Meeting my new friends

The dark blue-haired man who has now introduced himself as Aoi sits at his desk, swivelling back and forth on his chair. He gazes across the classroom, glancing at every student. Natsume gets a sinking feeling in his gut every time Aoi's eyes land on him.

"Alrighty then!" Aoi beams as he launches out of his chair. "How about we introduce ourselves to each other. I want us all to get familiar with everyone before we start for the year." Ike lets out a groan of distress, his past hour of getting to know everyone in the class was for nothing.

Kanata, being the hero that everybody needed at that exact moment, also flings himself out of his chair. Straightening his tie, he steps to the side and walks forward a little as if he wants to make this his character-defining moment of the year.

"Sir! We've already had the chance to meet everyone due to you being tardy! May we skip the formalities?" Kanata announces with a finger pointed at Aoi, who had clearly been expecting this. Ike's eyes filled with tears of joy, his hero Kanata had stood up to save the day!

"Nope." Scoffs Aoi. Kanata, stunned by the bluntness, sinks back down into his chair, grumbling to himself. Ike, also filled with shock and terror, turns to Natsume and shakes him violently causing his head to flop back and forth.

"C'mon Natsume, you've got to do something!" begs Ike as he rattles Natsume back and forth like a maraca. Pushing Ike's arms off his shoulders, Natsume gets up and walks to the front of the class without a word being said at all. He turns to face his new classmates, ignoring Aoi who's now wearing a face of intrigue.

"My name is Natsume Ando." He begins as all eyes get placed on him. Not a word is said as he stands out among the crowd. "I came here because I enjoy art and wish to learn more about it while also learning more about myself. I lived in Kyoto before transferring here so I can study." Explains Natsume, his eyes glued onto Kanata who's not looking too pleased with Natsume's stunt.

Natsume then walks back to his seat and sits down as if nothing happened. Aoi gives him a round of applause, though Natsume thought it was unwarranted since he would have to do it regardless.

Ike then grabs Natsume by the collar again, repeatedly shaking him back and forth with tears flowing from his eyes. 

"NATSUME WHY!" he wails as Natsume rolls his eyes, pushing Ike away again. The dark-haired boy turns back to the front of the class, ignoring the boy who is now sobbing into the desk beside him.

"It's not that hard. Just go up, say some things about yourself, and come back." Natsume explains, reassuring Ike that repeating himself isn't exactly a bad thing. Ike nods, wiping away his tears.

"Any more volunteers?" Aoi asks as everyone in the class looks around at each other. Every one of them was still hesitant to stand in front of everyone else. Natsume gives Ike a nudge, suggesting that he goes next. Ike fidgets with his hands in response until eventually Kanata barges to the front of the classroom, as Natsume would have expected of him.

"Well I suppose I can't let Natsume take all the glory." Kanata sneers as he stands up straight in front of everyone, arms behind his back as if he was about to take the perfect picture. Even before he started talking, Natsume wanted him to shut up.

"I'm Kanata Nagatsuki, I've resided in Osaka my whole life and have been an artist almost as long." He begins, still filled with confidence in himself. "I am part of the paranormal society in the school and I enjoy ghost hunting. It helps me while coming up with paintings." Kanata was going into so much detail, Natsume couldn't help but listen.

"Alright, alright, we want to get through everyone today Kanata. Thank you." Aoi chuckles, verbally shoving Kanata off stage. This sudden reaction stuns Kanata, but walks back to his desk, slumping back down next to Uno who is now comforting him as he sulks.

"Just go up Ike, get it over with." Natsume suggests, shoving Ike out of his seat, but Ike is stuck to his seat as if glue held him down. Natsume can hear Ike's breath get heavy and can almost hear his heart pounding. "If I stand up there with you, will you just get it over with." he sighs, praying for the response he wants.

"Dude, listen. I like talking to people, but standing in front of everyone and talking about myself, I just can't do that." He shivers, not realising he has already caught the attention of everyone in the room.

"Well then tell me about yourself and just say it really, really loud." Natsume shrugs, not wanting to tell him that everyone is currently watching.

"Uhh... Okay," Ike takes a deep breath before looking Natsume in the eyes, trying his hardest not to think about the people around him. "I'm Ike Masuda, I was born in Tokyo. My parents and I moved around Japan from place to place." he begins, speaking as if nobody was in the room at all. "My interest in painting started when my parents started buying paintings to place on the walls of our house. They came from all around the world and each of their stories spoke to me in a way that words couldn't."

Someone like Ike seemed so interesting from the way he described himself, that Natsume struggled to see what he was so worried about sharing. After rattling off a little bit about himself he slumped back down in his seat.

"I hate you for making me do that." Ike turns to Natsume with a face mixed with anger and fright. Despite saying this, Natsume knew that it was a weight off of Ike's mind. Ike's breathing was heavy after sitting back down.

"I'm not kidding, Natsume. I'm terrified of presenting to crowds." he continues as Natsume looks at him with open ears while more of their classmates introduce themselves while they speak. Natsume could tell by the way that his voice wavered that he wasn't kidding, this was the worst thing that he had done all day.

"Sorry, didn't know," Natsume says, shrugging off Ike's feelings as nothing more than an irrational fear. "It's a little strange for someone like you to want to go into art though, is it not?" Natsume questions. Ike raises an eyebrow at this sudden remark.

"What do you mean? I didn't come into art to present; I came into art to express my feelings and hopefully make money doing so." Ike responds with frustration. "Nobody really understands why I'm so scared of presenting and how I can be an extrovert at the same time."

Natsume shrugs off Ike's words again. "One of the many mysteries of the world. Besides, there will always be workarounds to your fears." he admits, placing his hand on Ike's shoulder, still with a stern, unfeeling expression on his face. "But for what it's worth, I'm proud of you."

"Thanks." Ike groans in response as Minori gets up in front of the whole class, obviously looking more stoic than the people before her. Natsume had already heard about everyone he was interested in. Feeling that he wouldn't gain anything from listening to everyone else, he lay his head down on the desk.

Ike, however, was fully engaged with every word that Minori was saying. Leaving Natsume to sleep, he turned his attention to the girl with the red streak in her hair that was standing in front of the class.

"My name is Minori Noriko", She begins as she glances around the class at everyone. Only to be slightly bothered by Natsume sleeping. Minori just rolls her eyes at his lack of interest and continues on. "I've been staying here in Osaka for almost my entire life, so I know the city quite well. While I'm not entirely sure what I want to do when I finish the course, I know I'll be leaving with many friends that I made along the way." She continues, still glancing around the room. She lays her eyes on Natsume yet again, who is now drooling on his desk.

"And, preferably friends who don't fall asleep when someone is talking!" She shouts, waking Natsume back up with an audible groan. "Maybe don't be so rude next time, Mr Ando." She taunts Natsume as the rest of the class laugh at the fact that he fell asleep. "And, clean your desk. It's gross." Natsume's expression still doesn't shift, he pulls out a tissue from his backpack and cleans up the saliva on the desk.

"As I was saying... I'll be happy to get to know you all and learn together." she concludes, as she walks back to her desk, whacking Natsume on the side of the head as she does. When she finally sits back down, Natsume dozes off again.

During his rest, he hears the faint voices of his classmates, talking about themselves. None of which he was particularly interested in. After a short while, his slumber takes him into a deep sleep.

It isn't until Ike nudges him awake that he realises how long he had been sleeping. Natsume quickly glances around the room only to see it empty. He turns back to Ike, who is slightly chuckling at him.

"It's lunchtime. C'mon, we'll grab something and chat for a little bit." Ike smiles, getting up from his seat and walking to the classroom door. Natsume nods as he groggily rubs his eyes, dragging his feet to the door to meet Ike.