Wednesday Afternoons (Akashi Seijuro Fanfic)

002: Tuesday Lunch

Yesterday was a horrible day. The fact that it was Monday was already bad enough, but in addition, I was roasted by every teacher due to my failure to complete assigned holiday homework, I was also told off by our very special Class president. The worst part was the invitation from hell to participate in some moronic Wednesday afternoon class, but I guess the real moron is the one who received the invitation. Monday was topped with a rotten cherry.

I have yet to hand in the form, but I'll make sure to do it afterschool. I do wish that 'never' was an option but unfortunately it isn't.

It is currently lunch time, a small break for me to shun away from my responsibilities. Grabbing the thickest part of my bag strap, I hurl it over to have it resting gracefully on the table top beside my books. Every morning before school, my brother leaves before I even finish eating breakfast. Assuming people like him are always in a hurry, it is not unusual for them to forget to pack their lunch, but my brother is different.

This is possibly the first time ever.

I take out Chihiro's lunch stored in a small compact box made by our mother with love. For some odd reason my lip curve upwards and I turn to Mei, who happens to stand beside me holding her yakisoba bread. "Hey, I'll be back, I need to give this to my brother." I don't wait for her reply and jog out of the classroom, inhaling the smell of carefreeness away from that stressfully suffocating environment.

I briskly walk up a short flight of stairs, closer to the metal rails on the outer edge. I'm not a hundred percent sure where my brother hangs out, but it'll probably be somewhere quiet, like the roof top against the rails that stretch from the concrete floor. Before visiting there, I decide to head to where the third year lockers are located.

Holding the lunch box against my chest, eyes pinned in the direction ahead of me, I continue to jog up the glossy, polished stair case accompanied by the heavy tapping of my footsteps. Chihiro must be starving, and it is my responsibility to hand him his lunch so he will have more energy to study, being a third year student is stressful. I jerk myself in all sorts of directions to avoid the people using the staircase, my facial expression subconsciously becoming more stressed whilst playing this awful dodging game- and even awful when I feel myself collide into something stiff but with the softness of fabric, probably a student. Shocked from the sudden impact, my hands slip and the lunch box plummet towards the tile stair case next to the stranger's clean slippers, the colour of the slippers match mine.

I can't care less if said stranger is in my year level. Keeping my head down and letting my pale hair fall forward, I bend both my knees to pick up the lunch box.

Thank goodness the contents are still sealed inside.

For some reason the stranger does the same and manages to obtain the container before I even make a move. I look up and make eye contact with the person I never wish to communicate with; Akashi. This is probably the closest proximity I will ever share with him. His features really do stand out on his fair skin, even though his long crimson coloured fringe dangles in front of those eyes of his, they still look like the most scintillating jewels amongst a range of dazzling jewellery.

It is still early September, the beginning of autumn yet the breeze changes from cool to ice cold. I shiver at his presence and carefully take the lunch box out of his hand, he lets go and stares at me with his stoic expression. "Thank you." I say, in a voice not too audible and to my surprise, he can actually hear me.

The stairway is actually emptier than I thought.

I do not dare to stand up, even if he's currently got his two feet flat on the stairs looking down at me. I have always hated, and I still hate people who think they're so domineering over others.