Living with the Arrogant Queen from High School is Surprisingly Not Uncomfortable

It’s hardly necessary to mention now, but I didn’t have many friends during my high school days. Actually, it’s not limited to high school. Since birth, being a little more twisted than others, I’ve been forced to live a life with few friends. Surprisingly, I didn’t mind it. Having friends around means not being able to do what I want, and having my actions restricted. There were times when I thought I’d rather not have friends I could open up to if it meant feeling like that.

Of course, depending on the time and place, such a character can lead to disaster, and I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve struggled because of it, even if I were to use both hands.

Specifically, my falling out with Hayashi was one of those disasters. However, being born stubborn, I never thought to change my personality, even if it led to real harm.

That was in the winter of my second year of high school.

The high school I was attending at the time was a public school that you’d find anywhere in the countryside. In the class I was in at this school, there was a rule that once a week, designated people had to take out the trash after school. This trash duty was always two people. In our class, it was arranged for a boy and a girl to alternate each week.

This trash duty was a job that was disliked among students. There were Hayashis who would feel disgusted just holding trash that no one knew who had thrown away, and Hayashis who would be furious just smelling the stench of kitchen waste. As a result, the classmates sympathized with such queen-like Hayashis, and there were some who skipped the trash duty. The homeroom teacher would fly into a rage at the short homeroom at the end of the day, and scold the classmates about once a month.

Speaking of which, Hayashi, who complained so much, was always grumbling, but always did her job without skimping… But that’s another story.

Anyway, in our class during our second year of high school, there was a perception among classmates that there was no problem with skipping trash duty. As long as you understand that background, that’s enough.

And then, on the day in question.

The trash duty for that day was mine and Kasahara’s. And Kasahara, whether she forgot about the trash duty or not, quickly left the classroom and went home.

A partner’s absence. Surprisingly, I didn’t get angry about that. It’s an excuse, but at that time, I didn’t have any special feelings for Kasahara. A lackey who hangs around the nagging Hayashi. I saw Kasahara as just one of the sycophants around Hayashi.

Even without any special feelings, why did I allow her to skip? Because at that time, skipping trash duty had become so normalized in the class that it was strange to complain about it.

However, this incident implanted an image of Kasahara as an irresponsible person.

Frankly speaking, I have few friends, and it’s rare for me to negatively evaluate others and cause them any disadvantage. They probably wouldn’t even have a chance to know what I think of them in my heart.

“Let’s get it over with quickly.”

I got up and performed my trash duty. Burnable trash mixed with kitchen waste. Non-burnable trash. Plastic bottle trash. And then, paper trash. It was tough to carry four bags of trash accumulated over a week by thirty classmates, but I was surprisingly motivated, thinking of it as an extension of the strength training I was into at the time.

I carried the four bags of trash to the trash disposal area outside.

And just before I arrived at the trash disposal area, I passed by a male student. His face was vague, but I think he had well-ordered features.

After the boy passed by, I stared at his back for a while. I felt a slight sense of discomfort. Of course, seeing a student walking inside the school building was nothing unusual. What caught my attention was that the boy seemed to be leaving the scene in a hurry, almost as if he was running away.

I tilted my head, walked to the trash disposal area, and found a girl standing there, looking down.

“…Kasahara.”

It was Kasahara, who I had assumed had skipped her duty and gone home early. She stood there, exuding an air of sorrow.

“…Ah, Yamamoto-kun.”

“You startled me. You recognized my name.”

“Huh? …Of course. We’re classmates, right?”

“Even among classmates, there are quite a few who don’t recognize my name.”

“…Is that so?”

The atmosphere around Kasahara.

And the boy who had just left.

Somehow, I was starting to understand why she had skipped her duty.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I just remembered that I was supposed to take out the trash today.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was a great workout. If anything, I feel a sense of accomplishment for having done this alone.”

“…Ahaha. I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

I passed Kasahara, who was standing still, and threw the trash into the disposal area.

“…Yamamoto-kun, did you happen to pass a boy earlier?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. It was a boy who seemed to be walking away in a hurry.”

“…That was him. He’s a senior in the third year, his name is Sekine. He’s the captain of the tennis team, he’s participated in the Kanto tournament, and he’s really popular among the girls.”

“Interesting.”

While giving a disinterested response, I was pondering inside. Should I ask?

“Did he break up with you?”

After hesitating, I asked. In the end, I think I just wanted to hear a juicy story.

…Well, I thought it was not an unusual situation.

Kasahara was a popular girl among the second-year boys. More popular than the noisy Hayashi. A beautiful boy and a beautiful girl, wouldn’t they make a perfect couple?

Maybe he thought the same, confessed to Kasahara… got rejected, and ran off. That’s what it seemed like.

“No. I was the one who got rejected.”

However, Kasahara showered me with unexpected words.

Unable to say a word, I slowly turned to look at her.

“I was rejected by Sekine-senpai.”

In retrospect, I believe this was probably the first conversation between Kasahara and me.