My Childhood Friend, Who I Made a Promise To Spend the Future With, Dumped Me... But Ever Since I Started Dating a Beautiful Girl From School, My Childhood Friend Has Been Acting Strange - Episode 9

Having arrived at school and now sitting in the classroom, Toma Suzuki was spending his time as ordinarily as ever.

The classroom was as noisy as usual.

Even after becoming a second-year high school student, Toma’s social circle hadn’t expanded much.

He usually spent most of his time alone.

Though he did want friends, he wasn’t the type to enjoy mingling with large groups and making a fuss.

If anything, he preferred to spend his time quietly.

Speaking of friends, there was also his junior, Tsubaki Sakurada. However, she often spent her lunch breaks in the library.

Since she was a member of the library committee, she was usually busy with her duties even during lunchtime.

Even though they attended the same school, they spent their time differently, and they actually saw each other more often outside of school.

Tsubaki liked reading alone—not just novels, but also manga, business books, and even history-related materials.

When she talked about something she was passionate about, she would start speaking quickly and sometimes show a smile. From Toma’s perspective, she had a junior-like charm that he found endearing.

That said, it wasn’t in a romantic sense.

Their relationship as senior and junior was simply enjoyable.

Tsubaki had been a friend since middle school, but Toma hadn’t expected that she would end up attending the same high school as him.

She was one of Toma’s few friends, and knowing that they could continue spending time in the same environment brought him a sense of relief.

Their first real conversation had taken place in a bookstore, despite having already met in middle school.

One day, during a weekend visit to a bookstore, Toma encountered her reading a manga. They ended up talking because they liked the same series at the time.

That was how they became friends and started talking more often at school back in middle school.

Tsubaki wasn’t very talkative, but being around her felt calming.

Perhaps it was because they shared similar values—there was a kind of mutual understanding that made words unnecessary.

As Toma sat at his desk, he fiddled with his phone.

Earlier, upon arriving at school, he had sent an email to his younger sister, Emi, regarding their plans for the next day.

Now, he was checking if she had responded.

Opening his inbox, he saw that Emi had replied, confirming that everything was fine.

However, Emi still didn’t know about Suzuha.

Likewise, Suzuha had never met Emi in person.

Toma figured he should explain their relationship to his sister once he got home.

He also needed to check which clothing store they would go to.

Holding his phone in one hand, he sent another email.

But even after waiting for a minute, there was no “read” notification.

Since Emi was in middle school, she probably couldn’t respond immediately.

Her school allowed students to bring their phones, but they were required to turn them off during morning homeroom, after which their teacher would collect them until the end of the day.

Most middle schools banned cell phones altogether, but Emi’s school was somewhat lenient and allowed them under certain conditions.

Her school also started morning homeroom earlier than Toma’s high school, so she might not have even read the message yet.

Toma waited another three minutes, but there was still no reply.

She’s probably in homeroom by now.

Checking the time on his phone screen, he saw that it was 8:25 AM.

Since there was still no response at this point, it was safe to assume that she hadn’t seen the message yet.

Deciding to check with her after returning home, Toma slipped his phone back into the pocket of his uniform.

As he sat in the classroom alone, the school’s PA system began broadcasting the usual five-minute morning radio show.

The voice of his classmate, Suzuha Kamiya, came through the speakers.

Suzuha was part of the broadcasting committee. She regularly read letters submitted by students and answered them on air, all while playing the latest popular background music.

“—And that concludes today’s broadcast. Let’s all do our best today!”

With her usual bright voice, Suzuha wrapped up the broadcast and cut off the transmission.

Immediately after the broadcast ended, the classroom gradually became more lively.

At that moment, Saori Azusa, who sat diagonally in front of him, arrived at school.

Saori only glanced at him briefly but didn’t say anything.

As always, it seemed like it would be another day of maintaining a distant relationship with her.

I need to fix things with Saori.

He wanted to go back to the way things were when they were childhood friends, having fun together.

Their relationship had suddenly become strained, but he wished they could talk like they used to.

Still, even if he wanted to talk to her, how was he supposed to close the distance between them?

As Toma pondered this, Suzuha entered the classroom, greeted him casually, and headed to her seat.

Before he could reach a conclusion, their homeroom teacher rushed into the classroom.

“All right, let’s begin morning homeroom.”

Following the female teacher’s command, the class representative stood up first.

Toma and the rest of the class followed, greeting their teacher in unison.

“Well, today will just be the usual lessons. Other than that… there’s nothing special to announce. That’s about it. Oh, and we still need to decide today’s class duty pair.”

As usual, morning homeroom ended with the selection of the day’s class duty students.

The teacher used a lottery system, drawing numbers that corresponded to students’ attendance numbers.

Every three weeks, the lottery was reset.

There were exactly 30 students in the class, forming 15 pairs.

Since there were roughly 15 school days in a three-week period, the system worked out perfectly.

If one of the selected students was absent, the class representative would assist.

However, if both were absent, the teacher would arbitrarily pick replacements based on their mood.

“For today… Suzuki and Azusa. You two are on duty.”

…What?

To Toma’s surprise, he had been paired with Saori for class duty.

His body stiffened at the unexpected turn of events.

The teacher placed the class duty log on Saori’s desk.

And so, the school day officially began.