I wake up, my head against the floor and a scarlet blanket thrown across my frame. I hear the sound of gentle breathing and the sound of near snoring. A draft is going through the room, flipping the curtains about.
I guess the movie wasn't too great. Or it was so good it moved me to cry myself to sleep.
...I doubt the latter.
When I look up at the bed, Naomi is in the same position as she was last night, sitting up against the wall with a pillow behind her head and a small pile of snacks next to her.
Natsume is basically the opposite. From the lower chest up, she's on the bed.
The rest of Natsume is dangling on the side of the bed, head of hair draping across her face.
Prooobably not the most comfortable thing...
I stand up, flipping the blanket onto the bed. I turn on the lights and turn off the TV, which was on a loop of that movie from last night. I close the window, and step out, tentatively, into the halls.
When it clicks, it clicks slowly at first, but realization hits me all the harder.
...I'm a guy… in the girl's dorm. There will be repercussions, both socially and scholarly if I'm caught in here. I doubt the excuse of, "We were watching crummy movies and we fell asleep," is a good enough work around, even if it is true.
I make my way back into the room, after glancing up and down the hall, seeing numerous lights on, dimly shining through the dark hallway. Apparently it's late enough for people to be awake. ...Other than me, I mean.
I sit down at Naomi's desk. Considering there's nothing else to do, I look at the stuff she keeps there. I spot a book in the corner, the colors catching my eyes more than anything. I flip it open, reading the inside cover. When I see it's in English, I cringe and sit it back down; that language is impossible. I can't bear reading a paper in English, let alone a whole book.
I lean back in the chair, rocking it casually. The sun is still low enough in the sky for the room to be quite dim, even with a lamp on.
I try to fall back asleep, but it doesn't happen. I pull out a can of soda from the bag at the bottom of the bed, and crack it open under my palm, trying to muffle the noise at least a little bit. I lick the fizz off of my hand, then take a sip of the bubbly drink. I bring one leg up to my chest, bobbing the whole chair lazily as I drink it.
One misplaced creak sends Natsume off of the bed, and into a heap at the bottom of the bed, groaning in pain.
"What the he-" She glances at me and tilts her head to the side, pulling the hoodie a bit more around herself, "Oh, uh... Did you fall asleep too?"
I stare at her, and then point to the clock.
"Oh." She nods slowly, and creaks her way back into bed, "Should we try to wake up Naomi? She's hard to get asleep and hard to wake up. Probably shouldn't lounge around alllll morning."
"It's still four o'clock." I blink at her a few times, placing my hands on top of my head as I bounce the chair, "She deserves a bit of sleep. Surprised the way you slept didn't, well... Hurt?"
"Long story short: medication." She pulls a bottle from the pocket of her hoodie, "I uh, use this when I usually go to sleep. Took it before the first movie ended so I wouldn't die this morning. Not literally. But waking up sucks when I forget these."
I shrug. "Makes sense, I guess." Dropping the chair back to it's normal level, I put my hands on my knees. "So can we just go back to sleep?"
"Probably not. I'm too awake right now." She shrugs, pulling the blanket closer to herself as she sits against the wall.
I stand up and switch the light off, taking my seat again. When I look back to Natsume, she's already asleep again.
This all seems so natural to these two. It's unreal. I guess they're really close, which is well... Stupidly evident.
Nice observation, Hisao...
The whole group of friends seems really close, though. Yuu and Ayao are two who I don't know as well, which can be blamed on their classroom's placement. They all run around with each other, though. Honestly, they remind me a lot of my friends from before the uh, incident.
I pull the soda from the desk, and down the rest of it. I put the empty can down on the desk, making a small, clinking noise. Naomi slowly loses her balance, falling forwards from her right angle posture. When she connects with her knees, she jolts up and grabs the blankets underneath of her, looking at me with wide, and evidently confused, eyes.
"Holy! Wh-what? Why are you here Hisao? And wh-" She glances around the room, and down to Natsume, "Oh. That... Right~!" Naomi's voice is way too loud for the early morning. It flies through the room, and into the halls. A pound on the wall from the next dorm over and a few hisses can be heard from the early morning students of Yamaku.
"Naomi! Shhhhhh!" I glare at her and she boils down, cowering under the blanket.
I glance up at the clock. Five, which is still quite early… but it feels like only a few minutes have passed. I slowly turn to the window, pulling open the curtains and glancing outside. The sun is basically in the same position, which is still, well, high. Kinda.
"Is your clock wrong?" I look to Naomi, my voice a hushed whisper.
"Clock? ...Oh. That thing. It's uh... Not really working. Ever." She shrugs, pushing out of the bed and sliding over to the closet. She pulls the string, lighting up the small shelves. Pulling out her phone, she turns it on and tosses it on the bed. "Basically class time."
She pushes off of the bed, and slams Natsume in the face with a pillow. Natsume raises a single middle finger to Naomi, starting a bit of stifled laughter between the two, "Real rude, Naomi. Sheesh, as you almost always say."
"Pffffffff." Naomi picks up the trash from last night, consisting primarily of candy wrappers and aluminum cans lined with bubbly art. Stuffing it all into a bag of chips that the pair destroyed on the way here last night, she slips it into the plastic wastebin in the corner of the room.
"Hisao, you should probably find your way to your room, get a new change of clothes. You've got drool on that one. " I glance down to check. When I look back up, I see Naomi grinning, laughing in the same stifled tone as before, "Made you look~!"
Laughing, I pick up some of the trash she missed, tossing it in the bin as I talk. "That's fair, yeah. It's always weird to wear the same clothes twice in the same week anyways.
Naomi shrugs, "There's about half an hour left, just brush your hair through so you don't look so… bedraggled, especially after coming out of my room~! I don't want rumors…" she scratches the back of her head, glancing to Natsume. "Too saucy for a Monday morning. If we end up being the hot gossip, we may have to report on ourselves~!" She grins, laughing at her own joke.
After she's calmed herself down, she pulls open a drawer on her nightstand and pulls out a straggly brush. Pulling out the hair and clumping it into a ball, she tosses it into the trash. She tosses the brush over with her opposite hand. I catch it, and pull it through my nappy morning hair. With closed eyes, I attempt to avoid visibly cringing at the thought of the former wadded up brush hair.
I step out of the dorm with uneasy steps, making my way out as quick as possible. I glance around at the walls, and spot nobody in the common room, sighing in relief. I step outside, half expecting a crowd but, once more, get a pleasant surprise, and step over to the boys dorm with much more casual steps.
I grab a fresh uniform and my shower supplies from the closet, make my way over to the shower and start peeling away the previous night's clothing.
When I turn on the shower, a familiar voice screeches out, "Hey! Who goes there? I'm armed!" His shouts are reverberating down the empty hallway. Of course. A nice, calm morning has to be destroyed by the epitome of annoying.
I remain silent and mentally flip a coin.
I land on heads. That means leave. Albeit tails was also leave. I was leaving regardless, but I just wanted justification I guess. I step out of the bathroom, letting the door click into the frame before walking away. I head back to my room, put on some old cologne I never really used and deodorant and put on some fresh clothes. I grab the pills from my nightstand, popping them without water and nearly gagging.
Choking them down, I head out of the dorms and into the school grounds. I step through the doors to the school and into the classroom, taking my usual seat.
Hanako, the purple haired girl, is the only one in the room besides me, and she is... well, beside me. staring into her book, ignoring everything around her to the best of her ability.
I figure it's best to avoid a conversation and pick up my book only to realize a crucial detail: I finished the book already.
I turn to Hanako and clumsily clear my throat, "Uh, hi Hanako. Is that book any good?"
She creaks into motion, her eyes going from half stare, half sleep, to deer in headlights.
Closing the book slowly, she turns to me and nods. "It's... fine."
I nod in return. "That's good, then. I, uh, I finished my book."
"Was i-it any ...good?" She glances at the spine of the book.
I look down to it and shrug, "Not bad, I guess." I glance back up from it, and she is holding one hand over half of her face... her, well, scarred half. Her other hand clutches the bottom of her skirt. I turn back to the book, picking it up by the spine and holding it to her, "You wanna look at it?"
She freezes up and glances down at my hand like a rabbit, ready to dart at any given moment.
As if on cue, a familiar face steps in the front door of the class. The tall blonde... Lilly! That was it.
When Lilly steps through the door Hanako goes from cold and stiff to... lukewarm and rigid. Better than nothing. She slips out of the chair quickly, Lilly coughing into her hand and smiling, "Hanako? Are you here?"
Hanako answers the question with a gripping hug, catching Lilly severely off guard, nearly tripping. Catching her footing, Lilly returns to her normal posture, or, well, the posture I've seen at least, "Oh! Hello, Hanako. Is she here?" She has a slight touch of venom to the word 'she.'
Hanako replies with a really low, "No..."
"Is there anyone else here?" Lilly chuckles slightly, covering her mouth with the hand not holding her cane.
Hanako's eyes dart around in confusion and fright. Figuring now would be the time to speak up, I lean forwards in my chair and cough. "I, uh, I'm here. I'm Hisao Nakai."
"Oh? I'm afraid we've never met. My apologies, I'm Lilly Satou." She smiles warmly, and I stand from the chair, weaving through the few desks to eliminate the awkward distance in the conversation.
When I make my way to the front, Hanako shrinks down, facing the ground and clutching both of her hands at the bottom of her skirt, "Is there, uh, something going on?"
"No, nothing worth mentioning." She smiles, turning to... gaze emptily across the room, "Hisao, are you new?"
"Is it that obvious?" I chuckle, scratching the back of my head.
"Only slightly," She says, her tone of voice remaining the exact same, followed by a gentle laugh.
I shrug, "I got here at a weird time. Last Monday and all." I glance to Hanako, "Do you, ah, talk to Naomi and Natsume at all? Or Ayao?"
"...I... K-kinda, yeah..." She is visibly tense, but she keeps soldiering on .
Lilly adds in at the end, "They mean well, I would say. Plus you did say you enjoyed writing that paper a while back!" Lilly adds. "What time is it, Hanako?" Hanako glances up to the clock, muttering out the time to her. Lilly sighs under her breath, "Well, I should be on my way then. Have a good morning you two. Give Naomi and Natsume my greetings, the newspaper was fantastic." She steps out of the door, waving goodbye to Hanako, who stands in the same spot, hands still clutched to the bottom of her skirt.
When I walk back to my seat, she steps behind me, still clutching to her skirt. I sit down and watch the class trickle in. Students start to slowly pour in, but Naomi and Natsume are nowhere to be found.
I sit at my desk glancing at my lazily written notes, flipping through the pages before laying my face against them, resigning myself to sleep, the white of dead, pulpy tree, soft against my cheeks.
When I come to, I feel a slap of a pencil against the back of my neck. Class has started, but Mutou has yet to arrive. Natsume sits in her corner of the class, sprawling out in the chair. Naomi is hovering over me, pencil tapping against my neck. As if on cue, the class simultaneously falls into a stupor. Their act of alertness, shot dead with a seemingly pointless tap.
Mutou steps in the room, beginning class by clearing his throat and slapping the ruler against the desk. Most of the class springs to, save for one girl who's head stays down in the front room. The room remains silent.
Without a word, he writes numbers and letters on the board, creating the bane of our existence; book work. He slumps down at his desk, glancing at a cup of coffee and simply lying down in the pile of papers with a groan.
I guess even teachers can have wild weekends.
_
When the bell for lunch rings, the corpses of the classroom lift themselves up, dragging through the halls of Yamaku.
Naomi, Natsume and I all make our way to Yuu and Ayao's class, finding them leaning against the wall outside of 3-2.
"Hey, are you three dead too?" Ayao glances to us, lifting a pair of sunglasses up from her face, eyes closed upon their removal, "I feel dead. Like, dead. Dead dead."
Naomi and Natsume nod, and I shrug. Yuu also shrugs.
Glancing to me, he jabs me with his elbow, "Must be a girl thing, eh?" He laughs at his own joke, before straightening himself up and glancing at the group, all of which were staring at him dully in the middle of the hallway. "...I like bad jokes, alright?"
We make our way to the cafeteria, chatting on the way. Ayao apparently went back home and slept the entire day, literally, so she feels more tired than she ever has before.
When we all get through the lunch line Ayao jabs Yuu in the side, "Come on, toss your garbage, I want to do something else~! Let's walk or something."
Yuu groans. "Maybe later, my leg is, uh, hurting." He coughs awkwardly. "After class?"
She waves her hand through the air, turning on her heel. "I'll think about it."
He gets up, sighing as he picks up the loaf of bread and cramming the entire thing down his throat. Shouting through the crumbling bread, he repeatedly calls out "Wait!"
Deciding it's better to just ignore… that, I sit down at the table and peel open the carton of milk. "So, what did you guys get?" I ask, sitting down in the same spot as the past week. "I, ah, I got miso."
"We all got the bread, they had the fancy little ones with the chicken and stuff inside. So we all got that!" Naomi says, sitting down. "Those two are so hopeless sometimes, though."
"Who's 'those two'?'" I turn to them, laying down my chopsticks after a few bites of the noodles floating in the liquid.
Natsume speaks up. "The two are in and out of romance. It's really annoying, honestly." She takes a chunk out of the bread, nibbling at it with small bites. "That's why the two are so weird around each other. They're on a "break" again." She rolls her eyes, taking a larger bite of her bread and putting it down on the wrapper, tenting her hands.
That does kind of make sense. Their entire… presence is pretty clear when apart, but together they're rather off. Left with more questions than answers, I shrug and nod and get back to eating.
The pair of them eat the rest of their bread. I finish my ramen, and crack open a can of coffee, drinking from it and watching the crowds roll by. When Natsume finishes, Naomi throws away the trash.
"You two wanna head back to class early~?" She bounces on the balls of her feet, hands behind her back. Natsume pushes up from the bench, shrugging and grunting.
"Sure, yeah." I stand up and finish off the can of coffee in my hands, tossing it out as we walk out of the cafeteria.
We make it back to the classroom, sitting down in our seats. Naomi opens her bag and peers through the contents.
"Aha!" Naomi pulls out her massive notebook, filled to the brim with pages sticking out, multi colored sticky notes flitting out of each side, and a plethora of pen marks across the cover.
"Here, we can show Hisao some of our old stories for the newspaper~!" She nudges Natsume in the side. Flipping open the notebook to a random page, Naomi drops her finger to the page and starts skimming it, pulling up sticky notes and occasionally turning the pages. She pushes the book to the side, looking to me, "So~! This was our first article for the Club!"
Naomi plants her finger against the page, and starts to tell the story, but is quickly cut off by the Student Council duo and the rest of the class, marching in, followed by Mutou.