The sacrifices I make for May Madness… /weeps. Anyway, I hope the summary doesn't make it sounds like this is gonna be a ShinKano, because it isn't. Just clarifying.

I don't actually know much about college or dorms; like, do they even call you a senior in your last year? Geezus. Anyway, I'll be avoiding honorifics for this, but the names will still be surname-firstname. Considering how weeaboo I am, I'll probably slip up at some point, so yeah if you notice anything wrong, feel free to complain. It'll help heaps. (:

First Impression

When Shintaro unlocks the door of his new dorm room, there's a blond boy staring at the picture frame beside his laptop on the desk Shintaro's claimed as his. His first panicked thought is how he hasn't even lasted a day of his final year, and he's already being robbed.

"What are you doing in my room?" he asks. Shintaro hears, firsthand, that his voice is panicky and squeaky, and he immediately smacks himself mentally. Way to make a first impression, Shintaro.

"Oh, hi!" the blond boy steps away from the desk, grinning. "I'm your freshman roomie, Kano Shuuya! I like being called Kano, though. And you are?"

"Kisaragi Shintaro," Shintaro says, and eventually adds a 'nice to meet you' once he's gotten over his thoughts of I have a freshman for a roommate and oh god how homesick will this boy be for the next few days? (He's heard stories from Takane, a senior who left two years ago, about her freshman roommate that wouldn't leave her alone and was a big bubble of angst and stress combined. Shintaro would be lying if he said he hasn't been put off from freshmen by that.)

"So I noticed this picture over here," Kano breaks Shintaro away from his train of thought, and the blond jerks his thumb towards Shintaro's picture frame. The one of him, his sister, their mother actually looking healthy, and their father, all in one picture. "Say, is that girl the Kisaragi Momo? The really popular idol?"

"Mm," Shintaro responds. Reason number one he anticipated roommates wouldn't be a good idea: they would recognize his surname, or eventually notice his sister in the picture frame, and pester him about it. There was always the option of keeping the picture frame under lock and key, of course, but Shintaro needs a reminder of the times before his family fell apart and things fell to shit. He waits for Kano to ask to meet Momo one day, or to ask for her autograph, anything – but there's only silence. When he turns around, Kano is moving back towards his bed (though there isn't that much movement needed; the room is only about seven paces wide, including their bed space).

It unnerves Shintaro, if anything.

"You're not going to ask for her autograph," he asks, though it comes out more as a statement than a question. Kano looks back at him and smiles.

"I'm not a big fan," he says. His grin widens, not that it wasn't wide enough already, and Kano's cat-like eyes start to twinkle. "I was just curious. You guys do look alike though, just that you have a lot more eyebags."

And although Shintaro almost chokes on his spit at that, he can't help but think this freshman who calls himself Kano doesn't seem too bad.