Chapter Text
Maybe this year, things will be different
Mitsuba Sousuke is a 11 year old 6th grade middle school student studying in Kamome Gakuen. He has brown pink hair tied into a small pony tail and has big side tails on each side of his face, a slender build, beauty mark under his left eye, brown eyes and a puffy cute face.
Despite his soft and cute exterior, this is all a farce as he chooses to become more passive due to all the bullying he received by his former classmates for being rude, arrogant and feminine in aesthetics. Therefore, his true personality never gets to see a light of day again in the hopes of avoiding bullying and possibly attaining new friends.
Unfortunately for him, even though he has received little to no bullying in this new chapter of his life. He received a new but arguably equally as bad new predicament in his life.
He was deemed a boring nobody of a side character.
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Early morning in one of the middle school classrooms of Kamome Gakuen
A blonde fit young-looking boy named Minamoto Kou arrived first before anyone else for some unknown reason. Maybe he was just really serious about his classes? Woke up early and completed everything pretty quick and had nothing else to do? Who knows? Not that it really matters.
Mitsuba also arrived very early conveniently enough for the boys to not feel too lonely about being too soon on their new first day of class this school year.
The pink haired boy approaches his alphabetically pre-arranged sitting position in front of Kou.
“Nice to meet you. It looks like that we’ll be sitting in alphabetical order for this class. My name is Mitsuba Sousuke, let’s be friends.” Mitsuba says with a kind smile and tone while reaching out his arm for a handshake.
“Sure.” the Minamoto boy replies in a bit of a confused fashion but is ultimately accepting of the girly pink boy’s request of friendship.
And so, our story begins.
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Mitsuba goes along his day in class sitting down in lectures, eating lunch alone, finishing schoolwork and other things expected from a young student like him at his age.
After a long day of school, Mitsuba heads home relived to be finally done from all his duties. Still, he feels an aching feeling inside his chest knowing that he spent another day of his life failing to make any meaningful relationships with anyone. “Damn, I didn’t make any friends again… I’ve tried to change and repress the parts of myself that people didn’t like about me into the depths of my mind but still no luck. I don’t know if I’ll ever make friends to be honest. But hey, at least Mom told me that she’s making my favorite curry tonight!”
The boy makes his way to the train station to get home and then takes a short bus ride to hasten his journey as felt lazy and didn’t feel like walking and taking the scenic route tonight.
Bells clang together after opening the door as the rosy haired boy arrives home after finishing his commute.
“Mom, I’m home!” Mitsuba yells into the house for his mom to hear. A phrase practically ingrained to his psyche that he never stopped saying to this day.
“Welcome home Sousuke! The curry’s almost ready dear, it should probably be ready after you finish setting down your stuff and getting new clothes for the evening. I’ll just be here in the kitchen if you need anything son.” Mitsuba’s Mom says with hearth-warming cadence that she has always shown the boy throughout the rest of his life. It’s such a shame that her husband died leaving her and his son left without his presence. Despite this tragedy, she knows that she has to stay strong to care and support his son to the best of her abilities. No child has to suffer the effects and after effects of death whether or not it happens directly to them or someone else.
“Sure Mom, thanks.” Mitsuba says in a lazy exhausted tone. Despite the seemingly lack of respect in his reply, both of them know that they love each other with all their heart and would do anything to make each other happy despite how brash and rude Mitsuba actually is when not putting up a facade of kindness for people to accept him.
Sousuke walks up the stairs to his room where he gets the freedom to be himself. His silly little boy cave is filled to the brim with cute things such as anime merch, feminine style clothing like a pink cardigan he likes wearing when he feels like it, a photo album containing the incredible and adorable photos he took when his dad gave to him his camera after both parents realized that Sousuke was also really passionate about photography, school supplies such as pens, books, and more.
What a comfortable little home this boy has.
Mitsuba placed quickly threw down his school bag and got to working on removing his school uniform as quickly as possible until he was wearing nothing more than just a plain white t-shirt and gray boxers.
He went to his drawers and grabbed a new set of clothes for the night and grabbed a cozy long sleave shirt and pajama pants for the evening. He had no homework for the night and the boy knows and deserves to enjoy a quiet and relaxing evening after all the hard work he did at school. After getting his clothes for the night, he went into the bathroom to have a nice cold shower to refresh himself from the long day of schoolwork he did. Mitsuba was finished in 10 minutes and dried himself with a towel and hair dryer to tidy himself up for dinner. Feeling properly cleaned and free of water dripping down his body, the pink haired boy grabbed his night clothes and got himself dressed to eat dinner with his mom.
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Sousuke walks his way to the kitchen to meet up with his mother for dinner.
“Hi my precious cute little poodle~!“ Sousuke’s mom says with glee. “Ugh, mom can you please stop calling me that? I’m not 5 anymore you know.” Sousuke scoffs at his mother’s playful manner. “Awwww… Don’t be like that, Sousuke. You’re always gonna be my darling little no boy no matter how old you get. Whatever happens, mommy will always be with you as best she can! Food’s ready by the way. I made you your favorite katsudon curry! School’s always going to be a taxing thing in a person’s life and I want to make sure you always have enough energy to power through it son~.” Sousuke mom’s sheer wholesome energy makes even Sousuke’s brash rudeness blush in the face of this massive amount of positive energy.
“Thanks mom, you always make the best curry… I’ll try to do my best to make good in school for you.” The boy’s heart is pounding in embarrassed but nevertheless happy joy. “Awwww~. Don’t mention it sweety, you don’t need to do much for little old me son. Mommy’s happy as long as you’re enjoying the life you choose.” The mother says with a smile that heals all. After a lovely little conversation with her beloved child, she prepares to begin eating with Sousuke “I'm sure you're starting to get hungry, dear. We have dinner to eat, Sousuke. Let’s eat my son!” Mitsuba acknowledges her “Thanks for the meal!”
The two enjoy a quiet peaceful meal together with some casual talk here and there. “Mn, thanks mom. You always make the best curry!” Mitsuba says with glee in their eyes. “You’re welcome, Sousuke. Mommy always aims to give you the best life possible!” Happyness filling her heart, she steps closer to Sousuke to give him a hug and ruffles his head like a million times before. “Hey! You don’t have to keep doing this to remind me that you love me you know. My hair keeps getting too messy whenever you do this.” Annoyed but ultimately accepting of the hug from his mom the pink haired boy is. “But my young little boy is growing up so fast!” She feigns sadness. “I don’t wanna lose my cute little boy so soon…” Sarcastically her tone goes as she speak with Sousuke.
“You’re damn right I’m cute. There’s no other person girl or boy that’s cuter than me in class!” Pride fills the air as Sousuke confidently states this as if it was a fact (actually it is). “That’s my boy! I’m so proud of you son, but don’t be a little too much a jerk. Ok? You won’t get a girlfriend if you keep this up you know.” His mom finally let go of the hug and prepares to finally go rest in her room. “Nonsense mom, I don’t need anybody. My cuteness shines through the hardships of life itself!” Laughter starts coming out of his mom’s mouth from the sheer cute silliness coming out of her son’s mouth. “Ok then~.” She says with a wink. “Anyways, I’m pretty tired myself too after all the work I did today. Call me if you need anything ok? Love you dear!” Mitsuba’s mom gives him a small wave and then goes to walk to her room with Sousuke acknowledging her words with a wave of his own.
The pink haired boy goes to his room to spend the remaining day with whatever activity he pleases as he thinks of ways to pass the time before going to sleep for school tomorrow. “Man am I stuffed. Felt like I ate little bit too much there too hehe. It’s mom’s fault for making the curry taste so good. I have a small appetite! My cute little body is masterfully crafted with the best diet and fitness routine in the world! (He really just prefers not to eat much and does some light exercises like yoga stretches and some other cheap/free ways of fitness such as sit-ups).” Sousuke comfortably lies down in bed with one leg crossed above his other leg and his left arm behind his untied hair that’s free to laze down surface of his pillow. Life is comfy.
With a phone in his other arm, he goes to browse the internet with activities like browsing twitter and youtube. He doesn’t really use chat apps like line or messenger much as he doesn’t have any friends to consistently talk with. At best, he talks in webforums to talk about his interests with other people online that share the same mutual interests like his favorite clothes, food and other cute soft things the boy oh so much loves. Mitsuba casually browses youtube with nothing but a colored lamp lighting up his room as he turned off the ceiling light already to give him a more vibrant chill atmosphere for the night. “Man, bunnies are so cuteeeeee! I wish I have one for myself but I don’t trust myself enough to actually own one as I’ve never taken care of an animal before. Still, it’d be nice if I could grab a picture of one someday.”
After an hour or so of watching cute and silly videos or so videos online, the boy decides that he had enough to watch for the night and now just started to lazily browse social media to see anything interesting like a juicy news or drama story, new delicious well garnished flan, camera models he’d like to own some day if he had the money and some new clothes he finds cute and befitting his style that he’d also wish to own in the future once he had enough money or if his mom was feeling generous enough to buy him another set of new clothes. The boy has a nasty shopping habit as his glitter at the sight of anything he’d love to have. “Ooo. I’d like to have that lovely two-piece shirt set some days. The colors and printed art are really nice and I like the white sleeves.” Mitsuba adds in another too many things to his future online wish list for the night. This child will unfortunately be forever be haunted by terrible spending habits with his impulses.
It's now around 11 in the evening and the young boy is now starting to feel fatigue from his hours long of internet usage and sets his phone to the table next to his bed. He’s going to have another day of school in the morning so he prepares to give himself some sense of rest to prepare for tomorrow.
As much as he’d like to fall asleep, immediately his fears and insecurities creep up from the back of his head again. “Why can’t I just be good enough to have friends of my own?” Sousuke says depressingly. For as long as he can remember. He’s always been alone outside of the house. He may love his mother with all of his life but he too yearns and needs the warmth of a community of his ages to be there for him too. “I’ve changed and repressed and my personality for people and all it left me with is me being treated as a ghost in the background that nobody remembers. Socializing is hard…” While Sousuke may not be the best at mingling with others and does tend to prefer be alone either out of history from being outcasted or just a natural preference to it, he still at least tried multiple times to get together with other people. Despite his attempts, they all ended the same way. Everybody treating Mitsuba as a “background friend” that people ignore or put to the back of things to make their group seem bigger than it actually is.
“I wonder how ok it is for someone to not have friends for so long? Friends aren’t needed to survive but man do I feel like I’m not living too despite being alive… At the very least I wish people would accept my existence better rather than being passively demeaning to me even if they don’t directly bully me anymore.” His inner monologues last for around 30 minutes more or less before finally getting sleepy enough to not think too much of his life’s miseries.
Mitsuba Sousuke closes his eyes to be embraced by dark but non-hostile world that is unconsciousness. Even if he doesn’t make any new permanent or long lasting new friends tomorrow or even in years later in his life. Small nuggets of joy and connections with others of his age would mean a lot to him. Having a casual conversation about the latest popular manga and which characters they like the most, eating a meal together with someone, playing a simple game of cards or a board game, anything would satisfy the gaping feeling inside this companionship starved hole in Mitsuba Sousuke’s heart.
Simple things like these that more “normal” and sociable people in life take these joyful activities for granted in the eyes of those who don’t follow the societal norms of the lands they walk in. Some are ostracized by others for daring not to follow these norms of society. Even if they don’t hurt anyone. Because in their minds, ignorance runs recklessly. Unfortunately, intentionally or not. They attack the non-conformist of society either verbally or physically leaving them to either retaliate or seal the “undesirable” parts of themselves away from the rest of the world. The hollowness in Mitsuba Sousuke’s life continues to haunt his everyday existence as the yearning of his seemingly simple wishes seem ever so impossible for someone like him to ever achieve.