Wrong hateful reasons

Chapter Four - There's always good within the bad

The next day, Yuto came again outside of the changing room to drag Ezekiel to the bleachers. He didn't say anything, just took his wrist before they silently made their ways to the seats they had used the day before. They took in the view for the first minutes, just like yesterday, then Ezekiel was the first to speak.

"I beat my personal record, yesterday."

He didn't know why he said it. Maybe it was a question of honour.

The other boy hummed in approvement, "You could've done it way earlier if you had been giving all of yourself into it since the beginning."

Ezekiel should've waited for this reaction, but he hadn't thought much of it.

"Still, I did it." Definitely a question of honour.

They stared at the horizon some more and the ten minutes were gone already. Ezekiel got up, gripping his gym bag.

"So, have you found your reasons already?"

Yuto shrugged.

This was all he got from him that day. And the following days too.

At first, it was that and no more. Yuto and Ezekiel, staring onto the field, while the sun was setting down and the city's lights behind the field were lightening up. Ezekiel was wondering why Yuto had asked him to sit there with him, for how little they talked.

They'll go on with stupid questions like 'What is your favourite colour?' Yuto's was green. 'What music are you listening to?' Yuto was listening to jazz. 'What is your favourite subject at school?' Yuto didn't have any.

It was always Ezekiel who asked and he's never gotten asked back.

"Don't you have something to ask me?" Ezekiel spoke one day.

"What do you mean?" Yuto raised his brows.

"It's been two weeks, yet you never asked me a thing. How will you know if you hate me or not?"

He seemed to ponder the question for a long time.

"If you have found reasons that add up to your 'I hate you' logic, you can say so. We'll stop it here, you know." Ezekiel added.

Hearing no answer, Ezekiel left earlier that day.

But then the next one, as if upset, Yuto asked about Ezekiel's family like it was a natural thing for them to talk about.

"I just live with both my parents, I don't have any siblings."

When Ezekiel asked Yuto, he said he lived with his grandma and his little sister, Yuna. He didn't mention anything else, so Ezekiel didn't ask further.

That day was the day they actually started to talk. Ezekiel learned about Yuto's teammates and especially about Martin, who seemed to be his best friend. He probably wasn't in school that often, because Ezekiel had never seen him once. He apparently didn't give much concern about his grades and only came to practice. Ezekiel couldn't really understand why he hadn't been suspended from the swimming team, but, again, he didn't ask.

Yuto told him a lot about Yuna. She was his sister, she was eight and she seemed to be what he cherished the most in his life. By the way they had apparently done tons of activities together and by the way he smiled that much only when speaking of her, Ezekiel had noticed.

"It'll soon be her birthday, I don't know what to get her," he had said back then, in deep thinking.

Ezekiel never had the occasion to buy gifts for younger people, it was always for his parents, or Willow, or Ari. A nice piece of cloth, a blouse, make-up he had trouble to find, or books. Ari liked to read. He didn't know what to buy an eight-year-old, so he had stayed quiet.