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Kakyoin Noriaki was, to outside eyes, a strange boy.
It’s not that he held a gloomy exterior, or was very intimidating in appearance. It was something you’d only realize about him if you got to spend a day or two with a schedule parallel to his own. Any of his classmates could give you a fairly good idea what to expect from him, however.
“Kakyoin? Oh, don’t try talking to him. He’s shy.”
“Kakyoin Noriaki? He keeps to himself. Don’t expect him to join in with group discussions.”
“Kakyoin’s super smart, but he’d never give you any help. He’s a loner.”
“Kakyoin is pretty cute, but he’s so… cold. No wonder he has no friends.”
“He’s weird.”
“He’s just shy.”
“He avoids people.”
Kakyoin had heard every variation of this under the sun, he reckoned. It wasn’t that he disliked other people, or had some sort of vendetta against the people he attended school with. They just didn’t understand him. They never would. He was polite and curt, but he made a point to stay detached in conversation, which was usually enough to discourage most. There were always new people once in a while, who’d try to befriend him. They’d ask what his interests were, or if he saw what so-and-so did earlier that day in the courtyard outside their school.
It was always the same. He gave short answers that didn’t prompt much to feed discussion.
In reality, he had many interests. He enjoyed his art classes very much, and most anything that he could do by himself. As of late, video games were a newfound solace. They let him forget about the rest of the world, in a way. The world that would never know him. Sometimes while playing after school, Hierophant Green, his only other friend in a sense, would appear and simply watch. There was something comforting about it. One time, he tried to play something with two players, with his companion controlling the second controller… but that hadn’t exactly turned out well.
As it turns out, it’s very difficult to compete with yourself, when you know all your own moves.
Anytime his parents would check in on him, Hierophant Green would disappear, whether literally or simply slinking into a corner of the room, out of sight, out of mind. It really had no need to, since his parents couldn’t see it like he could. They couldn’t even sense its presence. He’d experimented when he was younger… he tried to see if, maybe, there was a way to prove it exists to them. The furthest he went, was having it physically reach out and touch them. It was one morning during breakfast, where Hierophant Green had slithered under the table and placed a firm hand around his mother’s ankle. She hadn’t been fazed in the slightest, up until she attempted to stand. She stumbled, and in a flash of panic, he’d made his invisible companion release her. She’d brushed it off, stating she must’ve tripped over her own feet.
Had she not felt the hand? He didn’t know how this worked, exactly, but there should have been no mistaking what it was. But, she’d never made mention of it. In fact, it was never mentioned again - after the moment had passed, that was it. It was done.
He only tried it once more after that, but the action had spooked her at the time, causing her to cut her finger while preparing dinner one evening. He never attempted it again. It was not his intention to harm his own parents. They didn’t understand them, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care about them. After all, they raised him. They were family. The bond he probably should feel may not have been entirely there, but they were the next closest thing he had, to his Hierophant Green. He had to hold on to the few things he had, he figured.
When his parents had discussed plans for a vacation, they actively encouraged Kakyoin to speak up or make suggestions. His father had insisted that, since this was a family trip, everyone should share their input. It made sense, he supposed. Though the options were pre-chosen for him, it wouldn’t be that difficult to just give them the feedback they wanted, right? One that stood out to him, particularly because he’d recently been reading books about it for an assignment, was Egypt. Though it was hot and sunny compared to the other destinations in mind, it was ancient and full of wonders - the Pyramids of Giza, the Karnak temples, and even the much more recent Mosque of Muhammad Ali, were some of the ones that stood out to him among the numerous pages he’d flipped through, on a project where he was admittedly more interested in the images than the words accompanying them.
“Egypt would be nice to visit.” The words were softly-spoken, but enough to cut through the silence between his parents.
They were elated to see some participation from their son, and promptly agreed on the idea without much thought to it. It was truly as if there was never a choice on their end - it was ultimately going to be whichever Kakyoin spoke up about… though that didn’t bother him as much as it probably should have. While he enjoyed staying in his little bubble of comfort, he figured it would be nice to go out and see some new things in person. He didn’t need to speak with other people, or try to make friends while he was at it. It was something that could still be good for him. He’d get away from the mundaneness that was his school life for a little while.
Though it was self-imposed, it did become rather boring, to place all your focus and energy into schoolwork. To have the same, predetermined answers ready in the back of his mind for the same old questions people at school would ask him, just in case it was one of those days.
And in the end, he would always have Hierophant Green, if nothing else. That alone made him feel much more confident in the decision, when he’d begun to dwell on it that same night.
He’d never once dreamed, however, that choosing Egypt would set into motion a bizarre chain of events that would ultimately lead him to what he always wanted most, even if he refused to admit he wanted it - people he could finally believe he could connect with.
Friends.
Among other things.