuki.."

"Yeah?"

She looked a bit nervous while she spoke to me.

"So I was wondering if I could save your contact information."

I had a slight astonished look on my face.

"I believe you can already speak to me via Yodell on the private chats."

Tori lightly tapped her head with her hand and said, "Oh yeah, I forgot." Then she walked off in a bit of embarrassment.

I stood there perplexed for a bit, then it hit me after a few seconds.

So I have to admit that I was being denser than a harem protagonist just a few moments ago, and I will probably be thinking about this recent blunder on repeat while I am in the shower.

 

 

 

 

 

You can find story with these keywords: My ‘Simplistic’ School Life, Read My ‘Simplistic’ School Life, My ‘Simplistic’ School Life novel, My ‘Simplistic’ School Life book, My ‘Simplistic’ School Life story, My ‘Simplistic’ School Life full, My ‘Simplistic’ School Life Latest Chapter