Imagawa-senpai (1)
“Hey, you. First-year. You’re Oda Shuhei, right? Come with me for a sec.”
It was mid-October—school festival and midterms behind us, and the rhythm of everyday high school life had finally returned.
Since I didn’t have a bento today, I was on my way to the school store to grab lunch when I was suddenly stopped in the hallway by a group of five seniors.
Judging by the color of their ties, they were all third-years.
“Yeah, that’s me. What do you need, senpai? I’m kind of in a hurry right now.”
I tried to decline politely, but the one who seemed to be the leader of the group stepped forward.
“You’ve been getting cocky lately.”
He spat it out with an arrogant tone, clearly talking down to me.
Then the other four chimed in right after him—“Yeah, that’s right,” “Quit acting all high and mighty, first-year,”—hooting and hollering like a pack of hyenas.
From the looks of it, those four were probably just his cronies.
“Uh, sorry, but I’m not really sure what you’re talking about. Actually, who are you, senpai? Have we ever spoken before? Because I seriously don’t remember anything like that.”
Back in my gloomy introvert days, I barely spoke to anyone in my class outside of Tomoya, let alone seniors.
I used to keep to myself so much that if I had interacted with this guy, even if five years had passed from my point of view, I’d definitely remember it.
But no matter how hard I tried to dig through my memories, I came up blank. I was pretty sure I’d never met this senpai before.
“Hah? You seriously don’t know who I am? Unbelievable. First-years these days are all hopeless idiots, huh.”
“Well, I don’t exactly have a wide social circle, you see.”
“Tch. I’m Imagawa, third-year.”
“Ah, I see. So you’re Imagawa-senpai.”
…But seriously, who the hell is Imagawa-senpai?
Would’ve been nice if he’d started with that.
“Oi oi, are you actually clueless or just pretending, you damn moron? Fine then, I’ll give a piece of advice to a lost cause like you.”
“Advice, huh?”
“Stay the hell away from Hasumi Kana. She’s the one I’ve got my eye on.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think you have any right to dictate who I talk to, senpai.”
And just as I said that—
(Oh, wait… This guy—)
I suddenly remembered. Back during the school festival, he was one of the guys who came to 1-5 Café Scarlet and hit on Hasumin.
He was the one spouting insane lines like, “Be grateful—I’ll make you my girl,” and “I’m super busy, but if you’re really that desperate, I guess I could ditch school and take you to a hotel.”
Hasumin had been on the verge of snapping at that absurd pick-up attempt, her cheek twitching as she forced a smile and firmly told him, “I’ll pass.”
(Still, for someone who’s just a senpai, this guy acts ridiculously full of himself. Seriously, if being older automatically makes you superior, then I’ve got an extra five years of life experience from another world. That makes me the grown-up here.)
…Not that there’s any way I could prove that. So I kept that part to myself.
“Hey, watch it. You’re just a first-year. You better not get cocky with me.”
“Still, senpai, we’re total strangers, right? So why are you trying to dictate things in my social life?”
“That’s irrelevant! A filthy commoner like you has no business getting in my way!”
Wow, first time meeting me and he’s already gone full-blown villain.
“‘Filthy commoner,’ huh… You’ve been talking down to me this whole time, but what, are you secretly some kind of noble or something, senpai?”
I mean, if he’s calling me a commoner, does that mean this guy—who looks every bit the average Japanese student—is secretly an English aristocrat or something?
“Hah, you really don’t have a clue, do you? Talking to you is exhausting. Listen up—my father is the chairman of the Imagawa Group. He’s got huge pull in both politics and finance, and he’s known as a close ally of Prime Minister Takenaka Shinzo himself!”
“Huh.”
…Okay, and?
More importantly, I’d really just like to get to the school store already.
“What’s the matter? So shocked you’re at a loss for words?”
“No, I just didn’t have anything worth saying.”
“What did you say!?”