The sleeve of his hoodie grasped the door and slid it open. Monotony temporally broken, stepping outside after school wasn't something routine at all. His whole body shook, his hoodie shaking with him and a puff of vapour rose into the atmosphere. Hanagaki was expecting it to be cold, but this was an extreme of his expectation. Despite the rotating sphere of his bobble hat turning in the wind and becoming more loose on his head and the familiar feeling of his inch thick jacket, the wind still blew straight through his skin and cut right to his bones.
A softer light drew blue eyes, it was his houselight that was just a half right angle off his door, bringing his attention to the fact that everyone elses lights were on, making the houses look like more modern and less fruity jack-o-lanterns. Each one of them except his, illuminated from the inside by light and happy times, the fabric of his hoodie threatened to tear from his grip and his fingers started to turn a paler white in an unconscious action. The window of the house a space over from his let him hear faintly what was happening, cheers and whoops could be heard, they were holding a birthday party, that much was clear even over the shrieking of the breeze. "Happy 12th birthday! I know we couldn't get you that teddy bear you wanted, but we did manage to get our hands on a limited edition version of your favourite anime 'Clouds of Green, Sky of Abormal, there's even a little surprise in there for you! From... an...." Hanagaki didn't listen to the rest, braving the cold was better than hearing any more.
Hanagaki had briskly walked to a different part of his town and was now leaning on a metal bar with his eyes looking at the ground, deep in thought. To anyone else he would look like a depressed loner waiting for the embrace of death to come greet him, and he is. No passerbys, also wrapped up in winter gear, gave him a second look but that was normal to him. They didn't see his fist clenched in his pocket, or hear the intensity of his foot, no, they only cared about their current task, but Hanagaki was thankful of that, he didn't want to blow up on someone. He really couldn't help his feelings from surfacing, when it happened the other day he didn't mean to, he just wanted to talk about anime and the judgemental words just came from his mouth.
Moving from his post that he was making a dent in he shifted into the homely shop covering his eyes from the sign. Pushing the glass door of the small shop he stepped inside and noted that it wasn't big, not even big enough to fit 30 people in, but it felt cozy. Almost immediately he made his way to the sweet section, that was also a tradition, like drinking the noodle juice, the first thing he would do was go there, and now he wouldn't get told off for it. The hand that picked out something to eat wasn't being picky but went with a safe bet of Pocky, also something that reminded him of his childhood. Hazily, he remembered a gentle hand reaching into the carton of Pocky, sliding one out and handing him one which he quickly munched on ravenously "Hehe, Haruki~ you don't have to eat it so quick, look gently, you need to enjoy it!" Then she took another one out and gently nibbled on it closing her eyes and analysing the taste and smiling "Ahh~ Pocky always tastes better when it's shared! Maybe one day you'll understand why."
The cardboard Pocky container was almost crushed in his hand right there and then, hearing the some of the Pocky snap was what caused him to stop, snapped Pocky was the worst. Doing the walk of shame, he went and paid for his now dented Pocky and left the shop. He heard a whsper and could have sworn that he heard the Pocky tempting him, that or he really wanted to eat it. Talking Pocky aside, in spite of him being a borderline shut in he was actually enjoying his time outside and even with the cold, it served as a good distraction for whatever he was feeling.
Just walking under the dark night cover was pretty nice, Hanagaki hadn't done it in so long he was close to forgetting how it felt. When it wasn't day he felt like he didn't have to squint his eyes to see, maybe he should download anime and sit under a tree, it gets lonely at his house, not to mention the state of it.
Nevermind the house, he was here, ending what was the attempt to take his mind off of things but turned into a seriously enjoyable pass time. The park was surrounded by free space, minus the small cluster of trees that lead into a more vast leafy expanse, the grass was normal and the pavement branched it off neatly containing the area. The weight and momentum shift of Hanagaki caused the wood to creak that he was sat on, just a nice simple wooden bench with metalic arms, and he retrieved the Pocky and started to eat it staring with his head to the sky, eyes on the stars.
"Well! Who do we have here...?"
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