The Rise of the Iron Wall!-Chapter 105: New School Term
After the graduation event, the spring break was finally over. Higo groaned weakly, blinking rapidly as the sun peeked from the curtain of his room. Even though in the last couple of days, Kumiko would always drag him for a morning run, the boy still couldn’t really get used to waking up this early, and sleepiness was still visible in his eyes.
Fortunately, the weather began to improve at this point. It was May already, and most of the snow had melted around. Only those remote places far north of the island still had thick snow in it, while the other parts finally received the warmth of the rare sun in Hokkaido.
"Ryukkun! Wake up, breakfast is ready!" His mother called out from the kitchen, enough to force the boy awake immediately.
"Yes, Mom..." He answered, his voice hoarse.
After making up his bed and taking a quick shower, the boy changed into his uniform. It was still quite thick, with a dark, long-sleeved white shirt covered in a blazer. However, at least this was better than the usual thick scarf, sweater, and all the accessories to repel the cold in winter.
No, Higo definitely preferred a more simplistic uniform here.
Well... That was, at least until his neighbor popped up in front of his door, waiting until he was ready to go together.
"Hey!" Kumiko waved with her usual cute smile the moment she saw Higo coming out of the building. At the sight of the boy having his jaw dropped, she smiled shyly, twirling around and asked, "It looks good, right?"
"Yup! Yup! Yup! You look incredible!" Higo gave a big thumbs-up.
The girl wore a sweater under a nicely designed blazer, her neck covered in a thin scarf that was enough to combat the cold air remaining from the winter. Her round glasses highlighted her pretty face, and the clear eyes shining behind them were enough to captivate every opposite gender within a radius of five meters here.
Fortunately, Higo had known the girl for a long time, so he wasn’t that awestruck by this change of uniform.
"Ryukkun, don’t run away like that! You haven’t even had breakfast yet! Anyway, who—Oh, Kumiko-chan, you are here! Come inside, come inside!" Minami’s expression changed the moment she saw the girl outside, quickly inviting her inside.
"Ah, don’t worry, Obaasan, I will just wait here." Kumiko smiled politely.
"Tch! Why are you being so polite here? We are family at this point, you know?!" Minami clicked her tongue in an unladylike manner.
In the end, she managed to force Kumiko to come, and before Higo knew it, he was sitting next to the girl of his dream as they were having breakfast here, a bowl of rice and clear miso soup with tofu in it. Kumiko acted shy at first, but after the first spoonful, she also started to enjoy it.
"See? I know you are hungry. Your mother is too busy to take care of breakfast!" The older woman still voiced her dissatisfaction while also helping set up the table there.
Kumiko just smiled weakly, knowing that Minami didn’t mean anything bad here. Her mother was indeed a busy person, what with her being a news presenter who had to be clocked in to the office quite early. Hell, she herself, as her daughter, didn’t see her mother quite often, usually only relying on herself, her father, or Higo’s family to take care of everything.
This always triggered a round of grumbling from Minami whenever they mentioned her mother.
"Anyway, let’s not talk about her." Minami suddenly shook her head strongly, trying to banish any unpleasant thoughts from her head. "So, how are you both doing? Ready for your final year of high school?" She smiled.
Both Higo and Kumiko stopped, staring at each other for a second.
Yeah, after the graduation day was over, they were finally going to be the senior year students, one step closer to adulthood, which none of them were looking forward to. Now, they had to start thinking about career application, university application, job, future... Gosh, that seemed to be a little bit too much.
"Well, I don’t want to think too far right now," Higo spoke here, answering the question. "At least, I just hope that we will be in the same class. God knows how horrible it was during our first year, eh?"
Kumiko’s gaze also darkened at the not-so-fond memory of the past. Indeed, during the first year, they got separated into a different class, and it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that they both didn’t have a great time for a full year.
At that time, Higo became a real NPC, going unnoticeable for the entire time, while Kumiko became too popular, with some of the boys starting to harass her, and the girl didn’t have anyone to use as a shield.
It might be cold to say, but due to their familiarity with each other, Kumiko often used Higo as her shield to repel any unfamiliar boys from approaching her. Not that Higo mind, of course. Hell, the boy did it voluntarily, even asking if she needed a bodyguard or not.
Nevertheless, overall, their first year went horribly, and they didn’t want to experience the same thing again this year.
"Oh, don’t worry, I think you will still be in the same class this year." Minami smiled mysteriously.
Higo narrowed his eyes suspiciously, finding his mother to be suspicious here. "Mom... Is there anything you didn’t tell us here?"
"Just as I said, don’t worry! Just... Go! Shu! Shu! You will be late!"
In the end, the older woman stayed tight-lipped, not even leaking any information she had here. Both teenagers were still confused, but they knew that she was right; they were about to be late here.
After they finally arrived at the school, though, Higo had his jaw dropped when he saw the list of the new classroom this year. Kumiko also squealed silently, her complexion rose in happiness.
"Ryukkun! We are in the same class again!"
"Yeah..." The boy nodded silently before a wry smile curled on his face. "It seems, Mom really knows something here..."
