Character: Jun Shiratori

Year: 1976

Title: Paper Airplanes

"Hey, hey, let's go to the park!"

"Wanna go play football?"

"Aw man, I have to go to cram school though!"

"Come around to mine! I've got that new game that's just come out!"

"Eh, really? I want to play it too!"

These are just some of the different snippets of conversations that take place each day after school. I don't take part in them. My classmates don't invite me round to their houses or ask me to go to the park with them. There aren't any offers for me to refuse or accept or argue over. I've never really had them.

Well, that's not entirely true. I do talk to some people in the class, and I kind of like most of them. I had a good friend once, Yoshi, but he moved away last year. And though, like I said, some people are okay, they aren't good friends like Yoshi. Maybe because I'm not that popular anyway. I'm not very loud or confident, and I'm not good at sports the way Maeda and Nakamura are. And I don't like getting into trouble, so I can't make jokes in the class that make everyone (even Iki-sensei) laugh the way that Sakaki and his sister can make jokes. Instead, I like to make things out of paper. Origami. I'm especially good at making paper airplanes. And I like to help with my father's shop when I can, which is a good thing, as he always says that I will be working there properly when I am older, sometime that's ages away, like after high school or something. But not many people in my class are like that, so I don't talk to them about it or anything.

It's okay though. I don't mind it too much. So, as everyone huddles together or rushes around to leave the building while making their plans for football or cram school or just hanging out, I quietly make my way out of the building. I say farewell to Iki-sensei, to be nice, and to some others from my year that I bump into on the way out. As I walk down the road, I wonder what to do. I have a little bit of homework, but it isn't that tricky, so it probably wouldn't take me that long to do. It's a nice day, too, the type of day that's good for sitting by the river bank and looking at the scenery. Perhaps fly a few paper airplanes too. So that's what I do.

When I get there, there are some boys from the year above throwing a basketball at each other, and some of the girls in my class, just sitting about with each other, twittering and giggling. The boys pay no attention to me (which I am glad of), but one of the girls, Kyouko, spots me.

"Shiratori-kun. A-are y-you coming t-to play?"

The other girls burst into giggles at this. This happens, sometimes, too. I've always had a bit of a stutter and it doesn't seem to want to go away. I often wish it would, though. It's horrible when other people mimic it. But I've eventually learnt to ignore them, so that's just what I do with Kyouko and her friends, walking further along so that I am far away from them. I sit down and pull my backpack off so that I can get my sheets of paper out to make a plane. It is easy now, almost like breathing, and so while I make the plane, I remember that the newest issue of the paper crafts magazine that my mother subscribed me to two years ago might be coming today. Apparently this one will be full of really, really difficult things to make, which will be quite fun. I like a little challenge from time to time. Having a challenge is good, apparently, because overcoming them helps you grow as a person, according to both Iki-sensei and my father. I sometimes think I haven't grown much as a person in that case, as most of my life is a challenge that I haven't overcome, but I think that maybe the paper craft challenges are the exception to that.

But thinking about that also reminds me of how lonely I am.

I don't mind how things are. I really don't. But sometimes, I wish I was invited around to play with people more often. That I didn't have a stutter that people like Kyouko teased me about. That I could be brave and popular just like Maeda, Nakamura or Sakaki and his sister. Or simply, that right now, I had someone to make paper airplanes with and talk about the new paper craft challenges I am going to try when the magazine comes. Perhaps even someone to race paper airplanes with too.

Once the airplane is finished, I stand up and look around for the best direction to aim it at. I don't want it to land in the river and get soaked, after all. Once I've decided, I draw my arm back and let it go, and the paper airplane soars, really high, and fast, and far. So far, that I start running after it, so that I can catch it when it lands, and then go back to where my bag is and start again. I think to myself that I could do this a few times more, and then go home. When you're doing something alone, it does get old quickly, no matter how much you like it.

The plane shows no sign of wanting to land, even after a while, and I continue running after it, wondering just how far it will end up going. A little bit of a breeze has picked up, which is probably helping it a little bit. Perhaps I will even be able to break a record.

Or perhaps not, because as I get closer, another boy suddenly appears and grabs the paper airplane as it starts to dip a little. I blink for a moment, and then I realise what just happened.

"T-That's my plane!" I protest, skidding to a halt in front of him and preparing to fight to get my plane back, even though fighting is not my strong point. But to my surprise, the boy's eyes just widen, and he suddenly thrusts the plane back at me.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know!"

"I-it's a-alright," I say, a little taken aback. "H-hey, do you g-go to M-Mikoto Elementary?"

The boy nods slightly, still staring at me as though I am a little scary. And now, he seems a little surprised, too.

"Yeah, I do! Do you? You're not in my grade, are you?"

"I'm i-in the f-fifth grade. What g-grade a-are you i-in?"

"Thirds."

"Third? N-no way!" Y-you're a-as tall a-as me!"

The boy reddens at this, and looks away. He doesn't speak for a moment, and when he does, it's just a mutter.

"Lots of people say that. That I'm too tall."

"N-no, I d-don't think s-so."

"Really?"

"Yeah, sure. It makes you look cool."

Though I am not sure why, I sort of feel sorry for him. But I mean what I am saying.

"O-oh. T-thanks."

He looks at me, again surprised. There's another silence while we both assess each other. He looks a bit like one of the more popular sorts of children, as he wears the sporty sort of clothes that Maeda and Nakamura do. But there is something not very sporty or confident about the way he stands, and he already said that he didn't like his tallness. And that expression he keeps pulling, it reminds me of…well, me. It's a very weird thing to realise. And for some reason, I find myself thinking this to be a good thing.

"Did you make that paper airplane?"

I blink, and realise the boy is pointing to the plane that is safely back in my hand.

"Y-yeah, w-why?"

The boy shifts from foot to foot.

"I'd like to know how. To make one, I mean, Could you show me how to make one? If it isn't too much trouble, that is, sempai!"

I gawk at him, then at the plane in my hand, then back at him again. It occurs to me that this is a chance to stop my loneliness. He might be a lot younger than me, which isn't what I expected, but I don't think it matters. After all, a friend is a friend, right? So I smile as winningly as I can, and hold out my free hand for him to shake.

"S-sure. I-I'd like t-that. M-My name is J-Jun by the way. Jun Shiratori."

"I'm Takeo Sasaki."

"P-pleased to meet you, S-Sasaki-kun!" I say, happily. He grins back, his face scrunching up as he replies that it's nice to meet me, too. I point out where my bag still is, and we go over there, and sit down on the grass. Then, I start to show my new friend how to make a paper airplane.

Welcome to my story collection for the ERASED fandom. I made the decision to launch it in the middle of #bdgimweek on Tumblr as that seemed fitting, but it is going to continue for a long time after that. In fact, this entire collection will have 12 stories when finished, all of varying lengths, perspectives and styles.

As you might have twigged from the story summary and the title, what all the stories have in common are that they focus around the characters at a point in their lives during fifth grade. There was some sort of logic as to why I decided this was enough of a theme to connect some characters (some canon, some OCs), to do with the fact that the pivotal events in the series relate to when Satoru was in fifth grade, but it's pretty muddled. In any case, all you need to know is all the characters will be 10 or 11 years old in the fics they feature in.

I was going to start this story with Kayo, as she is actually portrayed as a fifth grader, but I thought that as well as speculating about characters by going forward, it might be interesting to go back too. Hence, Yuuki-san being the subject of this first story (though of course, here he is not technically Yuuki-san yet). Kayo is the focus of the second story though.

In terms of updating, since I already have a long on-going fic for another fandom, this will be more of a side project which, when updated, will do so on Sundays. There is also an added layer to this- the three chapters I'm putting up now, I drafted by hand as I started this idea while I was away on holiday. So all the stories in this collection will first be hand-drafted before typing up. But I can tell you now that at the time of launching this officially, the fourth story is finished in its by-hand version, and the fifth is in the middle of being written. So this will definitely be seen through to the end.

So anyway, I hope you will enjoy this collection, and please leave some feedback!