gureshin - the lavenders that grow on your porch

eyes blue

[guren's pov]

I was greeted with a surprise when I went to school the next day.

I was at my lockers with Sayuri and Shigure. I was talking to them about how weird it was that Shinya still wasn't at school. Sayuri was looking at the direction of the school gate while Shigure was straight up staring at me.

I was in the middle of a sentence when Sayuri cut me off, "Guren. The Hiragi's."

I faltered. Sayuri's face was facing away from me, but I could tell that she remembered the day in the hallway, when I cut her off when she was talking about 3D shapes. 

Shigure stared at me. I glared at her. 

The Hiragi's were here. 

You could have spotted them a mile away. They weren't exactly normal.

Mahiru Hiragi walked down the hallway as if she owned the place. Her lavender hair swished behind her back and her large amber eyes sparkled. As she walked past me, she smiled and waved.

Seishiro was his usual self. He was behind the rest of the Hiragi family, probably because he took a detour to bully some kids.

Kureto didn't take confident strides like he used to. He was talking with Aoi, his ex-assistant, and someone else, who's face was covered by Kureto's arm...

...Something about that person was familiar.

Who else would be walking among the Hiragi's? They were all here. Was it a new servant or assistant for Kureto?

Or was it someone completely different?

It couldn't be... I think.

But Kureto's arm moved away, to reveal a tall, feminine-looking boy with snow-white hair and bloodshot blue eyes. 

He stood out the most, and not because of his tired appearance. 

It's because he wasn't in school for the past few days.

"Shinya," I suck in a breath.

As if he could hear me, Shinya's head turned our way. Our eyes met, violet and blue, and I saw how tired he was.

He must hate me now.

But that doesn't stop me from smiling at him. Just like how he smiled at me so many months ago.

Shinya's eyes look sad when he turns away.

The smile died on my lips. Shinya is talking to Kureto as if he never saw me. He passes us without casting another glance in our direction, like we were invisible.

The look of sadness and pain in Shinya's eyes burned into my mind. My stomach churned with anxiety and confusion, and I for the first time after my father died, I felt lost and terribly, utterly alone.

And somehow, Shigure knew this.

"Come on, Guren-sama," Shigure puts a hand on my shoulder, "we have geography next. We shouldn't be late."

"Yeah," I force out, "yeah. Let's go."

We learnt about Columbus in geography, but despite the knowledge the geography teacher spouted out of her mouth, I couldn't focus. I can't stop thinking about Shinya.

When he was still at school, Shinya would have been sitting behind me, throwing small paper airplanes and paper cranes into my hair, or passing me meaningless notes that said things like "the moon is beautiful, isn't it?".

But today, he wasn't sitting behind me. He was sitting at the very back, in the corner. Far, far away from where he usually sat.

Far, far away from me.