Tides of a Self-Deluding Sea. [BLLK x GN!Reader]

[0] My life was boring, until-

A/N: Gender doesn't play any role narrative-wise and everyone refers to you with they/them so I hope this can still be considered gender neutral even if [Y/N] is a player lmao

The design of your room is what most would call tasteless. Not because it's trashy, ugly, or any other demeaning adjective pulled from a thesaurus, but because it lacks depth. It doesn't feel like a real person lives here.

You've flipped through a few magazines, scrolled on your phone for hours, buying furniture that you don't need or necessarily even want. Maybe you convinced yourself that a new lamp or some abstract art would inject life into the room, but let's be honest: you never really cared in the first place.

You've shuffled things around, purposefully made a pile of clothes on the floor, rearranged some decor to be asymmetrical; a shitty attempt at making it look lived-in. Chaotic in the artful, careless way rather than a sign of being dirty. Nothing works.

And the room stays the same in the end because, after all that effort, you decided that you didn't like the new look.

The blandness of it all, the fact it looked like the in-real-life equivalent of a kid's first time decorating in a video game, doesn't bother you as much as it probably should. Maybe it's the sleep deprivation that makes it look somewhat livable. Or maybe it's because you've never been the type to care for aesthetics unless they served some practical purpose.

You let out a sigh that borders on a groan as you eye the clock. 6:30 AM. Enough decorating, you say to yourself. It's the first day of highschool, no need to try this hard. Nobody's going to come over anytime soon so you might as well let it go.

The only thing more obnoxious than the school's insistence on academic excellence is the fact that you're actually good at it.

With a resigned shrug, you get up and start your morning routine (if you can call it that): a splash of cold water on your face to knock out the last vestiges of sleep, eat a snack, brush your teeth, quickly change into your new uniform that somehow feels both suffocating and utterly forgettable, then you're out the door.

The dorms are quiet at this hour, the other students probably still sleeping. You'd say you envy them, but you'll gladly wake up early, if only to avoid being thrust into a conversation with a complete stranger.

It's not that you hate this place either. You just don't see the point in pretending that any of this matters.  Besides,  hate requires spending energy you'd rather not spend. It's one day out of an entire year, and you're here for three years. You're quite sure it won't matter.

Then again, if you were the type to be swayed by things like purpose or passion for something, you wouldn't be [Y/N], would you?

━━━━━━

With the opening ceremony finally over with, mercifully freeing the first years from listening to some old man drone on and on about the school's history and values, you'd think the classroom would be a little more exciting.

But it isn't.

The room buzzes with the sound of people talking, loudly bragging about what elite middle schools they went to, what their families do, why they're better than the person they're speaking to. You'd say you were surprised at their boldness, but this school was practically a rich kid's paradise. After all, what would wealth be without social connections?

Whether these future CEOs and politicians were smart enough to network on their own or simply had a lecture from their parents to do so is another matter entirely. Both scenarios seem equally pitiful in your eyes. Imagine being so obsessed with social hierarchy that you start strategizing your life at this age.