A love story

Chiho became upset about what Hikaru mentioned. His sensei also departed from Kendo during the fight by using Kenjutsu. Yet he wanted to kick Hikaru out.

'What a hypocrite!' She angrily thought.

Hikaru knew that Ichigorou had wielded with the spirit of Kendo and was only protecting their integrity. He didn't care about the club and only wanted to see how Ichigorou would react when contradicted.

Seeing that Ichigorou was silent, he turned around and walked out. Chiho followed him. Ichigorou squeezed his eyes shut as the scene was agonisingly reminiscent. However, closing his eyes only made him see the back of his past disciple. He opened his eyes and saw his memories overlap with Hikaru.

It was happening again. Another talented student has walked down the dark path.

The more talented one was, the greater the temptation of power and fame and a higher risk of turning over to the dark side. Then what about himself? He did once feel the temptation when he was younger, although he had overcome them but at a price.

'Ken sensei... where have I gone wrong?'

His sensei was a descendent of Shinkan-Ryu Ken, the godfather of Kenjutsu and was the one who taught him everything. They even worked together to modify Kenjutsu techniques to further refine modern Kendo so that it would still stay relevant.

The Kendo students were still feeling the shakes from watching that amazing fight but were transitioning to a gloominess since their idol has left.

They weren't that dedicated to Kendo so they thought that it was a bit excessive to kick Hikaru out of the club yet they could also understand that Hikaru went against the heart and soul of Kendo. Still, they wished that if only things didn't get too heated so that their sensei wouldn't have snapped.

Amidst the gloomy crowd, one grin stood out from the rest. He was glad that his rival was kicked out and humiliated. There was no one to stop Giichi from being number one. Now that Hikaru is out of the way, he would probably make it into the All Japan Kendo Championship after high school.

***

A little boy named Haruto slowly walked on the street followed by a young man in his late 20s. The presence of the young man walking behind him made the boy walk aggravatingly slow out of contempt. The young man simply wore a thin smile with a lip line that was perfectly horizontal.

The young man was his stepfather, but not from the Haruto's perspective. He believed that he didn't need a father and will never want one.

Haruto's biological father, Phan, was a bastard. He never laid his hands on Haruto or his mother, Tina. He never verbally abused them either. He was the neglectful type. Haruto could hardly ever remember his father playing, interacting or talking to him when he was 4 years old.

Tina and Phan were both internationals. She moved to Japan to study in elementary school year 5. Despite living in Japan for over a decade, her Japanese-Chinese accent was roughly the same as when she graduated high school.

She had finished her studies in early childhood education and was employed as a preschool teacher.

She never dated after having a few boyfriends in high school. Her first love ended badly as they could never agree with each other. They had many toxic fights yet they kept breaking up and coming back to each other. Especially when they lost their virginity just before breaking up. Their carnal desires often built bridges for them to come back.

During this time in year 10, a nerdy and mildly creepy boy would act as a support pillar as he had a crush on her. Phillip's bowl cut hair exacerbated his weeb appearance. The creepy impression came from the fact that he would do crazy and humorous things to get attention from others. For example, he made a "how to use the toilet 101" video for a project in drama class.

The tutorials included scenes of a victim of diarrhoea (played by himself) banging against a toilet door desperately before slowly sliding downwards while clutched onto the door and out of the camera shot.

This scene was then contrasted with the same victim succeeding in finding a toilet and avoiding fatal diarrhoea. Another scene involved the appearance of a toilet gremlin (also played by himself) who preys on the unfortunate.

The video made no sense. Yet he was too shy to show others his video. He filmed this afterschool by borrowing a camera from his drama teacher Mr Javis who was dutch.

Javis uploaded each students' videos into the school intranet for drama students to edit. A few students found the video and soon word spread like wildfire. Javis took it down to protect him but word had already spread. The damage was already done.

This coupled with the fact that he had no social skills or friends made him seem creepier. Having lost all credibility, it was easy for false rumours to sound true.

Tina did think he was a bit creepy but right now he was treating her nicely and it was convenient to have a secret friend to vent all her frustrations onto. He was sort of like a disposable gay friend whom she would never date.

They would always spend after school talking to each other while waiting for her big brother to pick her up in his car. Sometimes they talked about normal things and got to know each other. Other times he was comforting her because her relationship was on the verge of breaking.

After her first permanent break up, he had looked forward to dating her. When they were alone at the front school gates, she said that she was looking for a boyfriend. Phillip's face lit up as the opportunity he was waiting for finally came. He was trembling from excitement but decided to play it a bit slowly.

He was a romanticist at heart and wanted to gather all his love for her before confessing. He wanted to make vows and double-check himself if he could keep his promises to her.

For example, he promised to have the strength to not lash out from jealousy if she wanted to hang out with her friends. He believed that his girlfriend should be allowed to hang out with others and go to clubs.

He promised to never cheat on her and always keep his love true and alive. He decided to give it a day before confessing to her. After all, what was one more day to his long wait?

The day after the next, he called her mobile phone on his cordless telephone because he couldn't afford credit. After she answered, they talked for a while. Phillip was nervous and was trying to have a normal conversation before confessing, as it would be bad to deliver it so early at the start.

After making small talk, he finally started to break it in.

"Hey, Tina..."