Chapter Text
Hirose walked into the auditorium feeling nervous yet happy. It was his first day of high-school. He knew he had a lot of friends in his class, but he still couldn’t help but be nervous for the new chapter of his life.
He shook his head, trying to get rid of his nervousness.
Hirose stared forward and couldn't help but wonder how long the orientation would last. He was already so bored.
He turned around and saw his friend, Todoroki! He smiled and waved at him. Seeing his long time friend calmed his nerves.
This was going to be a great year.
***
When Aiki got home, he was surprised to see that his sister, Saho, was actually home.
“Hey, Aiki! How was your first day as a high-school student?” Saho cooed. Aiki scoffed.
“Ugh, stop it, I'm a highschooler now. I'm not a little kid anymore,” Aiki grumbled, going to his room.
“No matter how old you get you’ll always be my baby brother~” Saho called out to him.
“I hope a roach is in your room!” He yelled before slamming his door closed.
He plopped down on his bed, smiling despite his yelling.
Even though she was annoying, I'm glad she was able to stop being so busy to congratulate me.
***
Hirose eventually got used to going to high-school. It had been a month since he started high-school and he no longer cared about having a good first impression. He cut out all the stuffy crap and started acting more like himself. He wore his bag like how westerners did. He also stopped buttoning his shirt up all the way and started forgetting his homework.
“Hirose, let’s walk home together,” said Mukai, a friend in his class.
“Oh right,” he laughed. “Gimme one sec.”
“Staying late again?”
“I sorta forgot about yesterday’s homework.”
“You do homework, nerd?” His friend joked.
“Of course, I do.”
Sure, he wasn't the best student, but he did care about his grades.
Mukai rolled his eyes with a smile and wandered away.
Even though his friend was joking, he didn't want him to wait too long. He knew his other friend, Takeuchi, would get annoyed soon, so he wrote as fast as he could.
While writing he accidentally knocked his eraser off his desk. He quickly finished writing his sentence before going to pick it up.
Almost done, he thought to himself as he stretched. He kept writing, the sounds of people moving in the class floating around him.
“Hey!” Takeuchi yelled, “We’re gonna leave you!”
“I'm almost done,” Hirose yelled, knowing he wasn’t joking, “I promise it won’t take much longer!”
“Alright, we’ll wait outside!” Takeuchi said, already heading out.
“Cool, thanks!” Hirose smiled.
He was almost done. He quickly scribbled down an answer for the past question which was probably wrong but he didn't really care too much. He closed his notebook and stood up.
“Done-zo!”
Hirose turned around, and came face to face with a classmate. He had dark hair that covered his small eyes and a mysterious demeanor.
For a brief moment they just stared at each other before the boy felt awkward? … or something of the sort cause he ran to the back of the classroom.
Huh? Hirose thought to himself slowly turning away after the strange interaction.
He grabbed his bag and started to head out when...
“Oh, hey Hirose!” A girl's voice called, “You dropped something!”
He turned around and saw his handkerchief on the ground. The girl bent down to grab it when the same dark haired boy ran as fast as he could toward her. He leapt toward it and stomped on it with all his weight.
Hirose simply stared in shock at the foot on his handkerchief. The classmate then slowly removed his foot from the handkerchief, grabbed it and lifted it toward him.
“You dropped this, take it.” He said with a menacing expression, holding it out awkwardly.
The girl muttered the obvious question, “So why did you step on it?”
Hirose slowly took the now dirty handkerchief with a confused, “Thanks?”
When he looked up at the guy, he sprinted right past him and out of sight.
He was quite strange.
Hirose soon walked out and joined his impatient friends who had been waiting.
“Finally!” Takeuchi complained, “What took you so long?”
The three of them began walking away from school.
“Yeah, Hirose. I didn't know you struggled so much with school.” Mukai teased him.
“I actually finished it as soon as you guys left,” Hirose defended himself, “but I got caught up with a classmate. She just-”
“She?” Takeuchi smiled. “I didn't know you had game, Hirose!”
Hirose gave a cordial laugh; he had never been much of a fan of these types of topics.
“How did she look?”
Hirose hummed thinking, “Um, a little like Hamaoka with lighter-”
“Yuuka!” Takeuchi smiled. “You think they’re friends?”
Mukai laughed, “Just because two people look similar doesn't mean they're friends.”
“If they are, you gotta hook me up with Yuuka! You know I've liked her for so long~” Takeuchi ranted, “I've thought about it, our kids would look beautiful!”
Hirose gave a more strained laugh.
Mukai laughed, “That’s assuming, Hirose is able to go out with this girl and that they are friends.”
“Trust me, she's not interested in me.”
“Oh come on buddy, have a little more hope.” Mukai said, putting his hand over Hirose’s shoulder.
Hirose laughed. He wasn't too sad about it which was strange but it made life a little easier for him.
***
Hirose was headed to the Home-EC room with miso paste in hand when he realized he was missing something.
What was it?
He thought for a second.
Ah. He needed an apron.
Hirose checked the time. Just great. He was already late. He ran back, grabbed the stupid apron, and sprinted to class. At least no teachers stopped him for running.
He ran in, laughing.
Man, he was such a mess.
“Sorry I'm late everyone!”
He ran over to his friends.
“What gives?” Takeuchi complained.
“I forgot my apron.”
“If you never showed up, we would have had to make steamed tofu instead of soup!”
Hirose sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. He then buttoned up his apron and rolled up his sleeves.
“Nice.” Hirose said. “Ya ready? Let's get cooking!”
He held two bottles of sauce trying to see which one he needed to use later.
“Here, use this to measure out the sauce.” Mukai said, handing him a measuring cup.
“Hey, can you cut this?” Takeuchi said, handing Mukai a bit of tofu.
The three of them soon fell into an efficient pattern of preparing the food. While Hirose was staying focused on cooking (for safety reasons obviously), he couldn’t help but notice the same dark hair classmate from before.
He was so clumsy. He spilled the cooking supplies all over the floor, he got pepper everywhere (which made both of them sneeze), and burnt his hand on a hot pot. He ended up sitting out of the cooking for a bit, to the relief of his groupmates.
Hirose watched the poor guy curl up in a corner before returning his full attention to cooking.
Hirose was cutting an onion and listened to Takeuchi rant about girls and make dirty jokes when he noticed what he did to the onion.
When he lifted it up, it stayed together. It looked like how fancy chefs cut things.
Hirose chuckled a little while Takeuchi cackled.
The three of them chatted and had a great time when the teacher called their attention.
“Everyone, stop for a second. I need to step out, so do stuff that doesn’t require fire or knives.”
And just like that the teacher was gone.
Takeuchi voiced what everyone was thinking (as usual), “Huh? What are we supposed to do? We can’t do anything without fire or knives.”
Hirose put on his thinking cap (as westerners say).
“Hmm. Want to measure out the seasonings first?”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Um, I think they’re over here,” The girl with glasses said.
What was her name again? Oh right, Kawamura.
“Then what?”
“I don’t know, but let’s just do it.”
Oh Takeuchi, never focused on the moment, Hirose thought to himself.
“Hirose, do you know where the measuring cup that was here went?”
Hirose grabbed a bottle still processing Kawamura’s words.
“Huh? It’s not over there?”
“Huh?” She looked back seeing if she missed it but she didn't.
“I'll go grab another one.” Hirose gave a gentle wave and headed off to go get another cup; he heard her stutter a thanks.
He wandered around looking. “Hmm, measuring cup, measuring cup.”
That's when he saw it.
“E-Everybody, look!” The whole class gathered around.
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s up?”
“What is it?”
“O-Octopuses? Why?”
He watched the strange creatures wriggle their tentacles.
“And they’re alive.”
“Seriously? Why?” Takeuchi remarked with an excited curiosity.
They observed the squirmy little guys, when the same black haired guy ducked under the crowd and right up close to the octopuses.
“Were we cooking octopus today?” Hirose asked, confused.
“I don’t think so. M-Maybe in the cucumber salad?”
“But wouldn’t it be on the menu?”
“I guess but I don’t understand why else they would be here.”
The people bickered on why the small creatures were there while Hirose watched the black haired fellow obsess over them.
“Hey, somebody go touch them.” Takeuchi joked.
All the girls pulled back in disgust but one person listened. It was the same classmate who was obsessed with them before. He stuck his hand in and grabbed one.
“Come here, Mrs. Octopus.” He cooed.
As the students went through a range of emotions, Hirose simply stared. He wondered what it would be like to hold one. The guy holding one briefly turned around but he didn't pay much attention to him.
He only lived once, right?
He walked up to the sink and grabbed one of the slimy pals. The octopus touched his face in a way that reminded him of what his sister used to do.
“Wow, they’re all slippery.”
Most people would be bothered by the stickiness, but not him. The students behind him stared in awe.
“They’re actually pretty cute, now that I look closely. Right?” He asked his black haired octopus buddy.
Hirose cooed over the small creature moving in his arms. Even when it sucked at his arm it was cute.
The class took a minute but they slowly began to see the charm of the cuties in cooking class.
Mukai then reminded them, “But we’re gonna cook ‘em after this, right?”
The class remembered the truth in horror. They all muttered about how they didn’t want to kill them now. Hirose also voiced his disappointment.
“Yeah, I do feel bad about eating them.” He couldn’t even bear the thought of killing the alien-like creatures now. “Okay, let’s help them escape.”
The majority of the class was surprised at his plan but he was serious.
“S-Should we find a store that sells tropical fish?”
“We have to hide them until after school.” Hirose placed the little octo with his friends.
Mukai was the realist as always, “But they’ll dry out if we just leave them somewhere.”
“Oh, you’re right.” Hirose looked for a solution when he saw the sink; he put them directly under the faucet. “Okay. There we go. Let’s put some water in there.”
He started to turn it on but a screech from someone stopped him. “No! No! No! No! Freshwater will kill them!”
Hirose stopped from the shock of the new knowledge. A single drop of the lethal liquid fell on their head. Everyone in the room held their breath before realizing the little guys were okay.
“I didn't know that. Thanks.”
“Um, well…”
Hirose looked at the guy for a bit waiting for him to continue speaking. When he didn’t, Hirose turned back to the creatures he almost killed.
“Sorry, guys.”
“Can't we just make saltwater? We've got salt.”
“Nah, I bet we need the real stuff.”
Hirose stared, wondering what they were going to do.
The class muttered to itself.
“What are we supposed to do?”
“We need to hurry or the teacher will be back.”
“And then …”
Everyone shuddered at the thought of their fate. The whole class discussed ideas on how to save the creatures when…
Shhhitt!
The door slid open and a different teacher walked in, “Hello all.”
Everyone spread out in front of the creatures trying to prevent the teacher from seeing the creatures. Hirose knew it looked silly but he still stretched his body in front of the cuties.
“What are you guys doing?”
“U-uh, nothing. W-What are you doing here?”
“Mr. Suzuki, the biology teacher, asked me for a favor.”
He peered behind them and despite their best attempts to hide them …
“You know I can see them, right?”
It then was explained to them that the marine animals were brought in for observation but escaped. The teacher took them out of the class and back where they belonged.
Hirose and a couple others were impressed by the creatures' escapade but they didn't have time to discuss it because their Home-EC teacher returned.
Hirose was getting back to cooking when he noticed the classmate who saved the creatures was still sitting away from everyone.
He walked over to him unnoticed. “Hey!”
As soon as the boy looked up and noticed him he shot up. “H-Hirose?”
This guy was quite shy.
“What are you doing here in the corner?”
“Uh, um, well. S-S-S-Sorry about b-b-b-before.”
He was also quite funny.
“Why are you apologizing? These octopuses survived thanks to you. Thanks.” He laughed.
The guy's presence was quite calming. Maybe his excessive nervousness made Hirose a little less nervous.
“I touched an octopus for the first time. It's kinda addictive.”
“Y-Yeah.”
“The way you can feel'em sucking on your skin was neat.” He continued. “See?” He held out his arm, which was now dotted with little red circles. “It left marks.”
“A-Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I'm fine. Hey you got some, too.” Hirose laughed. He was glad they were talking.
The guy lifted his hand. “O-Oh, you’re right.”
“Oh here, too.” He looked at the little pattern in awe.
The classmate spoke up, “U-Um … W-W-Would you …”
Hirose turned to the boy and noticed it. “you b-b-be …”
One more octopus was still here!
“What are you doing?” Hirose asked, lifting it out of the sink. “You need to get back. There's still one octopus here. I'll take it back to Mr. Suzuki.”
“O-Okay.”
Hirose turned back to him. “Were you about to say something?”
“N-N-No! Nothing at all!”
“No?” Hirose didn’t really believe him but the two of them weren't close enough for Hirose to keep prying. Even if he was going to ask, his thoughts were cut off when the octopus in his hand suddenly inked the boy.
While Hirose did feel bad, he couldn't help but burst out laughing, “Your face is all black!”
The boy squirmed around, probably a little embarrassed.
“You sure do have bad luck.” Hirose laughed.
The guy pulled his apron up and wiped his face. Hirose looked back down at the little cutie in awe. “Octopuses are incredible. I'm going to go put him with his friends now.”
“O-Oh. Okay. S-See you later.” He mumbled as Hirose left.
Hirose walked down the hall thinking about the strange guy. He sure was interesting. Hirose found himself looking forward to future conversations.