A New Masterpiece (COTE x OC)

Chapter 22 - Zodiac Exam (1)

The room was relatively empty once I stepped inside. It seemed to be an unused conference room, as there was a rather large table situated to the left side of the room with chairs surrounding it. Other than a select few couches to the opposite of the room, it was pretty plain.

Mashima-sensei was the only one present as he sat at the head of the conference table with a few papers in hand.

"You're quite early, Fukumoto," Mashima-sensei called out.

"I like to be prepared."

I took a seat near Mashima-sensei. The atmosphere in the room had grown quite awkward sitting with a teacher in silence.

"So," I spoke up. "When is this meeting going to start? Can we start sooner or..."

"No. We must wait." Mashima-sensei gave a quick and cold response.

"Oh... I see... Wait for the other group members, right?"

Mashima-sensei's face tightened for a quick second, but he soon regained his calm disposition.

"Indeed," he replied.

The awkward silence; once again filled the room as we waited for the other group members.

"May I ask a question?"

Seems like Mashima-sensei couldn't even handle this awkward silence too.

"If it's within my capabilities," I said.

"How did you know you had other group members?"

That's kind of a dumb question. It's pretty simple to figure out. But I guess, I must answer with some respect as he is a teacher.

"Well, it's quite simple. A few friends of mine had the same meeting time in the same room. So, I assumed that we would be meeting with fellow classmates. How many of them, I do not know. Besides, you can't simply meet with every student one-on-one. It would simply take too long."

"I see..." Mashima-sensei made no effort to continue this conversation. Lucky though, the door to the meeting room creaked open.

Mei-Yu Wang, otherwise known as Mii-chan, silently stepped into the room.

"Eh? Fukumoto-kun?"

Seems like Mii-chan was unaware that we would be partnering up with fellow classmates for this meeting. I was also slightly surprised at her appearance.

Mii-chan was an honor student with impeccable grades. I met her when I first enrolled in this school, but I haven't spoken with her since. She spent most of her time hanging around Kushida, from what I knew.

I offered a slight wave. "Hello, Mii-chan."

She took a seat right beside me. Mii-chan had only gotten here 5 minutes early, and Mashima-sensei made no move to start the meeting. Which probably meant we were still waiting for at least one more student.

The time had approached us, it was 18:40, and no one had shown up yet.

Mashima-sensei let out a sigh and motioned to start the meeting.

"I'm here!" A boy had swung the doors open to the conference room. "And just in the nick of time!"

From what I could remember, I believe this boy was Okitani Kyosuke. I didn't know much about this man or interact with him at all during our time at school. All I remember was that he was an eccentric person like Ike, but with grades similar to Yamauchi too. So not the sharpest tool in our class.

"Please, take a seat," Mashima-sensei urged Okitani with a frustrated tone.

Okitani, without any sense of urgency, took a seat directly across from me.