Satou Kazuya I : Her

"Ohayou Kazuya," a voice called out his name. "Kazuha? Oi Kazuya!" Kazuya drowned in the mood while stroking his pencil against the sketchbook. Annoyed for being ignored, Nozomi flicked Kazuya’s head with his finger.

"Ouch…” he turned his head upward looking at Nozomi's concerned face. “Ah... sorry, ohayou Nozomi, didn’t notice you here," he rubbed his forehead while trying to regain his composure.

"Geez, Kazuya, I thought I lost you for a second there. I feel like everyday you keep losing your touch to the real world," Nozomi sighed in relief. "So? Have you read the latest chapter?" His eyes glimmered with excitement, waiting for Kazuya's answer. "You know what? they were finally-..." With sudden movement, Kazuya reached his hand to Nozomi's lips, catching him off guard.

"No spoilers!"

"Seriously, it's been a few days since it was released."

"Uh… Alright, alright. I will read it tonight," a grin was seen from Nozomi’s face. “That’s the spirit!”

Nozomi pulled out his new manga collection from his bag and laid them down on the table one by one. "While we're here, look at what I bought yesterday," Kazuya covered his face with one hand as his right eye twitched. "Ugh, seriously? Nozomi."

As Nozomi laid down his manga collection, the classroom door slid open. "Oh sh..." he quickly put his manga back in the bag. Kazuya felt a little bit relieved, he couldn't bear to hear another minute of Nozomi spoiling a manga that he hasn't read. “I’ll be back hehe,” Nozomi smirked as he turned his body.

"Good morning, everyone!" said the teacher as she stepped into the room. "Before we start the class, I have two announcements. First, the school has decided that the spring school trips will be delayed until further notice."

A commotion erupted among the students, murmurs began to whisper in the air.

"Eh, shocking. This is not the first time anyway," Nozomi mumbled.

"It's not like you really care about it or anything, Nozomi. Every time there's a school trip, you always bring your manga collection and sometimes your mecha figurines," he said while his eyes fixated on his drawing.

"Hey, hey, it's a long trip. I need entertainment while on the bus. Besides, you always bring your sketchbook. How is that?" Kazuya ignored him while he continued sketching in his sketchbook.

"Ugh, do you even hear me?"

"Alright everyone, stay quiet," the teacher hushed the class. "Ehmm... Secondly, we have a new transfer student,” the class started to murmur again, gossiping about who the new student was.

“Yay…” cheers Kazuya with a monotonous tone while his eyes are still fixed on his drawing.

 “Really Kazuya?”

“Please give her a warm welcome," she turned her head to the left. "Please come in!"

"Whoaa..." the whole class erupted as a girl walked into the class. All eyes were turned on to her, except Leonard that focused on his drawing. As she stood in front of the class, the teacher kindly asked her to introduce herself. "Would you introduce yourself, Miss Ueno?" The girl nodded and picked up a chalk to write her name on the blackboard.

It's written: 上野 サラ.

"My name is Ueno Sara. My family just moved in from Tokyo. I hope we can all be friends. Nice to meet you," she said, delivered with an energetic tone, radiating her vibrant energy to the whole class as she bowed in front of the whole class.

"Whoaa...." the whole class rumbled.

"Kazuya, Kazuya! she's from Tokyo, you hear that?"

"Hmm." He mumbled, lost in his own world. His surroundings seemed to fade away as he was engrossed in his drawing. In his head, all that mattered was that he finished up his sketch.

"Alright alright everyone, now that everything has been sorted out. Miss Ueno, would you please sit next to Satou-kun in the back?"

"Yes, Sensei," she walked through and took a seat on the empty chair beside Kazuya.

Nozomi leaned closer to Kazuya."Psstt... Kazuya, are you sure you don't wanna look at her," he whispered.

"Hmm?" he remained aloof with his surroundings. But he thought to himself about what Nozomi said. As he gently stroked his pencil against the white paper. It suddenly slipped from his hand, rolled down on the floor and landed on the side of Ueno's shoe. Kazuya with his timid behavior hurriedly tried to grab the pencil but he was stunned. The pencil caught her attention first as she looked down and reached out her hand to the pencil. As she bent down, her hair cascaded down while she bent down, trying to grab the pencil with her left hand.

For a good few minutes, he relinquished all his urge to draw. He found himself hypnotized by her appearance. A faint word was heard from his mouth. "Hime..." he mouthed , not realizing the situation he was currently in. As if a princess from another world just suddenly appeared in front of him.

Her hair is almost like a twilight, it's not quite black and it's not quite purple, a perfect combination between the two. His eyes couldn’t help but fixate on her while she retrieved his pencil. Until Nozomi nudged him back to reality.

"Satou-san right?" she said followed by a warm smile. In his heart, he was conflicted as his feelings were mixed between embarrassment and excitement.

"A-aaa.... Y-yes," he stammered awkwardly.

"Here you go," she reached out her hand and returned the pencil to him.

His heart was pounding fast, “What is this feeling?” he thought to himself. Suddenly the world seems to be getting smaller and smaller as if it was intertwined with the rhythmic of his heart. His mind was already overwhelmed by the mixed feeling.

“Satou-kun,” a woman's voice called his name. “Satou-kun!” Once again, Nozomi quickly nudged him back to reality.

“A-aa Yes? Sensei. I’m present,” he noticed the whole class had their eyes at him while he was still trying to retrieve the pencil from Ueno. Flustered by the situation, his face turned red from the embarrassment. He hurriedly retrieved the pencil and turned back to face the front, trying to regain his composure.

He tried to ease himself by going back to his drawing but his mind was still wandering, endlessly still thinking about her. It sounds crazy at first but this was his first time in his life he ever felt this feeling. He rested his chin on his left hand overlooking the right. He couldn’t help but steal a glance at her, but he brushed it off and started focusing on his drawing.

The first and the second period of class went relatively like usual, nothing out of ordinary. The bell finally rang, it was lunch break. He closed his textbook, and like usual, he and Nozomi hang out together as they eat their lunches.

As he was about to eat his lunch, Nozomi pulled out the same manga collection that he brought up this morning. Kazuya closed his eyes and sighed deeply. A visible fiery eyes was seen from Nozomi's eyes followed by a grin. Nozomi showed off his new collection to Kazuya, but he didn’t pay attention to him. His eyes were distracted by the new girl in the class. She was surrounded by the other girls that wanted to greet her. The girls laughed together as they exchanged conversation that he overheard a little. She was quite energetic, he thought. He could tell it from her face as she conversed with the others, unlike him, a timid person.

He went back and continued his eating, minding his own business. It’s weird to think about her a lot, he thought. On second thought, hearing Nozomi mumbling and monologuing about his manga relaxed his mind a bit from thinking about her.

“Are you gonna finish your lunch Nozomi?” Kazuya asked, interrupting him from his mumbling.

“You right my bad, I was too excited about it.”

“Sure you do.”

“So what are you drawing this morning? another anime character or what.”

“Eh nothing serious, I was watching some documentary about capybara last night and I thought it looks fun to draw.”

“Ohh? This is very unusual for you. Can I see it?”

Kazuya opened his sketchbook and turned its page to the latest one. Revealing a detailed drawing of the animal.

“Whoa, Kazuya. This is cute,” he exclaimed. “But…”

“But?”

Nozomi took a closer inspection of the drawing, noticing something. He pointed his hand to the drawing. “Did you just draw the capybara based on me?”

“Heh? what's so?” Kazuya inquired.

“Why is the capybara wearing the school baseball jacket, and reading a manga! T-there's even a freaking mecha figurine beside it! Who else likes mecha in this class other than me?”

“All the characters I drew are works of fiction. Any similarity to the actual person is purely just a coincidence,” he chuckled a bit, not denying the resemblance.

"I think it looks cute, that hamster, it definitely looks like you, Nozomi,” said a voice, catching up with the conversation.

“Mirai… Look into my eyes,” asked Nozomi, a bit disappointed in her.

“Why Nozomi?”

“You stupid,” he said with a deadpan expression. “Seriously you don’t know what animal that is?

“It's a hamster right? riiight?” she said while scratching her head.

“T-tanaka-san!” exclaimed Kazuya trying to ease up the situation. But suddenly it backfired on him.

“I told you how many times Kazuya! call me Mirai, M-I-R-A-I, Mirai, we have been friends since elementary school, same with this otaku capybara here,” she insisted Kazuya call her by her first name.

“Hey! I’m not an otaku capybara ”

“Eehhh?” she took a closer look at him. “Surely you are!”

"So, Kazuya you haven't properly introduced yourself to her?" she said as she leaned toward him.

"Who's her?"

"You dork," she signaled with her eyes to the girl behind her, Ueno.

"I haven't!" Nozomi exclaimed.

"Not you, capybara!" Nozomi was speechless when he heard it. As if something had struck him.

"So, Kazuya, you want to greet her?" she teased him. Kazuya remained silent, in his head he really wanted to meet her but he was afraid that she would be disappointed in him for no reason.

For a moment, he remained silent. A grin seen from Mirai's face, behind her beautiful smile she scheming her mischievous plan. "I'll take that as yes." Without further wait, she slowly tilted her chair to the back towards Ueno’s seat with her hands holding tight to the tip of the table.

“Ueno-san!” she said, interrupting her while she was speaking with other girls. “No, it's not like that Mirai,” he tried to stop her but it's already too late.

“Ueno-san!" Ueno noticed her antics. “Ta..naka-san?”

“Yep-yep! there’s a guy who want to meet you~”

“Heh? who?”

Like what she did to Kazuya, she signaled her eyes to Kazuya. “Satou-san?” she inquired.

Kazuya's heart pounded uncontrollably, “Mirai y-you stupid, stupid, stupid,” he thought to himself. “W-why you did that arrrghgghh,” he closed his eyes hoping that she would just be gone. But his nightmare finally come atlas as he heard footsteps approaching him closer.

“So you like to draw too?” her eyes sparkled when she noticed a sketchbook on his table.

“Huh?” he opened his eyes, he was taken aback by that unexpected answer.

She went back to her seat, reaching something from her bag. She grabbed her sketchbook from it and ran back to Kazuya.

“What is this?”

“That’s my sketchbook,” she said while giving her sketchbook to him.

“M-may I open it?” he said with a bit of hesitation.

“Wait!” she stopped him while she grabbed his sketchbook from the table.

“May I open this too?” she said while warmly smiling at him. His eyes widened as he heard what she said.

Mirai and Nozomi left them both alone.

For a reason he couldn’t tell, he was no longer flustered when he spoke to her. As if a barrier between her and him had just been lifted. Without any doubt lingered in his heart. He said.

“Yes,” he smiled back at her.