Chapter Text
Noriaki wasn’t particularly keen on moving to a new home. Especially with how lonely he had been before.
All his efforts to make friends were dashed, but even then Noriaki didn’t put in that much effort to make any friends. “They have good schools there, you remember how you said you weren’t challenged enough back at your old school,” his father tells him, eyes cast upon the day’s newspaper. The words felt empty but Noriaki ducked his head and gave a nod of understanding. He did mention wanting to feel more challenged after all. His mother gives a smile at him and pats his shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll make new friends, this move will help.” The words are hopeful but Noriaki can sense the doubt hidden behind it. Both of them know how he only makes acquaintances, never friends. The automated responses when someone asks him a question, the polite smiles that only ever show polite intention and never actual friendliness or kindness. Those were never aspects of gaining a friend and Noriaki knew that.
This move threw Noriaki into a sense of uncertainty. He was going to enter high school in a foreign environment with no one to speak to. A tinge of regret fills his chest as he quietly curses himself for studying so hard to get into the harder high schools. But it couldn’t be helped, Noriaki loved the challenge that school brought and the idea of being overloaded by work to avoid others was all the more appealing. His solitude became a second nature to him, often retreating into it by a certain bow of his head and casting his eyes on a book or even a video game that he sneaked into school.
That uncertainty only grew as the final boxes were packed into the car and the moving truck drove off in front of them, heading towards their new home. Noriaki crosses his arms in slight discontent, gazing out the window to see the town he grew up in disappear from his life. After the last house left his sight, he slumps his shoulders and sits more comfortably in the car seat. His eyelids felt heavy as he began to doze off, listening to the quiet conversation his parents in front of him were having.
His eyes flutter open as the car slows to a stop and the familiar voice of his mother is coaxing him out of the drowsiness of sleep. Noriaki stretches his arms, the familiar soreness from countless trips on a plane or train coming back to him with a dull ache. He opens the car door and steps out, shaking off the remnants of sleep and picking up a box placed on the sidewalk marked “Noriaki Kakyoin”. He picks up another box, this one much lighter, to avoid being reprimanded for only bringing his belongings up. Noriaki enters the home and sets the lighter box down before going upstairs to his new room. He sets his box down before opening the door. The room reveals itself to be one that seems to be way too large for Noriaki’s taste, even with the furniture already moved in. He wonders how his parents managed to get such a large home especially with it being in the outskirts of Tokyo. Noriaki strides up to the window and opens it, letting in the fresh air that the room desperately needed. He lets out a breath, taking in the night air and listening to the crickets chirping below him. His arms rest on the windowsill and he feels himself slowly falling asleep, lashes dipping to where he can barely see what’s in front of him before hearing his father knock on the door. Noriaki jolts up and straightens his posture, the all too familiar pink of embarrassment dusting his cheeks.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” Noriaki mutters, ducking his head down in shame. Even though Noriaki spent the car ride sleeping, it seemed that the peacefulness of night had coaxed him into rest once more. His father is forgiving and waves it off. Noriaki’s cheeks are still pink from embarrassment, but he gives a smile in response.
“Help us bring up a few more boxes and you can sleep.” His father’s voice is quiet and calm, as if he were also taking in the peaceful night scene. Noriaki nods and goes down the stairs to pick up a few more boxes. It seemed like his mother had already put away all the kitchenware and was now working somewhere else within the house. Noriaki picks up a few boxes of clothing, mainly his own clothing some his mother’s, and brings it upstairs. He huffs and decides to bring up the rest of the boxes containing clothing. Noriaki was too focused on finishing up that the thought of his arms being sore tomorrow didn’t bother him. His father gives him a smile of gratitude as Noriaki passes him with the last two boxes and sets them down in his parents bedroom. Satisfied with what he’d done, Noriaki retreated to his bedroom and fell onto his bed and slept, the weight of exhaustion overtaking him.
Noriaki awakes to a turtle dove cooing outside, the sound bringing a smile to his face as he got out of his bed to look outside the window. He hears the sound of footsteps downstairs, telling him that his parents were already up and moving. He rubbed his eyes as he walked down and entered the kitchen. His mother was cooking breakfast, humming a song that Noriaki easily recognised. “We’re going uniform shopping today, Nori,” his mother says over her shoulder. “School starts next week.” Noriaki’s face pales upon hearing how soon school was going to start. The prospect of a new school filled him with anxiety, the high school he was about to enter would decide how he acted possibly for the rest of his school career. Would he even be able to make any friends at that? “I’ll buy you new earrings too,” she adds, dropping the chopped up green onion into the miso soup she had been cooking for today’s breakfast. Noriaki blinks a few times before processing what she just said. A smile then spreads across his face, perhaps new earrings was an opportunity to make something of himself.
“Thanks, mom,” Noriaki grins, feeling somewhat alleviated from the anxiety that plagued him earlier. “Is the bathroom ready? I wasn’t able to take a shower last night,” he asks. His clothes smelled of sweat from last night’s ‘exercise’ and Noriaki didn’t feel like smelling like that all day. His mother nods in response and tells him that if he wanted to take a bath he was welcome to. Noriaki then leaves the kitchen to retrieve some clean clothing and returns to enter the bathroom. He slides the door open and slides it shut, setting his clothes upon the washer. The glass door to the bathroom is speckled with droplets of water and opaque with steam, Noriaki opens the door and enters, surrounded by the humid air coming from the warm bath. He takes a shower and places himself in the bath, the hot water relaxing all his muscles. The soreness from his arms reduces itself down to a dull ache and he sighs in content. After spending a few minutes in the bathtub, he gets out and dries himself. Looking at his hair, he trails a couple fingers through the blonde locks and frowns. If Noriaki wants to make an impression the first day of school, he might as well change this hair colour too. He dresses himself and exits. Noriaki sees his mother waiting for him to come and eat breakfast, so he ducks his head and eats quickly. His mother gets up and leaves to start the car, Noriaki follows after and gets in the front seat, looking out the window to see all the unfamiliar houses as his mother starts driving. He huffs for a moment, eyes trailing over all the new shops as his eye catches on a hair salon that they pass by. “Can I dye my hair a different colour?” Noriaki asks quietly. Noriaki’s cheeks flush red in embarrassment as he soon realises that he asked that out loud. He steals a glance towards his mother and draws his lips in a tight line, awaiting her reaction.
“Well, it’s your hair,” she replies. “If you think you won’t regret it, I can’t stop you.” Noriaki lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. A wave of relief comes over him and the feeling of embarrassment goes away. Noriaki spends the rest of the drive looking out the window, half listening to his mother sing along to some Japanese song that just came out recently, and thinking about how his high school career would be. The feeling of uncertainty rises within him again and he shifts in his seat in an attempt to get more comfortable. Noriaki knows himself that he will have to tackle that uncertainty head on but with school starting so soon, he feels unprepared and vulnerable. It’s as if he were thrown into a video game and forced to fight the final boss immediately without any buildup or preparation to get good at the game. The car stops and his mother gets out, where he follows after. She leads him into the town’s local gakuran shop. Leather backpacks are lined up on a table in front of the store, the familiar uwabaki that every school requires stacked up in boxes tucked away against a wall. Noriaki catches sight of other students that seem to be entering high school and lowers his gaze down to avoid catching eye contact with anyone. He instead looks at the variety of gakuran that the high schools in the area require. An emerald green gakuran catches his eye and he walks over to it to see the sizing. His mother chuckles and places a hand on Noriaki’s shoulder. “Sorry, Noriaki, your school uniform colours aren’t green,” she says apologetically. He frowns before turning to the other uniforms, shaded either a boring blue or plain black. His mother picks out the black one and checks the sizing. “We’ll have to get you a bigger one since I know you’re going to grow...” Noriaki only listens and takes the uniform to try it on.
Noriaki walks towards the back, weaving through the other upcoming students and reaches the fitting rooms. The time Noriaki had reached the first room, the door swung open and Noriaki steps back to avoid being hit. He takes in a sharp breath of surprise before looking up to the tall figure looming over him. His cheeks light up in embarrassment and he bows down slightly to apologise.
“Don’t worry about it,” the boy says, his blue eyes focused on Noriaki for only a second. He tips his black baseball cap down and walks off, a large black gakuran in his hand. Noriaki feels his heart skip a beat during that split second the boy looked at him but Noriaki soon shook it off and went into the fitting room to try on his gakuran. After swiftly putting it on and seeing how loose it was, he nods and decided this was a good fit for the next few years and exited. Noriaki approaches his mother and tells her it was the correct fit and asked her to pay while he waited outside at the car. He looks around the store to see if the tall blue eyed boy was still around but didn’t find him. Letting a small sigh of relief out, Noriaki left the store. He sits in the car for only a few short moments until his mother opens the driver’s door with a bag that contained the gakuran. Those few moments were all he needed to realise that he felt something after seeing the boy. He couldn’t place what it exactly was.