Chapter I: Homecoming

"Hey, sis. I just got off from the train. I'll be waiting in Terminal B."

"Cool. I'm on my way. I should be there soon," GoGo typed on her iPhone and press "Send."

"Damn it," she said, slumping back into her seat. She could not believe her good fortune of getting stuck in dead traffic in the middle of a freak thunderstorm. Stuck and surrounded by cars on all sides, it look as though she would not be able to move for a while. Must be some sort of accident up ahead she wondered. She felt gracious for Wasabi in letting her barrow his car after promising him ten times that she'd keep it as immaculate as she found it. She reminded herself to throw away the empty bottle of soda once she reach the train station.

Figuring that it would be some time before she be able to move, she set the car into park and turn the volume up a bit on the radio, drowning out the drumming raindrops around the car and settle herself in for a potentially long wait. If she was going to get stuck in the middle of traffic, she wasn't going to die of boredom anytime soon. However, instead of listening to the song, her mind traveled back in time to figure out how all of this had come to be.

It was just last week on Sunday when she received a vague message from her father, all the way from her hometown on the other side of the country, that Akira, her younger brother, was in the hospital. It didn't go into any details beyond that, but he assured her that he's doing okay and that he'd pay for her train ticket for her to come back home ASAP. Taking up on it, she immediately let her school know of her family emergency and her friends offered to help her out, taking her back to her apartment to hastily pack her luggage and drive her to the train station. They gave her brother their best wishes and she boarded the last train of the day and, for that entire ride that lasted all night, she finally dropped her cool composure. Her mind wreak with fear and trepidation, she wondered could have happened to her baby brother.

On Monday morning, she arrived at her hometown, the first time in three years since she left for college. She hardly slept a wink but she didn't care. She found her mother and father waiting for her at the station and they quickly made their way to the hospital. The entire time, while her father drove, she noticed how silent her mother was, looking out in front through the windshield with a blank stare, uncaring of what was ahead. It was eerie for GoGo to find such a distant look from such a lively personality that she had known all her life. She asked repeatedly what had happened but they seemed reluctant to say anything, like they are were trying to understand what just happened themselves. Finally, her father explained that yesterday morning, he found Akira inside of his bedroom closet, having hung himself with his bed sheet. Luckily, he wasn't there for a long time before any permanent damage could occur. However, it did nothing to console GoGo's anxiety. In fact, it only heightened her fear with the fact dawning on her that her brother tried to take his own life.

She jumped out of the car before her father could park, running all the way to the front lobby. Impatient, she demanded to see him, wanting to see with her own eyes that Akira's truly okay. It wasn't until her parents caught up with her that she stopped before she went hysterical and she followed them inside, walking through the maze of hospital corridors and elevators until they finally reached his room. He had his eyes close when she went to his side and sat next to him. At first, she thought that he might be dead until she gently moved some strands of hair from his eyes and he opened them, looking straight up at her, and a small, sad smile formed on his lips.

"Hey, sis," he whispered. It was enough to make her cry while she held him tightly.

All Monday and into Tuesday, the question of why he would try to take his own life became the dominant topic, but no matter what they say, even with assurance that still love him, he refused to say anything. He often turned his head away, which he does when he didn't want to say anything that he refused to say. It was then that her parents start to wonder if what had happened at school recently had anything to do with it. It was then that GoGo first learn about Akira's recent troubles in school where he was involved in a fight with another boy that resulted in his three day suspension a month ago. This came out of left field for her to hear because Akira never told her about it and she never thought that he it would happened to him because of his quiet personality around school. After the incident, her father tried to talk to the boy's parents about it, but it didn't go anywhere, and with Akira's silence on the whole matter, the nature of the fight remained a mystery. Not even the school knew what it was about, but they suspected that somebody must know.

Wanting to get the bottom of the whole thing, they got the police involved to do an inquiry of the whole matter. It wasn't until the next day on Wednesday that they reveal some startling information. Apparently, according to some of the students that were willing to talk, the boy that Akira got himself into a fist fight had been bullying him along with some other kids for quite some time, about three months or so, and the reason for it was because of rumors about Akira's sexual orientation. While her parents were confused about it, GoGo quickly understood what it meant, but it made her stomach churn. Has this been happening the whole time without my knowing? she wondered. For the rest of the day, she sat next to her comatose brother. He stubbornly defied to look at anything except for the ceiling, uninterested in the whole world around him, much less his sister. She talked to him, knowing that he would be listening, telling him of what she had learned, including the rumors that circled around him that ultimately led to what happened.

Tears flowed from his eyes and he hid himself underneath the white bed sheets in a vain attempt to make himself disappear. She told him, repeatedly, that she didn't care whether he was gay or straight, that she'd always love him no matter what. She held on to him, allowing him to let out a cry that lasted all night. On Thursday morning, he was ready to talk.

In the presence of GoGo, his stunned parents, the police officers, and someone from the local newspaper, Akira talked about how the boy, a popular basketball player, had one day came up to him during art class and asked him for help with an art project. For Akira, it was odd for someone to just walk up and talk to him. In school, while he held a reputation for being a talented artist, he was more so known to be a very shy and quiet student. With no friends, he was an above average student who mostly kept to himself. After that, Akira continued to help the boy with his projects and, soon, a friendship was struck between them, the two bonding together with discussions they shared together like video games. But, it never traveled outside of the class until the boy actually invited Akira over to his home on the weekend. "Just to hang out," the boy had said to him.

Their parents immediately remembered that day and they talked of how happy they were that Akira managed to make a friend at school, but he never told them who it was. He left home just in the afternoon and came back at around four after a couple of hours. Asked further about what happened, Akira was reluctant to answer, but a loving squeeze of his hand from his mother and an assuring pat from his father gave him the courage to press further.

The boy's parents weren't there nor were any of his other friends. It was just the two of them, alone. They just played video games for that entire, nothing out of the ordinary, until the boy offered Akira some beer. Wishing to impress him, he drank three cans of it and became intoxicated. When pressed furthered about what happened next, Akira confessed that his memory was fuzzy, but one thing stood out and that was when he kissed the boy, firmly on the lips. It was immediately afterwards that he was thrown out of the house and he came back home, still feeling drunk and slept for the rest of the day. It was the next day at school that the bullying began. Their parents admit that they suspected that he was drunk when he arrived home that day, but they didn't say anything about it, but they never knew anything about the bullying until now.

It seemed that it was enough for the police and they finished up with the questions and thanked Akira for his courage. They explained that they do not know what they would do next, figuring that they could charge the boy for aggravated assault, but Akira asked them to not to do anything, that he wanted all of it to just go away. After they left, however, the newspaper reporter wasn't completely satisfied and had one more question for Akira. "Would you describe yourself as a homosexual?" the man said.

Akira seemed stumped by the question and he looked at his parents and GoGo for help. Figuring that it was enough, their father sent the man away. After that, the family thought the nightmare was about to be over. However, on Friday, it had only just begun.

When the story broke out in the local newspaper, the response was quick and decisive from many of the town's citizens. While there were some support for Akira, expressing sympathy, other more vocal voices, including the boy's father, accuse the newspaper of being bias and called Akira's "kiss" a form of sexual assault and demanded that Akira be label as a sex offender. Getting some nasty letters that called Akira all sorts of terrible names, GoGo felt that it was time for her to have a word with this boy.

Getting to the house, she found the boy in question in his backyard along with his friends and they, at first, called out to her to join them. She ignored it and demanded to talk to the boy alone, which he happily obliged. They stepped away out of sight from the others and she talked to him about what had been happening recently. He didn't seem at all bothered by what was going on. In fact, it was almost like he was relishing the attention being heft upon him from people seemingly more concern for his wellbeing than Akira. Getting straight to the point, GoGo ask if everything that Akira had said was true, and he confirmed it, including the bullying, for which he held a proud look on his face. It took all of her willpower not to strangle him.

"Were you that upset over a little kiss?" GoGo asked. "To go and bully him to the point of him nearly committing suicide?"

"I wouldn't mind it if it was from a cute girl," he said. "Not from some faggot."

With the urge to not punch him in the face, she had one last curiosity she wanted to know about. "What was the first thing that happened when you two meet up again in school after that kiss?"

"He said that he was sorry for what he did."

Surprised by the news, Akira had never said anything about it, she went up into his face and gripped his shirt, nearly lifted up from the ground. "Then, why the fuck did you have to bully him? Did you do it just for kicks?"

The boy only shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah," he said as if it was no big deal.

GoGo didn't realized what just happened until she found the boy reeling on the ground, holding onto his nose and groin with blood seeping through his clinched fingers over his face. But, unlike her brother, she was not in the mood to apologize. "Go to hell, you little piece of shit!" she screamed and quickly walked away, fighting back her tears while his cries were like music to her ears.

On Saturday, Akira was well enough to be release from the hospital, but they had to leave through the back because of some of the press waiting outside asking for questions. All Akira wanted was to go home. With no police meeting with the family during that time, GoGo assumed and trusted that the boy's pride, and him not knowing who she is, would keep him from saying anything about it and figured that she didn't need to tell her parents or Akira of what happened. After they arrived home, the elephant in the room was finally discussed, pertaining to Akira's future in the town, if he even still had one.

If there was one thing her parents and GoGo agreed on, it was that Akira could no longer attend his current school and that he would transfer to a different one. But, to which one, they did not know. The closet school required a bus ride and Akira had to walk three miles to reach one of its designated stops. Akira said that he was fine with it, but his mother, fearing for his safety, said that it was out of the question and that she would drop him off and pick him up every day if she had to. However, because of the news spreading out so quickly even in a small community, GoGo felt that there will be other people who might not be welcoming towards Akira judging by how many people were reacting to the story, including many of the students in other school who had sent death threats to their home. It was a big wake-up call to GoGo, having lived all her childhood in a town with so many happy memories, to discover it to be so close-minded and it broke her heart to see the town in its true colors. After some reflection, they all came to the painful decision that the best option was for Akira to leave and to live with GoGo in San Fransokyo. She whole-heartedly agreed to it without any second thoughts.

She took the train back to the city on the next day Sunday, having discussed and made plans with her parents for the move with a timeline, as well as locating a psychiatrist for Akira to see once in the city. It was more work put on top of her hefty school work, but she took it in stride because it was for Akira's sake. She felt that she owe it to him after staying away from him for so long. After Akira finish with his finals in school, he would be ready to take the train bound for San Fransokyo.

A horn blared above the loud music and she looked around to find cars slowly moving forward. "Finally," she said. She placed the gear into drive and began moving along with the traffic. She wondered what Akira could be doing right now to skip the boredom. Maybe reading a book or playing on his DS.

It was rather incredible that the two were so much different from each other and yet be siblings. While she's more interested in the science, he gravitated towards the arts. She spoke her mind while he reserved his opinions, when it came to strangers. She's the athlete and he's the bookworm. However, that didn't stop the two in having a close-knit relationship.

They talk to each other every month, something that can go on for hours, mostly just shooting the shit, which made her realize that they rarely ever talked about Akira's personal life like his school or him in general. On her way back home on the train, she looked through every single message that she received from him within the couple of years and recall every phone conversation she had with him, trying to find any clues that she could have missed that hinted at his suffering. None came off as worrisome, almost like he didn't want to burden her with his troubles, to convince her that everything was, in his own words, "hunky-dory" when in reality it wasn't. She felt exasperated and hateful, not only at her hometown, the people (many of whom she knew her whole life), the school, and the damn bully, but, most of all, at herself.

In the three years since she first moved to the city to attend the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, she had never attempted to return home because it proved itself to be too expensive for her to make the round trip along with the constant school work, along with her main project, keeping her occupied even on breaks and vacations, so she had missed birthdays and Christmases, so many chances lost to actually be with her family, especially with her brother, only watching him grow through images and videos sent to her. She love her life in San Fransokyo, of how it allow her to follow her passion and dreams, to let her be who she wanted to be, but she missed Akira so much. And, after nearly losing him over something so stupid, it took everything inside of her to not break down in the entire time after she came home and waited for him to come. She need to stay strong for Akira because, starting today, she would be his guardian. He needed her more than anything.

The traffic picked up speed, the congestion starting to clear up with more room between the vehicles and the rain continuing with its downpour, pounding onto the windshield with the wipers at full tilt, swinging back and forth to clear her vision. She want to get there fast. She finally arrived at the station twenty minutes later, pulling up to the sidewalk and parking in front of the entrance that lead to Terminal B underneath the huge awning that kept the rain off. She turned the car off, got out, and headed for the revolving door, it endlessly spinning with people entering and exiting through it. Inside, she scanned the packed area from side to side until she found him sitting in one of the front row seats, playing on his DS, looking like he was trying to disappear from the busy world around him with his white headphones covering his ears.

For a kid who valued the arts, he had simple taste. Just turned fourteen, he certainly had grown much, but he was still shorter than her, standing just below her shoulders. His moppish black hair covered much of his forehead with his huge-rimmed glasses settling on his face underneath. His purple hoodie jacket hung on him loosely, a size too big for him, and his blue jeans showed years of wear with some lost colorization and little spots of glued-on dirt and small tears along his pant legs, contrast to his clean black sneakers that look brand new. They might be a good-bye presents from their parents.

She walked up to him and playfully kicked his foot and he looked up at her. She smiled at him. "Hey," she greeted him.

"Hey," he said indifferently with a matching expression and he placed his DS and headphones into his book bag in the next seat.

"How was the train ride?" she asked.

"It's was fine."

Going silent, she was hoping that he would be a little excited. After all, it was his first trip to San Fransokyo. But, then again, given the circumstances surrounding the whole thing, she understood why he wouldn't be happy about it. His home was no longer his home anymore, an outcast to say the least. It may not be a happy occasion, but she was glad to see him nonetheless. He stood up with his book bag over his right shoulder and she reached out to him, enveloping him into a big hug. He quickly hugged her back, though not enthusiastic, but she still felt his love while he squeezed her hard like trying to hold onto a life preserver. He's afraid she surmised.

"I promise, Akira. Things will be much better for you here," she said, fully believing in her conviction.

"Okay," he said, sounding a little hopeful. She kissed the top of his head to seal the promise and to let him know that she was happy to have him here regardless.

Letting go of their hug, the two started headed out towards the revolving door with GoGo holding Akira close to her with her arm around his shoulders. "So you did cut your hair," Akira said, looking up at her like he was discovering it for the first time. "And you dyed it a bit."

"Yeah," she said. "Did it in my second year. It was getting in the way. Bit of a safety hazard."

"Looks really nice."

"Thanks," she said, smiling. She found it a good start and she rubbed his messy hair. "Maybe we can give you the same treatment."

"It's fine," he said, pushing her hand away.

"We can go do it right now. I think blue would look great-"

"I said it's fine, Tomoko," he said, forcefully.

Maybe not she thought, dropping the matter. Just give him some time to adjust. This is a big change for him after all.

"Okay, maybe some other time," she said. "And, the name's GoGo now."

He looked back at her with a cocked eyebrow. "GoGo?"

"Yeah, a nickname that a friend gave to me from college."

"It's pretty silly, especially for you."

"I know."

"So, why are you using it?"

"It grew on me."

Stepping through the revolving door outside, the rain had begun to disperse and sunlight peeked out from the gray clouds. I hope this is not some bad omen disguised as a sign from above that things will get better GoGo thought. She led Akira to the car and unlocked the front passenger door. She let him inside and quickly hopped into the driver's. Akira, all buckled up, tapped onto his iPhone and GoGo could see that he was typing a text message to their parents, letting them know that he arrived.

"Any place you want to go?" GoGo asked.

"I don't know anything about the city," he said matter-of-factly.

"There's lots of things you can do. We can go eat out, shop at the mall, catch a movie. Whatever you want."

Akira sat silently, looking out at the wetted windshield where tall buildings stood in the distance with more of the blue sky filling up the sky. "Maybe later," he said. "I just…" he paused and let out a deep sigh. "I just want to go home."

Without pressing it further, she turned the ignition and set it into drive. Pulling out onto the line and heading for the freeway into the city, she could see that the gray clouds were mostly gone and that the city glimmered gloriously underneath the sunlight like providence had gave its blessing. Akira didn't seem to notice it, silently watching the passing world through the window with his head propped up on the door. She hoped that what she said about things becoming better would not turn out to be a lie.