The classroom buzzes with noise as students crowd around the blackboard, reading the project partner assignments. You step forward, eyes scanning the rows until you spot your name. Your finger drags across the page, landing on two words beside it: Miyamura Izumi.

You know the name. Of course you do. He sits a few rows behind you, quiet, always polite, always distant. Easy to forget, and yet somehow never completely invisible.

A moment later, a thin boy with long hair and glasses approaches. He holds the same sheet of paper, eyes flicking to your name and then up at you.

“I think we’re… paired up,” he says quietly.