Chapter Four: Satellite
He hardly hears the voice of his mother when he enters the room.
It was always the same. Always. The same view. The same scenario. He walks past the same set of flower vase and sofa, the same sofa, the same walls, the same paintings that hung up on the wall.
The same sickening white that exploded around the house. He had really no idea why his parents loved that color so much. They say it just made the house all the more pure.
But to him, it only added to the emptiness. As that certain person said, it made their house look like a hospital. That's why one day, when they were kinds, they just decided to spray some paint and mark the walls with hand prints. Their mother screamed at them like hell. They didn't care. That day, the house became a beautiful explosion of colors. And man, how they felt free.
His eyes rested on the wooden table. Ah. When the hell will they decide to change it?
Even the number of seats remained the same.
Ah.
How sickening, he mutters to himself as he climbed the same set of stairs that now felt so small.
The freckled boy ruffled his hair as he tried to finish the third homework of the day. It was nine, and he hadn't figured out the fourth problem. Well, he thinks he'd rather have this equation than the mystery by the name of Tsukishima Kei.
Then again, why was he getting worked up all over it? It was his fault in the first place. He thought he finally found a friend—or at least—an acquaintance out of the blonde lad, given their shared 'interests' over Super Mario and volleyball.
"Ah…what a pain…" he mutters to himself as he buried his face on his own arms.
He just couldn't forget the look in his golden eyes when he said that he won't play it anymore.
That guy is dangerous.
Racing his head, the lad's eyes rested on the scene outside his window. The sky wasn't in its usual blue and black. What stretched out instead was an expanse of infinite grey.
It looks like it was going to rain tonight.
"Friends support people, not mock them—at least that's what I learned from society."
The lad's eyes widened as he saw a dent of light cut across the clouds.
Little by little, the clouds moved to the side, like knights giving way to a beautiful monarch.
It was the moon.
Before he knew it, Yamaguchi Tadashi was just smiling to himself.
"Huh?"
A raise of an eyebrow. Cold stare. A haughty click of the head. Another book in his hands. And perhaps, he had listened to the hundredth song of the day.
It felt strange, to feel relieved in seeing the same scene.
The same view.
The same person.
Tsukishima Kei was in his usual seat, in front of the usual table.
And I was going to talk to him, like usual.
"Tsukishima-kun." The name felt foreign against my lips. It was my first time to utter his name after all. Come to think of it, we hadn't really spoken each other's names since we met.
"Like I said…I wanted to apologize. For yesterday. I seem to have hit your nerve."
"Weren't you always hitting on my nerves?"
"…"
Tsukishima sighed. "I'm not really mad or anything. You're just too pushy."
"You're annoyed after all!"
"Well who wouldn't be?! You're like a dog snooping his master around!"
"E-Eh? No way!"
"Yeah, if I am some planet you'd be that sort of satellite I'd want to ditch."
"But aren't you the satellite?"
He gave me a look that seemed to ponder whether I have gone mad or something.
"There's Tsuki in your name. And the moon looks cold. Like you."
"Ha…"
"And the moon is a satellite."
"Are you some frustrated poet?"
I found myself chuckling as I took my seat. "Maybe."
He covered his face with his palm. "I wonder if I should stop going to this library. It's time to find a new hideout."
"Eh?!" Panic began to spread in my chest.
"Yeah I think I would."
"Please don't Tsukki!" I choked.
"Yes I wil—wait. What. What did you just call me?"
"Tsukki."
"No."
"Tsukki," I repeated, not batting an eye.
"You…" He hissed.
And then I was laughing for real.
"Don't tell me you're embarrassed, Tsukki…"
The next thing I knew, he was looking at me with a stare that could only mean murder.
"F-Fine! I'll stop! I'll stop!"
"Good," he breathed out. He then swiped a finger over his phone. He must have set the volume at maximum level.
"That's why people are scared of you, Tsukki."
The last thing I heard was the slam of a book.
"I heard that one."
I dodged my head just in time to avoid a flying book.
A.N.: *random* I was listening to Ed Sheeran's "All of the Stars" when I wrote this. :)