Because… It Was Fair
From the moment that Yoshiki had saw Ayumi, he was definitely sure he fell in love at first sight.
And frankly, Yoshiki wasn't one to actually believe that.
Having acted on honesty with a tinge of coldness through his whole life, he was forced to put up the strongest front when he had got kicked out from his parent's household with the excuse of having 'bad behaviour'. The delinquent remembered his little sister, Miki, crying as she grasped the air for his hands, being held back by their parents with cold glares plastered on their faces.
He was fourteen when he was erased off of the family tree of the Kishinumas permanently.
But that wasn't where his behaviour had taken a 180 degree turn and changed his personality completely, oh no. He had this habit of telling the truth to others since middle school, and everyone saw him as a harsh person because of that when he really was just saying what he truly thought of things; his own opinion. Yoshiki knew even from a young age that society didn't like that, but hey, rebels was what made the world go round, right?
Right.
Admittedly, it was hard when he had to find his own shelter and necessities. With the legal working age being 15 and he was only 14, he had to scavenge for scraps in dustbins, much to his distaste. Water, he simply drank from the nearby water fountains that were scattered around the park. Seeking for an actual proper shelter was difficult, only making room for shady trees or park benches to sleep on, be it rain or shine.
And as Kishinuma looks back on those days, he wonders how he didn't die from pneumonia.
In the very least, Yoshiki was grateful he was kicked out in middle of October, the date being the 19th; his birthday was on November the 8th.
Barely getting through middle school with good enough grades to get into high school, he eventually dropped out of the school he was at and moved to a school called Kisaragi Academy. It wasn't because of the fact that the school was all about fulfilling hopes and dreams and with the students getting all lovey-dovey together [exaggeration, might I add]. Yoshiki just wanted a damn school to go to and this was technically the cheapest and the nearest to his apartment that he got from the salary from working at a music store.
And so when he got into his very first class of Kisaragi Academy, it was expected that everyone gave an assumption that he was a delinquent. After all, he did dye his natural black hair to a bleached blonde tone, but this was only to forget about his past life with his parents and move on; not to give everyone the sign that he, Yoshiki Kishinuma, was a delinquent.
He was used to all the looks that he got, but there was this one teacher that infuriated him so much, that Yoshiki wanted to punch his teeth in. All of them.
It's a surprise that he hasn't done such a thing to Mikio Tsubota just yet.
Kishinuma nearly did so on the day when he got caught by the PE teacher smoking in the stall. He had skipped some of his classes that day; memories of the day he got kicked out of the household weren't very pleasing. So he took a cigarette between his fingers and lit it promptly with his lighter, before he stuffed it into his pocket as he placed the stick of cancer between his teeth.
He was just about half-way done too when someone started to hammer at the door.
"What the hell is with all this smoke I see? Kishinuma!" Mr. Tsubota yelled as he pounded on the door, each hit getting harder than the first. "Get the hell out of this stall, now!"
'Crap.' Yoshiki groaned quietly before he extinguished his cigarette and reluctantly unlocked the stall before he stood face to face the teacher.
"Now, what the hell did I tell you if I caught you smoking again, huh?! Expulsion from school, that's what!" he crossed his arms and gave a glare at the boy.
The bell chimed almost perfectly as soon as the teacher finished his sentence, ringing out to the entire school that it was time to go home. Yoshiki kept a blank stare as Mr. Tsubota gave out what sounded like a mix of a huff and a sigh.
"… Why are you even in this school, kid?" he said eventually, with his mind focusing on that particular topic. "Always causing trouble about the school; smoking cigarettes in the gym changing room and skipping classes, it's no wonder that your parents disowned you!" he growled, his towering figure making him look more in authority. "But that doesn't give you the right to cause such mayhem in this school, you got that?" he prodded a rough finger to Yoshiki's chest with a stern look on his face.
With no verdict from Yoshiki, he simply continued; an attempt to make him all riled up and to give him a chance to expel this kid once and for all.
"It's clear that you don't even like school, so why don't you drop out like all the rest of those people in the world? You're not even going to college with your home life as it is, so I really don't get it at all!" he suddenly let loose a bark of laughter before he stood straighter. "Wonder what it would be like to ask your parent's opinion on a no-good child like you, but they've never shown their faces since you first got here. Bet they're embarrassed of you tainting the family name!" he laughed even louder.
"Aha…" Kishinuma let out a forced chuckle, resisting the urge to seriously strangle the teacher to a nanometer of his life. "Let's just say that my parents aren't very proud of me, sir."
"Pah! You're not looking at the big picture, kid!" the PE teacher's expression morphed to a scowl. "Your parents are obviously trash at bringing a child up in this world. If I ever get a kid of my own," he jabbed his chest with his thumb to emphasise that fact. "You would bet my ass off that I wouldn't be as lax as your parents are to you!" he tsked, shaking his head as he did so. "Problem with parents these days are that they're just giving birth to a child like rabbits! Before they even become mature adults, they already have to take care of three or four children!" He gave an accusing point to Yoshiki. "And that's why they're so many assholes like you in this school; it's simply just bad parenting."
Greyish eyes move downwards as he bit his lip. As much as he hated his parents, they weren't bad. After all, it was because of Miki that they started to ignore him. And he couldn't blame her; she was the youngest in the family and deserved to be treated well. So for him to be disowned wasn't because of bad parenting, it was because they didn't reciprocate their love and affection to both of them.
'You know… he's still got one thing right…' he went through his thoughts with a slight narrow of his eyes. 'I don't even know the reason why I'm here. It's all so meaningless to me.' He gave a quick glare to Mr. Tsubota in front of him. 'I should just beat this jackass to an inch of his life before I drop out for good.'
And with that thought ingrained in his mind, he began to roll up his sleeves subtly as he moved closer to the Physical Education teacher with each step he took.
The idiot was still talking about bad parenting. What an asshole.
"Parents think that they're good little mommies and daddies if they pay up for their precious children's school fees and tuition, but that's all bullshit! Hahahaha!" he bellowed out a laugh before he noticed the boy getting closer with a menacing gleam in his eye. "Hey, what the hell is with that look in your eye?"
As he fully rolled up his sleeve to his shoulder, Yoshiki shrugged mentally in his mind.
'Never hit a teacher before… ah, well. First time for everything, right?'
Before he could even raise his arms to punch the lights out of the teacher, footsteps walked into the changing room and a voice echoed out.
"Mr. Tsubota?"
The teacher spun around to find the source of the voice and Yoshiki took the chance to crane his neck around the guy and look. A girl of no less than sixteen stood in front of the towering teacher; her cerulean hair styled in low twintails while she donned the Kisaragi uniform; a tan sailor outfit and a pleated dark blue skirt. Her sapphire orbs stared at him intently, eyes sparkling bright and full of energy.
"Ah, the class rep of 1-3. What's up?" Mr. Mikio said nonchalantly, as if Yoshiki had suddenly become invisible.
"The vice principal is seeking you out. He needs you back in the staff room for some paper work." She replied with a warm smile, tilting her head slightly.
"Right, thanks." He chuckled before he patted her shoulder and stared at her eyes. "You know, Shinozaki… you've got beautiful eyes. Always so alert and focused on the task at hand, haha!" he slapped the class representative on her back, who in turn flinched slightly before she regained her composure. "That's what makes you a good class representative doesn't it? Teachers like us love students like this the most. So tell you what, if you have any kind of issues, don't be afraid to approach Mr. Tsubota, okay?"
The PE teacher patted her on the head and ruffled her navy blue hair a little bit before he walked off, chuckling to himself. The smile on the sixteen year old face instantly faded the moment the adult went out of sight. A frown takes its place over as she huffs.
"It's people like those that I hate the most." She muttered, narrowing her eyes at the carpeted gym room.
Yoshiki let a small grin coat his lips before he scratched the nape of his neck.
"Thanks for getting me out of that." He sighed out in relief before he leaned against the stall door.
Her eyes locked onto his immediately, before narrowing even more.
"You're not any better, you know."
"Eh?" he let out a noise of confusion escape, a befuddled expression plastered on his face.
"You were obviously thinking about hitting him, weren't you? What, did you really think you could get away with your sleeve being scrunched up to your shoulder and the obvious anger in your eyes?!" she shouted at him, and despite her short stature, her voice was enough to make Yoshiki wince at. "To be expelled from school like a pathetic teacher like him would be so ridiculous! And you know you'll regret it later, even if you think it bites you in the ass over and over again!" the twin tailed girl stomped her foot in exasperation. "Just bite your tongue and keep it together, it'll be over when graduation comes about!"
She gave out a small sniff from her long speech, hurriedly swiping away at the small droplets of tears that gathered at in her eyes.
"..?! H-Hey…" he stuttered, pushing off from the stall as he casted his eyes around; he didn't know what the hell to do if a girl started crying. "W-Why are you crying?"
"Hnn… sorry." She gave a small bow of her head before gazing to the floor as her fingers fidgeted with the yellow ribbon on her sailor uniform. "Whenever I go on out like that on a speech… I tear up a little." The girl brought out her handkerchief to dab away the tears and wipe the fluid that leaked from her nose. "Aren't you Kishinuma from class 1-5?"
"Ah… yeah."
Almost immediately, she straightened up before she flashed her smile again.
"I'm Shinozaki from 1-3… as you heard from that jackass." She rolled her eyes before getting nervous again. "S-Sorry… for butting in like that."
"N-Nah…" he said, heart starting to pound from God knows what. "It's fine, really."
"Well, if you say so… later then." Shinozaki beamed before she turned her heel and walked away.
A sudden thought flickered through Kishinuma's mind before he called out after her.
"H-Hey! When you told him that the vice principal was calling… did you-?"
Shinozaki turned back with a small grin, a single finger placed on her lips as she turned again to skip off back to her home.
And as the footsteps fell into silence and Yoshiki was the only one left in the gym room, it was that very moment he smiled a genuine smile as he fell in love with the class rep from class 1-3. He closed his eyes briefly before he let out a small snicker.
"Heh."
~x-x-x- Because… It Was Fair –x-x-x~
And from the day that he had met her, he had made it his priority to see her every single day. It wasn't because of the looks, that he wanted to at least catch a glimpse of her in class or in the hallways; it was because she was the only one who stepped out from the shadows and reached a hand out to him; the only one to help him continue on.
And that spurred his efforts to try and get to know her.
By the end of the year, he ended up not even holding a simple conversation with her, only seeing the twin tails of her hair fly by down the corridor or corner as she helped the teachers or classmates with their work. He ended up disappointed, but hey, what were the chances that she was going to leave for another school? He could still see her next year when school comes back, right?
And damn right he got to see her.
She was in his class, for God's sake!
For once in his life, he had actually came to class early that day, but only because it was the first day of being in the class of 2-9. With clear intentions of getting the back seat of the classroom, he had seen a familiar figure in the back who was chatting up with two girls.
Cerulean hair. Hair styled into twin-tails. Those bright and attentive eyes of hers.
Yoshiki immediately backtracked before not-so-subtly searching for a desk near to Shinozaki's one. And almost as if it was a coincidence, there was an empty table seated just beside hers. Plonking his bag on the hook and thumping himself down on his seat, he decided to bury his head into the nest he made out of his arms, unwilling to go up to the twin-tail girl and probably embarrass himself.
"Kishinuma? Is that you?"
Said person had nearly jumped out of his skin as he turned to face the owner of the voice, who stared right at him with sparkling eyes. A moment's of hesitation, before Shinozaki gave a warm smile and a tilt of her head.
"It's nice to see you again, Kishinuma!" she smiled, giggling a little bit before extending her hand. "I hope you've gotten over that behaviour of yours in the previous year and have turned anew from the new semester."
The bleached blonde boy blinked before giving a nervous grin as he extended his own hand and shook hers promptly.
"Y-Yeah…" he gave a slightly more watery smile.
"Mmm!" she responded with a happy noise as she turned back to see her friends calling back for her. "Ah! S-Sorry!" she bowed at least 45 degrees before pointing to the group of her friends. "My friends are waiting for me so I have to go… unless…" she rubbed her chin before eyes gleamed with joy as she dragged Kishinuma out of his chair.
"H-Hey! What the hell are you doing?!" he sputtered out, choking slightly due to the fact that the twin-tailed girl had taken him by the collar.
"Well, since you've had problem with jackass last year and with having friends…" she smirked. "I'm going to introduce some of them to you. Whether you like it or not."
"Girls like you are crazy as hell!"
"What the hell did you just say?!"
"N-Nothing!"
From the day that Ayumi had forcefully made Yoshiki become friends with hers, ['What a beautiful name…' he grumbled to himself as he listened to her ghost stories. '"Walking her own way", huh? Damn right she's walking her own path…'] the tension between the bonds they had had become lesser by each passing day. It was all thanks to this scaredy-cat, Satoshi. He was the very first to reach out willingly in the group to him, while the others politely yet stiffly talked to Yoshiki, just in case he blew up from something they said.
Yoshiki then took to teasing Satoshi as a habit, enjoying Mochida's reactions as he groaned from the pranks that the former delinquent played.
And what with being closer to Ayumi, he still couldn't make a full conversation with her, despite the fact that he was in her social group. The feelings had started to tickle in his heart every single time he was around her and somehow he maintained his poker face whenever he sat next to Ayumi during class or lunch.
But he let down the very incredibly delicate signs when he was around her.
As time passed, he started to recognised the fact that the whole 'I'm going to scare you guys shitless with my stories' was a charade; a mask that Ayumi wore. Yoshiki knew that feeling very well and could tell the signs of it. The horror class rep, as class 2-9 dubbed her, was really just a girl who had plenty of insecurities to hide away by telling ghost stories.
So whenever he deemed suitable, he would give a smile to her for comfort or praise her for a job well done on making Satoshi emit a completely animalistic sound each time she got an occult story from the Internet.
Sometimes, he would offer his umbrella to her when she had forgotten to bring hers, and when he had forgotten his own, he would chuck his jacket over her head as he walked her back home with an earful of lectures and how he was being such an idiot and how he could catch a cold. Yoshiki would ignore all this as he waved goodbye, nonchalantly reminding her to bring back his school jacket as soon as they met back there again.
There was never a 'Thank you' or a warm smile after that.
But Yoshiki never minded that.
He would do all the petty little things for her and protect her if needed. Hell, he would probably sacrifice himself if it meant keeping her alive!
This was only because it was a fair exchange.
Ayumi had saved his life, forget his future, when she had stepped up and helped him avoid getting dropped out of school. She made him realise his possible potential, even with all the lectures he got from the occult crazy class rep.
And so even if she was so oblivious to it now… and he was scared to voice his feelings…
He would still keep protecting her; even if it meant his life.
Because it was fair.