Ｋｏｔｏｎｏｈａ Ｐｒｏｊｅｃｔ

lecture from a passer-by

A normal sky. The usual morning.
I'm still sleepy. A lazy haze hung over the school as if it was a manifestation of the sleepiness that all the students were feeling.
How many days — months — had it been since he had transferred to this school?
Though there were students he was familiar with, he hadn't really made any good friends.
But for Tsukasa, this was actually a good thing.
He was fine with distancing himself away from everyone, and just keeping to himself.
His existence only caused trouble.
Though the school he had to walk to was now different, Tsukasa's daily life surprisingly hadn't changed much. At first, the attention of some curious classmates had all been on him, and a lot of students tried to make small talk with him, but as time passed, these people naturally stopped too.
Most probably, his classmates — as well as Tsukasa himself — simply got used to it all.
He didn't have to put much effort in the change the curiosity into receiving an attitude from others where they simply accepted his existence.
That was just fine with him. If he kept his headphones on and continued to pretend as if he cared about nothing at all, that would be safer for both Tsukasa and everyone else around him.
However, there was one person who hadn't changed since the first day.
This alone was something he had never gotten used to.
Everyday, just this one girl, who was a school prefect, refused to leave him alone, and would come and tell him off.
'I'm amazed she hasn't gotten tired of doing this...' Tsukasa thought to himself.
It'd always be something about how the necktie was a compulsory part of the male school uniform, or how his shirt wasn't ironed properly, or how his scarf was too long and an inappropriate colour for school — without fail, she would come everyday to lecture him about the same few things, to the point where he was almost impressed by how much she could say on the same topic.
Neither of the two had ever done anything to offend each other, so he couldn't see where her one-sided aggression came from. In fact, it was completely unnecessary.
In the first place, there was no point in talking to him about dress codes — 'I'm an exception to these rules.'
Tsukasa had tried to tell the prefect this before. However, she only got stricter after that day. He couldn't understand why.
'Are you actually listening to me? Oh of course you're not, since you're wearing earplugs.'
'Not earplugs. Headphones.'
'I'm fully aware of that — also, they're against the school rules.
It's only natural for headphones to be forbidden, even if that's not specifically written in the student handbook. There are so many people not obeying the rules that the book just hasn't been updated yet. Anything that covers your ears is prohibited.'
What's the reason for rules like this?
It's only natural for them to exist.
How pointless.
Those who cannot abide by these obvious things cannot be considered students.
Aren't you the only one who thinks so...?
I don't have time to listen to excuses from a student who's already broken the rules.

———He didn't really want to waste too much time talking to someone this stubborn, and everything he said was only going to make things worse anyway. Even if he tried to reason with her, they wouldn't never come to a conclusion anyway. Tsukasa thought that he really did want some earplugs in this situation.
But really, why was this girl always so persistent. Did she not know what 'getting used to something' was?
At some point, he didn't just get lectured on his way to school, but somehow she got into a habit of doing so even when they simply passed by each other during school hours.

'You're not wearing your tie again! Please make sure to wear it! Also, dyeing your hair is not allowed in this school!'
Well, sorry for being born with this blonde hair. I left my tie at home.
'Don't run in the corridors! Keep to the right and walk.'
I'm not running. It doesn't matter if I'm on the left or right as long as I don't bump into anyone right.
'Stop eating in such an uncivilised manner!'
Is it really normal to be paying this much attention to behaviour of someone else?
'Everyone! The teacher has an announcement to make, quieten down! Don't talk! You over there, please be quiet!'
You're definitely the one that really needs to quieten down here.