A yellow cat peeked out from the thicket to the side of the pavement.
It slowly stepped out of the swaying grass and into the road, waving its long tail as it turned its eyes in anticipation
towards me. But its expression soon turned to alertness, and then to fear. The cat, having seen me skipping merrily
down the road towards it, must have thought I was about to trample it. It escaped back into the bushes in panic.
But, I didn‘t care at all. I bathed in the light of the hot sun, let the wind flutter my skirt, and continued my obscene
merry skip onward down the road. I was in Hope‘s Peak Academy‘s eastern quarter, near the courtyard. Many newly-
built facilities were lined up around me, as well as several that were still under construction. As I skipped down the road
that twisted between them, I took no special notice of any dirty cats or of my classmates, studying and fraternizing all
around. Nor did I derive any happiness from the light touch of the sun after a long stay indoors. No, I skipped down the
road with nothing but my destination on my mind.
Not that I‘m the kind of girl who‘d go skipping around thoughtlessly. I had a reason.
I‘m going to meet the boy I like the best in the world!
That said, my reason may have been a good one, but no student in their right mind should go skipping down the road in
a campus of a school of as high a pedigree as Hope‘s Peak Academy. Therefore, it wasn‘t surprising that other students
who happened to walk by looked at me oddly, but… that really has nothing to do with me.
Nothing in the world could stop my skipping. Not a crying girl. Not a couple fighting. Not a student in a wheelchair that
has come to a standstill. Not even an anemic student who has fallen down. One thought alone moved my body: I want
to meet him, I love him so much. I skipped so obscenely that no one would probably find it surprising if I suddenly
sprouted wings and flew up towards the sky.
I continued down the road, but…
"…Huh?"
I suddenly came to a stop.
"Which way should I go?"
I looked around in confusion, and realized I didn‘t recognize any of the landmarks around me. My heart started beating
loudly.
No, everything‘s fine. I calmed myself down and removed a notebook from the backpack I was wearing. On the back
page of the notebook, the following sentence was written:
"You‘re looking for the Neurology lab on the third floor of the Biology building in Hope‘s Peak Academy‘s eastern
quarter".
I felt a refreshing wind of relief passing through my body. Yeah, that‘s right! The biology building!
…Um, but where is that biology building, anyway?
My heart went noisy once more.
Everything‘s fine. No need to worry. I nervously flipped through the notebook as if acting on instinct, and my eyes
stopped on a page with a crude drawing of a map. Above it, the following was written:
"This is a diagram of Hope‘s Peak Academy‘s eastern quarter"
Well done, me! Without thinking, I struck a victory pose.
Soon, I was standing on the raised edge of the fountain that decorated the center of the courtyard, comparing the
buildings around me with the map. Literature building, science building, physics building, arts building, math building,
P.E. building, linguistics building, staff building… as cold droplets from the fountain kept hitting my thighs, I looked for
my destination, the biology building, as if I‘ve never visited it before.
