Stardust House: 1st Year Summer

Little Stardust House

STARDUST HOUSE - ESTATE GROUNDS

Saturday Morning, 6:30 a.m. (weekend after Final Exam week)

Ken-senpai and Gin-senpai lead our early morning jog right from the backyard patio area right towards the woods just a short distance away from the grassy area. Since the week before final exams, Dad had this idea on keeping his favorite top teen idols in completely shape and alertness right after the very intense workshop period they had two weeks before. He thought that eating right and having the proper exercise would help them become a lot more alert and prepared for more upcoming work in showbiz, as well as preparing mentally for the upcoming final exams. He learned about Ken-senpai’s and Gin-senpai’s daily habit of jogging around the track for one lap early morning when they used to be dorm students in school and he thought that their jogging mornings should also apply here at Stardust House and all of the tenants. Though he had the idols as priority for all of these preparations, he thought it was unfair that only the idols would suffer while Jun and I would get the morning breaks by sleeping over hours because of the upcoming summer vacation.

In the end, here we are. From the back patio, right past the brick and ceramic balustrade railing that border the backyard area from nature, and right to the first few meters inside the woods, Dad assigned Ken-senpai and Gin-senpai to lead the jogging. I personally don’t like waking up very early in the morning just to exercise, but because of the fact that Ken-senpai and Gin-senpai elevated their status from tenant noobs to resident heads (actually, it’s just Ken-senpai), plenty of changes occurred regarding our everyday habits in this house. Somehow though, even I noticed this myself, the tenants got a lot closer than they used to. Back then we used to be just random students trying to survive high school while trying to survive each other living under the same roof. Now we’ve become like family. Mirai even began the habit of calling Ken-senpai and Gin-senpai as Ken-niichan and Gin-niichan, even if Gin-senpai is actually two months younger than her. Despite of Mirai’s cutesy acts towards her “big brothers,” all of us 10th Graders still called them “senpai.” After all, they are older and a lot more senior than the rest of us anyway, with Ken-senpai being the oldest among the 11th Graders and Gin-senpai being the youngest. Tai-nii is the second oldest and Mirai being third.

We ran right through the entrance of the woods. We were about a mile or so away from the balustrade borders. Ken-senpai and Gin-senpai were ahead, followed by Jun and me. Tai-nii, Kaito, Yuki, and Mirai were just a bit distance from behind us. The other three somehow disappeared, but their voices were loud enough for us to know that they’re still hanging there. When we got deep enough in the woods, the two leaders immediately stopped jogging, which in turn, we also stopped jogging ourselves.

“

Yo! Why’d we stop here? What gives?” We heard Shinoda called out. Right then, Ken-senpai hushed him, which in turn, got the rest of us keep silent as well.

Gin-senpai raised his right arm, probably to wipe his sweaty forehead with his wristband. Right then, I caught his usual wood bead bracelet slip out from his wrist. I gasped and pointed at it. He slowly gazed at his bead bracelet on the ground and reached for it. Once he picked up, he gazed at it and then swallowed nervously.

“

Ken,” Gin nervously chuckled. “Looks like it’s expired.”

Expired? I wondered. What on earth did he mean by “expired”? “What are you talking about, Gin-senpai? We just stopped right in the middle of the woods wondering if we got ourselves lost or something. What exactly ‘expired’?”

Tai-nii walked forward and then faced both Ken-senpai and Gin-senpai. “When you said ‘expired’… you mean… your wood bead bracelet?”

Gin turned to Tai-nii and simply nodded. “It slipped off of my wrist mysteriously. The string’s broken too.”