Knowing him

I got a phone call from Hikari. The first one ever. I stared at my phone for a few seconds, not knowing what to say. He wouldn't want me to answer over the phone, right?

I picked it up. "Hello?" A hazy voice came from the other side.

"Yes..." I spoke and we both didn't speak for the next few seconds. Maybe he called me without thinking what to say, and I picked it up with the same idea. "I-" We both said at the same time.

"You say it first," I said and I could hear his shaky breathing. "Please."

"Souma- I... I didn't make it weird, right? Please say that you don't hate me... please."

"I don't hate you," I say without any hesitation. "But I need some time. I want to think about it seriously, I want to clear my mind before I give you an answer... I will give you a proper answer, I promise! Hikari... just, please wait for me... won't you?" I asked and my own voice must have sounded uncertain.

"I want to see you." He said. "You can take as much time as you want, Souma... I didn't even expect a response from you, I was scared you'd hate me... but you'll still meet me till you decide, right? I won't make it weird, I promise." He said too.

I put my hand over my eyes, looked upwards and started laughing. "Why are you laughing?!"

"Hikari," I said calmly, "Why are we acting like this? Nothing has changed, you're still you and I'm still me. When have you acted so politely before?... I want to see you too."

"Can you come over?" He asked.

"Yes"

I waited for him to text me his location, and I started walking there. I may not have known much about Hikari, but at least now I knew his address, and that was still an improvement. I knew his house was in the same direction as mine because he always walked back with me. It was much closer than I'd expected, as close as going for a small run.

I reached the place and noticed it was a big house, much bigger than ours. I didn't see him as the rich kind. I wonder who will open the door... I pressed the doorbell.

The big door opened and Hikari's head peaked out. "Come inside, quickly." He looked different without the school uniform. "We're going upstairs. There's no one else home."

Maybe both his parents work. I guess he doesn't have any siblings then? It must be lonely in such a big house. It looks like all this space isn't put to use.

I followed him to his bedroom, and it was in a corner. I'm not sure if I just felt like it, but the room looked isolated from the rest of the house. One would have to walk into a corner to find the door. The floor looked expensive, so I took shallow steps. He then opened the door and I would finally solve the mystery of what kind of room he lived in.

He walked inside cheerfully. The room was smaller than I expected, and it reminded me of Saeko's room. Dark, empty and devoid of personal belongings. I was surprised to see it.

"You're not coming inside?" Such a cheerful person's room had such gray walls. Dull blue curtains and an empty desk. The bookshelf only had textbooks, the bed only had one plain pillow and there were no picture frames or knickknacks.

I looked around like a lost animal. "Don't you put up... posters or anything?"

"I used to." He said and sat down on the floor. There was little space between the desk and his bed, on the other side was a window. It was too high to comfortably rest against it, so from the floor, not much was visible.

"You can just see the sky from here." I pointed at the window. "Maybe that's why you keep looking at it all the time." I made myself comfortable next to him and rested my head on the bed. The window was behind our backs.

"When I was younger, I couldn't really look from the window, because it was so high up. Even before I moved into this house, in my previous house too, I could only see the sky from the window. I didn't have anyone to play with, so that's all I did." He said with a fond smile. I looked at the window again, and thought, Must've been frustrating as a child to just look at the sky.

"I don't have parents. They are my relatives, they adopted me after my Mom died." He said and I could only stare wide-eyed. I didn't know what to say, but he kept going. "You know, Souma, I don't know what to call them. They told me not to call them Aunty and Uncle because it sounds like we're strangers. But they didn't ask me to call them Mom and Dad either. It's weird..." He sighed and didn't stop. It was as if he wanted to get all the words out at once.

He told me about his childhood home, far away in the countryside, where his Mom did little gigs to earn money. He wasn't sure what it was either. He told me how his mother used to dress him like a girl and named him Hikari. With his girly name and appearance, no kids wanted to play with him. "I used to tell them I'm a boy, but they didn't believe me. Sometimes they tried to take off my clothes and check... It was scary. And their parents told them not to play with me because my Mom was a shady person. So I didn't leave the house much before."

Even after moving into this house, his peers did not talk to him because of rumours that he was adopted from a weird place. That he had weird habits. "I can't blame them completely, you know. After my Mom passed away, I forgot what it was like to live with her. I don't even remember her voice."

Then, he told me about Yuki. "I don't call him big brother. I don't like him much."

I crept a little closer and hugged him, he didn't resist either. "Thank you for telling me." He hummed in response and stayed like that for a while. When we finally let go, he started telling me about Saeko.

"She was classmates with Yuki. She used to come over and help me with my studies, because I used to have really bad grades, and Yuki didn't like talking to me. That's how we met."

I heard a noise coming from outside. Like someone had walked inside, and Hikari frowned. I looked down and realized we were holding hands. But, the sound started coming closer. The door made a sound before opening, and Hikari quickly pulled his hand away from mine.

A tall guy opened the door, and he looked just like Hikari.

I was like they had the same face, but the guy had grown out his hair till his shoulders. He looked at me curiously and then started glaring at Hikari.

Hikari, actually, did not seem pleased. "What are you doing in my room?! Get out!"

"I'm not going anywhere." He looked at me again but with more hostility. "Who is he? Hah! Mom and Dad finally thought you were not acting weird anymore, but I know you're secretly still doing that! Why did you have to bring someone home? Take advantage of the fact that no one's home? What were you-"

"He's a friend! And it's none of your business!" I stared at them, not knowing what to do.