Chapter 10

"Change"

As we were waiting for Clayden to finish preparing for school, we noticed Royce walking back home in a hurry. Once he had noticed us there standing in front of Clayden's house, Royce stopped to bow at Zenji-Seeing him do that with a stiff posture and face made me wanna laugh at him.

"Why did you come back, Royce? Forgot something?" I asked him as Royce let out a groan before nodding.

"Yea. I forgot to bring my canvas with me..." Royce answered my question, lookin' embarrassed at the current situation. Zenji was just staring at him that time, and somehow... I immediately understood why he was embarrassed.

"Hurry, You'll be late if you stay here." What I said startled him, and started walking fast to get inside our house. Sometimes, this younger brother of mine tends to forget things. He is still 14, after all. Well... He is 14, but he'll be 15 soon. Still, time sure is coming by fast-I remember it like it was yesterday. How I struggled taking care of Royce when Aunt Shelvie started going to the hospital for daily checkups when she conceived baby Kiel, even the time when I panicked at the time that Roy got sick when Aunt and her husband weren't around and didn't know what to do.

A little later, We heard a door shut, the sound had caught our attention and made us look at the direction where the sound is coming from. Royce had finally come out with a canvas and school bag in his hands, panicking as he locked the door-him coming out of the house just made us realize that Clayden was taking too long to come out of his house.

"I've got to go now, Sis. I'll see you later!" Royce told me as he hurriedly ran to the bus station. Staring at his back figure right now does indeed prove how time had flown by, were all grown up and Roy had matured. I turned to look at Clayden's door with narrowed eyes and groaned. 'Still, I wonder when that guy will come out. We're already late as it is.' I thought. The sound of the doorknob being opened makes me sigh in relief that he is finally coming out of that door.

"If I were to compare Clayden to a woman. There is one big similarity," Zenji then let out a chuckle. What he said only made me confused, and I stared at him, curious as to why he said that about Clayden. "Ahh- I said that wrong." He took it back, as that only made me more confused, and I tilted my head. Clayden was busy locking the door, but Zenji and I were talking about Clyde without him knowing despite him being there. " I can't compare him to a woman anymore because Clayden prepares way longer than a woman. He only needs to wear his uniform and brush his hair, yet he still takes too long. " Zenji stated. Making Clayden stunned, who had just arrived beside us. I was holding back my laughter, but when Zenji started laughing, and Clayden had that annoyed expression, I couldn't help but laugh anyway.

Clayden clicked his tongue and walked away. "Let's just go already. We're late already." Zenji then tried to catch up to Clayden and walked in front of him while facing his direction.

"And who's fault is that?" Zenji asked with a smug look on his face. I chuckled as I had finally caught up with them and walked beside them. A little later, a car on the road got a little close to the sidewalk, my eyes grew wide at the sight of the car-I was then pulled aside and was now placed between Zenji and Clayden, seems that Clayden moved me aside. He is currently walking on the side where I was a few seconds ago.

My cheeks heated up as I stared at him, the look on his face was like he hadn't done anything at all. He seemed to have noticed me staring at him and glanced over to my direction, making me turn away and started to look at the floor. 'What the hell.' I bit my lips as I felt Zenji nudge my arms. I looked up to him and asked me.

"You ok?" I was dumbfounded at what had just happened and also realized that I was still flustered. Zenji was staring at me the whole time and stuttered as I panicked.

"I-I'm fine!" Zenji started laughing as he placed his arms around my shoulder while I tried to shove him off since he was clearly teasing me.

"Seriously, enough already." I complained and let out a groan, but that didn't stop him. He continued laughing.

We were about to reach the school gate. We heard the school bell ring, signifying that we were definitely late. The three of us started to rush inside our designated classroom, panicking.

"I'll see you guys at lunch!" I told them before we parted ways, smiling as I ran to my classroom without hearing their answer.

• • •

The class had finally ended, and I decided to go to the cafeteria to eat lunch and look for Zenji and Clayden. As I got inside, the cafeteria was sure packed. I could barely spot Zenji or Clayden at all. "Raven!" I heard Heather excitedly call out my name,it made me look in her direction, and I immediately ran in a different direction dragging me along with her.

"What's going on?" I muttered out of confusion. Heather must be really excited about something and is in a hurry. Still though, 'isn't this method... a little rough?' I thought as Heather finally stopped running. I bumped into her back, making me let out a groan.

Someone started laughing making me look, and I saw the innocent smile that Heather was putting out-It made me realize that... 'Tristan must be here, isn't he?' I thought as I looked in the direction where Heather was facing and narrowed my eyes to see Michael laughing and Tristan smiling back at Heather while Zenji was busy doing something beside him.

"Can we eat with you guys?" Heather bluntly asked them, and Zenji immediately answered yes. The three of us, Michael and Tristan, were startled at him answering out of nowhere when we thought he was too busy to be listening to us.

I sat beside Zenji as he had his headphones on only one ear while writing lyrics in his textbook. I looked at it and saw that it was all written in kanji words. I took my phone and concentrated the camera on his textbook to translate it. Zenji closed it, making me glare at him. I looked up to his direction and saw him smiling cheekily at me as I let out a sigh, and continued to eat instead-He ended up opening his textbook again. 'Zenji sure is full of secrets.' I said to myself through my head as I munched my food.

A little later, when I had finally finished eating. Zenji started singing in Japanese, reading the lyrics in the textbook as his hand held the head of the headphones-moving his head as he listened to the beat.

"あなたが心の中にいると,私は他の人を愛することはできません...あなた.私を決して孤独にさせない人.あなた.他の人よりも私のことを理解している人は誰ですか..." He sang. Though I couldn't understand whatever he said, I would always find myself in awe every single time I listened to him sing.

I clapped as soon as he was done singing. He was startled and looked in my direction with a smile on his face, and looked at his textbook again with a soft gaze before closing it again.

"As usual, you sing very well...Zen." I complimented as he rubbed the back of his head, looking bashful at what I said. "Come to think of it. Where's Clyde?" I asked as I looked around and let out a groan as soon as I saw him being surrounded by girls. "Never mind." I added.

"Will there be a time when you don't even look for Clayden?" It took me by surprise as he asked that to me. Sweat dropped over my forehead, and I smiled nervously, thinking about it. 'Did I keep on looking for him all the time?' I started playing with my fingers.

"I'm not mad. It just irritates me every single time you look so lost whenever Clayden is not around. It bothers me a lot, you have me and Heather." He said with a stern look on his face as he stared at me. "Whatever's bothering you, you can talk to us-" He continued but cut him off, saying.

"It's nothing like that." I defended as I stared back at him. "It's nothing like that." I muttered what I said again and looked away. I then heard him let out a sigh, which made me glance over in his direction as I whispered. "Why are you acting like this anyway?"

"Don't take it the wrong way, Raven." Zenji told me as he grabbed my chin and made me face his direction. "All I'm saying is you should at least do things that you want to do." He added. It me remember how I used to be in front of the crowd inside a studio, taking photos. I shook my head and gritted my teeth.

"I'm not forcing you to do anything you don't like to Rae, and if something really is bothering you... You could tell me." Zenji reassured me staring right through me with a soft smile on his face, I smiled back at him.

"You sure have changed...Zenji." I muttered, but it seemed that he heard me saying that, making him let out a chuckle.

"Did I?" I hummed in response to his answer and started packing up my lunch. I then noticed his gaze soften as he removed the headphones.

"You did. Even though we were still young at the time, you seemed to have changed, especially after we talked about our reasons for being in Chicago... Were you mad at us? Did we say anything that made you hurt?" I recalled and asked him questions that have been bothering me since. He didn't even look in my direction, I noticed him slightly clenching his fist and smiled softly.

"Not really. I just thought I was the oldest of the three of us. Me being stubborn and a crybaby won't make me look like it, don't you think? Besides, I haven't changed entirely, and how could I get mad at you two?" He answered and seemed to be embarrassed. He turned to face my direction. "You two made my stay here in Chicago more pleasant, I feel at home." He added.

"Change isn't necessarily a bad thing, Rae. Just like how our good-for-nothing Clayden suddenly started to get interested in being an actor." What he said made me let out a loud laugh whilst nodding in agreement.

Him telling me that had made me think. 'Maybe, I should change too...'

To be Continued. . .