“Good morning,” greeted Mirai to her friend, Haruka, as she rested her backpack on top of her desk.

It was the first day of the second semester, and everyone had just come back from summer break.

“Did you do your homework?” She sat down on the chair.

Haruka frowned. “I couldn’t. I swear, I wanted to do the summer project, but my dad thought I was lying to avoid meeting the witch.”

Mirai laughed. “Well, it’s true. You don’t like her and homework. How was she, by the way?”

“The same—a total bi—”

“Morning!” shouted an annoying friend of theirs—a smiley Ryosuke, who had entered the classroom. He spotted his friends and ran to them and pinched Mirai’s cheeks, which made her wince. “What you two talking about?” He let go of her cheeks and sat on the desk opposite Mirai.

Mirai massaged her cheeks as she glared at him. “Why’d you pinch me so hard? My mouth’s going to swell.”

He shrugged. “So? It’s not like you’ll use it. Ever.” He smirked. “No one wants to date a man-girl.”

He and Haruka laughed, but Haruka stopped when Mirai continued to glare at Ryosuke.

“Apologize now,” demanded Mirai to him. She put her hands at her hips and leaned on one of her legs. “Besides, I am going to use these lips on someone, and you’ll never get to know who.”

“As if,” he retorted and stood up to her. He was taller than her by almost a head’s length. He then sat back down, dodged her attack, saw his pals—Shintaro and Jake—entering the classroom, and ran to them.

Shintaro was the tallest of the boys, and Juri and Shintaro were similar in height.

“Right on time, bros!” Ryosuke high-fived Shintaro and Juri.

Mirai didn’t care. They had already seen too much of her bullying him, so another witness of the crime wouldn’t hurt, but it would’ve been possible if the bell hadn’t rung for class to start.

“Can’t do anything now, can ya?” He mockingly whispered to her as he threw her his winning smile.

She whispered to herself, “Oh, we still have after school, young man. I’m going to make you say those words even if I had to kill you myself!”

*

“Where’s man-girl?” Ryosuke asked Haruka. “She’s skipping out on her job, huh? She promised she’ll make me a bento for the rest of the school year.”

The group was on top of the roof of the school to eat their lunch during lunch time.

Haruka, having arrived later, handed Ryosuke a lunch box. “From Mi-chan. She told me to give it to you.” She walked away to sit by her boyfriend, Shintaro.

Ryosuke opened the bento with haste. He had purposely skipped out on breakfast this morning to save his stomach for this special event. Upon laying his eyes on the colorful meal, his eyes widened. “They’re all my favorites!” He immediately pinned his chopsticks into the food and brought them to his mouth to devour.

“She’s in the infirmary,” Haruka answered Ryosuke’s previous question. She puckered her lips and subtly looked away. “ swelled so much that…she can’t possibly eat anything.”

The boys stopped eating, and Juri and Shintaro looked at the guilty Ryosuke.

Ryosuke glanced at them and then back at his food.

Haruka continued, “She’ll be starving for days…and then she’ll succumb to death!!!”

The boys dropped their bento down and scurried around Haruka.

Shintaro asked her, “Death?!”

Haruka sniffed. “Well, that’s what I heard from the nurse when I went to check up on her.” She grabbed a nearby tissue and wiped the bottom of her dry eyes. “I thought she was going to get it looked at, but when the nurse said that it was best for her to stay…I knew it wasn’t a good thing.” She glanced at Ryosuke to hint that everything was his fault.

The boys also gave him another look.

“Come on, guys,” said Ryosuke, trying his hardest to look unbothered. “What I did was little compared to everything I’ve done to her.”

The friends didn’t change their expressions.

Tired of all the accusatory expressions, Ryosuke got up and patted his clothes. “Fine. I’ll go check up on her.” He stuttered, “I’ll—she’ll be fine.” He left his friends.

The leftover friends looked at each other with the same thought. He feels guilty.

*

“Umm, Maya-sensei,” Ryosuke quietly asked as he stood at the entrance of the school infirmary. He looked around and noticed that one bed had its curtains closed. She must be on that bed. “Is Mirai here?”

The standing school nurse looked away from her file cabinet. “Oh, Ryosuke. She’s asleep. hurts too much, so she’s sleeping through the pain.” She sat down, pulled a chair over, and tapped it for him to join her at her spot. “What happened?”

He sat on the chair. “Well, you see, same old, same old.”

“Yes, you bullying her, and she bullying you.” She sarcastically sighed to express all the pain she had suffered for the past year since she had been bandaging the two friends, but she could never get mad at them because they always made her job exciting and worthwhile.

“Exactly.” He then turned solemn. “But this time, I went too far.”

“What do you mean?”

He puckered up and told the older lady what he had done. When finished, he sighed and laid back in his chair. “She always tells me to stop pinching her because it hurts, but…I do it because they’re meant to be pinched!” He started air-pinching to express the temptation of Mirai’s puffed cheeks and then dropped his head. “I guess I won’t be doing it anymore.”

“That’s it?”

Ryosuke looked up, slightly confused.

“I don’t think it’s a crime to pinch someone’s cheeks, but…shouldn’t you be saying something to her?”

He finally remembered and nodded. “Yeah, I should apologize.”

She motioned to him to say it to the real Mirai at the bed.

So, he got up, walked to the beds, and saw a blanket covering Mirai with just her hair at the crown showing. Sighing to be ready and sincere, he said, “I’m sorry.” He even bowed at the end. As soon as he leaned straight, hands came around him from at the back of his head to pinch his cheeks. He twisted his body free and accidentally sat down on the sleeping Mirai. He gasped and pulled himself up in fear of squishing his friend, but to his surprise, he bumped into another Mirai.

He blinked and then pointed back and forth at the Mirai in front of him and the Mirai on the bed. “What—what?”

“Gotcha!” she shouted. She jumped off the bed and went to the other bed to pull the covers off of the ‘Mirai’ on the bed to show a huge pillow and a wig.

Maya-sensei laughed, and it became clear to Ryosuke that she and his friends had tricked him.

Mirai puffed up her cheeks and poked them to show him that she was all right.

“Alright, kids,” said Maya-sensei. “I’ll be back. Now that I helped you, Mirai, it’s your turn to help watch the infirmary while I go make some copies.” She left the room with a stack of printing papers.

Just then, a relieved Ryosuke abruptly hugged Mirai from the back.

Not turning around, she touched his arm wrapped around her shoulders and asked, “Hey, what’s… What’s wrong?”

“I’m glad you’re really alright.” It was in a whisper.

The huggers continued hugging at their place.

But it didn’t last long because he pulled away from the hug and with a straight face, he said, “’Cause I’d be worried if I had to take responsibility for you for life!” He scoffed. “Having you for a friend’s already a nightmare!”

They laughed as she playfully hit him with a pillow, starting a pillow fight.

She exclaimed while chasing him in the room, “I’ll never marry you! Even if you were the last person on earth, I wouldn’t even think of it!”

*

“Babysitting? Again?” Haruka asked Mirai as Mirai put her cell phone away after reading a text from her older sister. “A text from her always has nothing but the words ‘babysitting,’ and more ‘babysitting’.”

It was already the end of the first day of school after summer break, and the two girls were in front of Mirai’s lockers. It was the unanimous spot for the friends to gather up before they separated because hers was the closest to the gate.

“Well, I can't help it,” sighed a tired Mirai. “I’m the youngest of nine, and six of my siblings are married with over twelve kids altogether.”

“It’s their kids, not yours. Why must you waste your youth on your siblings who wasted their youths when they were the ones who got married at a young age? And when they’re the ones who reproduced so fast. Being adults now, they should know how many kids they could watch and feed and not just pass it onto whomever.”

“I know, I know. But I’m doing it out of respect. I am the youngest, and they’re all older than me.”

Haruka rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I forgot about you and your super strict, traditional family.”

Mirai suddenly received a back hug from Ryosuke, and behind him were Shintaro and Juri.

Not letting go of her, he asked, “You girls ready?” He happily hopped from behind her to show his excitement.

Haruka pouted and walked to her boyfriend, Shintaro. “No… She can’t make it for the same reason.”

“Babysitting, again?!” the boys asked in sync, though, Ryosuke’s and Juri’s had more of a pitch in contrast to the gentle and soft Shintaro’s.

“Which bundle this time?” Ryosuke asked as he pulled away from the hug and empathetically looked at Mirai.

There were four bundles of kids that she had to watch out of the six older siblings that were married. So, to make things easier to picture, the friends had come up with a “system” of sort to distinguish the kids by numbering them in the order of which group she watched the most.

Mirai laughed and answered, “Mariko nee-chan’s.”

Her friends scrunched up their faces. “Ah, the four girls.”

The four girls were known to them as the most common bundle of kids that Mirai always had to go babysit for stupid and for no particular reasons, though, they all but Mirai believed that it was only because Mariko was lazy to watch her own. What was that the kids really liked Mirai, so with their force, they usually ‘persuaded’ Mirai to sleep over.

The gang continued to discuss this as they headed out toward the school exit.

“I don’t get it.” Haruka began again. “I mean, the oldest is already fourteen, and they’re only attending a stupid event next door! And you’re only three years older than her!” Her face paled with anger. “If they trusted you to babysit the kids when you were twelve, why can’t they do the same to their own child?!”

“Actually, it was when she had just turned twelve,” corrected Ryosuke, proudly smirking. “Just a day after her twelfth birthday.”

Mirai looked at her friends. “A week and a day.” She corrected him, causing his smirk to cease and him to roll his eyes at her. “I don’t mind much, but...it’s just...” exhausting. “Thanks, guys.” She always felt special when her friends remembered such small details of her life. Reaching the gate of the school, she looked at her friends. “Well, I guess we all know the usual.”

The friends bade each other goodbye and separated. Mirai headed to the right, and the rest headed to the left.

As Ryosuke slowed behind his friends, he couldn’t help but look back and forth at Mirai and his group. Seconds later, he shouted to his friends as he ran to catch up to Mirai, “I’ll be back, guys!”  He caught up to Mirai just as she turned the corner.

“What?” she asked him with a smile. “Miss me already?’

“I never do.” He put up a hand over his head to shade his eyes and scanned the area. “Just making sure my people are safe and away from you.” He dropped his hand and looked at her. “Text me when you reach her place, got it?”

She nodded, touched that he cared for her safety.

“And if you’re lucky to not sleep over, text me that you’re going home, and I’ll walk you home.”

“That’s not happening again.” She frowned. The last time she told him she was going home after 9 p.m., he waited at the metro station for her and accompanied her home. She didn’t expect his kind gesture and was worried about him because he went home by himself.

He flicked her forehead, not liking her retort. “I need to know my people are safe from you, okay, and bad things happen in the dark.”

“I’ll be okay.”

“Did I say it was for you?”

She had to laugh despite his acting serious. “Okay, okay.” She realized the rest of their friends weren’t with him, so she asked him about it.

“Ah, I had to make sure this area was safe.” He pretended to scan the area again.

“Well, now that you know, go catch up with them and don’t have too much fun without me.” She smiled.

H snickered. “Oh, didn’t you know?”

She perked up.

“We always have too much fun without you.”

She rolled her eyes at his attempt to make her jealous. “That’s what you think.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He quickly gave up, and they looked at each other before saying one last goodbye for the day. “Don’t work too hard, virtual Mommy.”

She laughed. ‘Virtual Mommy’ was the nickname he called her when she babysat. “Sure, virtual friend,” she said, cheekily smiling at him.

He glared at her. “I’m not a virtual friend.” He confidently smiled. “I’m a real friend.”

Hearing what he had just said brought her mood up. She was already tired from the constant house-hopping to babysit the different bundles of kids during her summer break—which wasn’t even a break at all.

“And I’m limited edition, so be honored.” He put out two v-signs.

“Thank goodness, there’s no more of you. One of you is enough.” Their little banter quickly ended, and she softly said, “Thanks, Ryosuke. Thanks a lot.”

He sent her a smile, and they walked their separate ways again.

*

Ryosuke’s older brother, Kota, opened the door. “You shouldn’t have come home now.” His expression showed that something bad had happened.

“Why?” Ryosuke entered the house and headed toward the stairs until his father’s voice stopped him halfway. That’s weird. Why is dad here?

Kota caught Ryosuke’s curious expression and gestured with his head to the living room. “You’ll know.”

Ryosuke followed Kota into the living room and saw his parents sitting on the same side of a sofa, something that happened only when something big—something troubling—had occurred. I did nothing wrong, so I shouldn’t be nervous. He placed his bag down on the floor and waited for further instructions.

“Sit,” his father, Mr. Yamada, said.

Ryosuke noticed that his mother’s eyes were red. Had she been crying? As he sat down, his brother sat on another couch diagonally from him. Did they decide to finally get a divorce?

“Ryosuke,” began Mr. Yamada. “I’ve always tolerated your young, hormonal personality with your raging, teenage yearnings—or whatever you kids call it these days—”

“Flirting?” Ryosuke happily corrects him as if taking pride in what he did.

The way Mr. Yamada had worded it was because he majored in biology and minored in psychology. He was hardly home because he rather spent his days and nights at his research lab than with his family. It was the same with Ryosuke’s mother, Mrs. Yamada—a traveling journalist who photographed and blogged about her travels and the different situations she encountered. Because of their professions, they could only be reached via mainly the internet to not disrupt them.

Mr. Yamada looked at him and monotonously answered with disgust. “Yes.”

At this moment, Mrs. Yamada started sniffing as if she would cry again, but everyone ignored her.

“But now…” Mr. Yamada continued, “I will not—”

A short and weird but soft sound halted the discussion and made everyone but Ryosuke tense.

Ryosuke took notice of the strange sound, which sounded like a cat’s meow. Did we get a cat? Mom’s allergic to cats, though.

Out of the blue, Mrs. Yamada bawled out loud and hid her face with her hands.

No one did anything—not even stopping her from crying about who knew what.

The same sound was heard again, this time, much louder and more familiar.

Ryosuke looked at his family for further instructions, but when none was given, he gathered the courage to search it himself. He headed to the direction where the unbefitting sound was heard—the hallway leading to the guest rooms. There, he saw, on the floor, was a basket with an infant wrapped with blankets. He gasped and nervously backed away to the room.

He started pointing in the direction of the strange sight he had seen. “Over there! A-a baby!” He looked at his family, who didn’t flinch at his words. “I’m serious!” He was flustered, looking back and forth between both directions in confusion a