𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗼 𝗦𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻

“I hate you. How could you do this? I thought we were best friends. I trusted you, but you…”

The loud voices of her loved ones echoed through Mei’s ears.

Mei covered her ears with both hands, desperately trying to shut out the voices around her. She couldn’t process anything.

Her thoughts were a tangled mess, and tears continued to roll down her cheeks.

It had been since hours.

Slowly, Mei lifted her head. Her blurry eyes fell upon a photo frame on the table.

She stared at it for a long moment.

Finally, she pushed herself to her feet. Her heart felt unbearably heavy, and she barely had any energy. Every tiny step toward the table felt difficult.

The moon was unusually bright that night, unlike her face. It was the only source of light that entered the room.

Mei slowly reached out and picked up the photo frame.

Four smiling faces were visible.

All four of them were dressed in their dark blue school uniform jackets, their smiles frozen forever in that single moment.

Mei’s head was tilted slightly toward Yukiya.

Her boyfriend of two years, but her best friend since third grade.

Towards her left stood her brother, Ren, whose fingers formed a victory pose over Utsuru’s head.

A fresh little tear slipped from Mei’s eye and landed on the photograph.

Mei squeezed her eyes shut.

Will we ever be the same again?

One month ago…

Three bicycles raced down the road, one right behind another.

“Hey, Ren! Slow down, man. You aren’t gonna win an Olympic medal!”

“Who needs an Olympic medal when, at the end, I would be able to see your dumb, disappointed face?”

“Ren, you’d better not make fun of me!”

“Oh, really? Then why don’t you win?”

“Fine. Let’s see that!”

Ren immediately pedaled at an even higher speed, while Utsuru was already accepting his fate of being made fun of by Ren.

“Yay! I won! As always, I won!”

Ren stood proudly with his bicycle in front of the main gate of their school.

Utsuru was still visible, but he was far behind Ren.

Utsuru finally reached the gate, all sweaty and almost losing control of his bicycle.

“Hey, you! Are you even human?”

He struggled to catch his breath.

“Oh my God, I’m done. I don’t even think I can keep my eyes open for the first hour of class.”

Ren smirked.

“Utsuru, you’re too weak but too stubborn to accept it. Just give up from the beginning, so you wouldn’t tire yourself out. Look at you now. You look like a homeless little boy.”

“You—”

Utsuru got off his bicycle, almost ready to throw a punch at Ren.

“Hey, hey stop, hahaha......”

Ren stopped laughing.

“Wait. Where are they?”

“Who?”

“Mei and Yuki. Who else?”

“Oh, those lovebirds might still be near the crossroads, talking about their dream future—how their home’s interior will look, what jobs they’ll have, and their four or five beautiful children, all ready to call you Uncle Ren.”

“Shut up! Uncle Ren? Ewww, I don’t want that.”

“Then what else would your sister’s children call you? Mr. Handsome Ren? Dear school heartthrob?”

“Would you please stop?”

Utsuru sighed.

Ren was handsome. Not just handsome. Really handsome, indeed.

Ren was one of the most popular boys in school.

He was Mei’s twin brother, and the two shared a really strong bond. He was also the leader of the school basketball team.

Utsuru and Yukiya were his best friends.

Utsuru was an introvert around others, but an extrovert with his best friends. Sports was something he wasn’t particularly interested in. For him, the library was a place of peace.

Mei was his go-to companion for anything and everything.

Their friendship had begun on the very first day of first grade.

Utsuru had been the quietest kid in the class, sitting in the corner chair.

Mei noticed him.

She walked over, held his arm, and made him play with her and Ren.

From then on, the three of them became best friends.

Ren and Utsuru were already on the edge of losing their patience when Yuki’s bicycle finally came into view.

Of course, Yuki was busy talking to Mei.

Maybe, just as Utsuru had said, they really had been discussing their future.

“Yuki! Mei! Do you want to get shouted at by Saito-sensei?” Ren yelled.

“Ren, don’t you know? Love makes one blind, deaf, and dumb!” Utsuru added.

“My God, Yuki. See? Very precious words coming from someone who has never fallen in love,” Mei replied teasingly.

“Other than discussing how I’ve never fallen in love, we should hurry and reach the class before Sensei arrives. Otherwise, our outstanding class monitor, Mei, may literally have to stand outside.”

The four hurried toward their classroom.

The class was already filled with students when they arrived.

Mei quickly erased the leftover writings from the previous day from the blackboard. She then wrote down the date in the corner.

While writing it, she suddenly noticed something.

Utsuru’s birthday was next week.

As always, I should be the first one to wish him. Mei smiled to herself.

She was already busy thinking about what gift she could get for Utsuru when Saito-sensei entered the classroom.

The class went by as usual.

Ren, Yuki, Mei, and Utsuru were seated in the two middle rows, one behind the other.

Once the teacher left the classroom, Yuki turned toward Ren.

“When are we going to the court? I’m more interested in playing basketball than studying today.”

“Yuki, the seniors aren’t free now. You have to wait until noon.”

“Fine. I’ll wait. Mei, you’ll cheer for me, right?”

“No. I’m going to cheer for my brother.”

“What? No! Ren got others to cheer for him. See? Those girls are already drooling over him.”

Mei turned toward the right corner of the classroom.

There they were—Tsukiko Mizushima and her two friends.

Tsukiko was the biggest fashion icon in school, always up to date with the latest fashion trends.

Her eyes were on Ren.

Not just today. Nor from a few days.

For years, Tsukiko had tried to get Ren’s attention, but she had failed every single time.

Tsukiko was good at her studies, but she was still behind Mei and Utsuru.

“Mei, stop staring at them.”

“What? No, I’m not staring.”

“But it looked like you were.”

“Ren, I think you should give Tsukiko a chance. Look at her eyes. They sparkle every time she looks at you.” Mei said teasingly.

“Ren, don’t look at her. She might faint.”

Utsuru’s sudden comment made the others burst into laughter.

Utsuru was usually quiet at school. He was a very private person around others, but with his friends, he easily felt at ease.

The moment was interrupted by the voice of the classroom speaker.

“Good morning, Yamaka High. This is an announcement regarding the results of the Bright Minds Science Fest high school-level competition.

“Out of the 240 total entries of science experiments and models, a total of five entries have been selected to represent the school at the national-level Bright Minds Science Fest, which will be held next month.

“The rankings are based on the scores given by the judges.

“The fifth position is held by Ichiro Suzuki."

“The fourth position is held by Yuri Tanaka."

“The third position is held by Tsukiko Mizushima."

“The second position is held by Mei Takahashi."

“And the first position is held by Utsuru Kobayashi."

“Congratulations to all the winners.”

As the names of Mei and Utsuru were announced, the class erupted into applause and cheers for them.

Everyone in the class was visibly happy for them—except Tsukiko and a few of her friends.

I wanted to be the first.

I worked so hard, only to be placed third?

And that too behind those two so-called good kids?

Tsukiko thought to herself.

“Utsuru, come on! You should treat us for getting first place,” Yuki immediately said.

Utsuru was happy.

Happy because both he and Mei had been selected to represent the school.

Mei walked over to Utsuru and held her arms out. Utsuru shook hands with her.

“So, are you ready, mate? Now it’s serious. Let me tell you, I’m not going easy on you just because you’re my friend. I’ll do whatever it takes to come first. So tell me, are you ready?”

“Yes, of course I am. Don’t come to me for help, okay?”

“Okay, okay,” Mei replied with a mischievous grin.

It was soon time for the next class.

The teacher praised Utsuru, Mei, and Tsukiko for their hard work and wished them good luck.

The science teacher was the happiest. Three of his own students had been selected to represent the school. He made sure everyone clapped and cheered for them.

During the lunch hour, Mei sat next to Yuki, facing Ren and Utsuru on the other side.

Mei didn’t like beans, but she loved snake gourd. Ren was the exact opposite.

While Mei picked out each bean with her chopsticks and placed it on Ren’s plate, Ren placed all the snake gourd on Mei’s plate.

The twins were always like this.

Utsuru thought to himself.

Utsuru had known both of them since first grade. Yuki joined them later, in third grade.

As a new kid in the class, Yuki was very quiet during class hours. But his real personality came out during PE.

Ren was so impressed by him that he asked Yuki to play with him.

That was it.

The two playmates soon became best friends.

Utsuru and Mei were happy to have Yuki on their team.

Yuki had a crush on Mei. There was no clear timeline of when he developed his feelings, but he finally told her about them in eighth grade.

Mei accepted his feelings. After all, she was also impressed by Yuki—not like Ren, who admired him for his sports skills, but because of the way Yuki treated her.

Ren was shocked. He even began to doubt whether Yuki had become his friend only because of Mei.

Utsuru remained calm throughout.

The quiet guy already knew that the two had a crush on each other.

At noon, practice for the upcoming basketball match was going on at the court.

Mei sat in the audience area with Utsuru. Utsuru looked almost uninterested, having been practically forced by Mei to sit beside her.

Mei cheered for both Ren and Yuki.

Tsukiko was there too, with a water bottle in her hand, of course, for her Mr. Handsome, Ren Takahashi.

Ren’s team won. Everyone already knew it.

Mei ran towards them.

Utsuru didn’t want to follow her—at least, that was what it looked like from his expression. But he still went because he didn’t want Mei to shout his name a little later.

Yuki went to her.

The couple easily resembled a scene where a king had won a war for his one and only love.

Utsuru looked at the team that had lost. Their leader, Akito, looked stressed. There was anger in his eyes as he looked at Ren, who was already surrounded by girls.

Akito’s eyes then fell on Utsuru, who was looking—or, you could say, staring—at him.

Utsuru was taken aback by the sudden eye contact.

His ears turned a little red.

"What is this? Why is my heart racing? No, don’t look at him. Wait, I didn’t look at him. Or did I? Did he notice me? No, no, he didn’t. What if he did? Why should I care?"

Utsuru’s thoughts were cut off by Mei.

“Hey, Utsuru, look. Tsukiko is behaving like Ren’s girlfriend. And now look at Ren. I don’t think he has even noticed her yet. Poor Tsukiko.”

“I don’t think she’s his type,” Utsuru said.

When the school day came to an end, the four of them took their bicycles.

Mei sat behind Yuki. That was what she liked.

“I am a passenger princess, no matter who rides,” Mei said proudly.

Their houses were near the school, but they still took more than an hour to reach home.

They talked nonstop about the things that had happened that day or kept talking about things they had already done days ago.

This was their routine.

They laughed aloud and enjoyed every moment, not realizing that everything was going to change.

That peaceful time was soon going to be lost.

~ Hey, Author Twinlune here, it's my first work, I really hope you will like it. I appreciate the time you took to read it. Please excuse my mistakes. Give us your feedbacks because every advice of yours will be valuable. ~

Thank You All ☺️

( Note : This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, and incidents are either the products of the authors’ imagination or used in a fictitious manner. )

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