I’m Back in the First Grade of Elementary School, so I’m Going to Live Well

“Clothing is good, ――homework is good, ――school bag is good.”

Today is the first day of September.

The long and short summer vacation was over, and the first day of school was finally here.

I was doing final checks at the entrance.

I was wearing simple jeans and short sleeves and carrying a black school bag.

How long has it been since I’ve carried a school bag?

It’s not easy to carry a school bag when you’re 28 years old.

I’m old enough to look good in a school bag, but I can’t deny that I’m embarrassed.

But if I had to worry about that, I wouldn’t be able to live the life of a first grader.

I’m going to enjoy my first grade school life even if I have to throw away my shame!

That’s why I’ve been working hard on my physical fitness and studying until today.

Thanks to this, my physical strength and brains are very different from the early me.

I’ve got everything I need to be popular in class (except for my communication skills), now all I need is a real fight!

――I feel confident, but in reality, I’m also worried.

Friendship is a complicated thing.

There’s no way to be sure that you’ll be able to make friends with someone just because they’re athletic or good at their studies.

Besides, I’ve been a loner my whole life, how can I expect to make friends out of nowhere?

Just because I have a second life doesn’t mean my personality will change.

I’m still the same person who’s living my first life.

Maybe I’ll make the same mistakes again.

No, on the contrary, it will be worse than my first life…  

Once you have a negative thought, bad thoughts come to your mind one after another.

To wipe away the anxiety, I put up a false front in my mind.

Anxiety and anticipation.

My heart is beating faster for two reasons.

“Don’t worry… I’ll be fine… I’ll have 100 friends.”

Muttering to myself, I put my hand on the handle of the front door.

Then I took two deep breaths.

With determination, I open the front door.

◆

It was a five-minute walk from my house.

Tsukiyama Elementary School stands tall at the end of a residential area.

It has about 1,000 students and was established 30 years ago this year. It’s a normal elementary school with no special features that I need to explain.

Such a nondescript elementary school.

I pass through the school gate and stop in front of the door of my classroom, class 1, year 3.

This is where I decide whether my school life will be gray or rose-colored.

Sweat beaded from my forehead and dripped down my cheeks, either from the heat or from nervousness.

Before I stood in front of the door, my anticipation and anxiety had been evenly balanced, but now my anxiety was growing.

My hand on the handle of the door is trembling slightly.

Self-deprecation no longer has any effect.

I don’t have enough time left to put up a pretense.

The only thing I can do now is to open the door with my will.

I don’t want to rely on mentalism at this point, but now that I don’t have the luxury of time, all I can rely on is my guts.

“―――……!”

I opened the door to the classroom with all my might.

In the crowded classroom, the sound of me opening the door is easily drowned out and no one even looks at the door.

Even though I’m not being watched, I enter the room with a crunchy walk that unconsciously makes my body tense up and seems to have a “whine, whine” sound effect.

Fortunately, there was a seating chart on the blackboard, and after checking my seat on the blackboard, I walked robotically to my seat.

I pulled out my chair with a motion like a frame feed and settled down.

L-L-L-Let’s just calm down for now.

I took my second deep breath of the day and calmed myself down.

This helps me to relax a little, and my thoughts become more coherent.

Many children have already arrived at the classroom, and they are all gathered in groups of good friends, talking about their summer vacation.

I don’t belong to any of these groups.

I’m sitting alone in my seat.

It seems that I’ve been an outcast since then… 

I can’t help but feel a sense of alienation when everyone around me seems to be having fun.

But that’s what I’ve always known.

――What I have to do here.

What I need to do here is to find my friends.

And by friends, I mean the same kind of people, the loner like me.

I’ll start with one person, then two, and gradually expand my network of contacts, eventually building a large circle of friends.

That’s my strategy.

… But the world doesn’t always work out.

Now, let’s find a buddy.

With that in mind, I looked around.

……

…………

……………… 

There’s no loner here but me!

This is completely unexpected.

I didn’t think there would be anyone other than me who was a loner!

My plan was based on the assumption that I had a fellow loner, so if that’s not the case, this plan won’t work…!

The biggest problem is my lack of forethought in assuming that.

But then again, there usually are! Loner!

There must be two or three loners in a class, but they don’t exist in this classroom.

It’s a good thing that everyone in the class gets along well and no one is left out.

… Except me.

I’m not sure what to do now this happened… 

The hurdles are high, but the higher the hurdle, the greater the gain.

A high-risk, high-return challenge.

This is the only thing I have left to do.

Join a group!

It takes a lot of determination to jump into a group that has already been formed, but if we just waste time here, nothing will get done.

First, let’s find out what the group is up to.

As far as the girls are concerned, they are almost all in one group.

More than a dozen girls are sitting around a desk, forming a circle and having a good time.

Well, there’s no way I can fit in there.

I’m not brave enough to go on a suicide mission alone in a group of more than ten girls.

And I don’t think such a brave person exists.

I knew that the first person I would talk to would be a boy of the same sex.

Once I decided that it was impossible, I gave up early and turned my attention to the boys.

There are four or five of them here, forming several groups.

I might be able to talk to one of the groups.

No, that’s not a possibility. I have to do this!

I stared at the group of boys and examined them carefully to see if they were the right group to talk to first.

I knew that the group I should make my first move with should be a relatively calm one.

It would be out of place to suddenly join a group that is all about sports.

If it’s… then… that group.

I set my sights on one group.

While many of my classmates seemed to be full of energy, only that group was chatting and laughing in a relatively calm manner.

Even though I have no communicative ability, I think I can fit in here.

Okay, let’s go!

Don’t worry, I’ve done a lot of work for this day.

I’ve studied hard, practiced how to say hello, practiced how to be frank, and thought of more than a thousand words to say first.

I’m fully prepared. All green!

No problem!

Besides, elementary school kids are simple people.

Once you talk to them and play with them for a while, they become your friends.

Compared to junior high and high school, the bar for making friends is lower.

All you have to do is talk to them and become their friend.

It’s that easy. It’s very easy.

I can go! I’m going!

My hips are already out of the chair and I’m ready to charge into the group.

All I need is a little courage…!

The moment I gathered up what little courage I had left and tried to move forward.

“Good morning, Itosaki-kun.”

I was suddenly approached by a female student.

“Yes! Pah, ha, yesh!”

I let out a strange scream.

H-How embarrassing… 

I-I had no idea that there was a girl who was willing to talk to me.

Surprised, I looked at the face of the girl who appeared in front of me.

She had shoulder-length semi-long hair and skin as pale as fresh snow. Her innocent face had a hint of maturity in it, and the gentle smile she gave me was too mature to be that of a first grader.

It was about 20 years ago, but I remember this girl.

I believe her name was Mizui Hime.

She is popular with both men and women because she can talk to anyone in a friendly manner, which seems to be an old-fashioned setting in romance novels, but in reality, there are not many people like her.

She is a strong communicator, which is the opposite of me who is a loner.

We were in the same class all through elementary school, which made a strong impression on me, but more than anything, her mature personality, which was not typical of elementary school, was deeply etched in my memory.

Her presence among the elementary school students was distinctly different from the others.

The way she behaved was also somewhat elegant, maybe she was a young lady from a good family.

“It’s been a while.”

“Y-Y-Yes.”

I was so flustered that I spoke in one language.

It was unexpected, but it was also an opportunity.

After all, she had taken the trouble to talk to me.

If I can expand the conversation from here and get to know them to some extent, it is possible to form a personal network from there.

Anyway, just talk to them and expand the conversation!

Here, it would be appropriate to ask, “How is was your summer vacation going?”. Just say seven words.

It’s just seven words, say it!

“… How is “Pim-pom-pam-pom””

The school bell rings mercilessly.

“I’m going to sit down now that the bell has rung.”

“Ah, uh… yeah.”

It was the first time I had heard the school bell in ten years, and it made me want to kill myself.

Why are you doing this to me, bell?

The first step of the first day of school.

All I got out of it was a few words with one of the girls.

A good result… It’s hard to say.