The walk to the first day of school will always make you want to throw up. With every step you took your heart continued to beat faster. Another year of socializing with people you called friends yet friends you could never really rely on. One of the most renowned schools across the country filled with kids from the most prestigious families.
If you were to attend any other high school in your area you'd easily stand out being one of the smartest students in the school. Hakuho high school had a way of belittling your intelligence.
Hakuho high school made you feel lonely. You had numerous friends who would gossip with you over the latest drama and lend you their work to copy off when you are absent yet everything is so fake. Everyone was judging one another.
The few weeks of summer allowed you a much-needed breath of fresh air. You didn't mind the quiet of your mind but you did mind how anxious your brain became when at school.
The continuous clack of your shoes slowly pulled your brain away from overthinking. Staring at the ground you watched how in synch your footsteps were with Seishiro. His face was completely straight with no sign of stress you couldn't help but feel envious of him.
Both you and Seishiro were placed into the same class, class 2-A. This year at least you knew you had someone you could rely on. You were beginning to recognize the landmarks you set in your head that you vividly remember walking by all of last year.
As the school slowly reaches your vision you notice groups of kids chattering with one another happy to see each other.
"Y/N!! Y/N!!"
Your eyes dart around looking for the familiar face that's shouting your name. A few of your friends began running over waving out to you. You jog a little to meet up with them.
"Maki!!" You enthusiastically say attempting to match her earlier energy.
"How have you been?! I missed you so much!" She says quickly bringing you into a hug.
"Seriously Y/n we should've hung out over the summer," Masumi says also bringing you into a hug.
Breaking away from their hugs they quickly ask what class you're in eager to see if you're in the same one. "Oh I'm in class
2-A." You say.
"Omg yes, we're all in the same class!!" Maki says squealing as she jumps up and down.
You begin to laugh at her antics as she enthusiastically talks about how excited she is for the year. You watch Seishiro pause in his actions looking back at you. You just give him a slight nod to go on without you. He eyes the two girls before turning on his heel to continue to your classroom. Your two friends continue to ramble over their summer adventures.
"Maki and I even went to this art exhibit it was so cool! I swear! I wish you had been there Y/n! The three of us could've taken such cute photos."
"Haha, I'll go next time with you guys. Just for the cute photos don't think you're too special." You say sarcasm lacing your tone.
You look down at your phone to check the time. The three of you begin walking through the school deciding it wouldn't be a good idea to be late to class on the first day of school.
"So what'd you do over the summer anything you didn't tell us," Maki says wiggling her eyebrows at you.
"Huh?"
"C'mon, who was that guy you were walking with?" Masumi says grabbing ahold of your arm to shake it.
"Oh. Um... he's my neighbor we just happened to be walking by each other." You laugh off their attempts to insinuate that there was something more to what you were saying.
There was however something more than what you were saying. Nagi Seishiro was living at your house. But knowing your friends you knew that this was something they would overdramatize and this information would quickly spread all over the school.
Masumi and Maki and everyone at this school thrived off of having something to talk about. Whether what they were talking about was true or not. You didn't hate Seishiro you didn't. Seishiro was a breath of fresh air away from every cookie-cutter kid here at this school. Seishiro was someone who had never let you down. He was someone you spent your entire childhood with.
"Aw that's sad he's kind of cute," Maki says. You laugh off her comment hoping to switch conversation from Seishiro as soon as possible.
The three of you make your way down the halls and finally reach 2-A. You slide open the door looking for the seating chart. Your friends frantically tap your back grabbing your attention.
"What?" You asked in a hushed tone."
"Mikage Reo.. is in our class," Masumi says her eyes wide.
"Okay." You say blandly.
"Oh come on be a little more excited. He's the hottest guy in the whole school!! And he's a Mikage!!" You could tell just how excited Masumi was even through her whispering voice.
You looked at the seating chart to find that Seishiro sat by the wall away from the door. To the right of him was yourself and to your right was Reo. Maki sat behind Reo and Masumi sat in front of him. You were happy to see you were sitting relatively near to all of your friends.
You walked over to your desk finally meeting up with Seishiro again. He had his phone away which was an unusual sight and was instead mindlessly looking out the window he was sitting beside.
The beginning of the day was filled with awkward icebreakers. Each one asks details about what you did over break, where you're from, and playing mini-games.
Each time Reo Mikage was speaking everyone seemed to attentively listen to what he had to say. It didn't surprise you whatsoever. Again you were reminded just how much everyone at this school had ulterior motives.
Throughout the day you watched as Seishiro began to pay less and less attention. At first, he would pull out his phone to scroll through social media or check a notification. When it came to the later afternoon he began to fully use his phone playing the video game he was playing at the store. The app you had recently downloaded to your phone.
In the last hour of the day, our teacher began to write math problems on the board to see what we remembered. You hated how quickly you forgot formulas you learned just a few months ago.
The first problem the teacher wrote on the board he turned to the class eyeing all the students through his thick circular glasses. After about a minute Maki confidently shot her hand up.
"Yes ma'am." The teacher says allowing Maki to answer the question.
Maki raises from her desk. "X=r/3-h." She says with no hesitation.
"And that is correct. Yes. Thank you, Maki."
Maki sat down before the teacher went over the problem explaining each step to everyone attempting to aid as a refresher to everyone.
The whole class continues like this the teacher would write up a math equation and we were told to answer it. Some students stood out more than others with how often they raised their hands including Musami and Maki. Each equation made sense when the teacher explained it but when we were first tasked with completing it we had no idea what to do.
The next problem written down on the board stumped you and showed just how much review you needed. Two minutes after the equation was written on the chalkboard the usual hands were already in the air.
"Can I hear from someone I haven't heard from today?" The teacher asked eyeing those without their hands in the air. "If I don't get a volunteer I'm going to pick randomly."
After another moment no one raised their hands. You watched as the teacher walked over to his desk grabbing a can filled with popsicle sticks. Your eyes immediately grew wide knowing what he was doing.
You stared at your work paper going over your work trying to decipher the answer. Each rattle of the can signifies how close you were to your possible failure. Every intelligent kid in this class would see that you couldn't do last year's math. Your heart was rapidly speeding up as you watched your teacher reach for a stick.
"Nagi Seishiro." The teacher reads aloud from the stick.
Oh, thank god my name wasn't called you couldn't help but think. You turned your head to fully pay attention to him.
Seishiro abruptly stood up looking at the board blankly. You couldn't help but think that it looked like he was reading it for the first time. Everyone's eyes were now on Seishiro as he looked over at the board pursing his lips and going through the motions of the problem. Your eyes quickly drifted to his paper seeing that there was nothing written even from the previous problems.
"Um.. does X=0.2?" He says slowly.
"No." The teacher turns around to begin working out the problem. "Please pay better attention next time Nagi."
Seishiro sat down without a word laying his head on his arms trying to get a bit of sleep in. You stared at him astonished at how nonchalant he was. You were having a heart attack over the idea of getting called on yet he didn't care about the teachers' comments nor getting it wrong in front of the class.
You look up to pay attention to the teacher again when you catch Masumi's eye. She looked at you with her lips curled and eyebrows pinched together. You knew what she was saying with that look 'he is so weird.'
You weren't sure why that look hurt you the way it did, but it did. So who cared if he got it wrong? You looked away from her to copy down what the teacher was writing.
At the end of the day, the bell rang and you were thankful to go home back to your safe space. You texted Seishiro to meet up with you at the train station and that you would just be a few minutes behind. You, Maki, and Masumi agreed to FaceTime later in the night to catch up more. The three of you slowly made your way out of the school being as slow as you could to continue talking.
Parting ways with them your thoughts began flying with everything that happened today. You instead just focused on the consistent tap of your shoes against the concrete on the way to the station.
You made it to the train station a bit before the train is supposed to arrive finding Seishiro standing along the wall. You walked over to him standing beside him.
"Hey, Seishiro." You say attempting to pull his attention from his phone.
You watched as his eyes pulled away from his phone as he paused the game. He slightly hummed insisting you to continue.
"I think it's best if we didn't tell people that we lived together. Or that we used to be friends." You say avoiding his eyes. You were mindlessly playing with your hands behind your back. "You know it would be really bad if people got the wrong idea.
You could hear the thrumming of the train wheels against the railings as they rolled against the tracks. Taking a shallow nervous breath you look back up to see Seishiro attentively looking at you. His brown eyes felt like they were reading every emotion you had.
"Okay. If that's what you want." Seishiro said peeling himself from the wall and unpausing the game to head over to the train whose doors were now opening.