Chapter 278 The person who became my first love by accident
"But the president already has someone he likes, right?"

Ayase Kotone's profile was covered with a layer of golden light by the setting sun, and her soft outline was dyed with a faint orange-red, making her look even more gentle, but after hearing what Shimizu Ken said, her shoulders trembled slightly.

Because of Shimizumi's words, Ayase Kotone slowly turned her head back from the window.

After a summer vacation, her hair had grown longer than her shoulders. Her jet-black hair was blown by the evening breeze outside the window behind her, gently moving to the front.

"Shimizu-san, why do you say that..."

"Because you can't hide the expression on your face, President."

"Yes, yes..."

Ayase Kotone subconsciously touched her cheek.

"Love is really hard - although the president didn't say so, this thought is already reflected on his face."

Normally, whether Ayase Kotone is studying in class, eating, sleeping, or doing student union work, she basically has a cold, keep-away expression.

Although he knew that she was not like that actually and was a gentle person at heart, it was the first time that Shimizu had seen an expression like the one that was revealed on her profile just now.

Shimizu Mi had never expected that the same expression as that of an ordinary high school girl troubled by teenage love would appear on Ayase Kotone's face.

Ayase Kotone covered her cheeks with her hands, as if to prevent Shimizu from seeing through her thoughts, and took a step back slightly.

"It's not like I can read minds."

What happened just now was simply because Ayase Kotone herself showed her true thoughts on her face.

"Hug, sorry..."

Ayase Kotone lowered her hands that were covering her face, and her cheeks seemed a little redder than before.

"So the president really has someone he likes?"

Ayase Kotone hesitated subconsciously for a moment, but when she thought that Shimizu Mi had already seen through her, she no longer concealed it.

"I do have someone I care about... I don't know if that counts as love, but at that time, he was the only one who gave me a different feeling."

This must be love, right?
Perhaps Ayase Kotone herself has not noticed it yet, but it can be seen from the smile that appears unconsciously on the corner of her mouth.

"Is the other person a boy?"

Although the question was a bit strange, Shimizu Mi wanted to confirm this first for some reason.

"Ah... um."

Ayase Kotone was also surprised by this, but she still responded with a soft "hmm".

"From our school?"

"probably."

Ayase Kotone's tone sounded a little uncertain.

This ambiguous feeling made Qingshuijian feel confused. Since it was someone he cared about, how could he not be sure whether he was from their school?
"Shimizu-san, can you please tell me something first?"

Shimizu nodded, and then Ayase Kotone pulled a chair from the side and sat down in front of him.

The two of them were very close to each other, and their knees touched each other from time to time, but Ayase Kotone didn't seem to care.

She seemed to be thinking about where to start. After being silent for about half a minute, she looked at Qingshuijian again.

"Shimizu-san probably doesn't know this, but I'm not actually from Tokyo, I'm from Fukuoka."

Shimizu Mi had already learned about this from Amemiya Iori before, so he was not particularly surprised.

Shimizu Mi briefly recounted it to Ayase Kotone.

"I see. Amamiya-san has already told you about this."

"Ah."

"So the president wants to show off his hometown?"

It's a good thing to like your hometown, but Ayase Kotone doesn't seem to know that Shimizu Mi is also from Fukuoka.

But generally speaking, the two should be considered to be from the same hometown.

"it's not like that."

Ayase Kotone shook her head.

"That is?"

"In fact, I wasn't like this until I graduated from junior high school."

Ayase Kotone touched her hair and her eyes slowly dropped.

Then, she looked up as if she had thought of something.

"Shimizu-san, do you want to see the photos?"

"photo?"

"Yeah, me in junior high school."

Even last week, Shimizu had never seen the photo of Ayase Kotone from her junior high school years. After all, they did not attend the same junior high school, so to be honest, Shimizu was quite interested in it.

"Is it really possible?"

Shimizu Mitsuki asked Ayase Kotone for confirmation.

Because generally speaking, one's junior high school self often has a dark history, especially for female high school students of this age, who absolutely do not want to be seen by anyone other than themselves.

"It's okay. Shimizu-san probably won't laugh at me."

Make fun of her?
Shimizu was wondering why Ayase Kotone said that, and then he saw her take out her cell phone and hand the screen to him.

I understand it without even thinking about it.

In the photo, Ayase Kotone is wearing a very traditional sailor suit with a tacky skirt that goes below the knee, and she also has a braided hairstyle in the picture.

Although Shimizu had just imagined all possible images of Ayase Kotone in his mind, he was still very surprised when he saw this photo.

It can be said that the Ayase Kotone in the photo and the one sitting in front of Shimizu at this moment are completely different people. If it weren't for that gentle face with a hint of childishness, it would be hard to tell them apart.

However, if she were seen by some naughty boys in school, they would probably laugh at her for being unsophisticated.

This is not to say that Ayase Kotone was not pretty before. Even in the slightly plain look in the photo, you can still see that her facial features are delicate and her face is gentle and pretty. It’s just that there is one thing about her clothes and makeup...

If it were a boy, he would have to wear a school uniform and have a flat head with bangs that could not go above his eyebrows.

But looking at Ayase Kotone in front of him now, although he cannot say that her appearance is very glamorous, but compared to when she was in junior high school, she does have a brand new feeling.

Clothes and hairstyle will naturally affect a person's appearance, but in fact, for a beauty of Ayase Kotone's level, no matter what clothes she wears or what hairstyle she has, she will not look bad.

In Shimizumi's opinion, Ayase Kotone in the photo looked good, but she looked a bit rustic and inconspicuous. The main reason was not her hairstyle, but her temperament.

If you look closely at Ayase Kotone in this photo, you will find that her eyes are unconsciously avoiding the camera, which is obviously a sign of lack of confidence.

Although it may sound a bit impolite to say this, given Ayase Kotone's social skills, she probably didn't have many friends in her class at that time. She might even have been bullied by small groups in the same class because of her personality. This kind of thing is very common in Japan.

Of course, even now, Ayase Kotone's communication skills have not improved much.

However, from this point of view, Ayase Kotone only started to pay attention to and dress herself up after she came to Tokyo and entered high school, and gradually became concerned about her hairstyle and hair care.

"I didn't want Shimizu-san to see this."

Ayase Kotone looked at the photo of herself, who looked a little rustic, and put away her phone, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Then why..."

"Qiyishui, can you please listen to my story first?"

"story?"

Seeing the extremely serious expression on Ayase Kotone's face, Shimizu Ken unconsciously sat up a little straighter, and then listened attentively to Ayase Kotone telling stories about her junior high school days.

Ayase Kotone was attending junior high school in Fukuoka, and that was the time for her final exams in her second year of junior high school.

At that time, the classroom was so quiet that only the sound of writing papers could be heard. Ayase Kotone accidentally dropped her eraser while doing her homework at her seat. The eraser bounced and rolled on the ground and disappeared without a trace.

I couldn't find it even if I wanted to. Even if I wrote the wrong answer and wanted to correct it, the eraser was not at hand.

If you make too big movements to look for it, the teacher might think you are cheating or taking the opportunity to peek at other students' answer sheets.

At first, Ayase Kotone planned to raise her hand and ask the teacher to help her pick up the eraser, but the atmosphere in the classroom during the exam was so tense that there was no room for any noise.

Therefore, the hand that Ayase Kotone raised could not finally get higher than the height of her shoulder, and no sound came out of her open mouth.

Shimizu Mi listened quietly the whole time. For a socially anxious person like Ayase Kotone to do such a thing in front of the whole class in the silent examination room, it really takes great courage.

Even if it was Qingshui who came to see me, he might hesitate.

Then, Ayase Kotone continued to speak, and Shimizu Mi continued to listen attentively.

At that time, just because of a single hesitation, Ayase Kotone felt inexplicably cowardly.

But the exam continued, and I made mistakes on the test paper but had no way to correct them.

At this moment, an arm stretched out from Ayase Kotone's left side.

At first, Ayase Kotone thought it was the student sitting next to her on the left, but she immediately realized that she was sitting in the row of seats on the left closest to the window.

Ayase Kotone turned her head and found that a male student standing outside the classroom window stretched his arm through the window and came in.

It was noon, and the sun rising above the boy's head was so bright that Ayase Kotone could hardly open her eyes, but she heard the other party say "take it" and then leave an eraser in the corner of the table.

This action quickly attracted the attention of the invigilator on the podium.

"Hey, classmate over there..."

"Oh, sorry, I have a competition soon, so I have to go first. You should do your best in the exam too."

After saying this, the other party waved his hands and ran away before the invigilator came to drive him away.

During the remaining exam time, Ayase Kotone was always absent-minded, holding the eraser with a hint of warmth in her hand.

The glaring sunlight and the shadow on the other person's face made it impossible for Ayase Kotone to see his face clearly, but that figure was difficult to dispel in Ayase Kotone's mind.

When the exam was over, Ayase Kotone quickly ran out of the exam room.

Of course, the male student is no longer here.

But at the same time, Ayase Kotone heard cheers coming from the nearby gymnasium.

"There will be a competition later..."

Ayase Kotone suddenly remembered that several nearby middle schools had recently jointly organized a kendo competition, and the venue for the competition was chosen in the gymnasium of their school.

"So did the president find him?"

After listening to Ayase Kotone's story of the past, Shimizu asked.

However, Ayase Kotone shook her head slightly.

"Several nearby schools came to our school to participate in the competition that day, so the gymnasium was full of people and there were many contestants."

In other words, the opponent may not be from Ayase Kotone's school, but may be from other schools to participate in the competition.

If you can't remember what he looks like, finding him among so many people is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"Is there no clue at all?"

"Clues... I think he should be a first-year student one year below me."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because the final exams for the first and second grades were held at different times, the third graders had already finished their exams and left school, and the kendo competition held at that time was only open to first graders."

"So that's it."

But even so, it is not easy to find each other.

"Also, I think he should be in this school now."

"This school? Do you mean our school?"

"Ah."

"How did the president know?"

"..."

Ayase Kotone pursed her lips, as if she had something to hide, and did not answer.

He even brought out his past dark history for Shimizu to see, could there be something more important than that?

Shimizu Ken couldn't figure it out at first, but when he thought about the kendo competition that Ayase Kotone mentioned just now, if he was not mistaken, it should be the one that Shimizu Ken participated in that year.

At that time, Qingshui Jian was still in the first grade of junior high school. He was selected by the school as a representative, so he went to participate in the competition.

By the way, Amemiya Iori also met Ayase Kotone at that game.

Adding to that the previous incident with Ichinose Shiki, although it all feels like a coincidence, at least the matter with Ayase Kotone should have nothing to do with me.

Even though Qing Shuijian really wanted to say this, he had an indescribable feeling in his heart.

Shimizu tried to recall the details of the game.

But after all, so many years have passed, and he has participated in several competitions since then. Regarding that game, Shimizu only remembered that he paid more attention to the game itself. Apart from the fact that there were several strong opponents among his opponents, he did not have much impression of other things.

To be honest, it’s not that Qingshuijian has a bad memory.

No matter what, how could one remember everything that happened in junior high school in such detail, let alone something as small as an eraser? Except for a yandere like Ayase Kotone, could an ordinary person really remember it for so long?
"By the way, if the president finds him, what are you going to do?"

"Eh?!"

"Since the president wants to find him, he must have something he wants to do, right?"

"I...I don't know."

Although she said she didn't know, Ayase Kotone's cheeks quickly turned red.

"So that means that person is the president's first love, that's what's going on."

"Ah... no, that's not it..."

Ayase Kotone denied it again and again, showing a rare look of panic.

"Did I misunderstand? The president doesn't like him?"

"Eh? I...I...I didn't say that..."

Ayase Kotone's voice sounded a little shy, and because she didn't want Shimizu Ken to see her current face, she turned her head slightly.

"So if the president finds him, what does he want to do with him?"

"Maybe... I'd like to go to the same university as him in the future."

"Is that all?"

It’s not that Shimizu Miki didn’t believe it, but that’s what was written on Ayase Kotone’s face.

"Also, I want to go shopping with him..."

"anything else?"

"I want to cook for him..."

"..."

Shimizu didn't ask any more questions, but Ayase Kotone seemed unable to stop and continued talking.

"I want to go to the movies with him, travel with him, hold his hand, hug him, and ..."

(End of this chapter)