"Come over and have breakfast, or you'll be late for the first day of school." Shizuka left this message and walked back to the dining room without looking back.
"Shouko, do you want to eat something?"
"No, I'm full." Shouko shook her head, took the towel and hair dryer from his hands, and walked out of the living room.
Tsuna saw this and stood up from the sofa, following Shouko's footsteps.
"Uncle and Auntie, I'm going out!"
"Mom and Dad, I'm going out!"
"Be safe on the road."
"Tsuna, take good care of Shouko at school!"
"Got it."
"Click..."
——————
"I wonder if Yuzuru will be sad about going to school alone today." Just a minute or two after leaving the house, Shouko began to feel sentimental as she watched some little girls going to school together.
Tsuna followed her gaze and immediately understood. Just as he was about to say something to comfort her, he was interrupted by a voice behind him:
"Sister, why are you walking so slowly?"
Tsuna swallowed his words of comfort and turned to see Yuzuru walking with a little girl he didn't recognize.
Yuzuru noticed the confusion in the two teens' eyes, so she quietly introduced the girl next to them and explained the reason:
"This is my deskmate, and she also lives nearby. Her parents used to drive her to school, but from today on, she will be traveling with me."
Seeing this, Tsuna nodded and greeted the girl.
"Oh, my name is Nishimiya Shoko, and I'm Yuzuru's older sister." Shouko introduced herself to the girl and then sincerely requested,
"Please look after Yuzuru at school and on the way to and from school."
"No, no, no..." The girl quickly waved her hands, trying to stop Shouko from saying anything. "Usually, Yuzuru looks after me at school. I should be the one bothering her."
"Hmph," Yuzuru snorted softly, adding a hint of disapproval, "Sis, I'm not a three-year-old kid anymore."
"Yes, yes, yes," Shouko chuckled, nodding casually. The four of them reached an intersection. She raised her hand and pointed to the left, instructing,
"Tsuna and I are going this way. If anything happens at school, remember to tell the teacher or come home and tell us."
She rubbed Yuzuru's head and, without waiting for a response, pulled Tsuna along, heading towards the left.
"You're such a fuss!" Yuzuru muttered, watching the two of them.
"Yuzuru, could you please put down that upturned corner of your mouth before you complain?"
"You're so nagging, you too!"
"Hehe..." The girl couldn't help but chuckle at her tsundere look. Afraid of being caught, she ran off to the right before she could.
——————
The two walked and chatted for five or six minutes before reaching the school gate. They watched countless students, both in uniform and casual clothes, enter the school with laughter.
Tsuna also saw the uniforms they would wear. The boys' uniforms were of the "Gakuran" style, featuring a stand-up collar and black, straight-leg, dark gray trousers. The black uniforms were immediately noticeable with gold buttons running vertically along the right lapel and a school emblem on the left breast.
The girls' uniforms consisted of sailor uniforms, featuring a white, short-collared sailor top, a dark red scarf, and a dark gray pleated skirt.
Tsuna roughly estimated the skirt to be about 10 centimeters above the knee.
He wondered if it was a bit short, but considering it was Shouko, it was fine.
"Does it look good?"
A calm voice suddenly echoed in the ears of someone who was still observing carefully.
"Mm-hmm." Tsuna nodded and instantly averted his gaze, turning to look at Shouko, who was staring at him calmly beside him.
Before she could get angry, he quickly added, "It looks good, but I like it even more on you."
Shouko, who was about to bite, glared at him at that, then rolled her eyes as she looked away. "Let's go."
"Mm-hmm." Tsuna was about to reach out for her hand, but she dodged.
"We're still in school. I'll hold your hand after school."
"Hmph." Shouko wrinkled her nose at him after explaining and quickly stepped onto the stone steps to the school gate.
Tsuna rubbed the back of his head awkwardly and followed her.
Recalling yesterday's memory, the two of them walked to the bottom of Teaching Building No. 1. They watched as the students in school uniforms changed into their school-issued shoes in the wooden shoe cabinets in front of the entrance before entering.
"Tsuna, are you saying we should change?"
Tsunayoshi poked Shouko's forehead rudely, saying helplessly,
"What are you thinking? Look at those people in casual clothes, they just walked in with their own shoes.
And those wooden shoe cabinets are labeled with their names and classes, but we'll have to change them tomorrow, right?"
"Oh." Shouko raised a hand and rubbed her forehead.
The two of them followed the class signs to the second floor. In the hallway, they saw a silver sign above the door of the second classroom on the second floor, engraved with "First Grade, Class 2."
As they approached, they saw a scattered group of students in various outfits sitting inside. The wooden tables and chairs looked warm and straightforward in the sunlight filtering through the glass windows.
Tsunayoshi also noticed the girl in the white dress, who had inexplicably spoken to him and Shouko the day before.
The girl also noticed the two people at the classroom door and raised her hand to greet them silently, or more accurately, to Shouko.
"Let's go, let's go find a seat first."
"Yeah," Shouko tore her gaze away from the girl's face and followed Tsuna, who was walking ahead.
She couldn't believe the coincidence that the girl she and Tsuna had spoken to the previous day was actually in the same class.
Some of the students in the classroom glanced at someone entering and then looked away, not knowing who they were.
"Where do you want to sit?" Tsuna glanced around the classroom, unsure where to sit, and turned to ask Shouko's opinion.
Shouko glanced at the empty seats and then pointed to the one in front of the girl in the dress. "How about that?"
She was just about to ask if the girl knew either him or Tsuna.
Tsuna looked in the direction she pointed and saw that the two seats in front of the girl were unoccupied. Without a second thought, he nodded in agreement.
The tables and chairs here were single-person seats, about a meter apart.
"Square..."
The two of them walked over to the seats, pulled them out, and sat down. Shouko chose to sit in front of her, and Tsuna naturally wouldn't compete with her.
Even if he wanted to sit, Shouko wouldn't necessarily let him.
The girl, on the other hand, simply looked at the two of them, her face propped up with one hand, showing no sign of conversation.
"That classmate, do you know me?" As soon as Shouko sat down, he couldn't wait to turn around and ask the girl.
(End of Chapter)
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