“Ugh, those Kikyo girls always piss me off… one of them dropped something, I went to pick it up to give it to her—and you know what she did?? She glared at me and stormed off! The nerve.” Shohei scoffed, stuffing his hands into his pockets and slouching a little. He’d always had that animosity towards the Kikyo students, much like everyone else. Despite Kikyo and Chidori being neighbours, they couldn’t be less compatible.

Kikyo Private Academy was in one of the top five schools in Japan, in basically every aspect you could rank. The girls who were enrolled were obviously all daughters of the wealthy and elite, since tuition fees were definitely steep. Meanwhile, Chidori Public High was the complete opposite. Being both and underfunded and underperforming school, reputation had already ran straight into the ground. Thanks to Kikyo, the school was supposedly a place for ‘morons to gather’. Rintaro understood where they were coming from, but it wasn’t any less shallow.

“Just avoid them, Usami, there isn’t much to do about it.” Rintaro replied simply, ever the mediator. He could hear Usami audibly grumbling about ‘stupid Kikyo’, which make him chuckle a little bit.

The two headed their separate ways—Usami back to his home, and Rintaro to his mom’s restaurant. She’d texted him earlier about helping out around the patisseriesnd it’s not like he minded giving her a hand.

“What? Serving customers?? You know how I feel about that, ma…” The boy sighed, his hands already becoming clammy as he tied the apron around his waist.

“Come on, Rintaro, you can’t hide in the back forever.” His mother sighed, whipping a bowl of heavy cream. “I have a regular out there, make sure to make them feel welcome.” She set down her bowl and ushered her son out to the front of the bakery.