Middle School Graduation

Today was my middle school graduation ceremony. I'd only started actually attending in March, and the days male students were required to show up were few, so middle school life had ended almost as soon as it began.

That said, since my school was a combined middle-high, our middle school graduation fell around the time a normal school would have its closing ceremony, so it stretched a little longer than at a regular middle school.

"Haa～ah… I really hope I get to be in the same class as Shouya-kun next year too…"

"With your grades, isn't that gonna be tough? You know how popular Izumi-kun is right now, right?"

"Uuu～ that's exactly why I've been praying every single day like this～"

There were no classes today, and once the ceremony ended it rolled straight into after-school hours, so from inside the post-graduation classroom you could already hear voices talking over next year's class assignments.

Assignments worked by taking the girls with the top grades and placing them, in order, into the male student's class they'd requested. Arisa and Kaede, however, were in my class regardless of their grades. I get to designate up to two classmates, after all.

"Haa～a, this is the last time I'll see Shouya in his gakuran too… I'm looking forward to the high-school blazer, sure, but it's still kinda sad."

Arisa murmured, gazing at me with what sounded like genuine regret.

"Don't worry, Arisa! I'll keep Shouya's gakuran nice and safe!"

"Saying that, huh～… You're not gonna use it for something weird, are you? Like sniffing it?"

Kaede puffed out her chest as though reassuring Arisa, but Arisa was throwing her a suspicious side-eye.

"Wha! Th-that kind of thing…"

"You were planning to, weren't you?"

"Urgh!"

Kaede looked like she was taking some kind of damage, but honestly, if it was Kaede, I didn't really mind her sniffing my clothes… though sweaty underwear or socks would obviously be a no… actually, I could just keep my own gakuran.

"A-anyway! Let's take pictures, pictures! The last photos of us in these uniforms!"

Kaede hyped herself up over the photos, as if trying to bury the sniffing accusation entirely.

"Yes, yes… All right, I'll take them again～"

When the three of us took photos together, Arisa was the one who usually held the phone. Her arms were long, so everyone fit easily into frame.

Me in the middle with the two of them on either side was also our standard lineup. Getting to enjoy the nice scents of the two of them while we took the photo was, of course, also standard… put like that, I was the biggest pervert here. Then again, the women of this world would probably be only too happy to let me sniff them.

After Arisa's countdown, we snapped the photo. Since we'd come this far, we decided we wanted a full-body shot too, and handed the phone off to a girl nearby.

"Here we go～! Three, two, one, cheese!"

Lately I'd gotten used to having my photo taken, and I felt like I'd gotten pretty good at producing a smile on cue.

"Thank you～"

Arisa took the phone back and checked the shots together with Kaede.

"Yep ♪ This is great ♪"

"Shouya's got a really nice smile, too!"

Being praised on my smile by Arisa made me happy. Did the two of them realize the reason I could even smile at school was thanks to them?

"U-um! Izumi-kun… could you take a photo with me?!"

The girl who'd just taken our photo bowed her head as she asked. It looked like the rest of the class was peeking over to watch too.

"O-of course, that's fine."

"Thank you so much!"

The girl who'd asked broke into a smile like a flower blooming and pressed herself close. Since she was shorter than me, I bent down a little so she could frame us easily.

"H-here we go!"

I could see her hand trembling slightly, probably from nerves. Once the selfie was done, she passed the phone to Arisa and the others for a full-body shot.

"Thank you so much! I'll treasure this for the rest of my life!"

She thanked me with another bow, just as she had when she'd asked. As far as I knew, no one was leaving the school after middle school this year, so she'd have plenty more chances…

"Um, with me too, please!"

"I want one with me too!"

More requests for a photo with me started cropping up from all over the class, and while I was floundering, Kaede and Arisa came to my rescue.

"Okay then, everyone who wants a photo with Shouya, line up～!"

"If Shouya gets tired, we're calling it, all right?!"

Both Kaede and Arisa always put me first. I really had to bow my head to them.

Even with Kaede and Arisa managing the line, the end was nowhere in sight. The line stretched all the way out into the hall. But we'd already agreed no one could line up twice, so… were these people from other classes?

"Shouya, if you're tired, want to take a little break?"

Arisa, worried about how I was holding up, brought over a chair. Grateful for her concern, I let myself rest. Then—

"Izumi-san is taking a break, everyone!"

A call rang out, like something you'd hear on a celebrity photoshoot. Probably one of the girls who'd finished her photos and stayed to help with crowd control, being thoughtful about it.

"Shouya, are you okay? If you're tired you can turn them down, you know?"

"I'm fine. I've built up some stamina lately, I can handle it."

Kaede was watching me worriedly too. Since I was basically just standing there, I honestly didn't find it that hard. If anything, seeing everyone happy felt like it gave me energy.

I got up from the chair and resumed the photoshoot, but in the end my stamina ran out and we had to cut the session short.

The reason being that students from other grades had caught wind of it and started showing up. By the end, even my Onee-chans were helping manage the line, and the cancellation announcement went out over the school PA system, courtesy of the student council.

Everyone in our class stayed and helped out to the very end too.

"Phew～ thanks for all the hard work, everyone… Oh, I know! Let's take one last picture together, everyone!"

Kaede thanked everyone and floated the idea of a group photo. Voices around the room rose in agreement.

"Then Izumi-kun gets to be in the middle."

So I stood in the middle, but aside from Arisa positioning herself diagonally behind me and Kaede standing right next to me, no one else came close. Listening in, it sounded like they were all silently jockeying over who got to stand near me.

"Okay then! Let's settle it with rock-paper-scissors! That'll decide who gets to stand next to Shouya!"

Tired of the endless feeling-out jabs, Kaede called for rock-paper-scissors. To get everyone's faces in the shot, we needed to stagger our positions, so the six people right around me (two of which were already locked in as Kaede and Arisa) left four open spots to settle by rock-paper-scissors.

There were a lot of people, so instead of everyone playing at once, the rule became that the four who beat Kaede would get to come stand near me, and just like that the lineup for the photo was settled.

"Taking it～"

The student at the edge of the front row pressed the shutter button, then hurriedly joined the line, and a few seconds later the shutter fired off in rapid succession. A few of us checked the results, and they came out fine.

"Then I'll just post them in the class group chat～"

Group chat… so there was a thing like that…

"Um… Kaede… there's a group chat?"

"Yeah, there is… I-it's not like we left you out, Shouya! Just, boys don't usually get added in, so…"

"Aww～ Kaede made Shouya cry～"

Arisa scolded Kaede with a teasing smirk, then pulled me into her chest and started rubbing my back.

"There, there, Shouya～ I'll comfort you, okay～"

I was honestly a little sad, so I decided to let myself sink into Arisa's chest.

"Ah ♡ Shouya, you're being such a clingy little thing today ♡"

Arisa said happily, then pressed my head against her breasts and stroked my hair.

"Shouya～ I really wasn't trying to leave you out～"

Kaede sidled up to me looking deflated, so I figured it was about time to forgive her.

"I'm not actually mad. It's fine."

"Hey, Kaede-chan, why don't you add Izumi-kun to the group chat? Of course, we won't add his contact info without permission!"

The others were nodding along too. Kaede had probably been afraid of my contact info leaking, which was why she hadn't invited me to the group chat.

"If Shouya's okay with it, then I'm okay with it."

Kaede looked at me, leaving the call up to me. To be honest, I still hadn't fully memorized everyone's names and faces, but they'd treated me well as a member of the class, so I wanted to join.

"I'd like to join… but let me ask my secretary just to be safe."

At my answer, the girl who'd proposed it broke into a delighted smile.

"Got it. Then since it's getting late, let's call it a day!"

The girl said her piece and headed back over to the rest of the class. We met up with my Onee-chans, who'd come by the classroom, and set off home.

 

*

 

"A group chat? It's no trouble at all. Even in the worst case if something leaked, dealing with it is easy. But please make sure to tell them not to let it leak."

When I asked Reina-san about the group chat after we got home, she brushed it off as no problem. The way she pushed her glasses up smugly on 'dealing with it' did make me wonder what exactly would happen to whoever leaked it…

"Okay then, Shouya, I'll add you in."

When Kaede tapped through her phone and sent the invite, a notification popped up on mine too. When I accepted and joined the group, it seemed everyone had been staring at their screens waiting, because the instant I joined, welcome messages and stickers came flooding in.

"Geez～ aren't you all getting a bit too excited?"

Kaede was exasperated watching everyone's reaction.

"Shouya, you should reply too."

Prompted by Kaede, I sent a reply, and the chat got even more lively.

"If you keep playing with them, you'll run out of time… come on, Shouya, go take a bath."

The chat had been so entertaining that I'd ended up talking for quite a while. I sent 'going to take a bath' into the group, then headed off to the bathroom.

According to what Kaede told me later, the moment I left for the bath was apparently when the chat got the most excited of all.