Noisy reporters, noisier students: Shouichi was already growing disgusted with the whole arrangement. Every so often he shuffled a bit closer to the door, a part of him wanting to be thankful for the more boisterous students who commanded attention, directing it well away from him. The only tiny detail keeping him from actually being thankful was that they were just as bad, some of them falling into that pace willin- [color=58e593][i]Rustle rustle[/i][/color] The slight movement from the flowering bush nearby made Shou jump making him take a rather wheezy intake of breath. Patting his chest to still his beating heart, he moved away, looking around in hopes that no one was looking, before moving to a passive stance. Glancing up at the door, he considered going in as a few others went for it, but he didn't want to get attention from anyone. Better to just... A prescence made itself known to him. While the other students and some relative distance to each other, someone had come to stand in a rather close proximity. Turning his head ever so slightly, he glimpsed a head of long, dark hair. Eyes bulging, he averted his eyes as quickly as feasible, body going rigid. [i][color=a0410d]No. No way, it couldn't be... A girl?[/color][/i] Swallowing, he dared steal another glance, this time spotting a bit of her face and glasses. She wasn't paying him much mind, yet there she stood. [color=a0410d][i]Whaaaaaat is this? I don't get it: there's plenty of room back here but why is she so cloooose? D-did she not see me? But there's no one else this close to me. So if someone takes a picture...doesn't she realize I'll probably be in it too? Unless...she wants that? Could it be she...wants...[/i][/color] Shou bit the inside of his mouth. [color=a0410d][i]Nononono, don't you go down the road of thinking about 3D like that. Don't you dare. She can't have noticed me. Of course not, I have no presence. The reporters aren't bothering me, my mom's gone, no one cares...like I don't exist at all...[/i][/color] As his eyes glazed over at his existential line of though, he suddenly lit up as he realized, [color=a0410d][i]Maybe I can just walk right out and no one would know![/i][/color] As he stood there, closing his eyes, his mind allowed him to get back to his room as he imagined what he was going to do the moment he got back: the swathes of media avaliable to him... True bliss. As the shape of the noise around him changed, he suddenly opened his eyes, only to be blinded by whiteness. As his cry of fright joined the others, before his panicked lungs met smoke, he didn't have much time to ruminate before finding himself spirited away. --- Laying flat, arms and legs pinned together by his own unwillingness to move, once Shou recovered his breath, he shakily stood, the students being instructed by a shockingly average man. As Boro finished his little orientation, Shou found himself letting out a sigh of derision. Groups. It haaaaad to be groups. Shou knew groups. Small circles of friend-oh wait, he didn't know groups like that, nor did he know groups picked for the competence of its members. Shou only knew the 'leftovers', unless the teacher took pity on him and let him work alone. Beyond those fortunate days, he only knew groups of friends outcast by a smaller size requirement, delinquents who decided to attend class that day, and other disinterested losers such as himself. Expectations low, he sidled off to the side, avoiding as many paths as possible, waiting for his fellow leftovers to be kicked out to the curb, his face still frumpy at the mere thought of 'groups'.