ᴬ ᴮˡᵒˢˢᵒᵐ ⁱⁿ ᵐʸ ᴴᵉᵃʳᵗ (ᴬ ᴹᵃᶜʰᵃᴮˡᵒˢˢᵒᵐ ˢᵗᵒʳʸ)

•Chapter 1: A Glimpse into the Past•

"Hey, give it back!" Miya yelled, jumping up and down, trying to grab the wheel Langa was holding over his head. Reiki had agreed to fix Miya's board from his last fall when he broke it and he had agreed to invite everyone to come over. Luckily Miya wasn't injured but his board did suffer some damage. Reki had decided since he wanted to hang out with the gang still that he would invite them over. It also gave him a chance to show off his skills.

"Come on, I'm just helping you practice jumping higher. You said you wanted some practice." Langa explained, a clear grin on his face as he messed around with Miya. He scoffiled and crossed his arms. "You know I meant on the board." Sometimes they really did act like children. After a while, Kojiro bud in, grabbed the wheel and gives it back to Miya. "Alright you two, no bickering now." He joked around. He was considered the father figure of the group. After a bit of them calling him "dad" as a joke, he eventually took on the title. They also called Kaoru "mom" at times. He never really enjoyed it but eventually he stopped arguing about it.
"God, you really have started acting more like our dad." Reki chuckled, taking the wheel from Miya as he kept working. Kojiro grinned hold heartedly. "Maybe you could learn something from Kojiro, mom." Miya mocked. Their heard a groan from the corner where Kaoru was, reading his book, peacefully. Everyone laughed at how annoyed he was with the name before it died down some.

"Hey Joe, I've got a question. How did you two meet?" Despite Langa knowing his real name, he still insisted on calling him Joe. At least when they were in private. "Me and Kaoru? Oh we go way back. I believe it was kindergarten when we first met." Joe said, looking at Kaoru for some confirmation on his statement. He slightly nodded, not looking up. "That long? Ain't no way." Reki said, turning around, surprised. Kojiro chuckled and nodded. "Yea, I honestly remember the day we met like it was yesterday." Suddenly everybody looked at him intrigued, almost like he was reading a bunch of children bedtime stories at night. "Alright, where do I start? I guess I'll start from where I first remember..."

"Alright children. Time to go out for recess." Mrs. Jones said, automatically waking up all the half asleep kids who were definitely not interested in learning about how to write sentences. Kojio immediately hopped out of his seat, lining up at the door for recess. Once the door was opened, he followed all the rest of the kids out. As he reached the outside, he ran through his choices of what he could do. He could go climb on the monkey bars, race down the slide, run laps on the track or... His train of thought was interrupted by a glimpse of someone sitting off by the gate alone, picking at the grass. He looked familiar. He had light pink hair that was about shoulder length. 'Weird.' Kojiro thought, approaching the kid.

"Hey." He said, watching as the boy looked at him and back at the piece of grass in his fingers. "What do you want?" He said in a soft voice. Kojiro immediately shot up. "Oh now I know who you are. You're that really smart kid that sits by the teachers desk, right?" the boy in front of him glanced at him and nodded. "If you're asking me to do your homework for you, the answer is no." Kojiro held his hands up defensively. "Of course not, that's cheating. Do you know how much trouble I'd get in if the teacher found out I didn't do the homework myself. No, I was just wondering why you're sitting over here all by yourself." When he didn't get a straight answer from him, Kajiro decided what he was gonna be doing with his recess. He walked over and sat beside him.

"So... what's your name?" Kojiro said, trying to start some small talk with him. He looked at him and away, letting his hair cover his face. "Kaoru. Not that it's any of your business." Kojiro narrowed his eyes. 'No wonder this kid doesn't have any friends.' he thought to himself. "Well, my name's Kojiro. I sit in the back of your class. Mainly because I normally never know the answers so it's a less of a chance that Mrs. Jones will call on me." Kaoru sighed. "That's why you listen to what she says. She teaches you how to do it. Unless you're just an idiot, I guess." It really is impossible to talk to him. But Kojiro wasn't about to give up so easily.

He glanced at a flower on the ground. It was light blue. He was never good with flowers but he knew most that were around the playground were yellow so this one was special. He picked it and held it out to Kaoru. He looked at it and hesitantly took it, his face slightly turning red. "So, do you wanna come over to my house and help me study sometime? Maybe do homework together? I'm a really slow learner." Kojiro nervously asked, scratching the back of his neck. Kaoru looked at him for a second, just to see if he was joking or not and when he never smiled, he responded, "Whatever, I guess." Kojiro grinned and grabbed his hand, pulling him up. "Come on, let's go swing together." "Heyy!" He yelled in protest. However, he continued to let Kojiro pull him and swung with him the rest of the recess.

"..And then I just kind of stuck with him everyday." He finished explaining to them. They were all intrigued. "Yea, he wouldn't even let me eat lunch alone anymore. Even when we went up grades and didn't even have the same class, he would still eat with me. It was quite annoying." Kaoru confirmed. They could both see Reki and Langa eyeing them down. "What?" Kojiro asked. "You two sat together at lunch everyday, spent recess together everyday, and hung out after school together? And you two claimed you've never dated before?" Reki said. The two glanced at each other and then away, faces turning slightly red. "We haven't, no. Is that so unbelievable?" Kaoru said, slightly flustered and clearly embarrassed. Their was a hesitation before Reki and Langa both yelled, "Yes!" "You're telling me you two weren't even high school sweethearts?" Miya asked. Joe shook his head. "Nah, Princess over here was all heart eyed for someone else during high school." "What?!" They all said at the same time. "Yes, regrettably I will say. Luckily I broke it off pretty fast." Kaoru said, standing up. "I'm going to the restroom. I'll be right back." Reki nodded and pointed towards the hall. "Down the hall on the right." Kaoru nodded and walked down the hall, the door slightly closing behind him.

Kojiro watched through the little crack in the door and waited for him to shut the bathroom door. "Ok, don't tell him I told you. He dated Adam back in high school for around 1-2 months. I finally convinced him to break it off. You would not believe how toxic he was, even all the way back then." Joe said, blocking the door. "WHAT?! HIM?? Why would he wanna date him?" Miya asked. He sounded clearly disgusted. "Well, I'm not exactly sure what happened. That's a story he'll have to tell you, but one day he came up to me, clearly love struck. He was telling me about how strong he was and how amazing and fast he was. I was ok with it until I found out how he treated Kaoru. It made me wanna break his skull in with my board. Once I finally convinced him to break it off because of how much pain he was in, physically and emotionally, Adam... didn't take the news well let's say." "Wow, so that's why their was such a big tension between those two during the race. And how he actually wanted to hurt him instead of just play around with him like he does me" Langa pointed out. Kojiro nodded. "Don't tell him I told you though. This topic makes him really uncomfortable. That's why he ran to the bathroom. Let's just drop this topic for now, alright?" The group nodded and adjusted some so it looked like they were watching Reki fix the board.

"Well I'm almost done with Miya's board. Maybe after we can go get some dinner." Reki suggested, finally screwing in the wheel he was given by Miya. "Sure, on me. What do you guys say?" Kojiro said, going to sit back down. "Fine with us." Langa said, glancing around the 3 of them." "Alright, I know Kaoru will wanna come. He's always down if food is involved. He may not look like it, but he really is foody." Kojiro laughed, causing everyone else to chuckle a little. "Alright it's a plan then." Reki said, testing the wheels to make sure they were sturdy before handing the board back to Miya. "Sick." He said, taking the board, examining it. Kojiro grinned before looking over at the closed bathroom door and frowning a little. He knew Kaoru would be alright but he couldn't help but get worried every time he ran off to the bathroom. 'He just needs some space. He'll be alright.' he told himself before looking back over at the group.