I have obsessive issues, I obsess over sibling stories. I believe it has to do with how easy it is to make, the character is half made, if you have background that the readers are familiar with, then it's easier for you to make a likeable character. It's overused but for a good reason. Now the whole twin thing, hehe, I'm just weird.
This chapter is like a prologue, it's to introduce the character, Tsuki.
Chapter 1: What's Up People
Is the meaning to living boring?
Often whilst looking at the clouds, I can see hope. Hope for a more exciting future. Hope for conquering every obstacle in my path. Hope for world peace. No, not that one, then the first one wouldn't occur. That was more important than anything else.
I believe my brother would prefer world peace, however he could want the same as myself. He was one puzzle I couldn't possibly solve, even though I knew him the best; I can tell when he lies, when he's genuine, or when he's fake. He can do the same for me. I know my brother like he knows me, and we know each other like a mathematician knows equations. I sometimes wonder if he can solve my own puzzle of a mind. I hope not, that wouldn't be fair.
As I think, he stares out the window of our classroom. He often does, and never pays attention. Why bother? I know I don't. However, if a teacher complained about either of us and our lack of attention, we were quick to recite the lesson word for word. They gave up on trying to catch us off guard by now, which saddened me, as it added a bit of challenge. Brother of course liked to not be bothered by the teachers.
So, if it wasn't obvious by now, we are two smart teenagers. Not just smart, I find that insulting, we're two genii. We're the top of our class, well, he's the top this week. I'm sure I'll make up for it next week. That's one difference between my brother and I, he's very competitive while I don't care. I don't like to be thought of as anything but a genius, but I also don't care if I get a lower grade than my brother or even someone else worthy of such a feat. I knew I was smart and that my brother and I were equal, I didn't need a test score to tell me that.
I wouldn't say we were equal on everything.
He was tall, handsome, and charismatic. His brown hair, several shades lighter than our parents and younger sister, swept across his forehead just above his eye. His eyes were constantly contradicting themselves, one second a nice shade of brown and the next almost red. He claimed my eyes were the same, but I don't believe him. His height was tall for an average Japanese male, and many of his friends had to look up at him. He wasn't gigantic though, just taller than our classmates.
I was tall, fairly pretty, and apathetic. My hair was the same shade as my brother, it stopped about mid-back. I was very much determined to believe that my eyes were just sepia, no scarlet hue in sight. I was tall as well, I could look my brother in the eye. I remember a time when someone tried to pick on me because of my height, 'giant' I believe is what they said, they quickly stopped when both my brother and I easily made them feel twelve inches tall.
So, maybe we were similar in many ways.
Except personality, he cared what people thought of him and I didn't.
The bell for the end of school rang and my brother and I got up to leave. Our classmates flocked to us, like bees to honey. I don't understand why they insist on including me in their conversations, it's my brother that knows what to say without sounding condescending.
"Yagami-chan, Yagami-chan," Someone called and I turned to the voice, finding a short girl trotting up beside me. "Yagami-chan, I was wondering if you'd be willing to help out at the tutoring sessions. One of our tutors dropped out last minute." The girl asked, out of breath.
"I'm sorry, I have other responsibilities to attend to." I answered only half genuine. I never will understand how my brother was so good at masking his genuine feelings from others.
"Oh, it's alright, Yagami-chan," She nodded and turned to my brother as we walked. "Um, Yagami-kun, would you be interested in helping at the tutoring sessions?" She bit her lip, nervousness dripped from her tone and her very posture. Hmm, no wonder she came to me first, she was a fangirl.
My brother put on his award-winning smile and looked to the girl. I could practically see her melting in my brother's palm. "I would love to help, but if it is today I will have to decline. Tsuki and I have important matters to address."
"O-Oh, um, it's okay, we understand. Thank you, for your time." She blushed and scurried off. I rolled my eyes.
"I wonder if you were someone important in another life, Light." I stated dully. His smile gone, replaced by an amused smirk, my brother chuckled.
"Who do you suppose?" He asked. I imagined he was someone like Tojo Hideki or even Mussolini. I don't voice those thoughts, it would be bad for his image if he was provoked. He was a Saint at heart, I know.
"Julius Caesar, or maybe Nero," I shrugged. He chuckled again, adding a roll of his red-brown eyes. In the afternoon light, they were rubies.
We walked in silence. It was always a comfortable silence. Getting lost in our own thoughts, yet still not without company. I sometimes wished that we were psychic, like the twins on cheesy sitcoms or movies, we could read each other's thoughts. If I could do that then my brother would no longer be the only puzzle I couldn't solve.
However, logic won out, being able to read Light's mind would make life that much more boring. Because solving Light's puzzle was the most entertaining thing in my life.
Our home was in sight, two-stories and completely normal.
We went in, slipping our shoes off and Light called to our sister and mother, announcing our arrival. Only a second later, Sayu bursted into the front hall and brought us into a bone-crushing hug. I smiled fondly down at her, Light laughed at her antics. "Welcome home, Onii-chan, Onee-chan."
"Hello, Sayu, how was school?" I asked.
What was interesting, was I was more willing to force polite conversation with family, but Light felt it was unnecessary. I felt forcing politeness with the public was unnecessary. In the end, it was I who dominated family oriented conversations.
"It was great, will you be joining Okaa-san and I in watching TV tonight?" Watching TV was something that I did a lot with Sayu and my mother. I didn't mind there company, even if the shows were mind numbing.
"Not tonight, Sayu, maybe tomorrow," I patted her on her shoulder and my brother and I headed upstairs.
We went into our respective rooms. At one point in our childhood, we shared a room, but as we grew older we both found it a better idea to have separate rooms. We still spent a lot of our time together, in almost unhealthy amounts, but we appreciated the option of being alone in our own space.
I dropped my bag onto my bed and stripped off my uniform. I immediately replaced it with a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, my docks swapped for a pair of fluffy green socks. My brother always made fun of my love for these socks, never in spite, just because it was odd. I wasn't exactly a colorful person with a colorful personality.
I started my homework, working on equations and writing many essays in both Japanese and English. I finished in an hour and got up from my desk chair and left my room. I went straight to Light's room right next door. He was clicking away on his computer, from the looks of it he was reading a news report.
"Hello, brother," I greeted and plopped myself on his bed. He hummed in greeting not looking away from the article. I could see the boredom on his elegant features and smirked. "Hey, Light, what if we just left." He paused.
"What do you mean?"
"After we finish school and university, we just left Japan, left Asia. We could go to Europe and drink tea with the French or British, or we could go to America and eat pizza and sub sandwiches. We could just be imperfect for a few years, become tourists." I smiled wistfully. I didn't actually want to leave like that. When I retired from a prosperous career in law, yes, I would definitely travel the world. Nevertheless, the idea of dropping everything and leaving to foreign lands sounded appealing.
He scuffed, "Are you being serious?"
"No," I answered honestly, "But what if I was."
"No matter how interesting that sounds, I think I'll save the traveling for my retirement years or for vacations." He replied amusement coloring his tone. It was sometimes scary how alike our thoughts were.
"I agree," I yawned and just watched him as he continued to read about the news. "The world isn't a very nice place anyway." I mused. He looked up and his brows came together.
He didn't say anything, just went back to his task.
Light, of all people, knew about my random thoughts. Sometimes I couldn't keep them in, he was the best person to spew this kind of stuff to, he never cared or commented. Light just listened. I appreciated that.
But… it was true, the world isn't a very nice place.
000
The next day went by just the same. Except I decided to doodle instead of letting my thoughts run rampant. I drew flowers, faces, designs, patterns, and every once in awhile I would attempt to draw my brother's face. It was utter crap of course, I had no talent in art, none whatsoever.
Before I could think of something else to sketch out, a paper was pushed onto my desk. I turned to see Light looking like the picture of innocence and boredom rolled into one. I looked down at what he gave to me and found a crossword puzzle. It was drawn in pen and on looseleaf paper, there were twenty words needing to be solved. I got to work.
I had completed fifteen of the twenty when the last class had come. The puzzle turned out to be in three different languages; French, English, and Spanish. I cursed him for using Spanish, he knew it was my least favorite of the three languages we knew, four if you counted our mother tongue.
I tucked the puzzle into my bag and headed off with the other girls.
Light and I had only one class we didn't share. That was gym. The girls had a separate gym class from the boys, ours was at the end of the day on Wednesdays and Fridays. The cold November air was a good reminder of the fall, so I and the class spent the time in the gym playing basketball. Yes, I understand I must sound like a girl who would rather not get sweaty or interact aggressively to anyone, but I loved sports. I don't know why, maybe because I didn't have to think. I could just play with the others in a mindless haze of sweat.
So, it didn't bother me that I had to go through the trouble of finding Light afterwards. It was worth it. I often questioned myself on why I had quit football*.
I found Light, outside. He was biting his lip, this worried me. He never revealed any kind of nervousness or anxiety in public. It made me quicken my pace to find out what had him so distressed.
"Light, what's wrong?" He looked up and released his lip.
"Hmm, nothing, why?" He sounded genuine. I didn't believe him for a second.
"Something is wrong, what is it?" I narrowed my eyes and he rolled his.
"I was thinking, probably getting caught up in my thoughts." He shrugged and I sighed. I wasn't going to push it, he would tell me eventually. I was confident in that.
The walk home was dull, Light was reading, no, rereading one of his novels. I think it was something English, I didn't care enough to ask which one. I just got lost in my thoughts, no matter how random they got.
In those thoughts, my eyes wandered to my brother's bag. Sticking out of the shoulder bag was a black notebook. I racked my brain for a memory of my brother owning a black notebook, I found none. My brother owned blue notebooks, one red, and they were spiral. So, I didn't know what this was.
Again, I was sure he would tell me.
To be continued…
Chapter song: What's up People by Maximum the Hormone. You will recognize the song if you listen to it. :D
For the sake of being a perfectionist and amazing (jk) the canonical plot will blossom in the very next chapter which will come very soon.
* this asterisk represents a note from me= I'm not going to assume you all are stupid, but just to be clear, the football in which Tsuki is talking about is soccer to us Americans. I just don't want to be culturally stupid and call it soccer when the character is Japanese and this is first-person.
REVIEW! pretty please ^_^