Ayumu Shiba is a junior high school student of Sakuradani about 15 years old, she lives in a family composed by her mother Fumiko about thirty five years old , her genius brother Makoto, who is 11 years old and a little sister named Akane, who has just turned 6, unfortunately Ayumu' s father Daisuke Shiba, who was a employee of the Anzai company, got out one day and never got back later they found out that he got fired apparently for no reason at all and that he ran away for the shame of letting his family down, five years and half passed since he left but Ayumu is still hurting inside for his absence mostly because her mother, who feared that Makoto and Akane would feel the lack of a father figure, not only turned all her attention to them and completely ignored Ayumu, who become to feel like a ghost in her own home, but she was so angry at her husband that she destroyed all his pictures saying
"there is no need to keep the pictures of a coward!"
However Ayumu saved one and keep it safe.
At the time the only think that was keeping Ayumu happy was her best friend Shinozuka Yuko, but things are going to drastically change and Ayumu will have to face very terrible events that could easily kill her mind and body.
-I am such an idiot!- Ayumu thought and went white as she saw her test score it was only 49 and it probably was the lowest
"The top scorer was Shinozuka, 98 points" announced the teacher as everyone included Ayumu turned in awe at their classmate
"I bet you could get into Minami high easily!" exclaimed a boy amazed by the girl score
"man, you suck!" said another one clearly jealous of her grades
"oh Shut up" said Yuko as she got to Ayumu and asked
"hey Ayumu, how did you go?" the said girl just turned with tears on her eyes
"Shi-chan help me I am in so much trouble!" she said knowing very well how her mother would react to a bad grade like that
"you will be fine, don't cry I will tutor you" said Shinozuka as she patted her friend head to console her
Two hours later
"WOW you are a genius I always knew you were smart, Shi-chan!" exclaimed Ayumu as she understand all the things she didn't figure out
"did you really understand all of that?" asked Shinozuka
"Yes!" answered the other
"Good" she said closing her book before giving Ayumu a look
" ready to go?" she continued
An half hour later
Both of them were into a karaoke room and Ayumu was singing a death metal song making Shinozuka laugh like a mad.
Later on they got a photo into one of those automatic machines(?)
They were walking down the street when Yuko said
"It will be December soon"
"yea too soon" said Shiba knowing too well what that meant
"I just want these entrance exams to be over and done with it!" continued the other
"yea...but when they will be over, we won't be going to the same school anymore" said Ayumu with a depressed tone, sensing that Shinozuka hugged her and said
"No! It sucks" before she saw two girls from Nishi high walking down the street and said
"hey look they go to Nishidate high...they are so pretty" at this Ayumu said
"they must be smart too"
"I wonder if this time next year I will be wearing that uniform" Shinozuka continued
"WHAT! You are going to Nishidate? Why! You could go to Minami! Why go to Nishidate?" Ayumu inquired
"I've always dreamed to go to Nishidate, When I was little there was this girl who lived next door to me, she went to Nishidate, she was so sweet and pretty I wanted to be like her...I always wanted to wear that uniform...now I may have the chance!" Shinozuka explained at this Ayumu smiled and then turned to give a last glance to the two girls, then she thought her and Yuko wearing that uniform, that's when she started to think about going to Nishidate so that she could stay with her friend
After a while Shinozuka found out her friend intention
"Ayumu are you trying to get to Nishidate too?" she asked
"Why should we separate just because we are in high school...I thought I would be nice to go to the same school as you!" she answered a little embarrassed, Shinozuka didn't look too happy about this and said
"really?...but will you be able to handle it academically?"
"Why not? I will try my best!" said Ayumu with a big smile
"So please I am going to need all your notes!" she asked bowing
Shinozuka gave her what she asked so Ayumu got home with a pile of notebooks that she has to recopy so that she can give those back to her friend later as she dis so she thought
-Shi-chan wasn't as happy as I thought she would be...maybe she was just worried about me after all I said I would do something impossible-
However after a while she fell asleep on her chair when she woke up her shoulders were stiff so she thought about taking a little break and headed for the kitchen to take glass of milk there she found her mother tutoring her brother Makoto while her little sister was drawing on some paper on the same table
"wow you did well!" Fumiko commented as her son did a very difficult math problem before saying to Akane
"great job Akane! Your rainbow is perfect"
"thank you mom!" she said happily at this Ayumu felt a little ignored so she got to the table and glanced at Makoto' s homework and gasped, it was the same type of problem she did in class
"Middle school exams aren't this tough" she exclaimed only to get a glare from her brother, since their dad left Makoto had always put the blame of that on Ayumu only because she always got shouted at for getting bad marks and that is why he always studies, he fears that his mother would leave him if he didn't ace at school.
"don't interrupt him he is solving some problems!" answered back Fumiko, Akane didn't do anything because she was too focused on drawing
"alright" said Ayumu as she got to the fridge to get some milk when she noticed that there was no milk so she said multiple times
"hey Okaa-san, there is no milk" but she noticed that her mother wasn't paying any attention on her so she said
"Okaa-san I am going to take the exams for Nishi high" that really caught the family attention
"really Onee-chan that Nishi high next to my new school!" exclaimed happily Akane, who really wanted to spend time alone with her big sister but her brother and mother were making it very hard since they were always glued to her and she didn't wanted to turn them away, so if her sister was going to the school next to hers then they would be walking together every morning.
"Onee-san you are kidding right?" said Makoto
"Nope I am serious" she answered
"I glad that you are inclined to try but isn't that impossible for you, Ayumu?" she said before getting her attention back to Makoto the same did Akane, who was a little disappointed, with her drawings.
Her mother words really hurt her so to prove her wrong she got a lot more determinate to get to Nishi high, to do that she decided to study day and night but she really could not stay awake till one day she listened causality to a radio conversation about a boy who hurt himself with a mechanical pencil to stay awake at night in order to study so she decided to try that trick herself, it worked.
After a while she started to get better marks then Shinozuka, who didn't look too happy about that and Ayumu sensed it.
The day of the test came so Ayumu and Shinozuka were heading to Nishidate high to try it but
"All of these people are taking the test!" exclaimed Ayumu
"some of them failed last year's" continued Shinozuka this made the other girl very worried
"hey Shi-chan even if we go to different high schools...we'll be still friends right?" asked Ayumu at this Yuko turned to her and shouted
"of course high school won't change anything!"
"by the way you worked harder then anyone have confidence in yourself" she continued giving her friend a boost of confidence then when the two of them were about to separate
"hey Shi-chan wait!" said Shiba trowing something at Shinozuka who took it it was a fortune charm at this they smiled each other and said
"good luck!" before going to the room they were assigned to.
Day of the graduation ceremony
Ayumu was looking for Shinozuka cause she wanted to take a picture with her, she found her near a balcony of their class
"Hey Shi-chan let's take a picture together!" she said
"Why do we have graduation before they announced if we passed the exams! I can't enjoy because I am still worried!" protested Shinozuka
"but I wouldn't like the other way around either, the exam it's already over so I can't do anything about it! " she continued
"Hey let's just forget about it for today" said Ayumu
"I can't forget about It! When I tried to figure out my score after the test I found out that have barely made the cut off...I think I got a 240" exclaimed Yuko tears on her eyes so Ayumu trying to cheer her up said a lie
"I think I got a 235" at this Yuko turned to her
"you don't have to worry, the test was really hard this year everyone did badly!" she continued at that her friend looked more relaxed and said
"thank god that is such a relief, I am so silly!" after that they made someone take a picture of the two of them together little did they know that it would have been the last.
The next day the results were out and like always Ayumu and Shinozuka were going together, one last time, to their school to see them and the most shocking thing happened Ayumu passed but Shinozuka didn't.
"How did you pass and not me!" she said before storming off Ayumu didn't dare to follow her
When she got at home her little sister was the first to congratulate with her, then also her mother who couldn't have been happier even Makoto made a sign of approval, everyone was happy for her success but herself, it was true that thanks to that her family wasn't going to ignore her for a little while but because of this she lost her friendship with Shinozuka so she wasn't feeling very right about that and so when she was alone she started to stabbed several times her own hand with her mechanical pencil.
The next day she decided to go to school so that she could warn her teacher about her passing the test but she encountered Yuko on the way
"you were trying to be nice Ayumu" she said
"...when you figured out your score it was actuality better then mine, wasn't it? You just didn't say so" she continued
"...I am sorry" was all Ayumu could reply back, just then Shinozuka trowed something at her, it was the fortune charm that she gave to her
"...you were a such a burden to me...If it weren't for you I would have gotten in I would have definitely gotten in!"
she said before saying something she was going to reject a lot later on along with others
"it would have been better if you didn't exist!" she said before going away, each word was like a needle inside Ayumu' s heart.
Because of that when Ayumu got home, since no one was inside, she got to her room and went crazy first she got a photo of her and Yuko then she got a pair of scissors and stabbed her own image with it before cutting her hair with it, while doing this she started crying and screaming but she also accidentally cut her left cheek, relived by her pain she took a razor blade and cut around her left wrist four times only when she did that she calmed down.
Afterwards she bandaged her wrist and put a band-aid to her face and before her family would notice she cleaned up the mess of her room
-Author note-
there it is the prologue of the first story I wrote on this site, by the way if you haven't noticed already I mixed up the Manga with the Drama and added some stuff because if I would have made a story identical to the original it would have been boring to read...well this prologue was really boring to do mostly because it's almost the same as the manga but don't worry it's really a different story and that's because the presence of my OC Sanaki Bushido who changed a lot of stuff...for example thanks to her Sonoda didn't lose a year so he is not in the same class as Ayumu anymore!
by the way I hope you got the little clues I left in the prologue for the future...
There is the preview for Chapter one:
New friend and food poisoning.
Ayumu is really trying to stay alone but Manami Anzai set her eyes on her and along with her friend Sanaki Bushido they try to get her friendship by having lunch with her but a little accident gets Ayumu to the infirmary room...what the hell happened!