Hello everybody! I have decided to not post this as a one-shot story and make it a multi-chapter occasion. I just see way too much potential in this and want to see how far I can go with the random thought that started all this. After all, all of the stories I made on here came from a single random thought and morphed into something that I like, so this shouldn't be any different in that accord.
Anyway, let me just give a quick warning in saying that this chapter and the rest after this will not be in the first person view as the first chapter was. I did that for a reason that I will reveal a bit later into the story. That's just a heads-up for those wondering why it suddenly switched into a different form of narration.
With that out of the way, let me just make a quick shout out to the people who reviewed my story.
To Ms. IV:
Thanks for being my first reviewer, and I'm glad that I was able to give you a new idea from the first chapter. And why not post it here on fanfiction? I would really like to see what you got going for this idea that I helped inspire. Anyway, hope to see some updates to your story soon.
To PrinceNoctis:
Thanks for the comment. It really was just one random idea that I came up with after watching that sad hospital scene that I talked about in the last chapter. I won't mention the specific point since some readers here probably never played that far and don't want it mentioned. But yeah, I just couldn't help adding more to this story, and now I'll be making it into a full-blown story.
Now that all that is out of the way, I'll let you all go ahead and start reading. I would really appreciate any and all reviews that you might leave. They are always helpful in that they give me support and, on occasion, point out things that are wrong I failed to catch. And on that note, until the next update to this or any of my other stories on this site everybody!
Chapter 2: A High School Loner's Typical Day
For sixteen-year-old Yosuke Hanamura, having to constantly attend school on a daily basis was a lot like being forced to suffer through a terrible and unjust punishment he never deserved. That was how he felt about it every time he found himself riding along on his red-orange bike through the student-filled streets of Inaba in the early school mornings.
Why do I have to put myself through this everyday by going to school? he thought sarcastically before letting a bitter sigh leave his lips as he felt his face turn into a scowl. Oh, now I remember. It's because I can't go cutting school without having to hear my parents give me a speech about the importance of not missing school whenever possible. That's really the last thing I want right now.
For the whole of his trek to his school, the teen had this thought running through his head while trying to banish it. No matter how hard he tried to think of something else, however, it always somehow managed to come back to him as a ghost normally would to a person living inside a haunted house.
Unfortunately for the teen, these thoughts tended to make him become a bit detached from everything that was happening around him. Put that in combination with the fact that he was still riding on his bike meant that it was a recipe for inevitable and unavoidable disaster. And on top of all this, today just happened to be both a rather cold and windy day that forced him to ride against the strong winds. These things just made the chances of a disaster taking place all the greater.
Before he could pull himself out of his musing thoughts to prevent such a thing from happening, it was rudely done for him when he felt himself crash into something and thus falling hard onto the concrete ground. He did not even have the time to try and break his fall and landed flat on his chest with a grunt of surprise. And as if that were not enough, his backpack that had been hanging on his back and filled with school books somehow managed to bonk him right on the back of his head. At least his head was already on the concrete and avoided a smack with his forehead, but it still really hurt.
"Damn!" he cursed through a low groan of pain as he peeled his backpack away from his head and rubbed at the sore spot beyond his brown hair that looked kind of orange under the sunlight. He figured that if he were unlucky enough, a knot was most likely going to form there by the time he got himself to school. It was then that he finally realized he had crashed right into a telephone pole and miraculously managed to miss hitting it with his body when he was sent flying from the impact. He then asked himself in a low grumble, "Why does stuff like this only happen to me?"
After wallowing in his bad luck for a few more seconds, Yosuke finally peeled himself off of the concrete ground. He never expected anybody who happened to have passed by, which was a lot of people at this time, to help him up. They did not even cast him a second glance as if he were just an insignificant member of society compared to the rest of them. It had been like that since he had his first bike mishap on his first day going to school, so he quickly learned to never expect any kind of help from anybody.
"Hope my bike came out better than I did in this crash," he murmured under his breath with a somewhat sad sigh as he walked the couple of steps to where his bike laid on its side after the collision. After his chocolate brown eyes that seemed to hardly reflect any care to the situation quickly examined his only means of transportation, he saw that it seemed perfectly fine save a few scratches along the side that had appeared as a result from crashing to the ground. "Good, it still looks alright. Last thing I need right now is to figure out that I have to be getting up earlier just to walk to school."
With a near inaudible growl of frustration escaping from the back of his throat, the teen cleaned his black pants and straightened out his white school-issued shirt before mounting his bike once more and continuing on to school. This time, he tried to keep his mind on the ride and not allow himself to be distracted from his thoughts on why he felt that going to school was nothing but an unneeded punishment. It was not an easy feat to perform with how his current mindset was wired, but he somehow managed to make it happen and arrive on the school grounds without further incident.
However, his mind somehow managed to make its way back to the thoughts that had gotten him into such a painful predicament the moment he dismounted and started to chain his bike to a bike rack. It went back to the reason why he hated going to school more than the average teenager did. Then again, he could not really blame himself for remembering about it since the reminder of it was practically all around the school like a bunch of annoyingly bright neon signs that you could not tear your eyes away from.
Everywhere around him were both the sights and sounds of people congregating with each other the moment they enter the school grounds. Some talk animatedly with each other about current events and things only they would know of, others simply exchange verbal and physical greetings before going into the school building together. Whichever way people decided to meet up together, they all did it with a smile that only seemed to grow brighter once reunited for another school day.
"Is it possible to feel claustrophobic by all these people's smiles around me?" Yosuke asked in a whisper low enough for only him to hear yet bitter enough that anyone who could have heard it would wonder if the words themselves held some kind of deadly venom. He then added as he continued on with his current task, "It's like they're all trying to make fun of the fact that I don't have any friends and have a hard time making them. I wish I could be anywhere but here right now."
He had made it a habit to make small talk to himself during his middle school years since that was when he moved from place to place in just a matter of a couple of years. He knew that this would probably label him as a sad teenager at best and insane at worst, but it was his way to cope with the loneliness. However, he noticed some time ago that it was starting to lose the effect he had used to comfort himself in his lowest and loneliest of times. Still, old habits are pretty hard to break when done for so long.
"Damn it; why isn't this stupid thing locking up properly?" he suddenly swore loudly as he was fiddling with his bike chain lock he was kneeling next to and clearly not succeeding in getting it to lock up. A few students who happened to have been nearby looked towards his direction to see what the commotion was all about, but they quickly continued on with whatever it was they were doing upon seeing that it was nothing interesting. Amazingly, any teachers who happened to also be nearby paid no attention to the shout and instead seemed too engrossed with what was in their hands or whatever else that was on their mind. "Why is everything working against me this morning?"
After spending a couple more minutes messing with the lock and muttering a few choice inexplicit words under his breath, the teen finally heard the satisfying sound of the bike lock locking into place. With his lips twitching into a half-smile that clearly contradicted the current look still reflected in his eyes, he got to his feet and shrugged his shoulders a bit so as to make the straps of his backpack rest more comfortably on him. He then made his way to the front doors that would lead him inside the school where he was to serve out his punishment from now until mid-afternoon.
Unfortunately for him, the morning still saw it fit to incur harm upon him for no apparent reason. Without knowing it, his shoelace had somehow become undone. He stepped on it with his other foot and inadvertently fell flat on his face with a yelp of surprise for the second time that morning. At least his head was spared from anymore injury this time around.
"Why me?" he exclaimed out loud with a growl that sounded almost feral in nature. Once again, any students who were nearby only paid him a second or two worth of attention before continuing on with what they were doing, and the teachers seemed to have cared less about the scene. "What did I do to deserve all this torture? At least give me a sign telling me why this is happening and I'll be less pissed about it!"
Of course, he knew he was not going to be getting any kind of answer for this anytime soon. After all, he had taken to praying at this part of his life for an answer or sign as to why his life seemed to revolve around nothing but constant loneliness and the sadness that was a result of it. Instead, he quickly rolled over and made it so that he was sitting on his butt with his knees up to his chest. He then slowly started to tie his loose shoelaces up and made sure the scene was not going to repeat itself.
After that was done, he quickly got to his feet and dusted his pants off of any dirt that had accumulated from the fall. Thank god that black pants kind of hid any kind of dirty spots being that it was too dark for most people to really notice. His white shirt, unfortunately, was not as lucky in that regard. It had become somewhat smudged with the dirt after having fallen twice, but it was at least still presentable enough to go into class and not look like some kind of poor kid who could not afford to keep his uniform clean.
With his overall appearance now as best as it could be thanks to the past two unfortunate mishaps, Yosuke heaved a heavy sigh before making his way into the school where everybody else was going. As to be expected, nobody greeted him along the way to his class, but that was not anything new to him. All he expected was for it to be the same as every other day, boring and completely devoid of any friendly companionship.
Well, I hope you liked how this chapter ended up. This is my first time writing something kind of angsty like this, so don't judge me too hard if it's not that good in this particular department. And sorry for the sucky chapter title. I couldn't think of anything better to title it.
As I mentioned in the first chapter, I'm basing parts of this story based on some personal experiences when I was still in high school. And for those of you wondering, that was only two years ago, so don't go passing me off as some middle aged person.
Anyway, that's it for this author's note. Hope to see you all again on this or any of my other stories' updates!
