1 It can't be Helped

Sunlight came through the gap of the white curtain in the window, caressing gently the face of a young man who was sleeping on the bed in the corner of the room. He had a pretty cute face. However, at the moment, the peaceful look on his face gradually vanished. A groan escaped from his lips as he tried to turn his back from the warm light disturbing him.

Then, finally his brown eyes began to flutter open. Yawning widely, the sixteen years old boy threw his blanket aside.

"It's morning already…," Yoshinaga Izumi mumbled in disappointment.

He actually had enough sleep and yet he was still sleepy. But now that he was as good as awake, it seemed he wouldn't be able to go back sleep again, even if he tried.

"Hmm… Something feels weird."

The golden brown-haired boy reluctantly sat up on the bed, rubbing his eyes while thinking what it was that felt wrong. He scanned his surrounding. There wasn't anything out-of-place in the room and there wasn't anything missing either. Everything was in their proper place. Then, his gaze fell on the window, or more accurately on the light coming from the slit. For a moment, he couldn't take his eyes off of it.

Come to think of it, the sunlight that woke him up seemed to look brighter than usual. Not to mention, it was usually the sound of the alarm that woke him up. So, it should have been ringing by now. It should have been like that. But, right now…

'Strange. Why is it not ringing?'

That thought abruptly entered his mind.

'It can't be that finally I could wake up earlier than usual!'

If that was the case he had to celebrate it. It was a rare occurrence after all.

He turned to the alarm clock on the small table beside the bed to check the time. The hands of the clock indicated 06.58 in the morning. It was exactly two minutes before the alarm he had set up last night should ring. No wonder, there wasn't any noise this morning. A happy smile bloomed on his face. Then he blinked and his smile faded soon after.

"Wait a minute! Why isn't the second hand moving!?" he realized too late.

Suddenly the door to his room flew open. A woman with shoulder length, golden brown hair could be seen standing in the doorway. Wearing a pink apron and still holding a spatula in her right hand, Yoshinaga Kurumi entered the bedroom of her only child.

"Good morning, Izumi-chan! It's time to wake up!" the beautiful woman greeted cheerfully.

"Yes, yes. I'm up, I'm up," Izumi mumbled.

"Good. Now, hurry up! It's already 08.30 AM. You don't want to be late for school, don't you?"

"Eh?" he replied dumbly as he was still out of it.

"Don't eh me. It's 08.30 AM. Come on, quick! If not, you would be late!"

Those words were slowly sinking it into his mind.

"YES MA'AM!"

Izumi got out of bed immediately. In his hurry he accidentally made his blanket falling to the floor but he paid it no mind, he could just clean up and tidy up his room later. What was important right now was not late for school. He didn't want another detention, thank you very much. After picking up his school uniform hanging in the closet he darted to the bathroom to start his morning routine.

Meanwhile Kurumi merely shook her head with a fond smile, already got used to his son's frantic morning. She walked out of the room, returning to the kitchen to continue preparing breakfast.

About five minutes later Yoshinaga Izumi could be seen rushing down the stairs to the first floor of his house, taking two steps at a time. Now, though, he already had his school uniform on—a navy blue gakuran. When he came into the dining room, which located beside the kitchen, he saw his mother sitting in one of the chairs while enjoying her breakfast. Today's breakfast was fried rice apparently.

Kurumi looked up from her breakfast and gave him a warm smile which turned into a frown when she saw him taking a toast served on the table instead.

"No breakfast?"

Hearing his mother's question, he shook his head. "It can't be help. There's no time, Mom," he said as he put some strawberry jam, which sat beside his bento (boxed-lunch), on the toast.

"Only that?"

There was displeasure in her tone when she said that.

"It's okay. This is enough," he assured, biting his bread. "I'm off to school!"

"Take care!!"

With his school bag slung over his shoulder, he ran out of the house after wearing his shoes. He could still hear his mother's voice when he opened the gate of the house. She seemed to be saying something, something like being careful on the way.

For a moment or two he stopped moving and just stood by the gate silently. It seemed he was forgetting something, but he had no idea what it was. It didn't seem to be that important, or maybe he just didn't think it was important enough. Oh, well… He shrugged; he had better things to do. Therefore he began running through the familiar streets towards his high school with his right hand holding a toast.

Running while eating wasn't a good thing to do, it was a bad manner; his mother always told him that. She also said there were the danger of getting the food on other people and increasing the possibility of choking on food. However—

"It can't be helped. I have to or I'll be late," Izumi had always said.

—It was beginning to be his standard excuses as he had said it numerous times. And Kurumi could only sigh tiredly when she heard that same sentence.

So, it could be said that it was something inevitable that, once he took a turn in the corner…

Someone bumped into him and the bread slipped from his hand.

"Ah!" cried the golden brown-haired boy seeing the toast with strawberry jam falling onto the paved ground even though it was still half-eaten.

"Sorry! I'm in a hurry!" the person bumped into him said without looking back.

"But… I'm in a hurry as well…," he muttered before sighing in resignation.

'It can't be help then,' he thought as he continued down the street.

It was still about halfway to the school, after all. And with the limited time he had, he couldn't afford wasting more time idling around here, bemoaning his half-eaten bread.

'Still… It's such a waste…' lamented Izumi.

***

Nanazono High School.

It was one of the high schools in the town of the same name—Nanazono City.

At first glance, the school was no different than any other high schools. It had a four-floored grey building in a simple design. The walls surrounding the place and the gate were painted in the same grey color, making the school looked gloomy. It seemed as if the cloudy sky always descended upon the place.

But the courtyard was adorned with colorful flowers, sakura trees, and green lawn with the grass neatly trimmed. There were some park benches in here and there as well. With all of those, the place gave off a pleasant feeling instead. Besides, it was located in a calm street and quite far from the main street. Naturally there wasn't a lot of traffic around the school which making the students took it upon themselves to choose walking to school.

Today as well, some students walked to school in groups while chatting among themselves.

The boys were wearing gakuran while the girls wore sailor fuku (sailor outfit) as their school uniform. The gakuran consisted of a white long-sleeved shirt, a straight-lined navy blue jacket, and a pair of navy blue pants. And the sailor fuku consisted of a navy blue long-sleeved blouse attached with a sailor-style collar and a pleated skirt with the same color, plus a sky blue bow.

Among the students, Yoshinaga Izumi could be seen walking silently by himself. He paid the groups of students around him no mind. He just strode passed them all without even taking his eyes off his destination, the school. Then…

Thud!

…suddenly he found himself sitting on the ground.

He blinked in confusion then realized that he had accidentally bumped into one of the students in one of the groups. It was a group of three teenage boys. The first boy was tall, the second one looked like a thug, and the last one had an overweight body.

The person he ran into turned to look at him. It was the tall boy around his age with a slightly well-built body. So, of course, the student was able to withstand the collision and still standing while Izumi was on the ground. His unfriendly face looked intimidating when he sent a death glare at the poor boy.

"Hey! It's still early in the morning and you already hit someone randomly. It hurts, you know!" yelled the young man who was known as one of the bullies in the school.

"S-sorry," Izumi apologized, stuttering a bit.

"What was that? I can't hear you, Shortie," the bully asked.

'I'm not that short. I'm just a bit shorter than average,' Izumi argued in his mind.

"I wasn't looking. Sorry," repeated the golden brown-haired boy.

He got up from the ground before taking a step back, feeling intimidated. However his back hit something big and soft. Glancing back, he saw one of the bullies, the overweight one, already standing behind him to block his meant to escape. When he looked back to the front, he realized that somehow the three of them had surrounded him from all sides. He was trapped. He wouldn't be able to make a run for it even if he tried to.

"Sorry, he said?" said another boy who looked like a thug.

"Heh, do you really think sorry is enough?" the fat one in the group added in.

"What if besides sorry you also give me compensation money?" the bully number 1 suggested.

A pair of brown eyes widened when the owner heard their words.

Even though he knew the bullies wouldn't just let it go, the words they used were quite ridiculous. What compensation money? That didn't make any sense. Although it was true he was the one at fault, the one who wasn't careful enough, the tall bully whom he had bumped into didn't even fall to the ground. He didn't even hurt him. If anything, the one being hurt here was Izumi himself since he fell down. So there was no need for some compensation money.

Besides he had apologized, hadn't he? It should be more than enough. Honestly, he couldn't understand their way of thinking.

"B-but—" Izumi tried to say before the tall boy interrupted him.

"Don't complain! You're the one who run into me. You're the one at fault here, Shortie!"

"But you're fine. I mean, I didn't even hurt you," he tried to reason.

"Yeah, so what? What if I get hurt because your carelessness?"

Izumi ducked his head. Right, it was indeed his fault for not being careful.

'Still, I can't talk this through, either…'

"Just give me compensation money! And we'll forgive you."

'What should I do…?'

If he didn't carry out their demand there was the possibility they would beat him up to death, or worse, they would bother him again during lunch break.

'Lunch…?'

Oh right, now he remembered it. He forgot to bring his boxed-lunch on the table with him this morning. That meant if he gave them his money, what about his lunch later? He wouldn't be able to buy any food! Considering that his breakfast had just fallen on the ground earlier, he would be forced to spend the entire day at school with empty stomach. Consequently, he would definitely starve to death!

'It seems there aren't any good options to choose,' he lamented, 'Either ways is hell.'

"Are you deaf or what? Give it to me already!" snapped the bully number 1 impatiently.

Izumi kept silent. His mind was busy thinking of a way to get out of this situation.

"Maybe we should try Yamada-senpai's move on him," the bully number 2 said, giving some bad advice. "He could be a nice practice targ—ah, I mean partner for us."

"Yeah! Nice idea," the bully number 3 agreed.

"Ho… That sounds like a good idea indeed."

Hearing their conversation, Izumi couldn't help but shiver in fear. Instinctively he knew what they were talking about. He also knew what would happen to him if he became their partner aka practice target. It wouldn't end well for him.

'What should I do? It seems it really can't be helped—'

"Wow. Look what I found this early in the morning."

Hearing that, the three bullies stopped to look at the source of the voice. So did Izumi.

There was someone standing around five meters in front of them.

It was a teenage boy around their age in the same school uniform as them. Though, instead of a white long-sleeved shirt he put on a white hoodie under his navy blue jacket. His school bag was slung casually over his left shoulder while he put both his hands on his pockets.

The boy had messy jet-black hair which seemed forgotten to be combed this morning and a pair of dark red eyes. He was of average height and built. Yet there was something about him that made people felt they shouldn't underestimate him. The expression on his handsome face looked like a child who had just discovered something interesting. On the contrary, the grin that adorned his lips suggesting something quite dangerous.

'Who…?' Izumi wondered in his heart.

He didn't recognize this boy. He wasn't his classmate. He even hadn't met him before. Therefore it was only understandable that he didn't know this mysterious boy.

"Ugh, it's Mikami Kyousuke," the bully number 2 uttered the boy's name, unknowingly answering Izumi's question. "Why is he here?"

'Mikami… Kyousuke…?' Izumi repeated the name in his head.