Because Noona Is My Girl
The Azztelia Empire's premier educational institution was Fontaine de Granita — known to all simply as Granita Academy.
It was a place where the empire's most gifted students gathered: children of noble houses seated beside prodigies born of common blood. Swordsmanship and magic, naturally, but also most of the empire's great disciplines — politics, alchemy, history — could all be studied here at Granita. And with that came competition of a matching intensity.
Above all, the rivalry between the Swordsmanship Department and the Magic Department bordered on the absurd. Which was stronger — the blade, or sorcery? It was an age-old argument that had smoldered for decades, ever since the academy's founding.
A week had slipped by, and I was already a student of this Granita. Everything had felt foreign at first, but a few days in, I'd grown more or less used to academy life. And in that time, there was someone I'd crossed paths with more than once.
"Sharve."
I turned my head at the voice beside me. Silver hair, a composed expression, and a posture that never once slipped out of line.
Granita Academy's Student Council President and the finest prodigy of the Magic Department — Lois White.
I imagine just about every male student at this academy had dreamed, at least once, of dating her. I was no exception. Because I'd fallen for her at first sight.
"Why are you staring at me like that?"
"It's nothing."
"Tch, liar."
Lois grumbled, pushing her lips out a little. Even for someone like me, Lois White was a tricky person to handle — she quietly kept her walls up, and then, every so often, went and knocked one down herself.
"Student council work again today?"
"Yes. It's a bit busy."
My eyes drifted to the stack of documents cradled in her arms — enough to make me wonder when she'd ever get through it all.
"Shall I help you, then?"
"You, Sharve?"
Lois stopped mid-stride and turned.
"Yes."
She stared straight at me. Those eyes, unreadable and yet impossibly deep, settled on my face, and my heart itched for no reason at all.
"Why?"
"You just… seemed like you were struggling?"
I let the sentence trail off and stole a glance at her, pouring every ounce of earnestness I had into my eyes. Please. Just let me help. But the Iron-wall Woman before me was unmoved.
"I'm fine. I can manage this much on my own."
"Ah…"
My shoulders slumped on the spot. Unable to hide how deflated I felt, I kicked aimlessly at the bare floor with the tip of my shoe. Lois blinked, then let out a small laugh.
"You really are a strange one, Sharve."
"In what way…?"
"You keep following me around."
Arms piled high with paperwork, Lois stepped in close, right in front of me. The eyes looking up at me were strikingly direct.
"By the way, Sharve."
"Yes?"
"Why are you so good to me?"
"…"
It was an unexpected question. I turned it over for a moment, but honestly, there wasn't much to it. I'd simply been drawn to her. She was different from everyone else — and that difference made me want to be a little closer. And yet, when it came time to actually say it, strangely enough, the words wouldn't come.
"Well, it's just…"
I stole a quick look at her.
"You're pretty, Lois?"
Lois froze for a beat, then managed to speak.
"You — you can just say that, like it's nothing?"
"It's a compliment."
"Still…"
Lois turned her head slightly away. Her ears looked a touch red.
'…Huh?'
Her reaction set my heart racing for no good reason. Lois held my gaze for a moment, then looked away without a word.
"…Why?"
"It's nothing."
She started walking again — though her pace had picked up ever so slightly from before. I watched her go and smiled to myself.
"Aren't you coming?"
"What?"
Lois looked back at me and smiled.
"You said you wanted to come with me, didn't you?"
"…Ah."
I was struck speechless for a moment — I truly hadn't seen that coming.
"If you'd rather not, then…"
"As if I'd say no."
"Pfft. Hurry up, then."
A short while later — the Student Council President's Office.
"Here, let me carry that."
"No, I can manage."
"Really? These arms aren't just for show, you know?"
"…"
Lois's face was gradually turning red.
"Then take it, already."
"Hm? Sorry, I can't quite hear you~"
I played dumb and needled her. Lois shot me a sidelong glare.
"…You heard me perfectly."
"Could you say it just one more time?"
And then she looked away again.
"Take it for me, please…"
"Okay. Gladly."
Something about the way she asked while dodging my eyes was so adorable that a laugh slipped out of me unbidden.
"Whoa — hold on. This thing is heav—"
The stack was heavier than it looked, and my balance gave out for a second.
Thud.
"…"
"…"
Lois stared down at me, sprawled across the floor. I could see her swallowing her anger one gulp at a time.
"Haah… just sit over there and wait, please…"
"Okay…"
A little later.
"Um, Lois…?"
"I promise I won't mess anything up, I'll do a really good jo—"
"Sit."
"Yes, ma'am."
She had shot down my help with surgical precision. Feeling awkward, I rocked my chair back and forth for a while, then even tried sitting tall and dignified, imitating a proper student council president for good measure. Perhaps she noticed the performance, because the corner of Lois's mouth was slowly curling upward.
"Ha — you're smiling."
"…I am not."
"Are too~ You definitely smiled~"
"Pfft."
Watching my reaction, Lois finally broke into laughter. She laughed for a good while before at last she opened her mouth.
"Sharve… do you like me that much?"
"…I'm sorry, what?"
She asked as she drew slowly closer.
"You've been trailing after me for days now. You keep trying to sneak in a handhold."
"Well, you never actually managed it…"
"When did I—"
"Anyway."
Lois bent at the waist to bring herself to my eye level.
"…A little pipsqueak, always underfoot."
"I'm taller than you, though…"
"And yet you act like a child."
"What?! I am being perfectly serious right now!"
Lois snorted at my protest, laughing yet again.
"Fine, fine. I get it, I get it."
"You're honestly so cute I could die."
With that, she gave my cheek a light pinch. It was the first time I'd ever felt her touch — impossibly soft, impossibly warm.
"Come again tomorrow, all right?"
"You will, won't you?"
I nodded, carefully.
The next afternoon, I presented myself at the Student Council President's Office once more, exactly as Lois had asked.
"Oh, Sharve, you're here?"
"Yes."
I shut the door and stepped inside. Something about the air was different from yesterday. Lois seemed a touch brighter than usual, somehow.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I'm not. It's just…"
I looked away as I went on.
"You seem to be in a rather good mood today…"
Lois stifled a laugh and turned a page of her documents. Something in that laugh made me want to laugh too.
"So, what am I doing today? I'm truly confident in my strength!"
For no particular reason, I puffed up muscles I did not have.
"Please. There's nothing there."
"There is too! I can handle a sword well enough, you know…"
"Uh-huh. Good for you."
Lois said, wrestling down a laugh that kept escaping. Curiosity got the better of me, and I pushed my luck.
"Not like that."
"Can't I get a proper compliment?"
"…"
Silence hung in the office for a moment.
Pat…
"O-okay. Our Sharve is very good with a sword, and so wonderfully diligent…"
Lois began stroking the head of the young man seated beside her — at a speed neither fast nor slow, the way one might handle a puppy.
"…Is that enough now?"
It was not nearly enough for me. It felt like a little more of this would be just fine, so I kept my eyes closed.
"Goodness, honestly…"
Swish. Swish.
"…This is nice."
The moment the murmur left my mouth, the red in Lois's face became impossible to miss.
"W-what are you even saying…"
She pulled her hand away and busied herself pretending to straighten her stack of papers. I snorted at the sight.
"Why are you so embarrassed?"
"I am not embarrassed."
Her earlobes turned a shade redder.
"I never imagined our Student Council President had such a cute side to her."
I said it while fighting back another laugh.
"C-cute? Who's cute?!"
"Honestly, how embarrassing…"
Lois buried her flushed face in both hands, and the sight wrung one more laugh out of me before I could stop it.
"Hm? Why are you hiding?"
"Lois, come on. Let me see your face. I want to look at it."
I leaned down, angling for a glimpse of her bowed head as I kept at her.
"Seriously, don't…"
"Okay, okay. I'll stop teasing."
Slowly, Lois began to lower her hands.
"You promise?"
"Yes. Promise."
I slyly extended my pinky finger.
"…That doesn't count."
"Yes, ma'am…"
But this woman — perceptive as she was, she was simply too perceptive.
"Aaah~ it's finally all done."
Lois stretched and kneaded the stiffness out of her shoulders.
"Good work today, Lois."
"Hehe, it's all thanks to your help, Sharve."
Just then, the cherry trees in full bloom outside the window caught my eye.
"You know, the flowers have already come out."
When I pointed, Lois followed my gaze to the window.
"They have. They seem to have bloomed unusually early this year."
She gazed out for a moment, then turned back toward me.
"Oh, that's right. Sharve."
"Yes?"
"Do you have time tomorrow, too?"
"I always have time. Is something the matter?"
"Well…"
Her lips wavered, and then she spoke again.
"Want to go see them together tomorrow? The cherry blossoms."
Come see the cherry blossoms with me. That one sentence carried a great deal of weight.
I want to walk beside you.
I want to spend more time with you.
I want a little while that belongs to just us two.
Any living soul, asked by someone of the opposite sex to go view flowers together, would be flustered at minimum. But I — Sharve Seynova — was different. I was a man well accustomed to this sort of situation.
Except that—
In that instant, my mind went blindingly white.
'What did Lois just say to me…?'
'Cherry blossoms? With me?'
'Just the two of us… ?!?!?'
My head had gone, quite literally, into a state of emergency. That 'Lois White,' admired by every soul at Granita Academy — asking me out? And the two of us alone? I daresay even any Northern Grand Duke of Azztelia would have panicked in that moment.
"Sharve?"
Perhaps my silence had flustered her as well — Lois called my name, careful and quiet.
"Y-yes? Me?"
"Yes. Who else would I mean?"
Lois tilted her head slightly, and I jerked my eyes away.
This was bad. The usual me would have known exactly what to say in a situation like this. Right now, nothing would come. No — the problem was that far too much was coming all at once.
'Is this a date invitation?'
'No, hold on. It could genuinely just be about seeing the blossoms.'
'Then why me, of all people?'
"Sharve? Hello?"
"Ah — yes!"
I jolted upright, and Lois was still watching me, unblinking.
"Do you not want to go see the flowers with me?"
"No, that's—"
I hesitated. I was afraid that one strange answer would make her look at me like something out of the ordinary. But in the end, I made myself be brave.
"…I'd love to."
"Let's go see them. …With you."
Lois's lips curved faintly at my answer.
"Good."
"See you tomorrow, then?"
"You promise?"
So saying, she held her pinky out toward me. I'd failed earlier — but this time, it was Lois offering her hand first.
"…Yes. I promise."
Carefully, I hooked my pinky around hers. The instant our fingertips touched, my heart gave one huge, uncalled-for thump.
It was a promise over nothing at all. All it meant was that we'd go see the cherry blossoms together tomorrow. And yet, somehow, a warm, fluttering feeling was rising in my chest.
"How about around lunchtime tomorrow?"
"Sounds perfect."
"It'd be uncomfortable with too many people about, so let's go to the academy's rear garden."
"So it'll be just the two of us looking?"
The words slipped out unbidden, and Lois blinked slowly.
"…I'm sorry?"
"Ah."
I averted my eyes at once.
"No, that's not — I only meant… with a crowd there, we wouldn't get a proper look at the blossoms…"
Lois laughed under her breath.
"I see."
"What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing… you're just especially cute today, Sharve."
"…"
This time it was I who lost my words. Not a moment ago, I'd been the one teasing Lois — and in a single breath, the tables had turned completely.
"I'll, um — I'll head on out first."
I rose from my seat with entirely unnecessary haste.
"Yes. Get home safely."
I had just opened the door to the student council room and stepped into the corridor when Lois's voice came from behind me.
"Sharve."
"Yes?"
"You mustn't be late tomorrow."
She was leaning against her desk, watching me.
"I won't be late."
"Really?"
I smiled, full of confidence.
"I make a point of keeping my promises."
"Pfft. Then I'll believe you."
The door closed — and I was still standing there in the corridor.
"Ughhhh…"
Before I knew what I was doing, I'd buried my face in both hands. What had I just said? No — more than that, Lois had been the one to invite me to see the cherry blossoms. And the two of us, alone.
"This is a date, isn't it…"
The moment I murmured it, I felt my face begin to burn. The me who could normally read anyone's heart from a single shift in their expression could not, for the life of him, manage his own.
Out of the student council room, I walked on for a while, staring blankly at nothing. The words let's see the cherry blossoms. The moment our pinkies had linked. The more of them I turned over, the faster my heart beat for no reason whatsoever.
At last, I let out a small sigh and murmured.
"I'm in real trouble."
After a long silence, I covered my already burning face with one hand.
"I think I really, truly like her…"