"You're going to be fine," Shion's mother reassures him as she leans up to kiss his cheek and hand him his lunch. He tries his hardest to give her a reassuring smile, but all that comes out is a wincing grimace, and his mother tries to pretend like she doesn't notice. Truth be told, he's sick of being the 'new kid' everywhere he goes, and he misses his home—his real home. The place where they've been forced to move to isn't and never will be home, with its gloomy-looking buildings and equally as gloomy-looking citizens. Seventeen-year-old Shion figures he's delayed going to school long enough and gives his mother a half-hearted wave before exiting through the new bakery's front door.
The walk to his new school is a terrifying and nerve-wracking one, filled with 'what ifs' and possibilities. What if he had no friends? What if the teachers were really mean and assigned him extra homework because they didn't like him? What if he was bullied, because the other kids saw that he wasn't really all that strong?
The short walk isn't enough time for him to think through everything running through his head, and soon enough he's standing in front of a large, white building with teenagers clad in the same uniform that he donned (a white, button up shirt with a red necktie, a white blazer and gray pants which he'd begged his mother to press for him this morning). Nobody seems to notice him and for a moment, Shion is okay with blending in with the wallpaper for the next year.
He can't help but miss Safu though, and the mention of her name almost makes him turn around and go running for the hills.
Nonetheless, he presses on, and finds his homeroom inside after asking a few people that don't exactly look happy to be disturbed of their daily routine. Shion plops down into a seat next to the window and rests his head on his arms, closing his eyes. It's been a whopping twenty minutes, and he's already tired. Not so much physically, just emotionally and mentally.
He's gotten good at drowning out the incessant chatter of his classmates in the last few months, but for some reason, it's not working today and he squeezes his eyes shut as he feels a pressure in his head, a sign of an impending migraine. Could this day possibly get any worse? Shion's still thinking of just getting up and leaving when someone taps him on his shoulder, and with his heart jumping into his throat, he turns around to look at the culprit. The teenaged boy has long, raven black hair that's tied into a ponytail in the back, haunting gray eyes, and wears a grayish-black scarf around his neck. His mouth seems to be tugged down into a lasting frown, yet everything else about his face remains emotionless.
Shion bites the inside of his lip. He's beautiful in a a way that's too ethereal for words; a kind of beauty that Shion would like to write long poems about.
The brown-haired boy dips his head, finding his voice before speaking. "Um...yes?"
"You're in my seat." came the deep-voiced reply, a voice that definitely didn't match the teenager's feminine looks.
Before he realizes it, Shion's stammering and trying to search for words to reply. Was it just a trick of light, or did the corner of the black-haired boy's mouth twitch? Was he actually laughing at him? "Oh, I-I...um, I'm sorry. I'm new here, I-I didn't..."
He doesn't notice it, but something in the black-haired boy's eyes soften, and he purses his lips to ensure that the grin that's fighting its way to his lips isn't seen.
"You know what? It's no problem. I'll sit somewhere else."
It's at this moment that Shion takes half a second to look around the classroom, and realizes that all eyes are on him. Several students are whispering to one another and pointing in Shion's direction.
Clearly black-haired boy didn't talk to many people.
"By the way, what's your name?" The voice snaps him back to the present, and before he has a chance to realize what's going on, he's looking into the other's gray eyes again and trying to remember his name.
"M-my, uh...my name is Shion."
"Shion, eh?" the young male says his name a few more times, smiling to himself like Shion's name was some secret joke. Yet, the way that he speaks Shion's name made it sound like it was meant to be a song or a sonnet, instead of just an identifier. For the second time today, Shion's heart flutters.
"Cute."
Shion freezes at this, and almost doesn't hear when the stranger tells him that his name is Nezumi. Nezumi concludes with "I'll see you around, Shion." and leaves him at the desk, grateful that he's sitting or else his knees would have turned to complete jelly.
A dumbfounded grins pulls at the corners of his lips as he watches Nezumi leave, and Shion can't help but think that maybe the fact that he had to move here wouldn't be as terrible as he's made it out to be.