5 My Hero

4 Years Ago...

Noah has already taken a job at the construction site. At the age of thirteen, he already started working. Shoveling out sand and helping with the carrying of stones and blocks of cement.

(These are real jobs taken by kids whose parents don't have the money to take care of all of their kids. This is a controversial topic in the Philippines so let's just leave it at that.)

Mel was still 11 years old and she was already a smart girl. She changed after the catastrophe and she became cold and emotionless. She always ignored her brother and she goes to and from the school without the two talking. (There was even a time when they didn't talk with each other for a week.)

Tuesday Morning...

"Mel, you forgot your lunch-"

Noah said when he was interrupted with the closing of the door and he realized that Mel has already gone out for school.

Of course, as any guardian would do, he would deliver her lunch to her school. So after his break at 11:30 AM, he went to her school with dirty clothes from all the dirt and sand from the physical labor.

Mel was laying her head on the armchair as she just realized she forgot to bring her lunch. So she just didn't move to preserve her energy.

A friend of Mel suddenly came to her as what she said surprised her.

"Hey, there's this poor guy looking for you."

She stood up as she ran in a hurry. She went to the school gate to see a guy with a red shirt and loose pants with dirt and sand all over his face and clothing.

"Who's that guy?"

"Who's the girl she's looking for?"

She was embarrassed as a lot of people noticed the guy with a lunch bag on his hand, calling for her name. Noah noticed and called for her.

"Oh, there you are—"

Noah stopped calling her after she suddenly ran away and since non-students can't enter the building, there's nothing he could do. So after waiting for an hour, he was already late for work and so he decided to leave.

After school, Noah was already at home with clean clothes. He was cleaning the apartment as he suddenly heard a loud bashing sound of the door.

He saw Mel angry as she walked towards Noah and suddenly slapped him hard.

"How could you come to school with those clothes! You embarrassed me!"

"No... that was not my intention—"

"No, you shut up. I'm leaving and don't even try to find me!"

Noah didn't even get the chance to explain and Mel slammed the door close. Noah was surprised as he was oblivious of his sin and he just stood up as he lowered his head.

It was already dusk and Mel was still in the park looking at the surroundings for an hour. She just sat there as she didn't want to watch her embarrassment of a brother.

"I need... no, I don't wanna."

Yet her mind was in conflict about whether she should forgive her brother or leave him be.

Then something bad happened. Three guys older than him, maybe 16-17 years old, appeared in front of her. She just sat there as she noticed these guys were drunk.

"Hey pretty... w-wanna come with us?"

One of the guys said as Mel stood up and turned their backs on them.

"No, thank you."

Mel said as she swept her hair and left the park. Well, he wasn't really able to leave the part as one of the guys grabbed her shoulder and turned her towards them.

"H-hey... what's the r-rush?"

One of the guys said as he was so drunk, he could barely stand or talk.

"Don't you wanna have some fun time with us?"

"What, no!"

Mel shouted as she tried to let his hands away from his shoulder but three of them suddenly grabbed her and escaping was hard.

"No, let me go!"

Mel was starting to cry for help. She was desperate and this is one of the times that she wanted her brother the most.

She wants to go home.

"Oh come on, let's have some fun—"

One of the guys suddenly fell down on the grass as the other's brain was still loading, trying to grasp what just happened. Mel fell down the grassy ground as a fist hit the guy that fell down.

Mel looked at the side to see his brother who was all sweating and clearly tired.

The guys finally noticed the situation and got angry.

"You son of a—"

Mel was crying as she just observes his brother beating up guys older than him. His fierce aura that reminded her of their father leaked out of Noah's body. Yet, not even minute, all of the guys fell down hard on the grass floor.

Noah breathed hard as he looked at the starry skies. He walked down towards Mel as she expected her to be scolded by his brother.

Yet.

She felt something warm that she missed. His warm hands touched her head as he slowly rubbed it, "Shall we go home?" — Noah said with a smile.

Mel's tears finally flowed down from her eyes as she jumped towards her brother and hugged him tightly.

"Brother, I'm sorry!"

"There, there."

Present-day, Mel was still holding the picture frame of her and her brother as she gently put it back on the desk.

"Brother will always be my hero."

After cleaning the rooms, Noah finally arrived.

"I'm home..."

Noah said as Mel saw him bring a lot of books.

"What's that?"

Mel asked as Noah brought all the mountains of books to the desk.

"I borrowed it from the library, these are all books regarding Activation and Blacksmithing."

"I see, you can read those books and I'll cook you a meal."

"Thank you."

Mel happily said as Noah smiled.

Mel went to the kitchen as Noah sat down, to see the two picture frames on his left side. He looked at the picture frame of him and his sister as he smiled of the memory.

He looked at the other picture frame that was turned upside-down, and his smile disappeared. He grabbed it to see him and the complete family.

"..."