His phone buzzed next to him.

did u arrive yet? you promised you'd text!!

istg if ur plane got hijacked or you got murdered

so help me god I WILL find whoever did that to you

A message from Lisa. Kai smirked as he typed back.

yeah, didn't die. plane wasn't hijacked

didn't get killed by a serial killer or wtv.

place is alright ig, but it still feels weird.

duh. ofc it doesn't feel like home yet.
you'll get there tho.
how's ur room?

bigger, boring, empty walls, empty me lol

melodramatic much 🤣
u'll fill it up soon (and yourself) with fun stuff
uhh wait that sounded weird 😭 u know what I mean

Kai couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head.

thanks, Liz.

As they kept texting back and forth, Kai realized how much quieter the house felt compared to their old one. No distant sounds of neighbors arguing through thin walls, no familiar hum of traffic outside the window. Just silence.

That silence followed him into the next couple of days. Even as he unpacked, set up his desk, and lazily tossed a few posters onto the walls, it all felt like going through the motions.

The town itself was... okay. The library caught his eye again when they passed by it while going to the grocery store. It was huge, and the nearby forest almost made it seem like some sort of haunted place. He still wanted to go, though.

By the third night, Kai lay in his bed again, staring up at the ceiling just as he had the first night. Only now, something gnawed at his stomach.

Tomorrow was the day. New school. New faces. No Lisa. Nobody he'd know at all.

He stared at the text he'd drafted but hadn't sent yet.

hey, Liz. what if literally nobody likes me

and I make no friends at all and they all

plot to kill me or something 😭

After a moment, he hit send.

Lisa replied almost immediately.

stop worrying lol, it won't be like that

ur def gonna make new friends, didn't
u say nobody could resist ur charms? lol

also u should worry about if there's any hot guys 😂

how do you always know what to say?

as the bestest best friend in the whole world it's my job
now go sleep and go get 'em tmrw!!! 💖

Kai sighed, feeling a bit better.

"Okay. New town. New faces. New start." he whispered to himself. "I've been through worse."

***

The next morning, Kai stood in front of the mirror, pulling the collar of his hoodie and adjusting his hair for the hundredth time. The house was still silent except for the faint clatter of his parents downstairs.

"I'll be fine," he reassured himself as he grabbed his bag and headed for the door.

"Okay, I'm off!"

"Have fun, honey! Make lots of friends!" his mom shouted from the kitchen.

"I will, bye!" Kai shouted back as he headed out the door.

Would he make friends, though? No use worrying about it too much, he thought. He would find people that would like him, surely. 

The school building looked pretty modern, but it still felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. Behind the school, beyond the track field, the edge of the forest loomed like a dark green wall. 

He gave it a glance. Great, even the trees felt like they were closing in on him now.

Finally approaching the school building, Kai felt a little uneasy again, but he tried to ignore the feeling. Other students also entered building, not paying him any mind. At the school back home, people would've sized up any newcomers immediately, but everyone simply ignored him here. People were having light conversations, just doing their own thing.

The lady at the reception handed him his schedule and gave Kai directions to get to his first class of the day, homeroom. This was it. He'd be meeting his new classmates for the first time, probably would have to introduce himself and everything... He'd better make a good impression.

"Down the hall and to the right, room 0.05..." 

As he navigated the unfamiliar corridors, he couldn't shake the weird vibe. The people here didn't seem unfriendly, but they seemed distracted in a way, like they were thinking of something more important than a new student.

Or maybe Kai was just projecting.

Finally, he found room 0.05.

Kai pushed open the door and, to this surprise, the teacher wasn't there yet. Seems like there wouldn't be an awkward "please introduce yourself in front of the whole class" thing. He was greeted by the mild chaos of students chatting and settling in. It seemed everyone here already knew each other. He quickly spotted an empty seat near the back and made his way over before anyone could notice him.

"Hey, you're new, right?"

The voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Turning, Kai found a petite girl with an easy smile and strikingly expressive eyes sitting one seat over.

"Yeah, just moved here," he replied.

"I'm Lydia." She held out her hand for him to shake. "Trust me, you'll like it here, eventually. What's your name?"

"Kai."

"Kai, huh? Cool name. Where'd you move from?"

"Big city. About eight hours away or so."

Lydia grinned. "Oof, downgrade. But hey, we have fresh air and more trees than people."

Kai couldn't help but smirk and let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, I noticed."

Before Lydia could fire off another question, a quiet but steady voice chimed in from the seat behind them.

"Just watch out for the woods."

Kai turned to see a tall guy with dark hair, sharp eyes, and a laid-back demeanor resting his chin on his hand.

Lydia rolled her eyes and let out an annoyed sigh. "Haruto, don't scare him off already."

Haruto shrugged. "I'm just saying. Weird stuff happens around here sometimes."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Weird like 'small town weird,' or weird like 'cryptid sighting, people disappearing weird'?"

Haruto cracked a smile. "You'd be surprised."

Kai let out a soft laugh, relaxing into the conversation. Okay, maybe this wouldn't be totally awful.

***

The first few days slipped by faster than Kai had expected.

Lydia had taken it upon herself to be his unofficial tour guide. She insisted on dragging him to "the best café in town" (debatable) after school. It was a cozy, slightly cluttered spot in between a bookstore and a florist.

"Their hot chocolate slaps," Lydia said, sipping from her cup as they sat by the window. "Don't judge the weird bear mural on the wall, though. Owner's kid painted it."

Kai raised an eyebrow, glancing at the cartoonish, only slightly terrifying bear staring down at them.

"It's... uh, charming?"

Lydia laughed. "You'll get used to it."

As they sipped and chatted, Kai realized Lydia was the type who could carry a conversation through sheer enthusiasm alone. Yet, despite her extroverted energy, she wasn't pushy. There was something grounding about her company.

"Do you miss your old school?" she asked at one point.

Kai stirred his drink. "Yeah, but this place is growing on me. Slowly."

***

After school on Wednesday, Haruto caught up with Kai in the courtyard.

"You sketch, right?" Haruto asked, surprising Kai.

"Yeah. How'd you—?"

"Lydia mentioned it." Haruto pulled out his phone, scrolling through what looked to be more than a few thousand photos until he found one. "There's a spot you might like."

It was a picture of the woods behind the school, where gnarled trees arched over a hidden clearing with boulders and fallen logs.

"Hah, that looks like a fairy circle," Kai joked.

Haruto smirked. "Some say it is."

Kai let out a laugh. "They do, huh?"

"You should come with me sometime. It's peaceful. Good for sketching."

Kai felt a flicker of warmth. Maybe small-town people weren't as closed off as he'd thought.

***

By the end of the week, Kai was sitting on the school steps with Lydia and Haruto before class. Lydia was dramatically retelling a story about how a squirrel once stole her entire sandwich in this very courtyard. The audacity.

Haruto couldn't help but roll his eyes as he heard Lydia's story, he'd definitely heard this before.. "It was half a sandwich."

"A whole half!" Lydia shot back, making Kai snort.

Kai couldn't help but smile. Despite the weird vibes and lingering homesickness, he felt better than he had all week. Maybe this place wasn't just a pit stop before college, it could actually be something fun.

That was, until the second bell rang and the homeroom door slammed open.

A tall guy with sharp, confident steps strode inside like he owned the place. Blue eyes with a piercing gaze. Tousled, blond hair that looked way too good for someone who clearly didn't try. He looked pretty big, the guy definitely worked out, probably was on some sports team as well. He definitely looked like an athlete, he was tall, and those broad shoulders... Kai could only imagine what was hiding underneath that jacket and shirt...

...Wait, was he staring? Snap out of it, Kai. He's probably bad news if he just shows up out of nowhere a good week after classes had started.

The guy had definitely noticed. He made eye contact with Kai for what seemed like only a moment, but there had definitely been contact. 

Great. He must think I'm some gay weirdo now. Well, I am gay, but I'm not that weird, right...?

The guy barely acknowledged the teacher's annoyed sigh as he made his way to an empty seat at the back of the room.

Whispers shot through the class like static.

"Mike's back."

Kai just blinked, realizing immediately that this must be the person Lydia and Haruto had told him about days ago.

When class ended, Lydia leaned over. "The guy who just barged in here earlier and looks like a douche? That's Mike. I told you about him. Don't bother."

"Yeah, thanks for the warning," Kai muttered.

That Mike guy looked so full of himself. Kai didn't like him. He'd decided he was going to stay far away from him.

But it didn't take long for things to go south.

During their next shared class, the teacher paired them together for a short in-class activity. Mike didn't even look up from his notebook at first, where he was probably just doodling some things without actually paying attention.

"Oh, you're the new guy," Mike said eventually, his voice low and unimpressed.

"Wow, how'd you guess?" Kai replied, deadpan.

Mike curled his lips into a half-smirk. "You've got that city boy energy." 

"And you've got small-town ego written all over you," Kai replied.

Mike glanced at him now, eyes sharp. His voice lowered. "Funny. Most people here know who I am."

"Oh my, congratulations! I sincerely apologize for not recognizing you!" Kai said overenthusiastically, his words dripping with sarcasm, "you're famous in a town with, what, two grocery stores and a gas station?"

Mike scoffed and his eyes narrowed. Kai could have sworn the other guy's pupils just dilated unnaturally and that his eye color darkened, but when he blinked it was gone. 

"You really think you're gonna be liked with that attitude of yours?" Mike asked and added, "I don't like you already, city boy."

"Well, good thing I'm not here to be liked. Especially by the likes of you."

The tension between them was instant. Kai's heartbeat quickened. He couldn't believe he was already arguing with the, apparently, "popular bad boy" of the school. Was this a very bad decision? Probably. But Kai wasn't about to let anyone walk all over him.

When Mike scoffed and leaned back in his chair like he was above it all, Kai's patience snapped.

"Would it hurt you to be even a little bit nice? You are exactly as arrogant as people say you are," Kai said flatly. "Do you practice that look in the mirror, or does it just come naturally?"

Mike just glared at him.

Kai would be lying if he didn't find him at least a little bit intimidating, but he held his ground. That guy was just an asshole, and as long as he avoided him, he probably wouldn't have to deal with him much. Although maybe it would have been better if he hadn't antagonized him just now...

Neither noticed Lydia and Haruto exchanging glances across the room, both sensing that this wasn't going to be just a normal rivalry.