01. RIN ITOSHI, AND THE SILENT WOMAN.

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Rin has never had a proper interaction with you before today. In all honesty, despite his (very mild, and very normal) interest in you, he had no real intentions of ever even approaching you. Who could blame him?

He thinks it's fairly obvious you either have some social issues or you just flat-out hate everyone. Rin likes to think it's the former rather than the latter—because otherwise, he would be rather disgusted by how much he sees himself in you.

Rin thinks you are interesting just because of how little he seems to know about you—how little everyone seems to know about you—and it is certainly not a crime to wish to know what others do not. No, not at all. At least, he hopes so. Sometimes things like ancient knowledge and forbidden scrolls can be a bad thing. In Western movies, they all usually are.

Curiosity did kill the cat.

That's a popular saying in the West, but not much in Japan. He only learned it through one of the episodes of Doctor Who, but it stuck with him for a while. Not so much when he was little and all he cared about was hanging out with Sae-but more when he grew a little older and a little more mature (or as mature as you could get at 15, anyway).

It's not so much saying that you shouldn't ask questions in class or want to discover new knowledge to learn about whatever profession you wish to work towards in the future—but more about how you should not stick your nose in other people's business, because you might learn something you shouldn't have.

You may find out a secret so detrimental, so jarring you will never recover. Not until you shed your mortal skin like a snake and are reborn as an untainted, pure being of light.

Rin's always thought the saying was rather silly. A secret like that can't possibly exist. Not within the mind of a high schooler—where the only things playing there are the new trendy songs and confusion on the latest math test.

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is—today is the first time Rin is having his first official interaction with you since he's been in your class. Halfway through the year and you have not spoken to a classmate once—it's almost impressive. He wonders how long you've been like this.

It happened all too suddenly. Like a violent wave crashing along the shoreline suddenly going silent—Rin's mind goes blank when his teacher announces his name, alongside your own.

"And for the next team of two... Itoshi and [name]."

... What?

He must be dreaming, or he has suddenly become God's favourite being. Maybe he just heard wrong, and his teacher actually said Hizashi—but the way the entire class synonymously stares at him—he doesn't think it's very likely.

To be teamed up with the resident silent woman in class—he can practically feel the pity for him seeping out of their every pore like venom. He despises it, so he chooses to place his head down in his arms atop his desk until his teacher announces all the partners.

This is all for an assignment on different synonymous meanings of things. Some groups are doing the meaning of certain Japanese holidays, some others are doing some foreign holidays, and he hears another (a pair of girls who he knows are close friends) are doing symbolic meanings for some books that are popular now.

You do not stir, even as everybody around you starts getting up to sit with their respective partners.

Rin audibly sighs, and a boy he does not bother to remember the name of snickers from behind him. Childish.

He knows he said he was (very mildly and very casually) intrigued by you, but he is starting to think a stroke of bad luck was placed upon him when he was chosen to be partnered up with you. He's not too sure you'll even speak to him.

Then he'll be left to do the poster all alone and present it alone too because God knows you won't talk, and then he will be graded a big fat C because of a lack of teamwork and communication—he would laugh in the teacher's face if this happens.

But then again, you might do the whole assignment yourself. He wouldn't be as mad if you did. At least you'll do your part, and he will do his.

But he should stop making up fake futures in his head because right in front of him, stands you. He isn't sure exactly when you had moved-he had not heard the squeak of your chair or a screech as you dragged it across the ground—maybe you had teleportation, or even silencing powers. This could feed into his theory of you being an extraterrestrial life form.

Maybe he's getting a little too caught up in his nostalgia. He just really likes Doctor Who.

Rin's long lashes flutter against his cheek as he blinks at your figure. He has never seen your full face, unmoving and still, until now. Sure, he's seen you dash down the halls, and he's seen glimpses of your skin as you walk out of class—but he's never had to chance to really look at you, not like this.

You're not too bad.

Your eyes are the things that really strike him, though. He's sure they would be so bright if they were not so... sunken. It's the only way he can describe them. Heavy eyebags that could not be hidden by even your concealer, and thick lids that practically hung over your irises.

He thinks it would be rude if the first thing he ever says to you is, "When was the last time you slept?" So Rin decides against that thought.

You push your chair a little, and you take a seat in front of him. He's at eye level with you now. You seem to be a little shorter—or maybe your torso is just small, and you just have ridiculously long legs (he bites back the thought that maybe that could also feed into his inhuman theory).

Rin isn't too sure what he should say. Hi? Good morning? What should we do? He's never been the best with conversations, but with someone like you—silent and willingly distanced—it's even worse. He almost feels awkward. Scratch that—he is incredibly awkward. Like, wanting to dig a hole so deep it could fit two of you and just die in there kind of awkward. He hasn't felt like this in a while.

"We should do flowers."

Well, out of everything, he was not expecting that. He thought it would be more likely for you two to sit in silence for the rest of class and just wait for either of you to announce in a short sentence that "I'll do it, but you have to present," or the other way around. In fact, he thought it would've been more likely for you to jump over the table and karate-kick him right in the jaw before you would talk to him like a regular person.

(Maybe he is the inhuman one, Rin's beginning to suspect.)

Rin feels stupid for letting his usual tone slip out of his mouth when he asks, "Why?" He sounds annoyed—like what you asked was stupid. He isn't annoyed. He's more shocked than annoyed—but that shock is exactly why he forgot to shift his tone while speaking to you.

Rin not only has a chronic case of RBF, but he was also recently diagnosed with "sassy-man syndrome". Unless he purposefully changes his tone, he sounds irritated. It's just how he speaks. Maybe this is why he does not have many friends. Too bad, but he doesn't think about it now.

His tone does not seem to visibly affect you at all. You keep your head down, in the same fashion you always seem to do—and shuffle some blank pieces of paper you brought from your own desk. "Flowers have simply symbolic meanings that are unique to that flower and can be summarized within a couple of words. It's easier than trying to find the origin, creators, and hidden meanings behind something as niche as a festival."

He doesn't think he's ever been more star-struck, and that's saying something because he was there for the premier of Sharknado. He physically forces his lips closed so that he doesn't happen to catch a fly—and mentally, your voice sinks into his brain. It's smoother than he imagined, and a little louder, too. He thought he would have to ask you to speak up—but you seem to be fine.

That's the most he's ever heard you speak at one time. That's the most he's ever heard you speak, period. Rin is shocked, to put it lightly. You're much more willing to speak than he had expected. Do you really care about your grades that much? Maybe he had misjudged you.

"Okay." Rin nods. He feels dumb, but he tries to pretend he does not. First impressions are everything, after all. "Which flower do you want to focus on?"

You take a moment to pause and think. He finds himself admiring your focused expression. "I don't know. Can we just figure out a structure first? I don't know the meanings behind flowers off the top of my head."

He thinks he failed in pretending not to feel dumb. It's just a hunch. "...Right."

This was how Rin Itoshi's first interaction with you went—better than he had expected, really. At least it wasn't radio silence. The chatter in the background constantly ringing in his ears did not do too much to ease his jittering nerves, however—he found his eye twitching on more than one occasion.

Still—your company was surprisingly peaceful. Maybe he only feels this way because you were silent and he does have this sort of (not too) odd fascination with you—but it meant all the same to Rin.

And so, with your first small talk shared between you both—you two blindly worked on your unplanned, unmade, and unscripted presentation for the rest of class.