I don't leave the car until I know for sure that Yukio walked into the house. After which I grabbed my bag and ran into my house.

Has she lived there this entire time? Or is she there for some other reason, like house-sitting? I’m dying to know, and it’s not like there’s anyone I can ask about it. The only people I’m able to talk to right now are my parents, and I doubt they would tell their lesbian daughter about the cute girl living next door.

For the rest of the night, I’m not able to get my mind off of what I saw. With the time I have before dinner, I look out the window of my room and watch the house to see if I can get another glance of her. Only I’m not able to see a good view of the street from my room, so it’s possible that I’ll miss her leaving.

It goes on like this for a few hours. All the way until my parents call on me to begin dinner.

I’m disappointed to leave my room without being able to see her again. But there’s not much I can do with my parents calling me. Not knowing if she actually lives there is going to drive me crazy for the rest of the night. Looks like I’m going to have to wait until class tomorrow to ask her.

When I get downstairs, my parents are both in their normal spot. Both have their back faced towards me, so they only notice me when I walk by them. There isn’t even any exchange between any of us. Another night of cooking in silence while two pairs of eyes are glued to me.

Dinner is once again uneventful. There was still a bit of worry in the back of my mind that my dad would say something about school again, but he barely said anything for the entirety of dinner. My mom didn’t even ask one question about class.

Once I’m done cleaning, I quickly go back to my room to continue my observation of the neighbors house. And as it’s now dark, the view is even worse. But something about the house looks a little off.

There isn’t a single light on in their house.

At this time of night, I would assume my neighbors would be home. And if Yukio were still there, it would look like there was at least some sort of life inside. Only there isn’t. Just a house sitting in darkness without any noise or light coming from it.

Come to think of it, I’m not sure I've ever even looked at my neighbors house this much. Then my actual neighbors themselves, I have no idea what they look like. Seeing Yukio walking into the house was the only time that I could recall seeing someone go in there.

Well, maybe it’s just because my life hasn’t quite been following the same routine today. I must be confused is all. Making a new friend is probably what’s throwing me off. This whole day has just felt weird.

I think I’m just tired. My brain is probably fried after my first day of class, and it’s tricking me into seeing things as weirder than they actually are. I just need some rest, then I’m sure everything will go back to normal tomorrow…

… when I wake up the next morning, everything feels as if it’s back to normal. I go back to the same routine that I always follow: making breakfast, mom drives me to school, then all of my classes that are too boring to remember.

All of that making the day feel the same as every other day leading to my Japanese class.

This time, I beat Yukio to class. After I sit down at our desk, I patiently wait for her to come in. Each time I hear the door open, my head shoots up in excitement, only too be disappointed upon seeing one of our other classmates walk in. It gets near the start time, and she still hasn’t shown up yet. I begin to wonder if she dropped.

Though after having a seemingly normal day, I begin to notice something unusual again.

I’ve never really made eye contact with my classmates before in any of my classes. This is the first time I’ve really looked at any of them, and it’s… strange. I can’t really put my finger on it, but something about them just feels off.

It was just like with the house. You have an image in your mind of what it should look like, and when it doesn’t follow that image, it just looks out of place. What’s throwing me off about my classmates is probably their strange choice of attire.

Now I’m not the most fashion forward person, and I don’t really keep up with all of the trends, but I just don’t understand their clothes. Nothing they’re wearing matches. People wearing large coats with shorts, colors completely mismatched, and strange choices of accessories everywhere. It’s hard to believe this could be the style these days.

But as the door swings open one more time, I stop focusing on my classmates outfits.

Finally, walking through the door is Yukio. She seems to be the only one wearing a normal outfit, with it being a white top with black piping on the sleeves and a long black skirt. Only today, something looks different about her. She looks so zombie like as she makes her way to her seat. Not a bit of emotion on her face.

After we say hi to each other, I open my mouth to say something, but I’m immediately stopped when Sensei begins teaching "Okay everyone! Today we will begin our lessons. I'm going to pass out a work sheet so once you get it, go over it silently by yourself."

I let out a sigh of disappointment. Speaking the same time Sensei was would be an easy way of getting in trouble. And with getting in trouble, comes the phone call home to my parents. I just hope there will be another chance for me to speak to Yukio today.

"Okay now that everyone has a sheet, I'll go over it real quick." Sensei continues "On this sheet is the Japanese alphabet Hiragana. Now Japanese uses three main writing systems: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. This hand out only has Hiragana on it for now. We'll be learning Hiragana first since it's the most common writing system used in Japan."

With all my thoughts being about Yukio, I completely forgot I would have to learn something today. All I want to do is talk to her, but now that I have the assignment in front of me, I can’t. Yukio even began silently working on it already. I guess I’ll work on it too.

First thing I do is read over the whole page. And weirdly, I get the sense that it will be pretty easy. I hope so anyways. Really, all I want to do is finish the assignment as quick as possible. That way I can get the most amount of talking time with Yukio.

It takes me only 5 minutes to complete the assignment while skimming through all of the questions. I don’t even reread over my answers. As long as something was written down in every slot, I was satisfied.

Then I take the paper up to Sensei’s desk to turn in. And my being there as quickly as I was surprised her “Wow that was really quick! Are you sure you finished it all?”

I hadn’t thought this far. Coming up to her desk with a paper full of all wrong answers is actually super stupid of me. I can’t even look her in the eyes when I respond "Uh, I guess I'm a quick learner."

She doesn’t sound upset though "I planned this sheet taking you the whole class period to finish… well how about I grade it right now, then you can go over any mistakes that you made. You finished so quickly that I'm sure there's good amount on here. Head back to your seat for now and I'll call you over when I'm done."

Yeah, that was a really dumb thing for me to do. Sure, she didn’t sound angry, but how will she sound once she does grade it? And as I walk back to my desk, I realize another dumb thing I hadn’t thought about… Yukio is still working on her assignment.