I Am Big Brother (I Am Big Brother 1) ✅

Chapter Eleven

June 1st, 2029

Friday. The long awaited change to summer uniforms. Gone were the red blazers and long-sleeved white shirts and were replaced with short-sleeved white shirts. Koji was certainly overjoyed, but Masato was in for a real surprise at lunchtime, when a fancy dark blue bento box was suddenly placed on his desk in front of him. "I'm sorry."

Masato looked up and saw Hikaru standing there, bowing stiffly. "I'm sorry for making trouble for you yesterday by bringing Eiji here. I got you this for lunch today to make up for it."

"No, I'm sorry for making trouble for you," Masato said, rising from his seat. "Is everything okay with your mom?"

"Don't worry about her," Hikaru said, rubbing at his nape. "She—"

"This is from Yoru no Negai!" Koji exclaimed. He untied the box and pulled up the lid to reveal an immaculate bento meal. Inside the bento was traditional bento fare of harumaki, shumai, and seaweed. But there was also white rice and thinly sliced beef that looked like Wagyu beef on top, in addition to plan udon noodles and steamed vegetables. Yoru no Negai was an upscale restaurant in Ginza that Umeko had been a hostess three years prior, so Masato knew that they served exquisite and very expensive food. To have it for lunch at school seemed too surreal to him.

I've never been friends with rich people. This is still an adjustment.

Koji's eyes bulged as he stared at the food, and he started drooling. "Wow..."

"Help yourself, Koji," Masato offered. He glanced at Hikaru. "You don't mind, do you?"

Hikaru shrugged. "It's yours."

"Thank you, Sa-kun!" Koji hugged him and promptly snagged a harumaki from the box.

"We got lucky yesterday," Kazunari mused as they watched the other three. "Suzuhara-sensei didn't care about seeing a baby on school property."

"Suzuhara-sensei doesn't care about that stuff though," Akira said. "Just so long as it doesn't impact him."

"But it can't happen again," Satoru said tersely.

"Relax," Ryoma told him. "We're not going to be that reckless with Eiji again."

"Yesterday was filled with so much drama though," Ryoma sighed. "Hikaru's antics, that whole thing with Hashimoto, and then Suzuhara-sensei? All before homeroom. I don't want any more drama today."

But the moment the words left his mouth, one of the doors to homeroom 2-3 slid open. "Ohkawa?"

Masato had just finished a slice of Wagyu beef. He looked up and saw Manabu standing at the door. Out of habit he stood up, though he hated abandoning his lunch. "S-Sato-senpai?"

"Can we speak?" Manabu asked. He pointed behind him with his thumb.

"Ooh, Senpai!" Akira gushed, rushing from his seat. He looked like he was holding a piece of tamago in his chopsticks. "Try this! My cook made it this morning, and—"

"I'm not hungry, Inoue," Manabu told him dismissively.

"Ooh, you know my name?"

"Who doesn't? Ohkawa?"

"I—All right," Masato conceded. He set his chopsticks down. "Koji, help yourself but leave me some okay?"

"Okay!" Koji cheered. Masato hurried towards Manabu he used his own chopsticks to pick a piece of Wagyu beef for himself.

Akira was sulking as he slumped in his seat. "Why is Senpai acting like that?"

"He got rough with you and you expect him to treat you nicely?" Hikaru wondered.