"--wait, no--"
"--mmm--"
"--mmstop! Dude, what are you--? Not here--"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...And so, therefore, after extracting the three from the left side of the equation here, we will be able to root out the right side evenly..."
Kanji Tatsumi woke suddenly to find himself sitting in his class. Recovering from his daydream, the boredom of his first-year math classroom flooded back into his brain. He flicked his pencil lazily, his body slouched over his desk even more than usual. He was almost comforted by the fact that he knew he wouldn't get what the teacher was talking about even if was was paying attention. Getting held back in school didn't increase his chances of absorbing the information; hell, all it did was prove to him that no matter how often he was told the same stuff, he still wouldn't care. The slow heat of the mid-afternoon reflected from his slicked-back hair, and he could almost feel the bleach burning on his scalp. His scars itched. He looked around the classroom. Half of the other students sitting around him had been observing him with a look of morbid curiosity on their faces, and they all looked away quickly with fright as he glanced over them.
Routine behavior. Most of them must have been surprised that he even bothered to show up today. Truthfully, he was surprised too. His eyes drifted to the window beside him, and he was drawn to observe the girls' physical education class running laps around the soccer field. It didn't make sense to him that while all of the other classes at school included both boys and girls, the PE classes operated with them separately.
He imagined how much those girls must hate running, and how ugly they must feel when they're finished, with their hair pulled back and their chests all sweaty. He imagined them complaining about it to each other, emptily. It wasn't something he normally gave much thought, but maybe it was because of the girls not wanting the boys to see them in actual humanesque workout mode that the facility enforced separated gym classes...He wondered if they really did stink.
Kanji's squint turned slowly into a frown. Guys, girls, why should it matter? A boy wouldn't care about something as insignificant as that, he wouldn't care if a girl is all hot and bothered as much as the girl would herself. Kanji never cared, at least. It made no difference to him. A boy wouldn't be so self-centered.
A boy wouldn't judge another person as a girl does.
In the distance he could hear two of them chirping quietly about something. Or about someone. Him, probably. He moved his head a bit to see them facing forward with their lips fluttering slightly, and their heads leaning toward each other as though pulled by some gravitational force, ears perked.
And if it's another thing girls like to do, it's talk, Kanji thought, resting his head in his hand. And they sure do talk a lot.
He looked over at Rise Kujikawa, sitting a row ahead, not far from him. When the other kids in his class weren't goggling at him, their attention belonged to her...which was more often, considering the time he wasn't there himself. Her long, barely-tamed brown hair fell playfully below her shoulders and curled around her breasts as she sat there, spacing, subconsciously playing with one of the strands. She and Kanji didn't have a whole lot in common, but they got along well. Good friends, really. History was on their side. And if there was any quality she rivaled him with, it was the ability to have all eyes on the room fixated on her and pretend that they were the most uninteresting things in the world.
Except for maybe the "pretending" part.
Feeling his gaze, she turned her head crookedly to look back at him. They exchanged a knowing eye-roll before she turned back toward the front of the classroom.
The people outside were exiting the field. If he squinted, near the end of the disjointed line of gym students he could spot Chie Satonaka and Yukiko Amagi dragging their feet, chatting away leisurely, Chie's hands animated with motion while Yukiko put her hand to her mouth and laughed. Kanji smiled to himself a little. At least he knew that some were different than the others; that girls like Yukiko, and especially Chie, existed too.
He took time to gaze at her. Whatever, senpai was cute. He could admit it. She wouldn't mind as much if a guy saw her in the middle of a good workout. Real spunky. He always liked that. He respected her.
The boys were heading onto the field next. Kanji sat up. He thought he could see Souji and Yosuke lollygagging behind the rest, just like their other friends, but he wasn't sure. Maybe he needed glasses or something. Real ones, not just the ones used for the fog. Oh well, he knew the person he was straining to see probably wasn't there anyway--
"Tatsumi!"
He looked up.
"You look particularly attentive today, though I'm not sure to what exactly."
Kanji slowly got up and stood next to his desk, assuming his usual disinterested posture. "What are the initial three decimal places in pi?"
He scratched his cheek and scanned the classroom, half looking for clues, half to see all the eyes fixated in his direction. He sighed.
"...Pies don't have decimals, ma'am. They have crusts. I don't really know what you want from me."
Smiling sheepishly, Rise scratched her head and suddenly became very interested in the wall.
---
Daisuke Nagase sat on the bench, tightening the laces on his cleats. Soccer practice had already started, and he wasn't about to get behind on his laps around the field. His upper arm muscles vibrated dully with pain. He was late.
"Come on, Nagase!" yelled one of the scrawnier players as he passed by, jogging. "You're the captain but you ain't no coach! Start running!"
A few minutes earlier, in his hurry to get to the field, Daisuke ran down the second-floor staircase on his way outside. His lightweight duffel bag banged against his leg as he hopped down the last few steps. As he was about to pass a first-year classroom, one of the doors swung suddenly outward and collided with his shoulder.
"Oof!"
His center of gravity teetered and his bag flew away. He slowed down, clutching his shoulder.
"What--"
The kid who opened the door stopped in his tracks for a second, before approaching Daisuke cautiously. Leaned against the wall, Daisuke's face was screwed up with pain.
"Sorry, man. Hey, you okay?"
Opening his eyes, Daisuke turned to see who was talking to him. Tall, blonde hair...it was Tatsumi, that tough-guy first-year he'd been hearing about.
"Ahh, y-yeah. I'm fine."
Kanji's brow was furrowed slightly as he stood there, concerned. Surprised, Daisuke was distracted from the pangs in his shoulder for a moment, as he looked halfway into Kanji's face.
...What's with this guy? Why is he being so nice?
"..."
They both noticed each other's gaze and looked away awkwardly.
"Well uh--thanks," Daisuke muttered, moving away from the wall to pick up his bag. He walked toward the building exit, less quickly than before, as Kanji remained there, stuck. After Daisuke was no longer in sight, Kanji noticed a few of the other students standing in hallway, staring.
"What the hell're you lookin' at, huh?!"
They scattered as Rise walked out of the classroom behind him. "Kanji-kun? Did something happen?"
He shook his head. "S'nothing. So, uh..." Kanji scratched his head. "Are you walking home right now?"
"..."
Rise looked at him, perplexed. "Y-yeah, wanna join me?" He looked down at the ground, kicking it. Rise's usual cheerful smile returned. "How about it, manly man? Are you gonna protect me from all my rabid fans, or what? You know I can't fight them all off myself."
Kanji's face broke into a cheesy little smile, his gaze returning to the exit door.
"Yeah?" Rise leaned back and forth on her feet, nudging his arm playfully. "You gonna, like, summon Rokuten-Mao? Zio their asses down? I'll locate hidden treasures for you on the way, maybe we'll find some good noodles at Aiya..." She couldn't hold back laughter any longer. Kanji smirked.
"There's something I wanna take care of, but if you start walkin' I'll catch up," he said. "Okay?"
Rise cocked her head to the side. "Uhhhhhhh, okay! I'll just pretend I'm Chie and drop-kick 'em all 'til you find me. Ho-cha!" She imitated a kung-fu warrior, lifting her leg slowly in the air and kicking Kanji lightly so that his body swayed. He continued to watch the door Daisuke had disappeared through.
Assuming her composure, Rise adjusted her school bag over her shoulder and walked toward the school's main entrance, playing with her hair, as the other students still looming in the hall turned to watch her.
Kanji began walking toward the exit.
---
"Alright, we're gonna finish warming up by doing some drills, then we'll get a little game together. C'mon, you guys know the routine."
If there was one thing Daisuke was good at, it was his ability to jump into the midst of things and perform just as well, as though he had been there the entire time. His tardiness to today's practice had little effect on his captaining of Yasogami High's soccer team and he assumed his role with considerable finesse, as usual. The other players grumbled.
"Was kinda hoping he wouldn't show..."
"Ah, whatever man, s'not that bad. He's a lot better than that last guy, Kanawa-san. Remember him? He didn't do anything. And where's that Ebihara girl been, wasn't she supposed to be managing the team for the rest of the year?"
"I don't know, she's probably been ditching practice to go to the mall or something stupid like that."
"Dude, you know if you had the chance, you'd go right along with her in a second! You'd probably let her dress you up, and..."
Daisuke overheard the other boys amidst their drills as he kicked the ball up from one knee to another. He didn't mind the talking. He wasn't sure why, but he never thought much of the things people ever said about him, or about people he knew -- whether it was good, or bad, or whatever. He never particularly valued words as a valid source of sincerity between people. They were hollow; they didn't mean anything. Actions were all that really spoke, and talking was just a waste of breath anyway.
Left...right, left...right, left....right...left.
"Okay, everybody put your balls away--"
He ignored the boys' snickering.
"--and split up into your teams: six guys in black, six in orange," he said, as he wiped the sweat on his forehead with the bottom of his reversible sports shirt. "Three minutes!"
Daisuke's feelings didn't belong in his voice. The things he just said, he'd said countless times before. Instructions. Barely necessary. How he played today, though, was what mattered most to him; not just to prove to his team that he could keep up with them, but to prove to himself that he could, too.
If Kou could hear me right now, Daisuke thought, walking toward the orange team's goal net, he'd probably think I was the corniest sap in the world. But I guess it's true.
Daisuke looked around at the other players on his team, peeling off their light black shirts to turn them inside out. He paused, and suddenly focused on trying to look disinterested, concentrating on the low-cut grass beneath their feet. As he pulled off his own shirt he caught a glimpse of a person, a tall guy, standing over by the gate bordering the field. He looked again to see...that Tatsumi kid again. He was watching him.
Wha--? Why...?
Leaned against a metal pole, Kanji had told himself that he felt like taking the long way around the school to the main road today. Just to see what the rest of the place really looked like, you know? He intended to catch up with Rise-chan and walk the rest of the way home with her when he happened to find who he was subconsciously following...
Just as his shirt parted with his skin and lifted up over his head, Kanji saw Daisuke looking back at him from across the field. Glancing away quickly, Kanji pushed his weight off the pole and continued walking on his way home, eyes shifting, pretending he just felt like watching the other guys play soccer, only for a minute. That's all.
Just like Daisuke turned away from the fence, rubbing his forehead, suddenly very aware of where the sweat was shining against his body, pretending not to blush.
Except for maybe the "pretending" part.