A/N: Trying out a new perspective (first person), and if perspective changes or there's a time skip, they'll be separated with a --<>--
--<>--
As I watched Ichinose finish putting on her indoor shoes and Amikura notice another classmate and start talking to them, I raised my voice.
"Ichinose-san."
She turned her head, with a face that looked like she would accept whatever I was going to say.
"What is it, Kyusoku-kun?"
"...About what I said earlier, I'd appreciate it if you didn't credit me if you say it to the class."
If I had to be honest, yesterday was probably one of the only times in this life where I had the attention of an entire class on me.
And personally, that had to be the bottom 10 experiences I've had in this lifetime.
While the gazes themselves didn't really bother me, it was more or less having to consider the reactions of the people who were looking at me.
It was unnecessarily stressful.
Hmm.
"...Eh?"
Ichinose's expression turned into one of confusion.
"Why not?
"I just don't want attention."
…Yeesh. Now I'm sounding like that Masterpiece weirdo.
A small shiver went down my back.
"Ew. Cancel. Let me rephrase that."
"Huh?"
"I just don't want to be called out amongst the entire class. I'm a shy person."
Ichinose blinked at what was basically me canceling an excuse, before nodding.
"...Well, I won't force you, Kyusoku-kun."
'…That was easier than I thought.'
"Thank you."
I had nothing else to say, so I turned around and started walking to the classroom.
--<>--
"After classes today, there will be a club orientation at the gymnasium, and anyone can attend if they're interested!"
I listened with a somewhat interested expression as Hoshinomiya-sensei talked about the orientation, mainly because this month's hotspots were in any clubroom.
On another note, during the class discussion before Hoshinomiya-sensei started homeroom, we finished discussing the class fund.
Good news: Depositing wouldn't be necessary this month, since the class had already lost half of it as payment for the school's information.
Bad news: It'd be half of the class's monthly earnings, unless the class lost more Class Points than expected; then they'd probably redecide.
Regarding who was in charge of the Class Fund, the original consensus was for Ichinose to manage it, but Ichinose basically repeated my argument one for one. The entire class ended up agreeing to decide the 'treasurer' after the month ended.
With practically no dissenting opinions, no less.
…Maybe charisma really did make a difference, because if I were the one saying all of that, it probably wouldn't have gone so smoothly.
Was this the power of looks…?
She did something with ease what I could only do in dreams…
Thankfully, Ichinose followed through with my earlier request, crediting 'a classmate' instead of my name.
I did feel a gaze on me from behind when she said that, but it went away soon enough.
But right now, I was waiting for Hoshinomiya-sensei to finish homeroom quickly.
It was time for me to earn some money.
As homeroom ended, I pulled out my notebook and pencils and opened it to the first empty page.
Knock Knock.
A middle-aged man wearing a suit entered the classroom and, without much delay, picked up a whiteboard marker and wrote his name on the board.
"My name is Mashima Tomonari, but please refer to me as Mashima-sensei."
His gaze roamed the class for any questions before nodding after noticing none.
"We will go straight into the curriculum."
I raised my hand.
I may have felt my classmates' gazes, but I had already reached a state of enlightenment.
Because I no longer had any worldly desires, their gazes no longer affected me.
"...Yes?"
Mashima-sensei asked.
"May I use the restroom?"
"..."
Mashima-sensei looked at me with a hint of confusion, as if asking me, 'Why didn't you just go during the break before class started?' but that wasn't what I planned.
There was a difference between 'going to the restroom during break time and never coming back' and 'asking to go to the restroom during class and never coming back,' and I was banking on the latter losing less class points.
Even if my decision to prioritize coins was selfish, it was the least I could do to minimize the losses.
Call me a hypocrite all you want.
I'd wholeheartedly agree.
"...You may."
Mashima-sensei promptly answered.
"Thank you."
Coins, here I come!
As I rose from my seat and left the classroom, I opened up the system before clicking on the First Year Hallway Boys' Bathroom.
A small projection of the entire campus popped up, with one area highlighted in red, and a white marker signifying me.
'Very convenient.'
While I had already memorized the map of the school, there was a small chance that I could get lost, mainly because memorizing the map didn't automatically bestow upon me navigation abilities.
Better to follow the GPS…
It was much harder to get lost with a feature like this.
Entering the boy's bathroom, while I couldn't feel anything, such as a notification telling me that I was in the hotspot, since the hotspot only worked while I was sleeping anyway; I might get a notification after sleeping…
I looked around the boy's bathroom.
Thankfully, it seemed that since the day had only just started, there weren't any big signs of… use.
Or maybe the ventilation was good enough that there wasn't much of a smell.
I walked into the stall at the end of the bathroom, noticeably bigger than the rest, taking up the entire wall.
Unlike the other stalls where a thick plastic barrier blocked three sides, this stall was surrounded by three walls and only one barrier, which also included the door.
That meant I had a free corner I could use to sleep.
But just in case, I went back outside the stall, grabbed a few paper towels, and laid them side by side to keep me from fully sitting on the floor.
The 'sleep whenever I want' feature of the Sleeping System would be carrying me this time, since even I would have trouble naturally sleeping while leaning against a bathroom wall.
I sat down on the paper towels, still feeling the cold floor on my bottom.
I paused before raising my legs to my chest, curling myself into a ball, leaning back into the corner of the stall and closing my eyes.
What should I dream about today?
--<>--
A/N: Short chapter, but we're finally at 15k words! Woo hoo!
(This sore throat is lowkey killing me I can't even lie)