Mash-Up: I'm Not A Substitute

"Good morning, Kitahara-kun."

"Good morning."

"Kitahara-kun, you look handsome today as well."

"Thank you."

From the school gate to the classroom building, girls wearing pleated skirts and ribbon ties greeted Takashi one after another.

Takashi responded to each of them patiently.

When he opened his shoe locker to take out his indoor shoes, he found several pink envelopes inside.

Receiving love letters daily was something he had long gotten used to.

Without much thought, he stuffed the letters into his bag, changed into his indoor shoes, placed his sneakers inside the locker, and shut it.

As soon as he entered the classroom, Kota Tanaka and Shouta Otani lit up as if they'd spotted their savior.

"Takashi, hurry, let me borrow your math homework from yesterday."

"I need English."

Takashi walked to his seat, took out his math and English homework from his bag, and handed them over. 

Meanwhile, he opened a book titled 1001 Years of Spanish and started reading.

"How did you two even get into Aoba? Are you sure you didn't use connections?"

Shouta Otani snatched the math homework and, while copying, grumbled, "I didn't expect Aoba's classes to be this hard."

"Seriously though, we live in Japan, so why do we have to learn English?" Kota Tanaka complained as well.

"Because English is one of the six official languages of the United Nations," Takashi explained while turning a page, offering some casual trivia.

Ever since his intelligence had increased to 8, Takashi had noticed a significant improvement in his learning ability, memory, and comprehension.

Now, even multitasking was no issue for him.

"I know that," Kota Tanaka huffed. "What I mean is, I'm not even planning to go abroad, so why should I bother learning it?"

"Wasn't your dream to join Arsenal?"

"Ah, that was last semester's goal. Now my dream is to join Paris Saint-Germain."

Bringing up his new aspiration, Kota Tanaka became excited, and even his speed at copying homework increased.

Takashi glanced up from his book, curious. "Oh? Why the change?"

"PSG's owner wears a headscarf—he's loaded! And right now, they have Mbappé, the top player in world football. He's my idol."

Takashi almost blurted out, Says who?

Thankfully, he held it in.

Shouta Otani suddenly interjected, "You're being picky? You're still a substitute on the school soccer team, aren't you?"

Kota Tanaka was just getting into his fantasy, only to be rudely interrupted. Annoyed, he shot back, "The coach is already considering putting me in the starting lineup!"

"I'll already be a core player before that happens," Shouta Otani sneered.

The two had known each other since kindergarten.

Miraculously, they had been placed in the same class from elementary school all the way to high school. 

If one of them had been a girl, this would have been the perfect childhood friend setup—the kind where the heroine gets stolen by some sudden blonde rival.

Unfortunately, they were both guys. The best they could be was good buddies.

"And isn't your school's baseball team trash?" Kota Tanaka scoffed.

Aoba Private Academy boasted the highest university acceptance rate in Japan, but this came at the cost of an incredibly weak athletics department.

Over its hundred-year history, Aoba had produced countless politicians, entrepreneurs, and scientists, but it had never once won a national sports championship.

Their trophy cabinet was as empty as Tottenham Hotspur's.

Realizing this, Aoba had started recruiting athletes from other schools, but the results had been unimpressive.

Any high schooler serious about sports would prioritize powerhouses like Sendai Ikuei, Yamanashi Gakuin, or Ikuei High over Aoba.

Shouta Otani shot back, "Even if we suck, I'm still a starter. Unlike someone who can't even make the main lineup."

"And what level is your baseball team at compared to our soccer team?"

Kota Tanaka smirked. "We made it to the top 64 last time. You guys didn't even qualify for Koshien, so why are you barking?"

Shouta Otani narrowed his eyes. "You wanna fight?"

Kota Tanaka threw down his pen. "Let's settle this with a duel, man to man!"

They locked eyes for a moment before, in perfect sync, pulling out their Yu-Gi-Oh! cards from their bags.

Takashi ignored the two idiots, keeping his focus on his book.

…

Sakakino Academy

As soon as the language teacher announced the end of class, the noise in Class 1-4 erupted.

Kotonoha immediately stood up, clutching her lunchbox, and headed for the rooftop.

Ever since she had met Saionji Sekai and Ito Makoto, she had stopped eating lunch in the classroom.

Because she had no friends in this class.

Japan placed great emphasis on "group mentality."

In their subconscious, everyone was expected to belong to some group.

The size of the group didn't matter, but being alone was unacceptable.

They believed that individual power was insignificant; only by belonging to and integrating into a collective could one shine and achieve greater potential.

To them, a person should never be detached from a group.

And so, even though Kotonoha was beautiful, she was still the one ostracized by the entire class.

Being in this classroom was suffocating for her.

"Katsura-san!"

Just as she was stepping out of the classroom, someone called out to her.

Kotonoha flinched at the voice.

She recognized it immediately.

It was none other than one of the girls from the small clique that frequently bullied her.

With no friends in the class, no one would stand up for her, even if she was being bullied.

Even if she reported it to the teacher, it wouldn't necessarily help.

A teacher might intervene once or twice, but if it happened too often, they would just get annoyed.

Not every teacher was like Hiratsuka Shizuka—someone who actually cared and wasn't afraid of trouble.

Kotonoha had no choice but to stop and slightly turn her head toward Obuchi Minami.

"W-What is it?"

"My family has something going on today. Can you clean the classroom for me?"

Though she was asking for a favor, Obuchi Minami's tone had no trace of politeness.

Kotonoha: "..."

Liar!

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Check out the other translations too: [Mash-Up: Anything For Money]

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