Uneventful. PV Alex Cheong Closed

It was unusually cold today. The boy was wearing a black sweatshirt and black jeans, converse and a dark blue beanie on his black hair. He had his glasses on, large round lenses with thin silver rimming. He could see alright, it’s just he came from doing his homework. He was actually not that surprised at the downcast weather, it was spring and it was going to rain eventually, so it’ll probably rain later. He kept on walking down to the lake. He didn’t mind the cold weather. It actually felt good, after all that sunshine. He seemed a lot paler than he actually was in the dark though and his freckles popped out more. He looked at the lake that was looking like a dark grey and blue color. On top he saw a cream colored paper boat, floating on the surface. Curious, he walked over to where it was coming from. He peeked behind the bushes and saw a boy with dark hair folding the paper boats. He saw the boy look up at him. He smiled sheepishly. ”Sorry, I was just wondering where the boat came from.” he said. Well that was a weird sentence Alex. He probably wants you to leave now.

Gareth had just about finished his boat when he saw another student approaching his spot. At first he thought nothing of it, but it became more and more clear that the guy was actually walking towards him. Hey, another Ravenclaw. Gareth looked up, just as the student’s head peeked out from behind the bushes.

“Sorry, I was just wondering where the boat came from.”

In the brief second that they made eye contact, Gareth thought the boy looked very much like a deer caught in the headlights. Otherwise, he was just a normal kid. Black hair, Asian, around his height… he was probably in either year one or year two.

At that point, alarms were ringing in Gareth’s head. Not in the bad way, it’s just that socializing has been on the bottom of his priorities list since he got here. There’s no way he’ll be able to pull off a normal conversation without coming off as some sort of psychopath. Honestly, did he even want to have a conversation right now?

But still, looking at the other boy made him realize that they were both in the same boat here (ha). So there’ll probably be no harm in simply getting acquainted.

“Well, you found me.”

Somehow, he still felt that he needed to explain himself. Origami was kind of a muggle thing to do, after all. He’d learned the hard way to not associate himself too much with them in front of other students. So after a beat of hesitation, he held up his now-finished paper boat.

“I was bored, so I decided to waste some paper.”

Alex kind of froze up after the other boy seemed a bit quiet for a moment after he spoke. Should he flee? No, that wasn’t a good option. He was shy so that didn’t make anything easier. He felt like the boy was judging him. The boy had black hair and seemed to be a bit taller than Alex.

“Well, you found me.”

Alex smiled a bit. The boy didn’t seem like he was going to lunge out at him, but he was still nervous. He looked at the paper stack next to him. Was he just making a fleet of them? Alex has done origami before, but it had been a while. He remembered his brother teaching him one day to make paper cranes. After 10 tries he got it down.

“I was bored, so I decided to waste some paper.”

”By making origami boats? Seems useful,” he said with a smile. It seemed like everyone he met had something they liked to do that was completely the opposite of another person at this school. Oh sure, there were the cliches like, sports or music, and admittedly he liked both soccer and singing, but everyone seemed so diverse. He liked that in a way.

“By making origami boats? Seems useful.”

Gareth chuckled at that. He wasn’t sure if the guy was being sarcastic or not, but there were a million other more practical ways he could be using his paper for. Like writing, for one, which was its actual intended purpose - anything but being needlessly reduced to a soggy pile of pulp. It’s almost sad to see them perish that way, but his boredom right now was a higher priority.

“I mean, their only use right now is for my entertainment, but I’d say it’s worth it.”

He was glad that the boy was friendly though, it meant that he might actually make a friend for the first time this year (or an acquaintance, of which Gareth already has several). It’s not like he couldn’t make any friends, it’s just that he never found the time or motivation to socialize with other students in his grade. He was most productive when working alone, after all. However, he has noticed how happy other students seemed with their large groups of friends, always eating together and hanging out in between classes. Perhaps the desire to try that out is why he’s recently put an effort into making friends.

The other boy did seem interested in what he was doing though, which was why Gareth scooted over a bit to the left, and patted the now-empty spot beside him.

“You can make some with me, if you like.” After a beat of silence, he added,

“My name’s Gareth, by the way. Nice to meet ya.”

Alex smiled a bit as the boy chuckled. At least he didn’t give him a glare, hopefully he wasn’t hated by the boy. Alex was always scared of someone hating him. He smiled as he said it was for his entertainment. ”I would suppose.” He crouched down as he watched the boat make tiny ripples in the water.

“You can make some with me if you’d like.”

Alex smiled again and sat down next to him and took a piece of paper. He calmly folded down the edges until they made a neat paper boat. He took it and placed it onto the water and pushed it slightly. It slowly floated near the other boy’s now dying boat. He learned his name was Gareth. ”My name is Alex. Nice to meet you too.” he said. Alex so far hasn’t made a group of friends to hang out with. Sure, he had Min-seo, but she already had her group of friends and he didn’t want to disturb her. Maybe things would change for the better. He had some friends from different groups, but that’s it. He sat cross legged and dipped his finger in the freezing water and watched the ripples form.