Time swiftly passed, and the boy took another step closer to adulthood.

In late March, the spring breeze gently brushed the skin, and cherry blossoms bloomed across the landscape.

Winter had completely retreated; the biting, piercing winds grew warm and soft, the sunlight shone brilliantly, the lake rippled with sparkling light, and the long hillside path was infused with the sweet fragrance of cherry blossoms.

At the school auditorium of Kamiura High School, the teachers and students of the entire school were gathered.

"Next, the speech by the student representative. Student representative, Hoshinoshino Hoshino."

"Yes."

Seated in the front row of the audience, the young girl stood up. Her azure-blue long hair fell smoothly and gracefully down her back as she slowly walked up to the stage.

Taking out her speech, she looked out at the underclassmen seated below, wearing a gentle smile as warm as the spring breeze.

"The tender cherry flower buds, as if summoned by the warmth of spring, quietly bloom. In this refreshing and pleasant season, all of us third-year students deeply thank everyone for officially welcoming our graduation."

……

……

The two weeks of spring break passed in the blink of an eye. With the third-year students having officially graduated, Jinguuji Tsuki smoothly advanced to the third-year humanities class.

The humanities class had many female students, and overnight, the classroom lost many familiar faces while gaining many new ones.

Sakurakoji Sakura had submitted an application for a leave of absence and stopped coming to school starting from the new semester.

Yet in the present Kamiura High School, no one regarded Jinguuji Tsuki as a scoundrel anymore.

With the shift in perception, Jinguuji Tsuki received more and more confessions. Far from slandering him, the girls who faced rejection grew even more infatuated with him than before.

Before he knew it, a peculiar rumor began to circulate around the school: "Even though I was rejected by the Student Council President, he is so gentle and wonderful that I want to be rejected by him all over again."

Faced with this, Jinguuji Tsuki himself had no idea what to do.

Yet the fact that he could possess everything he had now, that he could be an ordinary high school student and enjoy this hard-earned high school life, was inseparable from the help of those two girls.

If Hoshinoshino Hoshino hadn't invited him to join the student council, he would never have found a place to belong.

If Sakurakoji Sakura hadn't changed his standing within the class, he would still be that isolated Jinguuji Tsuki.

He had constantly been receiving help from others, so now, it was his turn to use his identity as the Student Council President to help people in truth.

Indeed, the girls who had once been by his side had left him.

However, it was already okay.

Even if they were no longer beside him, even if he became completely alone, Jinguuji Tsuki would no longer drown in the sorrows of the past.

So that he could hold his head high with confidence when he met them again, he needed to completely sever the sorrow and self-loathing residing in his heart.

Yet this by no means meant he would forget.

He would never forget the mistakes he had made, constantly reminding himself to value human connections, and upon that foundation, become a sincere person who helped others.

"Ah... President, my bubble tea is finished. Could I trouble you for a refill?"

"Yoh-chan, aren't you being a bit too clingy to the President? The President still has a lot of work to do."

"Eh~~ But serving tea and pouring water is the duty of the Student Council President, otherwise what is he good for?"

"Such bold words. It seems you aren't afraid of getting a beating at all."

"President, let me beat her up for you."

"Violence rejected! Only the Senior is allowed to bonk my head!"

Jinguuji Tsuki looked at the bustling student council room, where Hinomiya Yoh and Amamiya Kaho were playing a game of tag across the two ends of the sofa.

Though he desperately wanted to scold them and tell them to focus on work, strangely enough, this scene brought him an incomparable sense of peace.

The present him was no longer alone.

……

……

"Congratulations, Jinguuji-kun. You won the Gold Prize in the recent illustrator competition."

"Thank you very much, Natsuki-san. I still have a lot to learn."

"Many professional creators can't stop praising you. Who knows, you might even get job offers coming your way very soon."

"If Natsuki-san hadn't given me this opportunity, things certainly wouldn't have gone so smoothly."

It was currently summer vacation. The scorching sun hung high in the sky, and the endless chorus of July cicadas felt intensely stifling just to hear.

Sitting in the corner of a cafe, Jinguuji Tsuki and Natsuki Yuta were holding a discussion.

"That's right, would you like to drop by the editorial department now? The editor-in-chief is very eager to meet you."

"I'd love to."

Upon arriving at the editorial department, Jinguuji Tsuki was invited into the conference room. For a high school student, such an environment inevitably made him feel somewhat reserved.

Things went even more smoothly than imagined. Perhaps because he had won the Gold Prize, the work he had been longing for quickly found its way to him. The editorial department wanted to promote him under the banner of a "genius high school illustrator."

It was a pity Jinguuji Tsuki wasn't a girl; otherwise, the title of "genius high school beautiful girl illustrator" alone would have been enough to sell ten thousand copies.

After leaving the conference room, Jinguuji Tsuki exchanged a few casual words with Natsuki Yuta before bidding farewell and leaving.

When the elevator reached the floor where Denki Bunko was located, a handsome young man walked out, radiating a melancholic aura that seemed to warn others to keep their distance.

Jinguuji Tsuki froze at the sight, taking a slight half-step back to let him pass.

Natsuki Yuta's voice came from behind him: "Totsuka-sensei, you're finally here. If you don't turn in your manuscript soon, I'm going to die."

Jinguuji Tsuki shook his head and stepped into the elevator without dwelling on it.

Arriving at the ground floor, he discovered that a heavy rain had started falling outside at some point. Having brought no umbrella, Jinguuji Tsuki stood stranded inside the building, completely at a loss.

After a long while, the rain showed no signs of letting up, and Jinguuji Tsuki hesitated over whether he should just make a dash through it.

"No umbrella?"

A young man's voice suddenly rang out beside him. It was a rather deep, deeply magnetic voice that felt almost bewitching, nearly deserving to be called beautiful.

Yes, it was a truly beautiful voice.

Jinguuji Tsuki looked over and realized it was the exceptionally handsome young man he had encountered earlier at Denki Bunko.

Naturally, Jinguuji Tsuki had no interest in other men's appearances, but possessing a photographic memory, he pondered for a brief moment before retrieving information about this face from his memory.

Besides, when the man was leaving earlier, he had heard Natsuki Yuta address him by that name.

"Yes," Jinguuji Tsuki nodded.

"I see."

Fumbling through his messenger bag, the man produced a folding umbrella and handed it to Jinguuji Tsuki.

"This is?" Jinguuji Tsuki couldn't help but look at him in confusion.

"My car is parked nearby. You can use this."

"Um..."

Jinguuji Tsuki was instantly taken aback, unsure how to react. Without saying another word, the man placed the umbrella into Jinguuji Tsuki's hands and dashed out into the curtain of rain without a second thought.

When Jinguuji Tsuki finally returned home, he couldn't help but look up information about him online.

Thus, Jinguuji Tsuki discovered with astonishment:

This person didn't even have a driver's license.

"What an eccentric fellow, Totsuka-sensei."

(End of this chapter)