A Hero I Look Up To

What's Your Dream?

One year has passed and Tobio is now in Kindergarten. Mia is Tobio's classmate again, which made Tobio feel comfortable. It was on the third day of September and Tobio hasn't made any new friends besides Mia. The time is after school at 2:10 pm, he looked at all the happy kids who's having fun with their friends. A group of kids were playing on the playground, one sliding down the slide with happiness, one on the monkey bars, about to fall off, and two kids were just talking to each other. Chris told Tobio he could stay after school for a while to make friends. As Tobio walked around, he saw a child all alone like him. He has brown hair with a blank expression, like he was looking at the other kids like how Tobio was doing earlier. Tobio was unsure if he should just go and befriend him or find something else he could do to distance himself from other kids. Mia then came and told Tobio something about the lonely child.

"Let's befriend him Tobio, he must be lonely!" Mia suggested with a smile. Tobio nodded and followed Mia from behind. The child looked up at the two, while Mia introduces herself.

"Hello, I'm Mia, and this is my friend, Tobio! What's your name?"

"Loid... nice to meet you..."

Loid is a shy kid like Tobio. Although he can talk to people, he's afraid of stepping in the wrong time and interrupting other people. Loid looked at Mia and Tobio with a terrified look, as if he did something wrong, but Tobio also felt the exact same way. Mia looked at them with a worried look, something as if they both found out something dark about each other's life. Mia tries to explain the situation to the both of them, calming them down.

"All of us here are now familiar, right? What do you guys like to do?" Mia starts off the conversation on a positive note. "I like to watch TV with my mommy!"

"I... like to read." Loid answers Mia. He looks down in embarrassment, unsure on what to say after. "I... I know it's a little weird for someone like me to read, I'm sorry!"

"Don't be shy about it." Tobio comments. "My babysitter... Chris... he also likes to read, so you're not the only one."

This made Loid surprised. Of course Tobio had to mention Chris with his mystery novel obsession, but he's not always glued to reading the book. Loid looked up, thinking on what to ask Tobio next. Maybe ask about what Tobio's babysitter likes to read?

"I want to ask... what does he read?" Loid went with the question and asked Tobio. Tobio thought of an answer that could best answer Lois's question. After thinking for a while, Tobio realized something that Chris would always read.

"He likes mystery novels. It's like he's absorbed into it the moment he first starts to read... I think."

"I have that feeling too! When time passes by, it's already time to eat or sleep..."

Tobio got a little confused. Do people really read books until its time for them to sleep? Does Chris do the same thing with his mustert novels? All of those questions made Tobio think about it for a while when Mia and Loid continued talking about books. Tobio also wondered about the story Chris told him when he was three years old... the happy family that turned into a sad story, where the sister disappeared and no one knew where she went. That was a mystery story only Chris came up with. Maybe she's trying her best to find out the truth. Maybe she gave up and stopped finding answers. Tobio was in deep thought, that a voice couldn't be heard. Well... until...

"Tobio... Tobio!! Are you listening?" Mia was calling out to a spaced out Tobio. Tobio flinched as he didn't hear Mia.

"I'm sorry..." Tobio apologized. "I was just... thinking about Chris when Loid mentioned when time passes by... it would be the time to eat or sleep, so I wondered the same about him"