Chapter 13

-Niko-

I honestly never imagined that so much would happen in the span of 2 days. I suddenly got a tutoring gig that pays really well, I got to experience being tied up and have stones placed on my thighs, a transfer student had come to Asashiyama High, and now Fuutarou got himself injured and had to skip classes. I looked at my phone and sighed, no new messages were received. "Hope he's alright... He's really been pushing himself lately and getting injured is just gonna make it worse..."

Out of nowhere a pair of hands suddenly covered my eyes and a familiar voice called out. "Niko-chaaaan guess who's here!"

I groaned as I immediately recognized the voice. "The only one who calls me that is you, Rin! And even without you giving away such a huge hint, that weird perfume you're using practically gives your identity away!"

Rin took her hands of my eyes and started walking beside me. "Hey, I'll have you know that this perfume doesn't smell weird, it's just that guys like you don't appreciate this kind of stuff!" she pouted. "Anyways where are you headed? Isn't your place in the other direction?"

"Oh, I'm meeting up with Nakano-chan at the cafe nearby." I said as I pointed to the cafe where the rest of my brothers were waiting for me. I waved towards them as they saw me. "Do you want to join us? I have a feeling that Nakano-chan would appreciate it if another girl was to keep her company after all."

Rin saw where I was pointing at, and when her eyes landed on Shin she blushed for a bit. "Well normally I wouldn't want to intrude... but since my dear childhood friend begged for it, who am I to refuse?" she said with a smirk

My eye twitched at her comment before I grabbed her by the cheek. "I'm pretty sure I just suggested you join us... who said anything about begging?"

Rin struggled to break free from my grip, "Okay! Okay! I made a mistake!" I let her go and she inched away from me. "Dang it, Niko-chan! You know I hate it when you do that!" she said as she massaged her cheek.

I laughed, "Well I did warn you, didn't I? If you play with the bull, you get the horns, or in this case, a good cheek pinching!" I then noticed how much pain she was in. "Okay, maybe I was a bit too forceful, so instead of asking you to join us, I'm making you join us. We gotta put some ice on that to make it hurt less after all."

Rin silently nodded as we made our way to the cafe.

As we approached the cafe, Shin walked towards us. "Nikkun! What took you so long? I'm pretty sure you had no work to do after classes, and you're normally the first person here!"

I sighed, "Well I was supposed to be here a bit earlier, but I came across a certain obstacle." I said as I discretely pointed to Rin. "You know how distracted Rin and I get when we talk with each other, honestly I'm surprised I survived this long, listening to all the random stuff she says." I then felt someone chop the back of my head with their hand.

"You do know I can hear you, right, Niko-chan?" said an annoyed Rin.

Shin laughed, "I see that dynamic the two of you had ever since childhood still remains, although if I were you Nikkun, I would probably be a little more conscious of the people around me when I say stuff, I wouldn't want to get karate chopped on the head because I said something stupid after all!"

I rubbed the back of my head, "...Fair point." I then glared at Rin. "And how many times have I told you to stop doing that? Your karate chops always mess up my hair!" I undid the unruly man bun that Rin had created and let my hair fall.

Rin sighed, "Well if you decided to keep your hair short you wouldn't have to worry about that all the time. I mean look at your brothers, the short to mid length hair suits them pretty well, you're the only one with hair that's nearly as long as a girls!"

I started tying my hair up as I talked, "Well I'm sorry if I wanted to look unique among my brothers. Everyone aside from you has a hard time telling us apart, we were lucky enough that the principal allowed us to dye our hair to make it easier for you all to know who's who, but even that has its limitations. And besides, I did say I'd keep my promise to you, didn't I? That I'd make sure everyone would know who I am so that you wouldn't have to correct them all the time?"

Rin blushed at what I just said. "You... still remember that promise? After who knows how many years have passed already?" She looked at Shin and suddenly turned bright red, Shin noticed it but didn't pay much attention to it before grinning.

"So, you're the type who makes and keeps promises with girls, huh?" He said as he slung an arm over my shoulder. "I can't believe it... my older brother's finally becoming a man!"

I could feel several veins popping out as he said that comment. "Shin... I'll have you know that I am about to strangle you right now. So I'm giving you until the count of three to back off... One... Two..."

The color immediately drained away from my brother's face as he realized what he'd done. He ran away as fast as he could before I started chasing him around the station, much to my brothers and Rin's amusement. After several minutes of chasing him, I sat down on the floor, tired from all the running, while Shin was still bouncing around with energy.

"I... I... don't get it... How are you not tired after all that running?" I said in between labored breaths. "Like seriously, how are you and Goro so energetic when the rest of us are a bunch of potatoes?"

Shin sat down behind me and leaned on my back, "I guess the daily jogs around the park I did before becoming the student council president helped out, I would have invited the rest of you but all of you were too busy sleeping!" he laughed. "As for Goro, I'm pretty sure he's just the living embodiment of an energy drink now, he probably still blames himself for mom's death, so he's been making sure he's fast enough to not let that happen again to anyone..."

I groaned, "How many times do we have to remind him that it's not his fault? If any of us were in the same situation we would have done the same thing! I just hate it that he's shouldering all the blame when it was never his fault to begin with..."

"I feel the same way, but the best thing we can do now is to let him figure it out on his own, and to support him along the way, that's why we're brothers, aren't we?" He said as he stood up and extended his hand out to me. "We better head on back, I can already see Nino and Fuukun at the cafe."

And just as Shin said, Nino and Fuutarou had joined up with Rin and the others, so the two of us made our way back before our night of fooling around started.

-Chapter 13 End-