Eronovel Sensei's collection of short stories

Generic School Romance! [Interactive]

Your name is Tezuka Keniichi, and you just transferred into a new private school. Due to certain family circumstances you had to transfer. You had taken the liberty of finding out where and traveling to your school, but you didn't know it would this far out from the city.

The school you transferred to, is Tezuka Academy, and yes, as the name implies, belongs to the Tezuka family. Thus explaining the certain family matter.

Your father had built a school without your knowledge, and little did you know that it was also one of the most popular and well known schools. And plus, it was huge.

You nervously walk up towards a huge open gate, behind it you could see a garden of roses and lilies. Several buildings and students wearing ridiculously formal wear could be seen walking around the campus.

Considering the size of the school, you're glad you memorised the whole map of it. As you straighten your tie, you begin to walk past it. But then you notice a girl wearing the school's uniform, she looks rather young and pretty. She had blond hair and a small stature, her eyes were sky blue and beautiful. Well... other than this, she looked lost.

You calmly walk towards the girl, who was peeking past the golden gate into the garden. She stood close to the brick walls surrounding the campus, almost hugging it.

As you come closer, she notices your presence and soon her nervous eyes focus on you.

"Um..." You start

"Y-yes!" She squirms, almost shouting. Noticing your surprise, she covers her face in embarrassment.

"Are you a student at this academy?" You stood a distance from her, thinking that she would run away if you went any closer.

"U-um...yes!" She stands straight and faces directly at you, her posture was stiff and weird with her hands at her sides. Almost like a soldier in a parade.

"Then could I ask for your name?" You use a calming voice, the same kind a motherly person would say to a young child. If anything, this student would be more of a younger sister than a classmate.

"I'm Ako Noriko, I...I just transferred here today!" She fidgets a bit, playing with her frilly skirt and red fancy tie. 'What's with these fancy uniforms?!'

"I'm..." you hesitate for a bit, "Keniichi, just call me that"

"Ah yes!" She immediately smiles, looks like she's less nervous around you now.

"You seem lost, do you need any help?" You ask, making sure to give a welcoming smile

She looks down, as if considering your offer "Yes, I think this school is a little too big for me. Heheh!" She laughs cutely, bringing an aching feeling to your heart. You want to hug her!

'Self control...self control' You breath.

"Keniichi...?"

"Ah- Nothing. I'll give you a guide around the school" You quickly say.

"Okay! I'll follow your lead!"

'Okay...where should we go?' You look towards the entrance.

Hey, you wanna visit the gardens first? You seemed pretty interested." You decided firmly on it. The other places didn't seem as interesting.

"Okay!" Ako ran to your side, looking forward. She seemed to light up.

You lead the way. Despite the size of the school, the garden wasn't really all that far. In fact, it was directly infront of the school gates. It's hard to miss, especially when there is an array of several shades or red and white.

The garden was called the Garden of Romance. You remember your father being criticised for openly allowing relationships in his school, an act that most schools wouldn't tolerate.

You heard that that was the main reason for this school's popularity, sadly, many rumors sprouted among students that couples would often go to the Garden to do it every night. You decide to keep the rumors away from Ako.

As you reached the garden, Ako went ahead to adore the roses. Chasing a butterfly that came out of the rosebushes, but ultimately tripping into one of the shrubs. Several couples were disturbed by this, but most of them shook it off with a laugh.

'Jeez' You sigh 'if the roses had thorns she would have been pricked by now'

You head towards her, and pull her out of the shrub

"You okay?" You straighten her tie.

"Ah yeah thanks, that hurt a bit but i'm fine!" She brushed off some of the leaves from her head, then went on to look around the garden once more.

"Keniichi!" Several couples walk away

"The Garden really is beautiful as my mother said! There are roses and flowers, beautiful garden chairs patterned with even more roses, beautiful arcs made of roses. It's almost like a maze of rosebushes!" She continues her little adventure as you seat down on one of the couple seats.

"My father must really be brilliant to be able to make something like this." You watch at her and smile, "I've never really seen anyone like gardens as much as this before, she's like a kid."

Eventually, Ako came back, holding a bouquet of roses.

"Hey Ako...are you sure you're supposed to pick flowers from the garden? I feel bad for whoever maintained them."

"It's fine!" She smiled smugly, "an old man gave it to me!"

"Old man?" You stood up, suspicious of what she just said.

"Yeah! He said that he'll give me more roses later!"

"Okay look here, don't talk to strangers! It's dangerous" You stand still unknowingly gripping on her shoulders, realising that you probably shouldn't have said that, it's like you're treating her like a child.

Ako seemed surprised by this "A-um...okay. But could you take your hands off my shoulders? It kind of hurts."

You look down and releases her. "Sorry! I didn't realise!"

Embarrassed, you avoided eye contact, but notice the time on the school's main building clock. It was 7:13, class starts at 7:15. Panic starts to rise in your chest.

"Ahh we're going to be late!" You grab her and run towards the classroom building. You didn't know what class she went to, but you decided it was better to bring her with you.

"H-huh? Wait!" Ako struggles to follow you, a trail of leaves could be seen behind.

"Oh yeah, I never asked you this but what class are you in?" You push through the fancy doors of the building.

"A- ah c-class 2-1!" A small amount of relief, at least she went to the same class as you.

"That's the same class as me, we're gonna be late so follow me!" You pull hard on Ako's wrist,

"Ouch! Hey wait!"

As you run up the stairs leading to the classroom corridor, you notice another path. It's a shorter route, but you'll have to go through a storage room full of boxes.

Your classroom is around the corner, but the hallway is filled with people. You don't want to be late, and it looks like Ako won't be able to keep up much longer.

Her bouquet is now nothing but stems.

Choose:
Take the faster path
Stay Safe and walk through the other students

(Comment your choice)