Momentous Moon

Chapter Two ~ Kyosuke

(POV: Kyosuke)

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I quickly learned that only staying in my room and playing video games all summer was a great way to screw up my mental health. And my sleeping schedule.

I was waking up in the afternoon then later getting to bed as the sun started to rise. I never went outside that first month and barely even talked with my family.

Granted, that wasn't too ridiculous for me. I did almost the exact same thing last summer. But it started to affect me even more now.

Every time I closed up my game for the night and tried to fall asleep, I felt pained by something. Whatever media that had distracted me for the day disappeared and my mind was left empty. I would start to think of everything that had started to bother me for the past year and it got too hard to sleep. Sometimes I even cried over nothing. I thought it was pretty stupid, but my friends thought it was worrying.

Rikuto and Junichi, pretty much my only two friends. I tried to at least talk to them often over the school break, but even with my terrible sleep schedule it was difficult. They both lived in Japan while I was stuck in America. I hadn't seen them in person for more than a year now and the only time I could talk to them was through a group chat on our phones. It sucked.

I tried to talk with them whenever I could, but the time changes and their schedule made it difficult. Their summer break started much later than mine, and they were just starting school by the time I was waking up everyday. When they were free, I would talk with them for as long as I could. But once our chat closed and I needed to sleep, I would still be full of pain.

Junichi was the one that decided I needed to get out of the house. Even if i just went out to a park or something for a couple of hours that would be better than nothing. The problem being: Vegas was hell. I would not survive an hour in the oven that was my city. Instead, we decided on going to a nearby library.

So every week I would take one day to just walk over to the public library and stay there for a few hours.

Instead of just staring at a TV or phone screen all day, I could read books. I would grab a few each time I arrived then just lounge on a chair and read while listening to my music.

No one bothered me, and while that usually kept me content, I realized that was the main problem I was having.

While starting to go the library every week had started to make me feel better, it wasn't enough. What was really screwing me up was my lack of socializing.

Talking to Rikuto and Junichi was good, but typing out messages wasn't the same as seeing someone in real life.

Sucked that I had no friends I could see in person. And I wasn't willing to fix that.

Well, I had someone. But I never actually knew if he thought of me as a friend or not. And I had no way of contacting him or finding him.

I met him in one of our classes last year. We were forced to pair up for an assignment by our teacher since neither of us seemed to like talking to others. I wasn't expecting much from it, but I stayed respectful.

"Hey, if you need any help, just let me know."

I remembered the way the boy just stared at me for a moment. He was frowning and looked at me with suspicion. I was used to the look. It was one I would give to so many people before I moved. Back then, so many people wanted to talk to me because I was the famous Xiong's younger brother. At least I didn't have to worry about that here.

"Okay."

I remembered his voice so well that day. So quiet and calm, but also so pained. He may not have wanted me close, but that one sound made me decide to be his friend.