Chapter Text
It was a cloudy march morning in Okinawa. Students were talking together on their way to the school gate. Almost everyone was with someone. Only Langa was alone. He didn't know anybody here, it was his first day in this new school. He recently moved with his mom to Japan. Before that, they were living in Canada. So this was a really new experience for the blue-haired boy. He stood in front of the school gate and smiled, trying to calm his anxiety. "I can do this." he told himself.
He walked through the gate and headed towards the huge school building. But as he was walking, someone stopped him by putting their hand on his shoulder. Langa shivered at the contact and turned around.
He saw a red-haired boy with a camera hanging from his neck. The boy smiled. "Hey, I don't think I ever saw you here, are you new?" He said. Langa was surprised. It was his first day here and someone was already acknowledging him? He didn't expect that. He thought he would be a loner and no one would try to talk to him.
"Um yeah, this is my first day here." Langa said and cringed. What if his Japanese was not good? He saw something in the other boy's eyes, but he wasn't quite sure what it meant. He looked... shocked? Surprised maybe? Langa was never really good at reading other people's emotions from their faces.
"Cool! Also, I wanted to ask, could I take a picture of you?" The shorter boy asked with a smile still plastered on his tanned face.
Langa was confused. Why did this boy want to take a photo of him? "Why?" That's all he said because he didn't know what else to say in a situation like this other than ask. The other boy tilted his head to the side. "I don't know I just simply think you look pretty." He responded to Langa's question.
The taller boy's cheeks flushed pink. He never heard anyone call him pretty other than his mom or aunts. This is awkward. But he can't say no now, that would be weird.
"But only if you are comfortable! You can say no!" The boy added. Langa simply nodded. "Uh sure, okay you can take a picture of me." He mumbled. The redhead's eyes sparkled. Why was he so happy about this?
"Okay then, could you move closer to that tree? It would look really good as a background." He pointed at a beautiful tall sakura tree that was close to the school gate. Langa nodded again and went to the tree. "Now what?" He asked. "Maybe take off your blazer and put it over your shoulder and hold it there that should look nice." The boy said and Langa said as he was told. "Like this?" He asked, just to make sure he didn't do something stupid. "Yeah, now don't move." The boy said and took the first picture. But then realization hit the boy and he chuckled. "Wait you didn't smile, let's try again but now with a smile." He said. So Langa tried to smile. He wasn't very confident about his smile but he didn't want to ruin the photo.
Another picture was taken. The boy with the camera smiled. "Nice, let's do one more. Put the blazer on again and now look to the side, you don't have to smile but play with your hair with your right hand. Your hair looks cool we shouldn't waste that." He explained and Langa was happy that he didn't have to smile again, he was sure he looked dumb in the last photo. Just imagining it made him feel embarrassed. He again did what the boy told him to do and the boy took a picture. "Good, that one is going to look amazing." He smiled. "A picture of me is going to look amazing? That doesn't sound true." Langa thought to himself.
The shorter boy let go of his camera and looked at the watch on his wrist. "Oh god I should get going I don't want to be late again." The boy groaned. "Anyways, do you have an Instagram or something like that where I can send you the photos when I'm done retouching them?" He asked. Langa thought about it. Yes, he has Instagram and Twitter but it's in English wouldn't that be weird? What if the redhead doesn't know how to speak English? But then Langa decided to stop overthinking and just told the boy his Instagram. "I have Instagram, it's langa_h ." He said and was surprised when the boy didn't write it on his phone or anything. Is he really going to remember it? Langa hopes he will.
"Okay Langa, I will message you when I can." The boy smiled. It was weird hearing the boy say Langa's name, but it felt good. "Now I really have to go and you should too, you don't want to be late on your first day that isn't a good first impression. See ya!" He waved at Langa and basically started running to the school opening.
An unsure "Bye?" That sounded more like a question than a goodbye is all that came out of Langa. He was about to go too but then he remembered. He didn't ask the boy's name! Langa suddenly felt embarrassed and wanted to yell at the boy to stop him, but he was already too far. Also, it would probably bring a lot of attention to him and Langa didn't need that. He already got enough attention today. From the red-haired boy. But oh god.
He will have to introduce himself to the class. That is going to suck.
-
The blue-haired stood in front of the classroom's closed door. He couldn't bring himself to open it. All attention of the students - his new classmates, is going to be on him. What if he embarrasses himself?
He looked at his phone and it showed that it was 8:04. Oh no, he was already late? That's not good. He really should go.
So he knocked on the door and the talking (probably the teacher already teaching the lesson) that could be heard before stopped and the teacher told him to come in. So Langa opened the door. He could feel a lot of eyes on him. He hopes nobody thinks he's weird, even though they probably don't because he just walked in. He should stop worrying so much.
But that was not that simple.
"Oh, you must be the new student! What's your name?" The teacher asked him with a smile on his face. Langa didn't know if it was fake or not but to him, it seemed like it was. Because why would he be smiling at him? He is late.
Langa looked at the class, trying not to make eye contact with any of his new classmates. He sighed. "I'm Langa Hasegawa." The class was quiet, besides a few whispers. Which wasn't helping. Not at all.
"So Hasegawa, the principal told me that you moved here from Canada. Is that true?" The teacher asked, still smiling. "Why is he still talking? Can't he just tell me where to sit? Why is he trying to be friendly?" Langa's head was full of thoughts. Langa nodded, but then he realized that probably wasn't a good way to respond to your new teacher. He wanted to make a good impression. "Uh yeah, that's true." He said. The teacher probably realized Langa wasn't feeling very comfortable right now so he finally stopped with the weird smile. "That's nice. Well Hasegawa you can sit in the back next to Reki." The teacher turned back to the board and Langa looked at the class and saw the only free seat in the back. And then he noticed something.
Next to the free seat sat a guy with red hair and a camera was placed on his table. And he was looking at Langa. "So Reki huh?" Langa thought to himself as he went to sit down.
-
It was almost the end of the lesson. Langa was taking notes, sometimes mixing a letter or two and having to rewrite it. He was getting annoyed and wanted to tear the paper to pieces but then a piece of scrunched-up paper landed on his desk. He looked around but didn't see anyone that looked like they threw it. So he opened the paper and it had something written on it. "Welcome Langa :) -Reki," it said. Langa genuinely smiled and after a long time, he didn't care about how stupid he must look right now.
He turned the piece of paper around and wrote "Thank you Reki :)" on it. He looked at Reki. The redhead was busy drawing on his hands when the paper landed on his table. Langa decided he was going to watch him and see his reaction.
Reki opened the paper. He smiled widely and looked at Langa. Langa didn't even realize but he was still smiling too.
And then the bell rang.
-
Langa was laying in his bed. It was probably past midnight but the blue-haired boy still couldn't fall asleep. He didn't know if it was because he still wasn't used to his new home or because he was thinking too much. Yesterday was a truly stressful day. But it was also good. His mind was still full of the redhead's smile even though that was their last interaction that day. Langa also thought about how after school on his way home he saw Reki skating a few streets away from Langa's home. "He is a photographer and a skater, so cool! I could never be cool like him." Langa thought. He honestly wanted to be at least friends with the boy.
His thoughts were interrupted by his phone lighting up. He looked at his phone and it was an Instagram notification. He told himself he would read it in the morning but then he realized that it could be Reki so he quickly unlocked his phone and went to Instagram. In his notifications he saw the follow request. "kyannnx wants to follow you." Langa read it to himself and accepted the follow request. He knew the account was Reki's because he had a selfie as a profile picture. Then he opened Reki's account and immediately followed him. But then he noticed. 126 posts, 11.7k followers, and only 78 following. "What the fuck is Reki famous or something?!" He thought to himself. Well, just another reason why Reki is so cool. Langa had only 6 posts, 265 followers, and he followed a lot of people, musicians, brands, artists, and other.
Langa started browsing through Reki's account. He had a lot of photography there, mostly portraits or photos of people in a skatepark, and the retouch was done perfectly, Langa didn't know a lot about photography but he knows that this is trully impressive work for someone so young. Even though the theme of the account could be better, because right now it was messy with a few selfies here and there, the only thing that didn't look professional was really just the theme. But Reki isn't a professional photographer. At least not yet. So it isn't that bad.
The tall boy turned off his phone, finally feeling calmed down enough to go to sleep. He got into a comfortable position but then his phone lit up again. This time with a direct message request from kyannnx.
Langa immediately went to Instagram and opened his direct messages to approve the request. He then read the message, "Such a waste to have a private account when you look like a model" Langa chuckled and started typing. "Wow, interesting way to say hello." He sent it, and the redhead immediately saw it.
"But it's better than just saying hello I have the photos." The boy replied. Oh, the photos. Langa almost forgot about them.
"I guess." The blue-haired boy didn't know what else to reply. He never was good with keeping up conversations, so he hoped Reki was better.
Reki responded with the photos. Langa clicked on the first one. The one where he smiled. He tried to convince himself it wasn't that bad but his head was telling him otherwise.
He rolled over so he was laying on his stomach now and opened the other photo. This one was better. He obviously preferred it over the first one, because he wasn't smiling. Langa liked this one a lot.
Reki started typing again. "Do you not like them?" He said. Langa's eyes widened. Oh, he was probably supposed to react.
"No, I like them a lot. The colors are nice. You are very talented Reki." He responded. He hoped that's what Reki wanted to hear.
"Thank you! Sorry I got a bit scared because you weren't responding. So, can I post them on my account? I will tag you!" Langa's breath hitched. Reki has 11 thousand followers. That's a huge scary number.
"I don't know." Langa simply texted back. Reki didn't view the message immediately. But Langa didn't have anything else to do so he just looked at the screen waiting for Reki to see the message and respond. It took Reki about 4 minutes to view the message and then he was typing for a long time and Langa's eyes started getting heavy. But when he saw that Reki finally responded he immediately opened his eyes fully again and started reading the long message.
"Come on dude. Don't be scared. I understand that my follower count may be scary, but the photos look good, you look good and it may be a great opportunity to get more followers. I will tag you on the photo and everyone will want to follow you. And I'm sure girls from our school will see it too so you know... Please? Can I post them? I haven't posted in like a week. I don't want my account to die haha." Langa sighed. He shouldn't say no. And if he says no that would probably mean Reki would stop talking to him. And Langa didn't want that. He doesn't want to be alone.
"Okay then" Langa responded shortly and saw Reki typing.
"Damn are you always such a dry texter?" The boy replied. A dry texter? Langa never heard that term. "Dry texter?" He asked, wanting an explanation.
"Well, it means you can't hold a text conversation and respond with no flavor. Just boring responses. Sorry if I offended you." Reki explained. Langa didn't get offended or anything, because he agreed, it made sense. Langa is a dry texter. And he's also dry when he talks to people normally.
"Don't worry, I agree with you. Unfortunately, I'm always like this, sorry." Langa hoped this response had 'flavor'.
"It's okay, I was like that too. Maybe you will get better after we talk more?" The other boy replied. Langa's eyes sparkled. Reki wants to talk more with him. So he wants to be friends with Langa?
"I hope so." Langa texted back. He again noticed that his eyes started closing. But he was lucky because it was now that Reki texted him that he is getting really tired and is going to sleep. But the tall boy was really sleepy so he just liked the message and typed a quick "Sleep well."
After that message, Langa just turned off his phone and started drifting away into dreamland.