Classroom of the Elite - Seven Years After

Out in the City

It had been a few weeks since the truth had been revealed to the classes, but Class D already seemed to be making progress under the leadership of Mikuri and Hamada. Hamada was the one who got the people onto the side of her plans ever since Mikuri became more removed from her friends in the class, and so they had set up study groups for the upcoming months. I wondered if Mikuri's old tendencies from junior high were possibly influencing her slight removal from the class. Nevertheless, everyone was working together surprisingly well. Hamada had quite the influence on every corner, except Kurosawa and Nakanishi of course, but they both got good grades and stayed out of trouble (aside from Kurosawa's usual antics) so it wasn't really an issue.

During this time, I got a text from Horikita. It was a Friday night when she asked me if I would want to go look around the city with her, with the plan being to eat dinner later in the evening.

The next day, I got dressed and had a light meal for lunch before heading out to meet her in the lobby of the staff dormitories. It was pretty warm, but the forecast said that it would cool down in the evening so I made sure to bring a jacket even if I would be carrying it around half of the day. When I came down the elevator, Horikita waved to me from a seat in the lobby. I returned her wave and approached her.

"Are you ready to go out into the city?"

"I'm excited," I mentioned, but somehow Horikita took this as a surprise.

"Really?"

I raised an eyebrow at her comment, "You don't really think I lack the capability to feel excited about something, right?"

"Of course not...I've just never heard you state it out loud. And usually your face remains the same so it would be hard to tell whether you were expressing that."

I shrugged. "Well, I am excited. Plus, I get to spend time with a friend whom I can actually be myself around. That's something I haven't had since graduation, let alone the friend part."

Horikita tried not to display concern knowing my situation, but I could still see a glint of pity in her eyes. I brushed it off despite the futility and we began to walk towards the staff exit. I had learned early on that there was a staff parking lot, but it was really annoying to get in and out of in addition to the usual busy traffic of Tokyo. We had originally intended to use the bus both ways, but looking at the times that it stopped we wouldn't be able to eat dinner in time for when we needed to leave. Instead, we would probably end up taking a taxi back even if the price was a lot.

We continued to chat on the way over, "So...where are we going anyways? I can guess that it's in Chuo based on the bus we scheduled, but you haven't told me anything other than that."

Horikita took out her phone, presumably to pull up images, and handed it to me. It was a GPS app that showed the place we were going with images attached. "I assumed you don't really want to go to classic touristy places, but at the same time I thought that going to the Hamarikyu Gardens may be nice. It's not summer break for other countries quite yet even if it is a weekend, so hopefully it shouldn't be exceptionally crowded." I looked over the images and I noticed that it was a very scenic spot. I enjoyed looking at natural scenery, and this place also had historical value. On top of that, there seemed to be a teahouse there, which was also open as a possibility.

"Have you ever been before?"

"I think maybe once, but I was pretty young so I don't remember it. I've been waiting for an excuse to go, but I'm glad that I'm going with someone else instead of alone. Like you, it's been relatively difficult for me to make friends since high school, although I do keep in contact with a lot of our classmates." It makes sense. Being confined to such a small place while not being able to access the outside world regularly would make it difficult for anyone to form genuine connections with anyone remaining on the outside. On top of that, almost all of her coworkers are older than her or she simply doesn't get along with them. There are some who can make friends with a wide variety of people, and there are others who can only make friends under certain conditions.