It's been two weeks since her first year in middle school started. All the teachers made their introductions and started off with easy work while telling their students what they would be needing for their class for the next week along with a tentative plan for the year. It was an easy first two weeks. Katsuko envisioned a middle school life where she would be with her two friends having fun during breaks and lunch time.

However, she soon discovered that the reality was actually different from her imagination. Imagination was always better than reality.

She was sitting somewhere on some steps underneath some shade, this is where she spent most of her time watching people pass by in front of her. She was able to see who was leaving the school grounds and who was returning after grabbing lunch from a nearby convenience store. She either looked at that or she was usually spending time on her phone with her ears plugged in with music. That was her usual routine until the time came to get ready to go to the bathroom before returning to class.

The second day of school, when it was lunch time, she somehow lost her friends in the sea of students which made her give up on the prospect of finding them for lunch. She ended up eating her lunch and wandering around the school grounds. But she saw them walking back inside the school after twenty minutes, and she wasted no time in joining them. Apparently, they ended up going to the convenience store with some seniors who graduated from their elementary school a year ago. And as much as she wanted to say that she wanted to join them, to ask if they can let her come along, but she couldn't. Her mouth remained closed. She chose to remain quiet.

Who would have thought… that I would end up being alone like this? she thought while drinking from her juice box.

It was so different compared to back in elementary school. Even if her friends were not around, there would be others she could join without hesitating. Asking for their company would also be an easy task.

But it was okay. At the end of the day, she went home with them. Sometimes, she and her friends would be accompanied by those seniors. She was familiar with them; she just wasn't as close to them compared to Jun and Haru.

Going home with her friends was enough to bring her spirits back up again after feeling a bit lonely. They already came over after school a couple of times since it was one of the things that Katsuko liked to do with her friends.

As much as she didn't like it, being alone had its perks though. She was able to discover and learn about her new school by walking around the school grounds.

It was Friday today. Katsuko, Jun and Haru made plans to stop by the convenience store to grab a drink after school before heading to her place to relax and hang around. Hanging around her place frequently wasn't such a bad thing, since their houses were located not too far from hers. Jun lived somewhere behind her house while Haru lived at least two blocks away.

When Katsuko pulled out her phone to check the time, she saw that it was nearly time for class to start again. She had a total of fifteen minutes to go and use the bathroom one last time and head back to class. When she finished her business, she made it to her classroom with so much time to spare. Katsuko was making it a point to get back to her classroom early, so early that she would usually be the only one in the room. Just goes to show how people would rather spend their time outside the classroom than spend more of it in there.

However, today, it was different. As soon as Katsuko slid the back door open, her sight was met with Ichigo sitting at his desk next to the open window. His seat was in the complete back of the row next to the windows. His head was propped up with his hand underneath his chin while he looked outside. When his ears picked up the sound of someone coming inside his class, he turned his head while keeping mouth hidden behind his long fingers. He then turned his head back to the window without a word.

Katsuko shut the door behind her and quietly walked to her seat. She did so while making as less noise as possible. It was like she was being careful not to wake a slumbering person. Even so, while she walked to her seat, she couldn't help but notice how messy his hair was. His hair was naturally spiky, but it was far from messy.

Probably a gust of wind messed up his hair or something.

Katsuko was slowly and unconsciously developing her observation abilities ever since she started her days at her new school because she spent most of her time during her lunch break observing people like a damn owl. Every now and then, like a creep, she couldn't help but glance in Ichigo's direction whenever he appeared in her field of vision. It was a brief glance. Those glances she would spare him were fueled by her pure curiosity. She couldn't help it. How could she not be a little curious about the guy, who she used to play with as a child, in her class today? She was just so curious. Of course, these glances would only serve the purpose to try and figure out his personality today and nothing more than that. She was pretty sure she would stop getting curious sooner or later anyway.

From what she gathered on her first week of school, Ichigo wasn't as smiley as she remembered him to be. Then again, everyone grows up and changes. She too changed since she wasn't that energetic problem child she used to be.

Anyway, she wouldn't turn her head back just to look at his hair again. She wouldn't dare.

…

…

…

She did actually pretend to stretch her back by twisting in her seat and holding the backrest. She glanced at him curiously from behind her long black bangs.

He briefly made eye contact with her when he saw her turn.

... Yeah, she never looked at him again for the rest of the day.

The next week, Katsuko was still sitting in her usual place. There was a nice spring breeze. It almost made her want to find a good spot to actually lie down and fall asleep. But something so peaceful should only be reserved for a nap in an empty classroom where chairs would be lined up together to make a bed while her phone had an alarm for when she needed to get up. A vacant classroom would most definitely be much better than outside considering how anyone could just accidentally trip over her body and drop whatever beverage they were drinking.

Finding a good place to sleep seemed like a good idea to pass the time. The last bits of her sandwich were shoved into her mouth to save time. She pushed herself off the cement stair and patted the back of her annoying skirt and shorts. She walked off to find a garbage can to throw her straw wrapper of the juice box she was holding. Finishing the juice box was her final objective before she could go off on a solo journey around the school.

With one her left hand in her jacket pocket, she wandered around the area in hopes of finding the trash. She didn't quite remember the locations of certain essential objects around the area she ate so it proved a little difficult. However, after not even a minute of walking, she was able to find one after rounding a corner. How lucky. It was also located not too far to one of the school entrances. She stopped next to it and just waited until she finished drinking the rest of her orange juice. When she felt the box getting lighter in her right hand, she took out her left hand and sprinkled the wrapper into the garbage. As she watched the pieces of her straw wrapper disappear into the pile of trash, her ears caught the sound of upset-sounding voices somewhere behind her.

Curiously, she peered over her shoulder and saw a group of boys. She turned around and observed the group that happened to be surrounding someone familiar. The spiky orange hair was enough to give away the identity. There weren't many orange haired students at her school. On one of the many benches around school, Ichigo was sitting there all alone... well, it looked like he was alone until those older-looking students appeared in front of him. They looked rather intimidating in front of him. They had the ugly haircuts and everything that supposedly made a delinquent proud and cool.

Katsuko could only cringe.

Blond peacock hair is far from cool.

From what she could see, the orange haired boy didn't look the slightest interested in whatever those seniors had to say about him. He just held his sandwich in one hand and chewed while staring at the student in front of him with a bored expression on his face. It just ticked them off.

The senior with the blond peacock hair scoffed. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" he shouted before taking his first step toward Ichigo.

Her classmate didn't even flinch. He leaned back in his seat and threw his left foot into the senior's gut, shoving him a good seven feet away from him. Then he lowered his foot back down.

"Back off." Ichigo grunted.

Katsuko suppressed a snicker from that and just kept drinking her juice.

I didn't think I'd see bullying in action…

"Who do you think you are?! Kicking him like that!"

"You guys keep coming in my face. It's annoying."

"Why you-!"

Sluuuuurp.

The student who was about to run his mouth paused. Ichigo's eyebrow quirked up. All the boys surrounding Ichigo and himself looked to where the sound came from. Katsuko blinked. She instantly looked down at the straw under her nose before removing her lips from the straw of the juice box. She stared at the box while she shook it a little. Empty. She looked at the garbage can next to her and tossed the empty box inside the void along with her sandwich wrapper that she tucked into her pocket earlier. She looked back up to watch what was going on only to find the group looking back at her.

Oh.

It was silent.

"What are you looking at?!" One of them barked like the minion he was.

Katsuko averted her eyes away.

"Yeah! You got a problem? HUH?!" the other stomped his foot on the ground.

Geez, touchy… All I did was look at you.

"Hey!" Ichigo suddenly lunged up from his seat and shoved one of them with his hand, causing them to get all worked up around him. Next thing Katsuko knew, they started throwing hands.

All of a sudden, Katsuko felt two hands grab her shoulders before pushing her away from the scene. It obviously startled her, she let out a sudden yelp before whipping around to see who was touching her. It was her two friends. Jun and Haru didn't stop, they just kept pushing her further away from the scene until they went back inside the school. The girl didn't try to stop them on the way there. The last thing she saw was Ichigo sending a guy flying with a punch.

"What were you thinking?!" Jun scolded as he shook her shoulder.

Katsuko gave him a look with squinted eyes. "I was thinking that throwing away my juice box seemed like a logical thing to do! They're the ones who got all defensive when I looked at them!" she defended herself before slowly pushing his hand off her shoulder.

Haru shook his head. "Just be careful. Don't get involved, okay? Those guys are bad news, even the orange haired guy." he told her while pointing his thumb behind him.

"Kurosaki." Katsuko identified with a chuckle.

Haru tutted, "Same thing." he sighed with a roll of his eyes.

Katsuko snickered. "Well, I can't exactly avoid him. He's in my class."

Jun rolled his eyes and walked past her, prompting her and Haru to follow next to him. "You know what we meant."

Seeing how she usually spent her lunch time alone; it would make sense for her to be slow on the social life on the school grounds. It didn't exactly bother her since she wasn't much for drama and all that crap. She liked having an easy life without problems. Ignorance is bliss after all.

As Katsuko followed her friends to who knows where, she had to wonder…

Did Kurosaki turn into… a juvenile delinquent or something?

She peered outside a window when it neared her. She saw Ichigo pick up his sandwich that he left on the bench and walked off, leaving the four students on their asses.

That was probably why his hair got messy after lunch periods.