Chapter Text
“Are you ready?”
Eiji wanted in his whole chest to say no. He didn’t want to leave everything behind, it made him feel like he was just running away from his problems. He didn’t want that, but after what had happened this year. He hated this year, and he did want to runaway.
“I know you’ve made many friends here, but please. This is for the best. For this family’s sake, please cooperate,” Eiji’s mom with guilt and sadness.
She always had a way of making him feel guilty like he shouldn’t express his emotions. It made him feel uneasy. They were never close, he was closer to his father. It was never her tone or voice that was the problem, it was always her choices of words; manipulative.
His words felt hurtful to him. It felt as if he couldnt be upset, not with her, not with his father, not at anything.
He knows he has the right to feel angry. To be angry at her for divorcing his father with no warning. To be angry at his father for cheating and leaving everything behind, leaving him behind. To be angry for moving across the world to a city he didn’t know anyone. To a city where it’s said to be dangerous and mean.
Eiji clenched his fist as hard as he could— his knuckles turning white in the process. He wanted to say “No, I’m not ready,” or “No, I don’t want to move with you, I want Dad.”
But he thought against it, he knew it would hurt her heart. He would disappoint her again, and he’d see that face she wore.
The face he saw her have when his family came through the hospital door. The doctor said he needed to take a break with pole vaulting. It was all the same face, the face of disappointment and failure. She had that face when he broke down in front of everyone. Tears in his eyes as he told Ibe-san, his father, his mom, his sister. “no I can’t do it! I’m scared.”
Letting go of the pole and left it behind, he knew his mother didn’t want that. She needed him to be successful with the things she wanted.
“Are you okay? Eiji speak to me,”
Blinking a few times he had realized that he zoned out for more seconds than he wanted. Seeing the worried look in his mother’s eyes, holding bags of their old things she planned to throw away.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he started, “Let’s go, we might miss our flight.”
His mom nodded with hesitation, but there was a hint of satisfaction on her face. Leaving him alone as she walked out of his room.
Eiji sighs with a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Taking one last look at his now empty room. Used to be filled with shelves of trinkets, posters, mangas, and pictures he took with Ibe-san, now empty and lifeless. Most of his things were either donated to cousins or in the trash.
Grabbing his suitcases he stood in front of the doorway. Looking back once again, a bed with white empty sheets, and empty shelves, was all gone. His comfort place stripped of the coziness, vibrant feeling, and full of life, now turned dead and dull.
He scoffed at his bitter thoughts. He knew this was for the best; running away from his problems was for the best.
Marching down the stairs with 2 heavy suitcases and a backpack on he didn’t realize his little sister, Keiko, standing at the bottom of the stairs.
Before walking past her, he felt a little tug at his grey shirt. Looking up at him with hope and confusion. Hoping he’d answer all the questions in her small head.
Questions like: “Why are we leaving Dad?”, “why do we have to move far away?”, “Why doesn’t Dad come home anymore?”, “do you miss Dad too.?”
Though despite every single question she had only one came out.
“Ei-chan, will Dad be okay on his own? What if he misses us and starts crying.?”
Eiji froze at her question. How can she still be worried about him? He left them because he was nothing but a selfish man who was a coward.
Still, Keiko loved him even when he left, when he got a girlfriend despite being divorced for only 2 weeks. She loved him.
“So what if he does? He doesn’t need us, he wouldn’t have done this if he really did love us. He’ll just forget us,” Eiji spoke with much more coldness than he ever intended.
Keiko who was shocked by his cruel answer dropped the stuffed bunny their father had given her as a goodbye gift.
As soon as the words had left his mouth he had already felt guilty, but the shocked expression on her face made the guilt hurt even more. A punch in the gut he deserved.
Keiko’s eyes were filled with tears that threatened to spill over while her lower lip trembled with sadness. She didn’t deserve his cruel words, she didn’t deserve the anger he felt towards his parents at all.
She was just a child, a child who had just lost her father; her role model. She didn’t deserve the bitterness, the shit talk towards her father. Even if he left them Keiko still loved him.
“I- I’m sorry.” Eiji quickly picked her up and pulled her to his chest, “Ei-chan is just stressed. I’m sure Dad will miss us and call us from time to time.”
Keiko clung to him, burying her head in his shoulder for comfort. Eiji felt horrible, but his unconfident words would be useless in this situation. All he could do was rub her back to soothe her sorrows.
None of them wanted any of this. They didn’t want to leave their childhood home and their country behind.
Eiji had wished every day for the past 2 weeks that his life could go back to normal. Going to school with his best friends, when school ended he’d go to practice, and then come home to a lively home with his father and mother cuddling on the couch.
There were times at night he’d lay awake thinking maybe the divorce was his fault.
Got caught with a group of bad people, his grades gradually declined, and worst of all quitting pole vaulting.
Maybe if he wasn’t a coward, maybe if he did try to go back to pole vaulting. Would that help his home life? His reputation at school?
——————-
Sitting on the plane with a heavier heart than before, Eiji wanted to cry but no way would he cry right now, not now.
Sitting on the window seat sat his little sister, Keiko. She was immersed in the little screen in front of her that was showing some cartoon that was popular in the States.
“Can you even understand that?” Eiji chuckled softly and pressed a button to turn on the Japanese subtitles.
“Thank you, Ei-chan,” she giggles and rests her head on his arm.
Eiji smiles to himself and turns to his mother who is sleeping on the aisle seat. She looked tired, more tired than usual.
Of course, she’d be tired, she packed everything, filed paperwork to sell the house, and threw most of the things away; her now ex-husband’s things.
Eiji knew he couldn’t be angry, after all this wasn’t any of her fault. What happened at the airport today made him hate his father more.
Waiting for his father to show up, to say his final goodbye. However, he never came. Never even sent a shitty text message, he just couldn’t wait to get rid of them.
It hurt Eiji, he was supposed to be his role model. Can anyone be called a role model for leaving his family behind? Leaving everything behind even though his two kids begged him to stay? No. Never.
He tried to sleep, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t sleep sitting up, it was uncomfortable, it was too cold, and it didn’t smell good; it smelled unfamiliar.
How could he pass the time? He still had 10 hours to spare. Thinking for a bit he realized he could get familiar with his school.
“Manhattan Central High School,” Eiji mumbled under his breath. He thought the name was a little weird as he’s not used to saying it, yet.
Opening up his phone he pressed the Instagram icon. It took him a few seconds to type out the name of his new school into the search bar, but the very first profile he was sure it was it.
He wasn’t very sure why he was doing it nor what he was trying to find. Maybe he just wanted to see what he was getting himself into, though it’s not like he had a choice.
Clicking the profile with the user as “MCHS.LIONS” it had around 3,500 followers and around 2 hundred posts.
The following it had was enough to make Eiji’s eyes pop out of their sockets because, in his old school, there were barely 1,000 people attending.
The most recent post was from a spirit week this October. The caption read, “October 2024 Spirit Week!!” Which was followed by a list of the themes from the past week:
Harry Potter houses, dress up as your class colors. Freshmen: Ravenclaw, Sophomores: Hufflepuff, Juniors: Slytherin, and Seniors: Gryffindor.
Horror Movie Day, dress up as your favorite horror movie character!
Zombie Day, dress up as a zombie (no ripped clothing allowed)
Matching Wednesday, match with your friends!
Costume Friday, pull up in your costume!! Remember it’s also activity day so no large backpacks!
Eiji swiped through the photos and admired the creativity of the students who were following the theme. Seeing the pictures made his mood light up a hundred times more; forgetting about everything.
While looking closely at the pictures two people had caught his attention from matching Wednesday. It was 2 guys dressed up as the undercover spies from the movie White Chicks.
One wore a pink jacket while the other wore a denim jacket. Both guys were wearing cheap blond wigs that made their natural hair peek through. As well as wearing matching skirts that also matched their jacket color.
The male in pink was scowling, his natural blond hair peaked through the shining fake wig, and jade green eyes pierced through the camera intimidatingly. His face showed nothing but pure irritation and hatred, having his arms crossed across his chest.
His friend next to him was much more happy looking than he was. His purple-dyed hair peaked through the blond wig as we posed for the camera gangsterly. His legs were apart, hands throwing gang signs that were being covered by emojis.
Eiji who was amused at the picture caused him to let out a small, rare chuckle. Maybe his school wouldn't be as bad as he thought it would be. Maybe he’d give the change a try.
The boy with natural blond hair had piqued his interest as he checked the comment section:
wong.short3r: @alynx.nyy you ruined the mood for that pic yk?
- alynx.nyy: @wong.short3r shut the fuck up
- MCHS.LIONS: @alynx.nyy please no cussing in the comments
Eiji chuckled at the embarrassing comments. Though thanks to the comments it was easy for him to find the Instagram account of the attractive blond male.
“Taking a sneak peek won’t hurt..” he mumbled happily as he clicked on the profile.
Luckily the account wasn't private, so it’d be easier for Eiji to do a little stalking. The account had 376 followers, 2 highlights, and 3 posts.
Eiji’s finger hovered on top of the first batch of highlights. He was wondering if he should be doing this, what if the highlights were posted 3 hours ago? This Ash guy could catch him red-handed.
Deciding against the thought and quickly pressed the highlight which was dedicated to collections of food. Though every time his friends would eat other food all Ash ate was Avocado Shrimp Salad. In every single picture, there was always shrimp and avocado salad in front of Ash. This made Eiji wonder if this guy was a picky-ass eater or was just obsessed with the salad.
The second highlight featured photos of his friends: hangouts at rooftops, sleepovers, and random visits to abandoned buildings. The photos consisted of the same people every single time: the purple-haired guys from the Spirit Week post, a young looking but with short black hair, a dark-skinned male on the larger side, another boy with long pinkish hair with fangs for teeth making him look like a cat, and lastly a guy with light brown hair.
Though noticing the sleepover pictures there was another person. A beautiful woman who had long black hair.
“Probably his girlfriend,” Eiji muttered under his breath once again, a hint of disappointment in his tone.
Even with the disappointment in his body, he couldn’t control himself from looking at his posts. Most of the photo dumps were sky pictures, candid moments with his friends, and at the end, a video of their shenanigans.
However, if you looked closer at the pictures and video you could catch a glimpse of the beer and wine bottles, as well as used cigarettes in the background. Which made Eiji’s eyebrows rise a bit.
“Delinquents?” He thought to himself.
His small little stalking activity had come to an abrupt halt. Holy shit it was now that he realized that he had liked one of the boy's posts. The red heart appearing on his screen gave him a heart attack.
“Huh.?! What.?? Nonononono.. no!” He whispered frantically.
Trying to redeem himself he quickly unliked the post. However, when he was panicking his finger slipped once again, but this time he hit the follow button. His heart sank, boy did he want to kill himself right now?
“クソ! Oh my god! クソ” Eiji yelled under his breath, looking around the plane and hoping no one saw or heard his pathetic screams of horror.
It was too late, the blond had probably already seen the notification. Horrified at what he had just done he just sits back down in defeat. Not bothering to unfollow the account he accepts his death.
His life in Manhattan hadn’t started yet, and he was already making an amazing fool of himself.