The Tyrant's Pride

Chapter 7: Confession

To be honest, I'm not the type to meddle in others' affairs, especially concerning their "romantic" or "intimate" relationships. But this guy—this seemingly perfect but in actuality a naïve, immature king—was crossing his boundaries because of his ignorance for his own feelings, to a point I almost felt the need to be the one to knock him to his senses. I found it amusing during the first year of high school and it became evident during the second year going towards the third. He liked her.

He was a great tennis player, a great scholar, and a loyal friend. Sure, people think he's just a pompous, rich brat—but there's certainly more qualities to him that you can see only once you break the shell around this sheltered kid.

My friendship with him goes way back, beginning the first year of middle school; I had come from Osaka and had held certain prejudices against Tokyo kids. And that's when I met Atobe Keigo and played a match. And a perfect loss followed right after. We silently agree to our mutual respect, rivalry and friendship, and it's already been almost six years' of time in which I called him my friend.

The reason why his face is as wrinkled as a crumpled piece of paper was because of everything that happened in the span of a day. It's hopeless at this rate, however; no matter how much I hint it and let things slip out of my mouth, everyone around but him caught onto it.

"Atobe, why are you so grumpy?" Mukahi asked; the tennis team was now sitting inside the bus, heading back home after a bitter loss in the semi-finals.

Atobe, despite having heard his friend's question, merely let it in one ear and out the other, and kept on glaring outside the window—or more like himself that was in the reflection. The flashback to just a couple hours ago crossed his mind; he gritted his upon exiting the bus, Atobe headed over to the student council room with Kabaji and Oshitari tagging behind him.

He pulled out his phone and dialed a number; only after two rings the person picked up.

"Keigo~ you played so well today! I'm sorry that you guys lost." A sweet girl's voice said on the other side.

"We'll begin." Atobe said, completely ignoring the girl's greeting.

"Oh~? Did today's turnout of events get to your nerves?"

Atobe frowned. "In three days," he said, "we'll begin in three days." Atobe hung up and threw the phone onto the couch carelessly. Oshitari, who eavesdropped on the conversation, frowned as well.

"Atobe," Oshitari said. "This isn't going to get you anywhere."

At that, Atobe let out a scoff. "Don't worry," he said. "It'll go somewhere."

"Atobe, you're just mad." Oshitari said. "You're just mad that Haraue was with Tezuka."

"Mad?" He perked up his brows. "Don't be ridiculous."

"Atobe, stop being stubborn." Oshitari stared directly into his eyes and said. "You like Haraue, and you're just angry that she was with Tezuka."

Atobe stared at him with slightly widened eyes. Then he broke out into a maniacal laughter. "That was a pretty good joke."

"Atobe—"

"I'll deal with her myself. You stay out of it, like you always do."

"…" Oshitari sighed. It was true that he never meddled in others' affairs and Atobe was well aware. "I warned you, Atobe. Don't let her hate you any more than she does now, or else you're going to regret it later."

"Hn. Let's go, Kabaji."


The bell rang throughout the buildings of Seishun Gakuen. Soon the excited chatters of students filled the hallways that were dead silent just a moment ago. They all walked out with anticipation and excitement of how they were going to spend their Friday afternoons after a long week of school. For Tezuka, the routine for his Friday afternoons was working at a bookstore with a girl whom he loved spending his time with. He grabbed his school bag and headed out of the classroom.

He got on the bus and headed to the busy part of downtown Tokyo. Like always he headed over to the bookstore, greeted the manager, and sat down behind the counter after tidying up things. It was 3:12; he just had to wait about twenty more minutes for her to come.

The clock ticked continuously but the minute hand seemed to move a bit too sluggishly for Tezuka.

"Tell me what happened. Everything." Tezuka said, tightening his grasp around Miho's hand. He could tell that she was tired and that she perhaps didn't want to talk about it after everything that had happened that day.

"It's…" Miho sighed, unable to continue on. "Sorry, Kunimitsu. I just don't want to talk about it today. I'll tell you after work, I promise."

"…Alright. Don't push yourself too much."

It was 3:52 and Miho still had not shown up. Worried, Tezuka pulled out his cellphone and dialed her number; her phone was off. Then he became anxious. What if she got caught up being bullied badly? What if she got in an accident? While he restlessly tapped his fingers, the store manager came out of the back room and called him.

"Kunimitsu."

"Yes, tenchou."

"I forgot to tell you, but Miho is going to be a bit late today." He said, looking a bit sad.

"Is she alright?" Tezuka got out of his chair asked urgently. "She hasn't been picking up any of the calls, and we ran into some trouble earlier in the week…"

'Maybe it's alright to entrust Miho to him.' Yoshimoto thought carefully, noticing the boy clearly worried to death about her. "Kunimitsu."

Tezuka gulped. The manager's face seemed more solemn than the usual. He was nervous. He hoped to all deities that whatever news regarding Miho Yoshimoto had for him wasn't a bad one.

"Kunimitsu, sit down for a moment. It's about Miho." Yoshimoto said, sitting down on the chair. Tezuka reluctantly sat back down, looking at the manager intently.

"Today is the anniversary of her parents' passing."


Sometimes I blame the world for everything; but I cut myself off even before I start the trail of thought because blaming is no useful tool in my life. I don't have the luxury to play the flashback-to-that-time game and get sentimental either. Henry David Thoreau once said "Never look back unless you are planning to go that way;" Going back to that is the last thing I have on my mind. I must pick myself up again and continue the solitary trek.

Miho carefully placed a bouquet of flowers. After standing there and staring at the lonely, barren grave for a bit, she turned around and headed back.


Tezuka felt like a boulder landed on his heart and couldn't think properly. Passing? Miho's parents? So she was all alone? Since when? Why did they pass away?

"I believe… since she's 18 now… it'd be the 5th anniversary." Yoshimoto took off his glasses and said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He sighed and set down his glasses on the counter. "I knew Miho's parents even before Miho was born. When I used to work at a publishing company, they worked under me. Her mother was an editor, and her father a project director. They met through work and ended up marrying. They were very nice people. Caring, compassionate…"

Tezuka listened carefully. It seemed like there was much more to Miho's life than he ever imagined.

"Miho changed drastically after her parents passed away. Before she was very lively, active, and loud to a point that you'd never imagine she was like that by the way she is now. I won't go into much detail since they're Miho's personal matters, but if it's you, I'm sure she would talk about her life up until now. It always hurts me seeing a teenage girl, who should be blooming like a flower, always under pressure of getting through the day and keeping herself barely standing in this cruel world. I wanted to take her in with my family, but she hates being empathized more than anything else and bowing her head down to others. She never once accepted a raise; she thinks it's wrong for her to be given freebies.

"I know that she's having troubles at school, but she never once said a word about it. I'm sure she's handling it well but all she's doing is building up everything inside her. A kid could come crying to adults once in a while and be pampered time to time, but never did she express her distress to anyone for the last five years. Not even me. She's tough, but sometimes even the strongest tree can falter from a perpetual storm. She has nothing at her back and has the entire world against her. She grew up too fast, Kunimitsu. You are a mature one, but she grew up too fast, too young." He sighed.

Tezuka just stayed silent with a shocked face.

"Kunimitsu." The old man called him once again. "You like Miho, don't you?"

"I do." With determination he nodded. There was no hesitation in his eyes.

"I can see that it's not just a temporary attraction a boy has for a girl; it's sincere love that a true man has for a woman. I'm getting old, Kunimitsu. One day, I'll have to leave her… I hope you can look after her. Be by her side. I have never once seen her keep such close relationship with anyone else before."

Tezuka gulped; this was a serious favor coming from the old man. "I will." He replied.

The old man smiled, satisfied by Tezuka's conviction. Then, the chime rang and the subject of their conversation walked in.

"Good afternoon, sorry I was late!" She came in smiling.

"Oh, welcome back Miho." Yoshimoto greeted with a fatherly smile. Then he looked out the window, letting out a sigh of relief. "My, what a wonderful weather outside. Perfect weather for a day out on Friday, don't you think?"

The two looked at him with puzzled expressions.

"Something came up and I'll have to close down the store early today, so you two are free to go." Yoshimoto said, getting out of his chair. "Go eat something delicious and enjoy your Friday off. It doesn't come very often." He chuckled.

"Closing now?" Miho cocked her head.

"Yes. Kunimitsu, do you have your bags?"

"Y-Yes." Kunimitsu got his bag ready.

"Alright then, let's go. I have plans I made too." The manager gently pushed on the two teenagers' backs and exited the store, turning the sign as "closed" and locking the door. "I will see you two tomorrow, then."

"T-Thank you, tenchou. Good bye." The two bowed and Yoshimoto walked away with his hands behind his back. Miho and Tezuka stood there silently, a bit confused and a bit at a loss of what had just happened.

"Well, since we got our break, let's go hang out! I feel like taking a nice day off today. And I promised I'd tell you everything too." She said, first breaking the silence.

"Sure."

Miho started walking off, humming a bit. Tezuka's eyes chased her—the girl who looked more frail and smaller than ever in his eyes, acting like nothing had happened—in fact, acting even cheery than usual—even though in reality there were weights on her shoulders and shackles to her feet and hands. She turned around and yelled at him to hurry up. He reluctantly took steps forward, questioning himself if he could be of strength to the girl he adored the most, who he also came to admire the most.

After listening to Yoshimoto's story, Tezuka started noticing small things, starting from her always choosing the cheapest dish, picking up clothes that she couldn't take her eyes off of but only to put it back down, studying whenever she had free time to make sure she could never be passed by anyone else in her school. He found it admiring but it also made his chest tight. It throbbed and ached, it gave him an invisible clump inside his throat, the one which he couldn't swallow nor spit out.

After spending the entire Friday afternoon with her, Tezuka was now walking next to Miho in the park. He stayed quiet and kept on thinking about everything Yoshimoto had told him about Miho.

'I want her to share the pain. I want her to trust me.'

He slowed down as he became more and more determined. He finally came to a stop. Noticing that he wasn't walking next to her, Miho turned around and found Tezuka standing still, looking at her with a face of mixed emotions.

"Kunimitsu? You okay?" She walked over and stood in front of him, looking at him with a worried expression. "You've been unusually quiet today. Is something wrong?"

"Miho." He began. "I heard from tenchou. About Atobe… and your parents."

Miho's eyes widened a bit. She then smiled, except it seemed sad to him.

"If it's okay with you, I want to know more about you. Please tell me about yourself." He said. Miho's gaze wandered at their feet. She then looked up. Tezuka's unwavering eyes were enough to convince Miho that 'if it's him, then I can trust.'

"My mother was an editor and my father was a project director. They worked in the same company and they eventually got married and had me." She began, maintaining her calm, collective self. "The bookstore we work at now is a very special place for me. My parents used to always take me there since it was the closest bookstore to our house. It was my mother's favorite place to buy books, so I naturally ended up going there more and more. I visited there with her at least three, four times a week."

Tezuka carefully listened.

"My family… we weren't poor, but we weren't exactly prosperous either. But it was fine. It was enough to keep the family together. We were satisfied with our lives. But during the 1st year of middle school, my parents' company ended up in a huge debt, so my father borrowed money from here and there to keep the company from closing down… despite his efforts the company fell apart and my parents themselves had debts on their shoulders as well.

"Although we moved to a smaller house and sold off all our assets, it wasn't enough to pay back everything. Debt collectors showed up every day… made our house a mess… and in the end, when I was out walking with my parents, a car with men in suits came over and hit them. That was it for my parents."

Tezuka's eyes widened. Someone purposely killed her parents?

"Later I figured out why they had to get in a car accident. It seemed like the insurances for hit-and-run paid off the most. For two people, it was enough to pay for the debt. It was their plan. Those bastards took the money and left me with the small house I live in right now and a meager amount of money. But I can't use that. It's the money they got in exchange for my parents' lives."

She smiled bitterly.

"So since then I started living alone in that same house. I supported myself by working at the bookstore and occasionally winning prize money from academic competitions. Before everything happened I wasn't exactly the studious type. But the turnout of events got me to work hard because that was the only way I could survive as an adult. So I studied and studied… got into Hyotei with full scholarship…

"Like you've seen, I'm not that welcomed in Hyotei. They have inferiority complexes and complaints regarding me and how my academic performances excel them. That turns into jealousy, then hate, then bullying. They know they can't outwit me so they resort to violence. To be honest, it's not that big of a deal on my side; I expected it and I just need to endure for another half a year and I'll never have to see their faces again. But Atobe—he's different. He never tormented me in any physical ways. He just stands at the side, throws nasty words, say things that he obviously means to hurt my feelings."

"How could he…!"

"He's always had a sense of inferiority since the first year of high school. I can kinda understand why he's so eager to hurt me… no matter how hard he seemed to try, he's never gotten first place in high school because of me, you see." She said as she snickered. "But everything that happened doesn't really matter. I'm just here, doing what I can do in my shoes. I'm okay."

Silence prevailed. All that filled the soundscape was the running water, birds chirping and occasional rustles of the plants. The dim moonlight shining down through spotty black clouds in the sky barely lit their faces in the dark.

Tezuka gave her a sad, painful look.

"Don't give me that look, I'm fine." She laughed.

"You're lying. There's no way you could be fine." He said. "Miho, it's okay to let it all out time to time."

"I'm really fine, though." She replied but her voice wavered.

"You have a shoulder to cry on. You're not alone anymore."

Miho bit her lips. Then teardrops started brimming around her eyes, and single drop rolled down. She quickly wiped it, laughing in embarrassment. Tezuka then grabbed her hand, stopping her from forcefully wiping out the tear.

"It's okay."

"But—"

"You've done great so far." He said and smiled reassuringly.

Miho finally let out all the sorrows she shoved and locked away in her tiny heart for the last five years. Her tears started rolling down even faster and she tried her best in holding back her sobs. Tezuka stepped closer to her and pulled her into his arms, trapping her tiny body away from the rest of the world. Feeling even safer and assured in his arms, Miho finally broke out sobbing and cried her heart out.

She cried for good ten minutes and Tezuka just stood there, rubbing her back and tightening his arms around her body. She finally brought herself apart from Tezuka but Tezuka still had his arms around her.

"S-Sorry, I got your shirt all wet."

"Don't worry about it." He said.

"…Thanks Kunimitsu." She sighed. "I feel a lot better now."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"And… U-Um… " She said nervously. "I'm okay now, you can let me go."

Tezuka looked down at the girl and answered. "No."

"Huh?" Miho looked up a bit confused.

"At first, being a friend was more than enough for me." He said, meeting his eyes with hers. "But now I want more. I want you to depend on me and share your pain. I want you to come to me when you're having a hard time, just like today. So please let me be by your side"

"Kunimitsu—"

"Miho. I like you."