The concept of a "shared dream" was simply too fantastical, too unbelievable for a high schooler raised under a materialist worldview.
Even after Shikime Natsu had mentioned "same class" and "fighting side by side" — those were the keywords — Matsushita Chiaki's heart still clung to one final line of defense.
She would not believe it on a whim. Not until she heard Shikime Natsu say something that only she herself could possibly know.
That secret — the reason why she was so fixated on graduating from Class A...
In real life, she had never breathed a word of it to anyone. Not even to Karuizawa Kei or Satou Maya, her two closest friends. She had only been quietly searching for the right person to confide in.
Only in that dream... had she ever opened her heart to the Shikime Natsu of the dreamworld.
So as long as he didn't know that — there was still a chance this was just coincidence. After all, dreaming about similar content was perfectly normal. Plenty of people dreamed about suddenly falling from a great height out of nowhere — that sort of thing happened all the time.
Matsushita Chiaki consoled herself with that reasoning, drew a slow breath, and did her best to keep her expression natural as she spoke.
"If I could fight side by side with Shiki-san in the same class..."
"That truly would be a wonderful thing."
It wasn't just polite small talk — it was what she genuinely felt, from the bottom of her heart.
If Class D really had someone like Shikime Natsu in it... then climbing to Class A, a goal that seemed impossibly out of reach, might not be a pipe dream after all.
Because if it were him — that powerful, supremely self-assured Shikime Natsu.
With his extraordinary teaching ability, no one in the class would ever fail out — at the very least, last-minute exam cramming would be completely unnecessary. And what's more, if Shikime Natsu were in Class D, he would probably see through the school's hidden rules from day one, meaning Class D would never have lost points in the first place.
In short.
With him around, every problem seemed like it would solve itself.
It had only been the dream version of Shikime Natsu that had given her that impression — and yet, looking at the real man before her now, Matsushita Chiaki was absolutely certain: the real him could do it, too.
Just as he was now the unshakeable cornerstone of Class A — in that dream, he had been Class D's only hope, its one true pillar.
Thinking that, a flicker of wistfulness crossed Matsushita Chiaki's eyes, and a note of quiet regret crept into her voice.
"What a shame, though..."
"We're rivals now, aren't we."
One was the undisputed leader of the lofty Class A. The other was still a Class D student, struggling just to stay afloat.
The gulf between them was even harder to bridge than she'd imagined.
Her obsession with graduating from Class A ran deep — after all, graduating from any class below A meant being labeled. And it was the sort of label she absolutely could not stand.
In the dream, she had said something similar to Shikime Natsu once... but the real Shikime Natsu wouldn't know that, would he?
Shikime Natsu noticed her subdued expression and stepped in with a quiet addition.
"Even if we're rivals."
"We're still... friends, aren't we?"
Friends...
That word rippled softly through Matsushita Chiaki's heart.
She gave a small nod.
"That's true..."
"We are... friends."
An admittedly distant sort of friendship — friends from opposing camps, even.
But right now... Matsushita Chiaki desperately wanted to hold onto that thread. If Shikime Natsu had said they were merely classmates just now, she thought, her mood would probably have gone quite dark.
After all...
She still wanted to be a little closer to him.
Even if it couldn't be as intimate as the dream — at the very least... she couldn't afford to be too far away. Because if the distance grew too great, Matsushita Chiaki couldn't deny it — she'd feel hollow inside, like something important had gone missing.
Just then.
Shikime Natsu pivoted the conversation, a faint smile on his face as he looked at her.
"By the way, Matsushita-san."
"In that dream of mine... I also happened to learn something."
"I'm not sure whether it's real or not, so... I was hoping to verify it with you directly."
"I want to test whether the information I picked up in the dream is actually true."
At those words.
Matsushita Chiaki went taut all over again — like a grade-schooler who'd just been called on to answer in front of the class.
Had Shikime Natsu really shared the same dream as her?
No — surely not. It had to be something else, right?
She forced her expression to remain steady and watched him quietly, composing herself into an attentive posture.
Shikime Natsu met her nervous gaze and spoke at a slow, unhurried pace.
"In the dream..."
"I happened to find out that Matsushita-san's birthday... is April 2nd."
"I was wondering... whether that's correct."
"..."
Matsushita Chiaki blinked, momentarily thrown. Her birthday?
A moment later, she managed a strained little smile.
"Did... Maya or Kei tell you that?"
Shikime Natsu shook his head.
"No — I never heard anything like that from Satou-san or Karuizawa-san. I learned it in the dream. The Matsushita-san inside that dream told me herself. I know plenty of things in dreams aren't real, but... I was curious. Is it actually true?"
As he finished speaking, those amber-gold eyes of his shone with unmistakable curiosity.
Of course it was true.
After all, Shikime Natsu knew full well that if he didn't offer specific, verifiable details like this, his entire approach would be no better than the tired "I feel like I've seen you somewhere before" line that every opportunist trotted out. Claiming the two of them had shared a dream was one thing — but naming concrete, real facts was far more convincing.
Matsushita Chiaki stared at him, momentarily blank.
In the dream, they had been so close — of course she would have told him her birthday. She might have even pouted and wheedled him into buying her a present.
But... that had only been a dream.
Now, hearing Shikime Natsu name that date with flawless precision, Matsushita Chiaki completely lost her composure.
She drew a shaky breath, and with a voice that trembled just slightly, gave a nod.
"You're right."
"My birthday... is indeed April 2nd."
She had confirmed it.
Since he knew her birthday too... Matsushita Chiaki steeled her nerves and decided it was time to verify things for herself.
"In that case..."
"May I ask you something, Shiki-san."
"Is your birthday... April 1st?"
She had learned his birthday in the dream, too.
April 1st.
The same day as April Fools'. Though in the dream, she had never once thought of it as April Fools' Day. It was simply the day of Shikime Natsu's birthday — nothing more, nothing less.
As she said it, her voice trembled faintly.
If Shikime Natsu knowing her birthday could still — with a stretch of imagination — be explained away as something Satou Maya or the others had let slip, then his birthday was a different matter entirely.
She had never learned Shikime Natsu's birthday through any channel in real life. Nowhere. Not once.
Only in that dream.
If she got it right... it would prove that a shared dream was a real and tangible thing. Something she had never heard of before — and yet undeniably, concretely real.
Shikime Natsu gave a nod, candidly admitting it.
"That's right."
"April 1st is indeed my birthday. Did Matsushita-san also hear about it from someone else?"
"..."
Matsushita Chiaki froze.
It was true...!
And then he turned the question right back on her.
She was stuck.
How was she supposed to answer this? She could hardly lie and say she'd heard his birthday from someone else — that would make her sound like she paid a suspicious amount of attention to him. Even if she claimed she'd just overheard it by chance, the fact that she'd retained it this clearly would seem strange. Like she had some ulterior motive.
Well, that was the nitpicky interpretation — but for a girl in her current state, even the nitpicky interpretation was enough to sting.
So she could only bow her head slightly, a little flustered, and say quietly:
"Actually..."
"I also... found out in a dream."
Matsushita Chiaki decided to offer the equally absurd answer: she'd learned it in a dream. Well — if Shikime Natsu had learned her birthday in a dream, then what was wrong with her learning his birthday in a dream?
Hearing that, Shikime Natsu's smile deepened.
"Haha — what a coincidence, then."
"To think we both learned each other's birthdays... from a dream."
"What a strange twist of fate."
Matsushita Chiaki let out an awkward little laugh in return.
"Y-yeah..."
"That really is... quite a coincidence."
A coincidence?
Their birthdays matched. And the events within the dream — both of them working together toward the goal of getting Class D into Class A — those matched too.
So then...
What about everything that came after in that dream?!
Those moments that were even more intimate, even more mortifying — did he remember those too?!
Matsushita Chiaki's heart was hammering out of control.
She needed to know exactly where Shikime Natsu's memories stopped.
So, summoning her courage once more, she probed carefully:
"In that case..."
"What was Shiki-san's dream like... specifically?"
"Could you... elaborate a little?"
She forced herself to look merely curious, but the hands clasped tight in her lap had already given her away.
Hearing that, Shikime Natsu smiled — and didn't refuse.
He began, calmly and unhurriedly:
"Hmm... I believe the beginning of the dream was a classroom scene."
"At the time, Matsushita-san seemed to be deliberating over who to choose as the class's leader."
"And then... I walked up to you on my own initiative."
"I said — let's work together."
"And then... I showed you what I was capable of, and proved that I could lead Class D to victory."
"We made plans together. We kept our classmates on track with their studies. In the end, not a single person failed — we passed the midterm exams without incident."
"Along the way, I found out your birthday, and we exchanged contact information."
"I handled the front lines — managing class discipline, keeping everyone's spirits up."
"While Matsushita-san... worked quietly behind the scenes. Gathering information for me, watching for details I might miss."
"We were perfectly in sync."
There, he paused — as if reaching back for something further in the memory.
"And then... in our third year, we finally defeated Class A and successfully made it to the top."
"After graduation, everyone found a career they were happy with."
"It was a hard road, but the ending was everything we could have hoped for."
"I have to say..."
He gave a quiet, reflective sigh.
"That dream was... remarkably long. It felt like living through an entire lifetime."
He had, of course, very cleverly omitted the parts not suitable for all audiences.
Like the celebration the night they broke into Class A.
Like the wedding, after graduation.
He kept only the parts about the passionate struggle and the wholesome camaraderie.
Because... that had been a relationship born inside a dream, and Shikime Natsu wanted to gauge Matsushita Chiaki's feelings first.
Listening to all of that, Matsushita Chiaki's expression became impossibly complicated.
There was no mistaking it now.
Every single detail Shikime Natsu had described matched her own memories of the dream, without a single discrepancy.
But...
Thank goodness.
It appeared that Shikime Natsu hadn't mentioned any of the embarrassing parts. Maybe... maybe his memories had stopped at the "struggling together" portion? Or perhaps the dream had been so long that those finer details had simply blurred away?
Matsushita Chiaki let out a small, private sigh of relief.
But right on its heels.
A different, far more overwhelming emotion surged up inside her.
They had shared the same dream.
They had lived through so much of it together — their bond in that dream could only be called deeply intimate.
And yet now...
In reality, the two of them were practically strangers.
That contrast made Matsushita Chiaki's chest ache.
Especially because in the dream, she had been his one and only girlfriend. They had even walked down the aisle together in the end.
But now...
The real Shikime Natsu already had two other girlfriends.
And neither of those spots belonged to her.
For reasons she couldn't quite name.
A sharp, bitter feeling rose inside Matsushita Chiaki — the unmistakable sting of someone who had already lost before the race even began.
I was here first...
In the dream, we were the perfect pair...
Noticing the faint sourness that had crept into Matsushita Chiaki's expression, Shikime Natsu asked with genuine concern.
"Matsushita-san?"
"Is something wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Matsushita Chiaki snapped back to herself, managed to squeeze out a thin smile, and shook her head.
"N-no, nothing's wrong."
She gave a quiet, private sigh inside.
This is so complicated.
In the dream, they had been comrades — shoulder to shoulder, fighting side by side.
But in reality, they were rivals.
If she wanted to reach Class A, she would have to defeat the class where Shikime Natsu belonged. And yet... Shikime Natsu was so extraordinarily capable. If he didn't get to graduate from Class A... that would be far too tragic a waste.
But if Shikime Natsu graduated from Class A, then she couldn't graduate from Class A.
It was an inescapable loop.
Matsushita Chiaki turned this over and over in her head. Which mattered more — Shikime Natsu himself? Or the label of "graduated from Class A"?
It was at that moment.
The door to the karaoke room swung open.
Satou Maya and Karuizawa Kei walked back in.
The moment Satou Maya stepped through the door, her gaze swept from Shikime Natsu to Matsushita Chiaki and back again.
"We're back~"
She smiled and settled back into her seat, then asked with a studied air of casual curiosity:
"So, Shiki-san — what were you two talking about just now?"
Shikime Natsu smiled and answered easily.
"Nothing particularly out of the ordinary."
"Only that I apparently had a strange dream of my own."
"And in that dream... it just so happened that I learned Matsushita-san's birthday."
"...?!"
At that.
Satou Maya turned to Matsushita Chiaki with wide, astonished eyes.
"Is that true?!"
"Shiki-san actually dreamed about Chiaki?! And he even knows her birthday?!"
Matsushita Chiaki couldn't quite bring herself to meet Satou Maya's gaze. She just steeled herself and gave a small nod.
"Yeah... it's true."
"I was pretty startled myself."
Hearing that.
A stab of jealousy shot through Satou Maya's chest — sharp and undeniable.
Shikime Natsu had actually dreamed about Matsushita Chiaki! And he even knew her birthday!
How did she get such special treatment?! Why wasn't it her?!
Shikime Natsu seemed to sense the jealousy hanging in the air.
He turned, glanced at both Satou Maya and Karuizawa Kei, and smiled.
"Since we're already on the subject of birthdays..."
"Could I ask — when are both of yours?"
"After all, we're all friends."
"If your birthdays come around, I'd like to get each of you a little something."
At those words.
Satou Maya's eyes lit up in an instant, every last trace of jealousy evaporating on the spot.
A present?!
Did that mean... she was on Shikime Natsu's mind too?!
She announced her birthday without a moment's hesitation.
"Me! My birthday is February 28th!"
Karuizawa Kei added quietly beside her:
"Mine is... March 8th."
Shikime Natsu gave a nod, committing both to memory.
"February 28th, March 8th... noted."
And then.
The two of them also learned that Shikime Natsu's birthday fell on April 1st.
In an instant, the mood in the karaoke room warmed back to something comfortable and easy.
Only Matsushita Chiaki was left with an oddly mixed feeling settling in her chest.
The scene of everyone trading birthdays like this was... undeniably sweet. So why did something about it still feel faintly off to her?
Just then.
Satou Maya seemed to come to some kind of major decision.
Color rose to her cheeks without warning. She dropped her gaze a little shyly, fingers winding absently through a strand of her hair.
Then, she lifted her head and looked at Shikime Natsu with an expression that held equal parts bashfulness and hopeful expectation, her voice coming out soft and small.
"Um..."
"Shiki-san."
"I heard that... Kikyou-chan, and Mei-Yu Wang-san, and a few others..."
"Apparently call you just 'Natsu'..."
"So, um..."
She bit her lip, screwed up her courage, and asked:
"Would it be okay... if I called you that too?"
That one direct strike instantly left both Matsushita Chiaki and Karuizawa Kei, sitting on either side of her, completely floored.
She was already launching her offensive?!
Threat level — rising fast!
____
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