Chapter 1 - The Touch

“Ohayo!”

“Did you watch that show yesterday? Man, that was awesome!”

“Oh gosh! I forgot to powder my face today!”

It was like the usual. Every day, this is what you will witness in this classroom. Students laughing, talking about their own type of interests, happily chatting the time away—everyone kept themselves busy in their own world. Well, everyone except me.

I’m the type of person that you would probably describe as weird, loner and loser. The type of person that as you may have already guessed, the one who sits in the back of the class… beside the window… and away from everyone. Yep, that’s exactly me.

I’m of medium built—average hair, average height, average weight, average intelligence, average looks and pretty much average everything… except maybe for the fact that I am very unsociable. Well yeah, I mean I talk to people at times, but if there’s no really need to, I don’t bother. So yeah you get the idea.

“Ishikawa-kun!” I heard a girl’s voice call my name.

Ah, Ezumi. Probably the only person in this world that could stand me and my inability to socialize with people.

“Yeah,” I answer back without bothering to look away from the scenery outside the window.

“Ne, Ishikawa-kun, why are you so grumpy early this morning?” she asked while she took her place on the sit beside me.

I turned to look at her and noticed that as always, Ezumi has a new hairstyle. She is a beautiful girl—complete with the long, flowing black hair, sparkling eyes and a smile that could make any guy fall in love. But vain if you ask me. Yep, pretty vain, in my opinion.

“Well nothing much. Just got woken up early by that old hag again,” I answered her. I wonder how Ezumi could sense my mood changes… I’m pretty sure I still look the same though.

“Aww Yuki… come on; give your mother a break already. You know she needs to support you and your siblings by herself.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever,” I said, obviously dismissing the topic “And don’t call me by my first name, Ezumi.”

Ezumi, being herself, knows about the conflict between my mother and I. She happened to know last year when I didn’t attend class for two whole weeks. Apparently, the school thought that I had some grave` illness that they asked her to go visit and check on me. As it turns out, I’m not going to school because of my parents’ divorce. So yeah there, from then on, she sort of became my guardian or something. I guess she pities me somehow. Oh well, I don’t really care.

“Ishikawa-kun, you are so mean,” she pouted. Despite being vain and all, Ezumi’s still cute. And by that, I mean really, really cute. “Why won’t you still allow me to call you by your first name?”

“Because—“

I was cut off by my classmates hurrying to take a seat. Seems our homeroom teacher is even grumpier than me today. Oh well, nothing’s new.

“Ne Ishikawa-kun, see you at lunch okay?” she whispered as she hurried out the door.

We stood up, bowed and said our greetings. Looks like there won’t be anything unusual this day.

---

As always, Ezumi fetched me from my classroom when the lunch bell rang. She handed me my bento and we walked off to our usual spot in the campus grounds. She always does this and sometimes I wonder why.

“Ishikawa-kun, I have a question.”

“Hm?”

“Um… etou… anou…” Now this is unusual. She… the Ezumi who’s great at public speaking is stuttering? I can’t believe it.

“Ezumi, ask it straight away.”

“D-do… do you have someone you like, Ishikawa-kun?”

Okay. So my mind did a double-take there. I was kind of shocked by the sudden question that I turned to look at her. She seemed suddenly interested in picking her food.

“Well, I don’t have one,” I answered her as I went back to my bento.

“Oh,” was it just my imagination or did I just hear her breathe a sigh of relief? “I see.”

We continued eating our lunches and went back to our classrooms. Well, aside from that unexpected question from her, it was just another day… or so I thought.

---

It was finally end of class. I have cleaning duty today so I will go home later than everybody. Honestly speaking, I actually sort of look forward to this day. Why? Because there’s no one else and I can finally be of peace. All the noise, ruckus and chatter have all subsided into nothing but a deafening silence. Well, that is until I realized who my cleaning partner is for today.

“OH SHIT…” I cursed silently in my head.

I sighed inwardly as I looked at that smiling face on the door. Apparently, I forgot that it will be Hamada today. Damn.

“Shall we start cleaning now, Yuki?” he asked as he approached me and handed me one of the brooms.

“Shut up and don’t call me by my first name, Hamada,” I retorted, my dislike for him obvious in my tone.

Toshiaki Hamada, the number one prince of our school. Warm, gentle, handsome and intelligent. Those are the four words that are used by the entire population of our school to describe him—well except me, that is. He’s had the top spot ever since he entered this school. Naturally, because of that, many are after him—both girls and guys. Take note, BOTH girls and… guys.

“Hey Ishikawa, what do you plan to do after high school?” he suddenly asked out of the blue, “Go to some university, perhaps? Or maybe work a part time job?”

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly, busily sweeping the floor.

He paused at this and looked at me, aghast, “What? You still don’t know? It’s just how many months from now!”

“Yeah,” I answered simply.

I am very much aware of how I hate getting along with people. I probably hate them too. But I know for a fact that who I hate the most is Hamada. I hate how he could be so sure of himself. It’s like he already knows what he is and what he will be. How could he be like that? How could he be so happy like there’s nothing troubling him? And to top all that, how did he have that kind of intelligence and looks? It’s almost like he’s an artificial being… like he’s not part of this world.

‘Ah damn,’ I thought to myself ‘I’ve spent too much time thinking of such insignificant things. Give me back my brain cells!”

“So, uh… Ishikawa?” I heard him call me.

“What?” I feel like rolling my eyes.

“You were spacing out just now. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I answered him, going back to my job of sweeping the floor, ‘Like hell you care anyway,’ I thought to myself.

“Are you really sure?” he said, sounding concerned, “You’re pretty pale you know, maybe you have a fever.”

I was about to tell him to fuck off and mind his own business when he suddenly touched my forehead.

-Thump-

I felt something suddenly switch inside me.

-Thump, thump-

I became aware of his presence so much more than before.

-Thump, thump, thump-

I noticed that he has such tousled beautiful hair.

--Thump, thump, thump, thump-

Did he have those big, black eyes before?

-Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump-

Something inside me was beating like crazy now. How could that be? By that simple contact of our skin, I felt sensations that I’ve never felt before. It was all so new yet there’s something that felt familiar. I was looking at his eyes now… no wait, it’s not looking… I was drowning in them now.

Before I knew it, my hand moved on its own and caressed his cheek lightly.

“Toshiaki…”

At that instance, I woke up from my trance.

‘What?! Huh, wait what?!’ My thoughts are all over the place ‘What the hell is going on?’

I pushed Hamada’s hand away and turned to grab my bag. I stormed out of the room and ran as fast as I can, never once looking back. There are so many things racing through my head right now that I can’t even think properly. I looked at the hand that touched Hamada’s cheek—the feeling of his skin still lingers.

“What the hell is going on?” I muttered to myself.