Sugar and Pepper (03)
Edited: 2014.06.24
TWO
* THREE *
01.
On a regular school day, Jun was with his friends in the classroom when two girls approached him. They interrupted the conversation and asked, "Ne ne Matsumoto-kun, you were walking home with a senior yesterday, weren't you?"
As expected, his friends immediately shifted their attention to him.
"Yes," Jun answered hesitantly, aware of everyone's stares. "I was."
"I knew it!" the girls exclaimed in uncontained excitement. "It was Ohno Satoshi from class 3-C, wasn't it?"
One of his friends came to his rescue. "Why does it matter? Is he popular?"
The girls glared at his intrusion before answering. "No, but he's cute."
"So why does it matter again?" the same boy cut in, effectively helping Jun from having to answer. "You just want to go around bragging that you know someone from senior high."
In the middle of their conversation, Jun remembered that he had something to do. He immediately left without a word of notice to the group.
02.
Satoshi's desk stood at the far back next to the window. Hidden from the teacher's view by the large student who sat in front of him, he spent his days doodling on the edges of his textbooks. That day, he slept as the math teacher droned on about a specific formula he had never taken the time to memorize.
The moment that Satoshi shifted from his uncomfortable position, a noise from outside the open window distracted him. He looked and saw the top of a head, a pair of large eyebrows, and two very menacing eyes peer at him. It was Jun who was not tall enough to present his entire face. (Ideally, he didn't want to since he'd get in trouble if the teacher saw him.)
As soon as he had his brother's attention, Jun placed a folded note on the sill and ducked.
Satoshi craned his head and saw the latter run back to the junior's building with his head still bowed so it wouldn't top any of the windows along the way. Once Jun disappeared from his view, Satoshi moved back and took the note. It said very straightforwardly: Lunch and pills in shoe locker. Take medicine after.
03.
It was not that the teacher had asked it of him again, but today Jun wanted to make sure Satoshi got home safely as well. At the end of the day, he told his friends he would miss practice again and hurried to wait for his brother at the side of the senior's building.
A number of students filed out; some in groups, pairs, and a handful alone. A few glanced at him, two girls winked, but they generally left him undisturbed. By the time the stream of exiting students ended, Jun had already waited ten minutes. Yet, he knew there would be one last person who lagged behind.
As expected, Ohno Satoshi's hunched figure emerged from the lockers. His eyes were half-lidded as if he were sleep-walking. Jun approached him with disapproval on his face. "I swear you're going to walk into a ditch one day."
Satoshi blinked at him, his mind clearing, before surprising his unsuspecting brother with a rare reply, "I won't."
Because Satoshi usually kept silent, Jun couldn't think of a proper response. He stared. The senior stared back. In that silence, Satoshi found his voice. "Thank you," he added.
They waited uncertainly for a few more seconds before Satoshi strolled past Jun. "I can go home alone today," he muttered, just audible enough for the younger boy to hear.
A stunned Jun finally found his wits. Ignoring the mumbled statement, he followed.
04.
That night, Jun made a deal with Satoshi.
When asked why he slept outside, Satoshi answered, "I like the air."
"If we open the window every night," Jun said, "would you stay inside from now on?"
And Satoshi conceded.
05.
If someone asked Jun why he went to the trouble of spoiling Satoshi, his answer would be that he grew up aware of the fact that he had an older brother who didn't live with him. They didn't play together as kids and so it was not that they didn't get along, but they were not friends as well. They had not formed a natural bond as siblings. He had thought that being a little nice to Satoshi wouldn't hurt. After all, he'd gotten used to doing stuff he found overbearing.
But that night as he lay in bed and tried to adjust himself to the sounds outside the open window and the night chill of early spring, he thought maybe he did much more than was required of a younger brother.
Satoshi had pulled the futon to just below the sill and was, to Jun's irritation, sleeping soundly.
06.
In the morning, something heavy pinned down his legs. He was being shaken. Reluctant to wake, Jun reached out a limp hand to push the perpetrator away.
The criminal accordingly grasped his outstretched hand and an unfamiliar voice said, "You slept through your alarm clock."
Jun realized it was Satoshi waking him for school at the usual time that Jun was supposed to have already left. Panicked, he forced himself to rouse and sit up. But Satoshi, the being who had dared to wake Jun, continued to pin Jun's lower body, which was quickly numbing and it didn't look like he was going to get off anytime soon.
Jun stretched his other hand and thought about pushing his brother away, but something else came over him in that moment. He brushed his fingertips across his brother's smooth cheeks instead.
Satoshi let out a squeak before tumbling to the floor.
That was the first day they walked to school together.
* *
FOUR