As soon as his alarm went off, Rudy quickly hopped off of... Not his bed. His chair? Of course, he fell asleep late last night, for he was looking up flyer design ideas. Remembering anything was difficult, though.
Did I even get anything done? I hope I did. Wait, when did I fall asleep…? Rudy thought to himself, grabbing his phone which was right by his arm on the desk.
He turned on his phone, and looked through his web browser. Scrolling through the multiple tabs, he looked at the one he used last night, and finally remembered what he had in mind. He apparently wrote down some of his ideas on a piece of paper that was laying on the desk, in front of him. Since both his phone and alarm clock read '7:30AM,' he hurried to change into his uniform, grab the piece of paper, put it in his backpack, and eat some breakfast before heading to school.
"Hey, morning!" Ruby exclaimed from across the kitchen, as Rudy made his way down the stairs. "Did you sleep well, bro?"
"Wait, if you went to bed, then you knew that I fell asleep at the desk, right? How come you didn't wake me up?"
"You looked tired, I couldn't. Did you have a good sleep, though?"
"Kinda. I don't know when I fell asleep...." He arrived at the kitchen and grabbed a piece of bread and put it in the toaster as he mumbled, lowering his tone, "These ideas aren't even that good. I kinda regret doing this."
"Nah, I bet you thought of cool stuff. So hey, did you find anything while you were browsing? Maybe you sketched something?"
"Yeah, I wrote some things down… I'll show Nagisa what I have after school today. I hope that these are good enough."
"Oh, Nagisa?" Ruby questioned. She noticed that the toast Rudy made was ready, so she pointed to it in order to remind him. "Is that the name of the person you found? Neat-o."
"Yeah, I guess it is." Rudy grabbed the piece of toast and sat down at the kitchen counter, eating it slowly. A few minutes later, it was about time to go to school, so he got up, grabbed his backpack, and headed towards the front door. "See ya there. I'll try to get a few things done today."
He waved to Ruby, and watched her follow suit before closing the door.
*****
During his classes, all he could think about was recess. Has he ever had much to look forward to after school? Not really. Again, this was a first for him. Meeting up with friends after school was a normal thing for other people, but not for him. Not having many friends kept him from experiencing that sort of thing. Some would say that the kids who like him because he's popular in class are his friends, but he'd say they really aren't. He really has to hand it to Ruby. After all, she's the one who comes up with interesting ideas for him to make some friends at school. Who wouldn't want such an amazing, leader-like sister? Sometimes, whenever he's chosen to lead something, he'd prefer Ruby to do it. But no, not this time.
Recess was finally here, and Rudy walked out of the school building. He tried not to rush, or else he'd be attracting some attention to himself. He looked around for Nagisa, among all the other kids who were just playing around. Eventually, he spotted Nagisa, sitting on the grass by a tree. From what he could make out at that distance, Nagisa wasn't holding a book this time. What was it though? He decided to just go over there and investigate.
He walked up to Nagisa, and sat beside them.
"Hey, how's it going?" No verbal response. Only a nod. They showed off what they had in their hands. "Oh, what is it?" Rudy curiously looked a bit closer.
It was a piece of paper that Nagisa had to unfold in order to unveil what they had. It was... A drawing of a fish. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't too well drawn either. It looked like what you'd get after mixing the appearance of a Striped Bass and Goldfish, but blue in color.
"This is what I made. A new species."
Nagisa proudly displayed their work of art before Rudy. It was cute, but had nothing to do with the club whatsoever. Rudy tried to conceal his laughter the best he could. At least they were dedicated, right?
"That looks great, but that's not what I meant Nagisa." Rudy sighed and smiled lightly, as Nagisa brought down her drawing and folded it back up. "Anyway, I was able to think of a few design ideas for our flyers. The thing is, I'm not that very good at sketching, so could you draw what I have in mind?"
Nagisa then got the message, and reached for their sky blue backpack, which was right behind them. There was a notebook filled with paper, along a few mechanical pencils. They looked back up at Rudy, which he took as an indicator to start describing what he needed drawn.
"Well, maybe there could be some large text at the top, that spells out the name of our club? And then, a description about our club that goes underneath to the right. And, uh, I dunno… Maybe somewhere in the middle, it should say that we're accepting anybody. Most clubs are limited to a certain grade, I think."
While he was speaking, Nagisa quickly sketched out everything onto the piece of paper. Once he was done, they started to slow down and think for a bit.
"What's our club name?" Nagisa asked.
"Well, that depends on our topic. I wrote down some ideas last night, and—" Rudy was interrupted by a leaf falling down by the tree behind him. He looked up, and noticed that a branch was shaking, causing multiple leaves to fall down to the ground. "What the…?" He stood up, and motioned Nagisa to the same, backing away from the tree to see what was in it. "Is that a squirrel…?"
"How dare you call me a squirrel?" A disembodied voice spoke, coming out of nowhere. It was somehow quite familiar to Rudy, however.
Messy blonde hair, a short figure, and attire that violated the school's dress code... It was Min-Jun. It just had to be. Rudy remembered meeting up with him after school every day for a short while, only to be cast away a few weeks later.
"Um… What are you doing?" Rudy questioned, squinting at the sight of Min-Jun literally stuck in a tree. "How did you get up there?"
"M-Magic, Min-Jun stammered. "Wait, crap, I'm not supposed to say that…"
Nagisa wondered, Is this a gangster?
"Please don't fall." Rudy sighed, "Why're you up there?"
"Spying on you."
"What…?"
"I said I'm spying on you."
"You did, but why?! Are you trying to tryna jump me?"
"Of course not, dummy. I just overheard ya, and by the way, you're doing this all wrong." Barely holding onto a flimsy branch, he dramatically pointed at them, shouting, "But it's not like I care, or anything!"
"...Okay. I'm just really happy to see you I guess. You're really different, though."
"You're not supposed to be happy to see me. I have to hide in this stupid tree everyday so people don't know that I'm here, dude."
"But why?"
"Chill with the questions… I'm trying to not be noticed, Rudy. You probably haven't heard, but this school sucks. It's only fine for you 'cuz you're popular and stuff."
"So, you're hiding in a tree to hide? It looks like you're gonna fall, are you stuck?"
"N-No, I'm not stuck, and I'm not gonna fall!" He shouted, tightly gripping onto the branch. "But for real, how are you gonna start this stupid club without even having a plan? It won't get accepted."
"But you said that you didn't care earlier."
"No, I don't!"
Nagisa blinked, and began to fidget, looking around the area, while the other two continued to 'converse.' Luckily, their head was filled with fishing, so tuning them out wasn't a difficult task.
"We'll get some work done eventually. I'm not good at starting anything." Rudy mumbled. "I haven't even done this before, anyway."
"Yeah, a club with only two people in it. I bet you don't even know who this person is." Min-Jun looked directly at Nagisa, giving them a quick glare.
"I mean, we'll find some more people. I think. Plus, the club's point is to make some friends, I dunno..."
"Huh? I never thought you'd say that. Don't you have plenty of friends already? You have those girls who keep nagging you in class all the time."
"They barely even know me, and I wanna meet some more people."
"I skip school sometimes," Nagisa softly spoke. Not only was it entirely off-topic, but it made Min-Jun beyond confused.
"Uhh, okay." He cleared his throat, "But, for real, you guys are gonna need some serious help, and you ain't getting it FROM—" He lost his grip on the branch, and fell onto the grass, landing on his feet.
"Are you alright?" Rudy wanted to check if he was alright, out of concern. In response, Min-Jun looked up, and crossed his arms.
"Y-Yeah, I'm totally fine. As I was saying…" The branch finally fell, landing on top of his head, and interrupting him once more. At this point, Rudy was… Concerned, to say the least.
Rudy thought, Is he brain damaged?
Min-Jun grabbed the branch and tossed it on the floor. He continuously stepped on it until it broke. He then cleared his throat once again, and declared, "Hyun-a told me that clubs are lame. Your's is probably, like, the lamest, so at least try to make it better."
"Is this your way of saying that you wanna help us?" Rudy questioned.
"No, that's not what I meant. Anyone would comment on how… What's the word… Weird this idea is. 'A club for making friends?' At least make it related to school, or something. Like the Science Club, the Sign-Language Club, or—"
"Thank you, Yellow Guy." Nagisa spoke clearly, attempting to crack a smile. Rudy chuckled, as Min-Jun was taken aback by the statement.
"M-My name is not Yellow Guy! It's Min-Jun! Where'd you get that from anyways?!" He questioned.
"Here you go, Yellow Guy. Our club flyer. Please join."
"No."
"Y'know, you're… Actually right," Rudy muttered.
"Wait, what?"
"At first, I actually thought it was pretty weird, too. There's no way something like that would work out, right? I dunno, I'm a pretty bad leader."
"Well, don't say it like that…"
"But this time, I feel like it might work out. Not only because Ruby said so, or anything. I just gotta try harder, I guess. So, thanks for the advice, Min. Do you wanna talk about it tomorrow?"
Darn, this guy's good, Min-Jun thought.
"Y-Yeah, sure, whatever. But I'm gonna head home. Good luck with your club thing." Min-Jun walked away from the two, leaving Nagisa even more confused than ever, and not only because he was actually heading back to the school building.
Nagisa looked over to Rudy, and blinked. Rudy felt like he needed to say something. Badly.
"Uh… He's just an old friend of mine. He doesn't mean what he says."
Nagisa blurted, "A Fish Club. There's an aquarium. Lot's of fish are there."
Oh, so that's what they were gonna say.
Rudy couldn't tell if Nagisa was either joking or being serious, but found it sweet that they were trying to help. A Fish Club might not be possible, but it's the only thing they've been able to think of, so that's something, at least.
"I'm leaving now. Bye-bye," Nagisa spoke quite abruptly. They stood up and grabbed their things, including the piece of paper.
"Oh, so soon? How come?" Rudy asked.
"Hmm. Dad told me to."
"Okay then. See you tomorrow. And thanks for all the help." He reassured, "We can keep talking about this tomorrow, alright?" Receiving a nod in reply, he walked towards the gate and made his way out of school grounds. But Nagisa had some other things in mind. They made their way back into the school building in an attempt to follow Min-Jun. Where was he though?
He wasn't in classroom 6-A, nor was he in 6-B. Nagisa continued to venture down the hallways, only to have no luck in finding him. Until they reached the boy's bathroom. Spotting Min-Jun in front of the mirror, texting who-knows-who, Nagisa silently opened the door and crept up behind him.
And as soon as they tapped his shoulder...
"Yellow Guy."
"AHH!" Min-Jun shrieked, trying to regain his composure. He sounded like a girl screaming.
Holy crap, since when did that guy get here?!
"W-What are you doing here?! I thought you were still with Rudy!" He stammered, still being suspicious of Nagisa.
Teleportation isn't possible, right? No way…
"Wait, you're p-probably stalking me, aren't you! That's right, you've been stalking me ever since Rudy and I met! B-Bet the jealousy really got to you, huh?!"
Nagisa just stared at him with a blank face, as usual.
"No. Help us with our club. I have candy." Nagisa put a hand inside their hoodie's right pocket, and retrieved a small piece of candy that was in its wrapper. They held it out to Min-Jun as he cringed at the sight.
"...What's your deal? You're not like I thought you were. Y-You're just even weirder." He snatched the candy anyways and unwrapped it, to find out that there wasn't even any candy.
The heck? What kind of mad tricks are these?
"I'm leaving. You can't stalk me, 'kay? I can call the police, y'know! I-I have my phone right here!"
Nagisa nodded, and watched as Min-Jun exited the bathroom with his phone in hand. Did that mean they would follow him again, or not? At this point, he figured it'd be better to just go home and stop asking questions.
*****
As the sunset fell upon the school, Min-Jun walked out of the front entrance and made his way home. He adjusted his backpack, and sighed out of relief.
Thank god the day's over… I shouldn't have gone over there. Just another thing I'm thrown into… Maybe if I just go home extra early, I can avoid this.
How ironic. You can't escape fate.