Chapter 11: Left Behind.

The haze dissipates. Memories start playing quickly around me.

In second grade, my mom started working for the Inoue family as Ellie's driver.

Ellie’s father owns Roppongi Hills International School (From now on, we will abbreviate it as RHIS), so he offered my mom a place for my younger sister Ayaka and me at RHIS. So mom could pick us up from school along with Ellie.

Of course, we couldn't afford RHIS, but my sister and I are good students and got a scholarship.

I’m standing in front of the classroom on my first day at RHIS next to a nervous younger me. I should be eight years old or so.

“Hello. My name is Sasaki Rin,” I say in a barely audible tone.

I’ve always been a shy kid, but back in that first year at a new school, I would talk just when necessary.

I'm playing alone during the break. My teacher notices and introduces me to a group of friends. I played with them daily, but we never got to be close. These kids would watch different shows and have other interests than me. I felt like I didn't belong with them.

It was different with Ellie. She was a simple kid like me. After school, Mom would pick us up, and we would always play at Ellie's home until Mom’s shift was over.

The memory drifts to my kendo classes at the neighborhood's dojo, my father patiently teaching the new movements of the day.

These classes were cool, but playing with my classmates after was the real fun. Tuesdays and Thursdays were my favorite days of the week because of these.

Sendoh, Suzuki, and Ado were my best and only friends back then. We would hang out together, organize sleepovers, and celebrate birthday parties together. I belonged here, not at RHIS.

Anyways, my parents would keep signing me to RHIS. Year after year, I would ask them to change me back to my neighborhood's school. They would tell me I was given a great opportunity and shouldn’t waste it.

It's my fifth year. I already gave up on changing a school and started hanging out with Mills and Honda. They were my first actual friends back at RHIS. Why did it take me so long to befriend them? Who knows? I just remembered that there was this extraordinary show on tv called Dramatic Islands, and we loved it. We talked about it every day of the week.

Then middle school happened.

Mills and Honda decided I wasn't cool enough to hang out with them, and they started hanging out with the popular kids. I didn't know how to feel about that back then. But I gotta thank them for leaving me behind.

One day there was a group task, I had no team, and the teacher paired me up with Masa and Aki.

I remember seeing them back in elementary, but I never hung out with them. That first year of middle school, we became inseparable. We didn't have much in common, but we just got along super easily.

For a few months, I had real friends in RHIS and out. That made me really happy, but it didn’t last much.

Before the second year of middle school, Sendoh left the Kendo group. He said that he wanted to concentrate on soccer.

A couple of months after, Suzuki followed. He said he was getting bored of wielding a wooden sword.

A month after. Ado left as well.

We would hang out once a week, then once a month, until I stopped meeting them.

I won't lie to you. That time I did feel abandoned. Was I just another friend to them when they were my best and only friends for many years?!?

During my second year of middle school, puberty hit me like a truck. It could have even isekaid me.

Things changed.

Ellie started to hang out only with her female friends. We could exchange a few words occasionally, but things weren’t the same. So I started walking home.

My face changed, and my nose grew.

One day, I shaved my head. I didn't mean to do it, I was just so done with my untamable hair and decided to give it a cut. I wanted it to look like those sick haircuts European football players have, but I messed it up. I ended up looking like an egg. My parents were called to the school. They said it was a phase. I can confirm it was.

My only anchors back then were Masa and Aki, who were going through pretty much the same. This year definitely made our bond stronger.

In the third year of middle school came the new identity of being the best in the class.

I used to have great notes but not the best ones. From that year on, I embraced the ego of being the best. And I did it until I graduated.

Ignoring the lacrosse team and a few minor details, High School was great. The best moment of school ended so quickly. I just didn’t want it to end.

Then college came.

I entered the classroom that first day and found myself surrounded by other students who were first in their classes. It hit me hard to realize that being the best in the class didn’t make me special. I burned out.

Aki and Masa started their dating life. Their girlfriends started taking away my time with them.

I didn't make any significant friends during college. I started to be more cold and reserved. But I would get along with everyone.

And just like that, I finished college with an average grade.

"Please don't take me there," I shouted at the voice, afraid of the memories to come, but nobody answered.

After graduating, I got an incredible job offer in America as an interpreter. I took it. Languages were always my strength, so working with a top executive of a Japanese multinational in California was an opportunity not to be missed.

I packed and moved to Los Angeles.

“Please stop!” I shouted again at the voice, but no one answered.

I started working at the enterprise. Then, I met Maggie.