chance encounter | settsu banri

秋桜

Banri usually starts up his day skirting everyone else in the lounge to be the first one in the showers. Unlike most of the men that reside in the Mankai dorms, he actually takes the time to scrub down every niche in his body until it's squeaky clean. But, oh, don't even get him started with the intricacies that came with taking care of his hair. That conversation is something none of the members of the troupe (except, maybe, Azuma) are ready for, and he likes to keep it that way.

But on a perfectly normal morning, at the perfectly flourished breakfast table, Taichi asks Banri a perfectly off-putting question.

"Ban-chan, how the heck is your hair so silky?!"

The neo gangster, as Yuki typically calls him, just finished shrugging on his school blazer when he casts Taichi a bizarre look. He has a notepad and a textbook in front of him, balancing a pen in his fingers as he stares back at Banri expectantly. The little brat is in the middle of cramming his homework, and he has the audacity to distract himself like that?

"Conditioner," is all he says in return, grabbing one of the toast slices Omi left for them.

Juza scoffs from where he's stuffing his face with pancakes on the other end. "That ain't very helpful."

"I wasn't fucking talking to you, Hyodo," Banri grates at him dismissively.

"Banri-kun," he hears Sakuya calling out from the lounge, where he and Masumi are already slinging their schoolbags across their shoulders. "You ready to go?"

He spares Taichi a minute nod of the head, telling him to stop doing his homework the day it's due before picking up his own bag. Then, he gives Juza the finger, earning a momentary scolding from Sakyo, who just happens to pass by when he does it. Then, after a few words in farewell bid to those who don't work nor study—Citron delaying their departure a little because he'd wanted to show how to make a blade (braid)—the Hanasaki High boys were on their way.

"So noisy," Masumi mutters as he pulls the door behind him. "But if it was the Director, I wouldn't mind."

Sakuya laughs, leading the way for the three of them. "There's never a dull moment in the dorms, huh?"

As they traverse the short distance to school, Banri hangs back a little when Sakuya asks Masumi about the younger boy's literature class. Their conversation fades into background noise in his ears as he let his eyes wander around the neighborhood. But when they pass by a familiar intersection, Banri instinctively flickers his gaze at the tall, white house in the corner lot—a girl in a dark green uniform closing the gate behind her.

You're preoccupied with something on your phone, oblivious to the three boys that are walking past your house—him included. But given that Ouka High is the opposite way from where they're headed, he doesn't even get the chance to slip in a quick hello.

Well, it's not like you'd remember someone like him, right?

--

"Ugh, this sucks!"

A week after Banri moved into the Mankai dorms, he found himself facing a rather pressing dilemma: the shampoo provided for the troupe members made his hair disgustingly greasy.

And that was how he wound up at the nearby grocery store, grumbling about how cheap that yakuza, Sakyo, was being with their commodities. If you want something else, buy it yourself, he told him. Giving the old man the last word might have let his pride take a hard blow, but it was a small price to pay for comfort. He'd rather kiss ass to the cheapskate than live another day with greasy hair.