COTE: The White Room War

Vol 1 SS: Horikita Suzune 1

Year 1

Season 1

Volume 1 - "Normality"

SS: Horikita Suzune 1

Horikita Suzune POV

I'm Horikita Suzune, the second of two children to my rich, hard-working parents, my father, Horikita Fumihito, and my mother, Horikita Fuyuko.

"Beautiful."

That's the one word I have heard thrown towards me all my life, even while growing up, about how much of a doll I am, and it almost always came from my parents, sometimes lustful boys, and on rare occasions, jealous girls.

Mom and dad love me too much to the point that they spoiled me, telling me how perfect I am, how I'm superior to others.

Seeing this, nii-sama couldn't help but resent me a little, and I don't blame him. Mom and dad still love him, of course, but they didn't give him as much attention as they did me.

They raised me a certain way that would cost me dearly.

Because of them, I started to develop a superiority complex, but it didn't fully form yet, at least not until a certain event happened.

It was when my childhood friend, Kushida Kikyou, moved away. I ended up quickly growing negative and cynical, looking down on others for having what I did not: friendship.

So I chose to stay alone.

Eventually, she came back in the middle of my middle school years, but... She changed. She changed for the worse. Kikyou was in a different class, and whenever we would cross paths in the hallway, she would actively avoid me, a look of disdain in her eyes, those gorgeous eyes that once stared at me with sisterly affection.

It was quite the shock.

Why? Where did it go wrong?

Sometimes, I still ask myself that, but I have to remind myself that it's pointless to mull over things that I can't change. The past is dead and unchangeable. All I can do is look to the future.

All I can do is look to nii-sama, the person I look up to the most.

"Beautiful."

Even as far back as elementary school, the boys would look at me with curiosity, and the girls with disgust. Eventually, once I attended middle school and hit puberty early, boys stared with lust, and girls with jealousy.

"Beautiful."

Someone who is attractive is usually loved by other kids their age, usually universally desired as a person that one would wish to be friends with.

But not me.

They cast me out.

None of the boys cared about me, as they simply wished to get into my skirt. I, of course, harshly refused their pathetic advances.

The girls, however, were far, far worse, spreading terrible rumors about me, hiding my everyday shoes that I use for school, and leaving me only with my PE sneakers. Worst of all, the teachers did nothing.

I loath them.

I despise them.

But I can't help but want what they have but am unable to: friendship.

"Beautiful."

After getting mistreated by those bitches enough times, my superiority complex really took its shape, and I had enough.

I insulted them, screamed at them, never once showing my emotional weakness. I cried when I was alone.

Never once was I physically assaulted before, but I was now.

The girls, out of anger at my words, beat me up and then, for the rest of my middle school days, ignored and avoided me, bullied me through isolation.

Mom and dad, catching sight of my bruises, were concerned, but I told them it's fine, forget it.

I told nii-sama what happened and cried in his arms for hours.

Nii-sama was always there for me, even when he told me he hated me for mom and dad giving me more attention, because he quickly realized that I was suffering without the love of a friend.

Manabu-nii is my best friend.

Or he was for a while.

When he moved to ANHS, I wanted to come after him, convinced that I'm nothing, that I'm worthless without him in my life. My belief in my own superiority had been quite shaken by a couple years of bullying through isolation, but I didn't care. I just can't live without nii-sama in my life, or so I told myself.

So I also enrolled in ANHS.

That's where I met this boy.

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.

He's strange, never really expressing his emotions much, but he doesn't stare at me with lust nor does he throw me aside for something I can't help.

Ayanokouji-kun is kind.

Were Kushida and I ever friends to begin with? Perhaps not. I can't help but feel mad at her.

But this boy is different, and I wish to be friends with him.

To Be Continued