An announcement buzzed through the hall speakers, loud and abrupt, freezing the trio in their journey. "The opening ceremony has been delayed fifteen minutes. Students are expected to head to their assigned classes for homeroom and wait there momentarily. "
"The ceremony will begin fully once all technical difficulties have been resolved. " The broadcast cut off with a scratching sound.
"Oh great," Fubuki muttered under her breath. She checked her phone as the crowd around them started murmuring too.
A girl with a pink hairpin nearby groaned, rolling her eyes so hard it was practically audible to Ren. "Of course something is broken already. My school year off to a great start. "
A nearby student, a male with a headband kicked at the floor tiles his hands shoved deep into his pockets. "First day, and even the speakers are nervous." He chucked.
Fubuki shot a look at him that had a bit of amusement in her voice. "You are saying the sound system's nervous?"
"Hey, maybe it just didn't want to embarrass itself in front of the freshmen," Ren replied, a crooked grin forming at his lips.
Hana sighed but couldn't help smirking too as they turned back toward the stairwell with the echo of other students footsteps filling the corridor.
She led the way again again with Ren and Fubuki following patiently behind her.
They climbed the flight of stairs to the second floor then walked down another hallway identical to the first with the same polished floors, same shoe lockers, same windows overlooking the cherry blossom-filled courtyard but this time the trees were brushing against them and stopped in front of a door marked "1-C."
Hana turned to Ren one more time. "Try not to cause trouble on your first day," she said.
If only he had listened.
And then she pushed the door open.
The classroom was well...
Chaos.
It was packed full with first-years all talking to each other at once that made it hard to understand what they all were saying. Someone had opened all the windows, letting in a breeze that sent papers flying off desks.
A group of boys in the back were throwing paper airplanes at each other. A girl near the front was showing her friends something on her phone, all of them giggling. Two students were arguing about something near the teacher's desk.
Normal teenage chaos.
But the moment Ren stepped through the door, the noise level dropped.
Not silent not quite but noticeably quieter.
Heads turned.
Eyes found him.
And Ren felt the weight of twenty-five different assessments happening all at once.
A new kid?
An outsider.
What's he doing here?
He could read the questions in their faces even if no one spoke them out loud.
Hana moved into the room without hesitation, heading toward a desk near the window where she'd clearly already staked her claim. Fubuki gave Ren an encouraging smile and followed.
Ren stood in the doorway, backpack slung over one shoulder with his torn uniform pants and his scraped palms with all those staring eyes still on him.
"Keep your head down, " Hana had said.
Well too late for that.
Ren stepped fully into the classroom, the door swinging shut behind him with a dull click that somehow sounded louder than it should've.
A boy near the front straightened from a neat stack of papers, pushing his rectangular glasses up the bridge of his nose with two fingers that universal sign of a class rep who took the title way too seriously. His hair was neatly parted, his uniform crisp, posture perfect.
"Ah new guy!" he said, walking over with a smile that was probably trained in front of a mirror. "Welcome! I'm Sudo, your class representative. "
He extended his hand for a handshake which Ren gladly took.
"There's an empty seat back here you can take it!" He pointed towards the empty seat.
"Yo! New guy! There's an empty seat back here!" someone echoed from the back, louder, rougher, mockingly drawing a few chuckles from the nearby desks.
Some of the tension in the room eased after that. Conversations started up again in low, overlapping waves, though Ren could still feel the stares. They were quick, curious glances that slipped away the moment he met anyone's eyes.
He adjusted his bag strap and made his way down the aisle, careful not to bump into anyone's desk. The classroom smelled faintly of dust and new uniforms.
His seat was near the back, by the window.. the kind of spot anime protagonists always seemed to get. He would've smiled at the irony if he'd had the energy.
Ren sat down, turning his gaze to the cloudy sky outside, and exhaled quietly through his nose. From here, he could see the courtyard clearly now. The cherry trees swaying softly in the breeze, the main gate where he had entered what felt like hours ago, though it had probably only been twenty minutes.
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
Ren pulled it out under the desk, angling the screen so no one could see.
It was a message from his mother, Aiko.
"Just checking in, Did you make it to class okay?, How's your first day so far? "
The usual stuff.
He typed a short reply. "Yeah. I'm fine."
He hit send. The message went through immediately.
Ren slipped the phone back into his pocket and turned again to the window. The cherry blossoms outside were still falling, soft and soundless.
"First day at Sakura High," Ren thought. "Kaito's old school."
The sound of the bell ringing was sharp and jarring slicing through his thoughts.
Around him, chairs scraped and students began gathering their things moving towards the gymnasium for the delayed ceremony.
Ren stood, slinging his backpack over one shoulder.
"Here we go." He thought. "Let's see what other surprises this place has in store."
Ren looked out the window one last time as a gust of wind carried a few petals past the window drifting, aimless, beautiful and indifferent.
This was his paradise with teeth.