The Stupidity Of Love (Lev Haiba)

A Side That I Didn't Know

It was finally Sunday. Finally a day free of Lev. Of course, when it was just me and my mother, there was no such thing as a completely free day. My mother ended up sending me out to pick up a few things that we needed around the house.

As I made my way back home, I thought I heard singing. It appeared to be coming from the direction I needed to go, so I figured I might as well investigate. The closer I got to home, the louder and clearer the singing became. Soon, I could clearly see the source of it.

Near my home was a small park where a lot of the kids who lived nearby liked to play. With the big apartment building right there, it was rare for anything to happen there, so it was a safe place for the kids. I'd often gone there myself and had made friends with most of the kids who went there regularly.

Right now, a whole little group of them were singing together. And right there in the middle of the group was a silver-haired boy who was sitting on top of the monkey bars with a much too familiar idiotic grin and leading the song. It might not have sounded the best, but it was one of the cutest things I'd ever seen.

Even though I should have been getting home, I couldn't help but stay and watch them. Lev tried to be cool and hang upside down, but only ended up falling off of them. Before he could even get back up, he was tackled by several of the kids. It was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen.

Laughing and playing and singing... it was like looking at an entirely different Lev. Who knew he would be so good with kids? Though when you think about how he's pretty much a gigantic child himself, it seems pretty believable. Still, it was nice to see such a sweet side of him.

When they all noticed me watching though, the song stopped. I hadn't wanted that, so I decided to sing the part that would have come next.

Tokidoki ame ga furu n da Kaze de miki ga yureru

Issho ni iku n da Minna no yume no ki yo sodate

"Love Live, right?" I said once I'd finished the next couple lines of the song. While I wasn't a fan, I had to admit that particular song was really nice. Possibly even a favorite of mine.

"Reisa!"

"Rei-chan!"

"Sa-chan!"

As most of the children rushed forward to greet me, Lev fell off the monkey bars again. He got up and made his way over too. "Did you come to play too?" he asked, that insanely cute and idiotic grin of his taking over his face.

"Rei-chan lives right there!" one little boy, Toru said. He pointed to the large apartment building just across the street.

Two of the girls nodded. They were the twins Yuki and Yumi. They lived in the apartment right across the hall from me and mom. "Sa-chan's bedroom's right there! Third floor, third window from the left!" the two said in unison.

Lev stared for a moment, probably counting it out to figure out which one it was. "Is that a Hello Kitty sticker on the window?"

"That was there when we moved in," I said, nodding. The family that lived there before us had had a daughter name Kanna who'd been obsessed with Hello Kitty. The poor girl had been so heartbroken when they couldn't get it off so I'd ended up buying her a new one just like it. Little Kanna was so happy that after that she would send me a handmade Christmas card every year. And a card for pretty much every other holiday too. Even Valentines Day. "It won't come off. But it's cute, so I don't really mind."

As the kids started talking all about how I would usually spend my free time teaching them to play soccer or just simply playing games with them, a thought crossed my mind. "What are you doing here, Lev?" I knew he didn't live here. Not only did I know everyone in the building, but I'd also been to Lev's house most of the days this week. Plus I'd never actually seen him around here before now. In fact, it almost made me wonder if he'd been stalking me or something.

"Lev comes out to play sometimes!" little Toru said excitedly. "But he can only come here on the weekends because he started playing volleyball."

The twins nodded, agreeing with their friend. "He says that when he gets better he'll teach us!"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Well I hate to tell you, but that'll be a long time. He'd actually very terrible at volleyball." It was a bit mean to sell him out like that, but seeing such an adorable pouty face on that energetic giant made it worth it.

Everyone all turned to face Lev. He wasn't denying it, so I assumed that he was aware of just how bad he was. "I'll get better and I'll be the ace!" His enthusiasm was more than enough to get the kids excited in cheering.

And before I knew it I was smiling and thinking how sweet he could be. It was then that I should have realized that Lev was about to make a big difference in my life.