Falling

Happy Birthday

What was so great about birthdays? It was just another day, why do people have to make such a big fuss about it? Big celebrations and special gifts, what's the point in those? 

When Kei was younger, he used to love his birthday. Akiteru would always play with him for the whole day and his parents would get him a small cake to celebrate. Slowly, those things came to a stop. 

The years go by one by one. Days passing by one after the other. People growing older minute by minute, every second that passes. The spark of growing older stops being fun when life hits, for some people harder than others. 

Happiness is an illusion created by humans. It's a useless feeling. Feelings themselves are useless. What's there to be sad about? What's there to be scared about? What's there to be angry about? But that is what makes humans human. 

Ten year old Kei would still try his best to enjoy a day out with his brother at least on his birthday. His parents couldn't stand being in the same room as each other anymore, they started having financial problems. They begun not being able to afford luxuries that seemed so normal for them before. At least his brother remembered his love of strawberry shortcake. 

When their family fell apart, every day was the same. No matter what day it was, Kei did the same thing over and over again. He met Yamaguchi and his school life changed little by little but life outside of school was still the same. After reaching home, go to his room and shut himself in until someone needed him. Which was a rare occurrence. 

Just a few days in his time from the age of eleven to sixteen, things went differently. This was one of those days. 

~ 

"Kei! Let's go and play!" 17-year old Akiteru pulled Kei out of his room. Honestly, Kei wondered how Akiteru was six years older than him with the way he acted. 

Kei and Akiteru almost made it out the door when they heard a crash coming from the living room. Akiteru cursed under his breath and tried to shuffle Kei away but Kei insisted on finding out what happened. 

They stood at the entrance of the living room, looking over the scene that was unfolding in front of them. Some of the ornaments in the living room was smashed onto the ground. They both stood there staring, both didn't have the courage to move in case they get the end of their mother's wrath. 

Their mother, who took leave from work as she was running a slight fever, standing facing their father, who was leaned back on the sofa watching television as usual. Their mother had one hand on her hip and one hand pointing to their father. 

"This is what you do all day when I'm at work? I work my ass off to make a living for us and this is what you do?" Their mother screamed. 

"It's fine isn't it? I'll go do some work later." Their father replied nonchalantly. 

"I'm here on my day off and I'm sick. The costs of the medicine wasn't cheap but at least I have a stable job to pay for it. What are you doing? You don't have a stable job, and you sit on your ass for half the day drinking whatever drinks you can get on your hands and eating the food I made for our children?" Their mother was at her wits end, you could tell she wanted to hit him, or smash everything in the house. 

"I said I'll go later. There's still time. What's your hurry?" Their father took out a cigarette from it's packet and lit it. 

"Do you think we're rich? You can think that all you want just as long as you have money to pay the bills this month okay? I'm not going to give you a cent." 

"Fine I'll handle it. It's been fine so far hasn't it?" Their father was taking things too lightly. They had their electricity bills, water bills, phone bills, cable bills. Not to mention allowance for Kei and Akiteru.