The Perfect Prince and the Infamous Thief

Chapter 11

The teachers didn’t seem to notice he was gone as he sat down on the benches in front of the school yard. It was a fine day, though he doubted it since the clouds were starting to become dark. The school news didn’t mention if was going to rain, but Jun didn’t care. As long as he was far away from Nino without feeling the strange stir in his body, he was fine. Laying on the bench, he looked at the gray clouds, but instead saw a goofy face.

“Whoa!” Jun sat up, his face almost bumping with the person’s. “Don’t scare me like that!”

“Shouldn’t you be in PE?”

Jun shrugged. “Shouldn’t you be taking care of the animals, Aiba-sensei?”

“Fine,” the man took the empty seat besides him, “I won’t tell anyone if you don’t tell on me.”

Smiling, Jun nodded his head. He had met Aiba the day after he met Nino, claiming that this man was weird like his happy-go-lucky personality. He bumped into him a couple of times in the morning, or sometimes when he and Nino walked around during lunch, talking to animals or himself. For the past few days, he grew quite fond of the weird animal caretaker, and he would sometimes find himself talking to him.

“Where’s Nino-chan? Aren’t you guys always together?”

“Yeah,” Jun answered him flatly, “He was.”

“What happened? You guys got into a fight?”

Jun shook his head. “Nothing like that, it’s just--”

“Matsumoto-kun?”

He looked up at the mention of the name he was using, and saw a man nerdy man, squinting his eyes at him. The man was wearing a white doctor suit, one he would see at a hospital, but the questions is, who is he and what was he doing at their school?

“It is!” The man concluded as he came towards them. Besides him, he heard the older man gasp before standing up and introducing himself.

“I’m Aiba Masaki, it’s nice to meet you. I’m this school’s animal caretaker.”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” the man smiled, “I’m Sakurai Sho, Matsumoto-kun’s therapist.”

“Therapist? Jun-kun has a therapist?”

“Well, you could say that,” the man nodded his head. “If you don’t mind, I’ll borrow him for an hour.”

“Y-yeah sure,” Aiba grabbed his arm and handed him to the man, “Have fun!”

Jun wanted to protest and tell him he didn’t know this man. However, he was pulled away into the building, and found himself being shoved into an empty classroom. He was instructed to take a seat somewhere, so he picked the very front seat. After pushing himself in, the man handed him a notebook, and another one until he had about 4 of them.

“Matsumoto-kun, I couldn’t get a hold of you since the past few weeks and I think you need some more. Don’t you?”

Jun shrugged. “Need some more what? I don't need these and who are you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the man chuckled, “I believe you already heard my name back there, but we’ve met each other before. It’s ok, I know you can’t remember right now, but I still need to do some check-ups.”

There it was again, saying how he’s met someone before when he couldn’t remember. He’s never seen this man before in his life, and he was sure this was their first time meeting. This man must be mistaking him as someone else. Standing up, he walked for the door but was stopped when the man grabbed his wrist and pulled him down to the chair.

“Matsumoto-kun, I know you’re very confused right now. I just need to do some check-ups to report to the hospital.”

“Hospital?” Jun questioned, “I haven’t been to the hospital before.”

“Well, do you know your scar on your abdomen?”

Jun gasped. “You know about it?”

“Yup. You got into an accident a few years ago when you were about 11 to 12 years old I guess...” The man scratched his head before pointing a stick towards him. “Open your mouth.”

“Wait, accident?” Jun pushed the stick away, “You mean I got this from an accident?” Lifting his shirt up, he saw the huge scar that he’s been so curious of the past few days. “Does Nino know about it too?”

“Of course,” the man nodded again before pointing the stick towards him, “Now open your mouth.”

Instead of doing what the man told him to do, he grabbed the stick from him and threw it across the room. The man stood up, running for it so he took his chance to leave. It took him a matter of minutes to find Nino slumped down besides the box of bugs in the school garden. He was mumbling something to himself, but Jun couldn’t catch what he was saying.

“Nino, how come you didn’t tell me about the accident?”

Nino turned around. “What acci-- Oh, J... I was planning to...”

“Really?” Jun asked sarcastically, “I’ve asked you a lot of times before. So when exactly is that going to happen?”

“J...” Nino stopped up, his hands going to reach for his. “I was--”

Jun pulled away, leaving Nino’s hand hanging. “Is there anything else you’re supposed to tell me? Or are you just going to keep everything a secret?”

“Please J, listen. I--”

“I don’t have to listen,” Jun hissed, “You can go and tell your bugs everything else. Just leave me alone.”

He turned on his heel, leaving Nino apologizing and shouting his name. He walked faster when he heard Nino walking after him quietly, wishing that there was something to make him forget why he became friends with him. If he wasn’t going to tell him, then he’ll just have to look for the answers himself. Taking a right turn, he didn’t notice something coming towards him and he fell on the floor, his bottom saving his fall.

“Ow! Watch it!” Jun snapped.

“I’m sorry, Matsumoto-kun. I was on my way to look for you.”

“Well you don’t need to,” he stood up, “I’m not even this Matsumoto Jun, or that guy’s friend. Just leave me alone.”

Pushing the man’s hand away, he took a short glance behind him and saw Nino. His head was down, while he was pulling the shirt he had on. He could see that he held so hard onto it, that his knuckles were white. Since his shirt was a light yellow, he could see small wet circles foming on them and it continued to drop from his eyes. Paying no more attention to him, he walked back to the pool and slipped into the crowd without the teachers noticing.