Chapter 3
Honey-Coated Smiles
"I'd rather die tomorrow than live a hundred years without knowing you"
The gentle breeze tickled my cheeks as I opened the door, rushed out the house and walked into the sun where its golden rays gave me warmth that cold Monday morning. I walked on the streets, past houses and stores until I arrived at the gates of the campus where I was going to be spending the next couple of hours finding my way around the place, and also hopefully learning new things and making new friends. Without another thought, I made my way into the fist building I saw, praying that the building I entered was the right one.
Unluckily for me, the gods just happened to choose today to pour down on the earth gallons of misfortune, and I a mere human with a huge, invisible basin on top of her head just has to catch a significant amount of it. Significant enough for me to get lost and be late for my next class without a single, approachable soul whom I can ask directions from.
The school bell that signaled the start of classes rang throughout the hallways like a giant rock
rolling in my direction to crush me because I had been ill-fated enough to not find my classroom on time where I can stay safe, far from the reach of the giant rolling rock.
"Well this is bad."
I made a quick turn to try to go back to where I came from when I felt something, not entirely hard, but not exactly soft either, come in contact with my face in an almost violent way. I looked up as I gently rubbed my cheek with a hand only to see an apologetic gaze meet my eyes.
"I-I'm so sorry!" And on impulse I put my hands to my mouth, embarrassed with the clumsy move I made the moment before that.
"It's alright. Are you okay?" his expression still not changing.
"Right now, yes. But, prior to me bumping into you, nope. I'm actually lost and I've been wandering around for nearly twenty minutes now. Can you please help me?"
He chuckled then flashed me a radiant smile. He was really a sight to see. His soft light brown hair that framed his face made his serene, bright blue eyes bluer than it already is. His gentle yet genuine smile made me feel weak on the knees. I felt like I would have floated away if he hadn't spoken with that velvety voice of his that brought me back to where we were.
"You must be the new student then. Do you know what department you're under?" He asked with so much gentleness in his voice.
"Uhm, astronomy!" I stated with more optimism in my voice than I intended it to have. He chuckled again before pointing to his right. "Same as me. Well, then shall we go." He flashed yet another sweet smile."We're going to be late for our first class."
With that, we rushed to where our classroom was. After making several turns, and walking through a few hallways, we finally stopped in front of a door. He slid it open for me and motioned me to go inside like how a gentleman would.
He moved to the second row and beckoned me to the right of the seat he chose. "Come, sit here." His honey-sweet voice lured me to where he was without even having to process what he said.
"Suzuya!" A loud voice stood out from the voices of the other students talking. "Suzuya, you forgot this in my locker. It was getting stuffy so I had to get rid of it." The silver-haired boy said in a rough, somewhat impolite way while dropping the jacket on the desk of the guy who helped me out a while ago. "Oh, I'm sorry. I completely forgot" From the brunette boy, I averted my gaze to the loud, silver-haired boy only to find him staring at me blankly.
"Kanata, this is…" He paused for a moment and turned to me with an apologetic smile. "I'm afraid we haven't introduced ourselves to each other. I'm Tohzuki Suzuya." He extended his hand for me to reach. "I'm Minami Karin." I flashed my teeth at him as I reached for his hand to shake it. After what seemed like only a split second, he let go of my hand – unfortunately- and turned back to face the boisterous boy still staring at me. "Karin, this is Nanami Kanata. Kanata this is Minami Karin." He said cheerfully matched with a gleeful expression on his face. I beamed at Kanata but he only stared back for a few more seconds before looking back at Suzuya once more and walking away.
I stared at the space Kanata left vacant after leaving us, dumbfound. Who knew that rude boys like him existed in a prestigious school such as this?
"I-I'm sorry about that, Karin. He can be impolite at times but once you get to know him, he's really fun to be with." He raised his hand to brush the back of his neck, as his eyebrows met and his lips curved into a smile.
"It's fine, really." I laughed nervously while raising my hands in front of me.
Hardly a minute passed when the door slid open, the teacher entered the room and my new life in my new school began.