Next week

School

8:30 am

Antonio's pov

Everyone was talking and going on, it was unusual for the teacher to start class this late. Hitoshi and I were carrying our own conversation. He finally speaks up "Alright" everyone gets quiet. "I was going through some plans and checking some emails but we have a new student here and I want all of you to be very welcoming to her. She isn't able to speak English so keep that in mind." "Where is she from?" Hitoshi speaks up, "She's from Italy" the teacher says. Everyone got excited a bit. I contained my excitement and expressed it with a soft smirk resting on my lips, a few people looked at me "Hey she's from your country Antonio!" Hitoshi elbows me playfully.

 "Makes me wonder if she's cute" he giggles. "She's not even here yet and you're already wondering if she's hot or not" I mutter. "Hey Antonio, doesn't that mean you gotta translate for her or somethin?" a guy asks me across the classroom. "Is that why you're all looking at me?" I ask. A few people said yeah or nodded and laughed. "So Antonio, for this class you will go to the front office and when she gets there, give her a tour of the school. They'll tell you the rest on up there" I nod and grab my book bag and begin to leave. "Ay, leave some for me Antonio!" a guy says making a few guys laugh. I close the door behind me and head to the office, hiding my smile behind my hands. It's nothing like talking to someone from my mother land. I felt homesick recently too. I wonder what does she look like? What is she like? How long is she staying here for?

(Ya'll all i got is google translate so i tried my best😭)

Cordelia's pov

I was escorted into the front office by my mother, "So che non ti piace, ma è per il lavoro di papà, va bene? Potresti farti degli amici qui! (I know you don't like it, but it's for dad's job, okay? You could make friends here!)"

 "Nessuno in questa scuola parla nemmeno italiano! Non riesco a farmi degli amici quando non riescono nemmeno a capirmi. Riesco a malapena a parlare inglese mamma!(Nobody in this school even speaks Italian! I can't make friends when they can't even understand me. I can barely speak english mom!)"

 "Ascolta, questo potrebbe essere molto meglio di quanto pensi. Osserva e impara. (Look, this could be a lot better than you think. Observe and learn.)" she says.

I sigh, annoyed and nervous "Mama mia..." I didn't even want to move to this stupid country and meet new stupid people. 

I miss my friends in Italy, I miss going out every weekend with them to try street food or going to the gym with my gym friends. I miss the sounds of the ocean or smelling the salty air, I even miss the pigeons for petes sake! All of that, my childhood, taken away because of my dad's stupid job! I hate it here! I want to cry already. I just want to run back to the car and go home and take this stupid uniform off! I can't even wear what I want here! It's stupid! My mom and dad made me take English lessons before telling me about the news of his job. My mom and dad aren't fluent in English, but it's enough to communicate, I can barely say 3 words.

I'm Cordelia Giovanna. I'm from Naples, Italy and I'm homesick. We enter the school and walk to the front office. The principal was there to welcome us, my mom and him exchanged some words I didn't understand. As they talked, I look around and my eyes widened but I kept my cool. I just saw a cute guy hanging around the front office haha. Okay no time for that. My mom says "Buongiorno" to him. He walks to us, wait he's walking over here?! Why?! What's going on?

He opens his mouth, "Buongiorno" 

"Guarda chi parla italiano! Quanto è bello? Presentati! (Look who speaks Italian! How beautiful is it? Introduce yourself!)" my mom gets excited. I look up, this guy speaks Italian? Wait he does look Italian. Please tell me he's Italian. "Sono Cordelia, è un piacere conoscerti(I'm Cordelia, nice to meet you)" 

"Io sono Antonio (I am Antonio)" he says. "Cordelia ha un po' di nostalgia di casa, ma migliorerà! Cordelia, sii buona. Ciao, per ora! Ciao Antonio (Cordelia is a little homesick, but it will get better! Cordelia, be good. Bye for now! Bye Antonio" she says happily and leaves.

(Okay imma put this in english cause im too lazy to copy paste everything they say and i don't want this to get too lengthy. so they basically talking in italian, we cool?)

"Well then Cordelia, I'm your tour guide here" he says. I hand him my schedule, it was translated in Italian for me. "Oh man, we both have all of our classes together! Sorry for getting excited, I haven't really had anybody to 'talk' to in a while" "Oh, I understand" I say. Antonio shows me around going past a few classrooms. I was a bit quiet, but his name sounds familiar, "Antonio, may I ask what is your last name?" I ask him.

 "Marino" my neck snapped as I look at him. "Marino?! Like Antonio Marino?" "Yeah why." "You're him?!" I suddenly became nervous around him. "I guess" "Wow, your mom and dad is so cool! I h-heard that you model and stuff. You're one of my favorite models actually" I chuckle nervously, trying to calm down my burning cheeks. Dang it! Why does he smell so good?! What is he wearing?

 He smiles softly, "Thanks... so why did you move here?" "My dads job. I'm not sure how long I'll be here, probably for a good bit." I say then sigh. 

"I just miss home so much.... when did you move here?" "I moved here when I was around 3 or 4. I do visit Italy every summer though" he says. We pass a few classmates and the look at me as we passed by them. "Oi Antonio!!" I hear someone. 

We both turn around, and see a guy walking towards us. He looked short at first, but when he approached us, he is taller than I thought. An Asian guy that's a head taller than Antonio, though the sleeves of his jacket did not exactly fit tightly around his arms, it was enough for his muscle definition could be seen. His fine black hair was shaved into an under cut and the rest of his hair into a small bun. He's pretty good-looking. He wraps an arm around Antonio's shoulder, while looking down at me. "Is this her?" I assume this is English. Antonio moves his arm away and I assume by his tone he was telling the guy about me. 

Antonio speaks to me in our language as the Asian guy said something to me and made a small bow. "This is my best friend, Hitoshi, he's from Japan. He says nice to meet you" Antonio says. I told him hey and Antonio translated for me. Hitoshi says something and Antonio fusses at him blushing a little while Hitoshi laughs. Is this his boyfriend or something? As far as I know of, it was never said that Antonio was in a relationship. They seem close on social media but I won't make assumptions when no one has said anything. I walked with them both as they shown me around.

Hitoshi's pov

"Why did you leave class man? What if someone catches you?!" Antonio mutters under his breath. "They won't say anything, geez." 

"I don't want you to get in trouble" he whispers. "I won't, mom" I say sarcastically, brushing his hand occasionally. To be honest, I felt left out. It just feels weird when he's not in class with me. I used to stay out of school or skip school somewhere else but ever since we became friends, I went to school everyday. I even got a perfect attendance pencil once. Antonio always had perfect attendance. Classes I had that he wasn't in, I would stay long enough to be counted present and come up with some excuse and skip- occasionally so I wouldn't get suspicious. Antonio and I had classes later on in the day anyway. 

🍝 🥢🍝 🥢🍝 🥢🍝 🥢🍝 🥢🍝 🥢

After school

Hitoshi's pov

"You're not making me go in that store!" I argue.

 "It's just a clothing store!"

 "I don't like shopping." I roll my eyes. "Then how'd you get the very clothes you're wearing when you're out?"

 "Online. Shopping's too girly." Antonio and I went to the mall to hang out and currently arguing about going inside a store. Yeah, good times.

"Then I must be a girl then, come on Hitoshi, just this once!" he begs.

 "My parents are gonna wonder where I got them from though." "Why would you say something like that?" "It's nothing."

 "Hitoshi I know you don't like talking about your parents much to me, but I know when you're hurt. You can't lie to me and I won't be okay if you're not!" 

"S-Shut up!" I raise my voice, slightly stuttering.

"What?" 

"Stop talking to me like that!"

 "Hitoshi I really don't feel like arguing with you in the middle of the mall for the hundredth time. Just tell me what's going on, I can probably help!" "You won't be able to help- just stay out of it!" I yell.

 He stares at me coldly, "The next time I see you hurt I won't stay out of merda" and he walks off. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. It's personal what goes on in the house. Because I'm a failure, I'm hurting others before I can realize it. I don't want my best friend to get involved in anything, was he trying to give me pity? 

My father punches me one last time in my face, making my nose bleed before I left for school. My brother kicks me. "I knew we should've aborted you, you lowlife. I should've had someone to kill you off you waste of air and space. GET OUT! IMA!" my father's voice roars through the house. I didn't even flinch. 

I look away from his direction. I look back and see he's gone, he must've left. I hurry and go after him into the parking lot, and see him leaning on the side of his car holding something against his chest. I walk up to him and the thing he was holding was a small orange tabby kitten.

 ".........Where the (__) did you find a kitten at man?!" sometimes this dude just find the most random stuff or just walks off without warning. "I found her under my car, she's not looking okay. She looks a bit dehydrated." "... Don't you think the mom is around here somewhere? What if it- well if she has fleas?" "She doesn't I already checked." he opens his door and holds a water bottle so it could drink. Even though I'm still a bit upset, I found the moment cute. He looked concerned for the small cat. He told me that he wanted to be a vet or a police officer one day.

 Seeing him calm like this unknowingly made me relax. The black storm clouds were rolling in, it began to drizzle a little.

 "Why did you follow me out here?" he mumbles, while looking at the small kitten drink. One thing that everyone liked about him is his undying kindness, if I didn't mention it already. Even when I was picking at him before we became friends he was always nice to me, which annoyed me even more because I thought he was mocking me sometimes. 

".....I'm getting in the car, its raining" I walk off and we both get into his car. By the time we close the doors the rain began to pour. It was just silence, besides the small rustles and meows of the tiny kitten he was holding.

 His voice breaks the silence, "Listen we don't have to bring up your parents again. I know you don't want me to worry about you but I can't help it. It's just that I... I really care about you Hitoshi." he looks at me.

 "Why do you have to be so nice to me? You're like that way with everyone" "It's different when I'm with you!" I look at him and sit up.

 I'm surprised that kitten is asleep through all this.

 The rain kept pounding against the car, distorting what was seen through the windows. "I...feel the same way." I mumble.

 "What." he looks at me confused. I gently rub the kittens head and my fingers brushes against Antonio's cheek. "In my eyes, you're more than just a good friend to me" "....We're best friends?" his lips slightly tuck in a corner, resting in a faint smile. 

"More than that!" I laugh then stop and suddenly back away, blushing.

 "Geez I sounded like I was confessing to you or something" I nervously laugh. "Wait you were gonna confess to me?"

🍝 🥢🍝 🥢🍝 🥢🍝 🥢🍝 🥢🍝 🥢

oooh LOOOOOOOVVVVEEEEE NEVER KNEW WHAT I WAS MISSING, BUT I KNEW ONCE WE START KISSING

I FOUN-OUN-OUNNNNNDDDD

LOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVEE-*gets smacked with a pan*