It's a new day. Yesterday was filled with surprises and promises for the future.
Keisuke gets ready for school. He wears his school uniform, a standard gakuran uniform: a black jacket with a stand-up collar and five gold buttons with black pants to compliment it.
It was already ironed out all thanks to his mom, though, it's not that he can't do it himself. He's actually quite great at housework.
Since he and his sister are living in a single parent household, Keisuke took it upon himself to take care of the housework to alleviate the stress on his working mother.
As for his father, he was barely around when Keisuke was young and once Keiko reached 3-years-old, he just completely disappeared from their household.
His mom never told them directly about what had happened but as time passed, he could tell from his mom's reactions when asked about him. His father is a scumbag.
The three of them never needed him though. Somehow, Keisuke's mom figured it out.
As he enters the dining room, he is met with a young girl and a woman sitting in front of each other.
"Ah! Big bro, good morning!" The girl happily cheered.
"Good morning. Come eat breakfast or you'll be late." The woman happily said as she stood up to get Keisuke his food.
"Good morning, Keiko. Mom! It's fine, I'll get it, geez." Keisuke said, a bit peeved by how much selfless his mom is.
Everyone is wearing their own uniform. Keisuke and Keiko with their school uniform and their mom who's wearing her office attire.
It didn't take long to set everything up. He found himself sitting next to his sister as he clasped his hands together, "Thank you for the food."
The breakfast for today is rice, fish, egg rolls and miso soup. It was a pretty standard breakfast but also quite fulfilling. The three have no complaints.
Despite arriving to the table last, Keisuke is the first one to finish his meal. As he starts to wash his dishes, everybody else finishes theirs. Whenever this happens, Keisuke takes it upon himself to wash everyone's dishes as well.
Just as he finishes his morning chore, he receives a text message on his phone. It's from Natsumi.
"good morning! meet up later? :3"
"Good morning. Yeah, let's meet up at the usual spot."
"kayyy ｡^‿^｡ "
And with that, all three Tsuneyukis go about their busy-filled days.
The first one to split from their walk was their mother who have to take a train to another prefecture for work.
"Well, I'll be going this way. Take care you two."
"Okay! Take care as well, mom." The siblings said in unison.
Shortly after is Keiko who has to take a different road to get to her school.
"See you later, big bro!"
"Yeah, I'll see you later… and take care, ok?" Keisuke said in a caring manner. He's a big brother alright.
"Geez. You always tell me that." Keiko grumpily pouted. "I will!" She muttered as she scurried along a different road.
"Hey! I just said to be careful!" Keisuke shouted in annoyance but quickly shifted to a more relaxed expression. He chuckled for a bit and then continued walking down the road to school.
As he gets nearer to his destination, he encounters more and more teenagers who are wearing the same uniform as his.
Most are in groups while there are also those who walk by their lonesome. Keisuke wasn't any different from them. Previously, he was also a loner although things have changed for him in recent times.
The road to school is bustling with chatter. The conversations are the same as always. Some talk about a show that was on last night on tv, some talk about the new game that's about to come out, and some, while it's mostly exclusive for when Keisuke is in the area, talk about how attractive the 3rd year student Tsuneyuki Keisuke is.
He usually doesn't mind it but there are times when he gets flustered overhearing that kind of conversation. Who even talks about somebody when they're there, he thought to himself.
As he quietly walks ahead, a girl with a high-pitched voice was yelling someone's name from behind. Keisuke couldn't help but look back.
"Natsumi-chan! Good morning!" The girl cheerfully greeted.
Keisuke sees familiar faces behind him. Actually, one of them is very familiar.
"Ah! Reimu-chan, good morning." Natsumi replied, she more or less reciprocated the energy shown to her.
It was his girlfriend, Natsumi with her close friend, Reimu.
Reimu is Natsumi's closest friend. Not only are they classmates but both are also part of the Basketball team. She's very energetic and quite tomboyish though still a maiden at heart. Natsumi would sometimes tease Keisuke, telling him that Reimu was more manly than him whenever he chickens out.
Two more girls came along and joined them, greeting them a good morning.
One of the girls, Himeko, exuded an aura that screams "It Girl". The way she presented herself was very different from everybody else, even in their friend group. She's only in her 2nd year of high school and she'd already been asked out an innumerable number of times. She'd rejected all of them of course, thinking she can't find someone worthy of standing by her side at this school.
The other girl is Ayano. She's a childhood friend of Himeko although, in an outsider's perspective, she seems more like one of her goons. Ayano is rather plain-looking resulting in her seeing Himeko as a role model of sorts while growing up. This resulted in her doing pretty much anything she asks to keep their friendship intact. Himeko was a tad-bit bothered by this at first but eventually accepted it, assuming those things as favor… and she'd asked for Ayano's frequently.
The four girls are all classmates and often hang with each other. Everyone who knows them knows it– even those who don't know them.
As the group walked together, Natsumi noticed a familiar looking guy in front of them. She made eye contact with him only for a split second until she deliberately diverts her gaze back to the group. Keisuke, noticing that he'd been staring at the girls for an uncomfortable amount of time, shifted his gaze back forward.
A girl behind him squealed in excitement.
"Oh my God! Tsuneyuki-senpai was just looking at us!" Reimu cried in elation, trying so hard to keep her inside voice as to not creep Keisuke out.
"Shush, Reimu-chan, you're being too loud." Natsumi retorted, trying her best not to be suspicious.
One of the things that Keisuke and Natsumi made sure of when they started going out is that nobody could ever find out that they're dating. Nobody is deserving enough to be with the most popular guy at school, most of the female students thought.
Either way, if there was a girl who tried to get close to Keisuke, some groups made it their mission to relentlessly bully the person as a warning for breaking an unspoken rule.
With that said, Natsumi have not told her friends about her relationship with Keisuke at all. It wasn't a problem though. In fact, she enjoyed this little secret of theirs.
"Ah, I'm sorry, ahahaha." Reimu chuckled nervously.
"Oh? This is a surprise. Natsumi telling off Reimu." Himeko acknowledged playfully.
"That's true. You don't see that every day." Ayano immediately agreed.
It's true. Natsumi has known Reimu the longest in their group. From playing for rival teams during their middle school days to becoming the best of friends playing in the same team in high school, Natsumi never, not even once, have gotten angry at Reimu.
"C'mon girls, you know that's not true." Natsumi denied, knowing full well they're right. "Reimu-chan. Help me out here." She continued.
Natsumi looked at Reimu who was devastated by what she had just heard. Tears are forming at the edges of her eyes.
"Don't you want to be my friend anymore?" Reimu sobbed emotionally.
"Wha-what?!" Natsumi gets flustered a bit. The people around them have started taking notice of them because of how loud they were being.
"Hey, stop it already. People are looking at us." She begged profusely but Reimu continued to sob.
Natsumi puts her hand on Reimu's head as she starts patting it, all the while telling her positive affirmations.
"There, there…"
"*sniff* You don't hate me?" Reimu murmured in a higher pitch than what she usually sounds like.
"Of course not! How could I ever hate you."
"Ahhh! Natsumi!" Reimu hugged Natsumi tightly, lifting her off the ground.
"Reimu-chan, stop!" Natsumi begged as she's being flung around the air.
A commotion ensued but they were having fun. The students who were passing them chuckled as they saw the display of friendship.
Only one person wasn't happy about all of this. Keisuke, who was thinking to himself, "I wish that was me!"