4

The bell rang at last and the students poured out into the corridors, leaning against the walls and talking to each other excitedly as they spent the ten-minute break before the next class. Only one of them stayed behind, choosing to remain seated at his desk as he pored over his textbook.

'That new boy seems quite studious...' thought Airi as she passed by and saw him.

The bell rang again for Japanese class, and the students returned to the classroom, still chatting away merrily until the old teacher entered and cried out, 'Silence!!' in his hoarse voice.

'And who are you, my boy?' asked the teacher, taking off his glasses and looking at the newcomer before putting them on again.

'His name is Green-hair!' called out someone.

'No, his name is Silent Forest!'

'Actually, he is—'

'Oh, for Heaven's sake!' said the teacher in exasperation. 'Go on, son, what's your name?'

'Wonder why he's asking, the old geezer's going to forget it in a day anyway,' whispered someone with a grin.

The boy looked at his classfellows once rather sharply, before turning back to the teacher and repeating what he had said earlier, in almost the same way. 'My name is Kenji.'

'I see. Well, make sure you work hard and pay attention, Kenji,' said the teacher, before turning to the class and beginning the lesson.

Airi picked up her pen and made notes neatly as the teacher spoke. When he stopped speaking for a moment to draw a diagram on the blackboard, she looked up and glanced at Kenji, only to be slightly startled by what she saw.

She could swear his ears were quivering slightly as he looked sharply ahead in full concentration. There was a strange aura around him that made her shudder. Being focused was good, but wasn't this boy a little too involved? And what was with the ears moving — or had she only imagined it? For when she looked at him again, he looked perfectly normal — or at least as normal as a green-haired boy could look.

She shook her head before looking down and continued taking notes. She knew she could run wild with her imagination sometimes, and this was probably one of those times. She aimlessly doodled a few flowers in the corner of the page as the teacher paused again to remember something.

Drawing...now that was something that excited her more than anything; because it was the one place where she didn't have to check her imagination; she could go on and on into the realms of her dreams and lose herself there until she was harshly called back into the real world — just as she was now.

'Airi!! Are you listening, child?' said the teacher sternly, who was standing in front of her.

She looked up with a start, and then back at her notebook, and realised she had gotten carried away and filled half the page with an exotic garden; and somehow not heard the teacher call out her name twice.

'You really must pay attention!' he said reproachfully.

'Yes, sensei! I'm sorry!' she said hastily.

'That's all right. I know you always study hard, so I'll let you off this time,' he said.

Thank Goodness. She sighed in relief. She glanced to her left — only to be startled once more; Kenji was looking intently at her. Even though he looked away at once as soon as she noticed him, she felt rather awkward. Was he judging her? It sure looked like it! Well, unlike him, she had a life beyond the classroom; something he seemed to lack severely. Hmph!

The day went on slowly until the midday sun shone with intensity outside and the bell rang, announcing lunchtime. As Airi got up, she was surprised to see that Kenji still hadn't moved from his chair. What was wrong with him? Surely he wasn't going to spend the lunch hour studying?! She stared at him for a few moments until the classroom was entirely empty except for the two of them. Then, a thought came to her suddenly and she facepalmed in realisation. He probably hadn't brought any lunch! And as he didn't know anyone yet, he must be too shy to ask if he could share lunch with someone!

She smiled to herself before walking towards him. Kenji looked up at her warily.

'Hey, aren't you going to join us all for lunch?' she asked in her usual warm manner. 'Everyone's outside, you know; the weather's so nice these days that no one eats inside anymore — we treat every lunchtime as an opportunity for a picnic!'

Kenji appeared rather alarmed for a moment, before his face looked blank again as he scrutinised her without saying anything.

'I know, I know,' she said, almost at once. 'You didn't bring any lunch and now you're wondering what to do! Well, that's what your fellow human beings are for, you know! I'll share my lunch with you, don't worry! Just come with me! Oh, the view is so nice these days! It's like Heaven! The sun is so nice and toasty, and the flowers are just beginning to bloom and— well, come on, don't just sit there! I'm not going to tell you everything, you're going to see it yourself, haha!'

Kenji analysed the strange, overenergetic girl who stood in front of him, and tried to piece together the words she had spoken so fast just now and figure out what she had meant. Lunch...she had mentioned lunch — he was hungry — but she also wanted him to come with her for a 'picnic'. He hoped a picnic wasn't one of the dangerous activities humans liked to engage in; but judging by the way this girl was looking at him so impatiently, there didn't seem to be any way to evade it.

'Lunch,' he said cautiously as he got up. 'I will come. But first the lunch, and then the picnic!'

Airi laughed. 'They're the same thing, silly! Oh — I get it! It's a joke! You're so hungry that you could eat a lunch and a picnic! Well, I've only got so much, you know, but maybe someone else could share something and we'll all enjoy ourselves! We do that all the time, you know! It creates some variety and it's more fun... Anyway, I'm Airi, and you, I know, you're Kenji — nice name, by the way — my favourite novel has a hero called "Kenji", you see — by the way, you study an awful lot! Please, don't tell me it's just textbooks you read! What's your favourite novel?'

Kenji succeeded in following her fast pace as she led him out of the classroom and through the corridors, but her rapid speech, which to him, seemed no less fast than the lightening pod he had arrived in, was quite beyond him. Did all humans talk like this? How annoying! A restless speech is worse than a tsunami. All of his people knew that! He looked at her, and realised that he must say something fast before she suspected that he hadn't understood her entirely, or rather, at all. Too bad he had already used the Force earlier during class, and he couldn't use it again until tomorrow!

'Well?' said Airi, looking at his blank face and wondering if he had even heard her.

'Well...Airi? Your name is Airi, isn't it?' said Kenji slowly, hoping he hadn't missed anything more important that she had said.

'That's right!' said Airi, beaming at him, but Kenji didn't smile back, nor did he say anything else.

They walked on silently, and Airi felt rather unnerved. Maybe she had talked too much? Or maybe he was the sort of person who liked being alone better? She wasn't sure, but then, it was only his first day after all, so perhaps it was better to let his strange behaviour slide for now.

'So! About lunch!' she said again, looking at him as she spoke; and this time his blank expression turned to one of relief — maybe he really was very hungry!

'Lunch!' he repeated, almost smiling.

'You haven't seen the grounds yet, have you?' said Airi, her eyes shining. 'You're in for a surprise! They're so beautiful! You're going to want to picnic there everyday!'

Kenji looked at her nervously. Why did this girl have to keep on mentioning this 'picnic' every time he talked about lunch?

'...Okay!' he said quickly.

'Ah, we're there! Okay, close your eyes, Kenji,' said Airi.

Kenji looked at her, or rather, glared at her. How stupid did she think he was? First, she was tricking him into going to some dangerous picnic on the pretext of lunch, and now she wanted him to close his eyes so that he could be defenceless! No way!

'No!' he said firmly, his hands balling up at his sides.

Airi was rather surprised at the way he reacted. Maybe he had gotten bullied in the past?

'Okay, don't if you don't want to!' she said. 'I just wanted you to have a really nice first view! Step through this door yourself then, and walk uptil that tree, then look around!'

Kenji walked towards the tree cautiously, but there didn't seem to be anything dangerous nearby. He then looked up and around him, and what he saw almost took his breath away.

A row of cherry blossom trees stood all along the edge of the grounds; half of them were already in full bloom. A soft, warm breeze blew a few pink petals towards him, which then sailed downwards gracefully before settling on the beautiful green grass, whose countless subtle shades and colours played in light and shadow as the sun filtered through the new leaves of the giant chestnut tree underneath which he stood. Yellow wildflowers grew here and there between the tall blades of grass, and a group of sparrows chirped merrily as they hopped amongst them.

So this was what a 'view' was! Maybe she hadn't intended to harm him, after all; the thought made him feel rather sheepish.

'It's beautiful!' he said softly, looking at her with a glint in his eyes that wasn't there before.

Airi smiled. 'Told you so! And now for the picnic!'

A loud laugh from behind one of the trees caught Kenji's attention; it was followed by another. These humans talked too much and laughed too much! Didn't they know that laughing was unstately and unbecoming? His father had always told him that!

'Why are they laughing?' he asked Airi as he followed her.

'Because they're having fun,' said Airi, looking back at him doubtfully. 'And so will you if you just relax!'

She took his hand unexpectedly and pulled him to the other side, where a large group of their classfellows were sitting, a row of picnic cloths spread out in front of them with an array of lunchboxes set on it.

Kenji looked around carefully. 'This is the picnic?' he asked as if to confirm.

'Um, yes,' said Airi, feeling rather awkward.

'Oh! I'm so glad!' he said in relief, before sitting down next to her.

Airi didn't say anything as she reached in her schoolbag for her lunchbox. Seriously, what had this boy been expecting? A raging battlefield? Of course this was the picnic! She was trying her best to be friendly with him, but his strange behaviour was both amusing and off-putting.

Kenji looked sideways at Airi. He hoped he had been doing well at acting normal so far; his doubts on the picnic had thrown him off balance, and panicked him more than he would like to admit, but now that he knew it was only a word for a scenic lunch, he was at ease again. Airi didn't seem to suspect anything yet, so he would try his best to get along from now on, and carry out his mission perfectly as planned.