The early morning sunlight poured through the window, glistening like golden sand as it shone down on a girl lying atop her bed. Long black hair fell out sprawled around her head, reaching down to her upper back. Flinching slightly from the rays of warm sunlight dancing across her face, the girl opened her eyes slowly, unveiling dark lapis eyes that almost seemed black unless you looked closely.
Pulling herself up from her bed, Akari stretched her arms up into the ceiling and let out a soft yawn. Then she hopped off the bed to her feet and strolled into the bathroom, stopping to gaze into the mirror for a moment.
Black hair, lapis eyes that seemed almost black and a petite body; Akari appeared almost like every other girl at a brief glance. And that was where most people’s gaze ends. It wasn’t unless one was to let their eyes linger on her face that they would really see her unblemished creamy skin and subtle dainty features.
Still, Akari had never cared too much about attracting anyone’s attention to her appearance. Except today was the second day of school where she would see the friend that she had made yesterday for the first time in her life.
‘Why do I look so plain…?’ Akari thought, gliding a brush down the black fringe falling over her forehead. ‘No wonder even the teacher missed me during rollcall yesterday when I was sitting next to Yuka…’
Akari raised strands of her airy black hair, fiddling with it through her fingertips as she stared at it with a frown. Then she sighed, letting it fall as she proceeded with the rest of her morning routine.
‘I don’t even know where to start to make myself look better.’ Akari thought. ‘Then again, why am I getting these thoughts now? It’s not like I ever cared about these sort of things before…’
~x~
Stepping down the stairs, Akari glanced across the living room to see her mother making breakfast in the kitchen whilst an energetic little boy around the age of eight was sitting in the dining table, fidgeting with a Nintendo Switch in his hands.
The boy made gaming noises to himself, staring intently at the screen of his Switch as Akari strolled to the dining table, dressed neatly in her school uniform as usual.
“Ah, morning, sweetie!” Akari’s mother glanced at Akari with an endearing smile. “Breakfast will be ready soon!”
“Okay.” Akari replied, plopping herself down on a seat across the boy. Then she glanced across at him with a frown. “Ototo, shouldn’t you be greeting your big sister in the morning?”
“…ese freaking aliens…” The boy muttered, smashing at the buttons on his Switch with his thumbs as though he was trying to break it.
“Excuse me?” Akari said stunned. “That’s not how you should be talki—"
Suddenly, the boy let out a scream, lifting the Switch above his head and for a second, Akari thought he was going to throw it in the air and she raised her hands to protect her head, bracing herself, but he lowered it again, glancing across the table at Akari with the sour face of defeat.
“Huh?” Her little brother blinked at Akari, his face switching to confusion. “What are you doing, onee-chan?”
“T-that’s…!” Akari’s face reddened, pulling her hands away from her head. “That’s what I should be asking you!”
“I was just playing a game.” Her little brother replied. “That doesn’t explain what you had your hands over your head.”
“J-just forget it…”
Akari sighed, feeling herself sink into her seat. ‘Why am I letting myself get bullied by my eight-year-old little brother…?’
“Now now, Ryoichi,” Her mother walked over from the kitchen, placing down plates of eggs and toasts on the table, “Don’t tease your elder sister too much. You know she takes everything to heart.”
“Okaa-san…!” Akari said blushing.
Her mother giggled as she strolled over, placing a plate down in front of Akari. Then she bent down so that she could hug her daughter, swinging side-to-side. “You’re so cute, Akari! You’re just like your Kaa-chan was when she was young except even more of an airhead!”
“I’m not sure if that’s even a compliment…” Akari mumbled embarrassedly.
Then her mother released her grasp of Akari, much to her relief. Akari had a vague suspicion that one of the reasons for her utter lack of friends during elementary school, and consequently leading up to middle school, was because of her overly affectionate mother, whom didn’t stop walking Akari to school until she was well into her seventh grade.
After quickly finishing breakfast, Akari went straight for the door, having grabbed her bag and everything else she needed for school.
“Eh? You’re so quick today, onee-chan!” Ryoichi said, still half-way through his second plate of breakfast.
“Uhm, yep…!” Akari said, trying to slip a feet into her school shoe. “Don’t want to be late on my second day of school after all, haha…!”
“Are you sure you ate enough?” Her mother stepped over to Akari at the doorway with a concerned face. “Normally, you only go after eating thre—”
“Yes…!” Akari immediately spoke over her mother. “It’s fine, okaa-san! I’m not that hungry today!”
Ryoichi got out of his seat on the dining table, running over to Akari to give her a hug before she left the door. “Have a safe trip, onee-chan!” He said, then stepped back with a big smile. “Let me know if anyone bullies you at your new school and I will make them pay for sure!”
Akari smiled back with a light laugh. “Thanks, Ryoichi. Then, you should also make sure you try your best at school today too, as you always should!”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Akari was surprised that even after so long, Ryoichi was still not embarrassed to hug his big sister. She thought he would had grown out of it by now at his age, although she didn’t really mind. ‘Maybe it’s because of how well I’ve taught him.’ Akari thought. ‘At least someone in this family is sensible.’
“E-eh… I will try…” Ryoichi said uncertainly, glancing to his side. He was never very good at school unlike Akari. Although in Akari’s case, she wasn’t top-of-the-grade smart either, she just mostly scored in the 80s due to her diligent and hard-working nature.
“Take care! And make sure you eat more at school!” Her mother called out as Akari closed the door to the house behind her.
Akari leaned back on the door for a second, sighing, before stepping away to make her way to school.
~x~
Glancing at the large crowds of students streaming into the school, Akari felt slightly intimidated, standing at the corner of the street opposite the school gates. Every face that went by seemed unfamiliar and most people seemed to have someone to talk to or walk alongside. And here she was, standing alone.
‘J-just walk into the school like everyone else.’ Akari thought, trying to encourage herself. ‘The longer you stand outside alone, the more awkward you’re going to feel and look…’
Just as Akari was about to take a step forward, a hand tapped her back lightly.
“Yo Akari—”
“WAAAHH—!!”
Akari spun backwards, brandishing her school bag out in front of her like it was a weapon as she glanced into the stunned sable eyes of a girl with dyed ruby hair falling down like silk below her shoulders.
“Y-Yuka…?” Akari stammered, recognising the friend that she had made yesterday.
“U-uhm…” Yuka stared at her with a frozen look. “You okay…?”
“I’m… I’m so sorry…!” Akari bowed apologetically in a frantic attempt to make amends. “I didn’t mean to scream! I was just so surprised! I’m sorry! That must had been so weird!”
“Hey, it’s okay, haha…!” Yuka grabbed Akari’s shoulders, trying to get her to stop bowing. “You don’t have to apologise! It was my fault, really…”
Akari stopped, feeling as though she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. ‘I can’t believe I just screamed like that…!’ Akari thought. ‘I’ve never had someone say hi to me like that at school so that made me completely freak out…!’
The weird glances that other students walking past were giving Akari didn’t really helped how she felt.
“Let’s walk to school together…!” Yuka suggested, leading a dead-looking Akari across the streets and towards the school gates. Once they were in the midst of students walking to school as well, Yuka turned to Akari with a forced smile, trying to cheer her up. “So, you take the Musashino line as well?”
“Eh, how do you know?” Akari asked, raising surprised eyes at Yuka.
“I thought I saw you waiting at the same platform as me,” Yuka laughed light-heartedly, “But you were a bit further ahead so I wasn’t sure if it really was you. I didn’t want to scare some random person on their morning commute.”
“Oh really?” Akari laughed back. “Yeah, that would be a pretty funny scene.”
‘Kind of like me just then actually…’ Akari thought in the back of her mind.
“Yep. Next time we should plan to take the same train together.” Yuka said casually as they strolled past the gates and entered into the school grounds. “It’s pretty boring to take the train alone in the mornings, right?”
“Y-yeah! We should definitely take the same train next time!” Akari said, unable to conceal her enthusiasm.
‘Finally! I get to go to school with my friend and have a normal school life for once in my life!’ Akari thought, almost shedding a tear of joy. ‘I’m seriously blessed to have met Yuka on my first day of senior high yesterday!’
Walking side-by-side with Yuka, Akari noticed that Yuka was slightly taller than her, probably by a good few centimetres. ‘As expected.’ Akari thought. ‘Yuka’s body is seriously more developed than mine in almost every way. Even though we’re in the same year...’
Akari glanced down at Yuka’s chest inadvertently, her eyes narrowing enviously at the unjust allocation between Yuka’s body and herself. ‘What is that? A D-cup? No, it looks even bigger than that. Don’t tell me… It couldn’t possibly be an E-cup, right…?’
Akari’s eyes turned downwards at her own chest. ‘And, I was so happy to barely grow to a size B this year…’
She let out a forlorn sigh, and Yuka’s eyes turned to Akari.
“Hm? Is something wrong, Akari?”
“N-nothing!”
~x~
Physical education.
It was a class that Akari had once absolutely dreaded back in middle school. But after a traumatic session where she failed to hit the ball even once during an entire 50-minutes of baseball practice and ended up becoming the butt of class jokes for a week, Akari had spent countless hours, days, even months, on a rigorous training routine to become above average in all possible sports that could come up in PE.
‘Heh, maybe I’ll be able to impress Yuka with my PE skills.’ Akari thought to herself, facing a locker in the changing room where all the girls were changing into their PE uniforms. ‘She doesn’t seem like the type to be athletic, looking at her manicured nails and salon hair.’
“Akari~!—”
Something tapped on Akari’s back lightly just as she was about to take off her already unbuttoned school shirt and she almost had a heart attack.
“AAAAAHHHH—!!”
Akari spun around, hugging her shirt together to herself as she stared with a deep-red face at Yuka. Some of the other girls inside the changing room stopped to giggle at Akari’s scream before returning to their own thing, but no one really made a big deal as it was commonplace for girls to prank each other in the changing room.
“Ahaha…” Yuka laughed weakly, scratching the side of her cheek. “Sorry, did I scare you again, Akari…?”
“N-no…” Akari forced a smile at Yuka, trying to control the heat gathered around her cheeks. “Did you want something, Yuka?--”
That was when Akari noticed that Yuka was already dressed in her PE uniform; consisting of navy dolphin shorts flaunting her long slender legs and a white t-shirt that accentuated her rack and curvatures. If Yuka hadn’t been standing right in front of Akari’s eyes at the moment, Akari would had definitely thought she had been photoshopped.
The sight of Yuka’s perfect model-like body made Akari want to button up her shirt again and find the nearest raincoat.
“W-what did you want…?” Akari turned away from Yuka, trying to hide her own body.
“Eh? Why are you turning away?” Yuka called quizzically from Akari’s back.
“No reason…!”
“Don’t tell me… you’re shy… even though, we’re both girls…”
“Uhm. That’s not it…”
“Hahaha, fine, I can see that you’re uncomfortable. I’ll let you change in peace, Akari.”
“Okay…”
Akari turned her back to watch Yuka walking out of the changing room before she let out a sigh to herself.
‘Geez, I’m still not used to having friends after being alone for so long.’ Akari thought. ‘I hope I didn’t seem rude to Yuka or anything.’