5 Glimmers Of The Past

"Mom?" young Clover said. Seeing his mother suddenly enter the room.

His mother walked towards his bed before kneeling down on her knees and started sobbing with her head in his lap.

"I'm sorry sweetie." she managed to say through her stuffy nose.

With confusion on his face, young Clover frantically said, "N-No mom. It's not your fault. Look, I'm okay, see?"

Wiping his teary eyes with his arm, he held the head of his mother with both hands to raise her head.

When her head was up, she stared deeply into her son's eyes before stuffing his head in her chest, hugging him tightly.

While Clover stood there at the doorway, seeing this time of his past, it conjured a though, 'Mom was always a bit over dramatic, but even then, at this very day when I saw her like that. I promised myself that I wouldn't cry anymore, at least not in front of her. I didn't want her to feel like my sadness was her fault.'

Standing at the doorway, Clover turned to walk away but as soon as he did, the scenery around him changed completely.

...

He found himself in the living room of the house, looking straight at the front door.

"Wha-?"

As his eyes widened at the sudden change in surroundings, his father entered through the front door with a little girl following behind him.

Short silver-white hair, smooth cheeks, and an excited expression, 'I almost forgot how cute Hara looked when I first saw her,' Clover thought, looking at the little girl behind his father.

"Clover. Guess who's back!" his father said loudly.

While his father and Hara stood at the doorway, his mother and his younger self both came down from upstairs.

Hiding Hara behind him, his father waited patiently for them to come down.

'Was I upstairs with Mom for that long?' it seems Clover himself was taken aback at how long he stayed in his mother's embrace.

With young Clover holding on to his mother's hand, he came to the front door looking at his father who pursed his lips together, trying to stifle his exited expression.

He glanced at his mother who held her hand over her mouth. Lightly chuckling through her nose.

"Remember the surprise I was telling you about?" his father asked.

"Yeah. Where is it. Gib please." young Clover became jittery.

He took a step Infront of his mother and was about to release her hand when his father stepped aside and showed him the surprise.

"Ta-daaaa." his father said, gesturing to Hara.

A bit confused, young Clover looked at the girl for a brief moment.

When the realization finally hit him, he rushed behind his mother and held onto her thighs with his small hands for protection against the feminine creature presented before him.

Peeking from behind his mother's thigh, he stared at Hara.

As Hara showed him a smile and tilted her head to get a better look at him, he hid his face behind his mother to escape her gaze.

"What's wrong?" his father said.

Young Clover peeked at Hara again and pointed in her direction.

"Who is that?"

"That's your surprise. Her name is Hara."

Young Clover went silent. He kept trying to alternate between looking at Hara, and avoiding her gaze.

His father then rested his hand on Hara's shoulder while raising his other hand towards young Clover and said, "Hara, this is Clover. Think of him as your big brother."

"Big brother?" Hara asked, as a spark of excitement flashed across her glittering eyes.

"Yes." he replied.

As if Clover was a cute irresistible stuffed teddy bear, Hara ran towards him and smudged her cheek against his while locking him into a hug.

This all happened so fast that young Clover didn't have time to react. He tried to escape from Hara's tight hold but her grip was just too strong.

"Aww. See they're getting along already." his mother said, beholding the adorable scene which made her want to join in on the fun.

"Hahaha..."

Clover laughed to himself while enjoying the farce. To Clover, looking at his younger self struggling to escape was hilarious and also cute.

After laughing it off, he closed his eyes to remove the single drops of tears that have accumulated in the corner of his eyes.

...

When next Clover opened his eyes, his surroundings changed again. This time, he saw young children in similar uniforms chatting and idling around in a classroom.

He looked around and spotted himself, his younger self. His eyes were gazing through the glass windows of the class as he sat there by himself doing nothing but enjoying the view outside.

'I guess even when I was in the fourth grade I was still a lone wolf. Must be because I was made fun of because of my hair.' Clover's dejected though made him sigh.

Looking around the classroom, the figure of a silver-white haired girl entered the class and scanned her eyes across the classroom.

As she landed her focus on Clover sitting in the front corner of the room. She strolled towards him all with a smile on her face.

Arriving before Clover, she kept touching her index fingers together. Noticing someone Infront of him, Clover looked at Hara and opened his mouth, but no words came out, just an exhale of air exited through his lips.

'Knowing her for two full years and yet I couldn't bring myself to get past my shyness.' Clover though, as he watched himself and Hara.

Hara then opened her mouth to say something but before she could, a voice suddenly spoke to Clover who was sitting infront of her.

"Is that your girlfriend?~" the voice said mockingly.

Clover turned his attention to the heavy built body of a boy with brown hair that was in a buzz cut and behind him were two similarly large built boys.

"Oh boy, here we go again." Clover said as he watched this scene of the past unfold.

Ignoring the boy who spoke to him, young Clover stared back at the view through the windows.

Knitting his eyebrows at Clover who obviously wasn't in the mood for a chat, he turned to Hara and spoke.

"Why are you with this loser?" he wall slammed Hara. "Ditch him and come hang out with us?"

"I-I don't..." Hara said.

The large built boy then grabbed on to Hara's wrist and tried to lead her away. Hara retracted her hand from his grasp and took a few steps back.

Realizing what Hara did, the boy turned to Hara with shock on his face. He raised his hand to look at it and glared at Hara who backed herself up against the wall, massaging the wrist that he grabbed.

"Huh? You like this loser or something?" he said, walking towards Hara who pressed herself up against the wall.

'I don't even I know this guy?.' Clover though as he frowned at the boy who was bothering Hara and mocking his younger self. 'Why did he choose this of all times to have a conversation with me?'

*Bam*

Smashing his fist on the desk, young Clover stood from his seat as the chair behind him screeched on the floor. He held Hara's arm, leading her quickly and silently away from the boys.

As he saw Clover's swift and sudden actions, he initially didn't react as Clover's unexpected slam on the table left him momentarily shocked.

Noticing that Clover was now leaving the class with Hara, he tried to follow them but saw a teacher walking through the halls and decided against it.

Clover who was observing this, followed Hara and himself when he saw both of them leaving.

They walked for a while before stopping at the base of a staircase.

Young Clover, realizing what he had done, released Hara's arm and turned around to leave with his face flustered.

"Clover I-" Hara said, hoping that with just saying his name, he would not leave. Fortunately, young Clover stopped walking.

Without turning around, he stood there, waiting for Hara to say something.

"I'm sorry..." Hara said. "...and Thank you."

Pausing for a while, young Clover muttered, "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

He then started walking away, but as soon as Hara realized this, she ran to hug him from behind.

"Please...don't run from me again." she hugged him tighter, fearing that if she let go, she'll lose him. "Why do you always walk away from me? Why don't you give me a chance?"

Hara's sudden actions made young Clover gasp just a bit. After a few seconds, he managed to digest everything that just occurred.

If Clover was flustered before, then now he was nervous. His cheeks became peach red and his heart rate gained double the amount of beats per minute.

Clover inhaled a long breath and then sighed it all out to calm himself a little. He looked at Hara's smooth arms that interlocked around his chest as he murmured between his teeth, "I..n...shrr...."

"Huh?" Hara asked, unable to comprehend his words.

"I said. I..n...shrr...."

"Wait what?"

"I'm shy okay!" young Clover raised his voice.

Taken aback by Young Clover's words, she rested her head against his back and loosened her arms a bit.

"You don't have to be shy with me." Hara said. "All I want is to get to know you. Can't I at least have that much?"

Not knowing what to say or how to respond, young Clover nodded.

'I guess I forgot how I came around to warming up to her.' Clover though, looking at Hara wrapping her arms around his younger self.

This time, without closing his eyes or moving his head, the scenery around him changed again.

At this point, Clover subconsciously expected this to happen. Although he did still flinch at the sudden change.

...

Finding himself at the same street he saw his younger self crying, an older version of himself came from around the corner of the lonely street.

'Wait, don't tell me. This is the exact day when...'

The space between Clover's eyebrows became contracted with vertical depressions. He clenched his fist and gnashed his teeth while he tensed all the muscles in his body.

Looking at his younger self walking casually on the sidewalk from across the street, Clover felt pity and rage surge through his blood.

Halfway through the sidewalk, footsteps could be heard. Thinking that no one else was around, young Clover turned to look behind him.

...

Six...That was the number of eyes that young Clover saw glaring at him. Nine eyes glinting with malevolence.

The face of young Clover grew mildly pale as he sensed the evil intent spewing from the pores of the three boys whom Clover had encountered with Hara in the classroom.

"Well, if it isn't CloveーI mean looser." the brown haired boy in the middle said. "Let's get him!"

When he shouted to the other two boys behind him, they all raced towards young Clover.

Upon realizing this, young Clover turned to run away. With a source of fear on his back and adrenaline in his blood stream, young Clover was managing to shake them off.

Taking a look behind him to confirm that he was indeed escaping from the gang of rusty large built boys, he got distracted from the road Infront of him and tripped on a small crack in the sidewalk.

His center of gravity became unstable as he fell on his face. Not caring about his flesh wounds and his sprained ankle, he forcefully and quickly shoved his hands on the ground to stand on his feet, however, as he got up, the three boys already circled around him and started kicking him before he got a chance to get back up.

Clover stood on the sidewalk across the street, witnessing his own beat down. But, there was nothing he could do about it, this was all in his past. Something that could never change, something that was burned into his reality.

Unable to look at the dreadful sight of his pitiful younger self lying helplessly on the ground while shielding his face and his abdomen from the constant blows, Clover slumped down on his knees and dropped his head in his palms.

...

And just as last time, the scenery around Clover changed. This time, he was back at the front door of his home.

With this occurring, Clover's mind got distracted from his mourning state. He stood and again saw himself.

His face swollen, his clothes soiled with dirt, his limping right foot as his hand cradled his belly.

Looking at himself in this condition resurfaced his emotions, it was not as intense as before but still, it lingered.

Young Clover limped his way inside the house as Clover followed. He made his difficult way to his room, surprisingly, no one saw him or heard him.

Soon, the door to his room creaked open and a dark shaggy hair proceeded by dark brown eyes could be seen peeking inside.

"Clover!?"

The door then flew open and a tall figure rushed inside towards young Clover.

"What happened?" his father asked.

"It's..I." Clover was unable to give a straight answer.

His father looked at him, gently touching his shoulder as to not hurt him. His intent stares discouraged young Clover to hide the truth.

"I walked home alone today. And I..." Clover said.

"But why? Why didn't you wait for me?"

"Because I..." he trailed silent from his sentence. "Things kinda went awkward at school so I just came back by myself but, I got jumped."

Although Clover didn't want to lie or hide the truth from his father, he also didn't want him to think that it all started because of Hara.

Standing straight, his father's face became stiff. He wasn't a man that encouraged or likes fights but what he disliked even more was someone hurting his family.

"Listen Clover." his father said. "It's time I teach you how to defend yourself."