Unfriendy Lovers

New Friends

They grudgingly packed their bags and left the dorm, trudging along the cement-paved sidewalk to their exam. The autumn wind blew gently against their faces, carrying along with it orange leaves that had been exiled from their home. 

Despite her fatigue, Mitsuri was still a chatterbox, talking about anything and everything with Shinobu, who gave half-hearted responses. Mitsuri still couldn't believe that Shinobu had met the prince of the school at the daycare she worked part-time at or the fact that Tomioka had two children.

'Why does everyone care so much about that insensitive asshole?' 

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Once in the lecture hall, Shinobu tossed her bag onto the ground next to her seat, only leaving out a pencil and gag eraser that Kanae had bought for her the previous year. Mitsuri sat in the seat next to her, also dropping her bag onto the wooden floor. 

Shinobu's temples throbbed as she took her seat due to the excess caffeine in her system. Rubbing her temples with the palms of her hand, she yawned as she fought the urge to fall asleep right there and then. 

Just a few moments later, the professor entered the hall, causing all the quiet conversations that had started in the meanwhile to die down. Shinobu looked around the large room, noticing Tomioka sitting in a corner with a peach orange-haired male student, along with a short female, Makomo, if she could recall correctly. She was a friend of Mitsuri's and an acquaintance of Shinobu. 

'So Tomioka really does have friends. I thought he was always alone.'

Just as she looked away from the unlikely group of friends, her chemistry teacher went on a spiel about how cheating would not be tolerated in their class, the same speech as always which no one paid attention to anymore. 

After a ten-minute dialogue, they finally started passing out tests, which the people in the rows in front of her reacted quite strongly to. A series of synchronized gasps and utterings of their displeasure led Shinobu to only wonder how difficult the material was. 

Once she received the pile of blank tests, she took one for herself and passed the rest backwards. Opening up the thick packet, she examined the content which her peers found outrageous. To her pleasant surprise, the content seemed rather easy, although only due to her intensive studying habits. 

Drowning out the groans and annoyed sighs of her classmates, Shinobu quickly got to work, tackling each question one by one. 

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Stretching her short arms as far as they would extend, Shinobu set her pencil down on her desk and watched her other classmates struggle at their desks. Some of them shook their head frantically, others taking fistfuls of hair and pulling on it. 

She looked at the back corner of the room, where Tomioka was comfortably sleeping at his desk, his test flipped upside down. His head was pointed up at the ceiling, accentuating his sharp jawline and great side profile. 

The male student sitting next to him had just finished his test, letting out a huge yawn after flipping his test upside down. A playful smile formed upon his lips before he promptly tapped Tomioka on the shoulder. 

Tomioka sluggishly turned around in response to the tap, only to find a large, hefty palm flying at him. Too drowsy to realize what was happening, Tomioka ate the hefty blow, a loud smack disrupting the other students who were still furiously writing on their tests.