Chapter 2: Ocean Eyes

I woke up to the sound of my alarm. I snoozed it before sitting upright and removing my phone from the charger pot and checked the time. I was six in the morning, I sighed as I got out of my bed and started my morning routine. So my morning routine basically starts with me heading into the bathroom, and standing in front of the sink for about a minute or so before I start to wash my hands, and brush my teeth. And after that, I finally use the restroom before heading hopping into the showers for about 10 to 15 minutes. And after that, I dry myself before I put on my school uniform, and since the seasons right now are changing, I'm going to have to wear the winter one first. And after I'm done wearing the uniform, I put my essentials, which usually consists of my stationary, and my books, and folders. And that marks the end of my morning routine. So before I left my room, I checked the time and it was 6:45. 'Okay, enough time to eat breakfast.' I thought to myself, as I made my way downstairs. But as I made it down the stairs, I heard a-

CRASH

Yup, nothing like the sound of fine china crashing to brighten up your day! Am I right? So after hearing all that ruckus, I decided to see what was happening. So I made it into the dining room to see my father and mother frantically running around the entire place. Okay what is going on? I headed into the dinner, and saw my dad being a complete mess while my mom was trying to hurry as well for some reason.

"Mom! Dad! What is with the chaos this morning?" I asked them as I headed towards the dining table.

"I am late for work! Will tell you later! Love you both!" my father said as he grabbed his briefcase and gave both me and mom kisses on the cheek before heading out.

"Okay, that explains it. But mom why are you rushing?" I asked her, as I started to eat my cereal.

"Because I overslept too! Thanks to your father, and I'm running behind schedule. Plus we're running behind schedule and haven't done my errands that I was suppose to do this morning!" my mom replied panicking, while at the same time trying to pack me lunch. Yayy!! Mom can finally multitask! Congratulations! Please note the sarcasm in my voice. Anyways, after breakfast I went back upstairs to get my contact lens as I was wearing glasses. But as soon as I got into my room, I realized something. My mom had to get my contacts for me this morning. I wonder if she got it this morning? Let me ask her.

"Mom!" I yelled from my bedroom door.

"Yea!"

"Remember when you told me yesterday that you would get my contact lens from the clinic? Did you get them?" I asked hoping she say yes.

"Ahh dammit!" she replied. I can already picture her face palming in my head.

"Sorry honey! Like I said, I woke up late and that was one of the errands I didn't do. Could you please just wear your color contacts for just today?" I told me. I sighed to myself, before replying with a 'Okay' as I didn't want to make her stressed anymore than this.

So after 15 minutes, I've finally put on my contacts. Than I looked at myself in the mirror before saying to myself; 'I guess I'm having blue eyes for today.' I than grabbed my bag pack and headed downstairs before heading out the door, and into the car where my mom was waiting for me.

7:45am

I've officially headed to school. Wow, this is actually happening! Okay, hate to say it but I'm nervous. I mean I'm officially the 'new kid' now, and that can be good or bad depending on how the school is, so yea I'm scared but not trying to show it because I have to be happy and excited for my parents. They worked so hard to get this promotion that I really want them to feel good, not bad just because their only son couldn't deal with leaving Hong Kong and his friends. But as always, my mother could see through me and she said;

"You know its okay to be nervous right Haru?" she said, still keeping her eyes on the road.

"How did you-"

"I'm your mother, I know everything about." she said while smirking. Sometimes, I really hate the fact that she knows everything about me, but I mean what parent doesn't am I right?

Soon we arrived at the front porch of the school. And it was officially time for me to start my new school. My mom stopped the car, and cupped my face in her hands and said;

"Haru! This marks your first day at starting school here in Japan, so go out there and conquer the world! Fighting!"

After she said, that she kissed me on the forehead and shooed me off. So with that, I got out of the passenger seat and headed towards the entrance.

As I headed into the school, I was welcomed by a huge body of students just running around the entire building, the mood you could say was hectic and out of control? I guess, first week of school is always like this. To not waste anymore time, I decided to headed towards the main office, to get my allocation for my homeroom. But as I headed towards the office, the bell rang which means that its eight o' clock. Meaning that classes were starting, and just as I was about to reach for the door. I was attacked by a huge mob of guys and girls. So I had to hide behind the pillars at one point. So that I wasn't trampled to death; WHAT KIND OF SCHOOL IS THIS? I THOUGHT I WAS CHASED BY A HERD OF ELEPHANTS. Anyways, after my mini montage I headed into the office.

"Hello there! How may I help you?" the lady at the table asked me with a smile. She had frizzy hair, and a set of the deepest green eyes which were hidden behind her glasses. Her age I'm guessing must've been in her early or mid twenties. Honestly, if she styled herself better I think she would've looked prettier. As I was thinking this, I replied;

"Ohh, I'm a transfer student from Hong Kong. Today is my first day." I said with a smile.

"Right! Kobayashi Haruto right?" she asked, as I nodded.

"Well, you're in luck! I just finished finalizing our schedule and just received your name badge a few minutes before you arrived, so here they are!" she handed them to me.

"Thank you." I said, as I put on my name badge, than she continued by saying;

"Now, as procedure goes I'm suppose to take you along to your first class so follow me!" she said while standing up and headed towards to door with me following closely behind her.

On our way to class, I looked at the surroundings and saw a lot of numbers in front of the classrooms. Hmm must mean the division of one grade? Anyways, we've finally made it to an another building and there we went up a flight of stairs until we made it to the third floor. And there we kept walking until we made it in front of a classroom which was labeled '9-B'

"Wait here! And when I call for you, come into the classroom." she told me as she headed into the classroom. So I waited, in front of the door. I looked through the glass part of it, and saw that the lady was talking to the teacher about something. But than just as I was thinking about that, she motioned me to come inside. So I made my way into the classroom, and as soon as I walked into the classroom a mix of emotions and feelings filled the room. With a few people muttering and giving me dirty looks and skeptical faces, while some people smiling and quite a lot of girls giving me googly eyes. Okay.. so much for a good first impression.

"Class! Today, we'll have a new student joining us today! Please introduce yourself to the whole class." The teacher told me, as she gave me a little smile. To be honest, I never really got the idea of why would anyone introduce themselves to the whole class in the first place. It's never an effective ice-breaker and makes things a lot more uneasy and awkward. Nevertheless, I did it anyway.

"Hello! My name is Kobayashi Haruto. Feel free to call me Haruto. Nice to meet you all." I said as I bowed. Honestly, I don't think I looked so bad outside but inside I was dying of embarrassment that I was so relieved when the teacher told me to go and take my seat. I walked towards my desk and sat down. And I started taking out my supplies and started taking notes when the teacher started the lecture.

My first class went by well you could say? I didn't talked to anyone because it seemed like my desk-mate wasn't present and also nobody really approached me during class. Right now, I'm heading towards my locker, that I'm searching for at this moment. It said on my paper that my locker number is 569. "Hmm I'm in the 500 range right now from that I can see" I said to myself and just as I was turning right I bumped into someone who was coming towards me at full speed. So basically now I was on the floor and my belongings were also scattered all over the hallways now. What a great first day at school am I right Haruto? I quickly got up and I started to gather my things as fast as possible and avoiding eye contact with the person I just bumped into. But he got up really quickly and started help me.

"OMG I'm so sorry, I was in a hurry and I didn't know where I was going." he said as he started to help organize my stuff.

"No, no! It's okayy I'm sure you had something important to do." I said as I quickly took the books from his hand.

"I'm Taichi Yamamoto." he said as he held his hand out for me to shake.

"Please to meet you Taichi. My name is Haruto Kobayashi, but feel free to call me Haruto." I said with a smile as I took his hand.

"Are you by any chance new? Because I'm pretty sure I haven't seen you around school and I've been attending this school ever since the beginning of my schooling years." he said as he shook my hand.

"Ahh interesting, and also yes today is my first day. I just transferred from Hong Kong." I told him.

"Ohh Néih hóu." he said. Wow he knows Cantonese?

"Néih sīk-m̀h-sīk góng Gwóngdōngwá?" I said back smiling like a crazy person right now. Okay, call me weird but at times I do feel more comfortable speaking Cantonese than in my own native language, Japanese.

"Ahh, that is the only word I know." he said looking a bit embarrassed as he started rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ohh sorry, but thanks for the effort." I said before giving him a thumbs up. He laughed softly,than asked me a question;

"So what is your next class?" he asked

"It's Biology." I said, with my eyes glued to my schedule in my hands.

"Oh really? Same! Which means we're late! Come on!" he said before grabbing my hand and started running off. And like that I was dragged across the hall by a certain someone who I just met 3 mins ago. But I must say he's really fast though. I should ask him if he's on the track team or something.

And with that thought we arrived in front of the lab. Taichi went in first and I was gonna follow until he accidentally shut the door. But as I was about to open the door I heard the teacher scolding him, and my the looks of his face it seemed as if he was getting an earful. So I knocked on the door, before I headed into the classroom.

"Excuse me mam, I apologize for the inconvenience caused right now. I'm the new transfer student and I sort of got lost in the process of finding this classroom, and this gentleman actually guided to this place and as a result took a little bit of his time." I said in the most polite tone I could possible make out. I heard the teacher sigh before saying:

"Well, it's nice to know that at least some kids still have some manners. Hope your new friend here would motivate to arrive on time Mr Yamamoto? You're off the hook this time because this new friend of yours is testifying for you. So go to your seat." she said to Taichi as she glared at him. Damn his eyes could kill, he would be dead by now with that dead stare.

"As for you.." she continued. "Please introduce yourself to the class." she said. I nodded before I did my introduction aka the same one I did during first period. Than she told me to sit at the same lab table as Taichi. Yay!!! Finally I'm sitting someone I know. So I made my way to the table, and Taichi smiled at me before showing me a small wave. I did the same thing back before sitting down and taking my book and essentials.

"Attention class!" the teached yelled.

"So I have a few announcements before the class begins, and that's the people that you're sitting with in your lab tables will be your group for the whole year. So some of you the groups will be four and some will be three. So get to know your table mates because you'll be working with them. Now are there any questions?" she asked the entire class and I raised my hand.

"Yes?" she said.

"I'm sorry but I think you might have miscounted miss? Since there's only two people on our table." I said and I observed the other tables and they all had either three or four people. Than the teacher looked back on the attendance sheet to see if there was anyone absent today. After a few minutes of looking she finally started talking again;

"So Mr Kobayashi, it seems that your other table mate is not present today. But nothing to worry about as I will inform him via email and also in person. In the mean time hope you get familiarized with your table mates." she replied.

"And may I know the name of the other table mate mam?" I asked.

"He is Watanabe, Reo Watanabe." he replied. And as soon as his name slipped out of her mouth I heard a few gasps coming out from around the class as well as a lot of mumbling going around. Okay, so what is going on? Is there something I'm missing on or not knowing here? I turned to Taichi to ask him but he became white as a sheep and looked scared out of his wits.

"I think it'll be better if I ask him during lunch." I thought to myself as I reposition myself back to looking at the board.

"OKAY CLASS LETS STARTT!" the teacher yelled at us, and begin the lecture. Throughout the entire lecture I couldn't help but thinking about this mysterious guy that was not here. Reo was his name..and why did everyone all of a sudden just looked like they saw or ghost when they heard his name including Taichi. Well I guess I will find out about that when we I see him, but for now I think I'm going to focus on the science lesson ahead. But throughout this entire science lesson I couldn't stop thinking about this mystery dude. Why, you may ask and honestly, I don't know the answer to it but this image of him lingered in my mind. I'm not sure but maybe because I read too many novels but I imagined that he would be a stereotypical bad boy that will probably not want to work together with people and not care about his grades alongside his future well-being. Well, if that's the case than I guess that will change right? I mean people are prone to changing if they meet the right people am I right? Anyways, after that little conversation in my head, I resumed my attention towards the lessons until the end of class.

After biology it was finally time for lunch yay!! But first I needed to put some stuff away at my locker. So I headed out towards my locker which I never got to because Taichi dragged me away with him. But now I've finally found my locker and I started to put in the demo combination and put my stuff into the locker. After a good minute or two of organizing and putting all my stuff into my locket I was finally done, and I put my new combination for the lock before slamming it shut.

I turned around to go and bumped right into a figure resulting in me landing on my butt again. Ouch! I looked up and saw Taichi bending down and looking at me while giggling.

"You need to care more about your surroundings shrimp." he said as he extended him hand out to me.

"And you need to stop shoving your big body in my face every-time. Also I'm not a shrimp, I'm 178cm tall." I said taking his hand and pulled myself up and start fixing myself.

"Whatever you're still shorter than me, now lets go." he said before heading out first and making me run behind him.

The cafeteria was pretty chaotic to say the least and everywhere I turned there were just groups, and groups of people talking and conversing. It was so jam-packed that I doubt that we were going to find a place for us to eat, but surprisingly we did and sat down. I took out my lunchbox from my bag and placed it on the table while Taichi sat there and looked at me. I stared back confusingly before asking;

"Umm where is your lunch?" I asked him as i opened my lunch box

"I don't bring lunch boxes to school." he said nonchalantly;

"Why?" I asked again really confused. He laughed before pointing at a small stall which on the other side of our cafeteria hall and students were lining up there.

"Our school serves us lunches, so nobody bring lunchboxes if I'm being honest." he said to me.

"Ahh..." I said, when i finally realized and I looked around and saw that everybody was eating from metal trays beside me.

"Come on slow poke! Lets go get some food." he said to me as he made his way towards the queue, I followed closely behind him and we stood in line together. Well I guess this is going to be good news for my mom because now she won't be needing to wake up early and prepare me lunch. Soon it was our turn to eat and so we each took a metal tray for us to put our food in. I giggled to myself as this setting reminded me of prisoners being served for food when having jail time. Anyways, after we put in the dishes we wanted to eat, we headed back to our table.

While we were eating we got to know each other a little bit more, which resulted in the two of us becoming closer. So one of my assumptions were right and that was Taichi was indeed an athletic person, and we was on the track team as well as on the basketball team which I never knew about. And I told him about me, and a little bit about my life as well as me being a music-prodigy back in Hong Kong. After a good hour of us talking and bonding I decided to pop the question to him;

"Hey I have one last question to ask you." I said to him.

"Shoot." he said as he started finishing up the remainder of his lunch.

"So what is with all the ruckus about Reo Watanabe?" I asked him finally, and judging from his reaction I could tell that he was a bit taken back by it.

"Why you want to know?" he asked me back this time, putting down his spoon and looked at me.

"Well, the three of us are going to be lab partners for the remainder of this year and so I wanted to know what he was like, and also the moment the teacher said his name you looked like you've just seen a ghost." I explained to him. He didn't say for a minute, than he thought to himself before he started talking;

"I guess I'm the one who should break it to you I guess." he said before sighing.

"Well, you see Reo isn't someone you would say is a jock or is he popular. He is quite mysterious if I might say so myself. His background is fairly good at first glance, he was born here in Tokyo but moved the States when he was just 2 years old, than during the beginning of middle school his family moved back to Japan. When he came back I heard that a lot of people teased him and made fun of him, and he retaliated by getting into fights with them. And now, he is more of like a person who doesn't necessarily talk to anyone in this school and from what I heard, he is involved in a lot of illegal acts." he said ending the story. "Wow" was all I could think in my head throughout the entire story until the ending.

"Is that why you looked that way in class." I asked him.

"Yea...it seems like the two of us will be doing majority if not all of the work ughh." he complained as he cupped his face with his palms.

"But all seriousness aside, I have to get to practice soon, because need to do a few rounds of track before I head to my next class. Wanna come see me in the field?" he asked me breaking the tension of our previous conversation.

"Actually, do you mind if I went to the music room instead?" I asked him politely, not wanting to sound good towards him.

"Yea, sure what is your next class?" he asked me, as we got up and took our trays to the dirty tray aisles.

"It's P.E" I told him.

"Well, than see you next class." he said smilingly

"No way! You have P.E too?' I asked shockingly. Do we have the same identical schedules.

"Gotta go! See you in a few minutes." he said before running away from me. I waved at him before making my way towards the music room. Music was always something that have always made me felt comfort in my own skin. As soon as I entered the music room, I was amazed at the variety of instruments that they had. But I immediately made my way towards the piano, since it was honestly the instrument that I've felt comfortable with and I've been learning piano ever since I was 5 years old until now, and have won multiple awards back in Hong Kong because of it. My piano teacher dubbed me as a musical genius but I don't agree with her on that part though. Anyways, I decided to play a song that has been stuck in my head for a while and it was Ocean Eyes by Billie Eilish. Throughout the entire song, I just sang my heart out in this empty music room and let go of everything and let my mind set free. But little did I know there was somebody listening to me.