The Rose Among The Thorns || Reverse Harem (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

Chapter Four: This Meteorite Called 'Puberty'

Sooo after the loooong wait, I now present to you *drum roll* CHAPTER FOUR!!!

copyright © by SmashAshxoxo  

Chapter Four: This Meteorite Called 'Puberty'

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"Hey, Akira! I wanted to give you something!" Hidemitsu Ayumi shouted as she opened her arms for a friendly hug. "Here, it reminded me of you."

She handed me a beaded necklace with a three-colored rose for a pendant. How cute! This was too nice of her and I felt kind off bad for not having anything to give her in return. I definitely needed to go shopping after classes.

"Awe, this is too much! Thank you Ayumi!" I gave her my most genuine smile while inspecting the adorable accessory I held in my hand. She explained to me that the necklace she gave me was a 'thank you' gift for standing by her side ever since the first day of school. It has been a month and a half since the first day. But she really didn't have to do such thing though, I didn't think I deserved such act of kindness. It wasn't a big deal! She was such an amazing person, and I bet a lot were missing out on a personality as unique as hers.

The hallway was packed with students and the place smelled a lot like a blend of peanut butter, body sweat, and cologne. If I was claustrophobic, I wouldn't last another moment here but thank goodness I wasn't though. What troubled me was the wave of people going left and right. I just knew I was going to hit someone, or accidentally step on their toes.

We were on our way back to our respective classrooms after eating lunch together. And things were going really great for me too! Though I've had a record of having grades above average ever since I was young, I have to say my performance here in Skywest Academy was definitely something to be proud of. I smiled at the thought of my family being proud of me too. Then out of nowhere, I get hit on the shoulder by another student.

A few of my things were tossed to the floor and I had to quickly pick them up before someone else decided to step on them.

"Hey! Watch where you're-"

"Sorry." The male student cut me off. Most of his face was covered by his bangs so I couldn't tell if he was okay or not. But by the sound of his voice, he sounded pretty down. I tilted my head a little to see through all that hair and after a second, I recognized who it was. He was a classmate of mine. In fact, he was my seatmate.

"Why don't you join us for a while, Keita?" Ayumi invited him for the hundredth time and just like the last time, he declined the offer with a weak smile and caught up with his friend Hashimoto Genzo, who also happened to be from my class.

"You okay, Akira? Here's your pen..."

"Hey, why do you always do that? I mean ask him to hang around whenever you cross paths? Are the both of you dating, or something?" I asked Ayumi, lightly rubbing the side of my shoulder.

"Oh, no!" She laughed. "He's my brother. We're twins, you see?"

My jaw dropped from surprise. Hidemitsu Keita! Why didn't that ring any bells before? They didn't look a lot like each other though. So, I asked Ayumi to explain just a little bit further.

"Actually, we did look a lot more similar to each other back when we were kids. But then out of nowhere, this meteorite called 'puberty' hit him one night and from then on, a lot of his features changed. He's pretty popular with the number girls here in Skywest... As for me, well, I still look a lot like a toddler."

I couldn't help but laugh at her explanation. It was kind of true because she did look a lot younger than her real age. But it was one of the things that made her who she was and to be honest, I admired her no less. I was still kind of shocked by the fact that they were twins though. I never did know what it felt like to have siblings. I could only imagine how lucky she was to have him around.

After that conversation, we decided to return to our own classrooms and classes started once again. I still couldn't get over how Ayumi illustrated the 'puberty meteorite' and I huffed out a light laugh just enough for me not to get in trouble. Then another thought hit me all so suddenly.

Why does Hidemitsu Keita always decline Ayumi's invite?

I decided to scribble the question down on a small piece of paper and passed it to the person on my right. I looked at Keita who was intently reading the message I gave. He looked back with a look of surprise and scribbled down his reply.

"It's none of your business."

I was shocked with his reply. I didn't expect him to say something like that to me. He seemed to act so nice when he's around his sister. But why was he acting so cold with me?

"I happen to be her best friend, and I care about her too. So it is my business!" I passed him another piece of paper, and quickly went back to writing down important notes on my notepad.

"I think it's best for you to just butt out."

"And why should I?" I replied once again. I believed that there was something about the situation that I just needed to figure out. But I couldn't do it without information from this guy.

Hidemitsu Keita tossed the paper back at me and it read "You wouldn't understand."

"No I wouldn't, unless you tell me. Duhh." I replied again. Usually, I don't act like this. Especially not when the teacher's in front talking about geometrical equations. But there was just something about him that I had to figure out. After a while, he finally passed me his response to my previous note.

"I'm serious. Just leave my sister alone."