(Wind Breaker) The Green Rose's Thorns

Extra 1

Aoi sat at a desk toward the back of the classroom, leaning over the back of a chair and turning the ends of his hair in his fingertips. Staring at it intently, while his friends carried on about various topics. More than one pair of eyes darted his way every so often, noting his obviously distracted state and the way he jumped when the classroom door flew open and orders were barked out by Enomoto. He was still quiet as they split off to patrol the town, staring into space when he was supposed to be painting over more graffiti or slow to respond when directly approached.

Back at school, Kiryu decided to try and pry some information out of Aoi. He placed his hand on the shorter boy's shoulder, startling him.

"Ack!"

"Oh? Sorry," Kiryu pulled his hand back as soon as Aoi made that sound. He was even more intrigued at that, wanting to know what was on his mind. Aoi whirled around to face him, eyes wide at first and ears burning bright red as he relaxed his stance.

"Huh? What?," Aoi blinked, then gave Kiryu a wary look. Kiryu held up his hands defensively and beamed back, not quite as oblivious to the glances of the others in their group as Aoi seemed to be.

"We're taking a break," the boy with dyed hair explained the announcement Aoi had missed and motioned down the hallway. Aoi wasn't entirely following as he was gently guided a little bit away from the others and into a quieter spot, back in their classroom before anyone else returned. The air was cooler in the shade there, and Aoi plopped down onto an empty chair sat against the wall.

"What's up?," he wiped the sweat from his brow with his shirt, once again having forgotten his school jacket somewhere. Kiryu sat beside him and pretended to be busy on his phone.

"Hm? You looked like something was bugging you," he answered Aoi's question innocently enough. His fingers tapped wildly at the screen he was staring at, while Aoi eyed him from the side. Gauging his friend's interest, his real aim. Finally he let out a long sigh, and Kiryu braced himself. The last time they had talked like this, there were some pretty heavy things that came out.

"Are you this roundabout with everything?," Aoi wasn't quite ready to spit it out and poked at Kiryu a bit.

"Hm?," Kiryu lowered his arms, holding his phone in his lap and returning Aoi's half glare with a far less intense look.

"You wanna ask somethin', right?," Aoi was the one skirting around the subject while he accused the other. Kiryu snickered at that, earning a somewhat more serious glare.

"Weeeeell. You've been pretty quiet all day," Kiryu started with a slight sing-song tone. He was close, but there was just a little more push Aoi needed.

"I'm quiet a lot of the time," Aoi shot back. He wasn't quite as quiet as Kusumi or some others, but he did spend a lot of time observing conversations rather than actively taking part. There were his nightlife activities too, where he was dead silent for other reasons.

"I guess. But, y'know," Kiryu pushed his luck a little bit and pulled a bit of Aoi's hair into his fingers as he talked, fully ready to get smacked for that but relieved when the hit never came. "You've been more fidgety, too. Something specific on your mind?"

"Huh?! I-"

Aoi reacted almost like Sakura for a moment, retreating just as quickly and cursing under his breath. Kiryu let the boy's hair slide over his fingers and fall back down, giving him some time to collect his words now. There was a buzz from the phone in his hand, then another shortly after. He took a look, and sent a hasty reply before returning his attention to Aoi.

"It's buggin' me," Aoi finally spoke up again. He was tugging at his hair again, brow creased as he glared at the stray strands that fell over his eyes.