Not Entirely Unpleasant (KuroKen)

Charming

I really shouldn't be this okay with it being 1:25 am...

A week had passed since the beginning of the second term of Kenma's first year at high school, and besides the fact that Kenma could have sworn that he had received twice the amount of homework than he would have had that time last year, and at least three times as much as he would have had in middle school, Kuroo seemed to have developed an annoying habit.

"YO, KENMA! I'M OUT HERE WAITING FOR YOU! HURRY UP AND GET OUT!"

Every morning his nerves were tested and his sensitive ears subjected to the unfair torture of something along these lines being shouted into his phone. Although at least it was only on his phone so as not to disturb the neighbours.

When Kenma had asked his eccentric friend why he still felt the need to saunter over to his house every day just so that they could both walk to school together, even though it'd be quicker to just go straight to school, he replied confidently about how friends are always supposed to be there for each other and support each other's fetishes and desires, and Kuroo Just so happened to greatly enjoy walking with Kenma to school.

Although, surprisingly Kenma quite liked the idea of seeing Kuroo every morning. He didn't want it to change. Of course he wouldn't admit that to the other, though. He was glad that Kuroo didn't see it as anything strange or weird, however in most cases Kuroo was just weird to begin with.

Kuroo had also mentioned something about how Kenma could save money by not having to buy an alarm clock, while Kenma had to decide whether or not it was worth the effort to remind Kuroo that smartphones are called smartphones for a reason. However, somehow, while some features were similar, Kuroo didn't seem entirely like an alarm clock to Kenma, because everything less pleasant about the morning suddenly become slightly more okay while knowing that this person was right outside waiting for him.

"Shut up, stupid, I'm coming." Was Kenma's quiet response before padding off to the bathroom.

~~~~~~

"I'm sure you're all very excited to be here today! It is a whole new experience, a chance to work harder and test yourself with all of the new opportunities that you'll be provided with. I know that you'll try your best to make yourself known and make new friends-"

I don't want people to look at me.

This was Kenma's inner mantra, the phrase that he lived by.

He didn't particularly care about what others thought of him. He would prefer for others to not mind him, or even to like him, but that definitely wasn't one of his top priorities. And his behaviour reflected this. It wasn't that much of a problem, or so he thought, because it wasn't like others cared about him anyway; nobody minded, so why should he try to change anything about himself? It would just be a bother, anyway.

Why should he try to make friends? Even if he tried to seem energetic and fun and participate in people's conversations, although it was already highly unlikely that he would be able to accomplish even that, it would be a pain having to maintain such a tiring fake personality all the time. He wouldn't enjoy it, and wasn't enjoying the time you spend together the whole point in making friends? He didn't want to put himself under any unnecessary stress.

These weren't any sort of depressed thoughts, let alone those of a rebellious narcissistic high schooler who thought himself different from everybody else around him, but the completely normal thought process of a 15 year old Kozume Kenma, who just genuinely thought that he was terrible at being in the company of others.

A weird kind of humble, right?

"-But please remember that socialising is something that you do in your own time. Don't compromise and study hard!"

The woman standing in front of the class was certainly the carter of attention, for a number or reasons. However, unfortunately a number of said reasons were perhaps the wrong reasons.

One could say that she was quite pretty, but that would probably be an understatement. Her wavy waist-length light-blonde hair cascaded down her waist, unburdened by any hair ties or ornaments which could damage the natural look, and her naturally sweet features were exaggerated by the light appliance of blush and lipstick, greenish-blue oval-shaped eyes seeming even wider and more captivating with the aid of mascara.

Kenma couldn't help but feel slightly irritated by the feigned bravado of his new form teacher, who could so casually assume that everybody in the room was a budding socialite and was undoubtedly playing into the stereotype that all high schoolers cared more about going out and having fun than anything else.

She has no idea how much harder even saying that will make everything for me...

As soon as the teacher finished her short speech most of the class came to life. Those who weren't excitedly chatting to the people in front of and behind them as a kind of pre-formal personal introduction, scoring popularity points and securing those platinum bonds of trust that Kenma had never quite understood, were side eyeing the teacher and snickering under their breaths about how a teacher could be so stupid to be believe that they would 'treasure' studying. However, the teasing of this new form teacher was kept to a minimum as this lady's appearance had gained everyone's respect.

He could have sworn already that students were already singling others out. He could practically feel the terrible, irreversible bias directed towards those who weren't as lively as others. Those who seemed to be awkwardly averting their eyes from others, 'trying too hard', not trying at all.

"Hey, the boy in front of us seems a little off."

They weren't talking about him? They weren't talking about him, right? The voices seemed to be close, but they weren't talking about him were they?

Being the type to overanalyse everything and see the worst possibility in any situation, a pessimist in true form, a powerful wave of dread had suddenly washed over the little pre-pudding head.

"Quiet down, class! I'll call out your names in register order and you can come up to the front to introduce yourselves! You don't have to if you don't want to, but I bet you'll all have something interesting to share about yourselves! Maybe even, you know, increase your popularity points!" *Wink wink*

This was going to be fun.

Writer: A short chapter! Kenma is blessed to have such a wonderfully charming teacher don't you think?

Also don't mind me with my British terminology because I don't know anything about American/ Japanese schools and I'm not going to try and describe something that I'm not familiar with~

Although I'll do my best(￣∇￣) (with the Japanese high school setting anyway)