A Firefly's Glow

Chapter One: Part One

A frosty, piercing sensation slipped through my hands as I dipped them into the rusty bucket.

I swayed the towel through the iced water and I felt my hands begin to grow numb. Lifting the towel out of the water, I twisted the towel into a roll with clenched, numb fists. Streams of freezing water fell back into the bucket. I whipped the lightened towel flatly and folded it as neatly as I could with my numbed hands.

I narrowed my sleepy eyes. It was getting really late. How on earth was I going to wake up on time for school tomorrow if I was staying up so late like this?

Hurrying over towards the mattress that sat across the room, I glanced at the familiar figure lying underneath the sheets. I brushed the wet hair from his forehead with thin fingertips and sat the folded towel onto his skin.

My back still ached with pain from falling onto the concrete pulling him back across the intersection.

My arms still ached with pain from attempting to lift him.

And my shoulders still ached with pain from lugging him the rest of the way home.

Basically, I was aching from pain because of this particular person, who just happened to be crossing the street and collapsing right in the middle of it.

I furrowed my eyebrows. How on earth could someone be as heavy as the body that was lying before me? I couldn’t help but wonder if he swallowed a bowling ball before my encounter.

I leaned over the sleeping boy. He didn’t look as heavy as he was in reality.

I placed one of my numbed hands against his cheek. A burning sensation grazed my skin, and it melted the numbness away.

It would have been a whole lot smarter to stay indoors and rest with a fever this high, instead of lingering carelessly across streets and almost getting run over by cars—all in the presence of heavy rain.

I slid my gaze towards his peaceful face. His flawlessly blonde hair hung adjacent to his forehead, and his pale face was sculpted perfectly. I felt my cheeks fluster and I whipped my gaze away from him. He reminded me very much of a prince, and I’ve never seen anyone as good-looking as him, but I refused to become attached to someone I had just met. Besides, I recognized the emblem sewed onto the uniform he was wearing.

Seika Academy was one of the most exclusive academies in Japan, and the only way students were capable of getting into the school were if they were smart enough to be accepted as an honor student (which required a brain the size of a basketball) OR if they were rich enough to afford the entrance price. Basically, it was the academy of the rich and snotty.

This boy could be the jerky, rich type of guy that could order forces against me for abducting him. He could be a dictator or some sort of real prince with a private army of the best martial arts masters trained to kill. He could force me to bow down before him without so much as batting an eyelash . . . That’s just how rich the students of Seika Academy had to be.

I heard dim panting, and I turned back towards the boy. He began to twitch in pain, and he uttered a weak cough. After a few more seconds, he fell back into silence.

I let out a short sigh. Somehow, despite the uniform he had on, this boy didn’t look like a snotty dictator prince. Would a truly rich and snotty person be walking in the rain and crossing streets all by themselves?

I slowly turned my head towards the drenched bag of groceries that sat a few feet away, and I crestfallenly sulked. I had spent all that money on those groceries, and in my world, money didn’t grow on trees. They’re still edible, but I preferred food that hadn’t felt the wrath of dirty sidewalk water. I silently thanked my stomach for relieving me of the loud grumbles and growls that it had uttered earlier. But deep down inside, I was still very hungry.

My eyes were starting to feel strangely dry. I would have hopped into my bed and gone to sleep already, but my bed was currently occupied.

I laid my head against the soft sheets of the bed beside the boy. I felt a sense of drowsiness, and I figured a nap would be favorable. I closed my eyes and fell into unconsciousness.