𝗢𝗢𝗚𝗢𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗗────── k. aren x original character

𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭

the end of the first semester is approaching. quick. that only means one thing.

kotoe gripped her mechanical pencil as tightly as she could as her social science teacher entered the room. she had seen this scenario—somewhere before, in the back of her eyelids. one would argue that it was déjà vu, but kotoe knew well that it was simply the earth resetting.

she never knew much about it, but kusuo mentioned in each of the beginning of the year that he had failed once again to shut a volcano from erupting.

it's the fifth time that year, and so kotoe was definitely sure that this wasn't some type of déjà vu.

she glanced at kusuo whose seat was right behind her, his eyes drilling straight to the blackboard in the very front of the class before giving her a side-glance.

kusuo nodded his head once and kotoe knew that she was right.

group projects are one thing she hated most, because it hinders her tennis practice. with individual assignments, she is allowed to practice until late at night, but group assignments requires the mind and presence of multiple people.

getting them to get together had always been the hardest part. everyone has something to be busy of, whether they're telling the truth or not is an entirely different matter.

"listen up, kids," the social science teacher said as he dropped a stack of folders on the teacher desk. "i'm gonna make things short. find a group of three, then make a paper of five thousand words on whatever topic you got," he placed his hand on top of the stack, "submit it by the second week next month."

a series of groans rang through the classroom and kotoe gasped—five thousand words!?

she didn't recall having such high numbers for any assignments. she turned towards kusuo again and he shook his head once, as if answering her unspoken answer.

ah, it changes every year?

the furrowing eyebrows made kusuo nod. despite not being able to read his mind, he's pretty damn good at guessing what she was thinking about.

"a group of three. . ." she muttered, looking around the classroom when she caught the eyes of a certain boy. "ah!"

kotoe raised her hand.

"what is it, saiki?"

"we just got a transfer student yesterday, sensei." she pointed at kuboyasu who was sitting on the window seat, suddenly looking very uncomfortable at the amount of attention drew to him. "so we have twenty eight students instead of twenty seven."

"is that so?" the teacher placed his fingers on his chin as if stroking an unseen beard. "well, one of your groups just gotta have two people in it, then."

"eh?" kotoe tilted her head, "wouldn't it make more sense to have one group with four members?"

kokomi, from beside her, backed her up. "yes! if one group has two members, then another group should have two members too."

the teacher looked at the class, then the watch on his wrist. "okay, let's do that, then."

"eh!?" the odd decision caused the whole class to gasp.

'he's weird. . .' kotoe thought, slanting her eyes at the, frankly, stupid judgement.

"saiki," the teacher called out again after waving his hand in the air tiredly. "since you brought it up, you'll be partnering with the new student."

the whole class went silent as soon as the words left his mouth. a ghostly still hang around the classroom that even the teacher noticed.

"kotoe-chan?" a boy, from the very back of the class echoed, "with kuboyasu?"

it's fairly odd how the people in school would treat kotoe. she was in no way as pretty or popular as kokomi—of course, no one could beat her at her own game—but everyone, especially the boys, seemed to be very hesitant in letting her interact with anyone that isn't kusuo or nendou.

(kusuo, because he's her brother. and nendou because. . . well, because he's nendou.)

kind of like kusuo, kotoe then realised. she looked back at him—a blank expression was painted on his face, so she couldn't really see what he was thinking. and when she turned to see kuboyasu, he only bowed his head a couple of times at her, mouthing, "i'll be in your care."

kotoe returned the bow with a small smile, a little excited to be working with him, but the deadly silent was still softly dawdling in the air.

"c—couldn't we pick our own group?" another one spoke up, perhaps hoping that they would be able to be in the same, lucky group as her.

"heehh," the teacher scratched the back of his head. "the rest of you, sure. but saiki's going with the transfer kid. i've written it down already, don't make me erase it—it's too much work."

"where!?" this time, kaidou was the one to protest.

the teacher tapped the temple of his forehead twice. "my mind."

the class groaned, and kotoe giggled to the back of her hand. somehow, she had the feeling that this was going to be fun.