By some mistake, Takaya had been accepted into Eijō High School—one of the most prestigious schools in the prefecture.
If he could, he would start over.
He regretted not researching his options more carefully.
He never imagined that Ayaka, the top student in their year, would lower her sights at the last moment and apply to Aiyama High instead.
She had always said she wanted to go to Eijō.
True, Aiyama was closer to her house, but still—
Maybe it was for financial reasons.
With her grades, she could have easily made it into Eijō, but perhaps she didn’t want to risk failure.
If she couldn’t afford to take chances, choosing Aiyama made sense.
They weren’t particularly close, so Takaya had no way of knowing what her family situation was.
Still, Eijō and Aiyama were in neighboring cities, so it wasn’t as if he’d never see her again.
From his house, it took ten minutes by bus to Aiyama Station, then two stops by train, and another ten minutes by bike to reach Eijō High.
If Ayaka was biking to Aiyama High from around the station, there might be a chance encounter someday.
He’d have to get some information from Yūji, who went to Aiyama.
---
Until middle school, Takaya had carried the weight of what he called his “negative legacy.”
He had always been brilliant—too brilliant.
Ever since elementary school, he’d been unnaturally gifted, both academically and physically.
But that brilliance had backfired.
He couldn’t build cooperative relationships with his classmates, who saw him as distant, strange, even threatening.
Their envy turned into hostility, and even teachers began to treat him as an outsider.
Eventually, the whole class ignored him, labeling him “the crazy one.”
He was completely alone.
Things didn’t improve in middle school. If anything, the isolation deepened.
Then, in the second semester of his second year, Yūji transferred in.
He was a bit of an oddball himself, yet he went out of his way to talk to Takaya.
Strangely, no one seemed to avoid Yūji for being friendly with him.
That was just the kind of person Yūji was.
He became Takaya’s one and only friend.
---
No one from Naka Middle School went on to Eijō High.
In a way, that was a blessing.
If Takaya had gone to Aiyama, where most of his old classmates enrolled, he might have carried his “negative legacy” with him forever.
So perhaps this new beginning wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
Though nervous, Takaya also felt a quiet excitement.
At Eijō High, his talents would once again be tested—
but it was also a chance to overcome the past.
He hoped that, freed from the loneliness of Naka Middle School, he could finally make new friends.
And deep down, he dreamed of seeing Ayaka again someday.