The Outcasts

Tuesday, September 11th

While walking to school, I spotted a familiar figure, it was the same guy who had bumped into me the day before. He was one of the odd sheep among those people around him, it wasn't because there was anything about him that was weird, it was because of the fact that he was walking alone. The town in general, and the school specifically, didn't have many teenagers, so it wasn't strange for most people to know each other to an extent, which made it a given that most students would have someone to walk with. Though I guess I couldn't really say anything when I was walking alone myself, but since it's only my second day, it's a natural thing.

"I shouldn't be a busybody." I thought to myself. That's right, people probably have their own reasons for why things are happening, I should stop paying attention to something so trivial. As I was letting that thought submerge in my head, a busybody appeared right next to me and invaded something called my personal space like the first time he met me.

"Yo!"

"You know you can also just get my attention by walking beside me right?" I removed Kyouji's hand from my shoulders.

Kyouji then gave me a grin like it wasn't his problem before moving next to me "I was walking right next to you like this but then you had this blank look on your face and didn't even respond although I called out your name."

"Then it's on me. Though next time just tap my shoulder, no need to wrap your entire arm around it." I retorted.

While it was true that it takes time for me to be immersed in a story, the same couldn't be said for my thoughts. Whenever I start thinking for a bit longer than a few seconds, I'd get sucked into my own world, paying practically no attention to my surroundings.

"You got it." Kyouji gave me a thumbs-up.

Why was Kyouji walking with me anyway? I'm sure a guy like him would have lots of people he could've picked to walk with. Was he afraid that the new kid would feel left out? Without knowing how to sugarcoat my words, I directly asked:

"Is there no one else you walk with? You seem like the type to have many people to choose from to be your walking partner."

"So judgemental!" Kyouji shouted "You're not wrong. I often walk with a group of 4, so even if I detach from that group, they would still have each other to talk to. I saw you walking alone so I figured you might appreciate some company, considering you're new to this town and all."

Yup, I was right.

Kyouji then continued "How did yesterday go? Was there any club that interested you?"

"Only 2 of them. The track and field club and the movie club. Howe-" I got cut off before I could tell him about the fact that no club was active on Monday.

"That's great! With a physique like yours, I'm sure you'd easily beat most of my team, but I think you would still need some work before you can beat me." Kyouji carefully assessed me from top to bottom with his eyes like I was a mystical creature. It's true that I was taller and a bit more well-toned than an average Japanese, but it wasn't like I had the look of a professional athlete. Kyouji, after getting past his initial comment, gave me a weird look "And a…movie club? Huh, I was never aware that we have that. It must've been quite unpopular because no one I know ever mentioned this club."

Feeling a bit curious, I decided to ask "Why? Is no one here big on movies?"

"You can say so, people in the town rarely ever watch any movie. We'd all rather spend time with our friends or relatives doing things. The only time when most people here would watch a movie is when they go to the town that's 2 hours away where there's a small movie theater. I've been there once with my dad after visiting my mother in the hospital who was about to give birth at the time." 

"I see." I could only mutter a shallow and dry response. If people here rarely ever watch movies, then who is passionate enough about them to even start a club? I decided not to think too much about it. "You have a sibling?"

"A little brother yeah. He's only 10 years old, so he's still in elementary school."

An elementary school, I was aware that the town has one and also a middle school, but since I hadn't been around town that much, I never figured out where they were located. I could've asked Kyouji for more information but since it had nothing to do with me nor would I even know where they were if he described the place, it was pretty redundant to ask.

As we continued to walk, I tried my best not to ask Kyouji a question that I was having in my mind before he came up to me. I told myself not to be a busybody 5 minutes ago but now I wanted to sate that curiosity. I gave up trying to hold my curiosity back and decided to ask Kyouji:

"I assume everyone here knows each other on one level or another right? That's why there's practically no one that walks alone except for a few people. Is there any reason why there are still a few people around that are walking alone?"

Kyouji went "Hmm" for a bit as he looked around, there were only a few people that were walking alone, including the guy who bumped into me. Kyouji then started casting his eyes over each and single one of them and started giving me the reasons "I think some of them just prefer walking alone or that the person they usually walk with might be sick today so they aren't coming to school." He then looked at the person I was interested in the most at the moment "That guy however, Shigusa I think?…There are some rumors about him that have been going around for a while. I heard some of them but never paid much attention to gossip like girls often do so I forgot what they were about specifically. These rumors caused people to avoid him pretty much because they don't want to be associated with him."

I was wondering when something like this would come up. Hearing rumors at a school wasn't anything strange, it's an integral part of going to school, however looking at the guy walking alone, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of rumors were being spread about him. As far as it looked, he didn't seem to be any different from your average Japanese student, albeit just a bit more on the beefy side. I was surprised by how jumpy he was when we first met, but that wasn't enough to start some weird rumors over.

-----

I stepped inside of the classroom, there was still quite a good amount of time before class started so there was practically no one in class. In fact, Kyouji had separated from me after we walked through the school gate, saying "I'll get my morning run in." Does that guy do anything in his free time but run?

The only reason why the class was practically empty and not fully empty was because she was there in her seat, the girl who shared her umbrella with me the day before. Instinctively, the first thing I did when I saw her was to touch my backpack's side pocket, and when I felt the umbrella's handle, it was a relief to realize that I didn't make the same mistake today.

"So she wasn't lying…" Truth be told, I had doubts about whether she was lying when she said her seat was in front of mine, until now at least. Now that I've gotten a good look at her, which I didn't yesterday because my eyes were darting all over the place because she was so intimidating, she was nothing short of a beauty. Her long black hair was a great contribution to that overall cold demeanor, in a good way. There was a nice blue bow tie behind her head. If she was a character in a manga or an anime, then chances are she'd be the most popular girl among readers and watchers respectively. She was drawing something on that canvas of her, the same one I saw her holding yesterday from the look of it, I would be surprised if she wasn't a part of the art club.

"You're staring so intensely that I can feel your gaze you know?" The cold voice came from the girl I was looking at. "It didn't help that you speak your thoughts out loud." She looked up at me with a look that was like it was judging my entire being.

"Ah, no. I was just surprised I didn't notice you yesterday. And I was wondering how to refer to you since you never told me your name." I lied, it's not like I can just tell her I was thinking about how beautiful she looked despite how she acted.

"Satou." She said.

Satou…That's probably her family name. That reminded me how Kyouji straight-up just told me his given name on our first meeting like we had known each other from before. I didn't need to tell him my name because I'd already said and written it on the board on my first day of being here. I'd be amazed if he can get along with anyone just as easy as that.

"Good morning then, Satou." I raised my hand.

"Morning." Satou went back to focusing on her drawing.

I could ask her what she was drawing but that would be bothering her, and her cold tone made me feel like if I asked, she was going to be irritated and probably tell me to shut up. However, based on our previous two interactions, I was sure that was just a very wrongful assumption.

Without anything left to say or do, I went to my seat behind Satou and sat down. Class was about to start so the classroom was slowly being filled with students coming in. Just right before the bell rang, Kyouji had managed to make it in time to walk to his seat before the teacher walked in. Kyouji was dripping with sweat from his morning run, so as he was breathing heavily from having to rush from the track to the classroom, I leaned over to him and whispered "Hey Kyouji…don't touch me for the rest of the day okay?"

All I got back was a "Ehhhhhhhh?" before our first period started.

-----

Classes went by without any real problem, the only problem was pretending like I was still working on questions I already finished way before anyone in class did. I wanted to just take some slight naps or just lose myself in my own world. If I did that, the teacher would think I was having difficulties doing my work and then walked over to my desk to help me with it. It had happened twice already and was giving me more attention than I already had, so to avoid that I just had to deal with the fact that I couldn't spend that time being on cloud nine.

During lunch, I pulled out my own lunchbox and placed it on my table. Kyouji was already out of the class, chances are he went to his friends and had lunch with them. It reminded me of the day before, when he just appeared out of nowhere, walked to class with me, and gave me an onigiri. It must've also been the same reason why he walked to school with me today, that being the fact that I was the new kid. Now that I think about it, underneath that airhead personality of his is a genuinely caring person.

I opened my lunchbox, it contained 2 servings of takoyaki all neatly laid out to fit the part used to contain the main course. Next to it was a circular indent which had a lid on it, I opened the lid to reveal the light puff of smoke from the miso soup, containing some tofu and small pieces of meat. Then at the bottom of the lunch box, there was a small hollow square where the desserts were, for today, I got a cup of store-bought yogurt and a banana, there were also some toothpicks in this part of the lunchbox that I could use to skewer the takoyaki.

The smell of the takoyaki and miso soup must've been strong because I saw Satou glancing ever so slightly to check where that smell was from. She probably wanted to try the food out but instead of asking, she just faced forward again and continued her lunch. It was a peculiar occurrence because she was pretty straight-forward about wanting to come over to my place yesterday, yet now she was hesitant to ask to share lunch, were girls just more sensitive when it comes to food?

After I came up with a good excuse, I grabbed two of the toothpicks and skewered two takoyaki, then I called out Satou, to which she turned around slightly. I extended my hands forward which were holding the two skewers, "Thanks for yesterday."

Satou then burrowed her brows a bit like I just committed a cardinal sin. She quickly reached out and grabbed the skewers, and she went back to the position she was in 5 seconds ago.

I was about to say that she could've been a bit nicer but then I just brushed it off since it was nothing but a trivial matter. But there was a bigger reason why I didn't do that, it was because I was getting glances from people inside the classroom for reasons I didn't know. Did I really commit a cardinal sin?!

-----

The bells rang signifying the day's end.

The Class was dismissed and everyone did their own things. Some had clean-up duties so they stayed in class to sweep and then mop the class. Few were heading to their respective clubs' rooms, but most were just heading out of school. As I was packing my stuff, Kyouji went over to me, wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and led me to a corner of the classroom.

"Hey, did I not tell you to-" I was cut off by Kyouji before I could tell him to remove his arm from me.

"Listen, I don't know what happened exactly during lunch but you are one gutsy bastard to talk to Satou Natsume."

Natsume was her name.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Didn't you know?" Kyouji raised his eyebrow like whatever he was going to tell me was supposed to be common sense "Natsume's dad, Satou Mamiya, is the town's head."

The town's head? Like the chief? It was true that I had heard this name before, in passing. when I was researching more about the town in my free time. But I hadn't made any connection between Satou Natsume and Satou Mamiya, which was nothing less of me being oblivious now that I realized how obvious it was. Even then….

"So?"

"What do you mean 'so'?! The Satou family holds a lot of power around this part, and they're known for being not easy to please at all. Mamiya and his wife, Fuyumi, are two people you'd not want to get on their bad side. I've heard stories of people having to face some difficulties just for saying one wrong thing. That's why people in the school try their best to not interact with her, after all, one wrong thing is said and they're in for a world of trouble. Natsume herself doesn't even talk to others in school in order to retain the dominant and authoritative image that her family is known for."

I was listening to everything that Kyouji was saying but almost all of them sounded wrong to me. It was true that Natsume looked and seemed cold, but she didn't come off as someone who would get other people in trouble just by making remarks that are typical of teenagers our age. I can't speak of her parents however, I haven't even seen their faces, only their names after all. And what did he mean by Natsume doesn't talk to other people? She did talk to me twice...then it hit me.

"Oh."

"You see my point now?!" Kyouji said.

What I was surprised at wasn't what Kyouji said, but rather how it put into context my previous interactions with Natsume. Was she talking to me because I didn't know much about her family? Did she actually cut herself from peers of her age, or was she the one cut from their social circles due to her family's image? It was safe to assume that besides me, very few people, or even no one else, talk to her.

In any case, it was cruel for people to just ignore another human being, especially when you study in the same class for an entire year. The image of Shigusa walking alone flashed across my mind, I didn't know who he was exactly, but just the prospect of having to endure rumors and being shunned was making me feel sympathetic for him.

I removed Kyouji's arm from my shoulder, and with a sigh, I told him "Thanks for telling me that, though I'm sure if any of that were true, I'm bound to be in some trouble soon then." After all, I called Natsume lacking common sense yesterday, and today I called her a liar. I picked up my backpack and walked out of the classroom, Kyouji was treating Natsume's existence the same way everyone did, not that I blame him, that was just how he was raised, and what one must do in order not to end up like another Natsume or another Shigusa. For me, I couldn't care less about all of that fiasco.

I headed toward the list of clubs in the main hall and looked through the timetable for each one of them. The two clubs that were in session today were the bonsai club and the movie club. I have never been a person who likes looking at trees so that left only one obvious choice, watching a movie every week doesn't sound bad at all actually.

Making my way to the club, I turned one corner and spotted someone bending down to pick up different papers on the floor. It was Shigusa, I came over and started gathering the different papers on the floor, most of them were filled with neatly handwritten letters. I returned the papers to Shigusa, to which he was surprised to see me "Ah, it's you!", he was surprised to see me again.

"Hashiba Edwards." I said, reaching out my hand for a handshake "You don't need to be so tense around me, let bygones be bygones. And sorry if I scared you the first time we met, I blame it on my dad's genes for making me look like this." I smiled, trying to lighten up the mood. Shigusa was just hanging his head down, I could tell his face was getting a bit red, it was kind of cute for the lack of a better word, but I didn't say it out loud because calling another man cute was probably the most damaging thing you could do to their ego.

Shigusa then shook his hand with me, honestly it caught me by surprise because of how pleasing his hand was, it was rough as expected from another man but something about it felt particularly warm and comfortable. "Shigusa…Yoshiki."

Perhaps it was because of how I looked that he still couldn't find it in him to look at me, it wouldn't be the first time I ended up making people freeze up from being intimidated by my physical traits. My mom is Japanese but my dad is American, and I take after my dad in traits such as my height and my brown hair.

"Well nice to meet you Shigusa, I'll just…go where I was going." I said, not wanting to keep it awkward between us both.

But then Yoshiki followed me, no, he was walking WITH me. If I turned a corner, he turned a corner, if I walked up the stairs, he walked up the stairs, and when I stopped in front of the club room, he also stopped in front of the club room, just right behind me.

"Are you in the movie club?" I asked, the answer was more than obvious.

"Well, I-um-" Shigusa's struggle to answer was then cut off by the sound of the door in front of it being opened, and the person who opened it was none other than Natsume herself.

"There you are Shigusa, I thought you might've gotten lost in the school." Natsume then turned her attention over to me, and in a deadpan stoic voice that was starting to grow on me, she asked "Is there something you need, Hashiba?"