Chapter Text
American highschools may be easy for Americans themselves, right?
For Eiji, it won't be.
The foreign boy stood outside of the school entrance, hands on bag straps and mouth producing pants. Usually (and obviously), people would be inside by now so they wouldn't be running more and more late to class. But Eiji was zoning out and contemplating whether he should enter or not, and since he was kinda nervous too. But then in a flash, he snapped back to reality and ran inside. "Shit,"* muttered the boy.
Which class was it..? Math..? Science or English?* Eiji thought, wandering around. In Japan, you couldn't run in the halls, so he wasn't doing that right now. "Oh right, it was English."* said Eiji, striding towards the classroom.
Eiji opened the door. Heads turned, class became silent. If it was night right now, there would be crickets. "Uhm.. sorry for being late." the boy straightened, slightly bowing his head. He was never late to school—atleast not in Japan.
The teacher for English, Mr. Varishikov, cleared his throat and excused it. "It's alright. Just introduce yourself. You're new here, yes?" asked the tall man, Eiji staring through his thin-framed glasses.
"Uh, yes." Eiji turned to face the class, trying not to set his gaze on the floor. "Hello, my name is Eiji Okumura and I am from Japan. Please take care of me." the boy said, bowing a bit.
Then, the class erupted into hi's and hello's. Even Mr. Varishikov was shocked since the class was supposedly never eager to greet someone like this when they introduced themselves—especially not foreign students.
"You can go sit over there." Mr. Varishikov instructed, pointing to an empty seat by the window which was next to a boy, who was staring into space. God, was that person beautiful.
Eiji nodded, keeping his head low as he walked towards his designated seat. Before he knew it, whispers started to spread like wildfire. Something like "His accent's thick", "He looks cute", "Is he really a senior?" and such. Eiji heard faint lines of the conversations, but chose to ignore it.
Eiji sat down, and as soon as he did, the light-haired boy turned, not staring at the window anymore. Did I do something wrong?* Eiji wondered, concerned as he slightly tilted his head. He hopes he didn't do anything wrong. God knows whatever he has done.
It was the end of class now, and people were already moving on to their second class. There were only two people left inside the classroom now, with Eiji still putting his stuff inside his bag. Some jingle sounds of small keychains reached Eiji’s ears, and he turned his head to see the guy next to him standing up.
“Ah, wait!” with the last sound of a zipper, Eiji followed after his seatmate.
“What is your name?” asked Eiji. The blonde then turned around, and both eyes met. Jade eyes…* Eiji thought. Those pair of eyes were beautiful.
“…Ash.” The boy muttered, then left the classroom quickly. Eiji stood there quietly, watching as he walked away. Not only were his eyes on the back of Ash’s head, but the custom-made shrimp avocado salad keychain and banana keychain on his Converse bag too. Was that guy hungry while making that chain choice?
Eiji also left the classroom and noticed that Ash was going in a different path. Seems like they won’t be going into the same class. But why did Eiji feel quite disappointed? That was something he couldn’t figure out too.
Not wanting to waste any time, he just walked away too. But Ash was still on his mind as he walked to his next class, even if they just talked/met eachother a while ago. Forget it, it’s nothing special.* Eiji thought.
A while later, it was already lunch. In Japan, students would have to eat in the classroom, so Eiji was surprised that he had to go to the cafeteria now. Well, he still brought his own lunchbox/bento.
As Eiji was looking down while walking in the hallway heading to the cafeteria with one earphone plugged in his ear and the other one just in his pocket to still be aware of his surroundings, his shoulder accidentally bumped against someone. I guess this is what happens when you leave an available ear, but zone out either way.
“Sorry.” Eiji said, turning around a bit to bow apologetically and was about to leave when suddenly his forearm got grabbed by the person he bumped shoulders with.
“Hey! You’re the new kid, right?” said the dude with the striking purple mohawk, sunglasses and yellow jacket, grinning. Who wears sunglasses indoors?
“Yes.” nodded a curious Eiji, wondering who this guy was.
“Great! I’m Shorter. Wanna sit with me and my friend at the cafeteria? I promise ya, he’s nice.” exclaimed Shorter, letting go of Eiji’s forearm.
“I would love to.” Eiji smiled, but at the same time wondering if he made a new friend already. This guy seemed like an easy, outgoing person though.
The two walked to the cafeteria together side-by-side, and pushed open the door to see students already sitting down or either still standing up, doing whatever God-knows-what.
Soon, Shorter spotted his friend sitting down on one of the lunch tables that’s quite in the center of the cafeteria, meaning that there would still be noise. Eiji recognized the person sitting down. ‘Ash’.
The two sat down together on the table and Eiji started to speak up. “It’s you again.” muttered the Japanese boy, folding his arms on the table after sitting down.
Ash looked up from his book and glanced at Shorter first, who was giving an encouraging grin to talk to the new kid (A.k.a. Eiji) which he eye-rolled internally at and then looked at Eiji.
A simple “Yeah.” was all Ash could mutter, then he set his book aside and pulled out his own lunch. Atleast a single-word answer was better than getting ignored completely.
Shorter leaned over to Eiji, whispering in his ear as Ash was distracted. “Don’t worry about him, he’s just.. like that.” muttered the purple-haired boy.
Eiji nodded, taking a mental note of that.
Soon, they all started to eat their own lunch. Silence filled their table, just faint chewing sounds coming from the mohawk bastard, which Ash described him as. Sometimes Shorter would eat quietly, sometimes he wouldn’t.
Eiji thought that it was too silent, and that the sound of three gongs being smacked at once couldn’t even reach someone’s ears, so he decided to spark up a conversation. “So, Ash..” mumbled Eiji, fidgeting with his utensils. “I saw your keychains. I like them.”
Ash perked up, not expecting Eiji to talk to him. “Uhm.. thanks. Also, your Jansport has nice accessories too.” replied the American. He was talking about the Chiikawa plush keychain and the fish keychain that was hanging onto Eiji’s bag.
Eiji bought that fish keychain as a souvenir when he was sightseeing through Japan before moving to America. Originally he wanted a bunny keychain, but that fish was all there was at the store.
Shorter was watching the whole scene unfold upon him, and he wished he was eating popcorn right now instead of his usual lunch. Finally, they’re interacting. The Chinese-American thought.
Eiji felt a warm feeling spread through his chest, and Ash could swear that he’s seeing sparkles in his eyes right now as they made eye contact.
“Oh, thank you so much.” Eiji smiled, and God damn, if Ash said that what Eiji did just now wasn’t the cutest thing he ever saw throughout his 16 years of life, he’d be lying. He suddenly felt the want, no- need, to talk more. Who knew Ash would actually talk to the new kid?
“Actually, I bought a Converse bag for it to match my shoes.” exclaimed Ash, folding his arms on the table and leaning in more from across as he completely ignored his lunch’s existence.
Eiji’s smile widened, but before he could respond, some students started to approach their table, specifically going to Eiji, and started asking him questions like “Can you say something in Japanese?”, “What made you go to America?” and etc. Author can’t think of any more sentences.
Shorter watched with curiosity and took a glance at Ash, who seemed like he was waiting for the other students to leave so he could continue talking to Eiiji or either now tired of life.
The conversation with the other people and Eiji continued with the Japanese boy gaining more spark in his eyes as he was finally talking to more people in America (Either the spark was dimming or glowing because he was repeatedly getting asked to say some sentences in Japanese). Eventually, Ash started to pack up his lunch (That he barely touched) and was about to stand up.
With Eiji still distracted, Shorter started to speak up. “Hey, don’t you wanna wait for him to finish?” he suggested, but Ash just shrugged. His bestfriend knew that he wanted to say ‘No’ instead of doing that shoulder action. “Well, he’s occupied, so… Oh, and uh, look at the time! Lunch is almost ending.” Ash sputtered, pointing to his wrist with an imaginary watch on it.
Shorter wanted to say that Ash looks schizo doing that cringe cartoony wrist thing. Imagine sitting with your friends in the cafeteria and you see someone pointing on their wrist like they have their calendar on it and checks it daily when there’s practically nothing.
“But there’s still plenty of time left?” a confused Shorter said, tilting his head a bit. Ash bit his lip, browsing through his ‘Folder of Excuses’ folder inside his brain and couldn’t seem to find a good excuse. “Doesn’t matter. Uh, bye!” the blonde waved and scampered off.
Shorter wanted to let out a groan. God, how dumb his bestfriend was.
By the time Eiji was done talking and the group of students left their table, he turned to see Ash gone already.
“Oh, he left already?” a frowning Eiji mumbled.
Shorter nodded. He didn’t know what to tell Eiji; that his bestfriend was a dumbass, or lie and just tell him that Ash is a fast eater and just finished early.
“He said he needed to go,” explained Shorter.
Eiji sighed, a look of sadness or disappointment visible on his face. “Well then, let’s just eat.” he said, finally picking up his utensils.
Shorter agreed, taking a bite of his lunch.
What is going on in that blonde’s mind?