"No! I didn't mean that. I meant, I don't think we are talking about the same topic here. I think there's a misunderstanding", I clarified. "Tell me, what were you actually talking about?"

"What… was I talking about? Don't act like you don't know it. Of course Alvish, I was talking about the Etzacs." She said while looking at me with a confused expression.

Oh Etzacs! I know them.

Actually, Etzacs is a popular music band. You know? The ones with skinny, fair, clean shaved idols in their twenties, with dyed hair that are well trained at singing and dancing. And they perform on stages and music videos. It's one of those kinds of groups.

I don't exactly know the number of members it has but I think it's an all male band and apparently they are very famous among the girls of my age.

She continued, "You are a militia, right? Well obviously you should be since you love colours."

"Actually Shin, I don't like colours because of them?" I replied.

She got even more confused and asked, "Then why?"

"Lords!!" I answered. "And shades, I like them. Also I was actually talking about them earlier."

"Oh…" She got back slowly while thinking, like she was trying to process the situation. Suddenly she came up to me and said in excitement, "Well that doesn't mean you are not a Militia, right??"

Agh! This girl just doesn't wanna accept that I don't like them!!

"Listen, Shin! Let me be clear here, I don't like them nor their songs!" I said in an angry and annoyed voice. Yes, she heard that, crystal clear and it turned her face disappointed. "Sorry that I wasted your time".

"You just have trash taste then!!" She said sarcastically. And this time it got me truly super annoyed.

"FINE!!" I shouted and turned to the front.

I had shouted loud enough that the whole class heard me and had started looking at me. Even though I didn't want to get any of this kind of attention on me on my first day, it was fine. I could bear it. Afterall I knew that they would just stare at me for a while then they'd forget everything, getting back to the talks or things that they were doing. Also, if someone can't respect my preference then they don't deserve me.

But one thing which made me feel a little anguished was that I had thought I made a friend.

All of a sudden two hands tightly hugged me from behind. It freaked me out. But after taking a breath of relief I started noticing pink and black strands of hair hanging down from the sides of my neck. While two pieces of warm and soft flesh were being pressed against my back. Even though it had surprised me I knew who it was.

It was Shin.

"Come on, it doesn't have to affect our friendship just 'cause our tastes don't match." Shin said as her head emerged, crossing my hair from beside my face. She was saying that like nothing big had happened and I would forgive her. But she's wrong. I won't forgive her so damn easily. At least I deserve a 'sorry'!!

I pushed her back and turned around again, while I still had that annoyed 'I'm still mad at you' face. And soon she seemed to realise that.

"I'm sorry…" she said in remorse, "Actually Alvish, all the people I've been with or been friend with have never actually cared about things like 'sorries' or 'thank yous' so you are the first one to have a such glassy heart, so I didn't actually know that my words would hurt you. But I really wasn't intending to. I'm sorry."

She finally apologised. But the way she said it started making me feel like I am the bad guy here. Her friends don't care about sorries and thank yous? Which friend doesn't care about their friend's feelings? Just what kind of friends does she have??

But what matters is that she apologized and maybe… I had also misunderstood her.

"It's okay, I've forgiven you." I said.

And that is how I made my first friend here in my new school.

In the afternoon at 2 o' clock, school finally ended and to be honest the first day was really boring. Only thanks to Shin that I survived. After we cleared our misunderstanding we continued talking about stuff we liked. I told her that I'm interested in space and shades and want to become a lord someday so that I could travel in the universe and protect Earth. And she really didn't make fun of me this time. She was a good person.

While leaving we also discussed where we lived but she showed me a different root than the one to my home. Well it was a shame that we didn't live in the same area otherwise it would have been great to have her as my neighbour.
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It's evening now, around 5 o'clock and now I'm walking past the boundary walls of my home, as I'm returning. No, I wasn't out this whole time after school. Actually I had gone out to buy something. It was a book of huology, called 'Eye of Birth'.

Huology is a field in science, in which Shades are studied. In this subject huologists try to understand the workings and reasons behind shades and their weird behaviour. But mostly people don't consider it as a subject, reasoning it mainly contains hypotheses rather than theories. Stating a theory is difficult in this subject because shades break the laws of physics and hardly follow a pattern and that's why it's mostly filled with hypotheses. And since it's not completely accepted as a subject it is not taught in highschools.

Fun fact: you can't even get a degree in this subject and if you want to become a huologist, which is a scientist of that field then you will have to pick something else as your main subject and will only be able to take huology as a side subject.

Still after all this I bought this book. Because, Shin had recommended it to me at the school when I had told her about my interest in shades. But it's not like I had never heard of this book or subject before, in fact I had. Actually I had been avoiding buying it because I have other books of huology at home and they are hard for me to understand, even though I understand stuff like relativity.

But since I can't tell Shin that I am avoiding it so I finally had to buy it this time.

Well this one is kind of like an encyclopaedia of shades so I think it will be easier to understand compared to the rest. And since my shade has a problem maybe it'll help me out with that too.

Suddenly while walking my eyes landed on a pebble and as I saw it I stopped. It was under the hinge of our walkway gate.

Now that I have given it a thought, it has been a while since the last time I had activated my shade. Because of the problem I had said my eye shades have I can't properly use them. But it has been a while since then so I think I should give them another try.

Who knows if this time I'll be able to use them without any problem?

I picked the pebble and tossed it up while I let my gaze follow it. It got launched up in the sky and started flipping as it began falling down. I tried concentrating on its trajectory so that I could use my shade on it. But then all of a sudden a punch came along wth a carry bag in front of my vision and hit the pebble, flicking it to me. The hand didn't hit me and had stopped like a foot before me but the pebble ended up hitting my body and bounced off.

That hand surprised me but what surprised me more was the guy who was carrying the bag. It was a boy, looking to be around my age and height. He was just continuously staring at me which was uncomfortable.

"What?" I asked while looking at you.

He heard me but he didn't reply. He then flipped his arm upside down, with which he was carrying the bag and while pointing on my left side, at my home with his thumb he asked lazily with squinted eyes, "You live in this house, right?"

His voice was low and it was notable that he was telling me that without a bit of interest, like someone had forced him to say that. Well whatever, I answered, "Yes, how can I help you? What do you want?"

"Your mom-"

"EXCUSE ME!!" I exclaimed angrily as I heard him.

Of Course Anyone Would Be Angry To A That Kind Of Answer!!

"Aa.. actually your mom had asked for these."

Fuc- I misunderstood here. My face drowned down in embarrassment as I realised my stupidity.

Still his voice didn't sound like he was mad at me for shouting at him. Instead his voice was low and calm this time too. Guess he understood that I had misunderstood the situation.

Soon I heard the sound of the gate beside me opening. And as I turned that way I saw Glem coming out.

Glem is my little brother and he's 3 years younger than me. And the reason behind his lame name is that 3 years ago when I had changed my name he also ended up changing his in excitement, but now he regrets. Well you can change your name again every 3 years so later this year he'll finally be able to change his name again.

"You're Alright, Sis??" He asked in a worried voice as he first saw me after coming out.

Although Glem is a kind of annoying brother, today he is talking like he cares about me, which is surprising!! I'm also confused about why he is behaving like this all of a sudden ? Like has he realised the responsibilities he has or something??

"Yeah I'm fine!" I responded while looking at him, confused.

"Thank goodness!!" Glem said as he took a moment of relief and relaxed. But then he turned his head to the other side and saw that boy, standing in front of me. Immediately as he saw him clouds of worries got covered over his face again. He shouted while turning to me, "He Didn't Do Anything To You, Did He? If He Did Then Just Tell Me And I'll Kill Him??"

The Fuck!! Killing??

Now It's Getting Way Out Of The Hands. Why Is He Scared Of Him So Much? Also, Does He Know Him? Is He Really That Dangerous??

By then that boy had pulled down his hand with which he was holding the bag and was now smiling while looking at Glem. But seriously…

I have a slim body and by appearance he looks even skinnier than me, so is he really that dangerous?? He has long dark messy hair that is crossing his eyelashes, which does kinda make him look suspicious. But I think he looks more like a mess than a murder.

"Stop talking like he's a murderer!!" Suddenly mom shouted as she came out too.

What! Mom knows him too??
Oh wait- he had said that she had asked for that bag, so she should be knowing him. And since she is scolding Glem, I think my guess about him not being dangerous was right.

Seems Glem was just making a scene out of nothing.

"But mom-" Glem insisted.

"Shut Up!!" Mom scolded again and shutted him up. Then she turned and said to that boy, "I'm really sorry, I don't know why he is acting like this today."

"It's not a big deal, aunty. It's just that I was messing with him a bit earlier today and I guess he has taken that seriously. But I really don't mind that." That boy said.

Although mom knew him, I still didn't know a thing about him. Just who is he that everyone knows?

He then passed the bag he was carrying to mom while saying, "By the way here take this, mom had said you needed these."

"Oh, you really brought them. Thank you so much!! Also sorry for again being a bother to you!" Mom said while receiving the bag into her hands.

"Nah, it's fine too!"

"Wait! Just who's he?" I finally asked the question which had been bugging me.

"You don't know him??" Mom surprisingly said as she turned to me.

"Yeah, was I supposed to?"

"He is our neighbour, the son of the aunt living in that house." Glem said disgustingly while pointing at the house which was in front of ours, on the other side of the road.

"Whatt-? Really?" I said after hearing him.

"Surely you're supposed to, he's in the same class and section as you!!" Mom said following Glem.

"Whatt-?" I said, confused as something wasn't making sense to me. Even after hearing that he was from my class his face didn't ring a bell with me. I still couldn't recognise him.

"Aa… Actually aunty, I was absent today!" That boy said.

Oh so he's one of those students! Now it's making sense.
But if he's in my class then I wonder what his rank is? I remember the 2nd guy was also absent today. So… is he second?

Honestly, he doesn't look that smart. Rather he looks more like an introvert who spends most of his day playing games inside his room. Also that 3rd ranked girl looked far more smarter than him while he looks more like those dull backbenchers of the class to me. I think being just a neighbour with him is enough for me or else I'll catch his idiocy. But wait-

What if he'll catch some of my intelligence…??

Hmmm… WELL I WON'T MIND IF IT HAPPENS!! And Since I'm Gonna Be Famous One Day, He May Become A Fan Of Mine Too! Hehehehe, all hail to lord Alvish…

I know that I'm daydreaming too much but I'm also keeping it all to myself because I don't want to act like a psychopath. Anyways now that I had fully understood the situation I responded, "So you're one of those absent students and here I was wondering why I hadn't seen you then if you were really from my class!!"

Then I introduced myself as I reached my hand out to him for a handshake, "Well by the way I'm Alvish, nice to meet you!!"

He heard that. But instead of introducing himself properly while shaking hands with me, he just lifted his right hand up lazily, like he had no energy and said his name, "Readarex!!"

What?? Readarex? That's a weird name.

This name changing law is really bringing up some strange names.

Also, it seems like he doesn't talk much.

But suddenly he continued after a second while adjusting his hair with the hand he had lifted, "but you can call me Reada though."

"You two should go to school together!" My mom suggested while looking at him, as he finished.

"NOOOOO!!" Suddenly Glem interrupted.

But mom noticed his behaviour and gave him that 'every mother's famous' death stare and sent him back home.

"Seems your brother really cares about you!!" Reada said teasingly while looking at Glem go inside. And while going in he was also staring at him vengefully.

Ugh, I don't know what's going on between these two.

Mom then said to him, "Please don't mind him Reada, he just isn't good at getting along with new people!!"

"It's fine aunty, as I said I don't really mind him."

"So back to what I was saying, you two should go to school together." Mom suggested again, "What do you say? My daughter will also get company!". "Also what about you Alvish? what do you think about it?" She also asked me while turning to me after asking him.

Hmm… I don't need any company on my way to school since it's close. But as I was saying, it's not a bad idea.

I looked at Reada to see his reaction but he seemed to be thinking too much about what to answer. He was just wondering while looking here and there to his left and right.

Why?? Doesn't he want to come along with me or something?

Well whatever the case was but I was pretty clear with my decision so I stated, "Well I don't really have a problem with that."

After hearing my answer mom looked at Reada, waiting for his response.

"Aaa…" he hesitated a bit at first but he agreed, "Okay I guess!!". "So then I'm going home for now!!" He then said and left, going back to his home by entering the gate which was on the other side of the road.

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#Readarex

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