▃▃▃▃▃ "who does he think he is?"

"honestly! look how frugal he is. he looks even worse than the servants at my home", another chuckled, to which etsuko just tried her best to ignore the comments as she took a seat at the very front of the exam room.

     the girl had her hair trimmed to neck length as it made her seem more like a boy since she practically already dressed like one.

however, what she didn't expect was for the majority of the people to be filthy rich, with families that served the emperor.

     nevertheless, etsuko sighed a breath of relief as she managed to get everything settled.

     in her neighborhood, there was a kind woman who promised to look after her mother while etsuko took the school exam.

     hence how she was able to arrive here without any worries.

"alright everyone. I'm your examiner, takeda ittetsu, for today. and also hopefully your future literature instructor.

now if you have any questions, please ask now, or you will not be able to once the exam starts".

the smiling male glanced around the class, only to witness one shaky hand stretching up into the air.

"yes?"

"u-umm....s-so where's the paper and brush...?", etsuko croaked out, to which quite a few had snickered, making the girl's face burn red.

"ah, since it's our first year opening, we apologize for not having the items arrive on time. there seemed to be a bit of delay", the examiner announced.

     "but we did send out a notice for everyone to bring their own supplies. did you perhaps not receive it?"

     etsuko pouted, embarrassingly looking down at her own twiddling thumbs.

     'even if I did receive the notice, I wouldn't have be able to afford it anyways', was what the girl had wanted to say.

     "takeda-sensei, I assume that some of us—oh wait, only one of us don't have the money to buy the supplies. pity, what a pity", a male with dark green hair and slanted eyes mocked.

"tch. at least I don't look like a snake", etsuko quietly spat, though everyone near had heard it.

"hah?! what'd you say? why don't you say it louder for me huh?!"

"pft! I must say, daishō, for a noble, you're quite easy to aggravate", another male, who was sitting beside etsuko, chimed in.

     "shut up kuroo! this is none of your business!", daishō, who etsuko had deemed as snake boy, scowled.

     "oh? but I'm nosy. plus, I've got extra utensils for this little kitten to borrow", kuroo grinned as he gave a brush, an extra ink stone, and some pages to the girl.

     etsuko immediately turned to the bed-head male, who wore a proud smirk.

     "t-thank you kuroo-san! I'll remember to repay you in the future!!", the girl smiled as she saw takeda-sensei sweating bullets.

     "relax~ we'll see about that; it depends if you can even make it past this exam", the male smoothly replied as he turned back to the front.

     "a-anyways...now that everyone's settled down. let's officially begin the exam".

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     everyone waited anxiously as takeda-sensei graded the papers one by one.

     though it had taken a while, it didn't seem that anyone had minded, as they all wanted the results immediately.

     "pst! hey!"

     etsuko's head suddenly jolted upwards as she looked around her, finding the so-called bed-head, kuroo, whispering at her.

     "h-huh me?", the girl asked, pointing at herself and receiving a nod.

     kuroo leaned against the palm of his hand, with his elbow propped up against the table.

     "say, what's your name? I'm kuroo tetsurō", the boy introduced with his infamous grin.

     "I'm haru etsuko", the girl smiled.

     "etsuko for a first name's quite feminine don't you think?", the male teased.

     "o-oh! well, before I was born, my mother really wanted a girl...so...so she gave me a more girly name", etsuko lied, to which kuroo begrudgingly accepted the girl's sorry excuse of a lie.

      "hm~ why're you here anyways? I thought most peasants became farmers or merchants", kuroo teased, to which etsuko had frowned and huffed, turning away from the male.

she thought that he was different, but she was wrong. all nobles are the same after all.

"pst! hey! I was just kidding haru-chan. it's just how my personality is", kuroo mumbled, to which etsuko had squinted her eyes before turning her head back around.

"I'm here because I need a diploma", etsuko answered, leaving out her other reason as she wasn't close to kuroo at all, yet.

"oh? is that so?"

"mhm. how about you?"

"I'm...I'm here for—"

"ahem! thank you all for patiently waiting through this process, and thank you all for participating in this exam.

however, we are only allowed to accept the top 20 students for this very first year.

now, I will proceed to call out the names of the students that have passed the exam. if you have any questions, you may ask me after", takeda-sensei said as he cleared his throat.

"first, we have daishō suguru from nohebi academy".

etsuko watched as the snake boy widely grinned, shooting her a mocking look as he was the first to pass.

"next, we have oikawa tōru and iwaizumi hajime from aobo johsai".

the brown-haired girl watched as a male with chocolate-brown hair that was swept outwards tried to high-five his friend, who had on a scowl as he ignored the boy's annoying calls of "iwa-chan~".

     "next, we have bokuto kōtarō and akaashi keiji from fukurōdani".

     "AW YEAH!!", a loud boy with white hair and black streaks mixed within smiled, wringing his arms around a more quiet male with slightly messy black hair.

     "next we have kuroo tetsurō and kozume kenma from nekoma".

     etsuko looked over at kuroo and mouthed a soft "congratulations" to the boy, who just smiled as thanks.

     "then we have tsukishima kei, yamaguchi tadashi, sawamura daichi, sugawara kōshi, and azumane asahi from karasuno".

     etsuko didn't bother looking around anymore as she started counting how many spots were left.

     "then there's shirabu kenjirō, semi eita, and goshiki tsutomu from shiratorizawa".

     a bowl-cut boy with a copper-haired boy—who's bangs were cut very oddly—glared at each other as takeda continued reading off his list.

     "and finally, we have suna rintarō, miya atsumu, miya osamu, and kita shinsuke from inarizaki!"

     etsuko felt her entire being shrivel up as she wondered why her name wasn't called. the girl had thought that the exam was fairly reasonable and that she did pretty well.

"heh! seems like little peasant boy over here didn't make it in", daishō teased, to which etsuko had curled up into a ball as she became a literal egg.

"huh? we don't know that yet. takeda-sensei's only announced 19 people so far", kuroo rebutted, to which the girl's head had hastily flopped up, staring intensely at the man sitting in front.

"o-oh right! my apologies, it seems that I did forget to call someone's name out. thanks for the reminder kuroo-san", the man smiled as he cleared his throat once more.

"and the last person to be admitted into the academy of elites is...

haru etsuko!"

daishō's jaw dropped as etsuko held in a squeal. as everyone stood up to leave, the girl immediately went over to kuroo to shake his hand.

"thank you kuroo-san!! if it weren't for you today, I wouldn't even be here right now!!"

the boy just laughed, shrugging it off. "I suppose from now on we'll be classmates then".

etsuko nodded with determination.

"I look forward to learning with you, kuroo-san!"

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セレンディピティ
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