Even before the alarm went off, I was sitting up in bed. I rubbed my eyes and smiled at the rising sun and the pigeons outside the window. I said, "Good morning," before starting my busy day. I'm Mizuno Ami. I usually arrive at school forty minutes early to review my lessons. I never forget to review my textbooks, even while taking a bath. My favorite breakfast is a sandwich because I can hold it with one hand while using the other to flip through books or flashcards with vocabulary words. My favorite color is blue. My best sport is swimming. My favorite subject is math. However, I'm terrible at handling love letters. This morning, when I arrived at school as usual and opened my locker, I found a neatly folded envelope on top of my indoor shoes. A heart-shaped seal was pressed onto the flap. I opened it out of curiosity and read the heart-pounding, sappy words inside. My face flushed red instantly. An unbearable tingling sensation spread from behind my eyes, making me feel sick and covered in a rash. As the paper slipped from my fingers, a shriek escaped my lips, drawing the stares of nearby classmates. "You screamed when you saw a love letter?" Makoto Kino murmured after school, her eyes filled with disbelief. "How nice. I wish I had that kind of problem." "Love isn't even in my vocabulary right now!" I declared firmly. "This year, I have only one goal—" "Studying, right?" All my friends chimed in unison. "Exactly!" I pulled the cram school brochure out of my backpack, flipped to the page listing the latest national mock exam, and spread it out before my friends. In first place was my pseudonym, with a perfect score of 500—meaning full marks across all five subjects. But behind my name, another guy named "Mercurius" also had a perfect score. A shadow flashed across my eyes. "This guy has been neck-and-neck with me in recent exams. He might use any means necessary to mess with my emotions—that love letter could be one of his tactics. I can't ignore that possibility!"