"Is it Cray-ons or Cran-s?" Iki asked curiously, talking to himself.
A little girl came up to him, sitting next to him on the carpet, she held a coloring book, "I don't think it really matters?"
"But which one should I say?" He held a bright red crayon up to his eyes, "They're so different."
"But they're also completely the same." The little girl lowered his hand, "My name is Riayka, but my friends call me Riri."
He took his hand away from hers, setting down the crayon, "Koyu Iki."
"Nice to meet you Koyu Iki." She smiled warmly then started coloring her own picture in the book she had brought.
Iki's mind started wandering. Why are there multiple ways to say crayon? Why is red named red? Yellow named yellow, blue named blue? Where does the color come from in general?
His mind wandered too far. Too spaced off. He couldn't hear Riayka calling for him.
"Teacher! I think something's wrong with Koyu Iki!" She stood up and ran off to get help.
The teacher came over, but Iki's mind was left walking away from reality. High up in the clouds.
"Iki? Are you alright?" The teacher's voice was calm and soft, she waved her hand in front of Iki's face in a gentle motion to not startle him, "Iki, please answer me, are you okay?"
Can the colors change? Is there a color no one knows? Can I find and name that color? What would I name it? Why do the crayons slowly chip off? Is it because they're slowly dyi-
He snapped out of it, shaking his head, "What...?"
Many kids had come up to the carpet by now, including Riayka, "Koyu Iki, you're okay!" She hugged him tightly, "I was getting worried for a second."
"Why wouldn't I be okay?" He didn't know how much time had passed, but the window showed how dark it was outside, "How long was I thinking for? It only felt like a few seconds?"
"Ms. Cari said it was two hours." She let go and stepped back.
Iki stood up, "Really? Two whole hours?" He was in shock, "How was it so much time?"
"Dunno, nothing would make you snap out of it."
He looked down trying to think for a second before the bell cut off his thoughts. He passed it on as nothing and forgot about it.402
