After introductions the class settled into the first lesson. Notebooks opened, everyone settled, doing what they were supposed to do.
Except one person.
Reiji didn't know when he has started doing it.But somewhere between the first and second period his eyes kept drifting left to third row last seat, where Yui was sitting with his chin on his hand, staring ahead with the kind of expression that made it hard to tell if he was listening or completely blanked out
Reiji looked back at board.
Then looked over again a few minutes later. He couldn't explain it.it wasn't like this when Yui walked into him at the door, maybe it was because he could control it but now it's much worse.
By the time lunch break arrived Reiji was staring straight at the board and had retained almost nothing from the past two hours. People surrounded him, by the time he was being irritated with himself.
"Yui" Haru said immediately, spinning around in his seat, "Come on we're going to look around." Yui looked at him without blinking, Haru knew what it meant and just ignored it like He always do.
"Get up. We're not sitting here the whole lunch break."
"Can't we just sit here, the school has been here for years. it'll survive without us exploring it."
"That's not the point."
"Then what is the point."
Haru stared at him. "The point is we're going."
Yui gave in because he knew, if he further irritated Haru he might get angry. "Fine, let's go"
Haru gave him a big smile.
Yui and Haru walked out of class, lunch break emptied the classroom fast. classroom went back to its usual noise. Reiji blinked and looked up from his desk like he had just surfaced from somewhere. he glanced towards the door. Then around the room.
Yui was gone.
he leaned back in his chair and stared at the empty seat. The whole morning had passed and wasn't even close to speaking to him- just spent entire classes staring across the room like that counted for something. he exhaled slowly through his noise
That was irritating.
**********
The school was bigger than it looked from outside. Haru had opinions about every corner of it.
"The courtyard is actually nice," he said, peering through a window as they made their way back.
"Yeah,It is"
They were almost back at the classroom when Haru suddenly grabbed his arm.
"Hey-isn't that Sato and others?"
Yui looked. It was.
"Some of our middle school people are here," Haru said already turning in their direction.
"Yours," Yui said. "Not mine."
"Don't start. They always tried to talk to you."
"Yeah, and I always had to sit there and listen to whatsoever they were going about."
"I know what it's called."
Haru gave him a look."Do you want to come or not."
"Go.I'll head back to class."
"You sure?"
"Haru."
"Okay okay-I'll be back before the bell." he was already walking towards them."Don't sit there staring at the wall!."
Yui turned toward the classroom without answering.
As yui was on way too classroom, haru turned and raised his hand and Sato looked ,his breaked into a grin as he waved back.
"Haru-how come you ended up here?" Sato asked as he got closer.
"It's close to my apartment and it's a great school. "Haru shrugged "beside Yui also here".
"now that's make sense."
They fell into easy conversation the way people do when they haven't seen each other in a while but picking up back doesn't take much effort. If was comfortable. Normal.
Then Sato said something, a name, just a name. And everything else around Haru-the noise, the corridors, the people -went quiet. Haru felt chill and forget everything he had been laughing about.
"What do you mean" Haru said. His voice came out quieter than he intended.
"I don't know much either -I just heard about it a little while ago."
"Is he here? RIGHT NOW!?"
"no no " Sato shook his head." just calm down bro- he probably won't be around for while"
Haru let out a slow breath. The tension in his shoulder dropped slightly but it didn't disappear completely. He knew that yui need to know and be cautious about it. Haru said his goodbye quickly, the easy smile still his face even though something behind his eyes had shifted. He turned and headed back towards classroom.
Yui had already been back few minutes . He'd walked in,dropped into his seat and turned towards the window without much thought thought . The courtyard below was half full of students.
Reiji saw him the moment he walked back in. He was alone,seating near the window ,facing away completely unbothered by everything around him. The rest of the classroom was scattered with people with no one paying attention to to anything in particular. That was it. simple enough. He walked towards him without thinking too much about it.
"What are you looking at-anything good out there?."
yui looked at him with confusion because he was surrounded with people, so why talk to him. He then looked out of the window again."
"No."
"Then why are you starting at it."
"Do you have any problems with it."
Reiji couldn't answer anything. He just looked stunned.
Haru heard the bell from the corridor. He'd been heading back already- the moment he said bye to Sato, his feet moving on their own while his head was somewhere else entirely. He pushed open the classroom door and walked in, and the thing he did without even meaning to was look for Yui.
Yui was sitting at his seat, facing the window, completely unbothered. And standing near him was Reiji, who looked like he wasn't sure he had ended up there.
Haru took one look at the situation and understood what had happened. he didn't even need to ask.
he walked over.
"Reiji-Kun, hello."
Reiji blinked -like someone pulling themselves back into the room -and nodded once. "hey". Then without much else he turned and walked back to his seat as students began filling back in.
Haru dropped into his chair and looked at Yui.
"What did you say to him"
"He asked why I was staring out of window" Yui paused. "I told it wasn't his problem"
Haru put hands on his face. "He was just trying to talk to you."
"I know."
"and."
"I didn't ask him to."
Haru exhaled slowly. There was no winning this argument and he knew it. he let it go as he had something else on his mind anyway. something heavier. he'd tell Yui after school -not here, not now, not in the middle of everything.
For now, he just looked forward as the teacher walked in.
