The rest of class proceeded normally, but Ryu couldn’t shake off the feeling that he was being watched. It was while the class was busy doing practice problems that Ryu’s suspicions were confirmed, as Livia called him out into the hallway.

“I’d like to remind you that cheating will not be tolerated.”

Livia didn’t smile or even try to hide her annoyance; it wouldn’t work on Ryu anyway.

“Is that all?” said Ryu.

“Is it?” said Livia, before opening the door to class and waving for Ryu to enter.

Ryu returned to class and took his seat, mostly ignoring the problems in his book. He had all the answer anyway. Eventually the bell rang and people fell into their groups. Though, from Ryu’s point of view there were only two: him and everyone else.

Chatter started, the girls that normally chatted beside him sat down to have a snack, and Ryu did what he always did - lay his head against his desk in boredom. While he waited until the next period he’d overhear bits and pieces of conversation, which helped to keep him somewhat in the loop, and overall there was a sense of organized chaos when he zoned out of it all.

“Is she a junior?” said one of the girls beside him.

“Why is she here?” said another.

The balance between order and chaos was easily tipped by the unexpected entrance of something new. Ryu raised his head and swooped his eyes left to right, until he landed on the source of chaos itself.

It waved to him.

“Hey,” said Shizuka, approaching Ryu’s desk.

“Uh… hi?” said Ryu, scratching his head. “Do you need something?”

Shizuka took a seat on the desk in front of him, dangling her legs over the side. “You never messaged me so I thought I’d find you.”

Did she intend to stay long? Ryu wasn’t sure, but what he was sure of was that she was disrupting his “sit here and do nothing” time. Ryu had a way of doing things, and this was not it.

“Oh, I forgot,” said Ryu.

There were eyes on him, though not because he’d suddenly become interesting. It was the “why is she talking to him?” looks from boys in his class. For now their looks remained peaceful, with most of them concluding in their heads that she was probably here for any reason other than “she actually wants to talk to him”.

“You forgot about me Senpai?”

In that instant, Ryu had but a single thought, “shit.” The eyes of every boy turned red as their glares radiated against his skin. Now it was war.

Cute kouhai asking for something from the boring upperclassmen? Sure, boys could accept that. Cute kouhai chatting to her boring senpai?! OBJECTION!

“Uh…” Ryu looked around the classroom, and every pair of eyes he crossed looked away. “Yeah, I was busy.”

Shizuka nodded with a smile. “Oh, that’s right. Do you have lots to study Senpai?”

The glares intensified. God knows Ryu hadn’t studied a single second since the day he was born.

“Uh-”

“Oh, um, is it alright if I call you Senpai?”

It was already too late to ask. If he said no he was damned, if he said yes he was still damned.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Anyway, what do you need?”

Shizuka’s smile wavered a little, and Ryu felt as if not even the sun could burn more than the blazing glares of his class members.

“Uh… well...” Shizuka touched her fingers together. ”I’m free after school and wanted to thank you, so do you wanna hang out?”

“I don’t really go out much-”

Ryu hadn’t intended it, but Shizuka must’ve thought Ryu was turning her down..

“We don’t have to go out if you don’t want to, -” Ryu knew he’d be dead if she stopped there. “- we could meetup online?”

“VR?” said Ryu.

“Yup. What’s your ID?”

Ryu got out a pen and wrote it down, “rhyu#1477”. VR didn’t actually have usernames. For immersion's sake people were free to call themselves whatever they liked ingame, as ID’s were just a way of identifying a specific person - just like in real life.

“I’ll send you a message when I get home, okay?” said Shizuka, pocketing the paper note.

Ryu nodded and Shizuka left, returning to her class before the next period would start, and, sighing, Ryu laid his head against his desk and counted the seconds until class would start. Only then, would order be restored.

*Bop*

A paper ball hit him in the back of the head.