Chapter 1: Enemies in the Lecture Hall

...Tokyo University – First week of fall semester...

Nobita Nobi was not emotionally prepared for 9 a.m. Advanced Mechanics.

He wasn’t emotionally prepared for anything at 9 a.m., to be honest, but especially not for the moment when Dekisugi Hidetoshi strolled into the lecture hall like he was walking onto a runway.

"You're kidding me," Nobita muttered under his breath, adjusting his foggy glasses with one hand while clutching a half-crushed energy bar in the other.

Same neatly pressed blazer. Same confident stride. Same stupidly symmetrical face.

Even after three years apart—Nobita having clawed his way into university, Dekisugi having gone abroad for early-entry scholarships—it felt like no time had passed.

Except now, Dekisugi had grown taller, leaner, with a jawline that could slice through ice and a voice a few octaves deeper than Nobita remembered. His hair was longer, pushed back in a way that revealed too much forehead and too much charm.

And the worst part? He looked good. Better than before. Unfair.

Dekisugi didn’t even look surprised to see him. No, he looked like he expected this—like he knew he’d be at the top of the class again, and Nobita would be right there behind him, huffing and puffing like some underfed academic rival in bad sneakers.

Their eyes met.

Dekisugi tilted his head, smirking.

"Still slouching, I see," he said smoothly, sliding into the seat right in front of him.

Nobita felt the tips of his ears burn. "Still nosy, I see."

A few nearby students chuckled at their exchange. The professor hadn't even started the lecture yet, and already the childhood rivals were back at it.

“Wow,” someone behind them whispered. “Are they always like this?”

Nobita sighed. Great. Day one, and they were already the spectacle of the semester.

It was always like this.

Dekisugi would glide into a room, and Nobita's self-esteem would take a dive off a cliff. They weren’t exactly enemies, but they weren’t friends, either.

At least… not anymore.

There were moments. Quiet afternoons under sun-dappled trees, solving math puzzles with half-melted ice cream in hand. Afternoons Nobita had tried to forget. Afternoons that lingered like fingerprints on old homework.

There had been a time, right before Dekisugi moved away, when Nobita almost said something. Something stupid. Something like, “You make me want to try harder.” Or maybe, “I like you. A little too much.”

But Dekisugi changed schools overnight. No goodbye. Just absence.

Now he was back. Older, colder, and—somehow—more beautiful.

And Nobita hated how fast his heart was beating.

Class began. The professor scribbled equations across the whiteboard, launching straight into tensor fields and nonlinear dynamics like he assumed half the class had solved gravity before breakfast.

Nobita tried to focus, but Dekisugi’s presence was magnetic. The back of his neck, the subtle way he tapped his pen when deep in thought, the tilt of his head when he was seconds away from raising his hand with the exact right answer.

He hated it.

But he also kind of loved it.

“Can anyone explain the reasoning behind step three?” the professor asked, glancing across the room.

Dekisugi’s hand shot up. Nobita’s followed on reflex.

The professor blinked. “Nobi-san?”

Oh no. That wasn't the plan.

Nobita gulped and stood, voice cracking slightly. “Uh—because it’s a coordinate transformation. You're rewriting the second-order differential equation in terms of generalized coordinates… to, um… simplify the boundary conditions?”

Silence.

Then: “Correct.”

Nobita blinked. “Wait. Really?”

He sat down quickly, heart hammering.

Dekisugi glanced back over his shoulder. His eyes held something unreadable—curiosity? Surprise?

Or worse… approval.

After class, Nobita tried to slip out quickly, head down, when a familiar voice stopped him near the door.

"You’ve improved," Dekisugi said casually, holding a sleek notebook and an even sleeker smirk. "Your problem-solving approach. Less chaotic."

Nobita blinked. "Are you… complimenting me?"

Dekisugi’s lips twitched. "Don’t get used to it."

Nobita rolled his eyes. "You’re still a smug jerk, you know that?"

Dekisugi leaned in slightly, his voice lower this time. “And you’re still predictable.”

The words weren’t cruel—they were almost fond. That made it worse.

Their eyes locked. Too long. Too intense. Too… something.

Nobita looked away first, his breath catching.

“See you tomorrow, Nobi-kun.”

He hated how good that sounded coming from Dekisugi’s mouth.

Nobita trudged across campus, muttering under his breath and trying to mentally erase the way Dekisugi had said his name. His legs carried him toward the quad, but his brain was still replaying the way Dekisugi’s voice had dipped, almost intimate.

"See you tomorrow, Nobi-kun."

It sounded less like a threat and more like a promise.

He plopped down on a bench under a gingko tree and buried his face in his notes.

"You look like you just failed your entrance exam," came another voice—sharp, teasing.

Suneo Honekawa.

Nobita groaned. “Don’t start.”

Suneo sat beside him, swirling his iced coffee with a straw in that annoying way he always did. “Let me guess. Dekisugi?”

“Ugh.”

“I saw the two of you earlier. That tension could’ve melted steel beams.”

“That wasn’t tension,” Nobita grumbled. “That was lifelong mutual contempt.”

“Yeah, sure,” Suneo said with a wink. “Keep telling yourself that.”

On the other side of the quad, Gian was tossing a football to a group of theater kids and shouting instructions like a drill sergeant. Suneo’s eyes flicked toward him for a moment too long.

Nobita narrowed his eyes. “What is going on with you two?”

Suneo smirked but said nothing, sipping his drink in a way that looked suspiciously flustered.

That night, Nobita lay in bed in his cramped dorm, staring at the ceiling.

He had three assignments, two unread emails, and one very dangerous realization:

Dekisugi Hidetoshi had looked at him today. Really looked at him.

Not just as a rival. Not just as some nuisance from the past.

There was something else in his eyes.

And Nobita didn’t know if he was ready to find out what it was.

To be continued...

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