Emotionless

5 - Nothing to Lose

Rather than trying to slowly back out of the hallway and sneak downstairs without him knowing - which absolutely would've failed, by the way - I decided to pretend I'd only just gotten there. I took a few silent steps back, taking a breath to prepare myself before I walked forward normally, rounding the corner where he was staring out of the window. 

Keyword, 'was'. 

Instead of walking around the corner and greeting him as I planned in my head, I bumped directly into his chest and almost gave myself a heart attack. On the bright side, I didn't have to act surprised to see him. 

Meanwhile, Okami didn't look phased in the slightest. In fact, the determined, focused, and calculative look on his face just moments ago was completely replaced by a blank, yet somehow polite, stare. 

"Oh, hello there, Ms. Fujioka."

Even his greeting was normal and unphased. I, on the other hand...

"Oh! Uh...uh, hi there! Nice to see you again, Okami. You know, even though we've had all class together and we're about to go back to finish it," I awkwardly responded fake laughing - quite obviously - before attempting to salvage even the slightest bit of my dignity. "I'm sorry, you just really surprised me just now." 

He didn't even blink at my awkward laughter and gestures, not missing a beat when he responded, "my apologies, Ms. Fujioka." 

It still took me a second afterwards to realize he knew I was a girl. Great. Now I have to spend even more time with the idiots in the host club in order to figure out how he knows and make a plan to ask him not to tell anyone. Which is probably going to involve trapping him into having to spend more time with them. I'm so sorry. 

I didn't even see why it was such a big deal, but it was too tiring for me to argue with them, so I continue to hide my gender at school since they ask that of me. 

I was already planning to tell them what I overheard anyway...although I don't know about sharing what I saw. If he hides the eyepatch with his hair, it must be a personal secret, which I definitely do not deserve to tell. 

I didn't even realize I'd spaced out until Okami's head tilted at me in question. "Is there...something else bothering you?" He looked down at me with the same plain look, but I swore that looking into his eye it's like I could see years and years of knowledge, far beyond that of his age. Like I was peeking into different universes and seeing everything, but the cold distance in his eyes kept me from seeing anything at the same time. 

What had he been through to make his eyes so tragically cold like that? What does a person have to experience to walk around with a blank facade and keep himself away from everyone else? Kyoya only wishes he had this look. 

When I realized how close we were and that I was literally staring at his face in silence for the past 2 minutes, I felt my entire face go red as I fumbled over my next words. "No! Nope, nope, I'm fine, I'm just great aha, see I'm just grand! We should be getting to class now, huh? Bell's gonna ring soon so I'llseeyoutherebye." I rushed out the last few words in a jumble and tried to save myself by running away from this awkward conversation (well- fast walking, anyway) but it didn't work as I intended. 

"Yes, you're right. Here, I'll walk with you." 

And suddenly, he was right next to me like my own personal bodyguard and somehow keeping my fast-walking pace while seemingly making no effort at all. Who is this guy?

...

Okami

Fujioka was so incredibly close to seeing me get as defensive as I was trained to be, so incredibly close to seeing me as anything but a normal student here at the academy...or at least as normal as I can be, anyway.