Weeaboo {Ereri}

I.

It's not everyday you see someone attempt to commit suicide.

I mean, I'm a pretty practical guy, with practical friends, so I guess I can't really talk for those who aren't. Still, even after thinking about it for the minimal time I did, why would you choose to die at school? To be able to take one's own, meaningful life would be to choose a meaningful place, wouldn't you think?

Anyways, I wasn't exactly thinking about that as I glanced up to see a man perched on the edge of the school rooftop. Well, not as much a man as someone relative to my age. That point hadn't really mattered to me when I realized that he was going to jump.

There're two types of people in my limited brain. One, the type to bypass stupidity and, technically, let the stupid be stupid. Two, the type that wastes their time trying to teach the stupid. I am, honestly speaking, of the first kind. You can't fix what's broken, after all.

And yet, I found myself running.

Before my brain would register it, my arms were pumping, heart racing, legs stretching. I plummeted head-on towards an ominous figure, without practicality, wind singing in my ears. The tips of my fingers grazed  the linoleum floor momentarily as I skidded past the school doors and rounded a sharp corner.

The very few characters near me whizzed into a blur as I dashed past them. Usually, I come to school early to study, so there are few bodies, but on the first day, I'm surprised it wasn't fuller. In my second year of high school, the layout was simple for my mind, so I automatically chose the shortest route.

It occurred during that spree, my first thoughts. A new one popped into my mind. Why on the first day of school? Collecting faces, names, and voices were an old pastime of mine, and nothing of that silhouette was logged, to the best of my memory. That concluded he was a first-year. Why commit suicide on your freshman year? No, something stranger. Why before school even started?

Anyways, my feet screeched when I slapped both hands on the baluster, the momentum pushing my body into a swiveled curve to face the stairs. That was the only time I can remember pausing. Panting, I widened one eye up the stairs, one hand on the railing and the other on a bent knee.

Then I resumed sprinting, leaping two or three steps at once. The school had two floors, but the staircase led up those, and to a door. Said door was always locked and off-limits- I mean, it led to the roof. A roof that had a fence surrounding the edge, but a roof nonetheless. This kid must have "borrowed" the keys from some janitor.

As I thought, the door was propped open with a stopper as I neared it, heaving. My feet shuffled to the opening, barely audible over my dog-like noises. Slapping both palms on the side of the entry-or, exit?-way, I pulled, grunting. It swung open heavily, long enough for me to stumble outside.

It was windier up at this elevation. My bangs whirled about my face. I stood some ten feet away from the boy. "Hey," I growled. It died in the wind. "Hey!" I won't waste time going over what I said in that moment. I said some things in irritation. Anyways, I ended with a yell. I pushed from the bottom of my stomach, clenching my fists and bowing my head. "Anyways, someone as young and stupid as you can't be bothered with suicide!"

He didn't answer for a moment. My eyebrows furrowed. I rushed a few steps forward. "Hey-!"

The figure cut me off with a giggle. His shoulders shook with laughter, and I took a tentative step back, lifting a hand in the area above my chest. "Ah," he murmured over the wind. "All according to keikaku*." Huh? The male turned to me. He knotted his fingers into the chainlink fence that separated us. Shaggy, brown hair drifted around his shoulders. He smiled under half-lidded eyes. "I've been expecting you, Levi."