Showered by the Stars

30. Uh-huh, is that so?

The whole class snickered when Itoh-sensei embarrassed herself by her own actions. The class already guessed that he’d know how to speak in English since he’s studied in Oxford. And well, from his previous feat in Math, it would be stranger if he wouldn’t know English which is an international language.

It seems like Itoh-sensei is the new teacher everyone was talking about, since she still challenged me.

“Minami-chan, did you understand what Konoe-san shared to us?” she suddenly asked. “Ah! Mind if I ask why you dyed your hair blond?” The students snickered. She’s definitely a newbie.

“Ah. Yes. I understood him. And I didn’t dye my hair. This is my natural hair color.” I said.

“Itoh-sensei. Minami-chan’s mom is an Austrian.” Ueno-kun said. I rolled my eyes. He’s not paying attention again.

“It’s Australian, not Austrian. It’s completely different.” Korin scolded.

“Ah! So you are a half-blood.” Itoh-sensei suddenly said.

The mood suddenly changed. Saying Half-blood is taboo. I’ve always disliked being called that way. I have lived in Japan since birth and yet I’m still treated as a foreigner.

The whole class shivered as my old classmates from elementary kept on throwing evil aura at the teacher. Ugh! This is reality. Who knew that my blonde hair is ostentatious in itself? There’s no need for a limousine. I just have to walk around Japan with this hair, eyes, nose and height, and I’ll immediately be mistaken for a tourist.

“Yes. I am a half-blood.” I smiled. They stopped sending out weird vibes.

The bell rang; it was time for lunch break.

“Um—Hey. I won’t be having lunch with you today. I’ll show Eri-kun around the campus.” I told Ran and Kana.

“Ah—okay. But be sure to eat something, alright?” Kana-chan said.

“Yes. Of course.” They went, leaving me with Eri-kun.

“You need help with that?” I asked.

“Ah—but everything here is heavy.” He said.

“Don’t worry about it. I can carry it.”

“But if I have you carry this stuff—“ he said, looking at the pile of books.

“I get it—then I’ll just carry these.” I said, picking up his two books that he was reading during class and one of his thick textbooks. “This is fine, right?”

“Um—you sure it isn’t heavy?” he said.

“Eh? Hold on. You’re not underestimating me, are you?” I said, half-joking.

“Ah! I’m not. Well, thank you.” He said.

“Don’t mention it. Shall we go?” We headed towards the lockers and he placed his text books there.

“Um—Eri-kun, can I ask you something?” I said.

“Yes. Sure. What is it?” he replied.

“Why did you suddenly decide to study here? You’ve you’re Ph.D, right? Why study High School?”

“It was an arrangement given by our grandfathers.” He said, bluntly.

Ah? Is that the only reason? It must be really troublesome. I would really like to finish school immediately. The only thing that is holding me back if ever that were to happen, is that I won’t be able to hang out with Ran and Kana that much. Ah!

“Hey! It’s still good, right? You can make new friends while you’re at it.” I said.

“Oh? But I don’t know the first thing about making a friend.”

“Hmm—sometimes you can find new friends when you have someone who will be with you.”

“Ah?”

“I know! I’ll be your first friend, how about that?”

“Eh?”

“Then I’ll introduce you to Ran and the others. Sounds good, right?”

“Well, if you say so.”

“Oh man! You’re not into this, are you? Geez.” I sighed. This guy is too serious. He rarely jokes.

“Oh yeah. I was told that I’d be having some special tutorials, you know about it?” I asked.

“Yes. I will also be having tutorials. Grandfather said that it’s no good if I’ll just excel on Academics. So I’ll be trained physically as well.”

“Eh? That’s about the same as mine.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

We’ve already toured the campus. There’s still time until the next class.

“How about we grab something to eat?” I suggested. He nodded. We went to the cafeteria and bought some light lunch.

I felt stares from the students. And I found about it when I heard someone say, “Two-timer.”

What the heck was that? Who’s two-timing? Me? With whom? And who’s the other guy? They don’t mean him, right? Dread filled me when I realized that they must have thought that Takeshima and I were in a relationship and I’m two-timing with Eri-kun.

Geez. Would you look at that? Now I’m the one considered as a two-timer. Takeshima—you’re one lucky bastard. I silently laughed, cursing him inside my head.