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With cascading black hair that smoothly ran down her back from the half updo at the top, holding her school bag with both hands in front of her waist, the cheerful girl was one I had recently become familiar with.

"Yes, hold on."

Sorting my bag for a moment, I zipped it up and slung it over my shoulder, upon which the classmate and I left the classroom and headed down the hall.

As we walked to our destination, the Cooking Club clubroom, I felt many dozens of eyes peer in our direction.

I found it unpleasant, but it was not unexpected. Recently, I had come to understand that the classmate I was accompanying, Shizuko Aikawa, held a sort of celebrity status within the school.

Being a girl as objectively pretty as she was and having the background of hailing from a sort of prestigious family, it was no wonder that she was sought after by so many yet firmly rejected by them all.

I had never paid much attention to these kinds of matters before, so I was only vaguely aware that that was the general case, but now I don\'t have much choice in it.

"Hey, isn\'t that guy with her..."

Of course, because I was walking beside such a person, I naturally attracted a certain amount of attention too.

In fact, once I was first noticed a while ago after first starting to walk with her, it seemed to blow up for a short bit, but now things appear to have calmed down.

I had never interacted with people of other classes aside from special circumstances, and even those within my own class weren\'t far from being strangers.

They knew nothing about me other than that I scored 100% on every exam, and I had no intention of finding out about them.

Since the exam scores information wasn\'t exactly a secret, the same went for those outside of my class.

That was all my reputation amounted to until now--a smart guy who keeps to himself.

And, originally, I never intended for it to be anything more than that.

Because of this, everybody watching me walk together with Shizuko Aikawa, even though they knew we were just classmates, started gossiping amongst themselves.

"Is it possible that..."

"No..."

"Really, is it that..."

I paid little attention to the words coming out of their mouths, but they were doing it so blatantly that I wondered for a moment if they even wanted me to hear what they were saying.

Suddenly, I heard a whisper from right beside me.

"I\'m really sorry, Itou-san..."

With a sideways glance, Shizuko Aikawa\'s bitter smile was seen.

Of course, as the person at the eye of this paparazzi-like storm of gossip, she would have been the one most acutely aware of what was going on around her. Well, I wasn\'t surprised, and I had known to some extent what fate was awaiting me before I chose this path.

Although I would have preferred to keep a low profile within the school, having fame isn\'t so bad. In some ways, gaining popularity will give me more freedom. It won\'t seem like a surprise for me to visit other classes to see students I normally never would, for example.

Like that, I could convene with Sophie Asanami at any time without suspicion.

In the end, it\'s not like I chose to join the Cooking Club and walk alongside Shizuko Aikawa because I didn\'t know it would result in me attracting some attention.

"You don\'t have to apologise. People will gossip and there\'s nothing you can do about it, but what does it matter?"

So, I told her such a thing.

After all, what\'s the point in bothering to care about these guys\' attention?

After staring at me with wide eyes for a second, Shizuko Aikawa exhaled subtly as if laughing, and smiled at me.

"You\'re right. It doesn\'t matter, does it?"

I don\'t know exactly what effect my words had on her, but she seemed a little uplifted compared to previously.

----------

Entering the door to the Cooking Club clubroom, the two of us were welcomed by a horde of greetings.

As one might expect, the room was full of various cooking equipment and mini kitchen stations.

"Hello, everyone~ I hope we aren\'t late~"

Joyfully, Shizuko Aikawa greeted everyone with a smile while I just nodded. Instead, my eyes turned to a person at the back of the room who seemed to not be paying much attention, glued to their smartphone.

Sophie Asanami.

We already talked before about her joining the club so that it wouldn\'t look suspicious for us to be together outside of school, so now she was a part of the Cooking Club too.

Raising her head, we locked gazes for a brief moment. She gave me a subtle nod, which I reciprocated. Then, I moved nonchalantly to my normal place, where another person greeted me separately.

"Howdy, Senpai!"

Since I was a third year, I was amongst the oldest in the club. The person in front of me--a girl with auburn hair on the shorter side--was a newcomer first-year and called me as such in a bright and carefree tone.

Her name was Kanon Yuuki.

"Hello."

I didn\'t say much more than that and turned my attention to the Club Leader, a third-year like me.

It was a guy from class 3-A I\'ve never spoken to, but apparently, he\'s been in the Cooking Club since the first year.

"Okay guys, first of all..."

As he started off by taking registration of who was here, we were soon told about some news.

"For the upcoming end-of-year celebration, our club has been asked if we could assist with making some of the food for the event. I confirmed that we\'d be down to help, but, obviously, it\'s not an obligation for you to join in if you don\'t want to, which is why I\'m going to ask you to write your names down here for me if you\'re planning on helping."

It seems the school had asked the Cooking Club to help with sourcing food for the end-of-year event. It made sense, and I\'m sure the majority of people here would be willing to help out anyway.

The Club Leader went on to explain about the budget and going to buy stuff to make some cookies or cakes or whatever, but I already tuned out by that point.

If I didn\'t feel like I had to do it, then I wasn\'t going to.

Eventually, a piece of paper made its way around the room for those who wanted to help out to write their names down.

"Senpai, are you going to join?"

Kanon Yuuki next to me asked with a pen in her hands and the paper in front of her. Glancing down at the paper, I saw that her name was already on it, ended with an exclamation mark and a simple smiley face.

"..."

Below that, I saw...

"Ah! Wha-- Aw, you caught it?"

Snatching the pen out of her hands, I crossed out my name that was written underneath hers.

That was close.

Passing the pen and paper along before she could write my name down again, I turned to her and said one thing.

"For your own good, I wouldn\'t cause trouble."

To my cold tone, she laughed awkwardly and scratched her head.

"Ahehe..."

The rest of the club time was spent discussing people\'s roles for the upcoming winter event, so I didn\'t have anything to do. Of course, that was intended since I didn\'t really want to do any work if I didn\'t have to, but it was a little boring.

Ring~!

Soon, the period came to an end without much happening and I left the clubroom at the bell\'s signal.

----------

"Senpai~! Don\'t leave so quickly...!"

Just as I got to the school entrance where the lockers were, I heard a mosquito-like voice call out to me from behind.

Sweat dripped from her brow as she bent her knees to catch her breath. Kanon Yuuki appeared to have chased after me when I fled the clubroom.

Frowning at her, I opened my mouth.

"Don\'t you think there was a reason I left so quickly?"

"Ah! But, but! It\'s rude, y\'know, Senpai? You didn\'t even say goodbye!"

Ignoring her as I approached my locker, my only regret was that I didn\'t leave faster.

I inserted the key into my locker and turned it, causing the thing to open. Then, peering her head from behind my shoulder, the annoying first year exclaimed.

"Oh! Senpai, you have a letter! A love letter, perhaps?! No, two letters! Oh! My! Gosh! I had no idea you were so popular, Senpai!"

She made a huge fuss and put on an unnecessary performance at me as if to tease, but I only stared at the two envelopes blankly.

"Senpai? Aren\'t you going to open them? I wanna know what they say~!"

"..."

I shut my locker without touching either of the envelopes within and quickly locked it before turning away.

"Ehh~? Where are you going...?"

Seemingly distraught at not being able to get what she wanted, Kanon Yuuki exclaimed and pouted, but I continued walking out of the school.

As soon as I turned a corner, I stopped and checked my surroundings.

Fortunately, that girl didn\'t appear to be so nonsensically irritating as to chase me all the way out here, so I could take a minute.

Waiting in this spot for a moment, my brows furrowed as I recalled the contents of the two letters.