Tal plants his feet right in the middle of the corridor. A group of second-year students has to sidestep quickly to avoid bumping into him.
Tal just stands there, crossing his arms over his chest. He stares openly at a group of girls walking in the opposite direction. His eyes track their movements very carefully. He squints slightly, completely ignoring the angry glare one of the girls shoots back at him.
I stop a few paces ahead and look back at him.
"Is something the matter?" I ask.
"It's nothing," Tal replies, not taking his eyes off the passing crowd. "I was just mentally calculating the size of the chest of the girls passing by. It requires great focus, that's why walking while analyzing won't work."
I blink. I stare at him for a long moment. The background noise of the hallway seems to fade out slightly.
"Why would you do that?" I ask.
Tal finally stops staring at the girls. He turns his head and looks right at me. He drops his arms to his sides.
"Dude, you're weird," Tal says.
I stare back at him. I am the weird one?
"You're not acting normally," Tal says, shaking his head.
Not acting normal? Did he notice something on me that is not normal? I run through my recent actions in my head. I just walked down the hallway at a standard pace. I kept my eyes forward. I did not do anything that would break the expected behavior of a high school freshman.
Tal sighs heavily. "I think I figured it out."
"What did you figure out?" I ask.
"You're a loner in middle school and you have no love life," Tal says flatly.
He steps forward and taps his hand lightly on my left shoulder.
"That's okay, you will have a chance later," Tal says, his tone sounding strangely comforting.
"I guess I have," I reply flatly.
"Let me teach you something useful, Ayanokouji," Tal says, pulling his hand back. "High school boys are supposed to think about girls and chests. That's how to be a normal high school student."
I stand there in the middle of the busy hallway and analyze his statement. Is that really how to be normal?
If I think about it scientifically, the logic makes sense. High school boys are right in the middle of the biological age of puberty. The human body undergoes massive chemical changes.
The reproductive system naturally reacts to visual stimuli to prepare for potential mating. Therefore, focusing attention on the secondary sexual characteristics of females is a standard biological imperative for a teenage male.
I guess there is a truth to what he said. Emulating that specific biological drive is a highly effective way to blend in with the surrounding male population. Other boys constantly talk about female anatomy, and nobody questions their normalcy.
Tal starts walking again, slipping through a gap in the crowd. I quickly follow behind him.
"Are you listening, Ayanokouji?" Tal asks over his shoulder.
"I'll keep that in mind," I say.
"Good," Tal replies.
We push through the heavy double doors at the end of the corridor and finally arrive at the campus cafeteria.
The room is massive. It looks like a high-end food court inside a luxury shopping mall. Bright fluorescent lights shine down on long rows of clean white tables. Orange plastic chairs scrape loudly against the tile floor. The smell of fried pork, rich soy sauce, and sweet curry hangs heavy in the air.
The noise here is deafening. A lot of students are eating, laughing, and shouting all at once. The sound bounces off the hard walls and echoes across the high ceiling.
"Save us a seat over there," a boy yells to his friend, pointing toward a table near the large glass windows.
"Give me a bite of that cutlet!" another guy laughs, reaching across a table with his chopsticks.