A Bond Beyond Blood

Kinoshita Taiki and Ayato Kenta, I’ve been friends with both since around the start of high-school. I’m older than the both of them by a couple of months, and often help them to study as otherwise their grades end up relatively… abhorrent.

“You really saved us man.” aid the short-statued, babyfaced Ayato as he, just barely, managed to reach me and slap me on the shoulder.

“I could have done this one by myself, but I still owe you one.” The taller Kinoshita followed up with a big grin on his face.

“You still owe me 7000 yen as well.” I retorted. “Pay up.”

“I only borrowed 1000!” He said, swinging a bill around. “Don’t fuck with me like that.”

“6000 Interest, I’m not a bank.” I smirked back at him.

“Give me a break already…” He said in an exaggerated tone. “I only have 50 yen left.”

He handed the bill as well as the coin over impishly, despite his complaints. I guess I’ll forgive him this time.

“All that aside, why were you guys here so early.” Chiori chimed in from the side, in a position where it almost looks like she’s hiding behind my back.

“Takumi-kun always ignores us otherwise…” Ayato speaks in a pitiful tone, crying crocodile tears over my absence.

“I didn’t go back yesterday because I had things to do.” I replied annoyedly.

Can’t exactly bring them to my mom’s grave, nor would I want to.

“No, no, that cannot be done, my dear friend.” Kinoshita exclaimed in a pompous voice. “The three musketeers shall always traverse together.”

“The three musketeers and the other Chihara.” Ayato chirpily followed up with.

Interacting with these two idiots at times like these makes my brain hurt. I consider them friends by technicality at best. 

I feel a sudden grabbing on my arm sleeve, as I look back, I see Chiori visibly annoyed at that comment. I can’t exactly pat her head here to calm her down though.

The way I interact with Chiori in private is something I’d rather keep private as well. I don't want any strange rumors going about. I had that issue at my last school in the first year, because Chiori called me dad once during class. Suffice to say, nobody looked at me normally after that incident, and everywhere I went around had whispers following me. Well, for a couple months at least, until my classmates got bored of it.

Though I remember it making me really angry at her, I'm not going to dwell on such things anymore. 

While my 2 ‘friends’ babbled about different games, with Chiori remaining oddly quiet throughout, I thought about how it would be without them, living alone. The college I’m planning on going to I’m keeping a secret, just in case any would want to follow along. 

I think that it’s the right course of action. A way to really start anew, and leave the past behind. I’m sure that Chiori will be fine without me, even if she still likes to cling to me. On her own, she can already do most things as well as or even better than I can.

We ended up arriving far earlier than needed at our school. We hung around our lockers for a while before class started, I took out my phone and played a gacha revolving around dogfighting.

Soon the bell rang and we split up, only me and Chiori shared a class in 3-1, while they ended up going to 3-3. I took my seat near the windows and opened our history textbook as the homeroom teacher gave us a self-study period.