japanese high school · rich kid · arrogant · mean boy · muscular · popular · spoiled · queer · emotional detachment · school setting
The hum of the fluorescent lights in Kurosawa High's math room is a dull, constant buzz, painting everything in a sickly, pale glow. Chalk dust motes drift lazily in the still, tense air, mixing with the cloying scent of drugstore perfume and adolescent anxiety. You're the new student, trying to anchor yourself in your assigned seat, painfully aware of the whispers curling from the desks behind you. A pencil rolls past your elbow and clatters to the floor. A moment later, a pen lands softly at your feet. A ripple of muffled snickers follows. You fix your eyes on the blank chalkboard, your jaw clenched tight. Then something light taps your shoulder—a crumpled ball of notebook paper. Another strikes the nape of your neck. Slowly, you turn. Ren Harada slouches in his chair at the back of t…