Chapter Text
“Aniki, I trust you!”
“Will you still trust me if I ask you to jump down a building?”
“Of course! Because I know you will come and catch me…”
The conversation above never fail to amuse Ryosuke. The way Haruichi’s eyes glimmer everytime he said he trust him was priceless. He loves the way Haruichi looks up to him like a superhero.
If Ryosuke was in a playful mood, he would tell his brother he could not catch him because he would not always be near Haruichi. He purposely teased him just to see his sullen expression. After savouring it for a moment, he pulled Haruichi into his embrace and convinced him he was only joking.
Sadly, Ryosuke was not always happy with Haruichi's presence in his life. Being a 24 years old adolescent, his parents expected him to take good care of his younger brother. Truth was, he does not mind the thought of having a younger brother, but when his brother is almost two decades younger than him, the feeling became unbearable.
It was not Ryosuke hate Haruichi. Ryosuke, like most young adult, want freedom to socialize with his friends, so when his parents told him he is fully responsible for taking care of Haruichi, he was intimidated.
To make matters more complicated, Ryosuke’s colleagues nicknamed him ‘going home worker’ just after he started working in a sport’s organization for few days. On his first day of work, his boss and colleagues invited him to join them for a drink after work, but Ryosuke politely decline. They tried the next day and Ryosuke gave them the same answer. It happened again for few days before they gave up. Some of them even took drastic measures to spread rumours about Ryosuke being an anti-social person. Others thought he was from a poor family and he needs to take more than one job to survive.
Ryosuke was not oblivious by those rumours. He shrugged the rumours off and just focus in doing his work. He did felt that his parents were unfair. He compared his friends parents with his. He envied how his friends’ parents (typical Japanese parents), are proud of their children whenever their children come home late from work and able to socialize well with their co-workers and bosses. It gave them the impression that his friends are working hard.
To say his parents did not understand him was an understatement. He knew his parents worked hard to provide necessary needs for Haruichi. Unfortunately they were not willing to take care of Haruichi. Their odd behaviour made Ryosuke believed that Mr and Mrs Kominato did not want anything to do with Haruichi. Ironically, he was impressed when he overheard his parents came out with the story that Haruichi is actually his son with his fictitious girlfriend. He even tried to control himself from laughing when he heard his father exaggerated on how the girlfriend left him for a rich stockbroker.
xxXxx
One evening, Ryosuke, tired and weary, opened the front door of his house and entered. Just after he sat on the step and took off his shoes, he heard Haruichi called him before he felt his weight on his back.
“Haruichi…” he smiled tiredly. For some reason, his brother’s warmth soothed his body ache.
“Aniki, can we play baseball?”
Haruichi cringed when he felt Ryosuke’s body became stiff. Eventhough he could not see Ryosuke’s face, he could tell his brother was contemplating.
“It’s okay, Aniki…” Haruichi quickly said as he let go of his brother and ran in front of him. “I can play by myself.”
Ryosuke watched Haruichi took his shoes out of the shoe rack, put it on before he opened the door and ran out of the house. He sighed. He remembered clearly two months after he graduated from high school, his parents dropped a bombshell on him about his newfound responsibility. They forbad him to enrol into any universities outside of Kanagawa nor stay in the university’s dormitory.
He did not know how long he sat on the steps and reminisced about his good old days in Seidou when he heard his mother's voice behind him.
"Ryosuke, you're home? How long have you been sitting there? Are you sick?"
“I’m fine, just a little tired.”
He stood up and headed to the staircase. “You know, okaa-san…” he stopped beside his mother, “ I should have accepted that scholarship and move out immediately. I was a fool to let you and otou-san to convince me to wait for another two months…”
Ryosuke swore he could hear his mother gasped. "She sounded offended..."
“How dare you say that to me, Ryosuke!” Mrs Kominato glared at Ryosuke. “Do you know how painful it is to give birth to that child?”
“Really?” Ryosuke smirked darkly. “I thought you told people Haruichi is my child?”
Mrs Kominato was stunned. She did not expect Ryosuke to know about it.
“Next time, please be conscious of your surrounding. Secondly, Haruichi is not as stupid as you think,” Ryosuke glanced at his mother before he continued to walk up the stairs.
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This is my first fanfic in achiveofourown.org... Forgive me if my fic is below your standard. I'm trying my best to improve my writing skills