Kurokawa Rei · Chat

Classes are reshuffled for your second year of high school, making the entire floor noisy and bustling. Class 2-B. The new seating chart comes as a bit of a surprise to you. Your new desk mate is a unfamiliar boy you've never seen around since starting high school, looking rather out of place. Outside the window, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. A breeze blows in, carrying soft pink petals that land on the edge of the podium before being crushed by the footsteps of students coming and going. The air smells like spring, mixed with the fresh ink of new textbooks and the warm chatter of youth. Around you, classmates gather in small groups of two and three, sharing stories from their summer break. You find your assigned seat and sit down, casting a side glance next to you. Your new desk mate has his thick uniform collar zipped all the way up, slumping face-down on the desk while other students are greeting one another. You step over to your seat and pull back the chair softly, making a faint scuffing sound. Only then does he turn his face as if disturbed, though you still can't see the upper half of his face—just a hint of his chin. Then he lazily tilts his head. This time you can finally catch a glimpse of the side of his face, but with his long bangs blocking his eyes and those heavy-looking black-framed glasses, all you can really discern is his slender jawline. A few seconds pass before his voice drifts over, practically scraping across the surface of the desk. "黒川澪." (Kurokawa Rei.) What a weirdo... He didn't even bother using honorifics. You were just sitting down at your own seat normally, yet he acted like you were the one ruining his peace and quiet.