Chapter 1: The Beginning

"Is that everything?" my dad asked my mom as he placed the last box onto the living room coach.

"I think that is about it." my mother replied from the floor above us. And with that concludes the moving of our belongings from the car into the house. 'The house sure is big' I thought to myself, as I entered and than plopped on the couch, exhausted from carrying our belongings. But than my mom called from the kitchen;

"Haruto!! Come help set up the table!"

"No!! mom, I am too tired!" I groaned as I replied.

"Fine, but don't come complaining to me when your dad eats all the eel." she said as she started getting the plates out of the boxes. That got me up from the couch. And I sprinted into the dining room and started getting the utensils and cups. If you're wondering why it's because my mom's eel dish is one of my most favorite dishes in the whole wide world, I would eat it everyday if I could. Actually any type of eel dish would taste amazing to me in my opinion. So yea, gotta be the first when it comes to this dish. Anyways back to the story, me and mom finished setting up the table and she went upstairs to tell my father that dinner was ready. And within a matter of minutes, all three of us were sitting at the table eating dinner at our new home, in a new country. Well new for me, but not new for my parents. We were eating silently for a few minutes until my father started talking;

"So how do like the new place bud?" he asked as he chewed on his food.

"It's okay I guess." I said as I reached out for a piece of eel before putting it into my mouth.

"It's a lot better than living in a small apartment right?" he said trying to lift up my mood. He knows that me moving here was hard on me.

"I kind of liked it there to be honest. I know it's not as spacious as our new place is but it was home." I replied.

"I mean it's not going anywhere though Haru. Whenever you feel like going back there when you're older, it will be there for you." My mom reassured me as she put her hand on my shoulder. By the way, Haru is my nickname and only my parents call me that.

"I know mom." I sighed before continuing. "Sorry for being a buzz kill, I know it's the first time the both you have been to japan after having me,and it should be a good thing but I'm just not in the mood." I said, feeling bad.

"Not at all! We're your parents, and that is our line to say!" My dad interrupted, as he put his hand on mines. "We know that this move was a big thing for you, but we promise. It will get better, so thinking positive?" he said with a small smile on his face. Oh god, what did I do to end up with the best parents ever.

"Thinking positive." I replied with a smile.

"That's my boy!" he said as he patted me on the back. After that conversation, the night went by pretty smoothly. We cleaned up after we finished dinner, and went back to unpacking and clearing the house as much as possible in one night. After helping out my parents, for an hour or so I headed back to my room, and started my own unpacking frenzy. And that lasted for about a hour or so until I couldn't do it anymore. So I charged my phone, and went to do my night routine which was taking a shower, brushing my teeth, and do a cleansing on my face. Soon after I was done, I fell asleep quite quickly and I drifted off to dream land.

The next day, while I was still in bed, i realized that there was shoving and tugging on my right sleeve. I opened my eyes to my mom, she smiled before telling me to wake up. I asked why, since I wasn't starting school until the next day. And she said that we had to go and measure my uniform. Ughh, I guess I have to get up, and so I got up and did my morning routine and headed back into my room and plopped on a pink hoodie, and jean shorts before heading down to eat some breakfast.

As I headed into the dining room, I was greeted by my parents. I greeted them back before heading to the cabinet, to get my box of cereal. Than just as I was getting the cereal out of the cabinet, my mom yelled from the kitchen;

"You're not eating cereal today! I'm making breakfast, so sit down!"

I took that as my cue, and headed back into the dining room. I took the seat in front of my dad. We sat in silence for about 10 mins, as my dad was reading the newspaper and I was checking my social medias. Than I looked at the time on my clock, and realized that it was almost 9:00 but my dad was still in his pajamas. Hmm, is it his day off today? It was weird because my dad wasn't the type of guy who would just casually take a day off work. I remember when I just finished 4th grade, and we went on a vacation to Macau. But we were there for 2 and a half weeks only because my dad didn't want to extend his holiday time. Another funny story about my dad that my mom told me all the time was when she was pregnant with me, my dad calculated 3 months in advance the delivery date so that he could ask leave for one day! Yes, I'm not kidding one day! Most husbands get paternal leave for about 3 months but my dad wanted one day! So yea, but in the end he did take 3 months off as his boss technically forced him to, and also my mom said that she threatened him with something along the lines of a divorce. So yea that is the story about my dad and his workaholic tendencies. Anyways back to present day, where my dad is wearing pajamas and sitting down with me for breakfast on a Monday morning, being such a peculiar morning I had to ask him.

"No work today dad?" I asked as I slid my phone back into my hoodie pocket.

"Yea, the company gave me a day off before I have to start working. They told me to have some 'quality time'." He said before folding up the newspaper and placing it down on the table. Just as if on queue, my mom brought in breakfast for all of us. Our breakfast today consists of egg rolls, rice, and miso soup. Ultra japanese if you ask me, and also why the sudden change? I wondered to myself as I started to put rice into my bowl. I decide not to intrude and just go with the flow for once. So I just took my chopsticks and started eating in silence. My parents were talking about what they were going to do today, and the errands that they had to do. So I just blocked my ears and just ate in silence. Than half and hour goes until we were finally done eating, and started cleaning up. So I was doing the dishes, while my dad was cleaning the table, and my mom being the house wife she is was organizing the fridge, putting away the leftovers before joining me at the sink and started cleaning the cooking utensils. As we were washing at the sink together, my mom told me that we were going to go and get my measurements to see if we needed to make any adjustments to the uniform, and later we were going to the school to go and get some important paper work. I nodded, and as soon as I finished doing the dishes I headed back into my room to go and put my contacts on and get my earbuds.

A few minutes passed and I just got down to tell my mom that I was ready, and she was gone. Okay, where did she go? I headed into the kitchen to see she was there. She wasn't nor was she in her room. So I walked to the backyard and saw my father lying in the hammock out back. Sorry dad, but I need to cut your relaxation time for a while.

"Dad!" I shouted to get his attention.

"Yea, what's up bud?" he asked me as he got up on the hammock.

"Do you by any chance know where mom is?" I asked him. Hoping he knew.

"Ohh yea, she was already in the car. Go out and I'm sure she's already in the driveway." he said

"Okay, thanks dad. See ya when I'm back." I said before running out.

I headed out the door and saw my mom, already in the driveway just like my dad said. I hoped into the passenger seat and buckled my seat-belt.

"What took you so long? Also what is with the color contacts?" she asked as he started head for the road.

"Sorry, you know I'm not the biggest fan of contacts. Also these are my backup lens, because someone forgot to take my new subscription from Hong Kong before we left." I said as I gave my mother a dirty look.

"Ahh right...., hehehe sorry honey but don't worry they are arriving tomorrow before you head to school, so I will have enough time to get it from the clinic here before you go to school." she said reassuring me.

"Okay than." I said, and we chatted about trivial things here and there before we finally made it to the tailor.

We headed into the tailor, and my mom took out her phone and was talking to the sales clerk up front, while I went around the store and explored. But just five minutes into me looking around, my mom texted me and told me to come back to try on the uniform. So I headed back to the entrance to meet my mom before heading into the a separate room of just uniforms. Wow! This was really unexpected. I didn't know that they had a separate section just for uniforms.

"Okay, so here is a example of what the uniform is going to look like." The lady showed us. I scanned the uniform, and honestly I'm not complaining. It looked really stylish, and it was a lot better than the one I had to wear back in Hong Kong. The uniform consisted of a white long sleeve shirt, with a white V-neck sweater, a black tie, and a blue coat to wear on top. And to finish the look was a blue and green checkered pants. Now I see, why anime characters always look so cool in their uniforms. I was snapped out of my thoughts when the lady started talking again;

"So this is the uniform that you'll wear in the winter. Now let me show the uniform you're going to wear for your summer times." she said before pulling out a second outfit, from the clothing rack that was right across from us. My summer uniform wasn't so bad either, and it seemed comfortable. It was a short sleeved cotton shirt, with short pants which were off the same color as my winter uniform's pants. After the tailor's mini introduction of the uniforms, my mom told me to try it on. So I headed into the changing room with the winter uniform first. A minute or so passed, and I came out to show how my mom I looked.

"OMG Haru! It looks so good!" she said as her eyes sparkled. Than the tailor asked me if I felt if any part of my body felt if it was too tight. I said no, than she went on to ask me if any part of the uniform was too big or too small. I again replied with a no. So she told me to try on the summer one next. So I went back into the changing room and started to put it on. Again, after a minute or so passed and I stepped out, and my mom again complimented me on how much it suited me. As she was saying that, I was gonna tell my mom that the pants a bit too big for me, but before I could say anything the tailor said this:

"Are the pants too big for you?" WOW was she reading my mind? I nodded, and she told me that she would change it to a size smaller. With that, we were done. So I returned and changed back into my normal clothing before I headed out back into the entrance, and saw my mom already paying for my uniform. And within just seconds, we were leaving the tailors and on our way to school.

As I was sitting in the car, I realized something. Why am I following my mom to school? I mean I knew that I had to get my important documents relating to school but I wasn't really sure why I had to tag along since I'm pretty sure the information that they were going to tell me wasn't going to be relevant to me anyways. So I decided to ask my mom;

"Hey mom, just asking but why do I have to tag along to come to school with you? I mean, I don't start school until tomorrow and also some documents that you needed to get, I'm guessing doesn't really include me. Am I right?"

"Well, yea but I just wanted you to look around the school a little bit because you missed orientation, and so I wanted you check out the school for yourself and also we could look around a little bit before you officially begin classes. Also I wanted you to see the train and routes and all." She said, without her eyes leaving the road. 'Ahh' I thought to myself, but wait train routes?

"Mom, what did you mean by train routes?" I asked hoping it wasn't what I thought she meant.

"Train routes for you to get to school by yourself of course silly!" she said sarcastically. Just as I thought... I mean it wasn't like I have never commuted to school with a train before but instead it's just I was in a new country and I haven't really eased considering I've been here, I don't know ONE DAY!!! Great! I'm now stressing out and I haven't even done anything yet. I guess mom saw the stress starting to built up on my face because she said this to me;

"Don't stress about it Haru. I'll be giving you a ride to school and back for about 2 months until you're fully confident with taking the train to school okay?" she said, as she put her hand on my lap. Okay, now that makes more sense to me. So I started to calm down, and enjoyed the car ride till school.

After what seemed like forever with traffic, and everything. We arrived at the school. My first reaction of the school was, Holy shit! Its huge! And I thought that my school in Hong Kong was huge! So, we parked in the car, and went ahead towards the front office. There we did all the registration and school ID picture taking. After the registration process was done, they informed me and my mom that since we were there at orientation to order the textbooks for my classes. They told us to head to the library and do so now, so that I wouldn't be the only person in class without textbooks. So both me and my mom went straight towards the library as soon as we were done.

So we walked into the library and only thought went through my head, and that was 'Amazing'. I love books an reading, and fun fact! The place that I spent most of my time after school in elementary was the library. I love the idea of being caught up in a book that you forget about reality and you travel in your imagination. Anyways, with that thought lingering in my head, I decided to go me and my mom strolled around the school and tried to cover as much ground as we could before we left. I mean it seemed like a new school, so I wasn't very worried and also if anything goes wrong I can always retrieve to the library. And with that thought I walked beside my mom towards our car. Just as I was caught up in my thoughts, my mom called me and snapping me out of my thoughts.

"So what do you think about the school honey?" she said as she unlocked the car door, and sat down.

"It was actually pretty great, I like it." I replied to her as I got into the car as well, and buckled my seat belt.

"I'm guessing that you're going to spent most of your time in the library?" she said to me with a small smile on her face. I giggled at her question before asking if I was too obvious about it. She nodded, and with that we drove back home in silence.

When we got back home, we were welcomed back by dad who was sweating bullets, and when we asked him why? His reply was that he started unboxing and organizing the house since he didn't have anything to do today. Told you that my dad is a workaholic, but on the other hand, I must say that the house was looking better and less messy. Mom told him to not do anymore organizing and unpacking and that we would all do it together when we're done with dinner. But in the meantime, she told me and dad to go and take a shower while she prepared the food. And so we both headed upstairs.

After a nice long relaxing shower, I changed into my pajamas and headed down the stairs, and into the kitchen since I wanted to check up on what dishes my mom was preparing for us tonight. But she shoos me away and told me to go and get the table ready. Okay.. rude, but I obeyed her and headed back out and started setting the table. And just as I was done setting the table, my dad came down. He saw me, and than went into the kitchen to see if my mom needed help with anything. He later came out with the dishes instead. So that was queue to go and get the rice and so I headed towards the rice cooker, and took out the pot and took it back to the dinning table. Five minutes later my mom walks about with two other dishes, and we started to dig in.

After dinner, my parents sent me up to organize stuff in my room because they wanted some 'quality time' together. So I just left them alone, and headed upstairs and back to my room. In my room, I just started to take everything out of the boxes, and stack those boxes in the closet. And when I was done with that I started to decorate my room. after an hour or two I was done for now. And I later moved on to my suitcase and opened it to start organizing and putting my clothes into the cupboard and dressers. But I opened it and the first thing that popped out was a box. 'Hmm when did I put this in here? ' I thought to myself before taking it out and opening it.

Inside the box was a bunch of photos, Polaroids, and many little things that I did with my friends back in Hong Kong. 'Dang! I almost forgot about them!' I thought to myself in my head. I've been so caught up with trying to think positive, and trying to like Japan that I totally forgot that I had to leave behind the most amazing friends back in Hong Kong. As I looked through the photos, and the Polaroids a sad smile appeared on my face. Later I put the photos back into the box and placed it on top of my dresser. I hoped back into bed, and went on my phone and went to the wechat group that me and my friends were in, and texted them that I've arrived safely, also that I would be starting my new school tomorrow. And last but not least I said that I missed them and that I would talk often with them. That was the last thing I did before I drifted off to dreamland.