Suzuka
Any normal person would agree that instead of waking up to the bothersome alarm clock, the most peaceful way to wake up is through the birds’ morning songs. Indeed, I got my wish today. No alarm clock ringing non-stop; just the sound of birds chirping away. Even though I had not opened my eyes yet, I could see the bright sunlight shining through my window. I could feel the warm rays on every feature on my face, my bare chest, and the hairs on my arms, all the way through to my finger tips. I let a soft yawn escape from my mouth as I stretched my hands out. What a good night sleep, I thought to myself. As I was stretching, my hand landed on something hairy. Too lazy to open my eyes just yet, I felt it some more. The top was quite hairy, but as I moved my hands down, the hair merged with a slightly rough texture. There were a few curves to this mysterious figure. It was as still as a rock, yet very warm at the same time. My fingers automatically pulled on it a little and it shifted. I was enjoying this guessing game with myself. What did I put beside my bed that had such a physical texture? I moved down a little more and felt something boney, and angular. It was a bit coarse and stubbly as well. This game was hard, I thought to myself. Maybe a little sniff of it would do the trick. I moved closer to my puzzling object with my eyes still closed. That was when I heard his voice.

“Woah woah, stop right there,” said the voice.

I opened my eyes, and in front of me was a face. A man’s face. To be exact, it was Kaito’s face. My hand was on the spot right between his cheek and chin.

“I think you’ve had enough fun touching my face and pulling my cheek,” he continued.

My mind was suddenly filled with questions that I knew not the answers to. I didn’t know how to react. Why on earth was he in my room at such a time in the morning? How long has he been sitting there, watching me sleep? Why was he watching me sleep? Why didn’t he say a thing when I was touching his face? Did he enjoy it? Did he lie to me last night? Is he actually gay? Does he like me? Why…why?!

“Hey, are you listening to me?”
“W-What-Why on earth are you in my room!” I blurted out, cutting him off.
“Ah, so you haven’t been listening. I was hungry,” he gave a calm reply.

Was he planning to eat me or something?

“W-What’s that got to do with being in my room,” I stuttered, sitting up now.
“I was hoping you could make something for me again.”

Oh, so he only wanted a proper meal. What was I thinking? But wait a minute. Why is he asking me to cook for him? Didn’t I cook dinner last night?

“Can’t you cook for yourself,” I thought out loud.
“You see, the last time I cooked for myself, the whole building had to evacuate..”

So he sucks at cooking. Guess I’ll be the one cooking around here. I hope he can clean his own clothes. Doing his laundry would not be settling. Anyway, better make breakfast and get to class. I have a biology test first thing in the morning. My own thoughts drowned out his voice, but I remembered hearing something about 3 fire trucks, winter, guys standing half naked, or something like that.

“..you’d think they’d melt right? Who knew you had to add water to instant noodles!”
“Okay okay, I’ll go make breakfast.”

I got off the bed and walked over to the closet. I was about to open when I remembered. He was still in the room. I stood there, with my hand on the wooden handle. Was he going to get out?

“What’s wrong?”
“Are you planning to watch me change?” I joked.
“Oh, you want me to leave? I was actually planning to watch.”
He left reluctantly and closed the door behind him.

I opened the closet door and took out my uniform. For probably the millionth time, I admired the silky, crimson red tie. I ran my fingers over the smooth surface over and over again. What a feeling it was. Enough of touching the tie, I thought to myself. I slid the white ironed shirt off its hanger onto my arms, one after the other. I was buttoning up the third button of my shirt when Kaito suddenly burst into my room.

“Hey Jun, I jus-“
“You knew I was changing!” I shouted and grabbed the nearest thing to throw at him.
“Sorry, I just wanted to tell you something,” he caught my pants before it hit him.

I quickly buttoned up my shirt and stormed over to retrieve my pants. I was a little annoyed with the fact that my room mate could not respect my privacy and came into my room for no apparent reason. First it was to watch me sleep; now it was to watch me change. I need to knock some common sense into this guy.

“What is it?” I asked, slightly irritated, slipping one leg after the other into my pants.
“It’s actually 8:40. I turned your alarm off.”
“..What?” I gulped. I was zipping up my pants and that sentence really caught me off guard. I almost hurt myself.
“It’s 8:40,” he repeated.

I ran over to my desk to put on my glasses and stared at my alarm. He was right. It was 8:41. It was one minute closer to being late. What on earth was this guy thinking? Didn’t he care that he was going to be late as well? I grabbed my tie from the hanger and hastily put it around my neck. No time to admire it this time.

“We’re gonna be late for the test, you retard!” I shouted at him, grabbing my bag off the chair, dashing for the door.
“I’m not going,” he replied.

I ignored him. Why did I even care? I was at the door when I remembered that I left my keys on my desk. I turned around to get them when Kaito tossed them at me. I found myself slamming the door shut before I could even say “Thanks”.

“What about my breakfast?” I heard him shout after me.

I am going to kill this guy.

I was never good at sports and having to run like this with an empty stomach made me feel sick. However, I knew I had to keep going. One might think missing one test was no big deal, but to me, it was. Before I got accepted to this school, I would pay close attention to the teachers in school during the day; in the afternoon, I worked part time at the local DVD store; I studied late into the night just to get outstanding marks. I worked so hard just to attend this school, and no way was I going to mess it up. I am going to grow up to be a successful doctor, start a family and have a great life!

The ground below my feet seemed to be moving with me, bringing me closer to my destination. Every step I took no longer felt heavy. It was as if the wind was lifting me up, carrying me towards the brown brick building. Maybe this was what athletics felt when they were running- ecstatic. If I didn’t have school, I could probably continue on running like this forever. Checking my watch for the, who knows how many time, I realized I was going to make it if I kept this up. After rounding this last corner, I would be able to see the old building. Speed up, Jun, speed up! I told myself. Sprinting that last 100m towards the corner, I felt like I was running faster than *Akitsuki Yamato with his top record of 10.81 seconds, or perhaps the deceased **Tsuda Kazuki, or even better, ***Emerson Arima, the fastest sprinter in Japan.

Instead of seeing the structure after taking the turn, I saw… pink panties? Following that was a deafening shriek. I was hit on the head a few times with something hard and heavy, I think. That was when I realized I had crashed into a girl who also wasn’t paying attention to where she was headed. I stood up quickly and apologized to her, helping her up at the same time. She looked up, saw my face, and suddenly, she was calm. She took my hand and I hoisted her up. She tucked a stray strand of her light brown hair behind her ear to reveal a slightly flushed face and apologized back for bumping into me. What a girl, I thought to myself. She was the one at loss, not me.

“No no, I’m really sorry,” I assured her.
“You’re Jun Aomori from Haiten Academy, right?” She blurted out of the blue.
“Uh…yeah. You are..?”
“I’m Fuka Asahina” she smiled.
“Crap, biology test!” I suddenly remembered, and ran off without saying any more.

Kai didn’t show up to a single class today, I thought to myself as I walked back home. What was he doing in this academy if he wasn’t planning to work hard? He really bothers me. Passing by a convenience store, I decided to drop in to get a pack of candy. Somehow, they always calmed me down.

“How’d you do on your biology test?” Came a voice from behind the counter.

I looked up to see Fuka, giving me the same smile from this morning.

“It was okay I guess,” I replied, not exactly sure if that was how you made conversation with a girl. “You work here?”
“Occasionally. This is my father’s store. He’s always short of employees.”
“I could work here part time,” I seized the opportunity to earn money. Money was always good.
“Really? That’d be great! Can you start tomorrow?”
“Sure,” I replied.

Great, I just scored myself a part time job.