CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 18

Fujio was once again sitting at his desk silently. He was trying to stay awake in the middle of math class, with just a few minutes left before lunch. To try and stay awake, he decided to scan the room and see what other people were doing.

Eiichiro was attentively taking notes, the kid in front of him was doodling, the person in the front corner of the room was digging in their backpack, and the person in the other corner was staring at... him?

They made eye contact for two seconds and quickly looked away. Fujio pretended to look down at the packet on his desk.

He didn’t think much about it, and he continued scanning. He looked to his right at the windows, and after being blinded by the sun for a second, he saw another person looking at him.

“What’s going on?”

He decided to just look back down at his desk, and after a minute or two it was time for lunch. He immediately got up, put away his stuff, and ran to his private classroom as always.

In the hallways, he felt more eyes land on him as he kept walking. It wasn’t enough for anyone else to notice, just a handful of people here and there.

The tension kept building, and so did the speed in Fujio’s legs. Eventually, he made it to the room and finally took a deep breath. He could feel his heart beating, but he decided to ignore it and start eating.

“I swear everyone was looking at me.”

He kept thinking about this until Eiichiro finally walked in the room.

“Hey Fujio”

“...hi...”

“What are thinking about?” Eiichiro dropped his backpack by the seat across from Fujio and sat down in it.

“Nothing... what took you so long?” Fujio said this with so much careful casualness that it almost melted the mood in the room.

“Did I really take that long?” Eiichiro decided to follow Fujio, but he knew what was happening.

Their conversation continued with menial things for the rest of the period. They both pretended it was normal, but they could both feel the tension and the eyes on them as they walked back to class.