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It was a hot sunny day; Milo could see the kids in P.E from outside the window running around and laughing. He was waiting for his usually late teacher, who looked like he should've retired 20 years ago, to arrive to class. When he walked in, a student with red hair trailed behind him. Curious murmurs spread throughout the class, the teacher put his bag down onto the desk while announcing,
“Today we’re going to be welcoming a new student to our class, please treat him kindly.”
He turned to the new transfer student and urged him to introduce himself. Milo, suddenly looking less bored, turned to look at the boy standing near the teacher's desk at the front of the classroom. He didn't expect to see a kid with bright red spikey hair, a bandage under his right eye, and steampunk goggle resting on his forehead.
“Uh, my name is Akaboshi Bisco.”
He had an intense look on his face and some of the girls commented on how he was tall and handsome but too scary to approach. Others were more focused on his weird first name.
“Bisco? Like the snack?”
The comments didn't go unnoticed but more ignored.
The teacher looks at him waiting for him to continue, but when he didn't, he asked,
“...anything else?”
“No, not really? Should I say more?”
a couple kids snickered at his confusion.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” He sighed, “Go sit next to the blue haired kid back there. Raise your hand, Nekoyanagi.”
Milo, startled from suddenly hearing his name, hesitantly put his hand up. Bisco walked over and Milo shot him a kind smile, Bisco simply reciprocated by nodding his head. Milo had experienced meeting a couple transfer students back in junior high but none of them seemed as interesting as this Akaboshi person.
The teacher spoke up again,
“Nekoyanagi, do you mind sharing your textbook with Akaboshi over there?”
“No problem, sir!”
He smiled as he scooted his desk to touch Bisco's and flipped through to find the page relevant to the lesson. Milo’s initial plan was to start a conversation, but Bisco seemed to be scowling at the textbook, so Milo assumed he was in a sour mood. Thinking the wiser and not initiating with him, they went through the period silently until the bell rang to mark the end of homeroom. As the day went on Milo and Bisco ended up sharing most of his supplies as the as the last bell rang and students began to filter out. Milo put his desk back in its original place and decided to stay behind to catch up on some homework so he wouldn't have to do it at home. He watched as Bisco left without a word.
Damn, any attempt to make friends just went out the window... I literally spent the whole day sitting 2 inches away from him sharing my stuff!
As he berated himself in his head, he didn't notice the group of girls coming up to speak with him.
“Hi Nekoyanagi-kun! That new student seems really scary huh? Shame you had to be so close to him all day aha!”
Before Milo could speak another girl in the group spoke up,
“Anyways, wanna go to karaoke with us?”
Milo was trying to process what was going on, he was kind to all his classmates, and he sincerely meant it, but he could not for the life of him remember the girls' names in front him.
“Akaboshi-kun doesn't seem that bad, I think he just needs to settle in a bit. I would love to go hang out with you guys, but I have a lot of homework and a couple favors a need to do for some clubs. Maybe next time!”
He didn't lie, but even if he was free, spending his afternoon with some random classmates wouldn't be the first choice of how he spent his free time.
“Aw that sucks,” The third girl in the group spoke, “we’ll see you tomorrow then!”
Milo simply sent them off with a slight smile as he looked down at his homework. He always got invitations like those but managed to come up with excuses to not join in every time, he didn't feel close enough to his classmates to want to hang out with them outside of school. After finishing a couple assignments, he put his head down, he didn't realize he had fallen asleep until he woke up.
“Shit,” he said aloud to himself. “I promised the kyudo club I’d tidy up before the practice leading up to their big competition.”
He hurriedly packed up his paper and textbook before rushing off to the dojo. The sun was already setting by the time he got there, and it had gotten significantly cooler since the start of the day. He took off his shoes and grabbed the broom that was propped against the entrance for him, he was about to walk in completely until it had clicked in his head there was another pair of shoes where he just put his. He proceeded with caution when he noticed bright red hair and strong arms drawing back a bow. He crouched down next to a bin of arrows and watched silently.
It was Bisco, he still had on his school uniform minus the button up leaving him with only an undershirt. Milo didn't notice how tanned he was until he saw it in the refined muscles in his arms and part of his back. His posture and the way he drew back the bow was perfect, as if it came as naturally as breathing. The wind blowing through his hair couldn't help but make milo think about how cool he looked. As he was about to let go of the arrow, it seemed Milo was looking too intently because he didn't notice himself leaning forward until he lost his balance and knocked over the bin of arrows. The sudden noise shocked Bisco and the arrow didn't even hit the target.
“What the fuck-”
He looked back at Milo as he frantically tried explaining himself,
“Ah! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you miss your shot... “
Pink dusted his face in embarrassment as he put up his hands defensively,
“I just thought you looked really cool and didn't want to startle you! Guess that didn't work out did it huh...”
“Really? You thought I looked cool?”
Bisco shot the most gorgeous smile Milo thought he’d ever seen and ever will see. His eyes closed slightly with his smile, but gleaming green still shone even half shut. Milo was absolutely speechless with the image currently getting burned into his eyes.
“Y-Yeah,”
Was the only word he managed to stutter out.
“You're the kid I sat next to today, right?”
“Yeah, I am.”
Milo realized he should probably introduce himself properly,
“M-Milo Nekoyanagi, that's my name.”
“Milo? Weird name, what's it s’posed to mean?”
He was shaken out of his daydream like state upon hearing that.
“My name is weird?? Can you of all people really be saying that?”
“Hm, I guess you're right, ya didn't answer my question though, what's it mean?”
“The... the chocolate milk mix. Milo, to help kids grow strong. I guess it is kinda dumb when you think about it...”
“It’s a good name. You seem like the typa person to want to help everyone. It suits you.”
“T-Thank you, I think, Akaboshi-kun.”
“Drop the honorifics, I'm Bisco. You’re Milo. Got it?”
“Pfft- you've got some nerve huh? But... yeah sure, why not?”
“...Bisco.”
It was strange to him. He had just met this person, but it felt like fate. Usually, he would be slightly annoyed by someone referring to him so casually even if he wouldn't show it but for some reason now, he couldn't feel anything but amusement of what the future with this boy would bring.
It was silent beside the sound of the bow string snapping every time Bisco let his arrow fly and the sound of the broom brushing against the floor. They stayed like that until Milo finally spoke up,
“So, where did you transfer from? Probably some prestigious school for kyudo with your skills I'm guessing?”
As he motioned to the target directly in front of him with arrows all within the first 2 circles. Bisco had started packing up his bow and sat down on the floor for a break. He put his hands behind him and leaned back on them.
“Thanks, but I just moved here with my old man from the countryside. He’s amazing at kyudo and taught me everything I know. We came here so I could join a good kyudo club in the city.”
“Speaking of joining the club, should... should you even be here right now??”
Milo sat down Infront of Bisco, pulling one of his knees to his chin to rest his head on it.
“Er- whatever they don't know can't hurt ‘em right?”
He said not very convincingly with a weak smile
“Y’know, you seemed kinda difficult to approach at first but your actually pretty fun to be around”
“Jeez, I know I have a scary face, but I would assume you of all people would have at least tried to make conversation considering our seating arrangements today.”
“If you were in my position, you wouldn't have wanted to talk to you either! You should've seen how intently you were staring at that textbook.”
Suddenly seeming flustered he answered,
“Well, its just- I'm,”
Speaking more quietly he finished his sentence
“I'm not the best at reading kanji...”
Milo was wide eyed at what seemed to Bisco as an embarrassing secret and let out a lighthearted laugh.
“haha, what are you, a grade schooler?”
With no malicious intent behind his words Bisco didn't take any offense but still felt the need to bite back,
“It's just different where I come from!”
Milo smiled gently and tried thinking of a time he enjoyed talking with a classmate this much, nothing came to mind.
“By the way, where do you come from?”
“Uh, pretty far?”
He seemed like he wanted to avoid the topic, so Milo let it go.
“We should probably finish cleaning up, wouldn't want the kyudo club knowing you were using the dojo without permission, would we?”
“Eughh, that's my least favorite part...”
“Just start sweeping, Bisco.”
“ughh, fine panda boy.”
“If your gunna insist on calling me by my first name at least use it!”
They worked in comfortable silence until they finished cleaning and organizing and went on their separate ways home... at least they would've gone their separate ways if they hadn't started walking home in the same direction. And continue to walk the same way until they realized Bisco lives a couple houses over from Milo.
“...”
“...”
“Guess we’ll be seeing each other a lot huh, Bisco?”
He let out a small laugh
“Yea I guess we will, Milo.”