Partners - Muitan Demon Slayer

Partners

Muichiro

He stared down at his desk in the back of the class. Near the front of the class was a group of the more popular kids. They were sitting on desks and talking loudly. Someone whispered something and they all turned towards Muichiro and laughed. One of them told the group to stop. It was a boy with reddish hair, Muichiro believed his name was Tanjiro. He was very popular, everyone enjoyed his company. He sighed. It's not like he wasn't used to this treatment. People would make small comments about him as he walked in the halls. He didn't mind as much anymore.

The bell rung and the group dispersed into their seats. Their teacher walked into the room and picked up a dry erase marker.

She wrote 'Speaking Project on Environment' on the board.

..Project? Muichiro laid his head down. Those usually required him to find a partner or group and he wasn't really the best at sociallizing. Even if he was, nobody would want to work with him anyway.

The rest of the class started to buzz with excitement.

"Tanjiro want to be partners?"

"No way, Tanjiro and I will be partners. Right, Tanjiro?"

"Hey that's not fair! You worked with him last time!"

The teacher tapped the marker on her desk softly. "Alright class thats enough. I will be assigning your partners this time since this will be a test grade." She picked up a sheet of paper and put it up on the board. "I want you all to come up here to see who your partner is. You will be working on this project together for three weeks so try to get to know them today." She sat down at her desk and began typing on her computer.

One by one everyone went up to check who their partner was. Many kids sighed when they found out they weren't paired up with Tanjiro. Muichiro didn't bother going up to check. He knew his partner would ask for someone else. He laid his head down on the desk in an attempt to fade away from this moment.

A few seconds later someone tapped on his desk. Muichiro raised his head a little to see..Tanjiro? What was he doing at his desk?

"Hello! I'm Tanjiro, I think we are partners!"

Muichiro frowned.

"That lucky bastard, he got paired up with Tanjiro."

"Guys cut it out!" Tanjiro turned to look at them. "Go do something else, stop being nosy." He shook his head then looked back towards Muichiro, who had put his head down again.

"Mui...chiro, right?" He tapped on the desk again.

Muichiro sighed. It was no use, he wasn't going away. He raised his head and propped it on his hand. "Yes, hi."

Tanjiro smiled. "I think we should exchange numbers so we can work on the project outside of school! Here let me give you mine." He pulled out a pen from seemingly nowhere and then wrote his number down on Muichiro's binder. "I hope you don't mind.." He laughed a little as he rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, do you want to sit with my friends and I at lunch today? I don't think I've ever seen you at lunch before."

Of course you haven't seen me, I'm not popular like you. Muichiro shook his head 'no.' He put his binder in his bookbag then stood up. The bell was going to ring soon. "No thanks, I'm alright." He pushed pass Tanjiro as the bell rang and walked out the door to his next period.