Chapter 5: Meetings

Karma awoke instantaneously at the light pressure on his nose. His eyes snapped open, and his hand shot up to grip Sayama's outstretched finger. She jerked back in surprise, instinctively pulling away from his touch, and Karma's fist closed on air, tight enough to hurt.

Sayama looked startled, but no one else seemed to be concerned. Karma released the tension in his fingers after a moment, the whiteness in his knuckles fading. He yawned, stretching his arms above and behind his head, then straightened properly and looked around at the people surrounding his desk.

"So, what's up?" he asked, not fazed in the least by the attention focused on him.

Sayama crossed her legs and leaned in again, giving Karma a glimpse of her cleavage this time. The boys around her hooted as the girls sent them dirty glares.

"Akabane-kun, you shouldn't sleep in class, you know," she reprimanded, nudging the hinge of her glasses with two fingers.

Karma stared at her face rather blankly, eyebrows raised.

"I think you should get off my desk," he said bluntly.

A smatter of snickers circulated the classroom. Sayama flushed faintly but slid off the desk onto her feet, pouting. Karma leaned forward to rest his elbows on the surface, propping his chin in a hand. He plastered on the friendly smile he used for chatting and the others instantly began to talk to him, gathering in closer.

Manami watched on, completely forgotten by the girls. They crowded into the group around Karma, pushing Manami out of her seat. She quickly scooted out of the way, chair and all, and found herself pressed up against Iwatani's desk.

"Hi," she said to him, ducking her head sheepishly. "Sorry about this."

"Hello," he replied shyly, sullenly, turning his body away stiffly. "It's okay. It's not your fault, anyway."

He fidgeted nervously in the following silence. A loud cheer went up in the middle of the room. Manami glanced over her shoulder in Karma's general direction, since she couldn't see him through the dense wall of people attracted to his popularity. Everyone, it seemed, was interested in befriending him.

"Umm, you're... O-Okuda-san. Right?"

Manami turned back to look at Iwatani, giving him her attention.

"And you're... Uh..."

"Iwatani Kazuya."

"Ah, yeah... we'll be classmates for a year. Nice to meet you!"

Manami bowed deeply in her seat and Iwatani bowed back. There was a loud crack—they'd knocked their heads together. Simultaneously, they let out loud exclamations and drew back from the collision.

"Ouch! Sorry, sorry!"

"I-I'm so sorry!"

The students around them laughed as they rubbed their heads and apologized profusely, bowing again. "Jeez, what are you guys doing," someone called. "That was totally hilarious." Iwatani retreated at this, shrinking into his seat, and Manami flushed brightly though she laughed along with the others in good humor.

There was a long moment of silence between them until the attention faded, then Iwatani spoke up. Manami strained her ears to decipher his mumble.

"You said you went to Kunugigaoka Middle."

Manami cocked her head. "Um, yes, I did."

"You must be really smart then."

"Huh? Oh, no, not really."

"But you must've been," Iwatani insisted, almost desperately. "I mean, a school like Kunugigaoka..."

Manami chuckled lightly. "Well, I still have a ways to go. I'm nowhere near Karma-kun's level, except in chemistry... He graduated with the highest scores out of all the students, you know. Even beat Class A... Ah, but you won't know what I'm talking about from just that, huh."

"Oh... well. That's impressive."

Iwatani looked rather irritated. Manami noticed this and eyed him carefully for a brief minute but promptly shrugged her curiosity away.

Karma was surrounded by people. Lots of people. They swarmed around his desk, filling his ears with incessant chatter and invading his personal space.

"Yo!"

A tall boy with dyed blond hair pushed through to jump on Karma, hooking an arm around his shoulders.

"Is it true that you actually got full marks on the entrance exam? 'Cause wow, that's so awesome. I'm Koyanagi, by the way. You can call me Yana. So tell me how you did it!"

"I didn't, actually," Karma replied, resisting the urge to twist Koyanagi's arm behind his back. "I was off by five points."

Koyanagi whistled. "Hey, wow. I barely got in." He took a breath, about to say more, when a shout of laughter went up behind him. He twisted around to look at the commotion instead, dragging Karma with him by the neck. Karma glimpsed Manami clutching her head with another boy in the middle of the ruckus.

"Huh, it looks like she's making friends fine," he murmured. That's good. Wow, but that kid sure looks wimpy.

"Oh, an acquaintance?" Koyanagi turned back, already bored of the event.

"Yeah, same middle school."

"Huh, cool. I've got some friends here from middle school too, but they're all in different classes." Koyanagi pouted sadly, but immediately brightened again. "Hey, you wanna go for karaoke with my buddies and me later? We were thinking of going out to celebrate."

"Celebrate what? It's only the first day," Karma interjected, making the people around them laugh.

"Yeah, but I wanna have fun. Come on, it's karaoke!"

Karma sighed. Koyanagi was annoying, but he seemed to be a useful friend to keep around.

"Alright, sure."

"Yes!" Koyanagi let Karma's neck go and slapped his back. "We'll see you after school, then."

He bounced away, leaving his new friend to deal with a mass of teenagers who, now that he was free, were ready to pounce on him. Karma cast one last glance at Manami as the horde assaulted him, clamoring to accompany him to karaoke.

She seemed to be doing perfectly fine. Ah, so not fair, he fleetingly thought before she vanished from his sight.

Thank you guys for reading, and sorry the update's so late! Reviews are welcome, including criticisms. I appreciate every word you leave for me.

By the way, I have some Karma/Manami fanart on tumblr where I'm parl-ie, under miscellaneous art. Please feel free to check it out if you're interested!