Chapter two:

Even after he had been completely rejected, Kurosawa still refused to give up on his plans to befriend Kabutenji somehow. They already had one common thing, that was enough reason and the boy didn't seem to be bad. The situation ironically reminded him to the time when a cat finds its prey too interesting and before it crunches the small animal's backbone it plays around a bit. Yet he differed from a cat in fact he didn't want to hurt him in any way. Rather he felt sorry for the boy. The school started almost a month ago and Kabutenji was still alone most of the times creating an invisible wall between himself and his classmates.

Of course Kurosawa repeatedly tried to strike up a conversation with him, but he was ignored. For Kabutenji, Kurosawa Kento never existed. In that school no one wanted to befriend with him. That's how he lived his days. Killing every hope, instead of being disappointed with his life. Giving up on something important in order to protect himself.

However despite of his passivity he heard the bad jokes and comments continuously from his classmates. This was one of the reasons why Kurosawa found this behaviour really weird. Someone who sits in his seat all day, tolerates the bullying yet he never want new friends. After all, it's nature's law that the weaker always tries to find someone bigger and stronger to protect him. Even if these kind of relationships could be hardly called "friendship" it's still good to have someone you can rely on.

At the end of the third week he finally started to understand the real cause of the special reticence.

He accidentally forgot his textbook in his desk, what contained the notes for tomorrow's short test. Even if it was to measure his knowledge he wanted to prepare properly with every method he could grasp and Kurosawa didn't want to risk losing his book. But the room wasn't empty as he thought it would be. The boy instinctively stopped at the door and tried to assess the situation.

He could only see the silver haired boy's back, beside him was a red bucket. Kurosawa had the feeling that the bucket was in close connection with Kabutenji's goal.

He tried to wash something off from his desk. Sometimes his movement became chatoic, fairly rougher, then he tried out the sponge's softer side again. From that distance it was impossible to determine what he wanted to wash of so desperately, but Kurosawa could clearly see the black ink marks on the desk. A typical method for petty, bored children.

Kabutenji tried to wash it down, but he had to admit that it was just a waste of time and strength. He gave up then angrily threw the sponge into the bucket. The strength of the impact caused a giant splash, making his socks and shoes wet, but he just angrily kicked the bucket again. He didn't wanted to sit at an ugly desk all year. He didn't wanted people playing pranks on him but even he has to run out of patience.

After letting out his anger on his surroundings, his bag was already on his shoulder and he stormed out of the room, leaving a bigger mess than he found in the first place. At least his rush was useful for Kurosawa, who quickly hid behind the door because he could slip into the room unnoticed by the boy in despair. Finally. A freshly decorated desk stood before him. He eagerly stepped closer to read the vulgar messages scribbled into the blue cover, topped with a few drawings.

"I hate you. What are you doing here?" "Coward worm"

"Go back to where you came from"

"Will you marry a penguin?"

This was only a fraction of the countless insults that covered the whole desk. The headless penguin was the worst of all. Then someone draw a stick-kid labelling him as "Kabutenji". Under him countless hungry sharks. there were various small doodles around. Not offensive, but they still helped to ruin the furniture.

"Pathetic." he muttered under his breath as he reached for the sponge. This was disgusting. He really couldn't understand why they hated the poor guy so much.

Kurosawa tried to continue where Kabutenji left off, but after a few minutes he realized why he gave up so easily.

It was lacquer marker. And it was permanent.

Everything was covered in black lacquer marker, which was impossible to scratch down with a simple soap and tap water. After all they used it for ruining walls for a reason.

After less than half hour he decided to give up too. This was an impossible task.

Wearily, he sat down in a chair and let his arms recover a bit from the work. He would've needed some kind of solvent to erase the scribbles but he wasn't in the mood of borrowing bleach and other chemicals from the school. Knowing his luck, he would either blow up the building or kill himself with poisonous gases he created while mixing the chemicals. Sure, there must've been a good reason for not letting kids near that kind of stuff.

As he watched the desk before him, he suddenly got a brilliant idea. His lips became a thin line as he started grinning to himself. He shouldn't be doing this, but this revenge sounded really sweet in his head. If Kabutenji won't stand out for himself, someone has to help him from the shadow, before something serious happens. Even if he continues to refuse his existence after this.

Thus, the prefect plan has been born.

A/N: Ah… Not much longer than the first chapter, right? I think sometimes it's better keeping things short instead of stretching them to the infinity~