Episode 24 – Sora’s New Day

“Hey, Iida kun.”

The next day, Saara acted a little differently.

During a teacher’s class, while the class was quietly listening, Saara pulled her face to mine and called out in a whisper.
I looked at her and responded, thinking it was unusual, and she pointed to my ballpoint pen.

“Give me that one.”
“Okay, but …… why?’
“I’m very interested in it.”

I questioned and lent Saara a pen.
Saara writes some words in her notebook.
They are beautiful letters.

Sarrah lifted the pen, moved to check the maker, and handed it back to me.

“”Wow, this is great. Thanks.”
“……? You’re welcome.”

There was no way that the teacher who was teaching the class could not have heard us having this conversation.

“Ayado san, are you concentrating on your class? Do you have know who can come in here?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s Fujiwara no Fuhito, isn’t it?”
“…… Yes, that’s correct.”

If she was acting conspicuously, Saara’s movement at the window in the very back is quite a conspicuous movement for a teacher.
I mean, we were in a quiet class, so they heard our conversation, right ……?

My prediction, such as it was, was right, of course.

“I’ve never been warned in class before, have you, Saara chi? What were you doing?”
“I was asking Iida kun to lend me a pen.”

During break time, Saara showed her notebook to Sato san, who was the first to arrive.
The other classmates gathered around.

“Iida kun’s tools are all very rare. Look at this one.”

Sato san looked at the notebook and exclaimed in surprise.

“The letters are …… is this magic?”
“I wrote it with a ballpoint pen, not a magic marker, but it doesn’t reflect like this. Why is this?”
“Most ballpoint pens use oil-based ink, but this is a gel ink ballpoint pen. It’s a different kind.”
“I had never thought of that before. Do you have any other interesting ones?”

I was a little embarrassed by my gathered classmates, but introduced various items from my own experience.

Everyone was staring at the names of the products as if they were devouring them.
I wondered if they would find my explanations interesting, but it seemed that they were interested.

“Hey, what else?”
“Hmmm …… for example why I use this cheap transparent pen case ……. Haven’t we all been there? When you don’t need it, there are about three pens in it, but when you do need it, only the oil-based pens aren’t in it with pinpoint accuracy.
“I-I understand……!”
“It was me yesterday. I see. That’s why you are making it visible.”

Inspired by Saara and Sato san, who were making a good impression, the other classmates were nodding their heads.
I knew that everyone had a “thing” about this kind of thing.

“Iida, your story is interesting.”
“Is there anything else?”

The boys who had gathered for the sake of the Saara and had hardly ever talked to each other before were curious to take a peek at my tools.

“The rest of the time I just use the corners of the …… eraser, and finally I get sick of the round erasers that erase just a little bit and then the letters next to them disappear.”
“Wow, it sounds like you’re talking about me. ……”
“I’ve been using these knock-off erasers for a while now. The most popular one is this one, which is particularly long and thin. You can put it vertically like this: ……. With this, you can always erase a two-millimeter target.”
“I’ll buy it.”
“I’ll buy it.”

I understand a little bit how people like to promote this kind of thing frequently to boys who like the products I introduced to them.
It’s interesting to recommend a product you know.

As I looked at the reactions of those around me, I saw that Saara was looking at me with a truly amused expression on her face.
Here, I finally understood the purpose of Saara’s conspicuous behavior during the class.

Now I’m getting a lot of positive feelings around me.

This is surely not something that is inherently unusual.
Why have I never had this kind of opportunity?
It was, of course, because I had kept it away from myself until now.

But it was different.
If I talked to them, even a little, they accepted me with open arms.
It’s a normal thing, but I had never understood such a normal thing.

Thank you to Saara, ……………… hmm?

What was this?
A case to hold a regular eraser or something?
I don’t remember at all.

So I opened the case and …… suddenly something popped out!

“Whoa!”

What came out of the box was a yellow emoji-like face with a poking-at-people expression, connected to a spring.
It was clearly not mine, it was cheap toy

“Iida, do you carry a surprise box or something in your pencil case?”
“I thought you had a more serious image. Iida, you’re funny.”

I glanced at Saara’s expression and saw her shoulders shaking slightly as she looked out the window.
T-This girl ……!

“Iida-kun, it’s really funny that you’re surprised by yourself. Are you a dark horse in the storytelling category?”
“No, it’s Sa …… Ayado san.”
“What are you talking about? How could the serious Saara chi plant something like this?””

aaah, come to think of it, Saara was a neat, serious, and perfect princess at school!

After all, my reputation in the class has shifted from “well-informed” to “interesting.”
Oh dear, my evaluation was not so good at the end of the day.

I don’t like being beaten like this.
I might as well make some dorayaki to get back at her.