PRACTICE is PERFECT!

- CHAPTER 2

"Hey, did you hear about that boy from Class B2?"

..! My class? It's just after second period, the boy stopped as he heard two girls by the hallway gossiping. "Ah.. what was it—his name.. Sureiya Kishinai. Someone said they saw him with a guy by the nearby cafe, they even said they saw them kiss." The boy hesitated, should he be hearing this conversation? "Really, he's gay? What a shame. He was kind of cute." Either way, it sort of felt like he wanted to get between it—He felt that people shouldn't be talking bad about a person like that. He raised a foot to stand between the conversation, but he didn't realize that someone would have already interrupted them.

"'What a shame'? What is that supposed to mean? Anyway—It's not like I'm trying to hide it, so don't go around making rumours about stuff that aren't supposed to be rumours." What? Shoujo just realized it now, he took a closer look at the face of the boy—he realized it was the same guy from that convenience store, before he realized it he was already hiding from him—Shit!! Is he coming this way?!

He prepared his whole being to when they both.. very anticlimactally share eye contact—He also realized that the boy's face and tone seemed very.. straightforward. He watched Sureiya soon leave while he exhales a very large amount of air—I wonder..

What does it feel to live.. unbothered by the way people think of you?

* — . . ~

It was already dark out, a tin can of soda rolled out of the shoot of the vending machine—Shoujo briefly catching it before it hits the ground. The boy opened the can—unaware of his surroundings, he had accidentally bumped into a person with a few grocery bags. Said bags fall to the ground for the boy immediately apologized, reaching out to grab the items that have fallen out. "I'm sor—" His voice interrupts himself as he realizes that the person with the grocery bags were that boy from earlier today, Sureiya Kishinai. If it could have been even worse, he also realized that one of the dropped items inside the grocery bag included..

Wait.. CONDOMS?! Shoujo immediately let go of the item, backing away atleast 5 feet—completely embarrassed of what he's done.
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I'M SORRY!!!—I'M SORRY!!" Nothing could be more embarrassing as this. "..."

The boy seemed speechless at first, but responded quickly after picking up the dropped items. "It's.. fine." His voice sounded too calm. "I don't hold grudges, not on people that don't deserve it." Before Shoujo's ghost had returned to his body, he'd realized the boy has already started walking away—Normally this would have already marked the end of their conversation.

But..

Somehow, my body..

seemed to move on its own. "Wait!—" Shoujo's voice raised in order for the boy to reach him. "I'm.."

No.
"My name is Shoujo Akari."