"Karaoke"

As we all entered the karaoke bar, if I'm being honest, I had no idea what to expect. While part of me was excited that I finally got invited to a social outing with classmates, the majority of my thoughts were centered around what may transpire from me being here. After all, they initially only wanted Seira to join them for karaoke. But despite that, I decided to ignore any red flags and take the risk. Who knows... maybe this experience will be fun and I'm just overthinking things.

"Hello, can we get a room for 8 people for 2 hours please?"

Takada had asked the cashier at the front desk. What followed was a brief conversation on if we wanted food and drinks ordered. Everyone decided to get some food and drinks, but I didn't have much of an appetite so I just ordered some cola. As we were heading to our room, everyone seemed so kind and I sense no hostility. By the way things were going, I expected this to go smoothly.

"Who wants to go first?"

One girl asked in an ecstatic tone. As the conversation began to get lively.

"Oh! I hear Takada has an amazing voice!"
"Who told you that?"

Takada has said, clearly embarrassed as everyone started laughing.

"We just a couple of students talking about how they saw you singing in the music room one day"
"What?! I didn't know anyone knew about that day..."

Everyone started laughing as no one expected the captain of the basketball team to secretly be an amazing singer. Then then the girls look at Takada and ask him:

"So Takada, are you gonna show us how it's done and go first?"

He seemed hesitant at first, but then started laughing again as he agreed to go first. As he got up from his seat, he looked back at everyone and asked:

"So, what type of song is everyone feeling?"
"It doesn't matter to me, surprise me."
"I don't mind what you do as long as I can hear your voice."

The girls that came along mainly just wanted to be around Takada and try to kiss up to him because they liked him. While the two other guys that came along were just there to chill and talk to the girls. The two outliers in here were Seira and I. She only came along in an effort to get to know her classmates better, and I was here because Seira convinced them to invite me.

"Okay guys, how about a song to get everyone in the mood?"

Everyone looks at him and nods as he picked a more jazzy song. As he sang, everyone enjoyed the vibe that Takada had set. As he was singing, the food and drinks came, it was like a real party now. For the next 20 minutes or so, everyone ate their food and just chatted amongst themselves. With mostly everyone talking to either Seira or Takada, in attempts to know them better and to become friends with them. As I still wasn't used to these types of outings as it was my first one, I was hesitant on conversing with everyone. With that in mind, I simply decided to sit there and watch everyone, only deciding to talk if someone talked to me first. Suddenly, one of the girls looks at me and asks:

"What's the point of coming along if you aren't going to talk to anyone?"

After she says this, all the attention in the room is instantly drawn to me. This is one of the outcomes that I had wished didn't happen. I hated being the center of attention, as it made me extremely uncomfortable. I'm never in these situations, so I don't really have an idea on how to navigate them.

"U-Um... I don't really know what to talk about."

As I said this, many of them started showing an annoyed expression, as I began to get embarrassed at my lack of social skills. Before anyone else could say anything else, I thought I'd start a conversation about something that I enjoyed...

"Do any of you watch anime or read manga? If so I have a couple recommendations for you guys..."

I had no idea what to expect, as they didn't seem like the type of people that would be into those kinds of things. Even thought that may be true, I thought to myself:

"I'm already at the bottom of the food chain, so it doesn't really matter to me what they think of me."

After my question about anime, everyone was quiet for a second. Before Takada broke the silence and said:

"So that's the type of stuff you're into Shiro? I never really hear anyone at school talk about so I keep it to myself. It's nice to know other people in the class are into anime as well!"

Takada had said to me with a smile. When he said this, it was very surprising to me because I couldn't possibly fathom the thought of the captain of the basketball team, one of the most popular kids in the entire school liking anime. Although I was confused at first, the more the thought sat with me, the happier I was. After Takada's confession about his love for anime, one girl confessed that she also enjoyed anime and manga.

"What type of series do you like?"

I asked happily.

"I normally watch a lot of fantasy, action, and adventure."

Takada said as he showed me a list of shows he had on his phone. As he did this, the girl had said:

"I watch romance and slice of life mostly"

After that, we ended up talking about different anime for around 30 minutes. The conversation was fun and enjoyable, as I felt like I was actually starting to possibly forge a friendship with the very classmates that I previously despised. For the rest of the two hour session, everyone just talked and hung out instead of singing. As the time ran out, and it was time for everyone to leave, Takada said to everyone:

"This was fun, I would love to do this again with everyone some time. But now, I have to get to practice, I'll see you all tomorrow in class!"

As he walked away, everyone waved towards him as we started to split off and go our separate ways, rather it be home or somewhere else. As I began to walk home, Seira comes up to me:

"That was fun Shiro... did you enjoy yourself?"
"I actually really did, if I'm being honest... I really didn't expect this karaoke trip to go well for me. But I'm really glad it did, thank you for convincing them to invite me Seira."
"No problem, I really didn't want to go somewhere without someone I'm comfortable around..."

I was happy that Seira was comfortable around me, I finally had a friend I could spend my time around. Seira never judged me and she's always so kind to everyone around her. We started to walk towards Seira's house as it was getting late, I had walked her home most days as our friendship grew. As we arrived at her house, as she was walking inside, as always she waved to me and wished me a goodnight. Today was a really good day as I felt like a lot of progress was made. If someone told me that today I would be going to karaoke with my classmates, I probably would've laughed at it and believe it was a joke. This was a completely new experience to me, and I didn't fully know how to process it. All I knew, was that I was very happy with out this day turned on out for me.

As I got back home, my father and Eika were gone on errands. This didn't bother me much as I was tired from the day and was ready to shut down for the night. With that, I made myself a small snack before showering and getting ready for bed. Before I laid in my bed I checked my backpack to make sure I had everything I needed for tomorrow. Once everything was accounted for, I laid down and fell asleep rather quickly. That night seemed like it was the best sleep I had gotten in a while as I smiled as I slept.

"Goodnight..."