The Day my Life Crumbled

"Ninety-seven... Ninety-eight... Ninety-nine... One Hundred!"

A small sigh of relief escaped my breath as I wiped away at the sweat that had accumulated on my face.

I looked up at the sky for a brief moment and noticed that the sun was just starting to come out completely.

"I guess it's time to go"

I put my kendo stick away into its cloth and hurried inside the house. Upon entering my room, I quickly grabbed my uniform and other bath necessities and entered the bathroom to get a quick shower in before heading to school.

After a few minutes of taking my shower, I got out, changed into my uniform and made my way downstairs to see that my mother was already starting to make breakfast for us.

"Morning"

"Morning Tadao, did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I had enough energy to practice for a bit so I'm extra hungry today"

"That's good to hear. I'll make sure to make your plate extra full~"

"Thank you"

I quickly took my seat and as I waited for her to finish with the food, a set of footsteps started making their way downstairs.

"Morning..."

"Good morning, Reiko dear"

"..."

My little sister gave that simple greeting to my mom and started heading over towards the empty seat next to me.

"Morning, Reiko"

"Morning..."

"You really aren't a morning person, huh?"

"I still can't get used to it even though all these years have passed..."

"I'm actually surprised to be honest with you"

She gave me a meek nod and let out a cutesy yawn on her part. Oyama Reiko was my little sister who was currently in her final year of middle school and before I would know it, she was going to be going to the same high school as me.

"I wonder if she's going to like being in the same school as her brother..."

I stared at her face for a bit, but she immediately noticed this and glared daggers at me which made me immediately look away from her.

"I really don't want to get on her bad side this early"

Once the food was ready, we gave thanks, started eating and talked about some small topics just to keep the table lively and happy. When all of that was done with, it was finally time for the three of us to go ahead and go our separate ways for the day.

"Take care, Mom"

"Bye, Mom"

"You kids take care, got it?"

We gave her a nod of understanding and when she left to go to her job, it was time for both Reiko and I to start heading to school.

Since my school was relatively close to her school, it only seemed fair for me to take her there every day, but recently, she had been telling me not to because of the fact that there were girls in her class who were extra curious about me.

For that reason, I started leaving her in the intersection of where our schools were.

"Take care, Reiko"

"Bye, brother" With that, she left my side and started heading towards her school with the same tired expression as always.

"I guess it's time to head to school myself"

With that, I turned the other way and walked down the path with the same high energy as always.

As I started arriving at the main gates, students started swarming the entrance. Kids started hanging around with each other laughing, talking or just messing around in general.

"I wonder where she is today..."

I pulled out my phone and looked at my most recent text with Shiba Akemi, my first girlfriend ever. I had confessed to her in hopes of getting one step closer of having an exciting high school life, she accepted my confession and ever since then, we started going out.

Even though we didn't do a lot of couple like things, it was only a matter of time before we would be doing so. Going on dates, visiting each other's houses and possibly even... Kissing.

I couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed by the thought in off itself and just when I had thought about calling her, I lifted my gaze and saw the one with whom I had fallen in love with.

Her long black hair swayed, the beautiful eyelashes of hers, the perfect smile that she wore, everything about her was perfect.

Our gazes met and just when I was about to her, she looked away and hurried inside the school.

"..."

I was simply left awestruck. I didn't know what had happened, but even then, I wasn't going to assume things "Maybe she's just in a hurry? Yeah, that's it"

I walked inside the school, threw on my shoes and headed down the hallway greeting my friends and fellow club members on the way to my classroom.

Upon arriving there, I took a seat and glanced over at where Akemi sat. Her friends were talking with her, and the topic seemed to have been relatively big since they all seemed to be ecstatic about the conversation at hand.

When Akemi's gaze met mine once more, she turned away and immediately her friend's gaze's fell on me. For the briefest second, I felt chills run down my body.

"What was that...?"

I looked away from them and simply decided to focus on the classes for the first half of the day.

When break came, Akemi was finally alone and that gave me the opportunity that I needed.

"Morning, Akemi"

"M-Morning, Tadao"

She sounded relatively nervous when she gave me the greeting, but I immediately dismissed it and continued "How are you doing?"

"Good... How about yourself?"

"Couldn't be better!"

She let out a small giggle and smiled at me for a brief moment "That's good to hear"

Just when I was going to ask her about the reason she ignored me in the morning, her friends came in and hurried over to her side.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"H-Huh?"

"Get away from Akemi!"

"You scumbag!"

"W-What's happening?"

I stared at her friends and then looked over at Akemi for an answer, but she simply looked away from me and before I knew it, everything that was happening started catching the attention of those around us.

Just like that, they were all whispering to each other about the comments that had been made about me.

"Scumbag? What're they talking about?"

"Maybe he cheated on Akemi?"

"Or maybe she caught him in the act?"

I looked around and simply saw their gazes that were judging me. I gave one last glance over at Akemi in hopes that she would do something, but she simply looked away all the while biting her lips.

I hurried out of the classroom and went to the roof to escape everyone. Upon arriving there, I pushed my back against the door and simply sat there.

"What happened...? What did I do...?"

The thought crossed my mind, but even then, whenever I tried to think up a solution to everything, the only thing that came to mind were the gazes they were giving me.

"It hurts..."

The next day, I found out that nobody was talking to me, they were pushing me away, they were giving me glares and there were even times where they would try to push me around. 

The reason for this was that someone supposedly saw me making out with another girl and told Akemi about it which led to me being called a scumbag, womanizer and other things. From that day, my relationship with Akemi ended and my relationship with my club members and friends also seized to exist.

For a month, I didn't go to school. I simply sat in my room, practiced kendo or studied. I didn't want to go to school. I needed things to die down at least a little bit so that I could graduate and not fail the year.

But even then, memories of those days started flooding my mind. The way they looked at me, the things they would call me and the face of the person whom I loved shunning me away and looking so sad when doing so.

"I hate this... I hate this feeling..." I clutched at my chest in hopes that it would stop the invisible pain eating away at my heart, but it didn't... It simply grew bigger and bigger.

"I..." The next words that came out of my mouth were the words that made me change and become the person who I was in the start of my second year of high school.

The words that would change me completely and end up meeting an obnoxious junior who would try to change me back.

"I hate people... I hate friendships... I don't want anything to do with people ever again..."