He never ceased to surprise me. Or should I say – freak me out?.. Sometimes I would completly lose his track as he was telling me something. Sometimes I would ask about something absolutely normal and he would shut up warily. He was holding some secret I couldn't understand. Neither did I try to. He was the most selfish, secretive and plain weird person in the whole universe, and it seemed he had every reason to be. Sometimes I wondered if he was even human. Humorously, of course, but you know… every joke is a joke to a certain extent.
Other than that, though, I really enjoyed being around him. It seemed that everything was obedient to him. Even the local coffee machine turned to be pretty docile as he was around (usually we had to drop in a store next to our uni for any kind of food). It was magical. And, as expected, it was soooooooo unreal fun to tease him! I did it all the time. Later on he stopped making those funny faces, figuring that it doesn't work, but it didn't stop me. Oh yeah, I especially liked the phrase "Kio, I'm not a pervert" said with a dead serious look which I didn't believe one single bit – as long as I knew, he always put on that expression when he lied. I thought it was hilarious.
I don't remember when exactly I had started calling him Sou-chan. It just came out by itself, I guess. He didn't object, just raised an eyebrow at me. I decided to look at it as a permission – may be not a real one, but who said I cared?.. It's a cute name, after all. And it suited him, as I look at it – though some buddies from our group didn't quite get my point. Poor ignorant people, I laughed.
Sometimes we would go to his house (he had his own apartment! What kind of first-year would, do you tell me?) for an all-nighter. That usually happened right before the session deadline, and usually it was just me who painted desperately 'till the morning while he drank the beer I bought and flamed my work from time to time. For which I was grateful – my grades had become miraculously high after I started to hang out with him. So it was usually me who invited myself in. He still didn't want to look friendly, I guess. Not that I minded… It was just really fun having him for a friend, despite his weird behavior sometimes. I loved it.
I was curious, too, of course. I often thought what kind of secret did he hold that he couldn't tell anyone. He didn't look like he was on drugs (those guys are usually either high or depressed) and it wasn't about unexpected kids, either. Not that I checked, but… I seriously started to think he had some trouble with the mob. Felt crazy worried 'bout him every time I considered that variant – he did get bruises and cuts all the time, sometimes all covered up in bandages, and made the 'stone face' every time I asked him about it. He said it was nothing. I didn't believe it.
It wasn't long till I met this other guy. He stood in beside the exit with a serene smile looking at his phone. I… In my whole life, I never saw something like what happened next. He turned his head – and I stopped in confusion. For a moment, I thought that it was a different person that somehow appeared in front of the first one. The expression changed into something completely opposite. His smile faded, eyebrows moved into an ironical frown, he looked like arrogant noble or something, honestly… His face had this awful mixture of royal casualness, confidence and almost… a sort of inquisitive disgust written in it. Sou-chan stopped too. I didn't see as I was looking at that guy, but I could've sworn he stiffened for a second. Almost at the same time the horrible expression gave place to a neutral-cold look, and the guy tugged his chin to a side slightly, as if in a gesture, almost an order to follow.
And Sou-chan followed. I didn't know neither why or who this guy was or why didn't I stop him that time, but I knew one thing for sure – this was clearly not going to lead to any good. I watched them leave in silence, not able to get what just happened. Suddenly Sou-chan seemed… smaller. It felt like he had lost his spark while walking behind that guy. I didn't like that, not one tiny bit. I wanted to do something immediately, didn't exactly know what – probably hit this guy or pull Sou-chan away, it doesn't change anything. When I finally came to, those two were already gone. Like magic.
It wasn't hard to make a connection between this guy and the band-aids Sou-chan came covered up in the next day.