The pressures on Sakura weren't limited to her family or her Student Council duties. They also came from the highly competitive academic environment she inhabited, surrounded by peers aiming for the same top universities. This world was different from the general school population or my quieter circle of friends.
One day, I saw Sakura talking intensely with a male student I didn't recognize. They were near the top of the stairs, away from the main flow of students. He was tall, impeccably dressed in his uniform, and had an air of quiet confidence that bordered on arrogance. He wasn't smiling. He was looking at Sakura with a serious, almost challenging expression.
I was too far to overhear the words, but their body language suggested a serious, possibly tense, conversation. Sakura's posture was polite, but I saw that familiar subtle tension around her shoulders, the one that appeared when she was dealing with pressure.
As I watched, the male student glanced in my direction, his expression shifting from serious to a look of mild disdain or dismissal as his eyes swept over me. He then turned back to Sakura and said something, his gaze returning to hers, sharp and focused.
Sakura gave a small, almost imperceptible nod, her expression unreadable from my distance. The conversation ended shortly after, and the male student walked away, his posture straight and confident. Sakura remained standing there for a moment, looking thoughtful, before turning and walking in the opposite direction, her usual composed walk slightly slower than usual.
Later, I asked Kenji if he knew who that student was. I described him.
"Oh, that sounds like Ichiro Sato," Kenji said, immediately recognizing my description. "Third-year. One of the smartest guys in school. Always top of the class, aims for Todai. Part of the 'elite study group.' Why? Did he bother Sakura-san?"
Ichiro Sato. Not related to Akane Sato, I presumed, but the "Sato" name and the academic elite description fit the world of expectation. "Elite study group." That sounded exactly like the kind of circle Sakura would be in, or expected to be in.
"I just saw them talking," I said, not wanting to make a big deal out of it, but feeling a prickle of unease. He had looked at me as if I was irrelevant. And his conversation with Sakura seemed serious.
That evening, I was texting with Sakura. We were talking about our plans for the week.
Me: Saw you talking to Ichiro Sato today near the stairs? He seemed pretty serious. Sakura: (Pause) Sakura: Ah, him. 😊 Yeah, just talking about some study materials for an upcoming mock exam. He's very focused! 😉 Me: Sounded intense. Hope it wasn't stressful? Sakura: Just... standard academic pressure, Hiroshi! Nothing to worry about! 😊
Again, the casual dismissal, the cheerful emojis hiding something. It was the same way she had reacted to the Student Council pressure. She didn't want me to worry, didn't want me to see the full extent of the pressure she faced in these interactions.
But his look at me, that brief moment of disdain, felt significant. He represented a part of her world – the competitive, high-achieving academic environment – that saw me, average Hiroshi, as an outsider, perhaps even a potential negative influence on Sakura's path.
He hadn't just been talking to her about study materials. He had looked at me, then looked back at her with that intense expression, and said something. Was he questioning her? Was he suggesting that her relationship was a distraction?
The incident, though minor on the surface, felt like another layer of the external pressure on our relationship. It wasn't just her family, or the general public attention; it was also the specific scrutiny from peers in her high-stakes academic world. Peers who judged based on achievement and saw anything else as potentially detrimental.
I didn't bring it up again with Sakura. She was clearly trying to shield me from that part of her reality. But the image of Ichiro Sato's disdainful glance and his intense conversation with Sakura stayed with me.
Our real relationship wasn't just about us figuring things out together. It was about navigating a complex web of external expectations, pressures, and the judgments of people in Sakura's world. And I had a feeling that Ichiro Sato was just one face of that pressure, a face that saw me as a variable that didn't fit neatly into the equation of Sakura Yamato's path to expected perfection. And that was a daunting thought.