Shimizu's Recess Club

Co-operation 0.2

Seiya

"Seiya! Your bento!"
Mitsuki shouts from the kitchen as she heard my bedroom door creaks close. I run past the living room, avoiding her. I can hear my heavy breathing and my steps echoing the house. I sloppily put on my shoes as I try to escape as fast as I can, already seeing Mitsuki's shadows growing from the kitchen, wanting to drag me back in just to make me bring the food she made. There's no way I'm bringing that to school. I won't be eating, after all. I catch my breath as I continue jogging out to the gate.

I slow down after passing a few houses, hoping she won't do this every morning whenever I have to go to school. I may have find it embarrassing or I just don't want to blend in like the others. I bend down in midway of walking to fit into my shoes and unconsciously tidy myself up as I walk down the narrow road.

It's so quiet. A good kind of quiet. Another morning in summer. Another. And I'm walking outside on the road, watching the sun being right above the mountains. I realise how big the sky is. It's momentarily scary but beautiful. My eyes are drawn into the clouds, as if I'm one of them, freely floating in the air. The sky is almost so clear today, my eyes could turn white if I keep looking up.

My thoughts are distracted by someone laughing. Very loud and raspy. I recognise that laugh. I look to the front, not so far away, two students wearing the same uniform as me, walking together. The difference of their body size is ridiculous. I can quickly guess the small one with dark hair is Aoi, but I've never seen the guy with good body proportions walking next to him before. I try as hard as I can to not make any noise that would make them notice me walking from the behind.

Aoi walks into class first after waving goodbye to the guy he was walking with. I guess the time that would take for him to settle himself to his desk and I walk in after. It is still early, there's no one in the class but him and I. Even though we've been interacting often lately, I still feel the awkwardness filling in the air whenever we're both together alone. It's like we're strangling in a wire of copper that's keeping a distance between us, unless one of us tries to escape and make the first move. I try to brush off the fiddliness in me as I walk to my seat at the back of the class, next to the window.

"Hey, Seiya-kun!" He turns his body around from his seat. I flinch, there he is. I growl under my breath before I slowly look back to him. He shoots a very sparkly smile in return. "If you're okay with it, let's have recess together! And.." the wire starts to loosen more as he continues, "we'll have to go to the school cafeteria. I'll be conducting a kitchen tour for you!" Recess? Cafeteria? Kitchen? His words fill in my head as if they are sudden ads popping up. Looks like it's another eventful day for me. "O..okay," I say slowly before continue walking and slop onto my desk.

Recess. Recess. Recess.
I kind of hate that word now, when the others find it the best time in school. When will I possibly ever have a quality time of being alone. I am now involve in a club, with weird members and Mr. recruiter. That impression stayed with me since the first time I saw them having break in my classroom the other day. All these thoughts aches my head. I close my eyes to pretend that I'm asleep so nobody talks to me.

After some periods of History class and Science project in the lab, the bell rings for recess time. Again, I'm dragged by Aoi, this time to the school cafeteria. Behind the co-op stall filled food in plastic wraps, he pushes the door to the kitchen. "You've worked hard, everyone!" He exclaims with a smile. Behind the door, I can see the club leader, Kazuo, with an apron hugging his waist, holding a pastry case with his sleeves up. Next to him is Akihiro at the kitchen counter rushing to decorate hot cupcakes with white icing. The kitchen smells familiarly sweet and creamy. "You're late," Kazuo says coldly, his glasses flash a scary glare.