Chapter 3: The Dark-Haired Youth, Saito Junichi

*Ding* *Dong* *Ding* *Dong*

A dark-haired boy wearing a crimson blazer, a buttoned white shirt with a crimson coloured tie, and grey trousers had his face down at his desk.

However, unlike most students in the exact same attire, he wasn't studying.

*Snooore……*

The boy slept peacefully, blissfully awaiting the arrival of his next teacher.

Naturally, the sight of the sleeping youth raised a few eyebrows within the crowd of students.

And it just so happened that a certain girl with jet-black hair was one of those that took issue with the boy’s lazy demeanour.

「He's still asleep? Baka Aniki(1)!」

「It’s fine, isn't it? Junichi-kun(2) must be tired, Mana-chan(3).」

Mana directed her complaints towards a slender, tall girl with neatly trimmed long, light brown hair. Her large hazelnut eyes were covered by her large, round glasses, and she was holding a closed pocketbook in her hands.

「But he even slept in this morning! All he ever does is sleep.」

Mouthing another complaint, Mana briefly stared at the dark-haired boy known to them as Saito Junichi.

「Has he been eating properly?」

「He eats whatever he makes so we both eat well.」

「True. If he ate your cooking, ambulances would flood your apartment-」

「S-Shiori!」

Mana jumped out of her seat in embarrassment, causing a symphony of giggles to intrude upon the two’s conversation.

「My cooking can't really be that bad……」

Mana returned her bottom to her stool, her voice trailing off as she began to grumble.

As for the girl who was referred to as Shiori-

「But it's true that Junichi-kun has been sleeping more lately.」

-she contributed her own observation before resuming the conversation.

「Do you think he's tired because of his job, Mana-chan?」

「I don't think so.」

Mana expressed her doubts towards Shiori’s suggestion.

「I mean he's only at his job for 1 hour. He shouldn't be that tired after only an hour's work.」

「I see. You have a point.」

「All right, settle down, kids.」

Disrupting the chatter in the classroom was a shaggy, brown-haired man with (what appeared to be) a cigarette in his mouth.

「You're late again, Nogi-sensei(4)!」

「Sorry about that. *Yawn* I guess we should start homeroom then.」

Naturally, the presence of their teacher had caused the classroom’s noise level to drop back down to silence.

However-

「Zzzz…」

Completely ignorant of the teacher’s arrival, the snores of Saito Junichi echoed through the classroom.

All eyes shifted towards the sleeping Junichi, causing his little sister’s face to blush for the 3rd time that day.

And yet, despite the tremendous attention, Junichi still slept.

Which ended up causing a certain brown-haired teacher to grow irritable.

「Wake up, squirt!」

A flying piece of chalk shot straight into the sleeping boy’s head. After contact, the chalk exploded into dust.

「Hey, I’m tired too, you know.」

The brown-haired teacher reached into his desk before pulling out another piece of chalk.

Nogi-sensei, notorious for his ability to throw chalks so powerfully that they vaporise upon collision.

Naturally, none of the students dared to mess with him for fear of being on the receiving end of his stationery projectiles.

Well……no one but him.

「Zzzzz…..」

Stubborn snorts could be heard coming from within the puff cloud of chalk.

It needn’t be said who these snores belonged to.

「Seriously?」

Nogi-sensei sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with his palm.

It was evident that he was not amused.

「Still not awake?」

All of a sudden, Nogi-sensei held several chalk sticks in the spaces between his fingers. Seeing how all the pieces were at least a finger long, many in the room gulped as they understood what they were going to be used for.

And sure enough, Nogi-sensei swiped his hands, aiming all of the powdery solids at the snoring Junichi.

*boom*

The sound of an explosion dominated the classroom, shortly followed by a large puff of chalk which enveloped the sleeping boy’s desk.

And the result-

「What the-? Ack-kak-kak-」

The boy known as Saito Junichi began to cough, choking on chalk as he escaped the dense, nauseous smog.

(Is this Nogi-sensei's work?)

「Good to see you're awake, squirt.」

Having his suspicions confirmed by the smug teacher’s smirk, Junichi frowned.

「Do you always have to try to kill me just to wake me up?」

「Not if you'd been awake in the first place.」

「Tch.」

Unable to argue in the face of the teacher’s sound logic, Junichi clicked his tongue.

Though he was obviously irked by the brown-haired man’s complacent demeanour, he decided to let it go as he continued to clear his throat of chalk.

「Well then. Now that you're awake, you think we can start homeroom?」

And so, on that chaotic note, Saito Junichi's 'Homeroom' period commenced.