A Hero I Look Up To

I've Been Meaning to Ask...

It's a school day, and Tobio and Loid were the first to arrive. The two were standing next to each other with their backs against the wall outside of their classroom, watching the children play in the snow. The students around them were getting excited–screaming out of pure happiness and chatting about what they were they were doing over winter break, because winter break in Perkins Elementary school starts next week, which means there's four days left of school. It is snowing at school, which means every student is wearing warm clothing. Tobio was still wearing his gray hoodie, but he now wears black long pants with a gray scarf around his neck along with black boots. Loid is wearing a blue hoodie and black pants with a scarf colored with a darker shade of blue. Loid's scarf, unlike Tobio's, covered his moth. Surprisingly, he's also wearing black boots with his outfit.

Tobio looked at a group of students near him talking about winter break plans.

"What will you be doing over a break?"

"I'm going to go to Hawaii!"

"That's cool! My mom is going to take me to the amusement park."

"What!? That's amazing! Make sure you..."

Tobio shifted his focus from the students and gazed his eyes towards Loid, who seemed like he was deep in thought with something.

"The snow... it was kind of steep today," Loid mentioned as he gazed at the walkway. "Do you think... there would be a few students absent today?"

"You know I wonder the same," Tobio mentioned. "You know how Mia's usually the first to arrive? On the way here, there was snow. Mia lives in this neighborhood, so usually she's the first to arrive. Do you think she's absent today?"

"Ah, that's right... there is a lot of snow today compared to yesterday..." Loid added on as he looked up at the sky. "I hope the traffic isn't too bad in her neighborhood... I mean, it is extremely cold today."

"Ah, no wonder why you're covering your mouth with your scarf," Tobio jokingly teased Loid.

"My scarf's just too big, idiot..." Loid jokingly replied.

Tobio has been familiar with snow. He remembered when he was in first grade that he would take walks with Chris at their hangout place–Satellite Park, and would see kids build a giant snowman or do snowball fights. Tobio was amazed and wanted to join in, but at the time, he also found out that Chris wasn't a fan of fun stuf.

There was another time during first grade, Mia came over to Tobio's house for the first time and it was snowing that day. Tobio remembered Mia wearing a pink fluffy jacket with white mittens—along with black jeans. Mia taught Tobio how to build a snowman from the first step to the last. Tobio remembered building a giant snowman with Mia after learning how and later warming up his hands by touching a warmed mug with hot chocolate after all that work. Of course, Chris was the one who made hot chocolate.

Those memories made Tobio want to experience them once again, but not just with Mia. Tobio wanted to play so many games in the snow with Mia, Loid, and Chris. He smiled as he recalled the past—and hoped to do so in the future.

"Tobio...?" Loid was calling out to Tobio when he was lost in thought.

Tobio flinched and quickly turned to Loid. He was trying to say something, which immediately turned into pure embarrassment, with red cheeks slowly appearing on his face. Loid was shocked to see Tobio embarrassed and said, "Sorry about that."

"No no, it's fine," Tobio replied and took a deep sigh. "I was just... reminiscing!"

"Thinking about the past, huh?" Loid asked and chuckled. "I must say, I'm impressed. At times like these,  you really love thinking about these..."