RIVALS ; t.karasu

02

[Name] was never fond of early mornings—she despised them even more knowing that she'd wake up every morning with her brother's stupid face hanging over her with a smirk.

As the cool droplets hit her skin, [Name] jolted awake with a yelp, her eyes wide open in surprise. Eita stood beside her bed, trying hard to contain his laughter at her reaction.

'Time to rise and shine, sleepyhead,' he teased, holding back a grin.

[Name] stared at him angrily, at first, she was confused due to the sudden downpour on her but then it hit her: her brother poured water on her to wake her up.

'You dick—'

'Don't blame me, mom said so. Besides, Karasu and Amber are waiting down below for us,' he swiftly cut her off.

Amber, her best friend who also happened to be Tabito's cousin. It baffled [Name] how such a sweet angel could ever be related to that freak.

'I'll come, in a bit...' she said before wiping the water off her face, unable to suppress a small smile at the mention of her best friend.

'Morning, someone seems a little wet,' Tabito greets the minute she steps down her stairs--her hair still remained slightly damp due to her brother's actions. If only she had a knife with her... even a butter knife would do!

'Stop teasing,' Amber scolds, 'morning, [Name].'

'Hey Ambz,' she greets with a small wave then, she suddenly pauses, 'no offence but what are you all doing here?'

It was usual for Amber and Tabito to always be at the Otoya residence or vice versa but due to the dramatic distance from the Otoya household to their school, it was unlikely for them to be present during the early morning.

'Is that the correct way to greet ya best friends?' Tabito says as he munches on some toasted bread.

'You're not my best friend,' she flatly replies.

'I'm deeply hurt, [Name],' he replies.

'You're so annoying!' she says.

'Oh my, you can't still be mad at him for the chemistry--' Amber's immediately cut off by the Otoya twin.

'Of course I'm still mad at him! Just because he did one more titration--'

'Hey, hey, hey, I deserved it.'

'No you didn't. You faked half of them!'

'Where did ya get that from?!'

'Eita told me so!'

And from there on, the two teenagers started spouting profanities at each other after the mere mention of the important chemistry practical they had to take the previous term. Apparently, the task required students to perform titrations with sodium hydroxide and sulfuric acid and unfortunately, Tabito managed to do one more titration than [Name], he managed to get a more precise result and hence, more marks. It had been nearly two months since then but [Name] still remained salty over it.

The arguments lasted until the pair reached the school. From throwing Nutella at each other, to making faces in the car--those two continued their arguments until they arrived at their school and they had to be dragged away by their siblings.

'He's so annoying,' muttered [Name] as she walked towards A2 Biology with Amber.

'I've heard...' she rolls her eyes.

'No but-- you don't get it! He's so irritating. He thinks he's the shit but he's actually shit!' she continues, 'he's so... so stupid! He thinks he's all-that simply because he's a business major--he spends half of his day colouring with crayons! I'm the one who's beating myself up here to get that forsaken degree but noo-- I had to lose 2 marks and be placed in second just because he did six out of the five needed titrations!'

And, it continued like that until the pair reached their designated biology class where [Name] was greeted by her lab partner for the subject, Shidou Ryusei.

'[Nick Name]! Hey, How've ya been?' he greets as he wraps an arm around her and drags her to his seat. 'Y'know, when I was at that football club, I met this kid--his name's Rin or something, that edgy kid from the match, y'know? And I gave him a good beating!'

'Wait-- how old was that kid again?' she suddenly asked, knowing that her partner was never up to good--especially when let loose in a football field.

'Tall. Like, six foot or something so older than fourteen, at least,' he shrugs.

'Oh god, you're twenty, don't tell me you actually beat up another kid--'

'I didn't actually beat him, though.' [Name] let out a sigh of relief. 'Only verbally, I wanted his brother's number—that handsome bastard changed it again and didn't care to tell me.'

In all her years of knowing Shidou, finding out that he scolded a young teenager for the sole reason of getting said teenager's older brother's number was probably the least insane thing she had heard so she didn't dare question him about the incident further. In all honesty, she felt bad for that poor Rin kid, whoever he may be.

'Ya think they'll let us do stem cells this year?'

Her day carried on like the usual: from Shidou dumping random, disgusting biology facts onto her - "did you know that the first thing made when babies are conceived is their asshole?"; "thank you, Shidou."; "no, it's true, actually, you see--" - to a tedious yet fun physics practical assessment where she managed to actually get the highest marks - wow, she truly thrived in classes that didn't have Tabito - to her watching Amber and Eita run off together, again, leaving her stranded with Tabito.

In all honesty, she was not aware of what Amber and Eita did when they ran off together. Most of the days, she'd see them hanging out at cafes or going bowling together--which seemed like regular friend stuff to her but sometimes, she'd question their relationship: were they friends or... more?

But, at the end of the day, Eita was her brother and Amber, her best friend--it was not right of her to judge and question them so whatever their relationship may be, she'd happily support them to the end! Besides, if Eita broke her heart, she'd torture him relentlessly for Amber's sake.

Moving on from their relationship, [Name]'s day was pretty ordinary... until the end of it.

Apparently, she hadn't checked the weather forecast properly and it was expected to rain that day for which she was terribly unprepared for as she carried no umbrella nor items to protect her from the harsh weather.

Since the streets were already pilling up with huge amounts of water, finding a taxi proved to be a strenuous task as not a single one passed by the street of her school. And, walking home would be even worse for her since her shoes would all be soaked with the water!

Utterly defeated, [Name] let out a sigh--there really was no hope, no one to protect her from the difficult downpour of rain...

'Ya seem a little wet... need help?'

SECOND CHAPTER FINALLY . this one's for u, amber