The school bell echoed through the halls—ding-dong, ding-dong—marking the end of a grueling math period. Most students slumped in their seats, but one corner of the room stayed loud.
A sharp, obnoxious laugh cut through the scraping of chairs. It was the kind of laugh that made teachers develop a twitch in their left eye.
"I'm telling you, it was hilarious! He didn't even see it coming!"
The guy leaning back on two legs of his chair, feet propped up on a desk that definitely wasn't his, was the source of the chaos. He had his blazer tied around his waist and hair that looked like he'd fought a whirlwind and lost.
He's the guy who spends more time in the dean's office than in the classroom.
Meet Chika Nuronami: The delinquent student who never refrains from getting himself into trouble.
Chika scanned the room, his eyes landing on his favorite target in the second row.
Ishi Kuroyami was already packing his bag with surgical precision. Every notebook was aligned. Every pen was snapped into its designated slot. He didn't look up at the laughter.
He wore his uniform like he was posing for a handbook. His glasses were pushed firmly up the bridge of his nose, reflecting nothing but the math problems still on the chalkboard.
Meet Ishi Kuroyami: The straight-A student that every teacher adores.
Chika's feet hit the floor with a heavy thud. He stood up, stretching his arms behind his head before swaggering over to the second row. He didn't just walk; he marched until he was looming over Ishi's desk, blocking the path to the aisle.
He reached out and flicked the corner of Ishi's textbook, sending it sliding a few inches.
"Hey, Four-Eyes," Chika grinned, leaning down until he was invading Ishi's personal bubble. "You're really just gonna sit there? The rest of us are actually having a life over here."
Ishi didn't flinch. He didn't even look at the hand on his desk. He simply reached out, pulled the textbook back to its original spot, and stood up.
Since Chika was standing right in his way, Ishi didn't try to push him. He didn't even look at him. He just turned around and walked past the empty desks at the back of the room to get to the other door.
He walked away like Chika wasn't even there.
"Excuse me," Ishi said in a flat, boring voice as he reached the hallway. He put his bag on his shoulder and walked away without looking back once.
Chika stood there, his grin disappearing as he stared at the empty door. He had gone out of his way to annoy the guy, and he had been ignored like a piece of trash on the floor.
"Tch. Whatever," Chika muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I'll get you to look at me eventually, you robot."
The only times Ishi had a conversation with Chika, if one could even call it that, was when he was relaying his poor performance and attendance from the teacher to Chika.
It was more like a one-sided scolding because Ishi left without letting Ishi say his piece which always pissed Chika off.
The next few days were pretty much a repeat of the same thing. No matter how hard Chika tried, he just couldn't crack the wall that was Ishi Kuroyami.
The classroom was the usual noisy mess of high schoolers. Paper airplanes flying, girls whispering about their weekend plans, and the smell of chalk and old lunches. But in the middle of all that chaos, there was always a weird little bubble of silence surrounding Ishi's desk.
Chika made it his personal mission to pop that bubble.
One morning, Chika 'accidentally' dropped his heavy pen case right next to Ishi's foot.
Clatter! Pens and erasers went everywhere. The whole class turned to look, but Ishi didn't even twitch. He just kept writing his notes, his hand moving across the paper in perfect, neat lines.
"Tsk," Chika clicked his tongue, his brows knitting together until they literally touched.
Later, during a break, Chika leaned against the chalkboard right behind Ishi's head while he was trying to study.
"Man, this class is so boring, right Kuroyami?" Chika said loudly, hovering so close he could see the tiny reflection of the ceiling lights in Ishi's glasses. "Don't you ever get tired of being a teacher's pet? Let's go grab some soda from the machine."
Ishi didn't even pause. He just turned the page of his textbook. The only sign that he heard anything at all was a small, almost invisible tightening of his jaw.
"Hey, are you deaf?" Chika huffed, feeling that itch of frustration again. He grabbed the top of Ishi's chair and shook it just a little bit. "I'm talking to you!"
Ishi finally stopped writing. He didn't look up, though. He just adjusted his glasses with one finger and spoke to the desk.
"You're blocking my light," Ishi said, his voice as dry as a desert. "And you have a smudge of dirt on your sleeve. It's distracting."
Chika blinked, looking down at his arm. By the time he looked back up to snap a comeback, Ishi had already gone back to his book, completely shutting him out again.
It was infuriating. Every time Chika thought he was getting somewhere, Ishi would treat him like a fly buzzing around his head—annoying, sure, but not worth a second thought.
"Fine! Be like that!" Chika grumbled, stomping back to his seat and kicking his own desk for good measure.
Across the room, his friends were laughing at him, but Chika didn't care about them. He just kept his eyes glued to the back of Ishi's head, wondering what it would actually take to make the straight-A student lose his cool.
He didn't know why, but the more Ishi ignored him, the more Chika felt like he just couldn't let it go.
Things went on like this, until one fateful day...