I hauled myself up that morning, my eyes still bright red and puffy from having cried myself to sleep the night before. It was hell trying to pull myself together, all I could think about was Kyoushi. Everything was about Kyoushi. I stared at my uniform and reminded myself of when Kyoushi first came out to me, recalling the event ever so clearly as I now realized that his syllables didn't match up, and that he wanted to say ghoul, rather than gay. I tried to get over my feelings of frustration at the newfound realization, slipping into my uniform before grabbing my bookbag from my bed, recalling when Kyoushi was moaning about, what I thought to be, some random senpai, being too clueless to figure out it was really me.

I took a deep breath and opened my phone, having a missed call from an unknown number. They had left a message, it gave me a false sense of hope, I was so excited, I smiled widely as I held the phone to my ear, only to hear some random guy talking about some girl named Usako. I quickly deleted the message and covered my eyes as I walked out of my apartment, seeing Kita waiting for me with another kid by her side. "Neko-senpai!" Kita shouted as the boy next to her started laughing at the name, sniffling a little as I was not in the mood for jokes.

As I approached, I could make out more features of this kid, he had dyed blonde hair, his black roots showing a little bit, and his eyes were a bright blue, although those were contacts. He seemed… fake. It gave me a bad feeling but… His hair was so fluffy, and his eyes looked real enough, he… looked like Kyoushi, the only difference really being his lips and his double-lidded eyes. "Neko-senpai, this is my friend."

I stared at him a little too much, tears building up in my eyes as I had to hold myself back from hugging this new boy and whispering sweet nothings to him about how much I missed Kyoushi, how painful it was to only wait a week for him. "Um… My name is Oshiro Kaoru…" he spoke awkwardly as he gave me a curious look. "Hey, is he alright?" Oshiro asked as he turned to Kita.

I snapped out of my sorrow and wiped my eyes with my sleeve, sniffling a little as I laughed at how ridiculous and desperate I was. "Sorry… You look like someone…" I mumbled as I removed my arm from in front of my eyes, Kita rubbing my shoulder.

"Someone in Neko-senpai's life has just gone missing, someone important to him," Kita explained as Oshiro looked at me and nodded, still keeping his distance though.

"Sorry to hear that…" He mumbled as Kita tapped my arm, guiding me forward a little as I sucked it up the best I could, trying to forget about Kyoushi. But this kid looked too much like him. So what if it was all fake, he looked exactly the same, except he was the quiet type. I knew it wasn't the exact same feeling, but it was something to fill the hole in my heart for the time being.

"S-So Oshiro-san, you're also a first year?" I asked shyly, my voice still kind of hoarse as I was choking back my sobbing.

The boy looked up at me, then down at his phone as he nodded a little. "Yeah…" He mumbled, moving some of his hair aside and revealing piercings all over his ears. That's kind of cute… And cool! Maybe I'll get some and show them off to Kyoushi when he comes back! The optimistic voice in my head was another pain in my chest as I remembered he probably wouldn't be coming back.

"Kao-chan is the quiet type, he just likes to play games and listen to music," Kita complained as she stepped in between us, a smile growing a bit on my lips from how cute her bangs and the curls in her hair looked.

Oshiro looked over at her, a bit annoyed with reddened cheeks. He softly punched Kita in the arm, mumbling, "Don't call me that…" It was annoying, just like Kyoushi used to be. But instead of the whole classic anime deredere, he was trying to pull the whole tsundere act. How annoying…

"Why do you insist on being so fake, Oshiro-san? No one likes a "tsundere,"" I told him rudely as he looked up at me in a bit of shock. Bingo, hit him right in the truth.

"Ugh, you're the kind of people I hate, let me have my fun," the boy mumbled as he glared at me a little. "Just because you don't like something, doesn't mean everyone hates it. And so what if I'm fake? Leave me alone," he growled as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"I'm just saying that you don't need to, or rather, shouldn't be acting so fake around your friends," I explained as I ran a hand through my hair, the three of us reaching the school gates.

"Who says you're my friend?" he complained as Kita giggled a little at him, softly slapping his arm.

Once we reached the lobby, we went our separate ways to our individual shoe lockers. Oshiro wasn't too far from mine, and because of my height, I could easily see over them, starting to steal little glances at the Kyoushi look-a-like. Just to fill the hole for now… Just until Kyoushi comes back… I thought as I watched him a little, seeing him look up and the two of us lock eyes for just a moment before I quickly turned away, my cheeks getting bright red. Jesus christ, this isn't some stupid manga, get over yourself… I continued as I then gave myself a hard slap across the face, the loud clap attracting attention I would just brush off.

I huffed loudly as I headed to the top floor, up to my classroom where I would have no one to talk to. I'm not sure why, but I was widely disliked throughout my class, or rather, everyone felt indifferent towards me. There was a growing dislike, though, ever since my meltdown in class with Asako. The memory sent chills down my back as I pulled out my phone, plugging in my headphones and playing music as I stared out the window.

I wonder if Kyoushi is really gonna come back… I wonder how long it'll be before I see him again… No matter what, Kyoushi never left my mind, and it was starting to become frustrated. I found myself grumbling under my breath, probably giving off a frightening vibe from the way the class avoided me once I snapped back from my thoughts. I caught a few people staring, us making eye contact before they looked away quickly as I chuckled to myself, letting out a deep breath. Get your mind off of him for now… There's a time and place to think about Kyoushi, and it's not right now… I was happy I could find some joy in my situation, it was a huge relief since I felt like I haven't been able to smile at all since Kyoushi disappeared. I was normally quick to get over things, anyways. It would only take me a day or two to get over big things and not even a half hour to get past the small things, it was kind of odd.

"Kaneko-san, how many times am I going to have to warn you that you need to stop dyeing your hair," the teacher spoke as the bell rang, the class giggling a little as I smiled.

"Once they stop becoming warnings, I'll think about it," I bantered back, smiling snarkily at him as the man let out a huff of a laugh, shaking his head a little at me.

"Sarcastic and rude, as per usual."