New Start

"AHHHH, summer holidays is over! Lazy!"

The sun was already up and the time then was 12pm. Hiroaki, or his family or friends, referred him as Hiro, spent his last summer holiday waking up late as usual due to spending time playing online multiplayer games with his friends till dusk.

"You annoyed me all night with your irritating voice that I couldn't sleep properly." Unfortunately, Daisuke shared the same room as Hiro and Hiro's daily shouting and screaming left him feeling insomniac. "Wait till exam comes and I'll kill you once you do it again." 

Hiro jumped out of bed and fiddled with Daisuke's hair, then gradually to his ears. "Try me." Daisuke managed to grab his hands and threw them aside. "Don't start. You are getting on my nerves!" He dashed out to the living room.

"Hiro!" His mum voice echoed the whole house. "Please don't start it again, I beg you." Hiro went down and found his brother was helping their mum drying the laundry. He walked out and covered his head with a jumper from the laundry. "Don't act cool in front of me. Baka. You are so weak." His words are like a treat to Daisuke. He didn't like when Hiro called him weakling, idiot, or stupid. He always wondered how he got a bully as a brother. All his life, he always wishes for a brother who cares and takes care of him like how his mum does.

Daisuke was struggling lost his footing and both landed on the ground. When he was able to take jumper off his head, he wrapped it around Hiro's head. "You are sickening. Try to kill me? Asshole."

"Hiro! Daisuke! What are you both doing? Daisuke, let go of him." HIs mum was surely petrified by their violence towards each other but she didn't sound surprised at all. At hearing her words, Daisuke let go of his grip and stood up. "Woah! Daisuke, your grip has gotten stronger! Mum, I think he can learn martial arts." Hiro's face broke into a smile. Daisuke has no idea what has gotten into him and for sure he thought Hiro was weird.

"You nearly killed each other and you dare to smile?! Hiro, stop bullying your brother." He stood up and put his hands on her shoulder. "Mum, I was just warming up and I didn't bully him. See." The jumper was still wrapped on his neck. "He's the one who bullied me." Daisuke's eyes widened. "He loves to beat me. I think you should send him for a course. I really recommend it." 

"I'M HUNGRY!" He shouted as he head his way to the kitchen.

"What the hell. I can't really stand it anymore mum! Either he stays here or I'm just gonna do what Daichi did." His mum tried to pacify him. "Daisuke, before you do anything rash. Please think. You want to leave your family behind and stay in Tokyo? Hiro is your brother. No matter what he does and did to you so I hope you learn to be patient towards him and his attitude. I'm sure Hiro does not mean every actions he did towards you. Remember the times when you cried because you constantly would fell and hurt your knee during your elementary years? Hiro would come to school after his lesson ended and piggy-backed you personally so you won't fall and cry again." She stroke his arm, "Think of the good things, Daisuke. I'm sure you will see him in a different light."

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL 

"Why you didn't wake me up early, you idiot!" Hiro jumped out of bed to realize it's already 6.30am. "I'm late, you asshole." He smacked Daisuke's head and rushed to the toilet. "I'm late! I'm late!" He kept repeating as he went down. HIs mum was preparing their bento. "Hiro! More rice or meat for your bento?" she asked. "What kind of question his that? You should know by now! You must have put lots of meat into my bento, right?" He looked frustrated as he peeked over his food. "That's too much meat. I'm not a meat lover unlike your son over there." He purposely raised his tone higher. 

A while later, they heard Daisuke was screaming away outside the house.

"You purposely deflated my tires so I'll suffer by walking to school?" Hiro peeked and looked at him. "It's not me! How and why would I spend my quality time doing boring things like this?" Hiro could feel his mum's stares at the side. "Hiro.." He quickly turned around and asked her to believe him. "I didn't do it. I don't even want him to ended up on my bike if I was going to do that. Think. Daisuke, you must have enemies for them to be able to climb through those fences and deflate the tires. I'm going off now. I'll head off first."

Daisuke still thought it was Hiro's doing. His acting skills surpassed KimuTaku's skills. "Idiot, I won't be fooled." he thought. His mum gave him money to take the cab. "This is for the cab fare and money for the repair. Do it fast before Hiro might do anything worse to your bike."

"Masaya! Haruto!" Hiro always asked to meet at the nearest junction and cycled together to school. "Why are you late? Only left 10mins till the gates are closed." said Haruto. "Same thing. Don't worry. We'll just speed through! Whoever managed to dash through that train traffic before it changes color, the losers will have to buy what the winner wishes for. Deal?"

"I'm definitely going to win." He looked at them with a confident smirk. Between three of them, there has always been races or competitions to determine who is better and mightier. Hiro scores out of 100, he gotten 70% winnings amongst the races he did with both of them which concludes who's the better one out there. The truth was Hiro has been doing this since his elementary years which made his friends and classmates detest him due to his luck in winning any competitions.

They were waiting for the right moment to start. As the coming train passed through the streets, as they stared at the red light seconds later turning into green. "YOSSHHA!" 3 of them rode their bicycles with their utmost strength. While Masaya & Haruto didn't utter anything but their expressions said everything about their eagerness to win, Hiro kept making unnecessary noise to motivate himself to the end line. "AHHH!!" Haruto put in more energy in his legs as he leaped forward, overtaking Masaya. Masaya turned his head slightly to see he was already leading while Hiro was at the front, just few centimeters apart from Haruto. "Kya!!" The lights seemed to change and the gate were starting to shift. They are just few steps away from the finishing line.

"YOU GUYS ARE RIDICULOUS!" Masaya pushed himself forward and dashed through both Hiro & Haruto, surprising both of them with his recently discovered skill. "Idiot, how can you beat me!" Hiro looked iritated while Haruto was quite amazed with Masaya's ability. "Your motivation is stronger than mine." said Haruto. "Nothing much, just imagine all my ex-girlfriends lined up at the front hurling abuses at me." Hiro couldn't stand his boastfulness about his ex-girlfriends. Rumor that Masaya had 20 girlfriends since his elementary years till now sounded ridiculous.

"Enough of saying about your exes before I deliver this punch to your face."
 

IN CLASS

"Horikita Tooru"
"Yes"
"Inoue Hiroaki"
"Yo"

"Anyway, Inoue, thanks for the "warm welcome" although summer is over." His homeroom teacher, Yoshimura referred to the chalkboard decorated with Yoshimura's and his newly wedded wife's name. Yoshimura's nickname is Mushroom head which is due to the mushroom hair he was sporting since he entered the school. At the age of 45, he finally became a husband.

"Yoshimura is the best. You become a husband and soon to be a father in just a single attempt. It's like killing 2 birds with one stone. Yoshimura is indeed strong and the best out of all the men I've seen, including my father." Nearly everyone broke into laughters. Yoshimura was embarrassed but nonetheless he smiled and thanked Hiro for the compliment.

"Class, we still have another term to go before your final exam and your graduation. So, I wish that you will work hard during these few months and graduate, make yourself and your family proud. Show them your happiest smile and fly like a bird, feeding on the adventures that awaits you. Okay?" Everyone responded positively.

"We'll retain the class representatives, Hiro and Akane. Anyone got objections?" he asked.

Then, Hiro raised his hand. "Why would you have any objections?" Yoshimura asked. "I think I'll get tired from this and to manage these stubborn people makes me angry." There were some commotions heard at the back. "What do you think you are? You are calling us stubborns?" one of the boys, Hideo asked. Hiro stood up and turned to them. "You are and will always be." He turned back to Yoshimura. "You may select other boys to replace me." Yoshimura stared at him. "Are you sure?" He nodded.

"Okay, this time I'll elect the person myself." He scanned through the class. "Kiritani?" Suddenly all eyes were fixed on him. He looked around before looking back at Yoshimura. "Don't worry. If there's any guidances you need feel free to approach me or Hiro." he said. "Thanks but no thanks." Hiro opened his book and scribbled something.

DURING LUNCH

"I knew it Yoshimura was going to choose Kiritani to replace you." said Masaya. Three of them circled around Hiro's desk as they opened their bentos. While Masaya's & Haruto's bentos were filled with lots of meats and side-dishes, Hiro's was filled with more vegetables and lesser amount of meat. "You really don't eat lots of meat huh?" Masaya has been observing his habit since day 1.  Masaya and Haruto would give him some portions of their meat dishes to him. "We as men need meat to grow and be strong, up here.." he pointed at his brain. "..and down there."

They knew what he meant and the next second he found himself writhing in pain because Hiro whacked his head damn hard. "I guess you DID that with all your 20 girlfriends and I don't consider you a pro until now." Haruto covered his mouth and smiled. "Huh? Our Hiro turned out to be an innocent boy. I didn't know you are very pure." Masaya joined in the laughter. "Shut up both of you." At that time, he didn't know whether he was irritated by their blunt statements or simple because Kiritani was chosen instead of a classmate he silently favored, Tooda.