[ ₁x₁ ᴡɪᴛʜ Aʙsᴇɴᴛ Mɪɴᴅᴇᴅ Eʀɪɴ

[aiu]

ʜᴀʀᴜᴋɪ ᴍɪᴋᴀᴢᴜᴋɪ↫
ooc: really? so do I! like the exact same thing! i was worried about it, but it makes it easier since you do it too.

Haruki waited patiently for her explanation. Which never exactly came. She just kind of left him hanging with mid-sentence. She looked deep in thought for several moments, and he let his own thoughts trail away from the situation at hand. Here was the girl he'd been so worried to meet after all. Might as well study her a bit now, while she was distracted, to make sure he didn't make a complete and utter fool of himself. As much as he hated to admit it, he had no idea how to behave around a girl, and seeing how she behaved around him might help a little. What? That makes no sense, he thought with a quiet sigh. All the same, he started to look her up and down. She was pretty, he guessed. He really had no standards to go by other than celebrities and--as he learned from his mother--girls hated to be compared to celebrities. Her hair was brown... no black... He went back and forth for a moment before deciding on the former. Definitely brown. He couldn't see her eyes , so he didn't know what they looked like, but she was short. Shorter than him in any case, which was saying something since he was certainly on the small side. Her uniform was nice and fancy, too. He'd thought the boys' were fancy, but whoever made the uniforms this time must have been excited at the arrival of the girl and gone all out.
The boy snapped out of his train of thought as the girl said something else. He wanted to wince at her tone, but knew it would only offend her more, so instead, he put on a small smile. "Occasionally," he replied, "But only when I feel like it." He readjusted his grip on his bag and searched for something to say, "You must be the new girl; the one who won the contest." It was a stupid thing to say, he knew it. Of course she was, otherwise she wouldn't be here at all, "Welcome to Sutāsora High."

[Tako Otoko]

→ Ｙｕｉ Ｈｉｒｏｍｉ．

Although she had of course been around boys at least a couple of times throughout her life, Yui never really bothered to converse with any of them, unless they spoke to her first, but they usually only wanted something from her and that was it. But other than that, she had no idea what boys were like or what they really talked about. Actually, now that she thought about it, she never even tried to talk to or befriend anyone, really, not just guys. She's spent pretty much her entire life without a single friend, and she's surprisingly never minded it. Although, she had to admit it did get rather lonely at times with no one to talk to. Heck, she couldn't even talk to her own parents, really. Mostly because her mother was, well, dead, and her father always seemed to be busy with his work as an Attorney, so he never really had the time to talk to her.

While waiting for a reply from the boy, she took the brief moment to look him over a bit. He had messy, dark brown hair, and nice dark eyes to match. He seemed to be wearing the uniform of Sutāsora High, which was how she knew that he went to the school himself. Yui supposed he was rather handsome, although really, she never even thought about boys very much at all, and she especially didn't think about how attractive they were.
'Eh? Only when you feel like it? Who goes around making people jump whenever they feel like it? Boys are so odd...' Yui thought, putting on a slightly nervous looking smile as she put a free hand on her hip. ''Oh, yeah, that's me. The new girl.'' Her tone seemed to be a bit more relaxed now, along with her expression, and she even gave a bit of a chuckle as she replied. It was apparent that she becoming a bit less nervous as she spoke to the boy, for whatever reason.
''Well, thanks for the welcome. I'm Yui Hiromi, by the way. It's nice to meet you.'' The girl gave a less nervous, and much softer smile as she introduced herself, extending her hand out to offer a handshake.

((Haha, yup! It's good to know that we have some things in common when it comes to writing. ;u;))

[aiu]

ʜᴀʀᴜᴋɪ ᴍɪᴋᴀᴢᴜᴋɪ↫
ooc: i'm off to bed, so i'll see you tomorrow.

"I'm Haruki Mikazuki," he told her, "I'm a second year here at Sutāsora."
He kept looking at her, trying to decide her age. She looked like maybe she was in the same grade as him, but she also seemed younger. No older. He sighed. Guessing never was his thing. The good thing was, she didn't seem to hate him. In fact, she seemed to be a tiny bit relaxed around him. That must mean that at least she didn't seem like a creepy stalker or anything. As for him, he still felt very nervous. He'd talked to people before--a lot actually--and combining that with the presentations he'd given in class he was pretty comfortable with talking in general. But those were all boys; people he understood and felt comfortable with. Yui was a stranger and a girl.
Why couldn't the winner have been a boy? he thought. And his worry wasn't only about his own comfort, but of her's and the other boy's as well. While he hadn't been around his classmates for a while now, he could still remember how they behaved when it came to even the mention of girls. Most of them were aspiring scholars, or, as most people would call them, nerds, and things weren't looking good for them to have girlfriends any time soon. He just hoped none of them would do anything stupid. And he hoped that they wouldn't try anything for Yui's sake. Anyone feeling uncomfortable at school would make him feel terrible. Sure, this place wasn't his favorite place in the world, but he still took pride in it. The culture here, for the most part, was very nice. Everyone liked everyone, and, with only a few exceptions, they could all trust each other. It was hard enough for first years when they came in to fit into their little well-guarded world, but Yui was different than just a regular first years. She had two things going against her: 1. She was a girl (and he might have overstated that fact by now) and 2. She had one by a contest. People here had money and/or good grades and they took great pride in those facts. No one exactly knew what to expect when it came to her. The new girl could be dirt poor and stupid, something they wouldn't like.
It took him several moments after he wrapped up his thoughts to realize he was still holding her hand in the awkward handshake position. He'd drifted off again, forgetting the things that were around him. That won't help my creepy stalker points, he thought with a blush. "Sorry," he said, dropping her hand, "I sometimes forget to think about what I'm doing." He quickly wiped his face from the shade of red it had become, feeling like if the situation continued on like this, it'd be a very cliché beginning to some stupid romantic drama.

[Tako Otoko]

→ Ｙｕｉ Ｈｉｒｏｍｉ．

''Haruki... I'll remember that!'' The dark haired girl said with a smile still on her face, repeating the full name in her head a couple of times just so that she'd remember it better. It was a bit of a habit of hers that she developed, since she easily forgot names most of the time, and thus began to grow into the habit of mentally repeating names to herself so that she would remember them easier. In all honesty, It was pretty rare for Yui to feel this oddly relaxed around someone; especially someone who she had only just met, and a male no less. There was just something about him that made her feel relaxed. It sounded weird, and a bit cliché, but it was simply the way she felt, and if there was another way to describe what she was feeling, then she wouldn't know. Of course, although she was more relaxed now, there were still thoughts of what her new school would be like that went through her head; Mostly negative ones. However, It wasn't as if she was trying to ungrateful or anything to have won the contest, since she's always had an interest in the stars and the universe and the like, and had always aspired to become an astrologist of sorts, so the school itself was just perfect for her. But, what if the students there ended up disliking her and making her attending the school a problem? The people at this school were likely all rather well-off as well, while she herself wasn't exactly the richest person on the planet, but she got by at least. At least she's smart, though, so she had that. In fact, she even used to be a rather Straight-A student at all of her old schools. Oh, wait, used to be, because recently she's been slacking on all of her work and just in general letting her grades drop. Yup, if they were all a bunch of nerdy, snobby rich kids, then they were definitely going to hate her.

''N-no, it's fine! I don't think I was paying any attention, either.'' She replied, the hand Haruki had let go of from the awkward handshake now gently grabbing the bow on her chest. If she wasn't so darn good at staying so calm and collected most of the time, she would probably be blushing a bit by now, as well. But instead of blush, there was simply a soft chuckle. ''Hm, I don't think you're really what I expected from a student of a school like this...'' He was certainly much friendlier than she had expected, which was surprise, and he didn't exactly seem like the uppity rich kid type either. ''Oh, but I don't mean that in a bad way! I was just expecting this school to be filled with a bunch of snobby rich boys.'' She quickly corrected her previous, vaguely insulting statement, a hand on her chin as she looked at him with tilted her head slightly in thought.

((alright, goodnight!))

[aiu]

ʜᴀʀᴜᴋɪ ᴍɪᴋᴀᴢᴜᴋɪ↫
ooc: sorry. i got this done just before i left for ballet, but my internet quit just as i submitted so i lost it, then it quit again as soon as i got home.

Haruki almost wanted to apologize in advance that he wouldn't remember her name. He knew four people's names. His, the headmaster's, and both of his parent's. That was literally it. No else he came into contact with long enough. Even his teacher's names were forgotten over breaks. There wasn't much to do about it unless he slept more. Which wasn't going to happen. Ever.
No, he wasn't an insomniac he just didn't like sleeping. He couldn't explain why. It wasn't scary to him or anything, in fact, when he did sleep, it felt lovely, but it was just so boring. His parents said it was because he always wanted to be doing things and sleeping made him feel like he was just lying there useless, and he had to agree with them. Whenever he laid down to sleep, he was itching to do something, even if it was something as simple as lying beside a lake for the night.
He looked up at the face of the girl, Yui was her name (for some reason his inner monologue had made him want to make sure that he remembered it), as she spoke again.
Not what she expected? honestly, he wasn't sure if he should feel happy or insulted. It must have been one of those comments that just sat awkwardly in between. He hated those kinds of comments. They made him seem stupid as he didn't know how to react.
Geez. If he'd know how to react to anything life would be so much better. He'd have known how to to react when he'd been told he'd be coming here. He'd be studying at the school just a couple blocks away; a school for fine arts. If he'd known how to react when he'd discovered that he wouldn't be able to do what loved as it wasn't as his parents expected, he'd wouldn't have had to consider coming here. If he'd never shown any interest in art at all, he'd be safe in some regular all boys school where he'd have an actual art club with actual members.
The girl corrected her statement, giving him some room to decide how to respond to the situation. He gave her soft smile, "No it's fine. I didn't take it like that at all," lies, "And you're kind of right, actually. Most the people here are rich. And snobby. But they're not all bad once you get to know them." Now that, that was just hypocritical as he never even took the time to try and know them.
Haruki focused his gaze on the girl once more. Now she was in a rather odd kind of position, looking like she was in deep, complicated thought. He squinted a bit, wondering what it was she was thinking about. She was looking at him, so maybe she was judging his attractiveness level? He sighed lightly. He honestly had no idea what girls thought about. Really, he couldn't ever understand what was going on in they're heads. That wasn't saying much, though, as the only real girls he'd been around very long was the headmaster's wife and his mother. To be honest, he didn't know if they thought about anything at all.
So... what was he thinking? Maybe she was close to thinking the same thing. Well... the pose was unique, and kind of cute; almost like something you'd see in a magazine. Her voice was quiet, but nice to listen to. She seemed nervous... And that was it, that's all the thoughts he had in his brain.
He almost laughed. He hoped that she was thinking about something much more interesting than that.

[Tako Otoko]

→ Ｙｕｉ Ｈｉｒｏｍｉ．

Now that she thought about it, her grades had actually started dropping right after her mother passed. Before, the teachers at her school adored her; she always payed attention in class, had a near perfect attendance record, and all around had great grades in general. So to speak, she was pretty much the spitting image of a Grade-A student. Heck, she was even the Class rep for awhile! But after her mom died, everything started to go south for her. She was always too stressed to do her homework, kept falling asleep in class because she stayed up late at night before crying herself to sleep, and she all around just began to ignore school all-together, and stayed in that little rut she was in for quite some time. Of course, she did gradually get better, but having to keep picking yourself up after you keep falling in the same ditch over and over again gets tiring sooner or later, so her grades still lacked a bit even after that because she kept needing to take breaks.

She supposed that now, she would just have to try a little harder, stay positive, and not make the same mistakes she did with her old school. So this all would be a new start for her, basically. Her eyes started to have a bit of a sparkle in them when she pictured herself as a Grade-A student again. It may have seemed a tad odd to some people, but she used to take great pride in her title of Class representative. Yui even wondered if she could achieve such an honor in her new school, as time went on. 'Yeah, right.' She was probably dreaming a bit too big, there.

''Hmm... I guess, but the real question would be if they'd want to get to know me.'' The girl replied, her pose staying the same with her eyes closing for a brief moment as she thought. If they truly were all a bunch of uppity rich boys, then chances were that a majority of them wouldn't pay much mind to her, let alone want to befriend her. And if any of them did, it likely wouldn't be just to become her friend. But then again, who knows, maybe things wouldn't be as grim as she thought they would be. Yui always did have a habit of over-thinking things.

Surprisingly, her eyes actually stayed closed for a bit longer than she thought they would, and it probably seemed as though she was starting to fall asleep for a brief moment, which was when she quickly opened them upon realizing that she probably could fall asleep if she kept them closed long enough. That was another thing about her; Even if she wasn't all that tired, if she tried a bit and kept her eyes closed long enough, she could fall asleep anytime, anywhere, even while standing up.

... Wait a minute, now what was she supposed to be doing before she started to talking to Haruki? ''Oh, that's right! I almost forgot, it wouldn't be good to be late on my first day. This is a new start for me, after all.'' The dark haired girl gave a slight grin, finally bolstering enough courage to push open the silver gate, although actually stepping through it took a brief moment or so before she hesitantly took a single step through it. And probably the biggest smile she'd ever gave followed shortly after. The whole thing probably made Yui look rather odd, but she didn't really care. After all, it's good to appreciate even the little accomplishments in life, right? She always considered herself to be kind of an optimist, in that way. She always took the time out to be grateful for the small things, even in situations where it may be seen as silly to be so thankful for such a small part of her life, but that was just the way she always was.

[aiu]

ʜᴀʀᴜᴋɪ ᴍɪᴋᴀᴢᴜᴋɪ↫
ooc: ...

Yui didn't move for a long time.; didn't respond to his comment, and Haruki began to feel awkward. He started to watch her facial expression. She seemed almost... sad... no dreamy. It seemed to switch between the two feelings as he went back to wondering what she was thinking about. For a moment, he thought about asking, but then realized in movies, only friends asked other friends what they were feeling. As much as he wanted to say he had friends like that, he couldn't, let alone start that trend with a girl he just met.
Haruki tried to think back to the first friend he had, to the first person he remembered genuinely feeling close to. He realized that he didn't have anyone like that. Even his parents were just his parents. He'd never known them well. Heck, he even called them Dr. Mikazuki and Dr. Seiki Mikazuki as that was only thing he knew to call them. That's what they made him call them.
He'd had a tutor through most of his early school years, so by the time he'd gone to a mostly public all-boys school, everyone was already separated into their own little groups. Social skills, though, he picked up naturally, but the whole 'making friends' bit must have slipped him by. He knew how to, sure, but there was no way he was going to be able to squeeze into any of the people's little groups. He didn't mind, though. He'd gotten used to it.
Yui finally replied, cutting him off from any further thoughts.
Hiruki was didn't have the heart to tell her that she was right to be worried about that. He was at least a little interested in her, but he didn't know how well he wanted to get to know her. She seemed nice, but, as he was thinking before, he didn't exactly make friends.
Yui seemed to suddenly realize why she was even here, and she poked a little bit of fun to herself as she did so. She pushed open the gate and waited again. Why was she so nervous? Had she never been to a school like this before? Oh yeah... he thought, she probably hasn't.
She took a step inside and he watched as she broke into a smile. The smile was contagious, and Haruki's own face split into a wide grin. She just looked so utterly and completely happy. He followed her in and stepped up beside her.
"Excited?" he asked her, the smile still on his face.

[Tako Otoko]

→ Ｙｕｉ Ｈｉｒｏｍｉ．

Yui was actually fairly quick to befriend other people, but she never realized it because, well, she never really tried to make friends with anyone. The only times she ever did talk to other people, she never felt any kind of connection to them at all, and thus never felt the need to try and make friends with them. She was often seen as a bit of a loner in that way, but while she was lonely, oddly enough she just never had the urge to go and start making friends. You could say she considered Haruki to be her friend, even though they hadn't known each other for very long and had only talked a bit. But, the word 'friend' to her honestly meant just whoever she felt any kind of connection to, no matter how small.
''Yes, I am! Thank you, Haruki!'' The girl replied, the wide, and apparently contagious, smile still on her face as she suddenly went over grabbed both of his hands with her own, which made her have to let go of her bag and let it drop to the ground. It wasn't a very harsh grab, it was actually quite gentle, if not a bit sudden. ''If you hadn't come along, I probably would've chickened out and ran off!'' Now she might've been making things a tad cliche, but cliche was never of any concern to her. She simply said what she felt and did what she felt, with little concern over whether or not it was odd or typical. You could say she followed her emotions, usually, but whether that was a good or bad trait to have she didn't know.
And after a brief moment of holding onto his hands, with that big silly smile on her face, she picked her bag back up and began to sprint off towards the school, before stopping for a second halfway to wave at Haruki. ''I'll see you later, Haru!'' Yui grinned before continuing to run, unaware that she had just gave the boy a nickname out of nowhere.

[aiu]

ʜᴀʀᴜᴋɪ ᴍɪᴋᴀᴢᴜᴋɪ↫
ooc: ...

JHaruki was actually beginning to feel quite awkward with the grin on his lips. He'd smiled before, of course, but usually on his own terms. This? This was just weird. What he didn't realize, though, was things were just going to get even more awkward from that point on for him.
Yui decided to suddenly grab his hands, making the poor boy jump. If grins were unusual for him, try to imagine how he felt about prolonged physical contact with some person, he'd barely met. He was not only surprised at the fact that he was technically holding hands with a girl, but also freaked out. He was desperately trying to hide it. Forcing down a blush he could tell would make him look like a ripe tomato if he let it rise anymore, he listened to Yui say what she had to say, perhaps a little impatiently. He nodded quickly, his eyes wide. He felt rude, but, really, what he was chanting in his head was Please let go, please let go. He barely realized that she had thanked him at some point, making it so that he never actually said anything back to her throughout the entire slightly one-sided conversation.
Haruki's wish was quickly granted as she suddenly began running towards the school. Is she always that impulsive? he wondered, letting the blush finally rise up above his collar as she ended up giving him a nickname. Not since... ever had he allowed himself to be called by such a name. Actually, he couldn't remember being called by that particular name at all. Much like his parents, his proper name was used by everyone he was around: Mr. Mikazuki. He remembered when he was little and when he'd discovered that Mikazuki was actually a feminine name--as surname or not as a surname--and the fight it took to be called Haruki. He was lucky to be Haruki, so that was always what he liked to be called.
But... Haru had a nice ring to it, actually. A part of him rather liked the new nickname and the other part of him felt too traditional to like it.
He gave her a stiff wave as she left. It might have looked a little odd as he was no longer smiling, but in the end it didn't matter. It took several moments before realizing he was here for the same reason she was and he needed to get to class. He turned around and closed the silver gates before he started walking towards the school.

[Tako Otoko]

→ Ｙｕｉ Ｈｉｒｏｍｉ．

It was only about halfway down the halls of the school did she finally begin to realize that earlier was, in fact, the first time she had ever touched a boy's hand, or just had any kind of physical contact with one in general. Blood started to rush to her face upon realizing this, causing a good amount of blush to stick to her face as she walked. Boy, was she slow, but acting on impulse like that you don't really tend to think about what you're doing until after you do it. And, wait a minute, did she give him a nickname too? What was it again, anyways? Haru? Surprisingly enough, though, she wasn't actually all that embarrassed by all of those things she did. Because after all, she just did and said what she felt, and that was always just her way of going about things. Even if her way was actually really just her acting on impulse, it was still her own way and it stuck with her to this day. She certainly wasn't planning on changing that anytime soon, either.

[ - - - - - - ]

It wasn't too much long after a bit of wandering through the halls that Yui had finally found the class she was assigned to; 2-A, on the first floor. And it wasn't very long after that, either, that she was now in the middle of introducing herself to all of her new classmates. She could feel quite a few eyes on her throughout the room, which did make her somewhat nervous, but she maintained her composure otherwise. It was the same old thing she did at all of her old schools on her first day, although this school in particular was a tad different in the aspect that it was an All-Boys school, but she may have overstated that fact by now.
''I'm Yui Hiromi, It's a pleasure to meet you all.'' Her tone was rather calm, although she was actually quite close to stuttering halfway through her introduction, but thankfully it didn't show.

((i hope it's alright that i just kind of skipped ahead a little, since after the first part i wasn't so sure of what to write. if you'd prefer i didn't skip, though, then just let me know and i'll edit this post!))