**

“Hey, you think he’ll come today?..”

“…I wouldn’t if I were him…”

Ren and Lucas sat on their chairs, taking up only ⅔ of their little makeshift table. The missing ⅓ was Koji, who had missed the previous day and seemingly today too.

*ring ring ring

The bell rang, indicating the start of class. As it began, the teacher looked out the window at which his desk was located near.

Today was nice, as the sun shone bright through the occasional gap in cloud. Sometimes, the sun would even reach the windows of the classroom, illuminating it- while other times it would fall short leaving the class dim and pale.

The Teacher brought his attention back to the students in which he was about to teach. As he did, he took a quick glance to the back of the room where he saw Ren and Lucas. The pair looked impartial and incomplete to him due to the lack of ‘Koji’.

Redirecting his attention to the mass, he was about to start class.

*fwoop

As he did so, the door to the class swung, and the creaking it emitted coincided with a yawn which came from a young man’s mouth.

Koji parted his hand from his mouth and opened his eyes to see the class staring at him. With nonchalance, he ignored the gazes and walked up to Mr. Ledge- tardy slip in hand.

For a moment, the two just kind of stood- looking at each other.

More precisely, Koji looked up at Mr. Ledge with indifference, as his teacher looked down with slight surprise.

After a long moment of pause, Mr. Ledge grabbed the slip which Koji had handed out. With that, Koji walked towards Lucas and Ren- one of whom was waiting in excitement, while the other slight pity.

Before he could reach his desk however, the teacher called out to him- stopping Koji for a second.

“I’m sorry to hear what happened the other day…”

His voice offered some pity.

“Thanks.” Koji responded in brief, trying not to think about it too much. He knew this would probably happen, but he had hoped it wouldn’t regardless.

Koji continued his long and uncomfortable walk to the back of the class, until Mr. Ledge’s voice reached out again:

“Is Tensai okay?”

This time, his voice was filled with genuine concern.

“He woke up this morning.”

When Koji said that, his teacher's face became more tranquil. At the same time, the sun passed through the room- lighting some of the dark crevices and giving any color it’s lost vibrance back.

Finally, Koji had reached his desk, where Lucas looked at him with wide eyes.

“Hey-“

Before Lucas could say anything, Ren cut him off.

“You good?”

Koji started to sit down as he responded.

“Don’t pity me, pity Tenz.”

Ren’s face narrowed a bit, increasing that look of pitying disappointment. He had hoped that with the recent accident, Koji would finally be a bit more emotive again, but instead he just continued to suppress himself- further burdening his own being.

At least, that’s how Ren saw it. In reality though- their perception of the situation differed. “Their”, referring to Koji.

From the time he opened the door to taking his seat, he had kept telling himself that he needed to stop running away.

But his mouth just couldn’t do it. He couldn’t speak in earnest nor could he present his emotions through facial expression.

He had wanted to be more open- more himself -but atlas he wasn’t able to do it in the moment. He had ran away again. If he had just confronted his feelings before!-

‘Tch…’

…Koji hated that he had to think like this. That he had to think in regret.

“…”

Surprisingly, the thick headed Lucas picked up on the tense air- and so he stayed to himself for the period.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

In accordance, Ren also fell silent- probably due to his reaccuring guilt.

And so, the rest of class passed in silence between the three. Mr. Ledge also stayed out of their hair after he had gotten his closure. Not that he didn’t feel bad for Koji too, of course.

**

*ring ring ring

Koji rose his head in unity with the class rising from their seats. Not to anyone’s surprise, he was fast asleep again.

It was honestly amazing he was even able to pass his classes.

With a quick stretch and yawn (like 30 seconds, not at all quick), he looked for Lucas and Ren who were waiting for him at the door.

Even with the awkward tensions between the three, they were still friends…

Koji began walking to the two, ready to head to class. He couldn’t help but feel that they were starting to get annoyed with his daily wake up routine though…

“Please tell Tensai I send my regards. I hope for his recovery.”

Koji turned to see Mr. Ledge standing a few feet away from him, chest puffed. He was oddly formal as he asked for a request of Koji, but Koji didn’t care about that.

What he had cared about was whether or not he knew the importance of the connotation behind; “I hope for his recovery.”.

‘Recovery?’

Koji actually got a little mad at the comment- but realized he probably didn’t have a full understanding of the situation.

Koji let it go, and nodded- keeping a face of indifference as he did so.

With that the three were off to their own classes. Even after the accident, the halls stayed the same- just as the sun kept shining.

Lucas had slipped away after talking about a new rom-com he was watching- bragging about how he’s gonna be madly in love with his future girlfriend.

Ren spent most of the walk arguing- claiming Lucas to be a “Virgin in both theory and reality”.

Koji had kept silent with a few laughs here and there. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

As Ren was about to walk into his class, he called out to Koji- who was now a decent distance ahead.

“Hey. My bad about before… Let’s hangout after school.”

Koji stood there for a second- not having expected the sudden openness. He kind of envied it a little.

“Ok?”

Ren had asked as follow up due to Koji just sitting there in surprise. It quickly snapped him back to reality though.

“Oh. Yeah sure- just text me.”

Koji was about to turn around before he paused- thinking for a second.

He wanted to try something new.

“Thanks.”

Koji called out to Ren with a bit of a grin on his face- even if a bit crooked.

Not expecting it, Ren stood there in shock.

Reverting back to his old habits, Koji looked away in an attempt to avoid awkward eye contact.

But Ren kept looking on. He stared at Koji’s back as he got further and further from him- eventually slipping into his own class.

‘I haven’t seen him be so social in years…’

Ren couldn’t help but smile.

“Yo Mina! Got that thing I was looking for?..”

Ren walked into his class with a new air- one he hasn’t felt around him in a while. As if rejuvenated from something, he made his presence clear…

**

As always, Koji sat in the back corner of the room. He watched as his class filled since he got there a bit earlier than usual.

*ring ring ring

As usual, the bell rang as the door opened. The young teacher, Mr. Sole, had arrived just on time once again.

“Alright, so today-“

The teacher adjusted his tone and looked towards the back of the room.

“Oh wait -Actually, first off, I’m sorry to hear about your brother Koji.”

Koji had been playing stickman games on his computer- so this had taken him off guard.

“Thanks…”

The teacher took his reply and continued class swiftly.

“Alrighty then, so today…”

At first Koji was going to genuinely thank his teacher for his concern, mostly due to his recent success in showing genuine social skills to Ren. He had told himself he was gonna act in accordance to that the rest of the day.

But instead he found himself responding coldly with indifference- not paying the teacher any mind after he gave him his thanks.

After being genuinely concerned about via his friends, and even Mr. Ledge, Koji had picked up on the flakey grievance Mr. Sole had given him.

This was a new feeling to Koji. He didn’t know if he should have felt bad for his cold response or not…

Before he had responded coldly due to his own faults- but this was different. He had done so of his own accord…

‘Is this what being social feels like?’

It was a stupid question. Before he had just not been able to perceive these things due to his own crippling anxiety which stemmed from his regret.

Now that he had prepared himself to be more energetic, more open, he had forgotten his faults and focused on the actual conversation that took place.

Plus he had been social before. It’s almost as if he just forgets that whenever convenient.

While he was thinking about all this, in perplexion mind you, a girl in the opposite corner of the room stared.

She looked at the peculiar look on his face, which made him look kind of like a detective in a 90s anime. After a few seconds however, she seemed to lose interest- turning her head away and whipping her hair.

The sudden movement caught Koji’s eye, as he disengaged from his inquisitive expression and looked up.

He was able to catch the girls hair in motion as a purplish glare which emitted from black hair shone. The hair being relatively short didn’t waver for long- and so Koji went back to his stickman games as the teacher lectured, and the previous topic withdrew from his mind.

**

It was now well after school, as Koji had already gotten home, decompressed, and ate.

But oddly enough, he found himself walking down the street- basketball in hand. For some odd reason, today Koji seemed to want to ‘dip his toe in the pool’ on various occasions.

First, was the conversation with Ren. Now, he’s going back to play basketball. I mean, Koji hasn’t played basketball in years since he quit. He’s barely even touched the striped leather since then.

And yet, he still found himself walking to his local courts.

It was about a half mile- maybe not even. Normally he would be too lazy to walk somewhere, but his parents were visiting Tensai, and Koji couldn’t just sit around at home knowing that.

The day Tensai had gotten into the accident flashed across his mind. The underlying fear which he’s never seen in his brother, and the screams which accompanied the terror of a broken man.

One who had lost his leg, at that.

It was still a large event that had gotten legal proceedings involved. But this couldn’t be seen as a surprise since the perpetrator did pass amidst it all.

Koji had finally reached the courts as he was starting to shake from his thoughts. More so the images which they provoked.

But once the courts finally entered his vision, Koji had metalled his resolve.

He wanted to stop running away. He wanted to confront himself.

He wanted to confront the him that regretted his past. And to do that, you have to make favorable decisions in the present.

Even if he didn’t find himself playing basketball professionally, or doing stand up comedy- he simply wanted to confront his faults so he could tell himself “At least you tried”. He wanted to stop living in contentment.

He wanted to start living in his future. But the fastest way to do that is to work now.

He started to daze off into thought again until something caught his attention.

On the opposite side of the court to him- which he was essentially parallel to now -walked a girl with short black hair, which gave off a purplish tint.

Her figure was slim, her height about average. In fact everything in terms of proportion was average.

Even being average though, she was an easily recognizable face.

Being one of the more popular girls at school, she stood out from a mile away.

Akari Anzai.

**

End Chapter 2:

Akari Anzai