The next morning.
Grey stood in front of the long wall mirror.
Carefully, he buttoned his white shirt that perfectly matched his black pants and white sneakers, the standard uniform of the academy.
He chuckled as he failed to button it all the way up.
"Now..."
He turned and looked around the room.
"Where is it...?"
He asked no one in particular as he searched for his blazer.
Then, he heard Anna calling from the living room.
"Big brother!"
"Big brother!"
With curiosity, he walked over and found his younger sister carefully sewing his school badge onto his blazer.
"Hey, Anna. I can always do that myself, you know," Grey said, arching an eyebrow.
Anna grinned as she responded resolutely, "I've almost finished sewing your badge. Don't worry; Mother taught me how to do this."
"Alright, if you say so," Grey conceded, looking at her with a smile.
"Your lunchbox is in the kitchen, you can go get it," said Anna as she sewed.
Grey lifted an eyebrow. "I could always just eat the school's food you know. A lunchbox is a little over the top don't you th..."
"NO!" Anna interjected as she sewed his badge, she then pouted as she directed her piercing gaze to him. "You'll only eat me and mother's food, no one else's."
Grey sighed. "Sure," he shrugged.
Entering the combined living room and kitchen, Grey hesitated, still thinking he could always just eat the food at school.
He didn't have a problem with eating home-made meals, but the fact that he'd have to carry a lunchbox was one thing he didn't think he'd be doing at his age.
Another was that he didn't know the current culinary skills of his sister. Before, she'd always use him as a taste tester, and her cooking at the time was so bad that he couldn't taste anything for almost a week.
He was so traumatized by her food that his tongue forcefully lost its function of taste.
As he took a look around the kitchen, he noticed two pink lunchboxes on one of the tables.
Scratching his head in confusion, he asked, "Anna, which one of these is mine? Hopefully, it's not the pink one."
The two lunchboxes were pink, so Anna immediately recognized his sarcasm.
Without lifting her gaze from her sewing, Anna replied giggling, "The one on the left. And just for the record, big brother, it's not exactly pink. It's more of a manly shade of pink - not just any pink."
Grey chuckled and shook his head, "Sure, Anna. If you say so."
'It's definitely your average dolled up pink, and while this is one of the biggest ways to kill my social life in this school, she did put a lot of work into it... I'm not sure I'll eat it though.'
Carrying the lunchbox was one thing, but actually eating it was another.
A few minutes later,
Anna finished sewing the badge onto Grey's blazer.
She carefully handed it to him, saying, "Here you go, big brother."
She looked at him with a gentle smile.
Grey accepted the blazer with gratitude and nodded. "Thanks, Anna."
With natural finesse, he donned his semi-formal jacket.
He chose not to button the blazer but to leave it casually stylish.
Meanwhile,
Anna dressed herself in her school uniform: a white undershirt paired with a black pinafore dress, adorned with a neat black ribbon tie.
As Grey swung on his backpack, ready to head off, Anna called after him, "Wait, Big brother! Let's go together. Our schools are right next to each other, it'll be fun walking together."
"Eh?" said Grey, beyond lost.
"Grandfather would be so pleased if he knew we were." Anna continued to smile as she spoke.
Grey blinked, bewildered by her sudden proposal.
'Unless I wanna end up looking like a sister complex, which I already completely have at this point, I better skedaddle...'
Grey slowly shook his head as he thought. He could already imagine the judgemental eyes of other students on the road as they stared at him holding his little sister's hand as they walked to school.
"Huh? Come again?" Grey mumbled, trying to process the idea.
Anna put on her knee-high white socks slowly.
As she slipped her left shoe on, Anna pressed the matter. "It'll be wonderful, big brother. So, what'd you say?"
But when she looked up, Grey was already gone.
In that same moment, he reappeared like a blue flash in front of his own school building.
"Good thing I passed by here on my way back from the Headmistress' office yesterday," he murmured.
Grey adjusted the strap of his backpack and strolled inside the building, aware of the sneaky glances from his peers.
He scanned the numbers embedded on the hallways, saying to himself, "2-A, 2-A... It should be around here."
Upon spotting his classroom, Grey walked towards the doorway, feeling all eyes on him.
The other students on the hallway whispered among themselves as Grey smoothly passed to his class, saying to himself, "Starting school again already feels like a chaos. I swear I'm gonna kill that old man the next time I see him... literally."
...
A few minutes later,
Grey was standing in front of his new class, his hands in his pockets, as he observed the curious eyes of his fellow students.
As he took in the room, he noticed the teacher.
Velkris Fowe.
A man who looked like your average Joe with big spectacles, moderate length brown hair, and deep black eyes. Dressed in a typical teacher's suit, Velkris was seated in front, looking at the class with a calm expression.
There was a constant buzz of chatter amongst the students.
Velkris took charge by gently hitting the top of his desk.
"Can we have some silence, so the transfer student gets a chance to introduce himself?"
And as he requested, the class began to settle until it was silent.
After, Velkris gestured towards Grey, prompting him to speak.
Grey, appearing completely at ease, let out a casual yawn before addressing the class.
"Alright, so I guess a lot of you might already have an idea, but I'm Grey NewGate."
He smiled nonchalantly as he spoke, unfazed by the attention.
"I'm nineteen and also... the second son of the NewGate clan."
The casual atmosphere was momentarily interrupted by a bolt of confusion from Velkris, who raised an eyebrow, correcting Grey, "First son, you mean?"
Grey chuckled lightly, "My bad. Sometimes I forget I'm the only son."
He then turned back to the class and continued, "Before this, I was attending a small, traditional school over in Asia. But now that I'm here, I hope we can all work together."
Some of the girls had already started saying their thoughts over the silence.
"He looks so handsome..." one whispered.
"Right," another responded.
Another female student added, "He's a hot piece of cake, I wouldn't mind a slice..."
"He's a cutie."
Amidst the partial silence that followed his introduction, a girl named Wendy Sherville stood up.
She had short black hair in a chic bob cut, and her bright blue eyes shone with curiosity. A medium-sized camera hung around her neck, and she had a pen tucked behind her left ear.
"Excuse me, Mister Fowe," Wendy said eagerly, catching the attention of both Grey and Velkris.
Velkris smiled and nodded, giving Wendy permission to ask her question.
Grey sighed.
'What's she wanna know now, my number, or maybe where I live? These people are always the same no matter where I go... For the 107th and certainly not the last time... Fuck you, old man...'
The black-haired young man had an underwhelmed look on his face.
It was almost as though he felt, or rather knew, he wouldn't enjoy his stay in this academy.