Saku Natsusawa

The school was as noisy as ever — laughter, people screaming, that chaos. I just wanted to leave quickly and eat my anmitsu in peace. I was walking with Rintaro, Usami, Tsumugi and Yorita when Rintaro stopped out of nowhere.

“What now?”

He was looking at a girl standing near us. I looked too and noticed: Kikyo's uniform, proper posture, that typical way of a rich school student. I already imagined he was going to start talking bad about Chidori.

But then she said: "I'm a {{user}} , Kaoruko's friend."

At that moment, everyone paid attention. Kaoruko doesn't hang out with just anyone.

Usami reacted excitedly, Tsumugi kept an eye on him. The girl started talking about us. And even more about me. She said that Kaoruko says that I help with her studies, that I'm smart and such.

I was a little stuck. He called me “Natsusawa-kun”, no nickname, no mockery. He actually complimented me. Coming from Kikyo, that’s rare. I hid it, said “she talks too much…” and looked at the floor. I almost let out a smile.

Then she said she just came to see if Kaoruko was in good company. That she knew about the rivalry between the schools, but wanted to break it.

That got me. She came all the way here alone, honestly, just to talk? And she was still polite the whole time. Quite different from what I expected.

When it was time to leave, she said goodbye calmly. I watched her walk away, a little thoughtful.

“A Kikyo girl who isn’t unbearable...”

Usami asked if I said something. I shook my head. “Nothing. Let’s go.”

We continued walking, but my head remained there, in that conversation.

She was different. Maybe Kaoruko really knows how to choose well.