"Colour is life; for a world without colour appears to us as dead. Colours are primordial ideas, the children of light." (Johannes Itten)

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"-and so you see, that's why I always bring my own lunch. It's bound to be better than whatever special they have that day."

Ryujin smiled at my rough attempt at recycling the principal's joke and gave a sympathetic nod.

"Sounds rough."

Good start, now just don't blow it like you always do.

"You're telling me. Anyways, that's basically it for the 'tour'. Anything else you wanna know?"

"I think I'm ok for now, but if you don't mind I would like to use the restroom quickly?" She grimaced comically to which I accidentally let out a snort whilst trying to hold back my laughter.

Great job not blowing it, making pig noises sure makes you seem attractive. Bet she's totally in love with you now. Idiot.

After guiding her to the nearest toilet block, I stood outside waiting and staring at the trail of ants that had formed a small queue leading towards an old hot dog from yesterday's lunch special. When it came to the colours of animals, well, they didn't really exist. Which wasn't that big of a deal anyway, as far as my love life goes. My 'powers' seemed only to be limited to people. If you were normal, then you had a standard shade of some random colour. However, if you were, say, in some way sick or dying, your colour would be in some stage of fading; usually to a lighter shade, a grey and finally, nothing. I had concluded this from observing my late Grandfather on my father's side, who lost his ocean blue after a battle with lung cancer. I would go as far as to say that was one of the most frightening things to discover in my entire eighteen years of living.

"Hey, it's you."

A lean girl with pigtails and a decorated blazer two sizes too big hanging loosely from her body broke me away from my thoughts. Hwang Yeji, the School Captain, the 'popular but down-to-earth' girl that's to be all the rage these days. Her amber yellow colour seemed extra bright today for some reason.

"Hi, Yeji. Just waiting for the new exchange student to finish her, er, business." I gestured towards the bathroom and Yeji gave an understanding nod.

"All good, dude. Just on patrol looking for stray juniors to pick on for the fun of it."

Now, I wouldn't call myself a loner. Far from it. But if I sat down and really thought about it, I didn't have anyone at school I would call an actual 'close' friend. Just a bunch of people I knew. Yeji, for example, even though she was friends with everybody. There was also Lia, I guess. I'm sure there's more I can't think of right now. Yeah, I'll tell myself that.

"Hey, I was thinking of dropping by the new burger joint three blocks down after school. Heard they have a killer beef burger and fries combo for under ten bucks. You down?" Yeji quipped, being her usu