24 Paying The Price

"You will never be as good as your brother!"

A tall, slightly muscular man towers above a little, wimpy eight-year-old kid like a lion who is about to devour its prey. The boy flinched at his father's voice as tears threatened to spill from the corner of his eyes. He tried to fight it off with all his might, and for him… it is a battle that is surely hard to win.

The crease on the man's face darkened when he threw away the paper that he had crumpled over. That paper contains his latest exam scores, which are close to a perfect one with three mistakes in it.

For some parents, they would already be proud of their children with that amount of score they've got… but not this man. As an heir to one of the largest groups of companies here in Japan, he surely can't stand to have a child who doesn't strive to be perfect. Seeing three mistakes in that goddamn test paper is like a sore to his eyes that he needs to remove right away.

"I want to see your test scores go higher than this in your next exams. I know you could do better than this! Do you understand?" His father bellows and gives the boy the sharpest and coldest look that he could ever give to a person

With his head facing downwards, the boy responds, "Yes father…"

The man gives his son a last look full of disgust plastered on it before leaving through the door as he mutters to himself, "Geez… Why do I have such an incompetent son like him?"

Not long after he takes his leave, a figure of a beautiful woman with waist-length silky smooth jet-black hair comes running inside the boy's room with a hint of concern in those round gray eyes of hers. By the time she got in, the boy's sobs started to fill in the four corners of his room as he cried so hard, he couldn't breathe properly.

"Ken!" Instinctively, the woman came rushing forward and pulled the boy in her tight embrace. More tears keep on rolling down the boy's face as he sobs under his mother's embrace.

"Ssshh… Don't cry anymore, sweetie. Mom's here already." The woman tries to rub her son's hair, hoping that it would somehow make him calm down. It did work on him eventually, for the boy eventually calmed down after almost bawling his eyes out.

With a tear-stained face, the boy looks up to his mother and utters out of nowhere, "I wish I could take my brother's place in heaven and he's the one who is here instead of me. After all, my brother is more deserving to live than I am."

'If only I could turn back time and return to that moment where the heavens were choosing who will live and who will die…' Eight-year-old Mori Ken thought to himself. "I would definitely… without a doubt… volunteer myself to die on my brother's behalf."

"I… I don't want to exist in this cruel world any longer, mom!"

***

Ring! Ring! Ring!

A series of ear-splitting sounds coming from his phone alarm instantly wake Mori Ken's senses, making his thoughts drifting away from the nightmare he just had.

Slowly, he opens his almond-shaped gray eyes but squints them right after the rays of the sun that are now penetrating through his sliding window in his right have filled them in an instant.

'Damn…' he cursed at the back of his head. 'I forgot to put on the blinds before going to sleep yesterday,'

With his eyes half-closed, Mori Ken reached for his phone and immediately turned off his alarm. As it finally died down, there was another round of silence that filled in the air as he held his phone above him, revealing a photo of his mom who is smiling so sweetly at the camera with his ten-year-old self standing on her side. Judging by the background where it was filled with a large cage containing a leopard behind them, this particular shot was taken some time in a zoo.

"Good morning, mom," he greets weakly, as if his mother could hear him in heaven. With a weak smile, he added, "Why did you and brother have to leave me alone as soon as possible? I think that's so unfair on my part, don't you think?"

Mori Ken soon laughs at his foolishness. As if his mother and older brother can hear him in heaven! Shaking his head, he finally has the energy to get up from bed and push himself to prepare for school.

***

"Good morning, young master…"

As soon as he was done changing into his civilian clothes, several chambermaids lined up at the hallways of his own residential house to greet him all at once. He was already used to living alone like this since his mother passed away several years later after his brother's untimely death, with no father to always be there for him when things go bad in his life.

After his mother had died, Mr. Mori Kaito sent Ken away to this house. From there he would only take him back for an urgent matter. Surely this proves how an outcast he truly is in his father's eyes.

With a nonchalant expression plastered on his face, he only ignores his servants who were sent by his father as well, and goes straight to the dining room. There, he sees a full set of meals consisting of an appetizer, soup, and main course all covered in dome-shaped stainless steel cloches which he only signs in frustrations.

'Seriously…' Ken says to himself, 'I don't need an extravagant breakfast like this.'

***

As he goes out of his mansion, a BMW 18 is already waiting for him outside where his driver since his childhood days, Mr. Sawada, which he hasn't seen for the past few years already, is just getting off from the driver's seat. Mori Ken already had his driver's license, so basically he won't need a driver anymore.

Judging by the looks of him, he already grew old as time passed by. The wrinkles on his forehead are already visible, as well as all over his face. But despite that, Mr. Sawada can still be considered as their best driver of all.

"Thank you for bringing the car all the way here, Mr. Sawada. I surely preferred to drive a car rather than riding a bike all the way to school," Mori Ken says to the old man politely.

Mr. Sawada, in return, slightly bows his head in front of his master, and says, "Your father wasn't very happy that you took the public transportation when you transferred here to Tokyo. You should be fully aware of your surroundings, young master."

"Alright, alright. Say thanks to the old man on my behalf for bringing my car back…" Mori Ken has now got the keys from his driver, slides past him inside the car, and starts the engine.

But at the back of his head, Ken was silently wondering to himself…

'Since when will I have to pay for my brother's death?'

A few seconds later, he was now off to school with his BMW 18 scooting away from here.