It's hard to think that it's been this long… He reaches a hand out to glide across the wall in front of him. The brick feels rough, but so familiar. He can remember so much from just the touch of it. Like when he would take his shirt off on hot days and press his back against the cool stone or that one time when he ran face first into it trying to catch a rabbit. He smiles and breaths in the cool air around him. It's his old primary school, and god had he missed it. He smiled as he smoothed his fingers across the words engraved in brick. He can remember when they were made here in the small corner of the school, in the back near the playground. It's a bittersweet thing to come back to your childhood no longer a child. It baffles him how he could ever have been so very small, as to not be able to reach higher then these couple of feet of the ground. He stands up from his crouch.
Ken can't seem to figure out why he came here, perhaps to make sure he could still find it. It's not really a good idea, he would probably get in trouble if anyone knew he was here, but he doesn't think that anyone would remember him. In any case, it's far to cold for anyone to bother to come and happen upon him standing ankle deep in snow in the back of a primary school.
That was the only time he really enjoyed school. Back when it had been learning reading and arithmetic, how to share with others and play with others. After that, school just became a chore, something that he had to do when he wasn't playing soccer. God he missed those days.
Sighing, he starts to pull himself away from the building, and from is memories. The past is the past, and I can't do anything to change that, he thinks, I've just got to learn to except it.
It had been his day off and he was originally going to enjoy it playing with some of the kids he coached. Unfortunately it got to cold for that and Ken's day just got worse. First he missed his train back home -- the kids had wanted to play at park near their school, which happened to be quite a bit of a way from the shop -- and then on the next train he accidentally knocked someone's bags down and missed his stop trying to help pick up the scattered objects. Then to make things worse, when he finally did get off the train, he was even further from home then before. After finding out he'd gotten off at the wrong place, he'd already left the station and didn't have the money for another ticket. He'd only brought enough for two trips and he'd spent it all.
Fed up with it all, he decided to just wander until he found a phone to call for a ride. It would be embarrassing to have to explain what'd happened but he didn't want to be stranded -- there was no way he was walking all the way back. That was how he'd come across his old school. He was surprised he remembered it, even more surprised that it was still there. It brought back a lot of memories. It made him think about everything he lost, and how much he was missing.
He shakes his head to get rid of those thoughts, and little bits of snow that had started to accumulate there fly off too. It's about time I head home, he thinks.
Ken starts off in the direction of a payphone he saw a couple blocks down, and tries to think of how to explain how he got so lost in only a few hours to his teammates. Man, Youji will just love this, he thinks with a sigh.
Tbc...