Title: Shout Out Towards Tomorrow (Chapter Two)
Characters: Jun, Nino, Sho
Rating: PG
Warning(s): Errr… people get hurt. AND THIS IS ALL JUST FAKENESS
Note:.
To delve more into the title, it’s just like the song “Asu ni Mukatte Hoero”. Get the lyrics here.
OMG TWO IN A DAY :OO (I hope I don’t fail the paper I’m handing in for NSL tomorrow >__> I kinda halfassed that) Anyway, please enjoy this chapter, as well :D
Chapter Three! CLICK!

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Jun had been living there for just three weeks. The moment he had fount out he was to move he silently rebelled. At the new school he dressed with no heed to the required uniforms. That was his form of rebel and he rather liked it. He still wore the uniform, so there was no way for the school to keep him from wearing it the way he was. He wasn’t a bad kid, either, just came off as one. He made a point not to get close to anyone in his class. But for some reason the student Kazunari caught his eye. He was quiet and uptight. He ignored Jun for the most part and hardly even tried to be nice to him just because he was new. It seemed with Kazunari that he wasn’t placed on a pedestal.

            It was the day after he had started at the new school that Jun had come across Kazunari playing the piano. It was a beautiful sound he heard in the hallway. He peeked in through the window and saw Kazunari sitting at the piano, playing with his eyes closed and no sheet music in front of him. Jun couldn’t look away from the calm form, highly impressed. During that week, he attempted to hear Kazunari play again and promptly failed. It wasn’t until the end of that week, either, until he realized that Kazunari lived a couple houses away from his.

            That day, he talked to a fellow student for the first time. The only thing he could get out of Kazunari though was his name. Jun was intrigued by this boy. He clearly needed to loosen up.

            Jun tried the timing for the piano again and again, ending up finding Kazunari there a couple times a week. By the end of his third week at the school, Jun hadn’t progressed so much, but had gotten Kazunari to walk with him and allow them to eat together. Jun figured they were on their way to becoming friends, though the fact was unsaid. Kazunari still put him off and such, but never told him to leave, so Jun stayed.

 

            As Jun fell in step with Kazunari, the other boy breathed out and said, “Ninomiya is too long. You can call me Nino. If you like.” Jun smiled triumphantly. It was apparent he was now approved.

            “You can just call me Jun then, Nino,” he replied. Nino nodded, hunched his shoulders, and continued on his way.

 

            Every day they traveled home together so the day Nino didn’t show up to walk home after he had just learned his nickname, Jun worried. Sure it had only been two weeks since the two had met, but Nino always showed. As the minutes wore on, Jun grew anxious. Something seemed wrong. Maybe he went home first, Jun thought. He took a couple steps toward the exit of the school campus but something tugged him back. Something told him that walking away was not right.

            Jun started to shake. Nino didn’t talk much but he was always frowning in thought. He never spoke about any trouble, but then again, the two weren’t that close yet. Jun knew some things, though. About the school. It was a good school, but that didn’t mean that there were good people in it.

            A thought struck him then. Bullying. He had heard it in the halls all over the school. So many fights and arguments, and only on part of a conversation that stuck in his mind. “Piano… my girl… watching… die…” Sometimes when he watched Nino at the piano, other girls would be there watching too. Maybe it had something to do with that. Jun whipped around to go back into the school to look for Nino. He hoped that his new friend wasn’t hurt.

~*~

            Nino loved the piano. Also the guitar, but the piano the most. He was one of the few kids who had been forced into an instrument and actually enjoyed playing it. He played in the piano room he had gotten a teacher to lend him every couple of days. True, he had a piano at home, but his mother never let him play his own music.

            His guitar playing, too. She couldn’t find out about that. He had bought it with his allowance secretly and self taught himself everyday he didn’t play the piano.

            Nino wasn’t that much of a people person, though. He knew he sometimes came off as rude and stuck up, but he couldn’t help that. It was how he reacted around people. When he noticed the new boy watching him play the piano, Nino tried to stay away. He didn’t want to let the kid know that they lived so close, either, having watched him leave school first. But the kid wouldn’t leave him alone. Nino treated him the same as every other person he came in contact with, but he was one that actually stuck in his memory. Truth be told, people in his class actually put up with him and conversed with him. He did too, but nothing significant about them came to mind. He knew their names on visual contact, but nothing else about them and he didn’t’ really care. None of them stuck around him, though. Girls watched him play piano sometimes, guitar, too, but none tried so hard as Jun. Even though Nino thought he was relatively annoying, he couldn’t deny the fact that he liked the boy’s company. It was just hard for Nino to loosen up.

            The weeks around the time that Jun had entered the school things hadn’t been too good for Nino. Even one so oblivious to other people as him could tell. The day Nino told Jun his nickname, things got immensely and frighteningly worse.

            Lying in the grass behind the school at the end of the day unable to move, Nino thought back. What had he done? He knew he hadn’t really done anything, he had just been there. The girl had watched him. How was he to know her boyfriend was a jealous bitch? From what he had heard, the girl was into him and had been straying from her boyfriend. He could not remember ever talking to the mentioned girl, but none held a special significance in his memory.

            He smiled wryly blinking up at the bright sun. At least he knew he had a fan. He tried to lift his hand to scratch his nose, with itched in pain, but the movement caused a sharp pain to writhe its way through his arm. He bit his lip to keep from making any utter of sound.

            Why him? When he didn’t do anything? He always got punished for nothing. Maybe he should start doing something. Maybe then it wouldn’t turn out like this.

            Nino breathed in evenly and closed his eyes against the tears that pricked them. He would be quiet. And wait.

~*~

            Sho’s life had never been easy. Maybe it should’ve been. He was the son of the high, prestigious Sakurai family. But it wasn’t. He wasn’t one of the stereotypes. He wasn’t stuck up. He didn’t get anything he wanted. He could hardly do anything at all. Whenever he tried to do what he wanted, he got in trouble for it. Even secretly, someone in the house caught him.

            He felt like he was in a cage, unable to break free. He felt like the house he was in and the life he was living was sucking away the time he had left. And he wanted to live his life. His first attempt to escape was soccer. It made him relax and gave him something to do instead of studying. His parents allowed it for a bit but became more restrictive as the years went on. They wanted him to work hard, to get into Keio University. By then he had stopped protesting.

            He had been planning it for weeks now, his escape. Every Saturday night, the people who helped out in his house (teachers, cleaners, cooks) would go back to their own houses for Sunday, leaving the house relatively empty. He knew the house well. His parent’s room was down the hall from his and his siblings on either side. The front door was far from his room, but his window was close to the ground. The problem was his fear of heights and his siblings. On Saturday nights, they stayed up because their parents went to sleep early. If he was to use his window, he would have to attempt to be calm and quiet.

            Sho decided it would be his night to leave that night. He was fed up with his life. He grabbed a jacket and the bag he had packed with clothes, food, and his soccer ball and headed towards the window. As he pushed it up, he told himself not to look when he threw the bag down. He held his breath as he did so and turned away from the breeze that emitted from it so fast he could have gotten whiplash. He flicked the light in his room off and gripped the windowsill, still not turning around. He knew the drop wasn’t that far. He knew that with all his heart, yet he was still scared out of his wits. Stealing himself and moving as fast as he could, he jumped out the window.

            His stomach lurched in the second before he toppled to the ground. His body made a dull thud on impact. Hurriedly, Sho scrambled off his butt and grabbed his bag, running away from his house before anyone could notice.