Restart | Akaashi Keiji

〚10〛

The familiar scenery of of old high school, from many... years ago in the familiar classroom in Australia, where I used to eat with my friends. I see them, talking. I see them, noticing me. Waving at me. Telling me to sit.

The sound of a snap. I'm still at the same place. But the classroom is empty. No traces of anyone, even hiding. I walk out the classroom, to the next. I see a lot of students. They were talking amongst themselves, until one of them spotted me. They opened  their mouth, saying something I couldn't make out. The next second, the whole group was looking at me. No, not just looking. They were glaring. An arm brushed past my shoulder, there they were. My... friends? They didn't say anything to me. They were being cold, they were acting like I didn't exist.

What did I do this time? I can't think of anything...

The familiar sound of my ringtone took me out of my dream. Can you even call it that, if it's just a memory of my past?

The sun shone past my curtains, illuminating my room completely. I squinted my eyes and reached for my phone, a notification.

Akaashi: I'm outside, let's walk to school together. - 7.30 AM

I dragged my feet out of my bed, heading to my front door. The figure of the Akaashi brings me a little comfort after the bad dream from before, just a little bit. Somehow he looks even better today in his uniform. I couldn't hold back my smile as he noticed me opening the door.

"Come in, I just woke up so I have to get ready. And I definitely have shorts on today." I called out, and mentally cringed at myself for adding the unnecessary sentence at the end. 

He was caught off guard and a tinge of pink showed on his cheeks, and the sight of that caused some sort of unexplainable feeling in my heart. He sat down calmly on the couch, "I'll wait for you here then." And he was back to his usual stoic expression.

I went back to my room to quickly get ready. 'Your hair looks nice like this.'  The sudden memory of his words lingered in my mind as I noticed that I completely forgot to take off the braids he did on me yesterday. I think he meant he liked the curls that my braids left on my hair... I shook my head and took off the hair ties on my braids, gently combing through my hair with my fingers to reveal soft curls. I guess my hair does look alright like this. I put on my blazer and went out to the living room.

"I'm ready." I informed him and he looked up from his phone.

He gave a simple nod, "I made you something to eat, just something simple." He reached into his bag to reveal an onigiri. I thanked him and reached out for the onigiri.

I put on my school shoes and we headed out my door. "How's your feet by the way. Can you walk?" He asked, gesturing at my shoes.

"Mhmm, I don't feel it as much with these shoes."

"If you can't walk, I do have a bike at home. I could go grab it real quick."

I weighed my options for a second, carefully thinking. I could walk, slower than normal, but I could still walk. But if I get on his bike... Doesn't that mean we'd be doing something cheesy like having me hug him or something? I mean, not like I haven't already done that, by getting that piggyback ride... But doing that on the way to school is asking for myself to get murdered, probably.