Word got out quickly about the new student that soon everyone in the school heard about him. Urata and Shima were sitting in their classroom bored out of their minds until they perked up at some of the chatter around them.

"Yeah the new kid has red hair. Do you think he dyed it?"
"Probably just wanted to look cool and tough so people would like him."
"I heard that he looks pretty frail and weak."
"He seems tall, probably taller than the tanuki."

This side comment annoyed the green eyed brunette, who was about to respond with a snarky comeback until Shima stopped him.

"Just let it go Urata. Don't get so worked up."

"Oi, I'm not gonna—"

"I mean it's the truth, you are short." Shima said with a grin on his face.

"Maashi, you—!" Urata began to say until a thought crossed his mind, he smirked as continued, "I'll tell Senra that you're cheating on him with a classmate~~"

"Hey! Don't make up false rumors!"

"Then don't make fun of my height."

After a short glaring at each other, the both of them laughed at their childishness. They focused their attention towards their sensei, who just entered the room, and waited for lunch to see if their friends had anything to say about the new student.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•

The red-haired known as Sakata stood quietly in front of the class.

"He's really quiet."
"So he's the quiet type of guy."

"All right Sakata you can sit next to Mafu. Mafu please raise your hand." Mafu raised his hand at the sensei's order.

Sakata saw the albino's hand and made his way towards the seat. During the walk the redhead saw people stare at him and shrunk a bit in fear. So scary.

Amatsuki decided to greet him, "Hello, I'm Amatsuki. This is Senra and Mafumafu, you can just call him Mafu though."

The others waved in acknowledgement when he said their names.

"....hello...." came out the weak and quiet reply. Sakata slightly turned his head to look at them and gave a short little wave back.

"Alright class pay attention," and with that statement everyone's focus left Sakata and class began.

During 4th period the quiet classroom was disrupted with a loud voice in the hallways. Some students decided to open the door to see what was happening, despite their sensei's protest, as others turned their heads towards the door.

Mafu was curious so he looked too and there they saw an unsurprising site. A teacher managed to catch Soraru just enter the school.

"Soraru-san! Why are you just arriving?!?" The teacher shouted and the raven-haired male stop his tracks.

He just stared blankly at the teacher, not bothering to even cast a single glance at the students crowding around their classroom doors.

"Go to the guidance counselor this instance!!" Soraru just turned back and walked towards the room he was told to go to, not sparing a single glance at the teacher who was shouting at him to learn some respect.

"Wow. He came in late again."
"He probably was skipping school but got caught."
"Just suspend him already."

The class began to be filled with comments and negative remarks while their sensei tried to get them to calm down.

"Looks like no matter what he does people have something to say," Senra sighed, exhausted from the commotion.

Amatsuki could only shake his head as he payed half-attention to the chatter around them. Mafu just sighed and was about to face forward when he noticed Sakata pull out his phone worriedly and typed something. After a few seconds he smiled in what looked like relief and went back to finishing his work.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Soraru entered the guidance counselor's office and sat down as he looked at the person in front of him.

"I see you're late again Soraru," the guidance councilor said to the student sitting in the seat. Soraru could only glance away and nod, he's been in this situation every since he began high school. He was always yelled at by teachers for his behavior and at some point he got sick of it and just ignored the lectures he got. However, he never once showed any disrespect the guidance counselor, after all he has helped him support and pay for his education.

"Try not to be late as much, you know how some teachers are verbal about me expelling you."

"I know, but it can't be helped. I have to do things to support him." Soraru replied back, facing the counselor.

"You really care about him don't you," the counselor said he looked at Soraru with warm eyes. A warm smile appeared Soraru's face as he replied, "yeah," while looking at a text in his phone.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•

It was gym class, they were going to play soccer. Mafu, Senra, and Amatsuki were in a team together with other students and Sakata. Sakata mostly stayed by himself, not talking to anybody.

"Why is he so quiet?" Amatsuki ponders while looking at Sakata stand in the back.

"Maybe he doesn't like talking to people cause he's nervous, I mean he's new here and with the class talking about Soraru he's probably scared now." Senra points out as he gets ready.

The gym teacher blows the whistle, signaling the game to begin. Everyone was surprised at Sakata's skills, he was doing really good. It shocked people that the quiet student they saw early look excited and alive.

"Wow he looks so different then before," Senra mentions as he sees Sakata score a goal.

"Wwww so energetic, just like Mafu."

"Guess not everyone is as they seem," Mafu said, deciding to ignore Amatsuki's remark.

His thoughts trailed toward Soraru, maybe he's different too. His thoughts were disrupted when he heard gasps around him, he looked up and saw Sakata clench his stomach in pain. Apparently someone decided to kick the soccer ball at Sakata and Mafu saw that it was someone from his class.

"Someone take him to the infirmary." Their gym teacher said as he went towards Sakata's side to aid him in getting up.

A classmate volunteered to take him and as they left the teacher turned towards the student who kicked the ball.

"Why'd you do it!? That's against the rules you know."

"I'm sorry," the student said while snickering, "I didn't mean to. It was an accident."

"Go to the guidance counselor."

"Man," and with that the student left the gym and walked towards their destination.

"Geeze he just got here and people already are beginning to bully him." Senra said, looking towards the door they had just left from.

Amatsuki and Mafu could only sigh at how pathetic some people are. Class continued on and Mafu's team won the match.

While in the changing room the three of them heard more chatter about the incident that just happened. At this point they just zoned out any thing that was nonsense to them. They were leaving the locker room and happened to walk by the infirmary.

Mafu took a glance at the semi-open door and saw Sakata talking to someone. On closer inspection he realized he was talking to Lon.

"Hey guys Sakata's talking to the student council president." Mafu said as he pointed at the infirmary, catching the attention of the brunette and blond with him.

"Well that's expected cause she's the president. Of course she'd want to know about how he feels at the school. You know how she is when it comes to helping other students." Amatsuki explains, he stopped walking like he had a thought and decided to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"You know you shouldn't eavesdrop. It gonna look like you want to start some gossip," Senra said as he put a hand on his hip and looked at Amatsuki trying to focus on the other two's chat.

"Oh shush Senra. I just want to know if he's ok, I mean we all know how Mafu felt when he was bullied so I want to know if the new student is okay. That blow looked like it really hurt."

Pressured by Amatsuki's comment, the other two decided that it wouldn't hurt to listen. They stood next to the corner of the wall to avoid being seen by the other two in the infirmary. They heard tiny bits of the conversation between them.

"Are you sure you're okay Sakata?"

"I'm fine, I just need to rest a little then I'm good as new."

"Well you know how he worries about you."

"I'm fine. I'm fine."

There were some parts Mafu couldn't hear well and there was some mumbling but this part he managed to hear peeked his interest.

"You're not gonna tell him, are you?"

"You know how rumors and news spread quickly around this school. He'll eventually heard it." Lon said with a sigh of annoyance.

Seriously nothing in this school can be safe. It's always rumors. Lon has had enough of these types of rumors and tries to make it her job as the student council president to put an end to them, or at least make them occur less.

"I'm pretty sure he's going to do something reckless once he hears."

"Please no.....I don't want him to get into any more trouble. I already cause him a lot of problems."

"Sakata, you aren't causing him any trouble. You know he cares about you."

"...."

"Well I have to get going. Hope you have a good rest. Oh and see ya at lunch."

Mafu and the others quickly left the scene once they heard the conversation was over, after all they didn't want to get caught by Lon for eavesdropping. While walking to class Mafu couldn't get the conversation out of his head, he was even more curious about Sakata now. As if the others thought the same thing he heard Senra talk.

"Wonder who he means when he said 'him'?"

"Maybe he meant his dad or some brother in college." Amatsuki nonchalantly replied. "I'm more curious at how Lon seemed like she already knew about him."

"Maybe they were friends before and she can finally see him at school." Mafu stared out at the walls as he zoned out.

Well whatever the reason, no doubt Sakata is going to be the talk of the school for awhile. They were walking towards their class when Mafu bumped into someone. Senra and Amatsuki saw who it was and became quiet, causing Mafu to wonder why.

"I'm sorr—" was all he said as he looked down at the person, who was about 3 cm shorter than him.

His eyes widened when he recognized the person. It was none other than Soraru. Soraru was rubbing his head from the impact and looked at Mafu. Red eyes meet blue eyes that looked like the night sky.

Mafu was shocked at the encounter and couldn't say anything. Senra and Amatsuki were silent the entire time too, not knowing what to do until Soraru broke the silence with his calm but harsh tone.

"Oi, pay attention to where you're going," and left, walking towards the direction Mafu and his friends were coming from.

They were quiet as they walked back to their class and once they sat down, Amatsuki decided to break the tense atmosphere around them.

"So we finally got to hear the infamous delinquent talk. We should be honored." He said jokingly, hoping it'd make them laugh. Soon enough Senra let about a short laugh.

"Yeah. Who knew he had such an ikemen voice."

"I know right. With a voice like that it's kinda hard to think that people don't like him. If they just heard his voice I bet he'd have tons of girls surround him."

Mafu looked at his friends with a small smile and soon joined in on the conversation, joking and having a fun time with him friends. He noticed that the person from gym wasn't in class yet. Probably still getting yelled at by the guidance counselor.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•

It was lunch time and Urata and Shima were waiting in the cafeteria for the rest of their group. They just wanted the day to be over and go home, but they must suffer for their future.

"Can't they hurry up already," Urata whined at his purple-haired friend.

"Stop being impatient," Shima scolded him playfully, "it's only been five minutes."

"If they're not here in the next five minutes I'm going on without them."

While waited they heard a commotion, and surprise surprise, Soraru was the cause of it. He walked by, covered with some bruises from probably another fight. Urata then noticed a red-haired boy who seemed to walk up to Soraru. The whole cafeteria held their breathe as Urata heard some people next to him mutter.

"Wow the new student is going to try to talk to Soraru."
"Well he just ruined his whole life."
"Soraru will probably just beat him up for annoying him."
"What an idiot."

Urata agreed with the last comment, the red-haired boy seemed like an idiot with his goofy grin on his face as he walked towards Soraru, who stopped when he noticed the boy. The cafeteria was silent and no one said a thing, people were already thinking of the worse when something unexpected happened. Right there the whole cafeteria saw Soraru smile, a real genuine and rare smile, at the new student and ruffled his hair. Sakata was giggling and walked with Soraru out of the cafeteria after Lon meet up with them. So all hell broke loose in the cafeteria.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!?"
"Did you see that??"
"THE Soraru smiled!?!"
"I'm so confused right now."

Shima and Urata were looking at the spot where the three left, surprise and shock filled their faces. Well it is a natural reaction when you witness something you didn't expect. The irruption of confusion and shock soon died down, and as usual rumors began.

"He's probably being nice to him cause Lon was there."
"I heard people saw Lon talking to Sakata in the infirmary. They might be friends."
"Then no wonder he's being nice, Lon probably told him to act nice towards the new student."

Shima sighed and turned around, only see his friends arrive.

"Sorry we're late. We were kinda mobbed by girls." Senra said as he walked towards his boyfriend.

"I was about to leave you guys." Urata said annoyed. Senra just laughed guiltily.

They walked towards the roof, Amatsuki and Mafu telling them about what happened in gym. Urata and Shima told them about what they just witnessed in the cafeteria while waiting for them.

"Woah really!? I wish I got to see THE Soraru smile," Amatsuki exclaimed.

"Well now we know what the talk of the school is gonna be for the next few days or even months." Senra took a bite of his food after his statement. Mafu just stared at his friends while eating his food, listening to their chat.

"Do you think he's only being nice to Sakata because he's Lon's friend?"

"But the smile looked like a real smile, like one you make when you see a cute puppy or someone you love." Shima comments.

"Oi stop trying to subtly flirt with Senra." Urata bluntly says.

"Eh? Who said I was trying to flirt?"

"You are."

"I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Guys stop bickering." Amatsuki said in an attempt to calm them down.

"Soraru." Mafu spoke out loud causing the others to stop their bickering. They didn't even notice him walk towards the rail while they were bickering and saw him looking down.

They joined him and saw Soraru walking with Lon and Sakata. They seemed to be having a fun time, smiling and laughing. Mafu saw Soraru pat Sakata's head, causing Sakata to pout. The way they acted Mafu thought that they looked like a family. Urata was looking at Sakata and when he saw the big grim on his face he thought yep, he really is an idiot.

Soraru looked up and saw the guys staring at him, his blue eyes meet the gaze of the albino once again. Mafu was stuck in a staring contest with Soraru, he couldn't turn away somehow. Sakata turned to look at Soraru and noticed him looking up, he followed his gaze to see five people on the roof. Oh? Aren't they from my class? It was Mafumafu, Senra and Amatsuki right? Sakata then noticed a brunette next to the purple-haired male. He looks short. Soraru eventually looked away and continued to talk with Lon, Sakata joined after staring at them for a few seconds.

"They looked up here. That's new," Shima commented as he turned back to his friends, his back leaning against the rail.

"Yeah, but I doubt it was anything. Soraru's probably annoyed now."

"Well we should get going, are we meeting up after school again?" Senra asked at the albino, who was still looking at the spot the delinquent was at.

"Hello? Earth to Mafu?" Urata waved his hand in front of Mafu, snapping him out of whatever trance he was in.

"Eh? Eh? Oh...um.... yeah we are." Mafu then went on ahead to go to class.

"What was that about?"

"Don't know but probably not important. He must've zoned out as usual." They followed the albino down the stairs. While walking to class Senra noticed a two students talking, one of student was bruised up.

"Dude what happened to you, got in a fight?"

".....yeah"

"Hey isn't that guy the one who kicked the ball at Sakata," Senra pointed at the one bruised up.

"Yeah wonder what why." While walking past them they heard a glimpse of the chat. Now they know why he was bruised up.

"I got into a fight with Soraru."

"Oh shit! Really!? What did you do? You really messed up."

"I might have hurt someone that he knows."

Mafu's first thought after hearing that was that he might have meant Sakata. Guess he heard about Sakata from Lon. He recalled Urata saying that in the cafeteria he saw Soraru with some bruises, probably from the fight. They eventually said their goodbyes as they made it to their class and the afternoon went by without any commotion.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Mafu was waiting for his friends by the gate when he noticed Soraru was also there. He didn't know why but ever since he bumped into the raven-haired, he's all that's been on his mind.

You can't really blame him, Soraru seemed quiet, blunt and mysterious yet still had this aura around him that enchanted the albino. If Mafu could describe Soraru he would say that the male is someone shrouded in mystery.

Mafu saw the raven-haired look up, feeling someone was looking at him, which the albink to turn his gaze away in an attempt to avoid making eye contact. After all he had meet his gaze at least two times this day.

Soraru looked around and noticed a certain red-haired male in the crowded of students. He made a small smile, a smile that Mafu had never seen him wear. It looks good on him.

Sakata saw Soraru and perked up with his smile that was as bright as the sun. He ran towards the raven-haired and tackled him in a hug.

"Soraru~!"

The raven-haired let out a small yelp as the male tackled him. People were looking at the scene, not believing what they saw. Soraru's expression softened for a short second before turning back to his blank expression and playfully scolding the grinning idiot in front of him as they walked away.

Mafu watched the scene, it warmed his heart. It was nice to see a small side of Soraru, even if it was only for a second. Mafu then saw his friends and walked towards them.

Wonder how this school year is  going to go like. Mafu just hoped that maybe one day he'll get to see another side of Soraru. He just didn't know that it would happen so soon.

———————————————————————————
A/n

Another chapter yay

Hope you enjoyed some small SoraSaka fluff and a dose of some SoraMafu (more like Mafu being hopelessly attracted to Soraru)

Welp off to start writing the next chapter cause I have nothing else to do