Chapter 04 - "Welcome to the Classroom!"

Welcome to the Classroom! ("Kurasurūmu ni yōkoso!", クラスルームにようこそ！) is the fourth chapter of the Welcome to the N.H.K. manga.

Synopsis
A brief moment of foreshadowing is shown, where Tatsuhiro Satou is standing in front of Kokogi Designer Institute. When Tatsuhiro asks Misaki Nakahara what she's holding, she becomes very defensive and secretive about her notebook. In Misaki's first lesson, she explains how, in ancient days, people would fabricate gods to alleviate the suffering and inequity they felt over their lives. She moves onto Freud's dream analysis and acts condescending to Tatsuhiro. He feels the need to outsmart her, and he completely embarrasses her by fabricating a dream with a perverted insinuation. She takes subtle shots back at him, making comments about his relationship life and how even Kaoru Yamazaki supposedly has a girlfriend, while he has never. He feels inferior to Yamazaki at this moment, and shows up to Yamazaki's school to see if his girlfriend is real. He starts falling under pressure in the social environment and considers leaving. All of a sudden, a professor shows up, making the assumption that Tatsuhiro is a student, and he proceeds to show him what the classroom is like. The professor assigns the class a task to write the script for a game, to which Tatsuhiro crumbles as the professor looks down on him. The professor makes a fool of him in front of the class, and as Tatsuhiro gets laughed at, he is reminded of traumatic memories. He escapes from the class and inadvertently runs into Yamazaki and his supposed girlfriend, Nanako Hidorikawa. After they depart, she tells her friends that she only sees Yamazaki as a friend, because he's one of "those types". Still, Yamazaki boasts to Tatsuhiro about having a beautiful girlfriend. That night, Misaki reminds Tatsuhiro that his leaving of the apartment was a sign of progress. There is a brief scene at the end where the professor is reading Tatsuhiro's paper, and actually finds it quite impressive, but it is essentially meaningless as Tatsuhiro will never know about his judgement, and the professor will soon forget about him.