Chapter 2: Hiro

'The Jian is also known as "The bird that shares wings." It's said that it can't even fly unless a male and female support each other. They're pitiful creatures. Until it finds a partner, it must hide among the tree leaves, wait with bated breath.'

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Or so that's what Hiro had read in a book a long, long time ago.

"Silly stuff like that doesn't exist." He tells himself.

It was past 6:30 in the morning when he started getting up from bed. With his mind still groggy and body heavy from sleep, he stands up shakily and walks towards his window sill. The outside world was obscured from his vision due to the blinds tightly shut.

Peeking through, sunlight rushes in his dark room, the blinding light leaving him squinting uncomfortably. He shuts off the blinds and sit back down on his bed, sighing. With nothing to do, Hiro sits and stares blankly at the dark colored walls of his room.

'It's the first day of senior high, huh..'

To the others, it must be super exciting to enter that stage of high school. Getting to meet new friends and being granted more freedom and independence is a blast, especially when you're one step closer to becoming an adult; but for Hiro, it didn't evoke any kind of strong feelings within him. For him, it was just any other day.

Sometimes, he wonders why he thinks that way.

He doesn't quite understand, but he feels like something's missing, like, there was a big, gaping hole in his chest waiting to be filled to a brim. Sometimes, he feels like he's missing his own purpose in living.

'Im better off dead anyway, I guess.'

How many times have he tried taking his own life through various means, only to be stopped by his best friend, Goro?

There are times where Hiro wonders when did he become such a pessimistic person? Back then, he was praised by almost everyone around him for being, what they claimed, a "prodigy." Adults saw his potential in becoming a natural leader because of his overflowing charisma and deep thinking, as much as a child could ever come off as. Kids like him followed him around because they found his way of seeing things 'cool' and 'inspiring.' Most would label him as 'Optimistic', 'Energetic' and 'Brave.'

Hiro also vaguely remembers his younger self being full of wonder; asking lots of questions about the world and his surroundings.

But as the years went by, that young boy full of life slowly died, leaving a former shell of himself behind, albeit bigger and older.

Perhaps younger Hiro's shine burned too brightly, it burnt out all at once. Perhaps it was the continuous pressure he's gotten by people surrounding him. That pressure to keep on being this 'perfect' image everyone loved. Perhaps all these idolizing and praise left him feeling empty rather than full; exhausted rather than motivated.

Hiro felt that this perfect image slowly broke him apart, leaving him questioning if this sort of 'perfection' was the mere thing giving meaning to his life?

He hated that. And he hated himself for it.

So here he was, a guy who is labelled as a 'wasted potential.' No more was the never ending songs of praise, rather, all he heard from now on was the whispers of distaste and disappointment- not that it actually mattered to him though.

Meanwhile, his parents and friends have repeatedly shown concern towards his growing apathy toward his life, but honestly, he couldn't even give a damn.

How could he, when he was in too deep now to even care about himself?

Reeling him back to the real world, he hears his best friend-slash-roommate call out to him from the other side.

"Oi, Hiro! Better get up or we'll be late for school!" Goro yells loud enough for him to hear.

Letting out an inaudible groan, he answers with a yell of his own, " You go on ahead without me! I...I've got something to do." To be honest, that was just a lame ass excuse for him to stay in bed a little longer, or perhaps skip the whole "first day" instructions and just do nothing in particular.

When he hear Goro agree to his words, he could hear the faint closing of their apartment's door. Standing up once more to peer from the blinds, he sees his friend clad in their school uniform approach a petite bluenette, Ichigo, before heading to school. Hiro's eyes then wander to the lone sakura tree that stood out on top of the hill. The tree was considered to be over a millennium old, with it's thick branches being supported with metal pole beams.

'Weird that it never stops blooming even after spring..' He wonders, recounting all the times he've seen the never ending fall of sakura petals during the other seasons.

But just like that, he gets the sudden urge to climb that hill and see the sakura up close. It was surprising, even for him, since he never felt the need to see the flowers before.

In fact, he has never went up to that hill in his whole 16 years of existence.

Until now, that is.

With this new found curiosity budding within him, it looks like Hiro was about to spend the day out after all.