༄ Heart of the Sea༄ ༄ A lull in the sea fanfic ༄

Chapter 7

"Good morning!" Yua and Tsumugu turn around, halting their conversation but Yua gets excited at the sight of the Shioshishio kids walking up to them. "Morning, everyone!" Yua smiles with a wave. Tsumugu, on the other hand asks Hikari how he was feeling today, considering the events that occurred the day before.

The group halts but Hikari seems to make his way past the two, "Okay... Thanks for yesterday, Tsumugu." His thank to the surface boy catches everyone by surprise. No one would ever expect Hikari to thank him, since it was so apparent that he didn't like Tsumugu, though it was a nice gesture since Tsumugu had kept Hikari's Ena hydrated yesterday after being knocked out.

"EEEHHHH?!" Everyone jumps, all eyes darting to Manaka who has just shouted in complete shock, "What is it, Mukaido-Chan...?" Yua asks.

Manaka answers the girls question but her attention is on Hikari who's standing in front of her, "I've been trying so hard not to call him by his first name!" Manaka frowns, walking up closer to her friend and standing in his face with a pout, "You said it was perverted, Hii-kun!"

Hikari leaps backwards, not expecting her to get so close to him while yelling, "It's okay if it's between guys!" 

This mere idea seems to baffle Manaka, confused at the hypocrisy of this whole ordeal. Kaname smiles, going along with what Hikari said and calling Tsumugu by his first name.

"But that doesn't make sense! Kaname calls Yua-Chan: Yua-Chan! That means he can't but I can since he's not a girl!" Manaka tries to argue, having heard the other Shioshishio boy address the surface girl by her first name.

Kaname stutters out in shock, not having expected to be put on the spot like that, "W-Well she said I could, and I don't know her last name so..."

Yua holds up her arms in the form of an 'X' above her head as her eyes close, "I told everyone they could call me Yua, my name's Yua!" She intervenes before winking and grabbing Tsumugu by the arm and pointing at him, "His name is Tsumugu, call him as you want!" Yua smiles cheerfully.

"You say it like it's your decision..." Tsumugu sweat drops, mumbling only loud enough for his best friend to hear.

Everyone in the small group begins saying their names out loud, testing it on their tongue as they try to get used to saying it. Meanwhile, Yua watches them with glee before turning to her friend who's watching the girls eyes light up. "This is a nice change, right? Tsumugu?" Yua cheekily smiles.

After all, her small wish had finally come true. She was becoming closer to the children of Shioshishio. Said kids watch Tsumugu and Yua interact from the corner of their eyes, the sight of their happy classmates somewhat easing their hearts. With nice people such as Tsumugu and Yua on the surface... perhaps their new situation wouldn't be as hard as they thought it would be.

The school day commenced as usual, the day filled with quite a bit of laughter and much chatter amongst students. Chisaki and the others would glance over every now and then, still surprised at how well Yua seemed to get along with all of their classmates- though her version of "getting along" with a few was bickering and arguing, you could see that it was easy for her and the others to make conversation.

At the moment, Yua's pouting in her seat during a class break, slouching down with her arms crossed. Tsumugu had gone to get an orange drink as per her begging, leaving Yua to grumble to herself over Takeshi and some other students being rude to her. Her violet eyes burned holes into the back of the criminals head, sending shivers down his spine as he tried to hide in a group of kids that were talking.

"You have a way of talking with people, don't you?"

Yua's frown drops at the sudden claim, turning her eyes to her right to see Kaname watching her. He had been curiously watching the class, seeing everyone interact with one another and Yua always seemed to be involved somehow. It was as though her presence overwhelmed the classroom.