A Reason to Care

Chapter 8: A Versatile Wheelchair

Embarrassment fueled Chihiro's quick strides away from the warehouse, his feet only slowing into soft treads when he reached the stairs. Would Celeste suspect him of breaking curfew? It's not that he's choosing to actively go against her, but he doubted that she would take his actions lightly. The last thing he wanted was to rage an unnecessary conflict among the group.

Definitely unnecessary, with one already looming over the students' heads, a gray cloud ready to rain down on them and soak their bodies with reminders of a secret that they have hidden to a dark corner of their life.

Or maybe a lightning bolt would target one of them and strike them dead, before clearing out and leaving everyone else unharmed.

Chihiro paused his climb up, dropping his bag to the side as he sat on a step and curled his knees against his tiny frame. Why was he doing this again? Why did he trouble Mondo into defying a mutually agreed upon rule so that he can....what? Prove himself? Prove that he wants to be enough for his gender?

His childhood was a haunted territory of his memories, and although he had trained himself from even placing a step into the area, sometimes he would linger just at the edge of it, recognising the all too familiar pain he had always stored inside.

Those rules were broken, however, when just a few hours ago Chihiro shakily rubbed his thumb against the words on a piece of paper.

Chihiro Fujisaki is a boy.

....No.

No.

Chihiro really should have noticed all the avoidable warning signs: always being excluded in outdoor kindergarten activities for his feeble strength, weird comments on his hair length, girls dismissing that spending time with him never alluded to anything romantic, that he might as well be a girl himself...

It wasn't long before things reached a melting point, and Chihiro would experience what was undeniably the worst year of his life.

He gave himself a moment to reminisce again on the stairs, feeding his mind moment after moment to ensure that he wasn't making the wrong choice to confide in Mondo.How selfish was he to require another person's help to cope with his secret out in the open?

Chihiro scraped his nails against his skirt, another tool used to preserve his self esteem. Was Mondo another tool to make him feel better about himself? Remembering that someone was anticipating his arrival, Chihiro stood and continued up the steps at a snail's pace, slinging the duffel bag and clutching tightly the railing.

To his horror, he found Mondo pacing in front of the pool, and after a short explanation regarding a faulty E-Handbook, Chihiro's face flushed scarlet in quick realization that if he had made the decision to turn back a minute ago, he would have understandably gotten on Mondo's bad side for making him wait for his presence all night.

"Nothin to worry bout, I only wanna grab some dumbbells to the gym, cause of that stupid new rule," Thankfully, Mondo was too concerned with other things to notice Chihiro's embarrassed state. "My bro has been remindin me all day! Just lend a hand and get some from yours, would ya?"

Chihiro felt himself getting ready to politely excuse himself, but he clamped his mouth shut and used all his willpower to nod his head instead of apologizing for wasting Mondo's time. Mondo, who came out during curfew to help him become strong.

That was why he chose to call him here, wasn't it? Mondo was strong, strong enough for Chihiro to trust, and surely strong enough to hear out his problems and support some of the pains he had suffered. And through Mondo, he will take his first steps into becoming strong himself.

As he pressed his device against the male locker room's door, a tiny whisper, perhaps the figments of his imagination or more likely, the remnants of a memory, warned him of how assuming, or hoping, for the best of others would be a dangerous path to tread on.