[Multi-chapter] Rumors (1/7)
Chapter 1
There was a rumor spreading around the school. It was about someone who was going to transfer here (a small school and could barely be called as famous in Osaka) from a big, famous school in Tokyo. Nino didn’t really care though; he walked past a group of girls who were discussing about it ebulliently, making him felt bored. This was how the school worked - rumors and gossips were always spreaded around with a surprising speed and no one could enter without being the center of attention for at least one whole month - or might be more if that person was deemed interesting. And the definition of who was “interesting” was based on how the students perceive the new student. This sucks, Nino thought, his memories went back to the day when he entered the school. He was told that he was a scoundrel and so he was avoided all the time, as if he was a disease. He didn’t pay any attention to it though. It was his parents’ idea to put him in this school. However to Nino, it didn’t make any difference which school he attended; he felt that his life was boring and meaningless.
This time it was something about a guy. Nino didn’t hear about him from the excited girls, but from his best friend Aiba. Aiba was the first and only one who came to make friends with him one or two weeks after he had transferred into this school. At first he thought that Aiba was crazy and was looking for trouble by being friends with Nino, and he didn’t care if Aiba insisted on playing with him. Whatever Aiba wanted to do, they weren’t Nino’s hobby so he kept his distance with Aiba, pointing out clearly that he wanted to be left alone. But Aiba never gave up. He followed Nino everywhere he went (or rather, tried to hide), and he told Nino tons of stories about their school and how it worked. Aiba even reassured Nino that the rumors about him would be gone soon, and so long as he opened his heart to more people, they would know who he was exactly and would not bully him anymore.
“You need to communicate with others” Aiba said one day “It’s the best way to show them your real personality”
Nino didn’t really care, but Aiba patiently helped Nino nonetheless. He tried to be the bridge to connect Nino with the others, and with his cheerful smile and friendliness, no one had any ill feeling towards Nino anymore. Nino was grateful to Aiba as he finally had some peace in his school-life, but he never said it out loud. But from the way he leaned closer to Aiba when they were sitting together on the terrace, he knew Aiba understood. Nino never used words to express his feelings, yet Aiba accepted it with a big grin on his face that brightened up Nino’s world.
And Nino had concluded after a year of being friends with Aiba that he was his only friend. Nino admitted that if it wasn’t for Aiba coming to be friend with him, he would surely still be a lonely person living in his colorless world.
However, Aiba was a really troublesome person most of the time.
Like today. When Nino reached his locker and was about to open it, Aiba ran promptly towards him with a big grin on his face. Nino thought that he looked stupid sometimes.
“Nino-chan!!!” Aiba beamed brightly. He was in a really good mood, but Nino wasn’t. He was sleepy and all he wanted to do now was coming home and rolled onto his bed. But still, now he must wait for school to end then he could leave.
“What?” Nino grunted, as he opened his locker a little too violently and pulled out his shoes.
“Did you hear about it?” Aiba didn’t mind. He was used to Nino’s bad mood in the morning, so the excitement in his voice didn’t change “There’s a guy who will transfer to our school!”
“I know” Nino snapped “And what exactly makes you that excited??”
“The important part is” Aiba continued with a wink “They say that… he’s… not straight!”
“So he’s curve?” Nino snorted “That sounds nicer than the last gossip about a girl who had a pig tail, and finally she actually just had a very long curly tresses!”
“No, Nino-chan, you don’t understand!” Aiba laughed and patted Nino’s head playfully, making the boy groaned in protest.
“That’s what you just said! Baka!”
“No, I mean” Aiba lowered his voice “They say that he is… queer! He does not like girls, you know. There is a rumor that he had a boyfriend at his old school, and that boyfriend is his real reason to leave the school!”
“What?” Nino rolled his eyes incredulously “It still sounds nice then” he said sarcastically and walked away, leaving Aiba behind. Aiba, on the other hand, started to run after Nino, his grin growing on his face.
“You’ll see, Nino-chan” He exclaimed “We’ll see as soon as we meet him. He’s our senpai.”
Nino didn’t slow down his step, he wanted to ignore the rumor, because there was no need to worsen his school life - it was bad enough . But somehow, he started to wonder about it.
He’s queer, huh. Aiba’s voice echoed in his mind. He does not like girls. Okay, he must admit that now he was a little curious about the newcomer. Poor him, Nino thought, I wonder if he will find some peace here. It was just impossible, coming to this school must be a mistake after all.
When the bell rang, Nino put down his pen with a relieved sigh. He didn’t really get what he had written in his paper, he didn’t really understand the question either. Sometimes he wondered how people could come up with Physics and its complex explanations and laws. Wasn’t the world still happy and people were still alive without them? Why must they study it anyway? Nino had no interest in any of them, and all he wanted to do was playing games and doing magic. He had an another hobby though, it was playing guitar. He played whenever he had some free time, and he was even invited to a music show as a guest, which made his parents so proud of him. Nino, in the other hand, hated it. He didn’t want to play his guitar just for anyone, but for someone who he was really close to. He played for fun and for people he liked, not for performances. It always made him feel sick.
He stood up from his table and walked away before Aiba could call him back and dragged him into his mess at the cafeteria again. Lunch with Aiba was never peaceful, but messy, noisy and chaotic. If Nino wanted to rest, he must keep himself as far away from Aiba as possible.
He climbed to the terrace, the place where he called his secret spot. No one ever came here, especially at winter, when it’s freezing. It’s spring now but the wind still blew slightly and the cold still made him shiver. He regretted not taking his coat with him, but nonetheless he ignored it and rolled down on his back lazily to look at the sky. The sun shone above him, the clouds floated slowly across the deep blue space and into the horizon. Some clouds dispersed before they could reach their destination. Like people’s lives, Nino thought Sometimes we can’t finish what we want to do, but death comes and takes us away. He knew it wasn’t suit a high school student like him, but he couldn’t stop himself sometimes thinking about that. Might be he was mature than the others who had the same age with him.
When Nino closed his eyes slightly to enjoy the moment, he suddenly heard a noise near the staircase. Someone was running up here, and there are people’s voices resounding behind the door, accompanied by the noise of footsteps. Nino frowns, there’s something going on, like a group of students chasing after someone. From the hasty way the students ran, Nino assumed that this time it must be someone so interesting. They would never leave him - or her - alone, until they got bored with playing around.
Suddenly a boy with spiky hair appeared at the door. Nino raised his head to look at him curiously. The boy swung the door open and walked out to the terrace hurriedly. The voices from the people who were chasing him faded away slowly as they lost trace of their victim.
Nino’s attention turned to the stranger. He had a round face, which was red a little from running. Beads of perspiration rolled down his chubby cheek to his neck, and he was trying to catch his breath. Nino eyed the boy carefully, and stayed silent at his spot. The boy now was looking around the terrace; his face relaxed a little as if he was relieved that he was finally free from the scary students. He wasn’t much taller than Nino and maybe he wasn’t much older either. He went up to the railings of the terrace, leaned against it and looked up at the blue sky. Then he smiled, his smile was soft, and vague. A second later, the smile faded away from his tired face. He sighed and stared into space, losing in his thoughts.
Nino stood up, his leg accidentally smashed into the barrier of the terrace, and he winced in pain, grunted with his carelessness. The sound startled the boy as he turned around to face Nino. Nino wasn’t used to talking with strangers, but this boy has an aura which made Nino suddenly had the desire to ask if he was alright, and what had happened. So he came closer to him.
“What happened? Why were they chasing you?” Nino arched his eyebrows “Are you okay?”
The boy stared at Nino, worry still remained in his eyes, but then he answered with a slight smile.
“Nothing” he said softly “They’re… I don’t really know who they are. And I don’t know what they want either.”
“So why were they following you?” Nino frowned “And who are you? Seems like I have never seen you before”
“Ohno Satoshi” the boy extended his hand and Nino took it reluctantly, then immediately let go a second later “This is my first day here.”
“So you are…” Nino’s eyes widened. now he knew exactly why those students were following him. “I’m Ninomiya. Ninomiya Kazunari”
“Ninomiya-kun” Ohno smiled sheepishly at the kind boy in front of him “Nice to meet you. This school is a little scary”
“Yeah” Nino agreed. His eyes never left Ohno, studying him carefully and curiously “So you are in second year? Or third year already?”
“Final year” Ohno replied simply “I’m going to graduate this year”
“So why did you transfer here? You know, this is a small school after all and I heard that you were from a famous school at Tokyo…” Nino asked curiously.
Ohno shook his head slowly but did not answer. He stared at Nino for awhile and Nino felt his face starting to burn under the gaze. He suddenly remembered Aiba’s words “He is queer” “There is a rumor that he had a boyfriend in his old school, and the boyfriend is his real reason to leave the school”. Perhaps the rumour was true - that was indeed the reason. Nino looked away awkwardly That he didn’t know what to say next.
Finally, Ohno broke the silence as he asked Nino.
“Do you come here everyday?”
“Yeah… almost” Nino smiled “When I’m bored, or when I get tired of Aiba-chan”
“My friend” He added when he saw the confused look on Ohno’s face “He’s really noisy and troublesome. But he’d love to meet you though. He loves people”
Ohno smiled. The way Ohno smiled was somehow… attractive. It was slight, yet bright and warm at the same time. It made Nino feel warm and fluffy inside.
“I want to meet him too”
“You won’t say that when you meet him. He really is noisy and annoying” Nino laughed.
“But he’s your best friend, right?” Ohno’s smile became wider as the friendly aura was building up around them.
“How do you know?”
“Your eyes tell me” Ohno replied simply.
“They can’t talk”
“But I can feel”
“You’re weird” Nino laughed.
“So are you”Ohno laughed back. The atmosphere somehow was lighter and happier, as their laugh echoing around the quiet terrace.
Next chapter
There was a rumor spreading around the school. It was about someone who was going to transfer here (a small school and could barely be called as famous in Osaka) from a big, famous school in Tokyo. Nino didn’t really care though; he walked past a group of girls who were discussing about it ebulliently, making him felt bored. This was how the school worked - rumors and gossips were always spreaded around with a surprising speed and no one could enter without being the center of attention for at least one whole month - or might be more if that person was deemed interesting. And the definition of who was “interesting” was based on how the students perceive the new student. This sucks, Nino thought, his memories went back to the day when he entered the school. He was told that he was a scoundrel and so he was avoided all the time, as if he was a disease. He didn’t pay any attention to it though. It was his parents’ idea to put him in this school. However to Nino, it didn’t make any difference which school he attended; he felt that his life was boring and meaningless.
This time it was something about a guy. Nino didn’t hear about him from the excited girls, but from his best friend Aiba. Aiba was the first and only one who came to make friends with him one or two weeks after he had transferred into this school. At first he thought that Aiba was crazy and was looking for trouble by being friends with Nino, and he didn’t care if Aiba insisted on playing with him. Whatever Aiba wanted to do, they weren’t Nino’s hobby so he kept his distance with Aiba, pointing out clearly that he wanted to be left alone. But Aiba never gave up. He followed Nino everywhere he went (or rather, tried to hide), and he told Nino tons of stories about their school and how it worked. Aiba even reassured Nino that the rumors about him would be gone soon, and so long as he opened his heart to more people, they would know who he was exactly and would not bully him anymore.
“You need to communicate with others” Aiba said one day “It’s the best way to show them your real personality”
Nino didn’t really care, but Aiba patiently helped Nino nonetheless. He tried to be the bridge to connect Nino with the others, and with his cheerful smile and friendliness, no one had any ill feeling towards Nino anymore. Nino was grateful to Aiba as he finally had some peace in his school-life, but he never said it out loud. But from the way he leaned closer to Aiba when they were sitting together on the terrace, he knew Aiba understood. Nino never used words to express his feelings, yet Aiba accepted it with a big grin on his face that brightened up Nino’s world.
And Nino had concluded after a year of being friends with Aiba that he was his only friend. Nino admitted that if it wasn’t for Aiba coming to be friend with him, he would surely still be a lonely person living in his colorless world.
However, Aiba was a really troublesome person most of the time.
Like today. When Nino reached his locker and was about to open it, Aiba ran promptly towards him with a big grin on his face. Nino thought that he looked stupid sometimes.
“Nino-chan!!!” Aiba beamed brightly. He was in a really good mood, but Nino wasn’t. He was sleepy and all he wanted to do now was coming home and rolled onto his bed. But still, now he must wait for school to end then he could leave.
“What?” Nino grunted, as he opened his locker a little too violently and pulled out his shoes.
“Did you hear about it?” Aiba didn’t mind. He was used to Nino’s bad mood in the morning, so the excitement in his voice didn’t change “There’s a guy who will transfer to our school!”
“I know” Nino snapped “And what exactly makes you that excited??”
“The important part is” Aiba continued with a wink “They say that… he’s… not straight!”
“So he’s curve?” Nino snorted “That sounds nicer than the last gossip about a girl who had a pig tail, and finally she actually just had a very long curly tresses!”
“No, Nino-chan, you don’t understand!” Aiba laughed and patted Nino’s head playfully, making the boy groaned in protest.
“That’s what you just said! Baka!”
“No, I mean” Aiba lowered his voice “They say that he is… queer! He does not like girls, you know. There is a rumor that he had a boyfriend at his old school, and that boyfriend is his real reason to leave the school!”
“What?” Nino rolled his eyes incredulously “It still sounds nice then” he said sarcastically and walked away, leaving Aiba behind. Aiba, on the other hand, started to run after Nino, his grin growing on his face.
“You’ll see, Nino-chan” He exclaimed “We’ll see as soon as we meet him. He’s our senpai.”
Nino didn’t slow down his step, he wanted to ignore the rumor, because there was no need to worsen his school life - it was bad enough . But somehow, he started to wonder about it.
He’s queer, huh. Aiba’s voice echoed in his mind. He does not like girls. Okay, he must admit that now he was a little curious about the newcomer. Poor him, Nino thought, I wonder if he will find some peace here. It was just impossible, coming to this school must be a mistake after all.
When the bell rang, Nino put down his pen with a relieved sigh. He didn’t really get what he had written in his paper, he didn’t really understand the question either. Sometimes he wondered how people could come up with Physics and its complex explanations and laws. Wasn’t the world still happy and people were still alive without them? Why must they study it anyway? Nino had no interest in any of them, and all he wanted to do was playing games and doing magic. He had an another hobby though, it was playing guitar. He played whenever he had some free time, and he was even invited to a music show as a guest, which made his parents so proud of him. Nino, in the other hand, hated it. He didn’t want to play his guitar just for anyone, but for someone who he was really close to. He played for fun and for people he liked, not for performances. It always made him feel sick.
He stood up from his table and walked away before Aiba could call him back and dragged him into his mess at the cafeteria again. Lunch with Aiba was never peaceful, but messy, noisy and chaotic. If Nino wanted to rest, he must keep himself as far away from Aiba as possible.
He climbed to the terrace, the place where he called his secret spot. No one ever came here, especially at winter, when it’s freezing. It’s spring now but the wind still blew slightly and the cold still made him shiver. He regretted not taking his coat with him, but nonetheless he ignored it and rolled down on his back lazily to look at the sky. The sun shone above him, the clouds floated slowly across the deep blue space and into the horizon. Some clouds dispersed before they could reach their destination. Like people’s lives, Nino thought Sometimes we can’t finish what we want to do, but death comes and takes us away. He knew it wasn’t suit a high school student like him, but he couldn’t stop himself sometimes thinking about that. Might be he was mature than the others who had the same age with him.
When Nino closed his eyes slightly to enjoy the moment, he suddenly heard a noise near the staircase. Someone was running up here, and there are people’s voices resounding behind the door, accompanied by the noise of footsteps. Nino frowns, there’s something going on, like a group of students chasing after someone. From the hasty way the students ran, Nino assumed that this time it must be someone so interesting. They would never leave him - or her - alone, until they got bored with playing around.
Suddenly a boy with spiky hair appeared at the door. Nino raised his head to look at him curiously. The boy swung the door open and walked out to the terrace hurriedly. The voices from the people who were chasing him faded away slowly as they lost trace of their victim.
Nino’s attention turned to the stranger. He had a round face, which was red a little from running. Beads of perspiration rolled down his chubby cheek to his neck, and he was trying to catch his breath. Nino eyed the boy carefully, and stayed silent at his spot. The boy now was looking around the terrace; his face relaxed a little as if he was relieved that he was finally free from the scary students. He wasn’t much taller than Nino and maybe he wasn’t much older either. He went up to the railings of the terrace, leaned against it and looked up at the blue sky. Then he smiled, his smile was soft, and vague. A second later, the smile faded away from his tired face. He sighed and stared into space, losing in his thoughts.
Nino stood up, his leg accidentally smashed into the barrier of the terrace, and he winced in pain, grunted with his carelessness. The sound startled the boy as he turned around to face Nino. Nino wasn’t used to talking with strangers, but this boy has an aura which made Nino suddenly had the desire to ask if he was alright, and what had happened. So he came closer to him.
“What happened? Why were they chasing you?” Nino arched his eyebrows “Are you okay?”
The boy stared at Nino, worry still remained in his eyes, but then he answered with a slight smile.
“Nothing” he said softly “They’re… I don’t really know who they are. And I don’t know what they want either.”
“So why were they following you?” Nino frowned “And who are you? Seems like I have never seen you before”
“Ohno Satoshi” the boy extended his hand and Nino took it reluctantly, then immediately let go a second later “This is my first day here.”
“So you are…” Nino’s eyes widened. now he knew exactly why those students were following him. “I’m Ninomiya. Ninomiya Kazunari”
“Ninomiya-kun” Ohno smiled sheepishly at the kind boy in front of him “Nice to meet you. This school is a little scary”
“Yeah” Nino agreed. His eyes never left Ohno, studying him carefully and curiously “So you are in second year? Or third year already?”
“Final year” Ohno replied simply “I’m going to graduate this year”
“So why did you transfer here? You know, this is a small school after all and I heard that you were from a famous school at Tokyo…” Nino asked curiously.
Ohno shook his head slowly but did not answer. He stared at Nino for awhile and Nino felt his face starting to burn under the gaze. He suddenly remembered Aiba’s words “He is queer” “There is a rumor that he had a boyfriend in his old school, and the boyfriend is his real reason to leave the school”. Perhaps the rumour was true - that was indeed the reason. Nino looked away awkwardly That he didn’t know what to say next.
Finally, Ohno broke the silence as he asked Nino.
“Do you come here everyday?”
“Yeah… almost” Nino smiled “When I’m bored, or when I get tired of Aiba-chan”
“My friend” He added when he saw the confused look on Ohno’s face “He’s really noisy and troublesome. But he’d love to meet you though. He loves people”
Ohno smiled. The way Ohno smiled was somehow… attractive. It was slight, yet bright and warm at the same time. It made Nino feel warm and fluffy inside.
“I want to meet him too”
“You won’t say that when you meet him. He really is noisy and annoying” Nino laughed.
“But he’s your best friend, right?” Ohno’s smile became wider as the friendly aura was building up around them.
“How do you know?”
“Your eyes tell me” Ohno replied simply.
“They can’t talk”
“But I can feel”
“You’re weird” Nino laughed.
“So are you”Ohno laughed back. The atmosphere somehow was lighter and happier, as their laugh echoing around the quiet terrace.
Next chapter