Deep Red

23

It felt somewhat weird to both live and work with Shouta. We tried avoiding each other at work now, since we were pretty much living in the same room all the time, but sometimes it just wasn't possible. There was only one staff room after all. It had only been two days at this point and it was eating away at my nerves.

Even though we were basically roommates, it just was weird. In the evenings we'd make our noodles separately and then he'd sit down at the table and eat his while I'd be eating my noodles either propped up against the wall or sitting at the kitchen counter. We barely even talked, it was mostly when one of us was in the other one's way. Shouta would be at the kitchen table, grading papers, while I sat on my futon, leaning against the wall with a book. I hadn't even dared to take out the nice bottle of wine that was still sitting in my backpack. It would have felt weird to have that by myself while Shouta was literally in the same room with me.

All of that just felt like there was some weird tension all the time. Maybe it would help if we'd just... I don't know... talked? Then again, he was usually home later than I was and he'd be sleeping a lot of the time. Maybe the limited space was also a problem. Shouta's apartment was much bigger than mine, but with two people living there, there wasn't really that much room for privacy.

But at least today had been the first day the students had been back from their time off, so maybe that would mean there was some sort of conversation topic. It was the end of the day and I was genuinely determined to wait for Shouta and just walk home with him. I mean, we came to school together, so why the hell not leave together? I knew he wanted to keep our living arrangements on the down low, but it wasn't like I was announcing it in the staff room or anything.

I was keeping myself busy looking through some essays I had collected from 1-C today. Usually I'd be doing that a few days after I had gotten them from the students or procrastinate until I had to pull an all-nighter. But it wasn't like I had anything better to do while waiting for Shouta.

He was busy looking through some papers, an almost impressed look on his face. Well, impressed for him, which was just a slight nuance of his regular face. Snipe came up to him and looked over his shoulder.

"Internships, huh?" he said. Shouta nodded.

"Yeah. A few already decided."

"It's an important event. Make sure they think about it properly. There are some third years that still have regrets about it." Snipe said and walked off.

"Yeah..." Shouta mumbled and looked over another paper.

"Huh?" he said quietly. I looked up at him.

"What is it?" I wanted to know.

"The agency Iida wants to go to... I'm sure he had offers from better places." he answered, probably not even aware that I was talking to him.

"Which one did he choose?"

"A hero agency in Hosu... Don't tell me..."

"Hosu? Isn't that where Ingenium... oh. Oh no." I said. Shouta looked up at me, as if he was trying to confirm that I was actually having the same suspicions as he did. We just looked at each other for a short while and then he shrugged.

"Well, it's his choice. There really isn't anything I can do about it." he replied with a sigh and put the papers away.

"You heading home?" I wanted to know.

"Yeah, I'll have a closer look through those at home. Are you staying late?" he replied. This was the most normal conversation we have had in the last two days. Maybe we just needed to get used to this whole roommate thing.