Alice in Borderland: T1PE

Prologue - Boredom

A red light in my mind. Danger. To escape from my responsibilities. An escape. The life of a high schooler. The loneliness of a fatherless child. I look at my hand: two kings, two queens, a jack. The red light now shines brighter. I should fold. I close my eyes. I can act blind but...
    ...truly, I have the most boring existence ever.
    "I fold", I told my opponent. I smile. The red light disappears. I didn't lose any money stupidly.
Will the gambling tension last long?
I sigh. If only, if only I could enter a world where boredom wasn't the meaning of my pure existence, or the reason I am living.

    Tokyo, Japan. The white walls of Omori High School reflect the sun's rays on my tired eyes. I closed my eyes, blinded, but still kept a faint smile. The intense heat, the forever standing sun... All those smile details, they are the undeniable details that summer is approaching. Goodbye school, welcome vacations.
    And my face has decayed. Those details, they are also the announcement of the worst psychological pain every high schooler endures: final exams. I sigh, clutching my fist around the pen I am holding.
    "This is my last year. I have to give everything I got. And the boredom inside of me will leave", I say to myself, walking toward the building.
    I enter my classroom. My classmates are all turned towards my teacher, who looks at me with an annoyed look on his face.
    "Arisu. Still late. When will you put your studies first, young man?"
    Faking angriness, he points a finger toward my desk. Unbothered by his remark, I look around, searching for my friend, Yujin. The only friend I have. Not finding her anywhere, I lean my head toward my desk, looking at the paper another student gave me.
    Apparently, we're doing a review on algebra. Cool. Maths. The worst subject.
    I turn my paper around, and my face turns pale. On the back of the paper, someone wrote me a small note: "Retarded who always comes late. Do you want to end up like your father?" I lift my head up and glare angrily at the one that wrote the message. It can only be one person: Teku. My bully. Sighing, I then look away, knowing I can't do anything about it at the moment. I have the worst existence.
    A few months ago, I realized my life was pure garbage. I had no friends except Yujin. I had no father. I was getting bullied. Every day after school, I only played video games or read manga. I lived like a repulsive teenager, taking no showers, and not taking care of myself. You could say I was depressed. You'd be right. But I didn't care.
    Yujin... She had been there for me since my first year in high school. We were in the same class. She was the one who engaged the discussion first. She said hi, and I waved at her. The next day, she asked me how I was. "Good", I answered. The next day, she asked me what my hobbies were... You can imagine what happened next. Each day, she asked me a new question. Later, we would call it the "Yujin Quiz". And that's how we grew closer to each other.
    She truly was the most beautiful girl I knew (after all, she was the only girl I knew...) How she looked at me, her smile that made my heart shine...
    "I wish everyone could be like her", I told myself, sighing and ignoring the teacher talking in front of me.

    Outside of the school. It was now midday. I was sitting on one of the school's benches, under a sakura tree. Its petals were floating in the air, slowly falling onto my shoulder.
    In the far distance, Yujin is approaching. Her backpack on her back, she is smiling at me.
    "What were you doing? Spending your money on the stupidest things ever?" I ask jokingly, a smile on the face, both because she was there, and because I truly thought my joke was funny.
    "He he, none of your business", she answers, as jokingly as me. "But you're right, if I keep skipping school, I'll never end up working as a journalist", she says, smiling.
    "But truly, what did you do? Personally, I spent my morning avoiding listening to the teacher talking about math...", I ask her, looking pitifully at the ground, tired. Not waiting for her answer, I add: "Why do we keep acting like that? Why can't we change?"
    "Because we're idiots.", she answered bluntly. "What's our next class? Japanese?"
    "Yes. We can skip that too." I nod.
    "If you truly want to... then yes", she agrees. "I'm tired anyway!" She yawns.
    A pause. "You still didn't answer my question."
    "He he. You didn't let me to, Arisu" she says, a happy smile on her face. "I was protecting my mom. The yakuzas keep barging on our door recently. The old woman is terrified."
    "You truly are the protective type..." I say, practically in a whisper, as if I was trying to convince myself of something. "You're so... strong. Stronger than me."
    "And here comes the depressive Arisu again..." She sits next to me, patting my head in pity and exasperation.
    A group of girls were passing by. "And, you know, he was just... like... so strong and so big... I knew I could feel safe around him! He was like a knight and I was the princess!", they were saying. I looked at them with an angry look. No, I wasn't angry at them, I was angry at myself. What they said made me realize something: I was the weak man in my friendship with Yujin. I should be the one protecting her, not the opposite.
    I wanted me to be the knight, and her to be the princess.
    The girls were now far away. I could still hear them laugh. "Idiot", says Yujin out of nowhere. She fakes a slap at the back of my head. "I know what you were thinking! Don't compare yourself to some idiotic sporty guys!"
    I laugh. "Sorry, I won't do it again. You're the one protecting me, and I'm your princess!"