Is This What They Call Life? - Awkward Encounters

Hiki looks over his schedule many times as he's roaming the school halls, getting increasingly worried about not finding his class. And as he stares at the schedule, he walks right into someone by mistake. "Woah- Uhm, I'm so sorry I wasn't looking and.." He talks quickly, looking up at who he bumped into. Two people stand before him, one with an agitated look on her face. "Don't put your face so far into the paper like that, there's bound to be accidents if you do.." She grumbles before crossing her arms and looking elsewhere. Just then the other person speaks up, her looking a bit more friendly. "Hi! I apologize for her, uhh, bluntness.. I'm Clover, this is Ai. She doesn't really like anyone so don't take this too personally.."

 Hiki just blinks, face blank for a few seconds before quietly muttering: "I, uhm, I can't find where my class is. I think I need some help, please.." He timidly hands the paper over to Clover, who scans through it. He then speaks up, his voice a bit dumbfounded this time. "Your class is.. on the other side of the school?? How'd you get over here?" Hiki feels like dying right then as he takes the paper and scurries off after saying a rushed "S-sorry!! And, uhm, thank you..!"

Finally arriving at his classroom, he sits down at a chair in the back, trying to be as unnoticeable as possible to avoid causing any trouble. Looking to his left, he jumps slightly in surprise, seeing an uninterested looking boy, who's lacking the school uniform, sitting in the chair beside him. "Oh. Okay... someone sits there. That's fine! As long as they don't notice me.." Hiki thinks, calming down a bit. Just then a voice speaks up besides him. "Did you really have to take the seat next to mine?" The boy next to him states, lifting up one side of his headphones to hear, and looking up at him with a questioning expression. "Ah, I'm sorry, really!! I wasn't paying attention and.." Hiki starts rambling, before the boy stops him, speaking nonchalantly. "I'm not interrogating you or anything, calm down. I'm Kiun, you're Hiki, right?" Hiki wonders how he knows him, but decides to brush it off and answer. "Yeah, uhm, I'm kinda new here.. I really don't know what I'm doing if I'm being honest.." He stares down at his desk, feeling embarrassed at admitting he's practically clueless with school life.

Kiun stares at him like what he said was a joke, then says with a baffled tone, "You.. don't know how school works?? Wait, were you homeschooled or something?" Hiki nervously fiddles with the sleeve of his uniform, before responding with, "Yeah, uhm, something happened a few years ago that made my parents decide to pull me out of normal school. I.. don't like talking about it. Sorry.." Kiun, who was just listening intently, shrugs it off before fixing his headphones back to their original place. Hiki looks back down at his desk again, spiralling a bit. "..Fuck that was horrible. I totally just embarrassed myself in front of a potential friend.. I really hope he doesn't think I'm weird now.." Just then the teacher speaks up, silencing Hiki's worries, and thus starting the class. Hiki's thoughts drown out all the words of the lesson, his mind on the boy next to him. The whole first class he spends awkwardly staring at the wall beside the board, lost in thought. Second class Hiki had spent thinking back on the people he had run into earlier today, still feeling embarrassed by the encounter. And throughout the third class, Hiki sneaks a few glances at Kiun, wondering what he's thinking, if anything. Maybe he's thinking of him too..