Ch. 7 – Stay or go?

The school grounds were already bustling with the sweet voices of excited teenage girls and the happy banter between a bunch of teenage boys. These sounds, however, were all nothing but a jumble of sounds to Masamune. Groups of friends actually made Masamune uncomfortable, they were all so loud and very possessive. Each little group of friends seemed like a watered down type of gang to Masamune. If you weren't a friend of theirs then they looked at you as if you were an enemy, an alien. Masamune didn't like that.

Masamune was currently standing in front of his shoe locker, placing his personal pair of shoes inside. As he was putting his school slippers on he felt the phone in his pocket start to vibrate. He pulled it out and looked at the number and made a curious expression. It was none other than Onodera Ritsu who sent his senpai the message. Masamune opened the message which read;

"Ohayo senpai! Let's have lunch together today. Meet me in the courtyard towards the back of the school, the same place we went with Ayena and Takamatsu. See you then!"

Masamune stared at the message for a few minutes before closing his phone. He wondered why the kouhai would want to spend their lunch period with him. It's not that he didn't like being around Ritsu, but he couldn't figure out why the boy would want to be around him so often. Masamune didn't see himself as very interesting or entertaining, so Ritsu's persistence really confused him. He tried to shrug it off and went to sit down in his first class.

By the time he got to his fifth period, he started to feel anxious. If felt as if the day was dragging and that irritated Masamune. He just wanted to go to lunch already.

"what the hell is wrong with me!? Am I a teenage girl all of a sudden!? It's just lunch with Ritsu!" Masamune screamed to himself in his head. He put his head in his arms and laid it on his desk. He decided to just chill though this period until lunch came. "one more hour, and then I can finally breathe." Thought Masamune.

Finally, the lunch bell rang and Masamune walked out of the classroom, slightly pushing by students in the way. He felt suffocated being around all these people and having to sit in a classroom learning a bunch of crap he didn't care about. He just really needed some air. As soon as he hit the outside, he took in a deep breath, closing his eyes. He then leaned against a pillar for a few seconds before proceeding to the back of the school in search of his kouhai. He turned a corner of the back building of the school and saw Ritsu sitting on a bench looking up at the sky. Masamune walked up to the bench, seemingly unnoticed by the kouhai.

"Hey."

"Oh, hey senpai" Ristu turned towards the older boy with a warm smile on his face.

Masamune felt a flutter in his chest. He recently started getting that feeling whenever his kouhai would flash him one of those beautiful and genuine smiles. When they first met, Masamune felt uneasy by the younger boys smiles, because Masamune didn't know whether those smiles were real or not. But after spending time with Ritsu, he realized that was just how his kouhai was. Naturally kind. He snapped out of his thoughts when his kouhai asked him a question.

"hmm?"

"Where's your lunch?" Ritsu asked, concerned

"Oh I don't have one."

"You don't have a lunch? Aren't you hungry?"

Masamune never brought a lunch to school. He hated the thought of going into the cafeteria and having to be around all of those people. He also wouldn't bring his own lunch from home, because all those ditsy girls who always try to talk to him would try to eat lunch with him, and he really didn't want to deal with them.

He then felt things being placed in his lap. He was so lost in thought that he didn't realize that there was a napkin on his lap and the top lid to something. He turned towards his kouhai, who had his bento box open. Masamune realized that lid was actually the lid to Ritsu's bento box. Ritsu then reached over and placed half of his lunch on the lid for his senpai.

"Nah you don't have to, I'm not even hungry"

Ritsu looked at him with a smirk

"That's not what your stomach says"

Masamune then noticed that his stomach was growling. He blushed at the noise and turned away. Ritsu giggled.

"Besides, I'm not gonna be able to eat all of this by myself. I always bring too much. Plus I don't like to see anybody hungry so, come on eat. If you don't then you'll feel all sluggish and tired later, since you're basically running on empty."

Ritsu handed Masamune a pair of chopsticks. Masamune took them and had to ask

"why do you have another pair? Do you always give away your food?"

"I have a friend who likes to pick at my food after he's finished with his food. He's like a bottomless pit, it's crazy. So I always bring another pair for him."

Masamune ate the food, which was really good. It was just rice, meat, and some pickled carrots and peppers. It was as basic as it comes when it comes to bento lunches, but it tasted really good to him. "His mom must have made this for him or something." Masamune thought to himself. It had that motherly touch to it that he hadn't tasted in probably 10 years.

"I actually wanted to ask you something." Ritsu said suddenly

"what?"

"I was wondering if you would want to come with me and my friends tomorrow?"

Masamune immediately became cautious. The thought of being around a bunch of people he didn't know gave him the slightest tinge of a headache. He really wasn't the type for mingling with others.

"Where?" Asked Masamune

"Well you see, one of my friends is in the photography club and for one of their projects they put together a portfolio full of pictures based on one thing. My friend decided he wanted to take pictures of abandoned and urban buildings out near our houses, because it would look "kinda grunge and artsy".

Ritsu ended that statement with a giggle. His friends were a weird bunch.

Even after hearing about where they planned to go, Masamune still couldn't help but wonder why Ritsu would want him to tag along. Wouldn't that be kinda awkward? Just bringing along a kid nobody has ever met.

"It's gonna be me and my four friends, including you and I think it'll be fun. The whole trip to the buildings is like a fun little hike and it's rumored that crazy things happen over there" Ritsu said with a bit of excitement in his tone

"Why do you want me to go though? I mean, won't it be weird for me to go considering your friends have never met me? I don't wanna be a burden or anything or make the whole thing awkward."

Masamune then looked over at Ritsu to see his response, only to notice that the kouhai had a frown and a slight pout to his face. Masamune suddenly felt bad. He didn't want it to come across as if he didn't want to be around Ritsu or his friends, it was just that Masamune wasn't good at meeting new people.

"Senpai, I wouldn't invite if I didn't think my friends would like you"

"I didn't mean it like that, it's just that I'm kinda awful at meeting new people that's all. Plus, I didn't want to put a damper on a hangout between friends."

The frown and pout on Ritsu's face disappeared as he looked over at his senpai. Ritsu could sense that Masamune was anxious about meeting his friends, and really dared to ask his senpai a personal question. He wasn't sure how to ask it exactly but he decided to just go ahead and say it

"Senpai, do you have any close friends, you know like the type you can just hang out with and talk to?"

Masamune's face turned slightly red at the question. It's not like the question offended him or made him mad in any way, he was just embarrassed at what his answer was to that question.

"I don't really have any friends. I mean I talk to Ayena, but I don't think either one of us considers each other friends."

Masamune let out a nervous laugh

"I don't even remember the last time I had someone I could call a friend. Maybe it was in elementary school, I can't really remember."

The two boys sat there in silence for a minute until Ritsu spoke up

"What about me?" he softly asked

Masamune eyes widened

"Aren't I your friend, Senpai?"

"It's not that I don't consider you a friend it's just that I wasn't sure if you considered me a friend."

"Of course, I consider you my friend, Senpai. What kind of thing is that to think?"

Masamune sat there looking at his kouhai, then he looked down trying to decide whether he wanted to go or not.

"You don't have to go senpai, I just thought it would be really fun to have you come along with us. My friends really wanted to meet you too. They always say the more the merrier."

Masamune could hear the bit of sadness and disappointment in Ritsu's voice. Masamune then felt guilty and really disliked seeing his kouhai upset. A sad face didn't suit the usually bright and happy Ritsu very well. After a few more minutes of contemplating he made his decision.

"So, when and where do we meet up?"

Ritsu's face lit up with joy and his eyes had sparkles in them as if they housed a whole galaxy in them.

"You mean it?! You'll go? I don't want you to feel forced or anything."

"No, I want to go, I mean it."

Ritsu smiled a beautiful smile that made Masamunes stomach and heart feel like it was fluttering

"Oh senpai, thank you thank you! It's gonna be a lot of fun I promise!"

As he said this Masamune could feel a little bit of his anxiety drift away. He started to think that maybe this outing wouldn't be that bad, as long as Ritsu was there with him.

Masamune blushed slightly at the thought of seeing Ritsu smile like that. It amazed him that such little things could make that kid happy. Masamune liked that about Ritsu though, he was genuine.

Ritsu then pointed to his senpai's share of food and said

"Now eat up! I don't want you fainting on me tomorrow because of malnutrition."

Ritsu looked at his senpai at the corner of his eye with a joking smirk on his face. Masamune couldn't help but let the tiniest hint of a smile dance across his lips.

"Alright, alright I'm getting there."