POV: Shun
— Aren't you going to class this morning? My mother asked me as I entered my room without knocking. This morning's glow hadn't been felt before my mother could open the shutters of my room; this fact was due to the fact that the whole room was lit up.
Following her provocative gesture, my mother took the stairs to go about her daily business. From the top of my bed I listen to them discussing with my daron who apparently didn't leave early today, my eyes half closed I can't find the strength to get up from the damn bed, the tiredness that gnaws at my body is still a little too present and I can't get anywhere. Yet I have class in barely two hours; in spite of that I'm still not ready - they're going to go without me today, it's a shame.
Since the end of the holidays I'm always tired, I'm basically lazy all the time doing everything, all because of Riku and his new stupid game. He makes me sleepless nights all the time to impress whoever. In fact, I think it's since Sky left for Korea that he gives so much of himself in this game, the problem is not in his obsession, but in the way he keeps on winning, at one point I was afraid that he would get tired of it like every time, but nothing, nothing to do, he always asks for more - just like before... And that's not a good sign, he says he's turned the page but every time he comes across anything that talks about "Fantasy World" he bugs, he almost gets nostalgic. But hey, it's Riku, he's like that.
From the little strength that I manage to concentrate - I get up; head for the shower. With my towel in my hand, the house empty, the sun already up - I'm going to be late - I can feel it. I connect my phone to the speakers, then play a random spotify playlist and make myself comfortable in the living room. With a glass of orange in my hand, I come across a photo of myself, a photo from when I was in college.
I must have been fourteen when I stopped taekwondo, this inked memory can't leave me. As every day I went to pick up my best friend who lives across the street to assist me, I liked to hear him comment with Izuki while everyone was sweating, or working hard in training. This time one of the younger ones asked to fight in front of me "it's friendly" he said, but in the way he stared at me I could feel his hatred towards me, maybe he had the balls to see me with a belt higher than his, I never wanted to know. The coach gave us the agreement to fight, and I, as a born challenger, accepted, perhaps the ardour of youth had something to do with it.
As soon as I got on that tatami I felt a strong aura coming off of my opponent, my friends were silent and so was the rest of the room, at that moment I knew I had to take him seriously, he was taller, his face was marked with a few scars, his features were almost rigid, he always had an era of spinning, even if his size and build was in his favour; I was not afraid of what was in front of me, despite my almost frail body and innocent face, the fear of this big fellow was not present in me. He stepped forward, with a furtive kick he almost pierced my abdomen, the second blow on my calves weakened them; without my even being able to realise it, my body was next to the ground. His deceitful smile that he always wore was not present, he was wary of concentrating.
I had no choice but to face him with everything I had in my gut, his circular kick had not been able to reach me, when he was about to give the second one I hit with all my strength the shin with his supporting foot; as soon as he fell he got up and started hitting again in a repetitive way, first the left, then the right, his blows were energetic, fluid and fast. I was fed up with seeing him make a spectacle of himself, I wanted to go home and put an end to it - I would respond to each of his blows, we would hit each other, unfortunately he weakened, during his few hundredths of a second I hit his cheek on the back of my left foot, then a knee in the abdomen, then a last one in the ribs. In fact no, I didn't stop at one, I had multiplied the knee blows in his ribs while pressing his face tightly under my armpits. I only stopped when I wanted to breathe, but at that moment he collapsed in front of me, spitting blood in front of everyone's frightened eyes.
After that I stopped going to the dojo, I was afraid of being judged, and above all the coach had told my mother everything in great detail.
I still remember how scared I was by my parents that night, they hadn't scolded me but I could feel the disappointment in their eyes, that night I slept with Riku, before going to sleep he had this word for word:
— How you smashed him up! You don't have the right to feel guilty, you were fucking great earlier. If I could be so brave I'd start fucking those fucking pirates, so don't worry…
Little by little we started to dry off to go and read manga on the roof, two years later he started playing again. That reassured me.
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I spent the day thinking that we had already finished teaching, it was golden hour and nobody was in the school, Izuki had sent me a message five minutes ago saying that they were in the McDonald's near the school with the little gang, I joined them shortly after, to my surprise Riku wasn't there.
— Hey Izuki, do you know where he is?
— It's been a while since he left with a guy in the same uniform as Sky if my memory serves me right.
— What was it like?
— They were about the same height, he's got long brown hair, with a kind of mark on his cheek...
The guy she had just described was him, the one with the unfinished nickname from the other time, what the hell is he doing? He brings back the quarrels, this asshole ? Yuhi looked as surprised as I was, but nothing more, I didn't pay attention to it anymore.
With the ball in my stomach, I was looking for this crevard with the same skin as me, it's as if we were supposed to know each other. Two alleyways further on I saw Sky shouting towards an alleyway. The anguish starts to rise when I see this, I am afraid that something bad will happen to him, especially as he can't keep quiet. My eyes plunge into the alley in question, Sky falls with tears in her cheeks, Riku has his back to a wall with full marks on his body, I don't think any more and I start hitting them one by one until the third one, until the long-haired bastard.
— What the fuck were you doing with your fucking mates? I say angrily, assigning him a punch in the face to accentuate the punctuation of my question.
He too was scared and didn't say a word. My mate got up and came and held me on the shoulder.
— Honestly, you're my fucking saviour.
— What was he looking for? What are they doing here Sky?! It was obvious it was her fault.
— I just... I've been... She started babbling on about whatever was in her beard.
— Stop it, it's not his fault, that asshole Jim came to redo my portrait because I broke up his date with the girl who befriended him.
— And she couldn't stop it?! I immediately see red as he tries to explain to me, I look at this girl out of the corner of my eye with her buddies running away.
We go to the school infirmary which was always open, the twins had to leave, Yuhi had also done the same, Sky had come back... It was after several hours that my best friend woke up. I didn't even know what had happened. By the time I woke up he had taken over everything with the twins.
I think he was fired for a week at home. All that bitch Sky has to do is wait.
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Thanks for reading and sorry for the delay I wanted to resume posting on Sunday.