I walked into the classroom alongside Shizuka, the two of us chatting and laughing.
The classroom looked pretty similar to the ones from my past life.
Following Shizuka to my desk, I was surprised to find that we were actually seatmates. In the anime, I wasn't always seated next to her. I guess our class rotates seats regularly too.
"Hey, Nobita! You actually showed up to school?"
Just as I set my bag down, two annoying voices rang out—voices that I couldn't help but dislike instinctively.
Looking up, I saw a guy with a pointy mouth, kind of like a fox, and another with a slightly darker face, almost gorilla-like.
Yep. Suneo Honekawa and Takeshi Gouda.
Gian and Suneo.
In the anime, they're supposedly my close friends, yet at the same time, they've caused me the most grief.
On one hand, we're always hanging out—so I guess you could call them my buddies. But on the other hand, they're the ones who bully me the most. Without them, my life would be so much easier. Almost every prank, every bit of bullying, it's always them. Stuff like getting chased by dogs or falling over seems minor compared to the torment they dish out.
Honestly, if it weren't for Doraemon, this whole story would just be a depressing documentary on Nobita Nobi's experience with school bullying.
But at the same time, somewhere along the way, my kindness seems to be rubbing off on them. They've slowly started to change, and because of that, they never went totally down the wrong path.
So yeah—our relationship is a weird mix of resentment and reluctant friendship.
"Gian, Suneo. Long time no see," I replied with a smile.
"Whoa, you seem different," Gian said, looking surprised. "Not as timid as you used to be."
"Yeah! You look way better now. Last time we saw you, you were still unconscious in bed!" Suneo added, sounding genuinely concerned.
"I'm all better now," I told them, still smiling.
"Good. Don't forget the baseball match in a few days!" Gian said as the two of them returned to their seats.
Riiing... riiing…
The bell rang, and students began filing into the classroom.
I spotted a bunch of familiar faces from the anime. Some I didn't know the names of, others I vaguely remembered—like Yasuo with his signature hat, or Haruo, the chubby kid munching on chips.
And of course, there was him—my so-called rival (at least, in my own mind)—Hidetoshi Dekisugi.
Dekisugi.
The moment you look at him, you just know he's the top student. But seeing him up close now, he didn't seem as out-of-this-world as the anime made him out to be.
Maybe it's because I came from a past life where academic competition was intense, and I'd seen too many geniuses to be surprised anymore. Back then, a true top student wasn't just good at tests—they had emotional intelligence, logical reasoning, communication skills... the full package. If you didn't have all that, you wouldn't survive the brutal exam grind.
Those who made it out of that system? They were the real deal—polished, well-spoken, and sharp.
So when I looked at Dekisugi, I was kind of underwhelmed. He didn't have that aura of a future academician or anything. Maybe the internet hype around him was a bit much.
That said, he did love to read. His desk was stacked with books on astronomy and space.
And about that rival thing—turns out Dekisugi wasn't even that interested in Shizuka. He just sat there quietly reading most of the time.
Shizuka would occasionally walk over to ask him a question, and once she got her answer, she'd head right back to chat with me.
At that point, it all clicked—Shizuka just treated Dekisugi like a living homework help machine.
No small talk, no extra attention. Just question, answer, done.
Classic Shizuka.
Finally, there was the teacher—Mr. S. The one with the always-short buzz cut.
In the anime, he's the stern one who never gives up on me. He's always been the strict-teacher type, the kind who gets frustrated because he cares. He even does home visits, which pretty much says it all.