Kazuha is standing in front of his house with a bruise on his face, his house is very small, it's not a decent house as well. He enters the house and as soon as he's inside his father is looking at him, a light brown-haired guy sees his son's face is covered with bruises then he stands up and approaches him. Kazuha is looking down and he looks scared of his father, his father is still wearing his suit and he grabs him in the face and lifts his face forcefully.
"What is this?"
Kazuha is closing his eyes and doesn't say a word, his father immediately slaps him very hard in the face where the bruise is at, Kazhua falls to the ground and his father is loosen his tie while glaring at him.
"I wasted my money because you wanted to go to school, now look at you, your grade is bad and you come home with bruises on your face. If you want to fight then stop going to school and become like me!"
His father removes his suit and his shirt, a fish tattoo is covering his back then he grabs Kazuha on the collar while lifting him up. He punches Kazuha so hard that Kazuha gets knocked back and hits the wall behind him. His father sighs and nods up at him.
"Who did this to you?"
Kazuha is trembling in fear while holding his cheek.
"Someone from the school."
His father raises his eyebrow and rests his hands on his waist.
"Hah?! Did you get beaten by another student? Are you not ashamed of yourself? I thought you were the boss in your school, now I know that you're not only useless as a student, but you're also useless in a fight?! I'm disappointed in you, get up!"
Kazuha gets up and is ready to get beaten by his father, and that's what exactly his father does to him. His father is beating him up and he can't scream since the neighbor will hear him and when that happens, his father will beat him up even more because it makes his father looks back in the area even though everyone already knows that his father is a yakuza. He wishes that his mother is still with him in the house but his mother left him and his father because she couldn't bear the abusive personality of his father, and now he has nobody else but his father to provide him food and a roof.
His father sighs and grabs a pack of cigarettes from his trouser's pocket and lights it up. He's glaring at Kazuha while smoking his cigarette.
"Who did this to you? I will make him pay."
Kazuha is trembling in pain and fear at the same time.
"Azera Norl..."
His father raises his eyebrows.
"What kind of name is that?!"
Kazuha looks at his father's feet.
"He's a foreign kid..."
His father scoffs.
"You got beaten by a foreigner? You useless son of a b*tch!"
His father kicks him on the stomach and Kazuha coughs very badly and throws up. His father looks at his vomit and clicks his tongue.
"Now you're dirtying my house?! Clean it up!"
Kazuha can't hate his father because even though he's an abusive person, he does care about him in the end. He gets up and cleans his own vomit and takes a cold bath so his bruises won't look that bad in the morning tomorrow, and when he gets out from the bathroom, his father is giving him the medicine for his bruises.
(In the morning)
I'm eating my breakfast with Aunt Lisa and Himawari-chan, but then my phone is ringing and I see who calls me early in the morning, it's Ren and it's weird to see him calling me so I get up and go to the backyard and pick up the phone.
"What do you want?"
-
"Good morning, Norl-kun. Are you free after school?"
-
"I don't know, maybe, why?"
-
"Good, I will pick you up after school because there's something that I want you to know."
-
"Yeah, sure."
Ren hangs up the call and I look at my phone while furrowing my forehead, then I get back inside and Aunt Lisa is looking at me while raising her eyebrows while feeding Himawari-chan.
"Who called you?"
I smile and shake my head.
"It's a friend of mine in school, he wants to borrow a book because he didn't bring his."
Aunt Lisa is humming with understanding, I grab my backpack and walk toward Aunt Lisa then kiss her head while leaving.
"I will be back home late today, so please don't forget to lock the door, Auntie. I'm leaving!"
Aunt Lisa leans and nods.
"Okay! Be careful!"
I'm opening the fence gate and I hear someone is leaving Erii's house, I take a look at her house and it's Erii and she's waving her hands to her parents. I still don't want to be near her, so I hurriedly close the fence gate and I'm on my way to school. I can hear Erii is closing the fence gate, I'm closing my eyes while holding my breath and hoping she doesn't call my name.
"Aze..."
I'm grimacing and stop walking, I take a deep breath and exhale deeply then I turn around and look at her. I smile and raise my eyebrows.
"Good morning, Erii."
Erii approaches me and so now we are walking to school together, she's not saying a word and neither do I since I don't have anything to say to her. I don't know what's she thinking right now and she looks like her usual self, but it somehow feels different. Erii looks at her wristwatch and then she looks at me.
"Are you free after school, Aze? Do you want to eat takoyaki and ice cream after school?"
I look at her and scratch my back.
"If only you told me sooner, I would have accompanied you."
Erii raises her eyebrows.
"Oh? It's okay if you're busy. Can I know where are you going after school?"
I tilt my head and smile.
"Ren called me earlier, and he said that he wanted to meet me because there's something he wants to tell me, I don't know what is it but it seems important."
Erii is humming with understanding.
"Oh, okay."
I look at her and flip my hand.
"You can ask Ryo though, he should be free, I mean, he's literally always free."
Erii smiles and shakes her head.
"No, maybe I will go home early today and help my mother at home."
I look at her and raise my eyebrows.
"Maybe tomorrow? If you're free?"
Erii smiles and nods.
"Okay."
(After school)
I look at my phone and there's no message from Ren, so it seems that he's still at school. I'm in front of the school gate and waiting for Ren, but I see a bunch of people in a suit who has been staring at me for quite a while and I don't know why. They look like a yakuza and my head starts thinking about things that I don't want to think about.
A skinny guy in a suit is smoking and looks at the bright brown-haired guy.
"Aniki, is that the kid who beat up your son?"
He nods.
"Yeah, my son said he's a foreigner and his name is Azera Norl."
The skinny guy raises his eyebrow.
"Then let's ask that kid's name and if that's really him, then we can drag him somewhere and beat him up."
The light brown-haired guy nods.
"Go and ask him, and if it's him, drag him here."
The skinny guy is grinning.
"With pleasure, Aniki!"
A skinny guy is walking towards me and now I'm confident that they're here for me, but since this is a school area, they shouldn't be able to do anything to me so I don't have to worry about them. The skinny guy is standing in front of me, he's a lot smaller than I think but he looks quite dangerous, and I can see that he's holding a pocket knife in his right hand.
"Hey kid, do you know Azera Norl?"
I furrow my forehead.
"That's me, what do you want from me?"
The skinny guy is grinning and tilting his head.
"Perfect! Now come with me."
I scoff and smirk.
"Why would I do that? I don't know you."
The skinny guy looks around and then he opens his pocket knife.
"Kid, I'm not asking. It's either you follow me or else."
I raise my eyebrow.
"What? What are you going to do, huh?"
The skinny guy chuckles while grinning at me. He has a screw loose in his head because he looks like a mad man right now, still, that doesn't scare me since I'm safe here, but then I hear Erii's voice is calling my name from behind and at the moment I immediately think about her and I don't want this mad man to see her face because I don't know what he might do when he sees her and I don't want to put her in danger.
I immediately walk past the skinny guy.
"Fine, lead the way."