Shadow Assistance

Man this class is boring as hell.

His light gray eyes would just stare at the chalkboard, spacing out at what their teacher was saying.

That bored gaze would soon look around the classroom to see if it had recognized anybody in this class.

Yoshikawa for one. Though I only met her just today this year.

It would soon look around to see one particular student sitting right next to him.

Another woman with long black hair, a silver pen in her left breast pocket silked into her black school uniform.

The curious boy's gaze would trail down her body as if he was someone with a huge staring problem.

Ok maybe he was a little bit at the moment.

Those are some nice shoes. Where did she get those?

Mayeda looked down from her school jacket to her shoes at her shoes, noting how clean and comfortable they seemed to be.

"May I help you?"

A stern murmur would call out from a honey-like voice, a very unfitting sound to his ears.

Mayeda looks back up and noticed the girl he had been staring at had finally noticed his eyes.

Matsui Miki.

Thanks to his info of names from the schedule he had observed earlier, he knows quite a bit about her in advance due to the years he's been here.

A realization of how he was looking just now had settled in on his face. Did he look like a creep that was checking her out just now?

"Oh, uh, sorry for staring. I was just wondering what kind of shoes you were wearing. They look really-" He was saying with a soft smile, well at least trying to, for a good first impression.

"Mr. Shin."

The cold voice of a teacher calls out to him.

A glance around the classroom was enough to notice he had been talking too loud during Miss Akemi's introduction.

He clears his throat.

"Um, yes, Miss?" Mayeda would try to play it off and move on from what was happening.

A hand would support his chin with his elbow on the desk as he tried or give a look of someone who's interested.

"Since you like talking so much to talk over your teacher on the first day. Why don't you introduce yourself to the class first?" Miss Akemi tells him with her arms crossed under her bosom.

Yikes, pretty woman are scary when they're mad.

He would soon try to respond back in kind.

"Um, well, I actually don't really like talk-"

"Stand up. Now." The frustrated woman would instruct.

"Yes, ma'am." He immediately stood up and started walking to the front of the class.

Damn it, why did it have to be me needing to introduce myself first?

Well this is a speech class after all.

The ground was the only place he looked at as he walked, taking in the wooden material that held him up.

The boy standing at 188 centimeters tall, black straight hair, somewhat pale skin in his black Meriazon High School uniform would walk up front of the class. The most noticeable thing about this boy would be his light gray eyes, almost as clear as a polished crystal.

A podium was there for him to stand behind and rests his arms on top of it.

"He looks like he slacks off a lot."

"He looks fine as hell. Is he new here?"

"Isn't this the same guy who got the cookies out of stock last week?"

Some quiet, subtle chatter could be heard from his peers of the class.

Well at least nobody seems to dislike me yet right now, so I gotta make this first impression count.

His eyes would drift onto the white haired angel, Yoshikawa.

Those silver eyes settling onto him with a relaxed, curious smile with a look of anticipation.

God, now I really can't fuck this up now.

Deep breath.

The boy looks back at his classmates.

"So, I'm, uh… Mayeda Shin. I'm a third year who was hoping to, erm… enter speech class so that I can… learn how to talk better, I think…"

His crystal eyes gaze around the room like a scanner, wondering what to say next.

Some confused head tilts.

One wasn't even listening with EarPods on.

A group of friends talking.

A few eager nods at least.

God, this class mostly doesn't give a fuck about me so far.

Mayeda clears his throat again.

"I'm looking forward to this quarter with you all, I guess… so uh, looking forward to knowing all of you…"

A majority of heads looked up at him.

"Let's all become friends…? I hope…"

…

Silence.

Slowly like a domino effect, one quiet golf clap after another. The class would eventually give a clap that sounded like one made out of the concept of pity.

Yup, I blew it.

A sigh would escape his mouth before beginning to walk back to his seat with his head immediately slumping over the desk.

Is there a Time Machine yet? If not, I wanna disappear already.

Clearly, there was a mountain of regrets being left over.

Tap, tap.

A gentle feel on the boy's shoulder would be felt which gives a glance to the side in response.

It was Matsui Miki, the girl he was looking at earlier.

She seemed to try and give her best in a gentle smile.

"Hey.. don't look so down, you did great!" She offered words of support to him in such a babying voice.

That felt worse.

"Y-yeah, thanks…" He murmured before sitting up straight.

Mayeda would look up at the clock to see how much time of class was left. Enough time for most students in the class to give a brief introduction of themselves at the end.

10 minutes left…

"Oh yeah, by the way, why were you looking at me earlier?" The black haired girl would quietly ask him.

Ohh yeah, I was gonna say why.

He tried to give a small smile for a chance to redo his impressions from earlier.

It was still nearly expressionless as normal though.

"I was just interested is all." Mayeda politely told her, this time in a quieter voice after what just happened to him.

"Eh?" Matsui tilted her head with a growing redness on her cheeks.

A wave of a huge misunderstanding started to crash.

"Yeah, I was wondering for awhile but I think how nice and extremely good looking it is." He would continue on his oblivious approach with a smile.

The girl would naturally play with her hair a bit, feeling a bit sheepish by the second.

"That's a little forward to say the first time we meet, you know? You think I look really good?" Matsui softly asked for reassurance of what he was saying.

"Huh? No, I meant your shoes." Mayeda casually told her with that unchanging polite yet calm smile.

…

Wait, we weren't on the same page?

She thought I meant her…?

The bashful girl's expression changed to one of hurt and disappointment after that revelation and looks the opposite way.

Oh shit. She thought I was talking about her.

This needs to be resolved immediately.

"I mean, you are very beautiful too, it's just that your shoes were something I don't see often, so my attention was-"

DING-DONG.

Just like that first period class was over.

Matsui didn't want to hear any more and quickly gathered her belongings in her bag and stood up.

Shit. If I don't make her feel better now, I'll feel even worse today that my own words had gotten me screwed up again this morning.

What should I…

"Wait, just a second please." He gently grabs her wrist without thinking.

The girl's eyes widened from the sudden contact and immediately looked back at him.

Another deep breath escaped his mouth.

"The thing is that…" He hesitated to say before continuing.

"I also think you're very beautiful… eh, but it's just a coincidence that a girl like yourself also had very good, uh… f-fashion sense that caught my eyes." He tells her with direct eye contact, juggling his words a little from his statement.

!!?

The girl's face immediately turned bright red like a tomato before quickly breaking free from his hand, clutching her book bag, and hurried out the door as if she had just stolen from the bank.

…

What did I just do?

Grabbed her wrist. Made her look at me. Telling her how she looked to me…

Facepalmed.

Fuck, she must think I'm some creepy guy with lustful motives now.

Despite class being already over, he couldn't help but sit down with a small defeated look and stared up at the gray tiled ceiling.

I really do need to word things better.

Tap, tap.

Mayeda's head shot back down after those sounds made at the edge of his desk and noticed a girl.

It wasn't Matsui.

"Oh, Yoshikawa? You're still here?" He tilts his head with a curious look.

She fixed her hair a bit before looking into those light gray eyes.

"You do know class is over, right?" The white haired girl said with her own book bag held against her chest.

The boy nodded with a quiet sigh before standing up and walking next to her.

"But why are you still here as well?" Mayeda asks with his expression becoming more calm and composed like earlier.

"I was just wondering if we could walk to class together, I have something important to me that I'd like to discuss with you."

Yoshikawa requests with a polite smile, almost made it difficult to say no.

Huh? Walk together?

"Hold on, we have the same class again together on second period?" His eyes widened a little from such a coincidence.

She smiled.

"I believe so, you were staring at door 3-C, were you not? That's where cooking class is being held next before you walked here earlier." Yoshikawa would tell him with a gentle nod.

Wait, she was watching me earlier?

But more importantly…

"Well actually, I don't have cooking class after this period." He would correct her form of thinking.

The short girl's eyes widened a bit, her silver eyes seemingly bigger than normal.

"W-wait, really? Then why were you looking there if you're not locating all your classes for the day?" She stutters out, seemingly embarrassed from being wrong.

And also for subtly admitting to her watching him earlier.

"Oh, it was only because the vending machine. There were cookies in there." He said with a small amused look under that composed expression.

…

"Do you not eat breakfast in the morning?" She quietly said in response.

"No, I do. I just got hungry again." Mayeda casually said with a wag of his finger.

He was hungry AGAIN? In the morning?!

The black haired boy glanced around the classroom because it was now empty.

The sounds of typing and the clock ticking were only slightly heard.

The sound of the silent Miss Akemi typing on her computer as if she were in her own little world of working.

The clock ticking every second for each minute to turn. Currently it was 9:49 AM.

Wait, 9:49?

Mayeda quickly began to speed walk through the hallway.

Yoshikawa was surprised and reached her hand out when she saw him leaving so suddenly.

"Wait! Where are you going?" She would call out to him with a worried look.

"There's only one more minute left of passing period!" The tall boy quickly spoke out in the hallway as he hurried through the emptying hallway as time was going down to his next class.

Yoshikawa herself, would look up at the clock before her eyes would also widen.

"OH MY GOSH!" The beautiful girl would exclaim from the realization and eventually tried to hurry up to class as well.

Mayeda jumped down the small path of stairs to quicken the pace to his next class.

Naturally as he felt time running out, he would run a little until he located the room and quickly ran through the door before time ran out.

YES! I MADE IT!

Although I hate Algebra class, at least I'm not late for this one like I was the first period.

Wait, it's Algebra… my very least favorite class…

Motherfucker.