Prologue

Prologue

I know this is quite sudden, but there exists two Satou Hajime in my school. Yep, you guessed it, literally the exact same name and surname. I mean, there are just way too many Satou Hajimes; try searching the name on the internet and alot would pop out, there is even a long list of results in Wikipedia.

Now, what does it mean when two people have the same name in the same school? They would naturally be compared against each other. Well, this can't be helped. Both would even be confused as to what they would call each other, right? Obviously.

The first Satou Hajime is just your ordinary boy. The other Satou Hajime, however, is not just any other Satou Hajime.  

First of all, he is handsome, has a tall stature, well-defined features, and an aura that can make you gasp in awe even at a distance. 

Next, sports. With his physique, he joined the basketball club and became a regular member in the blink of an eye. Furthermore, he's also good with studies and is within the top 10 in the midterms exam. On top of that, he has a good personality and has good knowledge about anime and mangas while being in the most popular group in the school. He is what you call a top predator.

Luckily or unluckily, our hierarchy had already been set before we even had our fight. He is "Satou No. 1" while I was "No. 2."

As such, when people with loose mouths started using the nicknames, it started to spread so quickly that I could not even disapprove of the nickname. 

This is a story about me, a "No. 2," becoming a "No. 1" for a certain someone.

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"Hajime! You didn't have a part-time job today, did you? Can I go to your house?"

After the homeroom, immediately after the teacher left, a girl with an overly enthusiastic smile—Minamino Chinatsu—who is not only popular in the class, but in the whole grade level as well, said as such, making the time in the classroom seemingly stop for a moment. 

Although she wasn't loud, she stood out. 

Whilst calling her as the number one beauty in the entire grade level could be a matter of taste and there might be mixed receptions, no one disagrees that she is beautiful in her own right.

She has shoulder-length or just below shoulder-length clear black hair, large eyes that change from one emotion to the next, and a small, well-balanced nose. She often smiles with her mouth open, but her lips are cute and don't look unseemly. She is neither too tall nor too short, a little below my eye level which is at 170 cm, so she must be in the mid-160 cm range. Her breasts are not big enough to be noticeable on her uniform, but they are on the larger side for her slender figure. The hem of her slightly short, above-the-knee skirt, which just barely violates school rules, reveals her translucent white skin, but there is nothing unhealthy about it, and combined with her aura of healthy beauty itself, it makes her look even more attractive. A high-spec girl capable of doing sports and studies. 

A total opposite of me, who is self-aware of being an inconspicuous male student. 

I may have friends I can spend lunch together with and classmates that I can have light conversations with. As a member of the go-home club, I don't have any friends close enough to hang out with outside the school, heck I'm even confident that none of them would consider me as their best friend. 

I'm neither someone who stands out in a bad way nor an introvert, and definitely not someone who has a talent that can trigger some kind of event and draw everyone's attention. I'm also not the kind who, if I styled my hair a different way, would reveal my hidden handsome face. Rather, I am someone who goes out in the morning to a salon to fix myself, and would still just look plainly average.

In the enclosed world of high school, during the winter of my first year's third semester, calling me by name in an intimate way could have sparked a major incident. This is because the girl who was calling me by name was extremely popular, not only among the students on the same grade level but also among male senior students, and nobody, not even her fellow girls had anything negative to say about her.

"Huh? Eh? Why are No. 2 and Minamino together? What kind of relationship do they have?"

"Maybe she mistook him as the other Satou? Probably not considering she's in front of him."

"...I knew it, those two…"

All kinds of whispers filled my ears.

To be precise, those whispers were divided into:

A group of girls with the know-it-all expressions.

A group of girls who looked interested.

A group of boys with displeased expressions.

Surprised students. 

Students who acted uninterested but still couldn't hide their interested faces.

At any rate, we stood out too much. Perhaps, the most I stood out ever since entering this school. 

But then, we both knew this was going to happen.

In my opinion, she is so pretty that she could rival the heroines of every story, but she is not completely unaware of her influence, unlike an unwitting heroine. She knows how to read the air and how she is perceived, which is why she has been able to maintain her popularity without making enemies in her current position.

And I know that she had been restless since morning.

The fact that my smartphone was vibrating to inform me of messages from her, more than usual, from my thigh was evidence of that.

(Chinatsu) Today's the day, isn't it?

(Chinatsu) I already told Yukko and the others that I won't be going home with them today.

(Chinatsu) Actually, it would have been okay to do the reveal during lunch break, but no, it's better to just go home together today and sleep on it.

(Chinatsu) Hey.

(Chinatsu) ...It seems like I'm the only one who's feeling nervous, it's not fair.

(Chinatsu) It's not fair.

(Hajime) No, I'm in class right now.

(Chinatsu) Studying is more important to Hajime than I am.

(Chinatsu) I see.

(Chinatsu) Hmph.

(Chinatsu) You keep ignoring me even though I love you so much.

(Hajime) Breaking News: while I was attentively listening to the class, my beloved girlfriend turned into a yandere.

We usually exchange casual messages, and the messaging app is what connects our high school lives while we keep our relationship hidden. But today, the messages were particularly frequent.

Her lighthearted tone couldn't conceal her nervousness, and if it wasn't just my imagination, she was also showing her happiness.

When I recalled such an exchange in class earlier, I relaxed my mouth and smiled, then looked at Minamino Chinatsu and answered.

"Of course, that's fine. But can I stop by the supermarket on the way back to pick up some ingredients for dinner?"

"What should we make for today's dinner?"

"Since it's Friday and meat is cheap, maybe we can go for something hearty."

I'm actually planning on buying ingredients on the way home, so it's not a lie, but it's not something I need to mention here.

After showing a casual exchange as if just to show our intimacy, the class' noise further increased, something I can easily ignore.

Her friends had already laid the groundwork, and my friends, which are few in number, didn't have interests in such topics in the beginning anyway. Just saying.

Well then, let me introduce myself again. My name is Satou Hajime.

Of the two Satou Hajime in this high school, I am known as the "No. 2."

However, despite being known as the "No. 2" by everyone, she made me her "No. 1."

To understand why she's always shining her radiant smile on me, we need to go back a few seasons.