Plurk paste

Shin was never sure what to think about Hiyori. There were all kinds of rumors about him, if the one or two that had trickled down to Shin’s thin branch of the grapevine were any indication; things like how someone’s dog had gone missing and he’d been seen playing with the collar, or that he’d broken someone’s leg just so he could write on the cast. Things like that. He was pretty sure there was nothing to them, since he was sure there were probably unflattering rumors about him, but Hiyori never seemed bothered by them. Shin wished he could have that kind of courage.

On the other hand… Hiyori liked to stare at him and call him by his personal name. And poke him when he was working on things. And keep describing gross facts even after Ishikawa had told him to stop. And typed in a hunt-and-peck hunched over gargoyle way that felt like fingernails on the blackboard of Shin’s soul, but only when Shin was looking. And once told Shin no one else but him was allowed to bully him. Shin was fairly sure Kugie had already called dibs on that, but wasn’t going to say. Maybe that was just Hiyori’s attempts to be friendly? Shin allowed himself to think, in the privacy of his own head, that if so he wasn’t very good at it. Guiltily, in the way of someone who knows they’re not the best with people themselves, and so thinks they’re being a bit petty.

In the end, the confusion had sort of averaged out into a polite acquaintance on Shin’s end. Murata and Ishikawa had been friends before either of them joined the computer club and when it came down to it Shin didn’t want to leave someone out in the cold.