Paper Planes

Kabanata 21

KABANATA 21

"Ah, here it is!" Rekka exclaimed a few minutes after he said he would show me some pictures of his cousins. We were at the hills near the orphanage and I was already halfway through my painting when he opened the topic about them. Excited, he immediately went to my side, extending his hand as he presented his phone to me.

My brush hung midair as I turned to face him. He was smiling from ear to ear like usual. His black orbs were twinkling in excitement, like how the stars in the darkest night do as they shoot across the sky and seemingly fall unto earth to fulfill man's wishes. And like usual, my face didn't mirror these expressions as I stared at him void of anything.

"Look here!" He said as he pointed something on the screen of his phone and my blue ones idly followed, "You already knew Daisuke so there's no use introducing him," he said when my eyes lingered a bit on that person, one who, I knew very well, was strongly against me.

"These are his sons, Yuujin and Yuuhan," he said, pointing to the two boys standing on that person's right side. They were both taller than their father, with Yuuhan probably the tallest of them.

"As you well know, Yuujin and I are of the same age. We went to the same school since kindergarten, same classes, same hobbies, same circle of friends. But as you can see, I am taller than him, stronger, much talented, and above all... far more handsome!" He boasted as he poised himself like a model in some mint commercial I've once seen on TV, "You don't agree with me?" He asked, after a while, with a sad expression when he saw my blank face.

While it's true that of the two, he was the more endowed when it came to handsomeness, but I wouldn't tell him that. So to avoid answering, I returned my gaze at the picture on his phone. He seemed to have caught on because I heard him clear his throat before he continued introducing the rest.

"Yuuhan is two years younger than us. He doesn't talk much and tends to be shy around people. While his older brother is capable with handling people, he, on the other hand, is very adept with farming and agriculture, something that Yuujin is not very fond of unless he's eating them," he let out a soft laugh before continuing.

"You remember Kyosuke? These are his sons," he said pointing at the two younger boys on the other side of the picture, "The taller one is his eldest, Kyoshiro. He's turning fourteen this July. He's very good with guns and is considered a Judo prodigy by the Masters. He has actually defeated his seniors for the National Judo competition in Japan," there was pride in his voice when he said that and somewhere in the depths of my stone cold heart, I felt a tinge of that bitter feeling, which I, instinctively and instantly, dismissed, "He said he hopes to be part of a force that defeats the bad guys. I told him he doesn't have to join anything to be able to do that, that he can be that force if he wanted to."

For a while, I lingered my eyes on that boy, wondering how a child like him could dream of something so noble, something that even the adults could barely accomplish.

"And the small one beside him is his younger brother, Akira."

When I transferred my gaze to the mentioned person, for a second, I thought I saw a girl. But when I looked closely, I could see his resemblance to his father.

"Akira is just a year younger than Kyoshiro but because of his small physique, he appears to be much younger. Of us, he's the sickly one, the one who always needs special attention. You know, there was this time when he nearly died because of exhaustion."