In fact he hadn't heard good things about Shogo. There was a rumor that he'd been a notorious thug at his last school and that his hospitalization was a result of a fight. To support this rumor, his body was covered with scars. A long scar from what appeared to be a knife wound ran over his left brow, and when they changed in the gym lockers (this was besides the point, but Kawada's body was built like a middleweight boxer's), Shuya was shocked to find the same kind of scars covering his arms and back. There were two round scars next to each other on his left shoulder. They looked like gunshot wounds, but that was unbelievable.

Every time he heard these rumors about Shogo, someone would inevitably suggest, "He's probably going to end up fighting Kazuo." Right after Shogo transferred to their school that fool Ryuhei Sasagawa tried to intimidate Shogo. The exact details of what followed were only hearsay, but apparently Ryuhei turned pale, retreated, and went crying for help from Kazuo. Kazuo looked indifferent though, and only glanced at Ryuhei. He didn't even say a word to Shogo. So at least for the time being they'd managed to avoid a confrontation. Kazuo didn't seem interested in Shogo. Shogo didn't seem interested in Kazuo. As a result Class B remained peaceful. They lucked out.

Everybody avoided Shogo because of his age difference and the rumors. But Shuya didn't like judging people on rumors. Someone once said, if you could see for yourself then there'd be no need to lend an ear to what others said.

Shuya pointed his chin past Noriko toward Shogo. "I wonder if he's sleeping."

"Hmm..." She glanced over at Shogo. "I didn't want to wake him up."

"He doesn't look like the type who's into cookies anyway."