A Chance

A Chance Encounter

In Japan, schools start in April. Classes usually end around 3 p.m., followed by various student club activities. Kōshū's language school doesn't have much pressure regarding further education since he will be attending regular middle and high school afterward. He had just finished a class and was leaning against the window at the end of the staircase, looking outside.

From the fourth floor, he could see a high fence and a large field with many people. Kōshū didn't understand baseball, but that didn't stop him from watching. From this angle, he could see most of the baseball field from the southwest corner, as well as some of the adjacent middle school.

Kōshū's language school was right next to Rōchi's middle school, the same middle school that Mr. Sasaki had arranged for Kōshū to attend. Kōshū wasn't too keen on Mr. Sasaki's friendly intentions, but when watching a crowd, he would subconsciously look for familiar faces.

"Not here today," Kōshū murmured. Usually, that shorty would brag about being a regular player at home, even saying, "As expected of an agile shortstop," when Shen Qing praised his cooking skills.

"So, what's a shortstop?" Kōshū wondered, feeling drowsy in the afternoon sun. The three of them always got excited whenever that was mentioned.

Just as he was contemplating skipping class to take a nap or go home, a few middle school students flashed by, obscured by the branches of trees, seemingly stopping in the blind spot behind the wall.

Kōshū didn't pay much attention at first, but it sounded like some kind of high school bullying. Japanese people, huh.

Then the verbal exchange escalated into physical action, which was not good. Kōshū wondered what it would be like when he went to that school. At most, he would be ostracized. Although nothing would happen on the surface, people would still gossip about him behind his back because of his Chinese identity. With his height and fighting ability, it would only stay behind his back anyway. Kōshū didn't really care.

Before long, the figures reappeared in Kōshū's view, leaving with their arms around each other's shoulders. The last one was a small figure wearing a baseball uniform, who looked a bit familiar, but that shorty also flashed by, leaving only a faint trace in Kōshū's mind.

Could that bullied kid be Sasaki Rōchi? I always thought he was a big deal at school.

Kōshū dismissed the question and skipped class to take a nap. It wasn't until he sat at the dining table and saw Rōchi, noticing a bruise on his hand, that the insignificant question was answered. Oh, so he was bullied today.

However, even Mr. Sasaki didn't seem to notice, not even asking about it, only telling him not to push himself too hard while practicing baseball.

Shen Qing seemed to sense something, but refrained from saying anything, adhering to her principle of not interfering with her stepson's interests.

Later that night, after taking a shower and returning upstairs, Kōshū suddenly became curious as he stood in front of his door. He pushed open Rōchi's door and, ignoring Rōchi's warning of "Knock before entering my room," said, "Did you get beaten up today?"

The shorty froze, and then a feeling he couldn't quite identify welled up in his heart. All he could tell was that it was even angrier than when he was being beaten up. He roared, "Get out of here!"

Kōshū indifferently allowed himself to be pushed out, watching the door slam shut inches from his face, accompanied by the sound of a lock. After responding to the inquiries from downstairs, he began to knock on the door incessantly. His initially casual mood turned serious with each knock. Finding it pointless to continue knocking, he threatened, "If you don't open the door, I'll spread the word about your love for anime girls to your class."

The playful threat actually made the person inside open the door. Kōshū paused for a couple of seconds before entering, just before Rōchi lost his patience.

He looked down at the shorty in front of him and asked, "How long has this been going on?"

"What's it to you?"

"It's not my business, but how should I put it? I just really hate this kind of atmosphere in Japan."

"Huh?"

"Well, next semester I'll probably be going to Magnolia Middle School. I'll definitely be ostracized because I'm Chinese, but whatever, I won't choose to hide the fact that I'm Chinese because of it."

Rōchi's mind went blank for a moment, not understanding what his usually taciturn stepbrother, who always hit the nail on the head, was talking about.

"Are you comforting me?" Rōchi asked with a disgusted look.

Kōshū's reaction was even more intense, his disdain overflowing without a word.

Rōchi sighed, suddenly unsure how to deal with this stepbrother. Two strangers, in the early stages of getting to know each other, would probe each other, eventually forming a mode of communication. But the mode of communication between him and this stepbrother had been "silent confrontation" (or so Rōchi thought; Kōshū had simply ignored him). Now, this stepbrother had suddenly said something akin to comforting words, and there were no words to respond with in their existing mode of communication.

Kōshū also shuddered, not wanting to be so close to a kid still in his weaning period.

Thus, without the knowledge of either set of parents, the two children ended their new round of engagement.

But how should I put it? To use an inappropriate example, if you don't like the dog at home, but when it's being chased and beaten by others, even if you don't care, you'll still find it particularly annoying.

"Can you guys please stop confronting each other in that dead corner every day?"

"Is that something I can decide...? No, can't you just change the place?" This was Rōchi, who was slowly learning some skills to retort, and his eyes seemed to be gradually stained with some hatred.

Was this the meaning of being bullied just now? Although he didn't pay special attention, Kōshū knew that Rōchi hadn't come any earlier than him, maybe just a few months earlier.

Finally, one day, Kōshū recognized all those people's faces. It was just those few people coming and going. He followed them to a secluded park, which seemed to be these people's secret base. He used his height and increasingly terrifying aura to resolve the matter without even fighting. He was a little lonely (although I skip class to fight, I'm a good boy).

The story was also very simple. These few idle people without clubs were previously members of the baseball club, one grade above Rōchi. They took advantage of everyone going to other schools to play games and used the club's TV to play pornographic videos. It just so happened that Rōchi was brought to visit by a remaining assistant teacher at the time. It just so happened that the video was playing loudly at the time. It just so happened that Rōchi and the teacher entered the preparation room together. Then those few members were removed from the baseball club's list, and they could only resent the Rōchi who happened to appear.

After resolving the whole matter, Kōshū fell back into a life of daily lack of focus, but some things seemed to have quietly changed. Rōchi's eyes began to become strange. He didn't even do the daily provocations from who knows when. A week later, Shen Qing found an opportunity to ask Kōshū alone if he had done anything to Rōchi.

"The way you say it, I thought I really did something to him?" Kōshū's somewhat nonchalant tone slightly annoyed Shen Qing, but she understood that she didn't know the whole picture yet. The loud noises upstairs, the occasional confrontations she encountered, couldn't explain the whole picture. She couldn't get angry rashly and could only continue to ask.

A stinging feeling suddenly arose in Kōshū's nonchalant heart, "I didn't hit him. I beat up the people who bullied him." Although he was actually prepared to hit him.

Shen Qing believed that this child's character was good, so she believed his words. All that was left was to ask Rōchi.

At the same time, fortunately, she had only expressed suspicion just now, so there was a way to step down, "Mom doesn't mean that. You also know that Sasaki is not good at handling these things. He is always afraid that his good intentions will turn into bad results, so I must find out the truth..."

"Wasn't your attitude very obvious just now?" Kōshū interrupted his mother's words.

Shen Qing looked at the big boy in front of her and suddenly realized that she hadn't looked at him carefully for a long time. He seemed to have grown a bit taller than before recently, and there were also raised marks on his arms when he put on clothes.

She had been here for nearly a year and could only be considered to have just gained a foothold. She began to take care of this complicated family again. Under the intertwining of work and family, under her busyness, this person had grown up.

So, she didn't use the tone of an adult coaxing a child, but simply apologized: "I'm sorry, Kōshū, I shouldn't have suspected you in my heart. You did a good job this time. Our family is very special, and it's not easy to maintain such a family. I really hope that we can become a big family. You are already an adult now, and Mom still has to rely on you a lot of times."

"Anything else?"

Shen Qing was stunned.

"Is that all you're sorry for?"

Shen Qing lowered her head, some memories were opened, the tears hidden inside were stuck in her heart, and then flowed out of her eyes.

"Kōshū, I'm sorry for not taking you away back then." After saying that, she kept crying until dinner time.

It was also from that day that a certain illusion existing in this family was pierced, but everyone seemed to have lost a lot of the estrangement between them because of the disappearance of this illusion.