Chapter Text
It's 7:50 am on a Monday. The raindrops fall softly but also a little too loudly. Water splashes on the side of the road as cars pass by. All noise from the busy streets is blocked out by Osamu's headphones. A soft tune is heard from his headphones as he has the volume on high to block out any and every noise.
As Osamu walks to school, he carries a black umbrella. 'It's pretty ugly outside' Osamu thinks to himself. He doesn't understand why people get so dramatic about the rain. It's smelly and such a hassle to walk in. Osamu doesn't hate the rain, he likes it because he doesn't have to go out and he can stay in his room peacefully, well most of the time.
By the time Osamu finally arrives at the school it's 8:05 AM. He walks through the gate of the school going through a metal detector as he thinks to himself. 'How stupid someone would be to bring a weapon to school? For protection seems reasonable but there so no point if it’ll get you in trouble.' He walks to his locker and grabs his notebooks, then he starts walking to class 605, his first class of the day. He hangs around a bench outside the classroom and continues to listen to some music as he checks his school email. Osamu sighs as he thinks to himself, 'Mornings seem so forced to me. So much sadness rises. I can't bear it. I hate it, I really do.'
He opens his phone camera to take a look at himself. His brown hair is a greasy mess. He looks practically dead. He lifts his bangs off his face to take a look at his eye bags. It seems like they've gotten deeper. They stand out more because of his pale skin. 'I'm an awful sight in the morning,' Osamu thinks to himself with a pathetic look on his face. He looks at the bandage on his face and sighs.
The bell rings and Osmau takes a breath. 'My legs feel so exhausted that, already, I don't want to do a thing. I wonder if it's because I don't sleep well?', he thought to himself. Osamu's mornings are always so gray, empty, always the same. 'Jesus I'm so pessimistic in the morning, I should stop'. Osamu thinks to himself as he enters the classroom and takes his seat. Mornings are always the toughest for Osamu but he also says that about every hour of the day.
Osamu takes a look around the classroom. Everyone is in their groups. He sighs. ‘Everyone is loud. Can't you all shut up?' Osamu thinks to himself annoyedly. He hates how inconsiderate everyone is about how loud they're being. Osamu knows he's being irrational, but he can't help getting annoyed. He hears these groups of girls talking about the latest gossip, that he has no interest in.
"Oh my god did you hear that Nakahara got into a fight?" Girl #1 says.
Osamu never bothered to know his classmates' names.
"I'm not surprised, he's always getting into fights," Girl #2 says back with a sigh.
"He is a bit of a delinquent, but isn't he super hot? and he's a senior!" Girl #1 says with a squeak.
“He’s short though,” Girl # 2 says, with a blank face. The other girls glared at her as they went back to gossiping.
Osamu hates the sound of their annoying voices, so he blocks it out. He doesn't understand why people spend their time dating and obsessing over people. They all end up getting hurt and crying to their useless friends who probably don't even care. Osamu never seemed to understand relationships and viewed them as pointless.
Osamu thinks back to the name they mentioned. Nakahara Chuuya, the school's so-called "delinquent". Osamu doesn't think he's a delinquent, just some stupid kid who thinks he is better than everyone because he can fight. He hasn't spoken to Nakahara-san but has seen him around school. He has some classes with the boy but Osamu prefers to be unnoticed by his classmates. The kid is fairly short for a senior and his ginger hair and short temper make him look like the Lorax in Osamu's eyes. Osamu covers his mouth to hide a giggle at his thoughts. 'Jesus I'm such a loser to laugh at my thoughts' Osamu thinks to himself. He figures he looks psychotic if anyone were to notice him.
The teacher starts talking and as always Osamu looks out the window and starts to drift away. He never really pays attention in class but somehow he still manages to get the highest scores. Everyone is convinced that he must be some sort of genius. But he doesn't even know how he gets high scores without trying. Maybe it's luck? Or maybe it's the fact that he doesn't care enough? Though he doesn't mind, it is better for him that he gets high scores so Mori and any of his teachers won't bother him.
Osamu yawns and thinks to himself, 'I wonder why Miss. Kosugi's lectures are always so stiff. Is she a fool? She kept going on and on, explaining to us about patriotism, but wasn't that pretty obvious? I mean everyone loves the place they were born.' Osamu feels his eyes getting heavy at the boring lecture. He rests his chin on his desk as his eyes glaze over the window. Raindrops slide down the window outside as the sky keeps clouding up. Osamu sighs and rests his eyes for a bit.
Osamu wakes up hearing the school bell ring. He looks around the room dazed from just being woken up. He looks at the papers on his desk and sighs. "Jesus why does Miss. Kosugi always gives us so much work to do?" Osamu murmurs to himself. He grabs his papers and puts them in a folder as he puts his stuff in his bag. It's probably silly, but Osamu cares for that bag a lot, probably more than he cares for himself. The reason for caring for such a silly thing is that Odasauku, his old counselor and friend, bought him the brown bag.
Osamu feels physically ill from thinking about his old friend. He decides to play some music to get his mind off it. He starts walking up the stairs to his next class. Osamu sighs and thinks, 'This is going to be a long day…'
Osamu finishes grabbing his stuff from his locker and starts walking to the school's exit. He realizes that the rain has stopped. 'Finally, the school's over, and the rain has stopped so I don't have to hold my umbrella on the walk home. Even though I wish I could still pretend I had a movie life while walking with my umbrella in the rain. God that sounds pathetic.' Osamu thinks to himself. He does know that his fantasies are childish considering he's almost a young adult, but he can't help it.
'All day I felt like eyes were judging me, It was probably just my imagination again but I can't help feeling like people are judging me. I mean look at me I'm a total outcast' Osamu thinks to himself as his anxiety increases as he's walking past the groups of people walking out the doors. Osamu tries to remember what he looks like for a moment. Sometimes he forgets. That's probably something he should worry about but he doesn't bother doing so.
Everyone in school wore the same, white collared shirt, red striped tie, gray sweater vest, black pants, black shoes, and black sweater. So Osamu never really thought to put much effort into his looks. Maybe he should? To keep a good image? Or maybe so he wouldn't look like more of a freak. But he didn't care enough. Mori always told him to try harder in his looks since supposedly he had an attractive face. Osamu didn't believe it though. He thought he was a disgusting human being if you can even call him that.
Osamu starts to make his way home. That's when he senses someone staring at him from behind. But when he turns around, a rock gets thrown at him, almost hitting his head.
"Hey, you freak!" The stranger yelled at him.
Osamu recognizes that voice. He sighs and thinks to himself, 'Not this guy again'.
Due to Osamu's pathetic looks, he attracts the world's stupidest creatures, bullies. Osamu knows he won't win in a physical fight, but lucky for him he already has a plan.
"I'm talking to you asshole," the idiot says, as he pushes Osamu to the ground.
Osamu grunts as the annoying man above keeps hitting him. 'I should do something shouldn't I?' Osamu reaches for the blade in his back pocket but that's when he sees fiery red hair flying above him.
"Hey get off him asshole!" He hears a familiar voice yell.
Osamu looks up and sees Nakahara Chuuya, the school's so-called 'delinquent', the boy that Osamu saw had a close resemblance to the Lorax. He watches how the short, redheaded boy beats the absolute shit out of that boy. Osamu realizes he doesn't even know the name of the idiot who threw a rock at him and missed. Osamu mentally laughed at his stupidity.
The stupid boy ran off in fear and pain. Nakahara walks in front of Osamu. The boy looks much taller than he is. His uniform looked a bit different from how Osamu wore his. Nakahara wore his uniform sloppier than Osamu's.
Blue eyes stared into brown.
Nakahara opens his mouth as he reaches out a hand to help Osamu up, and says "Hey are you okay?"
Osamu looks at him with blank eyes and then says "I could've handled it myself, Nakahara", tossing his hand away while getting up and dusting the dirt off him. Nakahara's face turns sour.
"Yeah sure, like that kid wasn’t just beating the shit out of you, and call me Chuuya, I hate being called by my last name". Chuuya says, rolling his eyes. Osamu stares at his slight annoyance rising,
"Yeah I was going to handle it until you interrupted me," Osamu says, showing the short boy his blade.
Chuuya clicks his tongue and stuffs his hands in the pockets of his sweater. Osamu takes a look at his figure. 'Even though he's short, he's quite attractive' Osamu thinks to himself. He quickly erases those observations
"You're quite short aren't you?" Osamu says with a sly smile on his face. Chuuya's face flushed red with anger and he began yelling.
"How dare you! I saved you and you insult me like this. Your piece of shit!" Chuuya goes on rambling and Osamu feels a sense of aliveness. The feeling is strange, frightening even.
"Chuuya, let’s go !" yells a new voice. Osamu looks at where the sound is coming from and sees a boy with silver hair and a short girl with pink hair.
"Tch looks like I have to go, I hope you get beaten up again you asshole and this time I won't save you!" Chuuya yells out as he walks away. Osamu stares off to where Chuuya walks off for a bit until he shakes his head and finishes his walk home.
Osamu walks through the door of his house and takes off his shoes. He sighed, knowing who would speak first.
"Welcome home Osamu!" a high-pitched voice speaks first, followed by a deep voice saying, "How was school Osamu?" He can feel Mori's bone-chilling smile, even if they weren’t in the same room.
"Hello Elise, school is fine Mori, I have homework to do so I'll head to my room," Osamus says quickly with a fake smile on his face. He doesn't even bother asking for dinner because he knows he would rather starve than spend any more time with those two. Now Elise is not so bad annoying but quite alright, though Mori is a whole other problem for Osamu.
Osamu throws his bag on the floor and changes into brown plaid pajama pants, a beige crew neck sweater, with some brown fluffy socks. He throws himself on his bed and sighs.
"What was wrong with me? Why didn't I just say thank you and move on? Now I have insulted him and gained his attention!" Osamu says to himself aloud and groans into his pillow. "That was so embarrassing for me, I hate myself so much. Why can't I just die already? Then I wouldn't have to deal with this!” Osamu yells to no one out loud.
"Now, I'm talking to myself. Great, I'm really at my lowest aren't I?" Osamu says to himself with a disappointed sigh. He thinks back to the short ginger boy. 'What was that feeling when I was with him?' Why did I feel so annoyed but so alive with him?’, Osamu questions himself as he hugs his pillow.
Osamu thought more deeply. ‘No, No, I need to stop thinking about it. Nothing good will get out of it. I should go back to the usual and forget about today.' Osamu thinks to himself as he grips his pillow harder while closing his eyes. Osamu starts to drift off to sleep. He's aware that he will most likely not get enough sleep tonight but can’t bring himself to care, he's far too exhausted to deal with his thoughts right now.