Chapter Text
Most people can imagine how lonely it feels when you just moved to a new place and don't know anyone and have to start from scratch.
Meeting new people, befriending them, building up a reputation, join clubs, learning your way through the city or village or wherever.. all that jazz.
But few people can imagine how it feels to feel foreign and out of place in a city where you supposedly were born and spend every minute of your life in.
Few people can imagine how Katsuhira Agata felt every waking minute of his life.
His childhood friend Takashiro Chidori tried to understand him as much as she could but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get through him.
This hasn't always been the case.
Katsuhira used to be a cheerful child actually. Chidori just can't figure out what happened that changed him so much.
The cheerful happy child turned into a monotone bland teenager.
She had seen lots of other students going through weird phases, wanting to dye their hair or buying only black clothes.
Or they are like Hajime Tenga and beat up other kids and refuse to wear their school uniforms.
But she had never seen someone so uninterested in everything like Katsuhira.
But still she had asked him if they could meet up after school at his flat even though they lived right next to each other and still she tried to excite him for just something.
In the end they just did homework and then put on some TV.
Chidori found a rubber ball and threw it against the wall for what felt like hours, waiting for the sun to set so it wouldn't be rude to get up and leave anymore.
Wasn't this boring for Katsuhira?
Just sitting around, fiddling with hair and doing nothing really?
“Aren't you bored?” she dared to ask.
Katsuhira didn't stop his fiddling.
“Hmm.. No, not really. This show is really interesting”
His voice was flat as ever.
Chidori looked at the TV screen for a second. There was a documentary about whales.
She groaned.
Katsuhira stopped fiddling his hair and now fiddled with his socks instead.
“You don't have to force yourself to stay here. I won't feel lonely. You can go home if you want.”
Chidori got up.
“Okay then. If you need something, you know where you find me. Do you have something to eat for dinner?”
Katsuhira nodded. And gone she was.
The apartment was now silent except for the TV and the ticking of the clock in the kitchen.
Silent and warm.
Katsuhira spread himself out on the floor and looked up at the ceiling.
A fly was crawling around there. He could hear the faint rumbling of cars outside.
Was he bored? Maybe.
But nothing did excite him.
He could put on a movie or play some games but nothing really interested him. He could ask Tenga over, but even that loud guy couldn't manage to spark some interest in anything.
Nothing was interesting but there was also nothing that he found uninteresting.
If he could muster up the will to get up he could start anything.
He simply didn't wanted to.
That wasn't what boredom was, right?
A dog was barking outside.
It would be summer break at the end of the week. One month ahead of doing nothing.
School wasn't interesting either but it gave Katsuhira something to do and a certain rhythm in life in general.
He wondered what would happen if that was taken away.
Would he just end up being in bed all day?
He tried to remember what he did last year.
Ah, he and his parents were invited on a trip with some business partners.
During Christmas and New Years?
He guessed he spend those days with Tenga being dragged around through the city all day doing “fun stuff”.
He faintly remembers that they tried to go skiing one day and Tenga almost broke his foot.
He spend spring break in his room doing nothing. Somehow his disinterest in anything became worse over the last year.
How was he in junior high?
Katsuhira tried to remember but he couldn't.
Well, it's useless to think about stuff he can't remember anyway.
He would just try to be active as possible this summer so his parents wouldn't get too concerned. He had no idea when they would come back from their trip though.
Katsuhira got off and brushed some dust from his shirt. He should vacuum the floor. That would occupy him for some time.
It's normal to not be particularly invested in cleaning.
The next morning felt extremely slow for some reason. It had rained over night but it was still too warm to do anything.
On their way to school Chidori tried to get a conversation going but Katsuhira was silent as usual. Even more silent than usual, actually.
“Are you okay?” Chidori asked, not even expecting an honest answer.
“It was very hot so I didn't get much sleep..” Katsuhira mumbled.
Someone slapped him on the back.
“Katsuhira! How are you today? Isn't this a wonderful morning? Only four days left and we get one whole month of even more wonderful mornings!” boasted Tenga who crept up from behind.
Katsuhira almost crashed in the pavement from the force of the slap.
Tenga wasn't wearing his uniform again. The teachers just gave up on scolding him being happy that he shows up at all.
Unlike a certain other guy who had been absent the whole year.
No one had even seen his face. The class only knew his name, Yoshiharu Hisomu.
Even their teacher didn't know what he was up to.
Rumour has it, that their teacher tried to contact Hisomu many times, but to no avail. So they just decided that he would have to repeat the year and let him be.
At school everything was the same as usual.
Tsuguhito Yuta was surrounded by girls as usual, Tenga threatened some bullies to smash their faces as usual, Niiyama Niko acted like a big ditzy ball of fluff as usual and Chidori gave up to try to converse with Katsuhira as soon as they entered the classroom as usual.
Katsuhira let out a sigh as he sat down on his desk.
Today would be spectacularly unspectacular as usual.
He could ask Tenga to go to the mall with him and hang out there. It was air conditioned. Maybe he could look for a book or a movie that would occupy him for a few hours.
His train of thought was interrupted by their teacher Mr. Yamada who entered the class carrying an old box.
“We're going to try something different for your summer break” he announced, “Instead of giving you plain old homework to do I want you to do some soul-searching.”
Soul-searching?
The noise of 22 students whispering at once filled the classroom.
And then the door was slammed open and a really scrawny guy with purple hair and piercings entered.
The whispering died abruptly.
Everyone was staring at the guy who walked over to his desk and sat down like it's the most normal obvious thing to do for him.
“A..Ah! Hisomu-kun. Just as we thought you would never show up this year. I just wanted to explain your homework over summer.”
Hisomu cocked his head and smiled a bit.
“I didn't mean to interrupt. I am very sorry, Yamada-sensei.”
The classroom seemed to be filled with a thick eerie atmosphere. Tenga shuddered a bit.
Even Katsuhira was able to feel something. The little hairs in his neck stood up and he had the urge to stand up and walk out.
He couldn't understand where this was coming from.
Well, it wasn't an everyday occurrence that students who were always absent suddenly turned up and pretended like nothing ever happened.
This usually happens in anime or something. But never in Katsuhira's life.
Mr. Yamada was silent for a few seconds until he regained his composure and carried on explaining his idea.
“Okay, so I want you to do some soul-searching but not on your own but on a partner. In this box are snippets of paper with numbers on them and I want you to come up here draw one and then sit next to your assigned partner while I explain the rest of this project.”
Looks like there was one thing Katsuhira would be busy with during summer break already.
One after one the students walked up and drew numbers.
Katsuhira drew an eight. He looked around for a clue on who was his partner.
It wasn't Tenga, he was paired with some other guy.
It wasn't Niko, she was already sitting next to Chidori.
It wasn't Yuta either since he had two girls fighting over him.
Katsuhira was slightly disappointed.
He had hoped destiny would be good with him and he could have spend the summer with a friend but it seemed like he was paired with one of the people he barely spoke to.
One after one the students formed pairs and Katsuhira just sat down on his desk and waited for someone to approach him.
“I'd like a large number eight with extra sauce please” someone said right next to his ear with the most melodic voice Katsuhira had ever heard.
He turned around and looked in the face of the purpled haired guy. What was his name again? Hisomu.
He placed his desk next to Katsuhira and smiled at him.
It was meant to be friendly Katsuhira guessed but he felt slightly odd instead.
Like he was an insect waiting to be dissected by some overeager high school freshman.
Mr. Yamada spoke up again.
“Alright, now that everyone has found their partner, I will now tell you what your assignment actually is. I want you to get to know your partner and write about them. But you are not allowed to ask any questions. Spend as much time as you need with each other and do whatever you want and you need to do to get enough information to write about your partner. I want you to write at least a whole page. And remember, don't ask any questions, except when you plan on meeting up.”
Yuta raised his hand.
“Yamada-sensei, I have a question.”
Mr. Yamada nodded.
“So... how are you going to know if we really did not ask any questions? You're not there to monitor us.”
“I just put my trust in you.”
The whole class let out a collective sigh.
“I have another question, sensei! Why are you assigning this to us today? We could start today and be done when summer break comes up.”
Mr. Yamada chuckled slightly.
“You won't get this done in a few days, believe me. And if you start, that's okay for me. You will soon see that this is going to take much longer than you thought. Feel free to spend the remaining time of this lesson to talk to each other and discuss things with your partner. The 'No questions' rule applies now.”
Agitated murmuring filled the classroom again.
Withing a millisecond Tenga showed up on Katsuhira's desk and stared down Hisomu.
“You! You are assigned to be Katsuhira's partner so you better show up at school tomorrow again, okay? I don't want my friend to fail his homework just because you are a weird person who does who knows what instead of coming to school and learn like every rational person.”
“I feel like 'rational' is a very unfit word for you.” Katsuhira mumbled.
Tenga looked at his white-haired friend for a moment and then back to Hisomu who was trying to smile. It failed.
“Anyway! If I hear from Katsuhira that he can't do his homework assignment because you are missing in action I will sniff you out and flatten you!”
He was dragged back to his table by Yuta.
“Flatten you, you hear?”
“Flatten...?” Katsuhira repeated in confusion.
Hisomu still smiled his weak smile and turned around to his neighbour.
“So... We are not supposed to ask questions unless we are talking about meeting each other. Sadly I don't have much time but I think I can manage to take some time off a day or two.”
Such a busy high school student. Was he involved with shady stuff? Katsuhira wondered. Well, not like he really cared.
He didn't feel bad about meeting this guy but he was unsure about how much time they would actually have to spend together.
If they weren't allowed to ask questions they would just have to talk freely about themselves. Or spend enough time to be able to analyse the other.
Well, at least the summer holidays wouldn't be boring.
“We could meet right on Sunday at the park, if you want” Hisomu suggested “Around noon?”
Katsuhira nodded.
He could get something to eat on the way there so he wouldn't have to cook.
He wanted to ask if this meant that Hisomu would come to school every day from now on but he wasn't allowed to ask.
Not anymore. So someone else had to ask him instead.
Or Katsuhira would have to wait and see what happens.
The bell rang to the end of period.
Everyone went back to their regular seats.
“I'm looking forward to work with you, Katsuhira-kun” Hisomu said while dropping a shred of paper on Katsuhira's desk.
He opened it. It was an address. Hisomu's address he supposed.
That was an important thing to have, Katsuhira guessed. It would have been even better to have his e-mail address to save time to go there only to find out that Hisomu wasn't even at home, but this had to suffice for the time being.
Katsuhira was soon surrounded by Chidori and Tenga. And because Niko was a tad bit nosy, she joined too.
“Woooooooooooow!” she exclaimed “You get to work with the mysterious good-looking guy! How cool!”
Good-looking? Katsuhira didn't know about that. Maybe he would try to get a better look at Hisomu's face next time.
He only knew that that guy had a really nice voice.
It reminded him of wind chimes for a reason.
“What a weird coincidence that he happened to show up today” Chidori thought out loud.
“Maybe he is planning something behind our backs. Something dangerous?” Tenga proposed.
“Not very likely. Something like this doesn't happen in real life” Katsuhira said.
Real life wasn't that exciting. Most likely he just felt like going to school for no reason at all today. No deep reason behind it.
Whatever he did before coming maybe wasn't fulfilling enough any more.
Chidori scratched her neck.
“But he has a really odd aura. Katsuhira wouldn't notice but I did. I bet he's hiding something shady.”
Tenga slammed his fist on Katsuhira's desk.
“We will find out soon because our friend here will tell us everything, right?”
He glared at Katsuhira and grinned. His glasses were shining brightly in the sun.
“Yeah. Right. Of course I will tell you. But I really don't think that there is any reason to be concerned. He simply decided to show up today. That is all there is to it.”
Katsuhira glanced over to Hisomu who was playing with a ruler and seemed bored.
He looked so out of place for a reason. Sure, he wore the PE clothes but that wasn't why he seemed unfitting.
Katsuhira couldn't put his finger on it. But he guessed he would find out soon enough.