"Xiao, Xiao, for the love of God, wake up already Xiao!"
"Alright, alright! I'm awake now, so stop shouting!"
It was another ordinary morning, sunshine beaming gently into a room of a young man, and though he got sunbath to the face for quite some time, he still manages to stay asleep, not until his mother shouted at him from the kitchen downstairs.
This young man who crawls out from his bed like a sloth and blocks his baggy eye from the sunlight is Xiao.
"I really should learn how to go to bed earlier, so tired..."
Slowly, he carried his body to the washroom, brush his teeth, took a quick shower, and put on his high school uniform.
"Another school day, great, I hope time can skip to summer break this instant."
Xiao looked at the mirror to check his appearance one last time before going downstairs. The mirror reflected a young man with a black short spiky hair, around 170cm body height, slim build body weight, average looking facial feature and baggy eyes.
"So sleepy..."
After going downstairs, Xiao waited for his breakfast at the table with his father, who's reading the newspaper. The TV was on playing the news channel, and Xiao's mother was preparing breakfast in the kitchen humming a song. This was a scenery you can find in any family, simple yet peaceful.
"Alright everyone, breakfast's ready, and Xiao, lift your head from the table! Such bad manner."
Xiao was lying dead on the table as to try to sneak some precious few minutes to sleep. Until his mother slaps his head to wake him up.
While having their breakfast, Xiao's mother spoke her mind:
"Oh yeah, Kang got up early again today. Apparently, he got morning training to prepare for the upcoming match."
Kang, Xiao's younger brother, is one year younger than Xiao, which means he is the youngest in Xiao's family. The difference between Xiao and Kang lies not in their age only, but their capability and reliability. Compared to Xiao, Kang is slightly taller than Xiao and super good looking. He is the role model student in school as he got almost top at any subject, displays the right attitude as a student, and the school soccer team captain. To put it simply, he is what we called it the perfect student.
"You are worrying too much, honey, he's our boy, not some weak beansprout, hahaha!"
Xiao's father replied with a stupid joke. While Xiao's mother was laughing with his dad, Xiao finds it too ridiculous and tiring to laugh at, so he quietly chews his ham.
"You should learn from Kang, Xiao, from your baggy eye, I can tell you are sleeping late again, right? Playing games into late again I see, this is why I disapprove for putting a computer in his room..."
(And another lecture from mom, even though I didn't say anything, goddamn.)
Usually, when the topic comes to Kang, Xiao always kept quiet to avoid getting compared to his younger brother and how he should learn from Kang. Xiao was fine being the less favourite one as his motto was to work less and enjoy life more. When his mother starts to lecture him to behave like Kang, he would just listen quietly while finding a chance to shift topic or sometimes run away from it.
"Are you listening young man?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm listening (god, so sleepy...)"
Xiao finished his breakfast as soon as possible and headed out to the school to avoid hearing more of his mother lecture.
There's still time before school starts, so Xiao took it easy as he walked slowly while looking at other people. It's an everyday sight, the students, the workers and the old. Everyone has different walking pace and different destination, some were rushing while some were taking it easy like Xiao.
"Yo, morning!"
Out of nowhere, a loud shout came right behind Xiao, followed by a firm slap to Xiao's back, which put a sudden shocked to Xiao and awake him from his sleepy mode.
After the slap, Xiao turned to his back and found out a monkey-liked face guy beaming a stupid smile.
"That hurt you, asshole!"
Xiao looked more tiring once he found out the person that hits his back because he had to deal with this full of energy idiot while he had a sleep deprive.
"Hahaha! Sorry."
The monkey face guy didn't seem to mind Xiao's cursing, and right away, he put his arm around Xiao.
This monkey-liked face guy was one of Xiao's classmate, as well as the one playing games with him last night, he was slightly shorter than Xiao and got a slimmer body build. Compared to Xiao, he got quite the opposite personality. They still get along fine, especially when it comes to video games as both like playing it.
"Last night was fun! And you cheeky bastard, getting all the glory again, teach me that last move where you killed three in one move."
The monkey face guy talked loudly and attracted people besides us with his goofy voice. Xiao notices it and sighs as he was embarrassed to have a friend like him.
"You are so loud, god, I'm pretty worn-out today, stop shaking so much and talking so loud."
Although Xiao always got this annoyed expression when the monkey face guy was around, Xiao enjoyed his company, because Xiao knows he was a pretty nice guy and shares the same interest. So despite his loud and energetic personality, he is still one of Xiao's good friend.
Suddenly, the students who were walking beside them started to whisper while looking somewhere. The girl students got excited and talked excitingly with their friends.
"Huh? What's going on?"
The monkey-face guy was curious, so he traces the source of the excitement, and Xiao does the same.
The source of the excitement was coming from Xiao's back, a group of tall athletes build guys that wear a soccer jersey was walking behind them. The group talked and laughed, with sweat dripping down through their handsome face. They swipe it away and beam out a refreshing smile that will make any innocent maiden heart melt.
They were the school soccer team, they had just finished their training and was in the middle of going back school. The one that walks at the front group was exceptionally good looking than the rest. He got this confident looked, and a perfect athlete builds body, he had unintentionally pulled all the girl's attention as they giggle embarrassingly or just stand still with a reddening cheek while staring at him.
"Ho ho, that's what the commotion about, as expected from the most popular guy in our school, I still can't believe he is your younger brother, you guys don't look alike, in terms of everything."
The monkey face guy comment while looking at him, with a jealous expression.
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That's right, the one that grabs everyone attention was none other than my younger brother, Kang. While the monkey face guy comments on Kang and Xiao differences, Xiao just ignores him and slowly walks away from Kang's group.
"Don't you want to say hi to your little brother?"
"Nah, it's okay, we can always say hi anytime we want at home."
Xiao thought that if he talks to Kang, it will attract unwanted attention from the others, and Xiao doesn't like to be in the spotlight. What's more, he doesn't want stupid rumours about him spreading around the school, consider how famous Kang is.
Unfortunately, while Xiao moved further away from Kang's group and took a sneak peek at Kang, their eyes meet. Immediately, Kang walks in Xiao's direction.
(Oh great, just great.)
It's not that Xiao and his brother had a bad relationship, it's another way around, they treat each other with respect and love, Xiao respect Kang's hard-working and confident attitude. In contrast, Kang respects Xiao easy-going and kind personality.
But when it comes to public eyes, especially during school days, Xiao finds it hard to interact with Kang because of their huge differences in popularity and ability. Kang may find the reason irrelevant for them not to interact. Still, Xiao was more of a sensitive person, so Xiao chooses to avoid contact with Kang to avoid pressure from peers in his school life.
Seeing as there's no choice, Xiao smile back and greet Kang first.
"Hi, Kang, working hard as usual, huh?"
Xiao tried to make a big brother's best impression as he forced out his best smiling expression.
"Hey Xiao, yup, our next match is coming soon, the next one is going to decide whether we are going for international, so we got to put more effort than usual."
Kang was talking happily about his match while Xiao forced out a chuckle and smile. The people around them started to whisper among each other while looking in their direction. Xiao felt an unseen pressure that makes his action more awkward and stiff.
"Oh right, tell Mom that I will be late for dinner today, we got extra practice after school."
"I see, alright, I will be sure to tell her."
"Well, I will be going first, we still need to take a quick shower at school, See you at home!"
With that, Kang ran back to his group and walks towards school. Xiao brushes off the cold sweat that was on his forehead and lets out relieve sigh.
"You and your brother don't look alike, have anyone told you about it?"
The monkey face guy pokes out his face out of nowhere and comment.
"Yeah, yeah, I know."
Tired of listening to the same comment from anyone else, Xiao just casually replied.
"Hey, I just had an idea, you know what, next time tried to ask your brother to introduce some hot chicks to us, surely with your brother popularity, he had tons of hot chicks waiting on the line right? share some with us then."
The monkey face guy suddenly got excited, and subconsciously express a disgusting love-struck face.
"It's useless, the girls will only be interested in my brother, they won't bother to show up if my brother helps us to set a blind date or stuff like that."
"You never know if you never tried, come on man, I think this will get us a nice girlfriend, all it takes is for you to ask your brother for help, come on man."
Ignoring the monkey face guy plead, Xiao looked at his watch to check the time, after checking it, he shacked his head and let out a sigh.
"You know what, we should be moving, 10 minutes left before the first bell ring."
"What!? Start running then!"
The monkey face guy lifts Xiao's arm wearing a watch and take a looked, immediately he got panicked and starts running.
"Oh god, this is tiring."
With little time left, monkey face guy and Xiao starts running to school.
It was like any other school day, the sound of scribbling on the paper, the whisper among students, the boring lecture from the teacher, and sometimes the chirping of some bird.
(Is this what we called "deja vu")
That was what Xiao thought while looking blankly to the window. This was his usual daydreaming routine as his mind would wander around while the teacher was giving a lecture.
Xiao would work sometimes long for something exciting to happen in his life like suddenly obtain a superpower or something stupid like that. Still, in the meantime, he felt peaceful as things were the way they are right now. But even, he always ended up sleeping in class and getting hit by the book from the teacher, which makes the whole class laugh, that's usually how Xiao's school life is.
And so, another school day passed like any other day.
Just when Xiao thought today's going to be as ordinary as always, as he packed his stuff, said goodbye to his friend and prepared to leave.
"Are you, Xiao?"
Someone called him, someone that possed a sweet feminine voice had called out Xiao.
At first, Xiao thought some girl from his class called him, but he realized that he never heard this voice before from any of his girl classmates.
When Xiao turns around to find the voice source, he saw a beautiful girl with silky long black hair standing behind him. Xiao knows who this girl is, not personally, but he knows this gorgeous girl is one of the three beauty in his school.
(Oh my god! My time has come, is she going to ask me out? Oh my god, oh my god! )
This was the first thought of Xiao. For 17 years, Xiao has never been in a relationship before. Still, no girls never got interested in him back, which made Xiao can't help but related to love.
"Yes...yes! Yes, I am, do you...need anything?"
Xiao shuttered his words, as he rarely spoke to any beautiful girl before. What's more, the person in front of him was one of three beauty in his school. He tried not to look straight into the girl's eye as that only makes him more nervous.
"I see, then you must Kang's brother, right?"
Immediately, after hearing the girls question, his exciting emotion turn back to normal, and his eyes revert to his usual dead fish eyes. Because he knows the girl's intention.
"Oh, okay, so, what do you want to tell him?"
Xiao changed his tone to impatience, for he had experienced this kind of situation repeatedly, which means Xiao knows the girls will only find him when they want to relay a message to Kang or book an appointment with Kang. So to save time, Xiao jumps straight to the question right away while looking tired.
Kang spent most of the time practising soccer and study, and he is currently not interested in getting into a relationship. So with that mindset, Xiao has eventually become Kang's secretary, unintentionally.
In the past, when some unknown girl suddenly talks to Xiao, it was always about Kang, which mean Xiao was only there to relay their message or making an appointment for them to meet Kang because they were too embarrassed to do that by themselves.
"Yeah, about that, tell him that the girl borrows his textbook will be waiting at the school library in the morning, before the class start, and ask him to come alone if possible."
(Sly women, you are just using the textbook as an excuse to meet Kang, you even ask him to come alone, well, whatever.)
Like in the past, all the girls will create various excuses to meet or talk to Kang. Most of them involve Xiao to create the opportunity. To put it plainly, Xiao was just a tool for the girls to get to Kang.
"Alright, alright, I will relay the message."
"Well then, I will be going, be sure to relay the message."
Before Xiao even has the chance to reply to her back, she had already turn around and walk away.
"Well, she REALLY did come to talk about Kang only, talk about efficiency."
Xiao thought to himself that he should have seen this coming,
Seeing as there was no point staying in school any longer, Xiao bought a cheap ice-cream for himself to lighten his mood. Although it did no effect on making his mood better, the taste did bring a smile to his face. After he finished the ice-cream, he dragged his tired body back to his home.
When Xiao reached home, his mother prepared dinner already, while his father was watching soccer channel on the TV.
"You are early, Dad."
"Yeah, bought my work home, today's my team game, I can't afford to lose their match, wanna join in to watch together?"
"Nah I'm fine, enjoy Dad."
Xiao was not a soccer fan like his father or Kang. He prefers something less sweaty and tiring, like video games and indoor stuff.
After greeting his father, Xiao went into the kitchen to see what his mother was preparing. Today they are going to have Chicken Chop with mushroom sauce, one of Xiao's favourite.
"Oh yeah, mom, Kang said he will be late for dinner, he is staying back for practice."
"I see, then we will have our dinner once Kang is back."
Xiao didn't reply to his mother. He got a bit irritated because he was hungry, seeing that today's will be his favourite dish. He knows Kang will take another one hour to come back home.
Xiao family has the tradition of having meals together anytime possible. Xiao couldn't ask his mother to cook for him first unless he would risk getting a slap to the head.
Since dinner time will be slightly late than usual, and Xiao was dead tired from the lack of sleep, he decided to retreat to his room and play mobile games while waiting for dinner.
Xiao went into his room, throw his school bag elsewhere and fall into his bed as if he's been waiting for an eternity for this moment, and there he took out his mobile to start playing games.
For some reason, Xiao can't focus on the games as his mind was elsewhere. The main reason was the relay message from one of the most beautiful girls to his brother and the build-up fatigue from his sleep-deprived.
"Damn it, never thought I got distracted by such trivial things."
Seeing as not getting into the game, Xiao put away his mobile and just stare at the ceiling,
Once again, Xiao realized that he was always being compared to Kang, how Kang was better than him in sports, academy, looks and popularity.
"Looks like my little brother has a brighter future than my skin."
Feeling beaten and disappointed in himself, Xiao makes a sarcasm joke to lighten his mood, which compared his pale skin to Kang's future, as Xiao's friend always commented on his skin white that it shines like a diamond.
Xiao gazed towards his school bag Inside, there was a paper to write his plans for future handed out by the teacher. It appears that time where the teacher would consult the students regarding their future based on their opinion and their academy grades and stuff.
"But the future, huh? would be great if nothing tiring awaits me...."
As Xiao fatigue had finally reached the peak, plus the comfort of the bed, subconsciously, he closes his eyes and fall asleep.