Hollow Reverie

Chapter 2

The relief had been instant.

Pressure dissipated from his head, the nausea had subsided and he was no longer coughing his guts up. He tried to look up but his vision was blurring. The feeling was surreal. It was so cosy, so serene. Trying to keep his eyes awake while not falling asleep was tough, but he had to see if they were there.

They? Who's they? Why should he care? He just wants to sleep...

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'Hello? Heeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllloooooooo?' Hiroki was woken up by a finger prodding his cheek. 'Are you alive? You're soaked!' The voice asked. Hiroki felt groggy, finding himself slouched up against some tree. He wasn't sure how he got there, as he tried to recall the series of events that led him here.

He had got to the dorm from the train station... then went to the school to confirm his enrollment. It was... extremely boring to him, to say the least. Once he got there, he had to fill in a lot of paperwork, and listen to a long lecture from the principal. But after that, he couldn't remember a thing. Just how did he end up like this? His neck hurt, and most of all he was still very tired, even after somehow taking a nap underneath a tree.

'You're a student at Hazami High, right?' the voice asked him.

'Uh, yeah.' he responded, as he looked towards the dorm.

'Oh, are you staying here too?' the voice offered him a hand up. Hiroki looked up and yawned, before getting up himself.

'Yep.' He was still tired, and he wanted to head to bed.

'My name is Miyabe Naoki. It's a pleasure to meet you.' The boy bowed at Miyabe. Hiroki half-heartedly did the same, and headed for the dormitory door. Naoki soon called out to him. 'Aren't you going to introduce yourself too?' he asked, while adjusting his glasses. Hiroki turned around to Naoki.

'I'll do it tomorrow, I'm pretty tired.' Hiroki turned his back to Naoki and opened the dormitory door. The sun had long since set, so even he couldn't help but be surprised when he saw people in the common room.

'Ah, what took you so long Miya-' a high-pitched voice asked before turning around to Hiroki, Miyabe had since come in after him.

'Ah, is the final person?' another voice asked.

The final person? So it seems he was the last to meet everyone. However he could only count 7 people including himself in the common area so where was the final person?

Hiroki planned to spend his school life mostly keeping to himself, but he knew it wouldn't look good if he didn't introduce himself.

'I'm Yoshihara Hiroki.'

'I'm Tanabe Mafuyu! It's so nice to meet you!' One girl stood up and shook Hiroki's hand, his raised eyebrow prompting a giggle. She was slightly smaller than Hiroki, who wasn't very tall for his age. She had her auburn hair tied up in pigtails and a wide grin plastered on her face.

'Hey, Miyabe-san... You managed to find it, right?' She walked up to Naoki and tried to take the bags he was holding out of his hands.

'Wait a minute.' He replied, holding the bags above his head, outside of Mafuyu's reach. She couldn't reach them, so her only reply was to snatch the glasses from his face, causing a few of the others to laugh. Hiroki noticed they all seemed to get along pretty well, which made him relieved - the last thing he wanted was to be in the middle of drama, especially when he was at home.

'It's nice that you finally told us your name, dude.' Another guy came up to Hiroki and put his arm on his shoulder. Finally? Hiroki thought to himself, before looking at the guy's face. He had only met a few people since he left Matsushima, and this guy wasn't one of them.