Love, Rot, And Other Existential Crises

Three~At First Sight

"Hey, is anyone sitting here?" I felt a trap on my shoulder and looked up to see a tall black girl with a mass of long braids staring down at me. I quickly removed my headphones and moved my bag from the seat next to me to the floor.

"No, just me."

"Thanks." She say and held a hand out to me. "I'm Tashya."

I shook her hand. "I'm... Uh..." I was away a loss for words. Zyher had arranged for an alternate, more human name for me, but I'd forgotten what it was.

Tashya grinned, the corners of her mouth curling almost unnaturally up toward her eyes. "Forgetting your own name? Well, it happens to the worst of us most of the time. Love your hoodie by the way."

I laughed, rather embarrassed. "You watch it too?"

"Yeah, my second favorite show ever."

"Oh, what's your first?" 

The conversation continued on like this for a while as the last person boarded, the engine started and we sped of toward the school we would all be spending the next months at.

By the time the bus pulled through the magnificent wrought iron gates, me and Tashya had exhausted all lives of conversation she'd fallen asleep. I praised the show I read watching as the bus parked and shook her awake.

"Hey, we're here."

She cracked an eye open and said, "Morning."

I cracked a grin. "Come on, let's get off the bus." I watched her stretch and stand up. "What dorm are you in?"

"F27."

"Cool, I'm in E62."

"Great, we're almost right next to each other!"

I stood up and followed Tashya to the front of the bus. "I'm going to head up there now, but we can meet up later."

"Yeah, I'll meet you up for orientation."

I waved and turned to the path that wove through sparsely planted oak trees and flower beds. There was only one other person on the path. He was carrying a solitary bag over his shoulder and his long black hair swayed down his back in a mesmerizing fashion. It felt like I'd seen him before, but I couldn't pin down where it might have been. I shook my head and glanced away. He may be almost unnaturally pretty, but I had more important things to think about right now. Like how I was going to decorate my new room. A smile lit my face. My room... I broke into a jog, my bag bouncing on my back. I rounded a bend and passed the pretty black haired boy, ignoring him completely as I was lost in my thoughts, and after a minute or two, I was chatting through the main doors of the dorm and running up the stairs, not bothering to wait for the elevator. I exited the stairwell at the sixth floor and began counting doors. 1, 2, then I flung the door open.

The room was spacious, a bed tucked in the corner, a dresser, a desk, a chair on each side of the room and a couch and low table spanning between both sides. The right side was stacked with bags, and the sight of one of the plastic shopping bags I'd gotten the previous day told me that side of the room was mine. Zyher must have had them sent over the previous night. I slipped out of my shoes and sank into the couch. Looking at the blank walls I imagined how I would lay out the room. For a second I thought about the black haired boy I'd seen on the path here. He only had a bag with him too. I wondered if he'd also had his things delivered to his room.

At that moment, I saw him walk past my open door and into the room across from mine. I leapt to my feet and padded silently across the hall.

I poked my head in the open door. "Shinzo!" I exclaimed.

He froze. "How do you know my name?"

"It's on the door outside." I pointed behind me.

"Oh." He turned and went back to unpacking his bag. I took the opportunity to look around his room. It was almost identical to mine, except the light coming in through the window was different and there weren't bags scattered everywhere. Shinzo must be really poor, if all he had to bring with him was that bag. The thought made me kind of sad.

Shinzo turned again but didn't look at me. He really was pretty, his pale skin so smooth and almost completely unmarked, and his grey eyes were so deep, and the way they caught the sunlight made them almost dance with flecks of blue and green. It took me a few moments before I realized he was holding my gaze. I blushed and glanced away quickly.

"U-um, I think I'd better unpack." I stammered out before turning tail and shutting the door to my room behind me.

The door to the room the blond white boy had just entered read Max K. & Amos T. Shinzo recognized the name Max, he'd been a third year last year, so the one Shinzo had just been talking to must be Amos. Weird guy, with the way he'd been staring at him. Shinzo's phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his back pocket. A text message from Mizuki.

おにいさん, meet me in the front courtyard

Shinzo texted back,

OK

The sun was warm on his back as Shinzo strolled down the long winding path toward the center of the campus. He soon reached the spot where there was a break in the trees and he spotted Mizuki, who in turn instantly started bouncing up and down on the backs of her feet and waving as soon as Shinzo called out to her.

"Onii-san, Onii-san!"

When he reached her, she sat him down on a bench and asked him about how everything was going.

Shinzo scratched at his ear. "Well, you see, there was this weird guy..."