1. Broken Crayons: How Everything Starts
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
He groaned, and did a violent flip to his side, facing the bedside table.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
His eyes still shut; he felt around and finally found the alarm clock. With unneeded force, he slammed the top of the alarm clock and it fell quiet almost immediately. He then pulled his thick blanket up his body — sure, he needed some adjustments…he just moved in, and the weather here was simply wet — it had been raining since yesterday evening.
After a few minutes, he found that he could no longer fall asleep. Sighing silently, he opened his blue eyes and stared at the wall right next to his bed. He touched it — it was cold. As cold as his life was…
Sighing again, he sat up slowly and did not do anything for a few minutes. The rain fell heavily and noisily on his roof. Almost against his will, he swung his long legs out of bed and started to walk across the room towards the bathroom. Thank godhe'd installed the heater yesterday, or else he had to go and boil some water before being able to take a bath… Jeez, moving to a new place was notfun…
He had his bath with his eyes half closed, dressed up with his eyes half closed, combed his blonde hair with his eyes half closed, and even drunk his coffee with his eyes half closed. It was when the cold rain touched his skin a bit did he opened his eyes fully.
Cursing a bit, he took his umbrella, and went, as usual, to work at the small grocery shop nearby. He just hoped Mr. Hokama was in a good mood today, for he knew he was about twenty minutes late already…
Talking about Mr. Hokama, he suddenly remembered the early days when he had first came to the shop to look for a part time job. Sure, he was still studying, but he was also living alone all by himself, so he needed money.
But Mr. Hokama was not convinced when he first saw him — blue eyes, blonde hair and a total foreigner, who would want to hire someone like that?But once Mr. Hokama heard him speaking Japanese, he agreed to hire him. Mr. Hokama apologised for being rude, but he was right — how on earth could someone work in a small Japanese village if he didn't speak the language?
Smiling sleepily at the memory, he quickened his pace. Mr. Hokama would surely kill him if he were late.
—X—
"Yes. Yes, sir —and he's done it again this time. No sir, no one's hurt." Frowning slightly, she glanced at the boy sitting across the colourful room. The boy had this very sour expression on his face and he was very wet. Her brown eyes then moved to observe the crying girl sitting at the corner of the room — far away from the boy —and sighed in dismay. "Sir, you will have to come here now,you are his legal guardian, am I right?"
"Yeah…yeah, I'll be right there,"said the worried voice at the other end. "But heis all right, isn't he?"
"He is not hurt, but he is wet — but you should really be worried about the girl that he had suddenly attacked instead," she said.
"Oh jeez — tell me the girl's all right — I'll be right there, say to him I'll be right there anddon't move a muscle until I get there!"
And he hung up. She sighed again. Being a kindergarten teacher was noteasy!
Aoi-chan was still crying. She'd contacted her sister already, and she, too said she'd be here — but the rain was pouring quite heavily, and she knew that that could slow Aoi-chan's sister down a bit.
She sat down next to the crying five-year-old. "Hey, Aoi-chan," she said, gently stroking her hair. The girl didn't stop crying. "It's okay…we can get you a new box of crayons soon… Just don't cry, we'll buy you a new one…"
"B-but that's…that's a p-present from my dad…!" the little girl moaned.
"So what? Ask your daddy to buy you a new one then, you cry baby!" the boy suddenly snapped. Aoi-chan cried again and she hugged her, whispering comforting words. She did notknow what the boy's problem was — he wasn't a student here at the kindergarten, and she had not seen him before until a few days ago. Clearly he was new here.
Aoi-chan had accidentally run into that boy one day when she was with her older sister. That boy was so angry that he came back the next day to shout at her.
And today, he had purposefully thrown her box of crayons to the wet ground when he overheard Aoi-chan talking about it being a present from her father.
"I'll go make some hot chocolate, okay?" she said to Aoi-chan, and she nodded. She stood and walked towards the boy. "And you're coming with me."
Frowning sourly, the boy stood, and tailed her to the small kitchen at the back of the building.
—X—
He stopped in his tracks as he passed the kindergarten.
"…Aoi-chan?"
His blue eyes frowning, he crossed the small road, walked past the gates of the kindergarten and stopped in front of the window. He knocked the glass window twice. The little girl looked up.
"Aoi-chan, aren't you supposed to be in class?"
The girl nodded slowly. Her eyes were wet and she looked very upset.
"What happened?" he pressed on.
"…M-my crayons are b-broken… And I — I'm waiting f-for my sister…"
"Does you teacher know about this?"
She nodded. "She's in the k-kitchen…making some hot chocolate…" When she said the words 'hot chocolate', he could see that she'd cheer up a tiny bit. "You work with my sister at Mr. Hokama's grocery shop, right?"
"Yeah…"
"…C-could you tell her to hurry up, please?"
He smiled, his blue eyes twinkling. "Of course I will. You hold on, okay? She'll be here soon."
—X—
The kindergarten teacher observed the boy as she prepared two mugs of hot chocolate. His expression did not soften up at all since he overheard Aoi-chan talking about her crayons. Right now, he was sitting on the chair, quietly frowning at the rain outside the window.
Whatever was wrong with him, she was determined to find out.
"Here you go," she said, handing a mug of hot chocolate to the boy. He stared at it for a while before taking it.
She didn't expect him to say it, but he did (although hesitantly), "…Thank you."
"So," she began, sitting down right next to him, "what's up?"
The boy frowned deeper — confused, maybe.
She smiled. "…Which one is it: you wanting a new box of crayons, or Aoi-chan being the annoying cry baby?"
Surprisingly, the boy blushed. Now, this was something new…
"It's…not that…"
"Then, what is it about?" she asked gently. The boy was about to answer when suddenly a small thunder was heard. This made him jumped a bit.
"Well, you just drink up first and wait for your brother to come, okay?" she said, smiling. She heard him mumble something, but she could not hear it. "I'm going to give this hot chocolate to Aoi-chan…you can wait here if you want to."
"No, don't leave—!"
She turned around, surprised. The boy blushed even harder.
"…I…I mean—"
Crack, boom!
The boy jumped again, and quickly moved as far away as possible from the window, where he could clearly see the lighting.
Ah…the boy was afraid of the thunder and lightning…
Which reminded her of…
—X—
"Morning, everyone," he greeted as he reached the shop.
"Oh, thank godyou're here!" said a worried voice. That worried person quickly moved from behind the counter. "Mr. Hokama won't let me leave until you come — today's supposed to be your shift too, anyway! Where have you been?"
"…I woke up late — and hey, Aoi-chan's waiting for you, she's—"
"I know, I know!" replied the other, her eyes filled with concern and worry. She quickly took her umbrella and small handbag. "Is she all right? Is she fine?"
He smiled at her. "She's fine, I've told her you'd be there soon."
She mouthed an, 'Oh, thank you' before pulling him into a hug.
"Thank you so much —I'll be right back!"
After ruffling his blonde hair playfully and kissing him on the cheek a bit, she left for the kindergarten, where her sister was waiting for her.
He sighed, touching the spot where she had kissed him.
Why did he ever put up with the wet weather and a hot headed boss again?
Oh yeah — she's the reason.
—X—
"Hey, I'm going out for a sec!"
"Where to, honey?" asked a lady as she appeared from the kitchen.
"The kindergarten — he's done it again — I'll be right back!" he answered, pulling on his blue jacket that matched his eyes so much, before lifting the umbrella to shield his blonde hair from the rain.
A/N:Confusing first chapter? I know.
Who is the blonde-haired-blue-eyed person who worked at Mr. Hokama's grocery shop? Who is the kindergarten teacher? Who is Aoi-chan's sister? Who is the boy who broke the girl's crayons, and who is his guardian, who also happens to be blonde and has blue eyes?
Find out in the next chappie! :D