CHOCOLATES IN MONSOON | HRK

06 | rocket slides and bruises

CHAPTER SIX ;; JUNKYU
rocket slides and bruises

Fucking rainy town dickwad.

Junkyu was a fucking rainy town dickwad, he thought as he lay curled up on the basketball court, rain splattering against his dark blue slicker in loud, deafening drums.

He was quite the worse for wear at the moment - if he could say so himself. Well, this was normal.

The blood pouring down his broken nose, smudging his chin from his burst lip,

The bruises on his cheek, sick blue-black blotches of color on his knees,

The countless scraped, bleeding cuts on his exposed arms and legs, his school bag laying stomped and dirty in some corner of the court - its stickers probably muddy and worn,

These were normal. Really.

What wasn't normal were the hot, angry tears flowing down his cheeks making him wretch. The sense of being mistreated and shamed burning under his skin. He hadn't ever felt like this before.

He hadn't felt a lot of things before - take their short date to the library for instance.

That had been a whole two weeks ago and he had felt so confident then ! Just so happy ! Like he had finally been saved from those - those...

Junkyu coughed hoarsely, pressing his cheek against the smooth floor of the basketball court, spitting out blood and spittle.

Those inhuman monsters.

Hadn't Haruto kissed him on his forehead like he was something to be treasured ? Like he was precious ? Hadn't they held hands all the way to his home and waved goodbye till they couldn't see each other anymore ?

Hadn't he felt just so happy then ? Hadn't he ?

Well he had and the bullies had steered clear of his way for the past few days.

But he hadn't ever, never ever felt like this before. This shameful sense of humiliation, the stinging burning feeling of wrongdoing making him cry loudly against the rolls of thunder and torrents of rain. He felt like he deserved better.

He felt like he deserved little kisses on his forehead often. He felt like he deserved to hold hands and walk the length of the town without a care in this mundane, maddening world. He felt like...like-

(more blood, more spittle flew out his lips as he coughed again)

like, he deserved to be...to be happy.

The monsters had finally caught hold of him after dismissal today, dragged him to the basketball grounds and beaten the living wild shit out of him.

"Faggot" they had called him. "Vermin", someone had said. "Cocksucker", he might have heard them call him. Or maybe he was just hearing things. People couldn't be so evil. They wouldn't. His limited observation of the world in a pair of glitter shoes, with little paper origami in hand had taught him this much.

And he felt that was enough. He wasn't evil. And he was human too. Why did they have to be like that then ? They were human too.

Or maybe they were human but he wasn't. That would explain everything. Really. There had to be a reason for all of this. He scrunched his eyes shut as his stomach ached from the numerous kicks he had suffered there. His head hurt as he tried to think for a reason for all of this and he let it pass.

All of this was normal after all.

He supported himself on his arms, crawled to where his bag lay and stood up with a groan - still crying loudly like a kid. The school was empty and no one could possibly hear him. Dismissal had been two hours ago and back then he just hadn't been able to stand up, reduced to laying there helplessly on the ground and crying for help.