Book 2: Seven Demon's Hearts

Episode 53: Green-eyed

Episode 53: G r e e n - e y e d

Sera found herself looking back at the neighboring room's door before giving it a knock. A few moments later, Aiko opened it, looking down at her with surprise. "Hey." She used her knee to push up the heavy textbooks falling out of her arms as she forced on a non-awkward smile. Sera eyed the weird way he had tied his long bangs into a small ponytail to get them out of his eyes. Aiko momentarily panicked and quickly pulled the scrunchie out of his hair, fixing his bangs that fell quite a length over his face.

"Hi." He finally smiled at her, watching as she continued to struggle with her books.

"Do you mind...uh..." she looked into his room and jutted her chin out to it.

"Yes?" Aiko cluelessly battered his eyes, tilting his head with question. He clearly needed a more direct manner of speech to catch on.

"Can I go in?" She furrowed her brows, inviting herself through the gap when she could no longer stand to carry the textbooks in her arms. Aiko shut the door and quickly ran around to scoop up the stacks of literature on his bed, moving them on to his desk instead. With a heavy sigh, Sera dropped her books, filling his bed up with them and looked back at him timidly.

"Do you need help studying again?" He cocked his head with a guess. She flushed red and nodded, glad that he was able to catch on to that without her asking. "Sure, one minute." Aiko returned to tidying his books.

"What were you doing?" She raised a brow, climbing up and swinging her feet on the edge of his bed.

"Oh," he pushed back his long bangs, revealing a red face. "I was studying."

"Studying? But you're already so smart." She sighed with envy.

"Not really. I still don't know about many things." He denied her compliment. Sera eyed the title of some of his books.

"Basic ethics. How to talk with people. Emotions and Feelings. All about being a Teenager." Sera scoffed, looking back at his flustered face as he continued to scramble the books away from the scope of her sight. "Weird reads." She sucked in her cheeks to stop herself from laughing.

"Yeah." He gulped down nervously. "It is weird. I guess most teenagers don't read stuff like this, huh?" Sera bit down on her lip with the sudden realization of her words.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that you're--"

"No, it's fine. I get it." Aiko placed on a simple smile. "But I was studying how to function like a normal person. Since I don't really know how to do that."

Sera's lips parted open as she looked at his sad eyes avoiding her face. "Well then, define normal?"

Aiko looked up at her with surprise. "Normal?"

"Yeah, define it."

"Normal. Conforming to a standard. The act of being usual, typical, or--"

"Aiko." Sera sighed, cutting him off. "I didn't mean to literally define it out of Webster's dictionary. It's just a rhetorical question."

"Oh..." Aiko smiled awkwardly. "I guess that wasn't the normal thing to do then."

"Hey, I mean, everyone's normal is different. I guess that's what I was trying to prove." Sera started. "Just because someone else can't do things you can, it doesn't mean you aren't normal. In a sense, you are your own standard of normal. But to them, you aren't. And to you, they aren't either. So how is it possible that normal can contradict itself so much? See, what I'm trying to say is that it only really depends on the situation. And everyone's situation is different--that's what's actually normal. That's why, it's actually normal to be different, Aiko."