Chapter 1 — The boundary line, the marriage between a girl and a wolf. Part 12
Still bored, I looked towards the middle of the back row.
The three main culprits were there, like always.
First off, there was the favorite student of the teachers and the ace of the baseball club, the very image of a perfect student. His looks weren"t all that bad and he was tall too. If I had to describe him in a single word, "prince" would fit.
He seemed to be popular, but I didn"t care.
By his side was the "leader" of the girls. She had short brown hair and her eyes were fierce, but all her features were arranged pretty nicely and overall she had an impressive appearance. She always wore white knee-high socks, and even though the weather tended to be cold most of the time as we were nearing November, she was still wearing her summer uniform.
Her proactive appearance was enough to give her a strong boyish air.
I always called her Budworm, not bothering to remember her real name.
And hiding in her shadow was the girl who always followed them around, doing everything they asked. She could be easily described as their follower, or rather, she was their follower. She had a fairly small build and also seemed to be lacking in self-confidence as she was always looking down and slouching forward, making her look even smaller. Some thought she was annoying, but others wanted to protect her.
Her face was plain overall, but she was unexpectedly well endowed in certain areas. If she actually left Budworm"s shadow, she could easily be mistaken for someone else.
Her hair was arranged in an outdated braid, but if she had any one significant trait, that was hers.
Because of the aura surrounding her, I offhandedly named her Mouse.
"You worked hard today," I told them voicelessly, simply mouthing the words with my smiling lips.
They pretended not to notice it and continued chatting with each other.
Or not.
One of them, Budworm, threw me a fiery glare, her eyes set ablaze.
They were beautiful eyes. Beautiful and strong.
She was the only one who looked directly at me.
I didn"t think much of all this though.
They were simply doing their own tasks.
The easiest way to form a group of immature people was to find a common enemy, and I just happened to be the sacrifice that they chose. It meant nothing more.
It just happened?
That had to be a joke. In fact, there were plenty of problems regarding me, who was unable to open up to anyone.
Still, no matter how much they attacked me, I would never become someone like them. Teasing people whom they couldn"t stand, waiting for exams to be over, finding a lover and getting married. I couldn"t be like that.
I knew that living in that way was a blessing but I couldn"t come to like it.
To be a bit more blunt, I had no interest in them. But I was thankful to them since they had given me a reason to hate them. As trivial as it might be, it felt good to have someone that I could direct all my hatred towards.
But after meeting Shiro, entering the forest and seeing the wolves, even that triviality was losing its value.
In the end, it was something that didn"t matter to me in the least.
I started getting ready for cla.s.s.
While I was doing that, the chime rang and our homeroom teacher arrived, commencing the session.
As soon as he entered the cla.s.sroom, he glanced at me uneasily.
Then he had a thoughtful face for a moment, but when he noticed that I wasn"t saying anything, he looked away in relief.
In other words, he knew that they were bullying me, but wasn"t going take any action.
This matter was more delicate than brittle gla.s.s, and more troublesome than silver tableware.
Not only that, but his hands must be full with his own daily cla.s.s preparations and office work, so also dealing with this would be far too bothersome for him, especially when he didn"t actually have to resolve this in the first place.
After all, literally no one was expecting him to do so.
To put it differently, it could be said that teachers and the students were incompatible beings. For a teacher, this was only a job to support their own needs, but for the students, this encompa.s.sed pretty much everything in their lives. The two perspectives were completely different.
In the end, he took the wise and easy choice of ignoring it for as long as I kept my silence.
It was not really commendable of him, but there was nothing he could be blamed for.
And this teacher"s cla.s.ses were good, or at the very least, they weren"t boring. If a good teacher"s cla.s.ses became boring because he started worrying about worthless stuff, at least some of the students would feel unhappy.
He took the attendance without any problem, said what he had to say and then the bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom.
Before he left the cla.s.sroom, he took another glance at me.
This day I was feeling better than most, so I smiled slightly at him. Something I didn"t normally do.
He appeared very shocked and promptly fled from the cla.s.sroom, quite literally.
I simply watched him go, then started preparing myself for the first cla.s.s, cla.s.sical literature.
Five hours later, physical education ended and I was back in the changing room.
And my clothes weren"t there.
I just sighed.