The Side You Don't See (Yaoi Boyxboy)

9

When I walked up the steps of the school today, I let out a long sigh. Hopefully Yuji wasn't waiting in the cafeteria where my friends were. I really wanted to skip the whole mess with them and just introduce them at lunch or something. For now, I kind of needed to just show him to his classes and such. That meant I'd have to introduce him to Kizumi later too, unless we met him in the halls somewhere on our walk. That wasn't unlikely, since Kizumi wouldn't sit with my friends unless I was there.

I continued down the sidewalk and looked around for him a little bit. I spotted him sitting by the front doors and I waved to him when he looked up at me. A smile spread across his face instantly as I came closer. He looked cold, and I felt kind of bad.

"How long have you been standing out here?' I asked him as I opened the door.

"Not too long, why?" He was obviously lying to keep me from worrying.

"You could have waited inside, you know." I laughed as the door closed behind us.

"Well I didn't want you to have a hard time finding me." He said.

"Well, thanks for waiting." I pulled my hands out of my jacket pockets and held one out. "Let me see your schedule. We should probably start looking for your classes." I took notice of the time. We had about 15 minutes, but we'd still have to hurry a little bit.

"Here you go." He put the paper in my hand and I looked it over. His first class was actually pretty close by.

"Okay. The first class you have is in this building. It's just around this corner, actually." I started to walk and he followed by my side. "Do you have all of your books and everything too?" I asked.

"Yeah. I got them yesterday." He told me.

"Good." I stopped in front of a room and pointed to it. "This is it. The teacher is really nice, but don't throw things in her room or she'll freak out." I explained. He looked as though he was taking strict mental notes. Once more, I glanced over the the paper and began to walk again. As we moved down the hallway and I explained to him where the bathrooms and such were, he seemed focused.

It was nice that he was listening and not just blindly following me around. He nodded to let me know that he was paying attention and would ask me a question here and there about lunch time or what teachers didn't like. I didn't know all of his teachers, but I could answer some of his questions. If I couldn't he'd simply laugh and say, 'I guess I'll find out'. As we approached where his fifth period class would be, he asked me about my friends.

"Where are all of your friends at?" He tilted his head slightly.

"Probably in the cafeteria. I kind of just came straight to you." I explained.

"Oh, how come?" He asked. It brought a laugh out of me as I started to explain.

"They're kind of a handful. I thought it would be better to introduce you at lunch when there's time for them to question you."

"Question me?" He looked kind of scared.

"They're just really curious people. They'll want to know where you're from, your birthday, your favorite food...pretty much anything." I chuckled a little. He seemed a little more eased once I explained to him that they weren't going to be mean to him.

"Ah, you'll get to meet Kizumi too." I said.

"Is he another friend?" He asked. I pondered the question for a brief second. Would there be any point in telling him anything different? I was sure he'd find out soon enough by my other friends or just on his own.

"Yeah." I nodded. Suddenly it occurred to me that I should probably warn him about Kizumi. Sure he wasn't as terrifying as he used to be...but he still wasn't very nice to new people. "Just don't...don't take anything personally when you're around him, okay?"

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Kizumi isn't exactly...friendly, I guess. I mean, he's not going to shove you to the floor and hit you or anything but...he's just kind of cold." I explained.

"Oh..." He looked a little bit worried, and I punched him lightly in the arm.

"Don't look so nervous. He's like that with everyone. You'll see. Just don't say anything rude to him and you'll be fine." I winked. He nodded and then we stopped in front of another classroom. "This is fifth, and...oh, sixth period is the one right across the hall. Nice." I handed his schedule back to him and he folded it up. We began to head back to his first period and he asked me another question.

"Where do I go for lunch?" He asked me.

"How about I just swing by after fourth period and we can go together?" I offered. He smiled and nodded. The bell hadn't rung yet, so he and I just stood outside of the room talking for a little bit. Yuji and I got along really well, still. I couldn't remember why we had been good friends back in the day, or why we were still able to get along so well now either...but it was nice. We clicked well. Hopefully Kizumi wouldn't scare him off too much, because he was nice and fun to talk to.

Even though I hoped he wouldn't be too bad, I knew that Kizumi would probably be pretty rude for a little while before he came to tolerate him. When he was first around my friends he was kind of snappy and got annoyed with them easily. Now, though he didn't like to talk with them very much, he could respond somewhat normally. It was kind of dismissive or annoyed sometimes, but he could even get like that with me. In fact, it happened more than I liked, but I didn't notice it very often. I just hoped it could get to that point with Yuji. Maybe they could even find themselves as unlikely friends.