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Heizou hated group projects. For some reason, it seemed his teachers were always out to get him, matching him with the least compatible classmates in order to make his life as miserable as possible. Like that one time he got paired with Itto in Chemistry class and had to explain to the guy at least a dozen times that, no, a substance in the liquid phase doesn’t just “grow out of it if you give it a couple years”. Or that other time he got paired with Sayu in History class and had to bring her a tray of onigiri just to persuade her to stay awake for more than five minutes…
But maybe, just maybe, this group project would be different. The assignment—for Business Technology class—was to create and present a short lesson about a select digital literacy topic. The project boded well for Heizou for a number of reasons. First, he loved giving educational presentations, especially if it meant equipping other people with the knowledge to protect themselves against crime. Secondly, this project was the final assessment before the summer holidays, so he was feeling extra motivated to end on a high note. And to top it all off, Kujou-sensei had actually paired him with someone bearable for once. Someone great, even.
“Heizou, Kazuha— You’re up next.”
Kazuha was the first to stand. He gracefully made his way to the front of the room, his footsteps quiet like snowflakes. Picking up the remote control, he promptly froze the projector so that he could log in to his account to retrieve the slideshow. Heizou followed close behind, carrying a thin manila folder at his side. The folder was more for professional appearances than for any real practical purpose. In fact, there was hardly a helpful note inside—just some blank sheets of paper and a barely legible shopping list leftover from the previous week.
Several days prior, the two partners had agreed to split the work fifty-fifty: Kazuha would prepare the slides, then Heizou would lead the live session in class. Under normal circumstances, Heizou would have tried to rehearse the presentation at least once or twice before the real deal. However, this past week had left him drowning in end-of-year Forensic Science Club activities, depriving him of any opportunity to review the slides ahead of time.
He was going to have to tackle this one blind.
Thankfully, Heizou was confident in his improvisation skills, and even more so in Kazuha’s work ethic. There was no doubt in his mind everything was going to turn out just fine.
“Ready when you are,” Kazuha said, unfreezing the projector to reveal a bold yet elegant title slide.
Heizou nodded, then cleared his throat.
“Welcome, all, to our brief training, ‘Cybersecurity 101: Avoiding the Bait’. The goal of this session is to equip you with the knowledge and skills to safely navigate today’s increasingly digital world.”
Next slide, Heizou instructed in his mind. As if hearing his request, Kazuha tapped the remote, toggling the screen to a graphic of a young character surrounded by multiple devices. Heizou continued:
“We live in a time where the internet—all wealth of information—is at our fingertips. The level of access we possess is a tremendous privilege, but… With great power also comes great responsibility. It is vital that we acknowledge: not everyone we come across online will have our best intentions in mind. As digital citizens, it is our duty to stay informed, and stay alert.”
Next slide.
“Here are some of the key terms you’ll want to be aware of. First up: ‘social engineering’. As fancy as it might sound, this term just means, broadly, the practices that bad actors use to deceive and manipulate others into sharing confidential information, which they can then use to commit fraud. One of the most common social engineering tactics is phishing; we’ll talk more about that later. For now, let’s move on to our next word…”
Heizou proceeded to explain the term “malware”, followed by “ransomware”, “authentication”, “encryption”, and eventually “phishing”. Considering his lack of rehearsal, he was lucky he already knew these concepts like the back of his hand.
Next slide.
“When it comes to phishing, always be on the lookout for these common warning signs,” Heizou noted, gesturing to a bulleted list on the screen. He took a minute to discuss each point, doing his best to inject some energy and humor along the way. At least his efforts seemed to be paying off; most of the couple dozen students in the room appeared to still be paying attention.
Next slide.
“Ah, it’s time to put our knowledge into action! Take a moment to review this sample email. What is your assessment of the message? How would you respond if this email landed in your inbox?”
From: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, May 10
Subject: Here’s your 100K Mora club award!
Hello! Our administrative team is impressed by the work your club has accomplished this year. In recognition of your outstanding contributions to our school, we would like to present you with an award of 100,000 Mora, which you can use to further the goals of your club.
Click here to claim your award!
“So, what do you all think? Feel free to call out your answer; no hand-raising required.”
"The message should be reported as phishing,” Ayato asserted from the back of the room.
“Right on! This email certainly smells 'phishy'. But why? What are some of the red flags that cue us into the probable malintent?”
“Well, first off,” Itto blurted out, “there’s no freaking way Vice Principal Yae would email an ordinary student like you so casually like that. I mean, come on, surely the administrators have more important things to do with their time, right?!”
Heizou could feel his eyebrow twitching. What did Itto mean, just 'an ordinary student' like him?!
“I agree,” Kokomi chimed in. “In fact, although the message looks like it’s coming from Vice Principal Yae Miko, if we examine it more closely, the address actually reads ‘dot com’ instead of ‘dot ee dee u’."
“Plus, they’re trying to lure you into clicking a link!” Yoimiya added. “The reward seems way too good to be true."
“Ah, these are all excellent points. I couldn’t have put them any better myself! It appears we might have some cybersecurity gurus in our midst,” Heizou commented enthusiastically. “Okay, on to the next slide.”
The screen flipped almost instantaneously, revealing a second sample email.
“Here we go with another practice scenario. Just like before, take a moment to review the email, then decide: What would you do if you received this one?”
From: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, May 12
Subject: A small request
“Little deer prances,
Heart beating steady and true,
Rouses maple leaves.”
Dear Heizou,
If I give you my number… will you indulge me in a call?
If Heizou hadn't regretted going into this presentation blindly before, now he definitely did. Before he could even finish skimming the message, his cheeks flushed a bright red, and his legs began to quake beneath him. He could feel something catch in his throat. Was it nervousness? Embarrassment? Glee? Possibly a combination of all three?
A couple gasps floated across the room, along with a hushed murmur. Heizou resisted the urge to eavesdrop, simultaneously craving and dreading to know what other people were thinking.
He inhaled deeply, commanding himself to refocus. But no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t seem to eliminate the audible tremor in his voice.
“S-so, what do you all think? Real, or fake?”
The atmosphere in the classroom was suffocating. Heizou’s fingers tapped anxiously against his thigh as he awaited a response from the audience. Someone just answer the question already, please!
“Seems legit to me,” Sayu finally said with a yawn.
“Indeed,” Thoma weighed in. “The message is from a proper school address, and it doesn’t contain any suspicious links.”
“Besides, it’s hard to imagine any scammer being able to replicate Kazuha’s poetic mastery like that,” Gorou remarked. “He is this year’s winner of the Raiden Principal Literature Award, after all.”
Heizou glanced at Kazuha out of the corner of his eye, hoping to catch some kind of reaction from his partner—really any reaction at all. But the white-haired poet remained calm and collected as ever, giving nothing away.
Ayaka spoke up next: “If you and the supposed sender are acquainted, it might be best to ask that person face-to-face. You know, to make sure it was truly they who wrote the message, rather than some bad actor who managed to hack into their account.”
“Right. Of course… Asking the person directly would be the smartest course of action…” Heizou mumbled timidly.
And logically, that did make sense to him. So why was his head spinning so much at the thought of—
“One minute remaining!” Kujou-sensei cautioned from her desk.
“Well then!” Heizou exclaimed, his tone suddenly way too perky. All sense of professionalism had already flown out the window. He needed to wrap up this presentation pronto.
“That concludes our brief cybersecurity training for this morning. Thank you all for your attention and participation. I hope you found this informative. If nothing else from today’s session, remember that with great power comes great responsibility, so always…surf alert!”
The crowd might as well have been booing him off the stage. Heizou scurried back to his seat as fast as his legs would carry him.
The end of the school day couldn't have come quickly enough. Calculus, Art, Geography—the afternoon classes all passed in a blur. Integrals, cast shadows, continental drift… What did any of these things even mean? Heizou was far too distracted to care.
When the dismissal bell finally sounded a quarter past three, he made sure to be the first one out the door.
Or, almost the first one. A few meters down the road, a head of white—adorned by a single streak of red—told him a familiar someone had managed to sneak out before him.
“Kazuha, wait!” Heizou shouted, hurriedly running to catch up to his classmate.
The white-haired boy spun around, a vigilant yet unassuming expression on his face.
“Oh, Heizou,” Kazuha greeted him warmly. “I didn’t expect to see you this afternoon. I was going to tell you earlier, before you ran off from class— You did great on the presentation."
Heizou huffed. “Please, spare me the flattery. I just…need to know… What the hell was that about?”
“Is that really how you should be addressing your groupmate—the one who just helped you ace your final project?”
“Look, I’m sorry,” Heizou replied, immediately lowering his voice. “It’s just… That message at the end…”
“Ah, right. I’ve been itching to hear your thoughts about it. What is your assessment of the message? Real, or fake?”
Heizou swallowed back his hesitation. He had already mulled over the evidence numerous times today, consistently arriving at the same conclusion. All he had to do now was present his case…
“The signs point to ‘real’. Very real. Unquestionably real. I just don’t understand why you would—”
“Broadcast it so publicly like that?” Kazuha filled in the rest.
“Sure, let’s go with that.”
“I did it because… I have feelings to confess. There are words I want to say to you. I’ve just been too cowardly to approach you one-on-one before this. For some reason, it felt easier to force myself in public; I don’t really know why.”
"H-hold on, slow down there…” Heizou muttered. “You said… ‘feelings to confess’?"
Kazuha nodded. “I hope you can forgive me for what I did with the slides. Either way, I’m committed to finishing what I started. So please, just let me get this one thing off my chest...”
Heizou had never seen his classmate so unguarded like this before. Kazuha was normally so cool, so perfect. This was the same guy who had gone to represent their school at the national poetry competition—who had stood up to the Raiden Principal during her campaign to confiscate students’ phones! Yet here he was now, admitting his weakness, showing signs of vulnerability.
Kazuha continued: “I like you, Heizou. I really, really like you. You're witty and beautiful, caring and compassionate, admittedly a little annoying at times… I've had a crush on you for a while now… It’s just, this is the first time I’ve actually gathered the courage to tell you."
Heizou's heart was racing a thousand beats per minute. He could barely make out any other sounds above the pounding in his chest. Only Kazuha’s voice still managed to penetrate through:
"I decided I couldn’t afford to wait any longer. Summer break is just around the corner, and it aches me to think I might not see you again for two whole months. So I figured…maybe I could give you my number, and then—"
Kazuha stopped abruptly mid-sentence, his words interrupted by a pair of sturdy arms wrapping around him, pulling him into a tight embrace.
“H-Heizou?”
“I… I like you too, Kazuha. I really, really like you too. You’re talented and bright, gorgeous and gentle. You’re honestly everything I could ever ask for! I've dreamt about holding you close, just like this. I just never envisioned I would get the chance to actually…”
Heizou rested his check on the back of Kazuha’s shoulder, making sure to keep his face hidden so Kazuha wouldn’t see how red his cheeks had become—or how wet his eyes were.
Despite his own uptightness, Heizou could feel Kazuha relaxing into his arms, a contented sigh tickling against his ear.
"Hearing you say that truly means the world to me,” Kazuha said softly. “To be quite honest, I was worried you might hate me after today.”
“N-no! I don’t think I could ever—”
“In that case, since it appears we’re on the same page now… Are you okay if I leave this with you?”
Kazuha slid a hand inside the side pocket of Heizou’s pants, depositing a thin slip between the folds of the fabric.
Heizou flustered at Kazuha’s touch. There was a momentary flicker of doubt—a split second where he wondered if this was all just some elaborate social engineering scheme he was playing right into—but he quickly pushed the thought aside and nodded.
“I’ll call you this weekend, as soon as we’re done with exams,” Heizou promised with newfound conviction. “And once we’re out on vacation, I’ll call you every day of the summer as well. We can try to arrange some time to meet up over the break. It's not like we live that far away, right?"
"Mm, I would like that…”
The way Kazuha sounded so genuinely happy was music to Heizou’s ears. He gave Kazuha a tender squeeze, holding him close, reveling in his warmth and his syrup-sweet scent for a few last blissful seconds before finally letting go.
"...Thank you, Kazuha. For sharing your feelings with me today. And for being you."
The white-haired boy smiled in response, his eyes squinting into dazzling red half-moons.
"Right back at you, little deer."
Heizou practically bounced the whole way home, an enormous grin plastered across his face. As soon as he arrived back at the family dojo, he rushed to his room, slipped off his backpack, then reached into the side pocket of his pants. Between his fingers, he pulled out a vibrant red maple leaf, one side of it marked in black ink with a ten-digit number. And below it, the letters “ILU”.
Heizou let out a little chuckle. Oh Kazuha. Who knew you could be such a romantic?
At that moment, he made a decision. Studying for exams could wait.
Heizou proceeded to call Kazuha later that night instead.