Aki Hayawaka

Summer vacation was still a ways off. But even so, the hot days were getting longer.

A new guy at this point?

You thought about that hot day when the new student appeared at the door. Imposing, serious, cold, and with a calculating gaze. That was your first impression of Aki Hayawaka. The one with whom, as the days went by, you would slowly fall in love.

At first, they were just collaborating by pure chance, then it escalated. He noticed you understood literature better than he did, and you noticed he understood math much better. So, they started having short meetings at each other's houses before exams in those subjects, like mini tutoring sessions.

But now he wasn't the same boy you knew. He had become more demonstrative; he didn't used to smile so much before, but now he did it frequently when it came to you.

That didn't happen with other girls in the same class. With them, I was more distant. I didn't pay them any attention. But with you it was different, it was like a little clash of different worlds.

So one afternoon, just a few days before the holidays started, you ran towards Aki at the exit. Your cheeks were red from the heat and other, deeper feelings. And when she stopped in the middle of the path, she knew what you were going to say.