The Don jolted upright from his prone position, licking his lips with excitement.
"Oh snap! Someone's getting maaad," he joked before excitedly lying back down.
Silver opened her mouth, closed it again, then instinctively reached for Shin before stopping herself.
Taiga could feel his heart sink as he instinctively clenched the area of his shirt protecting his heart—twisting and scrunching the material until wrinkles permanently remained. Beads of sweat began to drip casually off his scalp, drenching the white shoulders of his shirt grey.
"Hu-h? Wh-what do you mean? I haven't lied once, Shin. Why would I?" Taiga attempted to explain, his once-commanding hands now failing desperately in a plea for sympathy.
The black-haired brother stared directly into Shin's eyes, which returned a blank stare that contrasted with his furrowed brows and vascular, enraged face.
Taiga took a small step back unknowingly.
"Three days ago," Shin began speaking, his eyes devoid of any target as he stared vacantly in front of him.
"When we encountered the Don," he continued. "I wasn't knocked out for as long as you thought. I'm not sure why—out of fear, if I had to guess—but I pretended to stay unconscious until that man left. More importantly... I heard everything he said, Taiga. Everything."
Taiga's eyes widened with despair.
"I heard everything about Frazes. I heard everything about me being incompatible. I heard everything about you being the only one he wanted. It killed me hearing all of it. It was horrible. I still remember lying there, face pressed against the tarmac, hearing my entire existence being called meaningless. Again." He had now raised his arms ever so slightly, staring absently into his palms as tears began to well in his eyes. Tears that would immediately be wiped away, almost involuntarily.
Taiga could feel every morsel of strength leaving his legs as he returned to depending on the alleyway wall for support.
"But."
"I could live with that pain. I could live with not being the 'chosen one.' I've practically been living in your shadow, in your debt, my whole life. I could live with being the lesser brother. I might have even enjoyed it, ya know? The Don obviously had something big planned for you. I would have been more than happy to be the brother of the new Don or whatever he wanted from you. Or at least I could delude myself into being happy. I can survive with everyone looking down on me. Everyone except you."
It was now Silver's turn to react as she reached out her hand in an attempt to console the boy, only to be swatted away.
"I don't know what goes through your mind—I never have nor ever will. All I do know is that you were the first person to defend me whenever someone belittled me. I'm not sure if you remember, but," a small smile began to crack Shin's face as he reminisced.
"Back in middle school, I had a pretty loud and boisterous personality. I thought being loud and forcing jokes and unnatural quirks would make me liked by everyone just because it had worked back in elementary. All it really did was make me look like an idiot who was addicted to the opinions of others. And that got me doing all sorts of stuff to try and make people laugh and like me. I knew that the next joke had to be bigger and crazier, otherwise that attention would leave me. I also knew that they were all idiots, just like me. But when I had finally overstayed my welcome with them, they kicked me out and berated me like I was beneath them."
*---*
It was a bright summer morning, where the sun's rays shone brightly, targeting every classroom at Berry Town Junior High. The sun's aggression resulted in the day being the hottest one of the calendar year, leaving the children boiling in a pool of their own sweat. Shin, whose hair was still its natural black colour, entered his form room ten minutes before registration began, giving him ample time to hang out with his friends.
"Hey guys!" a young Shin said to his group of friends. "How come none of you responded to my message last night?"
The group of young schoolboys were all absorbed in different activities. A short boy with unsettlingly long sideburns was tapping away at his phone, while two other plain-looking kids with brown hair were arm wrestling across the classroom table. Sitting atop the table behind the other boys was a young child with sharp eyes and thin eyebrows. He had blonde hair, which was quite obviously dyed, and not very effectively at that, as his black roots were visible from far away. He was reluctantly reading the novel he had been tasked to finish by next week by his English teacher, visibly getting frustrated when a word he didn't understand came up.
"Oh yeah," the phone-obsessed boy said at last. "We didn't see it."
Shin knew that was a lie. Everyone had seen the message. No one had answered.
He forced a smile anyway.
"Oh yeah, you're fine. No Worries!" Shin chuckled in response, waving his hand as if he was pardoning them. "It was just a message detailing what our next prank should be. I was thinking we should hang a water balloon over Ms Stevenson's door and pop it right when she walks under. That's definitely a step up from last time where we sprayed Mr Adams with a water gun during registration," he explained with a bright smile.
Silence.
"I guess you guys are busy right now. I'll explain it in more detail at lunch," he murmured.
"Listen, Shin," the blonde boy said as he slammed his book shut and made his way around the table to Shin. "We've kind of had enough with these pranks. They're just not funny anymore."
"Yeah, I agree." Shin replied quickly. "I was getting pretty bored of them too, if I'm being honest. So what do you guys want to do instead? I'm down for bowling on the weekends. Sounds like a lot of fun."
The boy's expression hardened.
"Shin, I don't think you understand," his annoyance beginning to seep into his speech. "Now that the pranks are over, you are over. We had you around so you could do all the dangerous rule-breaking and we could get a laugh. None of us want detentions or suspensions, which is why we had you to take the blame if anything went wrong. We now have no need for you, so please get lost."
"What are you guys talking about? We've been to each other's houses, to parties together. It's not like all we did was make jokes."
"You invited yourself over once, and we felt bad going out knowing you had no other friends—that's it. But now that's all over, and you can move on," one of the boys who had been arm wrestling chimed in.
"Guys, I think you're all being a bit quick with this, ya know? Let's think this through and talk about it at lunch," he said while patting the boy in front of him on the shoulder.
His hand was immediately slapped away as the boy's anger finally erupted.
"How stupid can you be, Shin?! We don't like you! Never have, never will. So get out of our sight. Why are you still here, patronising me? You've always been a shittier version of your brother! What do you honestly have over him? He's got friends for days. He's consistently the top of our class. Teachers love him. Girls love him. He's great at every sport he touches. What do you honestly have? Why do you exist? Everything you do, your brother does ten times better—you inefficient waste of space."
Shin's shoulders dropped in tandem with his head. His gaze drooped down to the floor while his vision began to blur as tears began to build up. The whole class was now staring at him, eagerly awaiting a response.
'What do I say?' he thought. 'What can I say?'
His melancholy thoughts were interrupted as a fist flew in from above his line of sight, smashing into the blonde-haired boy—sending him flying onto the first row of tables. Luckily, the boy was caught by one of his friends.
"Where do you get off talking about my brother like that?!" Taiga shouted.
Shin had been berated in front of the entrance to the classroom, so Taiga, overhearing the hurricane of insults being thrown at his twin from outside, burst into the room and slugged him in the jaw.
"Taiga!" Shin said, his face lighting up at the sight of his brother in front of the classroom door.
"My brother is more amazing than you'll ever be. There's so much stuff he can do that I can't even begin to think about. You idiots only care about these nonsensical, meaningless metrics such as popularity and test scores. If you think scores on pop quizzes determine your intelligence, then you're dumber than I ever could have imagined. Listen to yourselves! Shin is the strongest guy I know—I've never seen anyone even come close to benching as much as he can. Not to mention his athleticism, he can basically jump over buildings. You stand here putting value in the girls at this school fawning over me, but how much of a flex is it if all the girls here are ugly as hell?! I've had enough of this stupidity from all of you. I'm not better than my brother, just as he's not better than me. Sure, we may be better at different things, but all these things add up to making us equal at the end of the day—a concept you bigots would never understand! So all of you can fuck off!"
*---*
"I still remember Mr Adams being behind you the whole time, listening approvingly until you decided to swear your head off," Shin chuckled as his recount came to an end.
"I—I said that?" asked Taiga.