I still haven't found what I'm looking for~
I had been excited for today for a while, all summer to be exact. Today Lucy, Sigma and I would finally begin our journey at the new boarding school the bus we hoped in was directed to. My guardian had convinced me to move schools as this was a better chance for learning better and he assured me I would make a lot of new friends "for sure". The good side is that I'm not going alone, my two best friends Lucy and Sigma are coming with me as dad convinced them too. In the end, today seemed an interesting day.
The last time I had moved schools had been the year before, moving cities has its disadvantages, but I managed to get me some friends, really good ones. My childhood friends, on the contrary, had disappeared from my life in a sudden move as we lost contact due to a phone malfunction I had just before moving, that didn't let me keep in touch with them. I still terribly miss them, specially Ryu. Ryu was my first friend and had always been the best one I encountered: we had been think and thick since we were three years old, and not having a way to talk to him for a year felt devastating. Anyway- "OWWW!" Great, I just hit my head with the seat in front of me, what a good start of my first day being the new student. Luckily, I have Lucy by my side to help me- nevermind, she's just laughing at me. "Lucy, laughing won't help me!!!!" Whenever I'd do something stupid or I'd fall, my best friend was there to offer her condolences via laughing at me, while I fought the anxiety and embarrassment of falling in the street in front of people.
Like that, our relationship was quite strange. Sometimes I'd feel like we were more than friends, some other times I'd feel like there was no way of us ever becoming something else other than friends. In one way or another, the doubt was always present in my mind. One of these days I'll have to ask her about it. Not now, though. "Are you okay, Atsushi?" I sighed in relief when I heard another familiar voice, at least Sigma was concerned about my well-being. "Yeah Sigma, don't worry. Lucy's laugh hurts me more than anything" I said in a dramatic way, taking my head with both hands and acting as if I were sad.
Before Lucy could point out was doing, in a sudden move, the bus stopped in its tracks announcing we had arrived to school. Today was going to be a long way because we had to get our dorms assigned and meet our classmates, teachers, roomates and unpack so the environment seemed chaotic even before 8 in the morning. After leaving my suitcase upstairs, I took the books I needed for my first class, but I suddenly realized I had been told someone would be showing us the school, so I searched for my friends and found them with a short black haired girl whose name I learned later, Kyouka. She was very nice and a freshman, but had gone to elementary school here too so she knew all the good and secrets spots of the buildings, and showed us some. While we were goinh around, I saw people of all types, if we must say: from people dressing as if we lived in 2012, people who dressed cottagecore like Lucy, people full of piercings and tattoos as well as with hair as colorful as the rainbow, which reminded me to my rainbow colored braces, and anything and everything you could imagine. Some of the school's perks included having no uniforms, having shops near the school to hang out during the weekend, to be allowed to stay in our rooms to hang out and the buildings seemed brand new, so that made us all feel welcomed and safe inside our new "home". After a while, we had passed by almost every corner in the school: the canteen, library, some classes, the gym, the dorm halls, bathrooms which were unisex, infirmary, the attic and rooftop. Overall, every important place in the school. Kyouka was very nice and calm, and I thought we'd rapidly become friends in the future. Lucy and Sigma also seemed to be in tune with her, so I was happy our first day was going so well. Kyouka kept on telling us about the popular people at school, who was nice to newcomers and who wasn't, a quick "list" of who to approach and who to leave alone. At the same time, she seemed excited to meet all her new classmates and we all had a very nice talk. We didn't have time to finish the tour before our first programmed class started, so we gave our word to meet in recess and finish visiting the school. Like that, we all went together to the last place we'd visit before heading to our first class ever.
It was at that moment, though, when I couldn't believe my ears, and subsequently, my eyes. There was no way of what I thought I had heard to be true. Or that's what I thought. As we entered one of the halls where many classes were located, I seemed to hear someone call Ryunosuke, my childhood best friend. At first I thought I was imagining it happened, until I heard it again more clearly and began to search desperately with my eyes, hoping that moment of hope wouldn't turn into dust, hoping I wasn't mistaken and my ears hadn't hallucinated that moment.
It was, contrary to what I was anxiously fearing, a true fragment of time: Ryunosuke was right here and right now, alive and Michizou too, another one of my childhood friends. My ears and eyes stopped paying attention to everything else the moment I heard Ryu's name, so all three of them were looking at me as if I were crazy, but I knew I wasn't.
Knowing myself, I had to say hi right now. Even if we were on the other side of the corridor, I decided I'd make a run for it before Ryu could reach the door of his next class. Like that, I screamed his name so he'd stop walking and with a big smile, I hadn't realized how strongly I was going to hug him until I saw myself on top of him, on the floor. Hugging him, thinking about all we had been through for years and the fact that we hadn't seen each other in a year, about all that he meant to me and I meant to him, felt like a gift from above. I could not stop smiling when he looked at me, surprised and shocked, and smiled back as soon as he realized it was us together again, finally.
...