Hirano and Kagiura:Volume 1 Chapter 1

Chapter 1: For the First Time (April to June)

Chapter 1 Cover

Riding the train on an unfamiliar route, even the rumbling of the carriage feels new and refreshing.

Amongst all his peers in middle school, only one person chose to stay in a dormitory despite living within the prefecture — and that was Kagiura Akira.

Though he lived in the same prefecture, it still took him over two hours to commute to and from school. As someone who had to go for morning practice everyday, he wasn’t left with much other choice.

On the 4th of April, just before the entrance ceremony, students were allowed to move into the dorm and Kagiura wasted no time at all.

It’s not that he was on bad terms with his family and wanted to move out, on the contrary he got along just fine with his family and enjoyed his cozy house too. It’s just that he didn’t want to dilly dally in seeing his new home for the next year, and the excitement was just brimming within him.

With all his bulky items sent ahead of time via courier, the only thing he had on him was a simple shoulder bag. A easy and hassle-free way to move.

It’s the first time that he was riding the train to school alone, previously he had gone along with his parents to school to accept the offer for admission via sports recommendation. At that time he was too busy chatting away with them to admire the scenery outside the train.

Riding the late afternoon train, the seats were almost empty as far as the eye could see. Kagiura stood by the door, watching the shifting scenery zoom by, an unexpected mix of greenery and cityscapes rolled together.

He started to feel adrenaline pump through his veins, like the excitement on the way to a training camp or a major tournament.

On the same train was a high schooler donning a jacket, his school name embroidered on it.

“— Looks like he’s on his way home from club activities. Wonder if anyone else from my school is on this train…”

As Kagiura tried to memorize the English alphabet, the train arrived at its destination.

His new dorm was just a 15 minute walk from school, although the nearest station for the dorm and school were different.

Dorm residents were offered a choice between a two person shared room and a four person shared room. Kagiura had picked the two person shared room.

Guiding him around was the dorm manager, Hanzawa, who seemed like the type of person to always wear a smile on his face. That was the impression Kagiura had etched on his mind. After all, since they exchanged pleasantries at the start, he hadn’t stopped grinning. The two of them exchanged small talk, interspersed with some laughter and giggles as they went around on the tour, passing through the cafeteria and the bathing area.

“Yea, basically everyone addresses each other by ‘-san’ in the dorms. So just go ahead and call me ‘Hanzawa-san’ alright?”

“Hanzawa-san.”

“Well, I guess the majority of students actually call me ‘dorm manager’ instead.”

“Huh?”

As Hanzawa continued the tour, Kagiura had a smile on, but was just following him around absentmindedly. His mind had since drifted away, pondering between the two options of addressing Hanzawa.

“Addressing everyone other than your friends with “-san” is basically a custom in our dorm, y’know. Even the administrative staff here do so. Well, it isn’t like an ironclad rule, but you’ll also have to address everyone with “-san” when you head out into the working world, so just think of this as practice for the future.”

“I see… so you don’t address each other by ‘-senpai’ at all?”

“Nah, you don’t really hear it amongst the dorm students”

“Ah…..”

“You’ll hear more about the nitty-gritty at orientation — Oh yea, your roommate is Hirano Taiga, a second year like me. I’m pretty sure it was written in the pamphlet, but first and second years always share a room. I guess it was designed to be a sort of ‘buddy system’? If you ever have any issues, feel free to ask your buddy about it.”

“Okay! About Hirano-san— “

As Kagiura was about to ask what type of person was Hirano, a voice rang out from behind. “Hanzawa-san! There’s a call for you!”, called out the dorm’s receptionist.

“Be there in a sec! — Kagiura, sorry about this, but could you head over to your room by yourself? The doors have number plates hung on them, so you shouldn’t get lost…”

Hanzawa spun around as he replied, with Kagiura nodding hastily in response.

“Got it! Thank you for the help!”

As he watched Hanzawa rush away, he thought to himself, “— Dorm managers sure have it tough”.

And so he made his way slowly up the steps. His assigned room number was printed on the documents that he had received earlier, so it was just a matter of finding his way to the door.

“— Second-year Hirano-san, huh. I wonder what type of person he is? I hope he’s a nice guy.”

A sudden gush of homesickness welled within him.

“— Just last week I was wearing my middle school uniform. Now, I’m about to meet my new roommate for the first time. I wonder if Hirano-san is in any club activities?”

“— If he happens to be from the basketball club too, then I’ll have a ton of questions for him. Even if he isn’t, I’m sure that he at least has some friends in the basketball club. Since he’s staying in the dorms, I guess he’s also separated from his parents too. I wonder where he’s from—“

And just like that, Kagiura found himself right in front of his room door. With a light knock on the door, the door immediately swung open.

“Ah!”

Before Kagiura could let out a greeting, he found himself up close and personal with the person behind the door. Their faces close up, eyes meeting.

“Huh?!”

Kagiura let out a puzzled cry, as he found himself being glared at by the guy behind the door.

“— A delinquent? That blonde hair, sharp gaze, and if I look closely, aren’t those piercing holes?!”

“Ermm, from today onwards I’ll be in your care…”

“Ahhh, so you’re Kagiura-kun. Sorry about that, I overslept. Isn’t the dorm manager with you?”

“— Ah I see, his low voice does sound like he just woke up.”

“The receptionist called him away just now, so he just gave me directions to the room…”

“I see, sorry about that… Please come in. You can take your slippers off here, and don’t forget to change to the room slippers alright?”

Hirano bent down and rummaged around a bit as he moved his slippers aside, giving Kagiura more space to change.

With that simple. kind gesture, Kagiura’s initial rough first impression started to change just a smidge.

“— Ah. He may not be so scary afterall… He could actually be quite kind…”

That in mind, Kagiura felt a gentle warmth washing away the sense of homesickness and loneliness that he felt.

“Thank you so much… Hirano-san. Please look after me in the coming year.”

“Yea, looking forward to it too, Kagiura-kun!”

Putting away the luggage that reached before him, Kagiura peered over at the desk. While it’s now empty, it’ll soon be covered in books scattered over the surface. Looking over at the uniform he hung on the rack, he silently hoped that he could grow just a bit taller soon.

Laying out his freshly cleaned bedsheets, they felt soft and smooth. “— This must feel amazing to lie down on.”

Glancing over at his side of the room, he thought to himself, “— This’ll be the space that I’m going to live in for the next year.”

“— I shouldn’t just be mindlessly engrossed in my club activities. Since my house is in the prefecture, I should consider going back over the weekend when I can —“

“…Kagiura-kun, are you alright?”

“Huh? What is it…?”

“Nah, you kinda spaced out there.”

“Nah, I’m good. — I mean, thank you but I’m fine”

Seeming satisfied with the answer, Hirano mumbled something to himself as he returned back to what he was doing.

Standing on his side of the room, Kagiura looked over at Hirano who was busy at his desk. Despite his flashy appearances, Hirano was quite earnestly studying at his desk with all traces of his drowsiness dissipating away.

“— I guess he really is someone from the Special Course, huh.”

In his high school, almost all the students who stayed in the dorms are from the Special Course.

“— Although he initially seemed like a delinquent, his aura seems more like that of an earnest and hardworking senpai. Those sharp facial features of his make him hard to approach though…”

Kagiura wanted to ask what he should do if he was hungry, but decided against it, choosing instead to copy Hirano and sit down at his desk.

Laying out the dorm’s guidance pamphlet, he wondered what was the best way that he could fill his growling stomach.

As an active athlete, Kagiura found that he often got hungry pretty quickly.

His monthly allowance was kinda tight, sadly dorm residents were strictly prohibited from taking on any part-time jobs. That wasn’t entirely unexpected, given that the dorm wanted its residents to focus on either their studies or club activities. “— I wonder if they offer free refills at the cafeteria here?”

Wondering about that, Kagiura slowly drifted off into slumberland.

Kagiura felt a gentle rhythm reverberating through his drowsiness, via a gentle tapping of his shoulders.

He could feel through his sleep that someone seemed to be calling out his name. “—Well, it’s not the teacher so…”, ignoring the calls Kagiura drifted back to sleep.

As a growing teenager, Kagiura’s body was always in need of more recharging, so he could fall asleep at the snap of a finger. During his middle school years, he dozed off in class so often that his teacher gave up trying to call him out on it.

“Oi, hey you. Wake up, damn it.”

He raised his head ever so slightly, wiggling his neck uncomfortable trying to get back to sleep.

“— I don’t wanna, let me sleep a while more…”

Kagiura suddenly jolted awake, sitting up straight with eyes wide open.

“— Oh wait, it’s not the teacher.”

“Kagiura-kun. I said wake up—”

Halfway through nudging Kagiura awake, his sudden movement took Hirano by surprise.

“Uwahh!”, shouted Hirano straight into Kagiura’s ear, banging his knee against the desk in the process.

Waking him up from his slumber, was none other than his new roommate Hirano, a year his senior.

Through his sleepy eyes, the fuzzy image of Hirano’s blonde hair looked like it was sparkling. “— What a pretty sight.”

In that moment, Kagiura mumbled, “that color really suits you”. Since he just woke up though, he mumbled it to himself instead of saying it out loud.

Kagiura blinked his eyes, trying to clear the drowsiness from his vision, as Hirano with a parka over his t-shirt began to come into focus.

Kagiura blinked his eyes, trying to clear the drowsiness from his vision, as Hirano with a parka over his t-shirt began to come into focus.

“It’s about time for lunch, wanna join me?”

“Yea!”

His first ever meal in the dorm’s cafeteria was delicious. “—If it’s this good everyday, I’m gonna look forward to every meal!”

Seating on opposite sides of the table, the two got to know each other better by sharing more about their backgrounds.

Kagiura explained how he got in through a sports recommendation, as well as his struggles of being left-handed. Hirano leaned in, listening intently. Kagiura noted that Hirano didn’t seem the type to just smile absentmindedly, making small talk for the sake of it, but still the conversation flowed naturally between the two of them.

All of a sudden, Kagiura’s hand froze midair, remaining motionless. “— The food here is really good, but…”

“I’ve been wondering for a while now, but do you dislike green peppers?”

Trying to loosen up his shoulders, Kagiura attempted to slowly move his chopsticks forward. Try as he might though, the chopsticks remained firmly frozen, and his shoulders deadly stiff.

“…Yes.”

Kagiura hung his head in shame, as Hirano looked over with a thoughtful expression.

“…You better conquer this fear before you graduate alright? I’ll be taking that for now.”

As he reached over to swipe the pepper, Kagiura could see a halo and light rays shine down on Hirano. “— He’s only a year older than me, but how is he so considerate of other people?”

“…Thank you so much.”

Chomping on the pepper, all Hirano said was: “So good!”

“— I was pretty sure that I was in for a lecture, but he’s such a kind person. I may really like this senpai of mine…”

“— Despite his blunt and honest attitude, I think I’m really starting to take a shine to him.”

“— Call it a hunch of whatever, but I’m beginning to feel like the year ahead is gonna be a fun one.”

---

As they were in the midst of cleaning up their room, Hirano returned after putting back the dorm’s shared vacuum cleaner. “—The bed area is now nice and clean, but the dirt around the desk and bookshelf area stands out like a sore thumb.”

“— A mop would be good, but those lead pencil stains are going to be hard to clean off. Now, where is the cleaning equipment?”

“Kagiura-kun, do you have a rag over there?”

As his voice rang out, his kouhai’s head popped out with an earnest look on his face.

“Yea, I have one, it’s pretty dirty though. Gimme a sec, I’ll go and give it a rinse.”

“— Kagiura must have worked that rag pretty hard, it’s completely black. I’m pretty sure it was supposed to be brand new.”

“It’s fine, I’m just gonna give it a quick wipe is all.”

“Nah, I can’t lend it to you like this.”

As Kagiura headed off to give it a quick rinse, Hirano thought to himself, “— He’s pretty earnest, huh…”

It’s already been a month since Kagiura started living with a roommate in his new dorm life.

For Hirano, it was his second year of staying in the dorms.

For his kouhai who just graduated from middle school, it’s been an entirely foreign experience, but the two of them have been getting along just great.

Most students head back home during the Golden Week holidays, and that included both Hirano and Kagiura.

As it’s now the last day of the Golden Week holidays, both of them thought it would be good to give the room a spring cleaning. While cleaning, Hirano began to reminisce about the start of the year, “— Even though I do a bit of cleaning everyday, it’s the first time since that time that I’ve been doing such a thorough job.”

The second years typically get new assignments for the new school year, but Hirano just so happened to get assigned the same room as his first year. Even so, with a new roommate coming in, it was only natural to give the room a thorough top to bottom clean.

A day after Hirano returned to the dorms, on the 1st of April, he learnt that Kagiura would be joining the dorm. So Hirano began to earnestly prepare for the arrival of his new roommate.

Hirano was well aware that he wasn’t the best at communicating with people. It wasn’t an issue once people got used to him, but there was a significant time gap between first meeting someone and eventually getting along with that person. Not to mention that he knew his look and attitude often gave people the wrong impression.

He approached Hanzawa, who was well aware of the situation, for some help on how he should approach his new kouhai. Calling him by a nickname would be too high of a hurdle from the outset, so they settled on “Kagiura-kun” as a good starting point. The stress and worry were still eating away at Hirano though.

“Kagiura-kun” didn’t exactly roll off the tongue, and Hirano wondered if there was a shorter way to address him. “— Suddenly calling him by such a short nickname might put him off though.”

Third years get a single room to themselves since they needed to study for their entrance exams. Usually they would remain in their room till mid-March, before shifting over, but Hirano’s previous roommate decided that it would be better to adjust earlier. Thus he moved out earlier than most.

Thanks to that, Hirano ended up spending a long time in the room by himself. Given that it’s been awhile since he shared a room with someone, he felt the need to mentally prepare himself for the adjusting back to having a roommate.

With all those worries bugging him, he couldn’t sleep that night and overslept Kagiura’s arrival the next day.

Hirano was never really a morning person, although he could get up if needed to. He was always able to wake up without fail for an appointment, or if he needed to do a favor for someone. The last thing he wanted though, was to oversleep on the day that his kouhai arrived.

That blunder meant that all his effort and preparations on welcoming his new roommate went straight down the drain.

“— Despite all that, Kagiura was still able to fit in without a hitch. I can tell from his earnest eyes that he really does look up to me.”

“— Even though he’s not a morning person, he never fails to head for morning practice each day. Even when thrust into this new lifestyle filled with rules and restrictions, he’s never grumbled or complained about it.”

“— I heard from the basketball club members in my year that they had high hopes for the newcomer this year, even before he entered, and that he approaches each practice session with strong passion and enthusiasm. “

“— Because of that though, I bet he’s bad at studying.”

“— Just the other day, he saw me with Sasaki in school. The moment he got back, he asked me who I was with. I told him that Sasaki was bad at studying in reply, and that he needed to borrow my notes. He just looked at me and scowled in return.”

“…I’m also bad at it.”

At that moment, Kagiura’s crestfallen expression gave rise to a sense of unease within Hirano.

“Are the notes you’ve taken in class alright?”

“While I’m trying to make heads or tails of what’s written on the board, the teachers here in high school erase it before I can even finishing copying it.”

Right on point, Kagiura was having trouble in class just as Hirano thought. Kagiura turned away, unwilling to meet Hirano’s eyes.

“If you missed something on the board, then ask to copy it from a friend.”

“— I had no intention of scolding him, but since it bugged me so much, it really sounded like a lecture.”

“Well, I guess. Try harder next time alright? Just avoid dozing off in class okay?”

Even though Hirano added on to pass his statement off as a joke more, Kagiura nodded gravely in return.

“— Well this is pretty suspicious, that reaction was way too overt.”

Unlike in compulsory education up till middle school, advancing grades in high school depended solely on your examination results.

“— If all goes well, it’s fine I guess… First things first, the first semesteral exams are coming up in the middle of May.”

“— Since there’s a sports meet at the end of the month, there’s very little leeway between that and the exams. Cause of that, the scope of the exams tends to be rather narrow and thus at this stage the grades between the first years don’t differ that much…. Or at least they shouldn’t.”

There’s a reason why Hirano couldn’t just overlook his kouhai’s suspicious reaction.

After all, close to him is someone who dozes off in class and even ditches school sometimes.

That very person was late just today again. Sasaki Shuumei, recalcitrant latecoming offender.

Over the past year in the same class, there’ve been plenty of times where he had to borrow notes for things he missed in class.

He’s relied on Hirano to borrow his notes countless times. Yet the very next week, when the homework comes back, Sasaki’s work is just riddled with mistakes and errors.

“— What on earth is he even copying?”

Doubts started to flounder in Hirano’s mind, after all the results weren’t reflecting the actions that were taken. Oh, and by the way, he’s in the same class as Hirano this year too.

“— I’m in no position to say this, but after Sasaki dyed his hair bright brown and got a bunch of piercings, he really stands out. Whether in a good or bad way, it’s kinda hard to say.”

“— Even though he has a handsome face, his eyesight is terrible. Everything he does always seems like a chore to him. Even at events, there were times when he just seemed really annoyed and wouldn’t even make the slightest effort to conceal it.“

“— As classmates, he wasn’t the easiest type of guy to get along with.”

”— Guys who are tall in stature can give off pretty unsociable vibes, not to mention an intimidating aura around them. That being said, he’s not as much of a delinquent as his first impression gives off.”

“— In spite of his flashy appearance, he says things like “I don’t like to fight because I’m bad at it”.”

“— If I had to hazard a guess, he’s probably only going through high school cause he’s bored and has nothing better to do.”

“— It’s not like he has no hobbies at all though, from time to time I do see him enjoying conversations about music with other people… That’s about it though.”

At yet another average day at school, Hirano was sitting in class while Sasaki, as usual, turns up an hour late.

“Hirano, lend me your English notes”

Usually, Hirano would just hand it over, but after thinking about it, this time around he would dictate some terms for lending his notes.

“Sure, but in return let met take a look at your Math notes.”

As someone who was, more or less, never absent from class, Hirano never needed to copy notes from someone afterwards. Cause of that, it was hard for Hirano to come up with countermeasures for Kagiura’s predicament.

At the same time, Sasaki, who was equally bad at taking notes as Kagiura, could actually handle Math pretty well.

As compared to other subjects, you can handle Math if you’ve got the basics down pat. So looking at Sasaki’s notes may give some sort of hint as to how best to teach Kagiura.

“Ehh? Well, it’s fine I guess…. Why though? Do you want me to show you my answers for the homework?”

“No way in heck that’s it, idiot. Seems like my roommate is bad at studying, so I was wondering if I could take some inspiration from your notes is all.”

Math class was during the third period.

“— Even though this guy is so bad at studying, he never fails to bring the right textbooks and notes for each day. He never leaves anything behind, does he?”

Opening the notebook that Sasaki hands over, Hirano let out a deep sigh.

“— As expected, it’s just a bunch of incoherent scribblings. Where on earth is the content that he copied over from my notes?”

“— Sasaki’s Math notes, rather than copying what was written on the board, he just writes down a single formula in a huge font. Beside it, he writes some sort of number that he then circles with a big 〇. I guess he’s just summarizing what’s written on the board with the formula, but what are these numbers on the side? There are also all these unsolved problems too.”

“— None of the solutions or sample questions given in class are to be found in his notes either.”

“— What are these notes even?”

“Oi. What do the numbers that you circled with 〇 mean?”

“Ah, those are the page numbers from the textbook.”

“Ah… I get it.”

“Solutions or sample questions, all those are written in the textbook anyway, so copying it again is just a waste of time. Wouldn’t it be fine to just look at it in the textbook?”

“— It all make sense now, so there was a reason behind the shortcuts that he took. Now that I think of it, this reminds me of something in Kagiura-kun’s notes. Even though they both don’t take notes and are bad at studying, the two have behave completely differently.”

“— For Kagiura-kun, the moment he has trouble with understanding something, he stops writing and his note taking becomes haphazard. In Sasaki’s case, he understands what’s taught in class, but just wants to skip the hassle of any unnecessary writing.”

Sasaki tilted his head in curiosity as he looked at Hirano who was deep in thought.

“You seem awfully pumped.”

“Not really, it’s just the usual isn’t it?”

“— I can’t very well just look away when my kouhai roommate is troubled can I?”

“— At the very least, even when Kagiura-kun hits a roadblock, he isn’t gonna just roll over and play dead. When the stuff taught in class gets harder and harder, his earnest do or die attitude is more than enough to get him through it.”

“If only you could show the same amount of passion for helping me in my studies.”

“Throughout the entirety of last year, you didn’t have the slightest ounce of motivation to improve did you?”

“Ahaha. But you know Hirano, no matter how pumped you are, if your kouhai is bad at studying, he’s bad at studying y’know.”

“Kagiura-kun is not that kind of guy! He wouldn’t take it just lying down.”

“— That guy is just way too earnest for that”, thought Hirano as he suddenly threw the Math notes back at Sasaki, who caught it with a dumbfounded look on his face. “— I don’t really understand why I reacted that way either.”

---

With the end of the mid-semestral exams, Kagiura pushed himself to the fullest during training as club activities resumed that day. After training though, Kagiura’s mood dropped to rock bottom.

Even when you try your hardest, sometimes things work out well, and sometimes they just don’t pan out.

Despite only being in his mid-teens, Kagiura has been invested in basketball for a pretty long time. There have, however, also been plenty of times where he agonised over his slumps.

“— I used to always have such a height complex since I was shorter than average in my year, I’d also always sigh whenever I saw how much it cost to get shoes that fit me. There was even that time when I changed clubs because I was too unsatisfied with the training regime. Even after changing though, I couldn’t even produce results at the match and just ended up getting depressed. “

“— Even so, I can’t believe that, as someone who was scouted by countless high schools back in middle school, I’m now being evaluated on the same level as another new member who didn’t get in through a sports recommendation.”

“— Arghhh, it’s so frustrating. It’s just so frustrating, I can’t take it anymore.”

“— I was really put in my place during the second half of today’s training. It took all I had just to keep up, what a truly shameful performance.”

The other party was similarly a first year student, who was in the upper 180cm range, making Kagiura almost a whole 10cm shorter. Sure, he still had room to grow taller, but it was a fact that, at the current moment, Kagiura was losing out.

The world isn’t so naive where the difference in physicality is equal to the difference in skills. It was clear to Kagiura though, that this former middle school track and field club sprinter was quickly honing his basketball skills.

The frustrations within him just continued to grow. “— As a green-horned amateur, there’s still too many unknown variables at play. Once he’s mastered teamwork skills, he will undoubtedly become a reliable ally on the court. Even so…”

“— “The two of you are the twin vanguards of the first year”, even though that was meant as a commendation. To be judged on the same level as him…”

“— It’s just so frustrating….”

“— The fact there’s someone with talent and potential who entered via regular admissions is nothing to be surprised about.”

“— Even so…”

“— I really wanted to be the one who would stand out, head and toe, above all the other first year players.”

At the ramen stall just by the station, Kagiura had just finished a mid-day snack to vent his frustrations on the way back to the dorm. He would be back, just in time for dinner. Typically, he changed out of his dirty club attire for the sake of cleanliness, but this time around he headed straight to the cafeteria in his school uniform.

As he looked over the crowds in the cafeteria, there was no sign of Hirano.

“— I wonder if he already ate and left?”

Not really wanting to bother and check, he just picked an empty seat and sat down.

Given how hungry Kagiura was from training today, he should’ve been able to just chug the food down, and yet, the chopsticks felt heavier than usual today. Though he had ordered only a regular portion of rice in advance, even that felt too much for him. As he slowly made his way through his meal, the other dorm students around him began to get up one by one to leave.

Usage timings for the bathing area was designated by school years, so he didn’t really have the freedom to be taking his own sweet time with dinner either.

“— We haven’t gotten back our test results yet, and it’s also an unusually rare day without any homework either. It should’ve been the perfect day to just take it easy, lay back and enjoy, and yet…”

In the end, he finished up just before the cafeteria’s closing time and Kagiura returned back to his room.

“I’m back!”, yelled out Kagiura as he closed the door behind him. Feeling a huge weight lift straight off his body.

It wasn’t just about returning back to the dorm, but there was a scent in the air that really made him feel like “ah, this is home”. It wasn’t the scent of body odour or anything like that, just the gentle feeling of relief and comfort seeping into him.

“Did something happen? Kagiura-kun, you’re spacing out. Are you feeling unwell or something?”

Hirano, who was self-studying at his desk, asked out of concern as he watched Kagiura idle at the door without even putting down his bag.

“Ah, nah, it’s nothing… I mean, there is no issue, not to worry.”

“— Ah, does it seem like I’m trying to put distance between the two of us?”

Realizing that, Kagiura quickly put his bag down and hung his uniform’s blazer on a hangar.

“— It’s already pitiful enough that I’m wallowing, now I want Hirano who has nothing to do with my club activities, to shower me with concern. How much lower can I sink?”

“Do you have a stomachache?”

“…Something like that.”

His stomach was already pretty full before dinner, but he continued to unnecessarily stuff food down during dinner. So it’s no surprise that he felt super queasy after dinner, and it felt almost as bad as a stomachache. He had a sneaking premonition that it was definitely going to suffer from indigestion after this.

“It’s not a cold right, Kagiura-kun? That’s quite a face you’re making. …Did something happen?”

Their eyes met.

Looking over at the clock, there was only 10 more minutes before it was time for the first years to use the bath.

“…It’s embarrassing so I don’t want to talk about it.”

He knew that if he hesitated for just a while longer, Hirano would definitely hear him out, but Kagiura wanted to resist intentionally.

“— I may not be old or mature enough to be considered a man yet, but I did move to this dorm in the hopes of living independently. Being hung up, frustrated, and depressed from my pride of not getting the recognition that I wanted from my club — I don’t want to confide these trouble with someone like Hirano who doesn’t do club activities.”

“— My class mates, my club mates, and even my senpai, I don’t want to talk about this with anyone.”

Kagiura entered high school with the resolve to lead the basketball team, and even now that resolve continues to burn within his heart. “— I don’t want to give in to the weakness inside of me and let go of that goal.”

Even so, Hirano continued to persist.

“If it’s in this room, wouldn’t it be alright to put down your mask and let go of your shame? I won’t tell anyone, y’know.”

“— I was just being obstinate”, realized Kagiura.

“— He’s making an effort to reach out to me, it’s impossible for me to just keep quiet and ignore it.”

“— If I’ve given up on resisting, then the only thing that remains in my way is time.”

Kagiura begrudgingly began to talk, hoping that he could wrap up the conversation in time to still make it to the bath.

“…There’s this first year who’s on the upper range of 180 and just started basketball in high school, formerly from the track and field club. He’s pretty good at running and has been gradually getting better at handling the ball too.”

“I see.”

“During today’s practice, that guy and I were called the two best of our year by the captain…I got in through a basketball sports recommendation, and he got in via regular admissions. The fact that we’re being treated on the same level just frustrates me. We’re not close enough to one another to understand each other yet, but I get a feeling he’ll just get better and better with practice. After all, people who go all out at practice will definitely grow, and when next year rolls around, I’ll definitely be participating in matches with him… He’s also reliable, but it just bugs me. The fact that I can’t clearly one up him, just gnaws at me. I want to be an athlete that no one can catch up to, but he’s got me totally beat physique-wise.”

Even though Kagiura had long arms and legs, basketball is an unforgiving type of sport where ten centimetres between you and your opponent can make a world of difference.

“— During trainings, he hasn’t been picked for our internal practice matches yet, but once he gets into the groove and develops his own playstyle, he’ll definitely possess an explosive potential for growth.”

Kagiura was immediately counted as an asset for the team once he enrolled in high school, and would be on the bench during next month’s official match. That being said, the reserve team is also pretty sizeable, so his chances of getting onto the court were pretty slim.

“— In the meantime, the gap between us will just keep getting smaller and smaller. Being blessed with a good physique is an enormous advantage, and it’s also pretty rare to be in an environment where you are surrounded by reliable teammates. While I’ve been receiving high praise from the experienced players on the team, he has similarly been receiving praise from others as well. That’s what I hated so much about today. It confirmed my worries that he’ll catch up to me soon.”

“— If he was on the same team as me during middle school, maybe I would have been genuinely happy about it…”

“— We could’ve won even more tournaments then.”

“Why was he on the track team, I kept thinking to myself…Why did he join basketball so late? If he was going to change to basketball in high school because he liked playing, then wouldn’t it have been better to do so back in middle school? I would never say that to his face though… I’ve been so troubled by this that I stuffed myself till I felt sick, even right now.”

With all his childish grievances out in the open, Kagiura braced himself to be ridiculed by Hirano who should be breaking out in laughter anytime now. What he got instead was a silent acknowledgement from Hirano, who breathed a light sigh.

“…That’s pretty tough on you, it’s only natural for you to panic about it. Although, Kagiura-kun, all the blood, sweat and tears that you’ve poured into basketball over the years, that’s not just something that can be overcome in a short period of time, is it? The experience you’ve had of playing on the court in official matches, that’s also pretty different ain’t it?…Not to mention, you’ll continue to grow taller, so don’t take it so hard alright?”

“Well, I guess…”

The only thing he did was to air out his grievances, but Kagiura could feel his mood lifting considerably.

The only thing he did was to air out his grievances, but Kagiura could feel his mood lifting considerably.

“— Right now, I feel pretty embarrassed that I tried to push Hirano away with my stubbornness.”

“Ah. — The hard work you’ve put in, it’ll be tough. but if you continue I’m sure the results will speak for themselves won’t they? It’s the same for studies y’know. Even if you’re a natural-born genius, if you don’t put in the effort to study, you’ll eventually hit a glass ceiling. For sports, it’s all about putting all the skills you’ve honed at trainings to the test at matches right? That’s why…., as that other guy continues to grow, Kagiura-kun, you too will continue to try your best and grow, am I right?”

The words that Hirano carefully selected got his intentions straight across to Kagiura, the meaning behind them flowing like water down a river, sinking directly into his heart.

“— Easily grasping the root of my troubles, and striking straight at it — it’s almost a little bit scary.”

“— I didn’t notice it until now, but I can feel Hirano’s gentle and warm gaze enveloping my skin.”

“… Thank you, Hirano-san.”

Feeling so embarrassed, Kagiura couldn’t help but turn his gaze away.

Casually looking back over at the clock, the first year’s bathing time had already begun.

As Kagiura stood up in a fluster, Hirano quietly muttered “Ah, it’s shower time.”

“Kagiura-kun — Hey, it’s kinda hard to call you that, so is it alright if I call you Kagi-kun instead?”

Being asked out of the blue, Kagiura was taken by surprise.

“Huh? Yes, it’s fine by me.”

“— What’s up with him all of a sudden?”, thought Kagiura cocking his head to the side as Hirano ushered him off to the bath.”

From that day onwards, his roommate would call him “Kagi-kun”, and for Kagiura that was just a minor change to his daily life — At the very beginning at least.

The very next day, bumping into the dorm manager in the cafeteria, Hanzawa said “it’s pretty rare to see you call someone by a nickname” with a tone of awe and admiration.

Hirano replied non-chalantly, “well, it just rolls off the tongue better”.

Although, Kagiura spent an entire day revelling about the special treatment.

Shortly after, at the sports festival, the teammate that Kagiura was concerned about ended up trouncing the competition during the relay event. That included even active members from the track and field club.

Cheering loudly for his teammate, Kagiura made up his mind that it was time to try talking to him afterwards.

“— I’m thankful that you came over to the basketball team.”

---

There were only four more days till the semestral examinations.

At the end of June, right before the long holiday break, the Disciplinary Committee always conducts an attire check for students in front of the school gate.

Since club activities were prohibited near the start of examinations, morning practice sessions were also cancelled. Thus during this period, sports club members would report to school at the same time as everyone else. Even the sleep-deprived like Kagiura could finally manage to get more shut-eye during this period. Though for some reason it took even more effort than usual to wake him up at this time, than it did at 5am.

“— While Kagiura isn’t the type to spend a long time preparing for the start of the day, the fact that he oversleeps a lot still has me worried. I even gave him a pretty stern warning when I left the room this morning.”

“— Still, this attire check is conducted regularly and was announced in advance this time around, so there’ve been fewer violations as compared to the last time.”

To say that he was bored would be an understatement, but Hirano continued to work hard at his checks while suppressing a yawn.

“— Even though it’s already been a couple of months since the first years enrolled, some of them still seem pretty nervous about school. Most of those caught by the checks were just first years who were still unsure of how to properly wear their uniform.”

“— Keep your collar buttoned when you are outside school, don’t loosen the necktie on your winter uniform, don’t wear any flashy or patterned vests or cardigans, just mundane things like that. The main point is that outside of school, your uniform needs to be prim and proper for the public, but once you pass through the school gate, then anything goes.”

The punishment for dying your hair blonde is simply writing a letter of remorse. So even though Hirano is the one enforcing checks at the gate, he didn’t bother to re-dye his hair black this time around.

“— During the same check last year, I was still wet around my ears and took it seriously. Dying it black for the check, and dying it back to blonde right after really did a number on my hair. Not just that, but the chemicals in the dye became unstable and ended up with an uneven color.”

“— Taking into account the damage, writing a letter of remorse is definitely the easier way out. I guess this year I’ll try to dye it back to black just for the completion ceremony at the end of the year.”

By the time Kagiura reached school, it was just 5 minutes before the school bell would ring.

“You’re really cutting it close aren’t you? I told you this morning to wake up on time didn’t I?”

“Mmmm… sorry. By the way, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”

“Hmmm?”

“Who was the person you were talking to just now? The one with a mole underneath his eye…”

“—Errr, I’ve talked to a ton of people this morning due to the check though”, thought Hirano doubtingly, but the second part of the question helped to narrow it down.

“Ah, that’s Miyano. My kouhai on the Disciplinary Committee.”

“…Are you friendly with this Miyano person?”

“Friendly, it’s more like, he’s just someone that I talk to often I guess? He’s a pretty eccentric human being though.”

Thinking it was a rather strange question, Hirano tilted his head to the side as he answered.

“— I was gonna tell him that if he was interested about Miyano, he could just check on the class next to his. Although it didn’t really seem like he has any business with Miyano per se.”

“I see…”

Ending off with that, Kagiura just kept quiet, standing still without moving a step. “— Looking at this situation, the other Disciplinary Committee members nearby might think that I’m stopping him for a violation.”

Indeed, other members were starting to look over, with puzzled looks on their faces. “— Of course they would be confused though, there isn’t anything obviously wrong about his hair or his uniform either.”

“Well, it’s fine if it’s nothing. If you don’t get a move on now though, you’re going to be late for class y’know.”

“Now go on”, said Hirano as he gave Kagiura a gentle nudge on the back, causing Kagiura’s facial expression to loosen up.

“— Ah I see, I guess he was just nervous about his first attire check.”

“— He has some cute sides to him, huh.”, thought Hirano as he smiled and laughed to himself. All of a sudden, a voice rang out from behind.

“Kagiura, what are you just care-freely standing around for? You got stopped for the attire check or something?”

“— A first year with a nicely starched uniform, looks like he’s a friend of Kagiura. Since he’s empty handed, he must have already headed to the classroom and intentionally returned to the gate.”

“Nah, it’s not that. This guy’s my roommate.”

“Ah, the rumoured Hirano-san I see.”

“Oi, what are these rumours about?”

“I’ve heard you’re the one who wakes him up every morning. My name is Niibashi, from the same class as Kagiura.”

“Nice to meet you”, he added in a lively tone. Feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the energy, Hirano managed a “yeah” in reply.

The guy who introduced himself as Niibashi was rather small in stature with boyish facial features. Side by side with Kagiura, he looked more like a middle schooler than a high school student. While he physically resembled Miyano, Niibashi’s brimming self-confidence projected a completely different aura.

His hair, soft and fluffy, also flowed with the wind, and he held himself straight upright. “— If he’s good friends with Kagiura, I wonder whether he’s the sporty type?”

“You’re the Hirano-san who gets upset with Kagiura when he doesn’t take proper notes right?”

“…Seriously, what have you been telling him Kagi-kun? What if he gets upset with me?”

“Oh about that, “If I don’t take notes, Hirano-san is going to be angry with me”, is what I told him. He looked really happy when I told him that though.”

With his wide smile and cheerful demeanour, Niibashi and Hirano met eyes. Hirano could more or less hazard a guess as to the type of person Niibashi was.

“— This guy is a hardcore narcissist.”

Niibashi was fully aware of how cute his face was, and always made sure to use it to its fullest potential. The friend of his obedient kouhai may be none of his business, but Hirano realized that he had unknowingly developed a weakness for his kouhai in this short period of time.

“…Speaking of that, didn’t you mention you had a friend who let you copy his notes? Although Kagi-kun, try to take your own notes as far as possible alright?”

“I’ll try my best. — Come to think of it, Niibashi, why are you here?”

“— Oh, he’s calling Niibashi without any honorifics. Usually in the dorm, I always see him addressing everyone by ‘-san’, so it’s sort of refreshing to watch him interacting so casually with a first-year that he’s close to.

“Ugh— I already sent you a message about it y’know. It’s cause you didn’t send me a reply! We’re shifting classrooms for the first period, if we don’t get a move on now we’re going to be late! I made the effort to come all the way here just to tell you that. You better be grateful for it y’know. Also cause it’s gonna be by the teacher who always glares at you when you doze off in class.”

He said it in a hushed tone so that people around couldn’t hear, but Hirano was near enough that he could make out what Niibashi said.

“— I thought he stopped copying notes because he couldn’t understand what the teacher was writing on the board, turns out he was just dozing off.”

“— Of course he would struggle to take notes.”

Hirano instinctively turned to glare at Kagiura, who quickly turned away in response. “— He’s got some guts alright.”

“Kagi-kun, when you get back you’re going to show me how you solve some of the past exam questions alright?”

The subjects taken by the special course students like Hirano and regular course students like Kagiura were slightly different, but during their first year, the curriculum was mostly shared between both courses. The two courses even share many of the same teachers in the first year, so if it was last year’s topics, then Hirano could teach them as well.

“— Now then.”

Watching Kagiura scramble off in a hurry, Hirano let out a light sigh and then signalled to the other Disciplinary Committee members to pack up. The notebooks used during the check would be passed onto the Vice-President of the Disciplinary Committee, Hanzawa. He would then summarize the contents and pass it onto the teacher in-charge.

After this, the Disciplinary Committee would hand over checking duties to a few teachers who would round up the stragglers rushing into school at the last minute.

“— It’s a really nice sunny day out, considering we’re in the middle of the rainy season. I feel kinda hot from just standing out there all morning, even if the sun wasn’t fully up yet.”

It goes without saying, but for this attire check, the first student caught for a violation — was Hirano.

---

The moment the last bell rung for the day, it was straight back to the dorm for him. Before and after dinner, other than bathing time, he remained glued to his desk studying.

For Kagiura, this sort of lifestyle is impossible to keep up. To no one’s surprise, he was starting to feel pretty sleepy right now.

Since his body stiffens easily, Hirano was helping him out with some stretches as a break from studying. At that moment though, Kagiura was about to drift to sleep there and then. “— If I asked, maybe Hirano would be a lap pillow for me.”

In the blink of an eye, Hirano had already turned into Kagiura’s living breathing alarm clock.

“— Even if he was afraid of having the alarm ring, and then being inundated by complaints by the neighbours, it’s really kind of him to wake up earlier just to drag me up instead of just kicking me off the bed.”

As the third of four siblings, with an older sister, an older brother and a younger sister, even his older brother wasn’t nice enough to wake him up that gently. Giving that excuse that it’s _because_ he’s the older brother.

Kagiura was still pretty close to his siblings. Thus, this closeness between the two of them, it’s perhaps even closer than what he has with his family.

“— Being treated special.”

Kagiura could finally understand the meaning behind Hanzawa’s words.

“— There has never been, and may never be, someone who takes as much care of me as Hirano does. The problem is, what can I do in return for him?”

“— To be special to each other, I can’t just be one-sidedly accepting favors from him.”

“— I can’t just continue on piling my troubles onto him. I want to be of use to him, although saying that now just sounds like a joke.”

“— It’s weird to think that there’s only a single year of difference between me and senpai. How much longer would it take for me to become someone who could reach out and connect to others as naturally as he does?”

Impatience began to broil within Kagiura.

“— There’s just this charisma about Hirano that pulls you in, it’s obvious that he’s adored by the younger members of the Disciplinary Committee too. I’m not going to be selfish enough to say that I want him to be a senpai only to me, but I’m also envious of the fact that he’s built such strong relationships with others as well.”

“Hey, stop spacing out on me. Look, this is last year’s test paper. It’s fine to just try and solve the exact same problems, but the key is what the textbook covers. Figure out the question patterns they tend to ask, and then focus more on revising those that are more likely to appear again.”

It suddenly hit Kagiura that he had unknowingly closed his eyes and let his mind slip away. When he opened his eyes, what awaited him was a stack of graded test papers sitting on the desk before him.

“— A ridiculously high score as expected. It’s blindingly bright.”

“… Alright…”

The novelty of seeing Hirano’s full name written besides a first-year class number helped to wash the drowsiness away. “— His seat number was in the second half of the class.”

As Kagiura picked up the papers, he brushed against the warmth of Hirano’s fingers. “Ah, I wonder if he’s sleepy too?”, realized Kagiura.

Turning around and looking up at him, Kagiura realized that Hirano’s eyes looked kinda damp. “— I wonder if he yawned?”

“— I should’ve just asked Hirano to go to bed before me”, thought Kagiura to himself.

Hirano wasn’t the type to cram for examinations at the last minute, always preparing before hand. Even the night before the mid-semestral examinations, he didn’t end up cram studying up till the mandatory lights out timing.

“Actually, sorry if I’m wrong about this… Kagi-kun, you just randomly scribble things onto your notebook don’t you?”

He cut straight to the heart of the matter, and Kagiura’s heart, despite being healthy, hurt.

“Well…. there are times where something to that effect may happen.”

“What percentage of the time?”

“Uhhh…. Ermmm, seventy…eighty percent… about there?”

“Why you!”

“— He must have seen the notes that I left open on my desk I guess. I wouldn’t really know how much space to leave for the notes, so I would just make space for the notes at random. Afterwards I would borrow Niibashi’s notes to copy and fill in the gaps, although I’ll just leave out the parts that couldn’t fit into the space that I made.”

“I guessed as much—… If you’re taking notes and marking the content that you don’t understand, there are other ways to do it. In math though, if you skip steps, jump formulas, and only half-copy the illustrations, you’re making reading your own notes more difficult than it needs to be.”

Not sure of how to respond, Kagiura’s blood ran cold.

It was impossible to avoid the shock that came with being told that all the work you’ve put into self-studying was for naught.

“— The amount of stuff I got in class, and the amount I didn’t was about 50-50. I was hoping that even if I was bad at studying, that would be enough to get me to pass…”

“Am I really in such a bad state?”

“Probably. I mean, even after seeing last year’s test questions, you aren’t getting that ‘eureka’ moment. It’s cause you don’t understand what the questions are looking for.”

“…Yes”

“Ah, well… that’s, I mean. It’s a bit of a shot in the dark, but many of the questions that came out in the past tend to test certain concepts that were taught in class. Cause of that, there are many standard questions that would repeat, so you should focus on those.”

“Yes”, was the only word that Kagiura could utter as he hung his head in disgrace. Hirano patted Kagiura’s head to try and reassure him.

“— It sort of feels like I’m being domesticated as his pet.”

As Kagiura began to lean his head sideways, Hirano shouted out “don’t fall asleep on the chair!”. Kagiura simply continued leaning closer towards Hirano, and being close enough to hear Hirano yawn put a wide smile on his face.

Kagiura simply continued leaning closer towards Hirano, and being close enough to hear Hirano yawn put a wide smile on his face.

The following day.

Kagiura had decided to spend the morning doing some self-studying instead of heading for morning practice. So Hirano woke him up at the bright and early hour of 6 o’clock.

“— I heard that Hirano wasn’t a morning person, but it’s really hard for me to imagine that.”

“— Although, now that I take a good look at Hirano, even with my drowsy eyes I can tell that something is off. His eyelids look so heavy, like they’re about to close at any moment. His mouth is yawning so widely, it almost looks like he’s shouting. I feel sorta bad for making him wake up this early.”

In his wrinkled loungewear, Hirano managed out a “take out your textbook” in-between his constant yawning. Kagiura quickly did as told, taking the textbooks out of his bag.

“— What is it?”, wondered Kagiura as he watched Hirano stick a bunch of post-its. As Hirano continued, Kagiura quickly realized that Hirano had noted down the parts of the homework that were easier to understand.

“We’ll start from reading the textbook, now go on.”

While Kagiura was already used to Hirano’s piercing glare, he couldn’t help but feel bad about all the trouble that he was causing him.

Nodding a “yes” in reply, Kagiura turned his attention to the text sitting before him.

Looking at the explanations written on the post-its, and then at the questions written on the test paper, Kagiura felt like he could finally understand what the questions were asking for.

“— The issue is without the textbook, during the real thing I don’t think I’ll be able to fill in the right answers.”

“That’s why I asked you to memorize it…”

“Hahh…”, Hirano sighed.

He hadn’t mentioned it to anyone since there were financial implications to it, but Kagiura was the creme de la creme of those admitted through a sports recommendation. Therefore, he received special treatment during his admission into school.

“— So to put it bluntly, it’s not like my grades when entering were stellar or anything. If I do badly, I may actually end up having the worst grades in my entire year.”

“— If I wasn’t able to fix my grades at the end of middle school, I probably wouldn’t actually have been able to get in though. But it’s also a fact that if I’m bad at studying, I’m bad at studying.”

“— My results for the mid-semestral exams were pretty bad. I got pretty decent scores for the subjects that I’m good at, but I also struggled in quite a lot of subjects too. Scoring below average for most of my subjects.”

“— For what it’s worth, I scored way better back in middle school.”

“— I can feel a sense of danger enveloping me.”

“— It’s just that, I thought I had already taken my studies seriously enough, just not as much as sports I guess.”

“— When Hirano was a first year, I’m sure he could solve this problem way easier than I can.”

Kagiura’s concentration held out for less than 30 minutes.

When breakfast time rolled around at the cafeteria, Kagiura stood up.

“I wanna get out and run!”

Even more than his hunger, Kagiura’s urge to exercise was being pent up within him.

“— I hadn’t noticed it, since I slept up to the last possible minute yesterday. But when waking up early, my muscle memory tells me that i need to exercise. Somewhere in my body is a signal that’s calling out to me. I can’t hold it in anymore, I need to get out and exercise.”

“Even if you say so, it’s raining outside y’know.”

“Awww, but it was sunny out yesterday.”

Grumbling about the weather, Kagiura moved his body around lightly while watching Hirano stretch widely.

“Rain or shine, the need to study for your test isn’t going to disappear, so get a grip on yourself. After all, there are no shortcuts for studying…. Is it different for basketball?”

“— Hirano’s scolding me, but he does it in such a sincere voice”

Even before Kagiura picked up a basketball for the very first time, his body was already brimming with vigour and energy. Just by watching other players play, it was easy for Kagiura to pick up how to mimic the same moves.

Ever since birth, Kagiura was great at controlling his muscles, but he had struggled to narrow down which sport fit him best. The moment he witnessed basketball for the first time, he knew that it was the sport for him.

And then, when Kagiura got onto the court for the first time, everyone complemented him, saying that he would become an incredible player once he polished his aim. His senses were intensely attuned for basketball. The reason why he could undergo such harsh training sessions, was because he could clearly visualize what he wanted to achieve.

“…I’ll try my best.”

“Yea!”

Kagiura felt relieved, but couldn’t say it out loud.

“— But probably, the way I feel about basketball is the way Hirano feels about studying. Once you know what it is you need to achieve, then it’s easy to understand how to get there through hard work.”

“— If that’s the case, I wanna find out the way forward, one that hopefully doesn’t require too long of a detour. It doesn’t have to be fun, but it’s definitely better than dropping out of school.”

Resuming his studies, the room was filled with the pleasant sounds of a mechanical pencil scraping against paper.

There was a study room within the dorms, but Kagiura had yet to use it.

“— Given the nature of the dorm, the space is mainly used by special course students and those preparing for entrance exams — Using it just makes me feel uncomfortable.”

“— Although, I know that my level of concentration is definitely helped by being in a room filled with other people who are studying.”

The moment the clock struck 6.45am, Kagiura’s stomach let out a massive growl.

“… I wanna eat something.”

“If it’s chocolate, I have some.”

The fact that Hirano offered something made him happy.

“Meat would be good. Chicken Katsu would be even better…”

As Kagiura answered, he regretted not accepting some chocolate from Hirano first.

As a general rule within the dorms, you’re prohibited from eating anywhere outside of the cafeteria. Drinks were permitted though. The snacks that people carry around in their bags, is typically what they picked up from school.

“— Even though I said that, I still want some of the candy that he offered me!”

“If it’s chicken, then I think yakitori would be good.”

“— I see, so he likes yakitori.”, making a mental note of it as he stood up.

“— This is it, I’m at my limit. I want to grab something to eat!”

“Hey Hirano-san, I’ve heard that it’s better to study while hungry than on a full stomach, but I don’t quite think that’s the case…”

“Since we’re stuck on the topic of food — Why don’t we go grab breakfast?”

“— I’m so hungry…”, thought Hirano has he put on his slippers and patted his belly.

The room’s entrance was narrow, and as Hirano was fumbling around, Kagiura wanted to reach out and push him. But he stopped himself just short.

He got up from his crouched position and took a step back.

“— In the locker room, I always push around my teammates while we’re changing, but I don’t think I’m quite that close enough to Hirano yet.”

At the same time, Kagiura wondered if he was rushing things.

“— I wanna become close enough to Hirano that I won’t be nervous about doing things like this.”

With one step out onto the corridor, Hirano just looked on none the wiser of Kagiura’s internal struggles.

Translator's Notes and References

In case it wasn't clear, I am differentiating between thoughts and dialogue using the following: “— Thoughts" and "Dialogue". So if it starts with '—', it's a thought.

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