The Academy - Side B

Modern! AU: Family

"H-hi!"

"...morning."

Eri sat down in her seat, greeting her friend Kazu as she did so. She was thankful that he was in her advanced Geography class, as well as her seat partner. 

It wasn't just because she had a slight crush on him, but also because he'd turned out to be a really good friend of hers in the last year or so. He hadn't really acknowledged their friendship openly, but he had told her once that he enjoyed her company. They walked back from school almost every day, as long as club activities didn't clash with their timings.

"Did you finish the readings?" Eri asked, removing her books from her bag.

"Mostly," Kazu answered. "Except for the last chapter."

"Why? It was the easiest of the whole book!"

"I fell asleep."

Eri dissolved into giggles as their teacher walked in. Kazu, on the other hand, didn't seem very amused by his own actions, when he usually smiled at some of his remarks. All through class, Eri noticed a distant look on her friend's face. It was as though he was thinking of something that happened in the distant past.

Geography was the only class they had together that day, but they'd started spending lunch together more often, given that Lila and Marcus were junior members of the Student Council, which meant they had to patrol the hallways on some lunch hours.

Kazu was sitting under a tree in a corner of the school when Eri joined him with her tray. "Aren't you going to eat?" She asked, noticing he didn't have any food with him.

"I ate already," he said, not meeting her eyes.

"Lies. You have classes all the way till lunch."

"Okay, fine. I haven't eaten anything."

He sounded exasperated at her questioning, though on normal days, Eri knew he didn't bother.

"Is something wrong? You never miss your meals."

Kazu sighed, resting his face on his knees, which were drawn up to his chest. "I suppose I can't hide it from you. Today is...my mother's death anniversary."

"Your mother? But she's-"

"-my stepmother. Toki and Jun are my step-siblings."

"W-what?"

He leaned back against the tree, a look of resignation on his face. "I thought you knew. Everyone knows. Well, at least the basic story."

"Know what?" Eri was confused.

"You know that I grew up abroad, right?"

Eri nodded. He'd told her about it himself.

"But the place I grew up in...was a warzone. Not your average nine-year-old's dream home.

"My mother died when I was about four, right before the war. My father was in the military, so he had to go on long expeditions, while Aki and I remained at home. Our neighbourhood was relatively peaceful until I was seven, which was when the nearby farms became a battlefield. We had no choice but to fight to survive. The gangs overran the city, and even kids like us, who should have been safe, had to resort to methods we wouldn't have thought of in a million years.

"That's why my father taught us how to use a gun." He laughed bitterly.

"W-what happened then?" Eri's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Well, the war ended when I was eleven. Two weeks after the cease-fire, my father, who Aki and I had seen only six times in almost as many years, showed up at the front door and told us to start packing.

"I've never been to my home country since. And he's never set foot in military quarters since then. He met Mother when I was twelve and Aki was fourteen, and they got married a year later."

"Do people know all of this?" Eri asked, her eyes wide.

"Only the fact that my home country was attacked and was at war for a few years."

"I'm sorry." Eri looked down. "It must have been hard on you."

"Don't apologize. It's not that bad, actually; just that...I miss Mom a lot sometimes." When Eri looked up, she saw her friend wipe a tear from his eyes. "I was very young when she died, but I have some good memories of her from when I was a kid."

Unsure of what to say, Eri nodded her head and remained silent. The two stayed like that for a while until Kazu said that Eri should eat something. "There's no point in having that tray if you won't eat anything from it. The food's never that great, but if it's cold..."

"Have some." Eri pushed the tray so that it was in between them.

"I'm fine."

"You need to eat."

"...just a little."

Kazu hesitantly picked up a sandwich from the tray and nibbled on it. "I think I'll skip basketball today," he said. "I need to spend time on my own for a bit."

But he still made sure to walk Eri to her apartment after school ended for the day.

The week after, he showed her a photo of his mother's grave.