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Asher had assumed the rooftop would be completely empty at this hour.
He hadn't expected someone to get there before him.
From the looks of it, it was a female student.
Almost reflexively, Asher turned around, planning to leave.
But the moment he did, a pleasant, youthful female voice rang out behind him.
"Hm?"
"Didn't expect anyone else to come up to the rooftop at this time."
Asher paused and followed the sound with his eyes.
Only then did he realize that the girl who had been sitting on the bench with her back to him had somehow already turned around. She was now looking at him with open curiosity.
"Sorry," Asher said politely. "I didn't think anyone would be up here either."
With that, he prepared to leave.
But the girl spoke again.
"It's fine. The rooftop isn't my private space, after all."
"And if I'm not mistaken, you came up here to eat lunch too, right?"
As she spoke, her gaze fell on the bread and milk bag in Asher's hand.
"You're right," Asher replied, lifting the convenience store bag slightly.
The girl nodded.
"In that case, it'd make me seem a bit unfriendly if I chased you away."
"So, if you don't mind, you can sit here and eat together."
She gestured lightly toward the bench, clearly inviting him.
Asher couldn't help feeling a little puzzled.
This was their first time meeting. He didn't even know her name.
Was this girl really that bold?
Still, since she had already said so, there was no real reason to refuse. He had come to the rooftop precisely to eat lunch in peace.
"Sure. Then I won't turn you down."
He withdrew the step he had taken to leave and walked back toward the bench.
In the end, he sat down at the far end, keeping a bit of distance between them.
After sitting down, Asher didn't pay her any special attention. He simply opened the bag, tore open the bread packaging, and started eating.
Not long after, though, he noticed something odd.
He swallowed the mouthful of bread he had been chewing and turned to look at the girl on the other end of the bench.
His tone was confused.
"Why do you keep staring at me? Is there something strange about me?"
Faced with his blunt question, the girl didn't look embarrassed at all.
Instead, she curled her lips into a casual, almost careless smile.
"No."
"I just find it interesting."
"I didn't think I'd meet someone with the same habit as me, coming up to the rooftop for lunch."
"That's never happened before."
As she spoke, a subtle emotion flickered in her eyes.
She was a third-year student and had been at the school for over two years. Almost every noon, she came to the rooftop to eat.
Yet before Asher showed up, she had never once seen anyone else come here at lunchtime.
His sudden appearance naturally caught her attention.
At first, she had assumed Asher came up here deliberately to get close to her.
But after their brief interaction, it became clear that he didn't seem to care about her at all. Running into her had been pure coincidence.
"So… you don't know who I am?" the girl asked, voicing the thought that crossed her mind.
Asher felt even more confused by her strange question.
"Should I?" he asked.
"I'll admit you're good-looking."
"But that doesn't really mean I have to know you, does it?"
"Uh…" His response left the girl momentarily speechless.
Objectively speaking, her question really did sound self-absorbed.
Still, she wasn't ready to give up so easily.
After all, she was pretty famous at this school.
Yet here was a student from the same school who didn't recognize her at all.
That gap between expectation and reality stirred an unexpected sense of frustration in her.
"Wait… are you actually a student at this school?" she blurted out.
It was becoming clear that Asher hadn't come here to manufacture some kind of chance encounter.
But even so, how could he possibly not know her?
Asher grew even more puzzled by her completely off-topic question.
"What, do I not look like one?" he said, glancing down at himself.
Well, to be fair, he hadn't received his school uniform yet. He really didn't look much like a comprehensive high school student right now.
"You…" The girl looked like she wanted to argue.
But when she imagined those words getting out and ruining her reputation, she swallowed them back down.
After stewing for a while and taking a few deep breaths, she finally sighed in resignation.
"Alright. That was my fault for being too forward."
"…."
"Oh, right," Asher suddenly added. "I forgot to mention this. I just transferred to this school today."
Judging from her reactions, the girl, who looked surprisingly mature, had clearly misunderstood something. Asher felt it was better to explain.
The moment she heard that, everything clicked.
No wonder he didn't know her.
He was a transfer student who had just arrived.
Which meant she had been overthinking everything, and worse, embarrassing herself in front of a guy she had never even met before.
"Ah…"
She sucked in a sharp breath, suddenly unsure how to face him anymore.
Fortunately, she had thick skin.
Seeing that Asher still seemed completely unaware of her internal turmoil, she put on a slightly awkward, forced smile.
"Haha… I see. That explains it."
"So you're a new transfer student."
"That's kind of rare, though. It's already been over a month since the semester started, hasn't it? And yet there's still a transfer."
"But anyway, you're the first guy at this school who's talked this much with me."
"Since that's the case, can you tell me your name?"
Perhaps to ease her own embarrassment, she quickly changed the subject.
Asher didn't refuse.
"My name? Asher."
"And you?"
"Asher?" She rolled the name around in her mind. "That's a pretty unusual name."
She quickly continued.
"My name is Kasumigaoka Utaha."
"I'm sure even if I didn't tell you, you'd hear about me soon enough."
As she said this, a faint look of pride appeared on her face.
After all, the name Kasumigaoka Utaha was practically legendary throughout the entire comprehensive high school.
A flawless face, a voluptuous figure, and most importantly, ever since entering the school all the way up to her third year, she had scored full marks in every major and minor exam. Her ranking had never fallen out of the top three in her grade.
Though she was rarely seen around campus, stories about her were everywhere.
"....."