Apparently, different class schedules weren't the only thing high school was trying to complicate.
Extracurricular activities made things even more… interesting.
Nanami joined the basketball club during the first week. I wasn't surprised. He's always been good at sports: fast, tall, and annoyingly talented without even trying that hard.
One afternoon I stopped by the gym out of curiosity. The place was loud, filled with squeaking shoes and the rhythmic thump of basketballs hitting the floor.
Nanami was right in the middle of it.
"Pass! Pass!" someone shouted.
Nanami caught the ball, moved quickly past another player, and made a clean shot. His teammates cheered like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Nice one, Nanami!"
"Dude, you're carrying the team already!"
He laughed with them, completely relaxed.
I quietly left before he noticed me.
Meanwhile, my afternoons were more peaceful.
I ended up joining the literature club. It's a small room at the end of the school building where people read books, write stories, and occasionally debate about poetry like it's a matter of life and death.
My clubmates are nice, but they're very different from Nanami's loud and energetic friends.
After school, our lives split again.
Nanami stays late for practice, surrounded by teammates who shout, joke, and compete with each other.
I sit in a quiet room filled with the scratching sound of pens on paper.
The funny thing is, our friend circles barely overlap.
One evening when we got home, Nanami tossed his sports bag onto the floor.
"Practice was brutal today," he groaned.
I looked up from the notebook I was writing in.
"Literature club argued for twenty minutes about whether a character's silence symbolized grief or pride."
Nanami blinked.
"…That sounds scarier than practice."
"Honestly, I think so too haha."
We both laughed.
Even though our worlds at school are starting to look very different, something about coming back to the same apartment still feels the same as always.
Maybe that's the one thing high school hasn't managed to change yet.