My Infinity 》Renga

3

Chapter 3- Langa's POV:

"How much sleep did you get?"

"How should I know..." Reki yawns, earning a narrow, concerned look from me. 

I can tell he's exhausted by the soft dark rings encircling his eyes, and he looks messy, skating slower than me, which is unusual, as he's usually trying to beat me in spontaneous races.

"It's the first day of a semester, you should've slept." I sigh.

"I did! Whether it was enough time unconscious or not is your opinion."

"I don't have an opinion; I have a fact: you need sleep."

Reki shakes his head at my worried remarks, clearly not understanding how much I care about him. 

When the bell rings for school, Reki starts fretting about this new student.

"You'll help me show him around, right?" He begs.

"Yeah, of course. Aren't you supposed to meet him beforehand, though?"

"Crap! Yes..."

He scampers off in the direction of the principal's office.

I take my seat in class as everyone prepares and I nearly gasp as I see my best friend walk into class with the new boy.

I'm not attracted to Kaiyo in the slightest, but as soon as I see him, I know he is the legitimate, exact, textbook definition of beautiful. He's nearly almost as beautiful as Reki. Nearly. Almost.

He has silky jet-black hair that rests in loose curls, framing his face delicately, and a light sprinkle of dark freckles decorating the bridge of his nose as if an artist had flicked an ink-covered brush at him. His skin is pale, and looks smooth, like fine china. His eyes are clear and bright, a violet-blue colour, which I've never seen before, and he has a slim figure that even the crappy school uniform compliments. He looks slightly bored, or rather, unbothered, by entering the class.

"Introduce yourself, then." Our teacher says, and I remember when he did the exact same thing to me when I started here. Looking around, I can see some of my classmates have noticed the new classmate's beauty too.

"Hi, I'm Kaiyo..." He says slightly hesitantly. His voice is a velvety purr.

He seems shy, scanning the classroom silently with his eyes as the teacher forces the name of his previous school out of him before he takes the seat in front of Reki's.

"This is Langa." Reki says, and the black-haired boy turns to say hi, his ears and cheeks turning rose as he smiles at me. I guess that the blush is out of nervousness.

"Hi there." He smiles.

"Hey!" I say kindly, despite the fact that Reki already looks like he wants to murder this dude, for some reason.

Over the course of the day, we get to know the new student a bit better.

He's kind of quiet, soft spoken, seems to not be very keen on getting to know many people apart from Reki and I.

"So, what was Grand Ridge like?" I ask, referring to Kaiyo's prior high school.

"Kind of shit," he sighs, leaning back against the fence we are sitting in front of, "pretty close-minded people."

"What do you mean?" Reki asks, not looking up from the bento box he is examining like an artefact.

Kaiyo sighs, his expression indicating that Grand Ridge High School is a painful topic.

"You don't have to answer..." My friend reassures him, looking up momentarily.

"No, it's fine. Just met my fair share of assholes, you know. Bullies."

"Sucky. People are usually mean for the stupidest reasons, anyway." I shrug.

"Mine was my sexuality."

This statement shocks me, slightly. I just don't expect him to outwardly state the reason why he was bullied.

"Oh. Which is what?" I inquire.

"Who knows. I don't." Kaiyo replies casually, a laugh trailing on the end of his statement.

It's clear that Reki despises our newfound friend. His dislike towards Kaiyo only gets continuously more obvious to me as the day progresses, and the second that we leave school together he turns to me and starts apologizing profusely.

"I'm so sorry if I seemed icy!"

"That's alright, he didn't notice." I reassure him, even though I really did.

"It's not alright! I feel terrible..."

He's getting really worked up.

"Reki, it's okay, I doubt you seemed off to him! You did all the duties you were asked and he thanked you." I say, trying to calm the red-haired boy.

"He just... pisses me off... and I feel really bad..."

I feel a pang of fear strike my chest as I notice the quickening of Reki's breathing as he speaks.

Panic attack.

"Please just breathe..." I mutter, gently pushing him down to a sitting position on a footpath bench.

"I'm sorry..." He says, voice shaky.

"Don't say sorry for anything." I whisper, letting Reki hug me as I rub his back gently.

"Langa, I can't breathe properly..." He gasps, gripping me more tightly. I know the hug isn't the reason why. 

"It's alright, you're alright..." I mutter.

We sit still for a few minutes, me trying desperately to calm Reki's rapid, shaky breaths.

This situation wouldn't be a big deal to me. If I was negative towards someone I disliked I wouldn't really mind if they noticed. I've been the rudest, most cold person to people and haven't cared, but it's a big deal to Reki. He cares what people think. He cares too much.

Eventually, his breathing returns to a less erratic pattern and he cries. Just cries into my shoulder, and I let him, wishing those perfect amber eyes weren't so full of tears. He's never cried in front of me before so I don't really know what to do in the scenario but I try to be as supportive as I can.

"Please don't cry, Reki..." I whisper, running a hand through his hair as to comfort him.

"You're right, I shouldn't be, I'm sorry." He says, pulling away quickly and wiping his eyes and nose on his sleeves, trying to hide his face.

"No, I didn't mean it like that, I just..."

As he looks up at me, eyes wide and tinged red, I feel my heart break ever so slightly.

"...You... don't deserve it." I sigh.

I feel slightly sick in that way as our eyes lock, and as neither of us break the eye contact I feel as though I'm on a roller coaster.

"Uh, here..." I say awkwardly, pulling a packet of tissues out of the front pocket of my bag.

"Oh, thanks..."

"Reki?"

"Yeah?"

"Um... whenever you need someone to get you through stuff like that..."

I look at him as to hint at what I mean, and I think he gets the message.

"Thanks. It's kind of scary. So, thanks."

I nod.

"Yeah," I sigh, "I hope I can make it less scary for you. At least a little bit."