Prologue

I am going to start by introducing myself, hi, my name is Sakurai Kyo, I’m Seventeen years old, and this is my story.

For those of you wondering yup I am THAT Sakurai Kyo the youngest son of Sakurai Hitoshi. If you don’t know who I am then I guess that’s a blessing. Those who do know me want to be friends because of who my dad is, but then some people want nothing to do with me because they think I’m some arrogant spoilt brat.

Before you ask me ‘Well are you a spoilt brat?’ I’m going to let you be the judges for that because even though I don’t think I am, you might think otherwise after you find out about a few of my habits, anyways you get my point.

But it’s okay that I don’t have many friends, it means that I can spend most of my time doing the one thing I love; reading. I can do it for hours on end, just sit in my room or the garden with a good book, music, and a cup of coffee.

Although I have to admit it irritates my dad though, his friends are all businessmen and their kids are mostly out either clubbing or drinking until they can see stars in the middle of the day, now they are what I would call spoilt brats, every day they either have a new car or a new girl.

My dad says I should be like them, minus the cars and girls of course, but I need to at least attend business dinners and socialise with these people, I always decline, I’m happy the way I am, and besides they make me feel weird, they’re not my usual crowd.

You see he’s in the Wine business and so is my older brother, and now I have to be too, it’s particularly annoying because I have no interest in Wine, I don’t even like the taste of it for starters.

But of course, I can’t tell him that he would probably ship me off to some military camp or something and as cool as I think that is I will have zero time to read! So, I have no choice but to suck it up and plaster a smile on my face and just go with it to keep him happy.

If you’re wondering what I want to do instead of this then I have no idea! I honestly have no clue what career path I want to go on, unlike my brother my life is still complicated.

At least he figured out what he wanted to do, he loves music and wanted to become a musician, but of course, our dad was livid when he found out and said to him that either he could join the business or he would disown him, so he had no choice, but that just means he needs secretly practices in the garage which we have soundproofed.

If you’re wondering about my Mum then she’s not as present as she needs to be, don’t get me wrong she’s the loveliest lady you’ll ever meet and we love her to bits, she knows the right things to say when we’re at our lowest but she’s always out socialising, we don’t blame her, you try and live with our dad! But never will she stick up for us, which sometimes hurts because we know she doesn’t enjoy this any more than we do, although I do think she gets a kick out of seeing us squirm under our father’s gaze, especially at dinner when Dad is scrutinising us.

Anyways enough introductions I need to get ready for school, I don’t mind school, it means I have a few hours before I have to listen to my dad’s lectures on responsibility, business, and his favourite one; reputation.

I change from my sweatpants to black trousers and a white shirt, my tie is black as well and I have to wear a black blazer on top, honestly, we shouldn’t be allowed to wear blazers, especially in this sweltering heat! The worst part is even with the windows wide open the room is like a furnace.

Alrighty, it’s currently 8:20 and school starts at 9 and it’s 45 minutes away, you do the math because I’m rubbish at it, but I know I’m going to be late. I also know that my teacher is not going to care, she rarely ever does but when it comes to me, she turns a blind eye, as much as some people would love that I hate it, just treat me like you treat everyone else, I don’t need any special treatment, anyways, enough of my rant I need to leave!

I quickly run downstairs and get outside to where our driver’s already waiting, he sees me and rolls his eyes with a chuckle, “Late again.”

“I know I’m sorry,” I apologise, quickly getting in.

“Well, luckily your teachers won’t care,” he says looking at me through the rearview mirror.

“Don’t remind me,” I mumble, annoyed.

“Cheer up, I have a feeling you’re going to have a good day,” he says with a wink.

I sit up in my seat, he always says that he has a feeling something’s going to happen, and 9 times out of 10 it does. Sometimes I think he’s like one of those wizards in my stories.

Speaking of stories, I always carry a book in my bag, I quickly take it out excited to see what happens next, it’s a new book that I got and so far, I love it! It’s about a guy coming to stay at his grandmas' for the summer but he hates it as he’s from the city and the worst part is his phone broke so he can’t even use social media or talk to anyone!

Oop looks like the guy fell into the ocean, well he was accidentally pushed in by a girl, oh shoot! He doesn’t know how to swim! Oh, wait hang on… she saved him! Not only did she save him but she gave him a phone, a brick phone at that but an old phone is better than no phone so stop complaining, dude!

Ooh, I like this story, normally it’s about the guy saving the girl but this time the girl saved the guy, I especially love that this story doesn’t go with the usual norm, one thing I especially love is the way the author goes into detail with the setting and the character’s emotions, makes me want to visit this place he has more books! I can’t wait to get them!

I felt the car stop near the school and sigh as I have to put my book away now, “Have a good day,” my driver says to me with a smile.

“Thank you, you too,” I smile back.

I step out of the car and enter through the gates; our school is almost 100 years old and is hard to miss, especially with the bright, white colour in the sunlight it glistens, the middle of the school is taller with a clock at the top, long story short it’s easy to get lost if you haven’t been here long, also some students claim that the third floor of the west wing is haunted, I don’t believe that but doesn’t hurt to explore it right?

I got to my classroom and as I thought I was the last one in, I sighed as everyone’s eyes were on me, I was pretty winded after the flight of stairs I had to climb, I’m not unfit or anything I go to the gym 3 times a week thank you very much, but, for some reason when it comes to stairs I get tired so quickly, but you best believe I can give you as many push-ups as you tell me to and I’ll be fine.

Beads of sweat formed on my forehead, I stood in the doorway like a lemon, everyone’s eyes were on me, as much as I knew my teacher wouldn’t say anything I could tell that she had a million and one things she would like to say to me right now.

My punctuality isn’t that bad, but sometimes when you’re reading a good book you just can’t put it down and the next thing you know it’s 5 in the morning! So clearly not my fault.

I quickly compose myself and force my legs to move, once I’ve taken a step forward the rest of the trek was easy, but as I looked up, some students were giving me an annoyed look and the other half were gesturing for me to sit, I could hear a few girls giggling telling me to sit next to them.

I quickened my pace and went to the back, but when I reached my usual seat near the window, I saw that someone else was sitting there, I couldn’t see what she looked like but I can tell you, she had bright, red hair, the colour reminded me of strawberries.

I stood there frozen for a few minutes, I had no idea what to do or say, the girl didn’t seem to notice me either, she kept her gaze low as if she was looking at something from under the table, maybe she was hiding a phone under there.

I finally composed myself and cleared my throat, she didn’t bother to look up still engrossed in whatever was under the table, I cleared my throat again, a little louder this time.

“Do you need a drink of water?” I heard.

Just from that sentence alone, I felt like time had stopped, I had ascended to Heaven, and an angel was talking to me in the span of what 30 seconds? But honestly, never have I heard such a soft-spoken voice before, is that even possible?

“What?” I asked, completely forgetting the question.

“I said, do you need some water? Or maybe a cough drop? I think I have some in my bag,” as soon as she finished her sentence, she looked up at me, staring at me with the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen.

Again, I think I was staring because this time she snapped her fingers in front of my face, “It’s rude to stare.”

My eyes widened and I felt my face heat up, “I-I’m sorry,” I mumbled highly embarrassed by the interaction that just took place.

Seeing that the desk next to this was empty I quickly took a seat, and took my stuff out, I glanced over to the girl and saw that it wasn’t a phone she was hiding under the table but a book! I don’t think I have ever felt this way before!

I tried to look at what book she was reading but couldn’t lean far enough, actually at one point I leaned so far, I almost fell off my chair! My heart leapt to my mouth from the scare that I almost broke my nose, I guess I’ll just have to wait until the end of the class to find out.

I looked at the board trying to listen but my mind kept wondering about the book the girl sitting a desk away from me was reading, I so wanted to ask her but she looked so engrossed in the book I didn’t have the heart to disturb her.

I was a little afraid of what she would do if I did disturb her, probably along the lines of biting my hand off if I shook her or clamping my mouth shut if I said a word or even breathed too loudly.

On that cheery note, I decided to get my phone out on the desk and turned on the voice recorder, I often do this and record my lessons so I can read and make all the necessary notes I need at home.

I took my bookmark placed it next to my phone, and started reading it again, I was so into it I didn’t even see everyone packing everything up and filing out of the classroom, by the time I did realise the ‘Strawberry girl’ was gone.

I sigh at my rotten luck, now I’ll never know what book she was reading… okay maybe that’s being a little too dramatic I’ll find out soon I mean we go to the same school so maybe I’ll see her around and ask her then.

The rest of the school day was okay, I paid some attention to my lessons and the rest of the time I was reading, speaking of I finally finished the story and I loved it, it got a little sad towards the end when both protagonists break up over a misunderstanding and the girl was going to leave for further studies in the city but at the end, they got married and had two kids!

I’m not going to lie, I did almost cry over that book, I mean books make me cry but I don’t think a book ever made me smile, laugh, cry and curse the author’s name to the wind all at the same time, but it was all worth getting choked up over because at the end I got the Happily Ever After I wanted them to have.

Soon it was time to go home and boy was I glad of that! The car ride home wasn’t as silent as it was this morning, we talked about school and the book, and I even told him about ‘Strawberry girl’ to which I got a smirk in return.

“I told you I had a feeling today will be a good day,” he winked.

“Not really, it was a pretty awkward interaction,” I shrugged.

“Well awkward interactions make the best stories; you should know you read, don’t you?” he said to me as we got into the driveway.

I gave him a look for a few seconds before I got out, “I’ll see you tomorrow,”

“Bye,” he smiled.

I made my way to my room and fell on my bed, I was exhausted and didn’t know what to do, I sat up and that’s when I saw something peeking out of my bag, almost like a piece of paper, how did I not notice that before? I picked up the note and read.

‘Hey,

It was kind of obvious that you wanted to know what type of book I was reading, and don’t worry I didn’t see you almost face-plant the floor.

I was pretty intrigued with the book you were reading, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get so lost in a story that they forget where they are, other than me of course, so if you want to know more how about you meet me in the library at lunch tomorrow.

xoxo Akabane Ichigo’

Wow today is a good day but I can tell tomorrow will be even better.