An Opportunity

An Opportunity

Japanese schools started in April. Classes usually ended around three each day, followed by all kinds of student club activities. Since Kōshū would still be attending middle school and high school normally afterward, there was no pressure for him to get into a higher-level school. Having just finished a class, he leaned against the window at the end of the stairs and looked outside.

From the fourth floor, he could see a tall fence. Quite a few people were scattered across the large field. Kōshū knew nothing about baseball, but that did not stop him from enjoying the spectacle. From this angle, he could see most of the baseball field from the southwest corner, as well as part of the middle school grounds next door.

Kōshū's language school happened to be right beside Lang Zhi's middle school—the middle school Mr. Sasaki had chosen for Kōshū to attend later. Kōshū was not particularly moved by all those imagined displays of friendliness from Mr. Sasaki, but when watching a show, people instinctively looked for familiar faces.

"He's not here today," Kōshū murmured. That short kid was always going on at home about being one of the Regulars. Even when Shen Qing praised him for being good at cooking breakfast, she would say, "No wonder you're such a nimble shortstop."

"So what the hell is a shortstop?" Kōshū was getting sleepy in the afternoon sunlight. Whenever the three of them mentioned it, they always got all fired up.

Just as he was wondering whether to skip class and find somewhere to catch up on sleep or skip class and go home, several middle school students flashed past beneath the cover of tree branches. It looked like they had stopped somewhere hidden behind a wall, in Kōshū's blind spot.

Kōshū did not pay attention at first, but it sounded like some kind of upperclassman bullying. Japanese people, huh.

Then the verbal confrontation escalated into physical action. Not good. Kōshū wondered what things would be like if he went to that school later. At most, he would be excluded. Outwardly, nothing much would happen, but behind his back, people would still gossip about him for being Chinese. Given his height and his ability to fight, it would probably stay behind his back. Kōshū did not care much.

Before long, several figures reappeared in Kōshū's line of sight, leaving with their arms draped over one another's shoulders. Last came a small figure in a baseball uniform, someone who looked vaguely familiar. But the short kid passed by in a flash as well, leaving only a faint trace in Kōshū's thoughts.

Could the one being bullied have been Sasaki Rōchi? He had always seemed pretty formidable at school.

With that faint question pushed to the back of his mind, Kōshū skipped class and went to catch up on sleep. It was not until he sat down at the dinner table and saw Lang Zhi again, noticing the bruising on his hand, that the question he had not considered important received its answer. Oh. So he had been the one bullied today.

But even Mr. Sasaki had not noticed. He did not ask about it at all, merely telling him not to push himself too hard while practicing baseball.

Shen Qing seemed to have sensed something, but bound by her principle of not prying into her stepson's interests, she said nothing.

That night, after showering and returning upstairs, Kōshū paused outside his own room. Suddenly interested, he pushed open Lang Zhi's door and, amid Lang Zhi's warning of "Knock before you come into my room," said, "Did someone beat you up today?"

The short kid froze. Then some indescribable feeling surged up inside him. All he could identify was anger, even stronger than when he had been beaten. He roared, "Get out!"

Kōshū was shoved out without much concern, watching the door slam shut viciously two centimeters from his face, followed by the sound of it locking. After fending off the inquiries from downstairs, he began knocking incessantly on the door before him. Even his originally lazy mood was stirred into concern by his own knocking. Losing interest in knocking, he simply threatened, "If you don't open the door, I'll spread it around your class that you like 2D girls."

The joking threat actually made the person inside open the door. Kōshū paused for two seconds, then went in before Lang Zhi could lose his patience completely.

Looking down at the short kid before him, he asked, "How long has this been going on?"

"What does it have to do with you?"

"Nothing. It's just that... I really hate this kind of atmosphere in Japan."

"Huh?"

"Well, next semester I'll probably be going to Magnolia Middle School. I'll definitely get excluded for being Chinese too. But whatever. I won't hide the fact that I'm Chinese because of that."

Lang Zhi's mind went blank for a moment. He could not understand what his usually quiet and taciturn stepbrother, whose every word always hit where it hurt, was talking about.

"Are you comforting me?" Lang Zhi asked, looking thoroughly creeped out.

Kōshū's reaction was even more intense. His disgust practically overflowed without him saying a word.

Lang Zhi sighed. Suddenly, he did not know how to deal with this stepbrother of his. Two strangers would test each other during the early stages of getting along, eventually forming a pattern of communication. His previous pattern with this stepbrother had been a "silent standoff"—at least, that was what Lang Zhi thought; on Kōshū's side, it had simply been outright ignoring him. Now that this stepbrother had suddenly said something almost comforting, there was nothing in their existing pattern that he could say in response.

Kōshū also shuddered, goosebumps rising all over him. He did not want to be that close to some kid still on the bottle.

And so, without either set of parents knowing, the two children ended another round of their confrontation.

But how should he put it? It was an inappropriate analogy, but if you disliked the dog at home, and someone else chased it down and beat it up, even if you did not care about it, you would still find it especially irritating.

"Could you stop getting into it with them in that blind spot every day?"

"Is that something I can decide...? No, can't you just go somewhere else?" Lang Zhi had gradually picked up some retorting skills. There seemed to be a growing trace of hatred in his eyes.

Did that mean he had just been bullied again? Though he had not paid special attention, Kōshū knew that Lang Zhi had not arrived much earlier than he had, probably only a few months before.

Finally, one day, Kōshū learned all their faces. There were only a few of them, coming and going. He followed them to a secluded park, apparently their secret base, and settled the matter with his height and increasingly intimidating aura. He did not even have to fight. That was a little lonely. Even if I skip class and get into fights, I'm still a good kid.

The story was simple enough. Those few idle students without clubs had once been members of the Baseball Club. They were one grade above Lang Zhi. While everyone else had gone to another school for a game, they used the club television to play pornographic videos. Lang Zhi happened to be brought in by an assistant teacher who had stayed behind for a tour. The video happened to be loud, and Lang Zhi and the teacher happened to enter the equipment room together. As a result, those club members were removed from the Baseball Club roster, so all they could do was resent Lang Zhi, who had happened to show up.

After resolving the whole matter, Kōshū fell back into his daily life of being unable to focus on anything. But something seemed to have quietly changed. Lang Zhi's gaze began to grow strange. At some point, he even stopped making his usual provocations. A week later, Shen Qing found an opportunity to ask Kōshū alone whether he had done something to Lang Zhi.

"The way you put it, I'd think I really did something to him." Kōshū's flippant tone irritated Shen Qing somewhat, but she knew she did not yet have the full picture. The loud arguments upstairs and the occasional scenes of them butting heads could not explain everything. She could not get angry rashly and could only keep asking.

A sudden stabbing pain rose in Kōshū's carefree heart. "I didn't hit him. I beat up the people who were bullying him." Though he had actually been preparing to fight them.

Shen Qing believed this child's nature was good, so she believed him. All that remained was to ask Lang Zhi.

Fortunately, she had only voiced suspicion just now, so there was still room to back down. "That isn't what Mom meant. You know Sasaki isn't good at handling these things. He's always afraid that his good intentions will lead to bad results, so I have to get to the bottom of what happened..."

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

Shen Qing looked at the tall boy before her and suddenly realized clearly that she had not looked at him carefully in a long time. He seemed to have grown taller again recently. When dressed, the contours of muscle could now be seen on his arms.

She had been here for nearly a year. She had only just managed to get on her feet, then had to start dealing with this complicated family. Amid the entanglement of work and family, amid all her busyness, he had grown up.

So she no longer used the tone of an adult coaxing a child. Instead, she apologized directly. "I'm sorry, Takano. I shouldn't have doubted you in my heart. You did very well this time. Our family is very unusual, and keeping it together isn't easy. I truly hope we can become one big family. You're already an adult now. There are many times when Mom will have to rely on you."

"And?"

Shen Qing froze.

"Is that all you're sorry for?"

Shen Qing lowered her head. Certain memories were unlocked, and the tears hidden within them clogged her heart before flowing from her eyes.

"Takano, I'm sorry I didn't take you with me back then." After saying that, she cried all the way until dinner.

From that day onward, an illusion that had existed within this family was punctured. Yet with the disappearance of that illusion, the barriers between them seemed to vanish considerably as well.