A raindrop for reveetoile!

[stormies]

Title: Wanting your attention
Pairing(s): Nino/Ohno, Nino/Jun, Jun/Toma, slight Sho/Aiba
Genres: Friendship, fluff, mild angst
Rating: G
Summary: Kazu and Jun were fraternal twins in kindergarten, with Oh-chan and Toma as their classmates. Masaki, a worker in an animal shelter, was their older brother who brought them to school and fetched them as well. Sho-sensei was their ever-dedicated homeroom teacher. With Jun being used to Kazu’s attention, what would happen if Kazu turned his attention to someone else?
Warning(s): none
Author's notes: To reveetoile, I hope you enjoy this fic. I have read some kindergarten Arashi fics, but it’s my first time writing one. It was quite a challenge, but it was really fun! I tried to stick with what you indicated in the sign-up as much as I could. The setting was pre-COVID pandemic. I tried to make the dialogues of the kids simple.

To the mods, thank you for making this exchange possible again this year!

-=-

“Kazu, don’t forget your kendama. Sho-sensei asked you to bring your favorite toy for show-and-tell today,” Masaki called out as he was helping their mother prepare the bento for the kids.

“Yes, Masa-nii! Jun-chan will bring his toy dog,” Kazu said as he was eating his half melon pan for breakfast.

“That’s his favorite, right?” their mother said fondly.

Kazu and Jun were fraternal twins in their third month of kindergarten. The site of the school was two blocks away from their home, so it was convenient for their older brother Masaki to accompany them every morning. Masaki was a teenager who had just graduated from high school and was working as an assistant in an animal shelter. Luckily, he had flexible working hours and his boss was understanding of his situation, so he was able to pick the twins up after school as well.

“Good morning, Jun-chan,” Masaki greeted as Jun emerged from their room with bed hair while holding his toy dog. Jun had never been a morning person despite going to bed early every night, which was why he rarely ate breakfast at home and rather stayed in bed as long as possible. Even though Kazu stayed up late at times as he sneakily played games, Jun-chan was always the grumpier one in the mornings.

Kazu wetted his hands with tap water and fixed Jun’s bed hair to make it look more presentable. If it were Masaki or their mother who did it, Jun would have been irritated, but the latter had always harbored a soft spot for Kazu.

“Shall we go? I’ll carry your lunchboxes,” Masaki said as he ushered the two outside.

-=-

They belonged to section Arashi. It was a difficult kanji so the kids only wrote it using hiragana characters. Other sections also had names featuring elements such as wind and fire.

“Good morning, everyone!” Sho-sensei addressed the class once everyone was settled.

“Good morning, Sho-sensei!” the class chorused.

“Everyone, stand up!” Sho-sensei said as he turned the music on. “Let’s begin our radio exercise!”

Each day always started with few minutes of radio exercise. The school administration believed that doing so kept the kids fit and active to face the day ahead. They wanted to start inculcating this routine at an early age.

Kazu, however, had a different reason why he enjoyed this daily routine. His seatmate to the left was another sleepy boy named Ohno Satoshi, whom he fondly called Oh-chan. Every time Kazu outstretched his arms, he would intentionally brush his fingers against Oh-chan’s. Most of the time, the latter didn’t care. There were times though when Oh-chan would distance himself from Kazu, but even so, Kazu would make it a point to hit Oh-chan’s outstretched hand. More than the radio exercise, touching Oh-chan’s hand was his daily routine.

-=-

“Alright, everyone, please bring out your workbooks. We’ll practice writing in hiragana,” Sho-sensei said as he helped the kids in the front row to settle down.

Kazu had always been left-handed but his mother kept telling him that he needed to learn how to write with his right hand since most people used that one. She told him that it would have been difficult for him in the future since the world was made mostly for right-handed people. He ended up practicing how to write with both hands instead. One line of hiragana with the left hand, then another line with the right. They had tables where they could write and not simply armchairs, so it was comfortable whether he wrote using the left hand or the right one.

As Kazu took a little break from writing, he noticed his seatmate Oh-chan picking his nose with his pinkie (of his left hand, thankfully) as he was looking at the posters around the classroom as if it was his first time being there. Instead of being grossed out, Kazu gave a soft chuckle before he threw his eraser at Oh-chan to bring him back to Earth. Jun, who was sitting at Kazu’s right, simply pouted after witnessing the exchange.

-=-

“Alright class, next is our show-and-tell session. Did you bring your favorite toy?” Sho-sensei asked after everyone placed their writing workbooks back in their bags.

“Yes!” everyone chorused.

“Okay, let’s start with Toma-kun,” Sho-sensei said as he ushered Toma to the front of the class.

Toma was known as one of the mischievous ones in the class. He usually had arguments with Jun over the most random things such as a pencil sharpener that wasn’t returned, or a shoe that was stained by Jun’s sauce from the teriyaki that he was eating for lunch. Sho-sensei always kept an eye on those two. Even though he kept their seats far apart, they always managed to stay close to each other and argue. Sho-sensei had a gut feeling that they could be good friends when they grew older, but unfortunately, he was the one who had to deal with the present, constantly bickering pair.

“This is my favorite toy,” Toma began. “It’s a toy hammer that makes a squeaky sound when you hit something.” Toma hit the table of the kid in front to demonstrate the squeaky sound. Sho-sensei noticed that Toma was looking pointedly at Jun while the latter just glared back. The teacher knew that it was time to intervene then.

“Thank you, Toma-kun. Please go back to your seat. Next, Kazu-kun, please come up here and show us your favorite toy.”

Kazu showed them his kendama. Some of the children didn’t seem to recognize the toy so they got curious. Kazu showed all the tricks he knew leaving the class in awe. From time to time he was glancing at Oh-chan to make sure he was watching. Thankfully, the eraser he threw earlier brought Oh-chan back to Earth, and he did remain on Earth. The class clapped after Kazu’s demonstration. He beamed with happiness when Oh-chan joined in the clapping.

“Next is Jun-kun,” Sho-sensei said.

Jun went in front carrying his plush toy resembling a toy poodle.

“This is my toy poodle. His name is Daikichi. It was given to me by Masa-nii. I was bitten before by a dog but Daikichi is always kind to me,” Jun said holding the toy up and showing it to the whole class. Sho-sensei kept glancing at Toma to see if they would start a fight again. After Jun’s presentation, he passed along the aisle to his seat, and Toma hit him on the back with his toy hammer. Irritated, Jun took the toy hammer and threw it to the blackboard causing a loud squeaky sound to resonate around the classroom.

“Alright, that’s enough, Toma-kun, Jun-kun,” Sho-sensei said, picking up the toy hammer and keeping it on the teacher’s table until the class would end.

“Let’s continue with Satoshi-kun,” Sho-sensei said, trying to divert the attention of the class from the earlier commotion.

With this, Kazu perked up, curious about what Oh-chan would share with the class. He didn’t mind much about the little fight between Jun and Toma since he believed that those two secretly liked each other anyway.

Oh-chan was carefully carrying a cardboard box to the front of the class. He opened the lid and subsequently brought out a fishbowl with a goldfish inside. It didn’t exactly fit the description of a toy in Sho-sensei’s opinion but he let it slide.

“What do we have here, Satoshi-kun?” Sho-sensei graciously asked.

“This is my pet fish, Tuna,” Satoshi said tersely then started to pack the fishbowl back to the cardboard box, ready to end his show-and-tell.

“That’s a goldfish, not a tuna,” one of the kids commented.

“I know. But its name is Tuna,” Satoshi said calmly, already walking back to his seat.

Satoshi had a calming presence in the class such that nobody argued back. And for that, Sho-sensei was ever grateful. It was almost as if he had another adult in the room, even though he noticed that said adult picking his nose earlier during their writing practice session.

“Oh-chan, what do you feed your fish?” Kazu asked once Oh-chan was back in his seat. He was more interested with Oh-chan’s fish than the succeeding presentations of their other classmates.

“Fish food,” Oh-chan said bringing out the fishbowl once again out of the cardboard box. He tapped on the glass to play with Tuna.

“Did you bring fish food? Can I feed Tuna?” Kazu asked, moving closer to have a good look at the goldfish.

Satoshi brought out a little plastic packet, and Kazu extended his arm and bent his fingers, catching the fish food in his hand. Kazu dropped bits of fish food at different quadrants of the fish bowl and watched as Tuna swam around. The two were in their own peaceful world as Jun watched them from his seat, pouting.

-=-

“Our next activity is art!” Sho-sensei announced as he asked the students to bring out their art materials. “Today, we’ll draw our family!”

“Oh-chan, do you have siblings?” Kazu asked as he was clinging to Oh-chan, placing his chin on the latter’s left shoulder. Oh-chan just continued with his artwork as if Kazu’s proximity wasn’t bothering him one bit. Kazu did his stick drawing haphazardly just to have more time to cling to Oh-chan and watch his creative process. The class had art sessions at least thrice a week and Kazu, being Oh-chan’s seatmate, knew that the other had an impressive artistic gift.

“I have an older sister,” Oh-chan said.

“I have Jun-chan and Masa-nii,” Kazu said, still digging his chin further against Oh-chan’s left shoulder. Being the nondominant hand, the latter didn’t mind much. Sho-sensei noticed that Kazu was heavily clinging to Satoshi again, but since it was a common occurrence and the latter didn’t seem to mind, he just let it pass. Jun, however, kept on staring at Sho-sensei’s direction as if sending a nonverbal plea to pull those two away from each other.

Before Jun knew it, Toma was already at his side taking a peek at his drawing.

“You’re not very good at this, Jun-jun.” Before Jun could reply, Sho-sensei, always on high alert when it came to those two, called out, “Toma-kun, please return to your seat even if you’re already done with your drawing.” Reluctantly, valuing fairness and equality, Sho-sensei also called out Kazu to get back to his seat even though he knew that Satoshi was the least bothered by it.

“Alright, class, we’ll stick your drawings on the wall, and that would be all for today!” Sho-sensei said as he helped some kids with the tape. “Tomorrow is special because we’ll be having a cooking class!”

“Sensei, are you good at cooking?” one of the students asked.

“Yeah, I’m good at it,” Sho-sensei claimed. He knew that he needed to project an air of authority and superiority even though he was awful at cooking, otherwise the students would make fun of him. Good thing a volunteer teacher would come to help and assist. “No need to bring any ingredients. We’ll take care of it. Just bring your cute little aprons tomorrow, okay?”

“Yes, sensei!” the class chorused, and they were dismissed.

“Oh-chan, can we play online games tonight?” Kazu asked as they were walking towards the exit of the kindergarten where parents or guardians were usually waiting. Jun was trailing behind them, listening to their conversation.

“I don’t know how to.”

“You just need a cellphone.”

“I don’t have one.”

Kazu was not one to be fazed by a minor obstacle. He knew how Oh-chan’s mother looked like since they would always walk towards the exit together after class. As soon as he spotted Oh-chan’s mother, Kazu ran to her even before her son was able to catch up.

“Auntie, do you have a cellphone? Can Oh-chan and I play games online?” Kazu learned of a new game wherein basketballs fall from the top of the screen and you move your head to move the basketball hoop to be able to shoot the ball. The person with the greatest number of balls that got in would become the winner. It was a fairly simple game and he wanted to play with Oh-chan.

“Oh, Kazu, maybe some other time,” Oh-chan’s mother said apologetically while stroking Satoshi’s hair. “We’re scheduled to visit Satoshi’s cousins today.”

“I see,” Kazu replied dejectedly. “Bye, Oh-chan.”

“Bye, Kazu! See you tomorrow.”

“Kazu! Jun!” Masa-nii arrived, still wearing his work uniform from the animal shelter. “I’m sorry I got here a little late. How was your class today?”

“It was okay,” Jun answered softly. Kazu merely nodded in agreement.

Masa-nii noticed the uncharacteristic lack of energy and he knew just what might raise their spirits.

“How about we drop by the nearest family restaurant before going home?” Indeed, the eyes of the two lit up at those words.

-=-

The following morning, the classroom was rearranged, and four tables were placed together for more surface area. The students were also divided into groups of four.

“Good morning, everyone! You will be divided into groups, four persons each group. For today, we’ll make hamburger sandwiches!” Sho-sensei announced.

“It’s my favorite, Oh-chan!” Kazu said excitedly as they fell in line to wash their hands in the sink.

“I like burgers too!” Toma chimed in. “Let me join your group.” Upon hearing this, Jun was irked but didn’t say anything.

“So… that will be Oh-chan, me, Toma-kun and Jun-chan,” Kazu announced. Jun didn’t quite understand why every time there was a group activity, Kazu always included Toma in their group even though Kazu always busied himself with clinging to Oh-chan. It annoyed Jun because it was always him who had to deal with Toma in the end. More often than not, those encounters resulted in memorable events – memorable, but not necessarily good.

When the four boys got back to their table, they found the volunteer teacher, Keiko-sensei, placing the heated burger buns on each of their plates. “Alright boys, the ingredients are here in the middle of the table. It’s up to you what you want to include in your burger sandwich. Are you excited?”

“Yes, sensei!”

“Do you cook, Oh-chan?” Kazu asked as he gathered some sliced tomatoes and lettuce on his plate.

“I help my mother cook curry sometimes,” Oh-chan said as he copied Kazu’s choice of ingredients.

“Hey, I got the mayonnaise first,” Jun scolded Toma who was also getting a spoonful from the mayonnaise Jun got from the ingredients area.

“It’s okay. This is for sharing anyway,” Toma cheerily as he proceeded with the preparations for his sandwich.

Jun glared at Kazu instead, who was the cause of all his misfortunes. If it weren’t for Kazu who agreed to include Toma into their group, he wouldn’t be in that situation now. Jun merely wanted to spend more time with Kazu since the latter was always paying too much attention to Oh-chan. Even at home, Kazu wanted to play online games with Oh-chan even though Jun was just there to play with him.

“When you’re done, we’ll just take a picture of you and your burger, then you can eat it after,” Keiko-sensei told them as she was making rounds from table to table to make sure the kids were doing okay. Jun was following her with his eyes wanting to make eye contact with her to nonverbally complain about Toma’s antics, but they didn’t have verbal telepathy yet like what Jun had with Sho-sensei.

The sound of persistent coughing resounding in the classroom was what jolted Jun awake from his reverie. Looking around, he found that it was from Kazu, who was currently being tended to by Oh-chan, with a glass of water in hand.

“Are you okay, Kazu?” Jun asked worriedly as he massaged his twin’s back.

“Was it too spicy? You didn’t like it?” Oh-chan asked as he took the sandwich back from Kazu’s hands. Looking around, Jun found a small bottle of spicy tabasco that wasn’t there previously. He figured that perhaps Oh-chan brought it since the latter knew that they had cooking class and he loved spicy food. Jun knew that Kazu had low tolerance for spicy food though. Before Jun was able to tell off Oh-chan, Kazu interjected. “It tasted good though, Oh-chan. Maybe my throat just wasn’t prepared.”

“Oh. Want to give it a try again?” Oh-chan asked eagerly.

“Sure,” Kazu said awkwardly but only taking a small bite this time.

Jun stared at Kazu. He knew that his twin just didn’t want to hurt Oh-chan’s feelings.

“Oh-chan, you can have the rest since you took the trouble of preparing it. You can also have a taste of Kazu’s burger sandwich,” Jun offered as he refilled Kazu’s glass with cold water. He also gave to Kazu the small pack of milk that he brought to school. They learned from Masa-nii that milk was better than water in removing the spiciness. With this Kazu beamed at Jun, “Thanks, Jun-chan.”

-

“Did you enjoy making your burger sandwich?” Sho-sensei addressed the whole class.

“Yes, sensei!” Everyone chorused. After the burger ingredients were cleared out, Keiko-sensei was distributing a new set of ingredients.

“Next, we’ll make tuna sandwich bento,” Sho-sensei announced. “We already placed the canned tunas in bowls. Please, be careful not to touch the cans on the sink or else you might hurt your fingers, okay?”

The slice of bread was divided into four. The idea was to make small bite-size sandwiches with mayonnaise, tuna and lettuce, with a toothpick holding them together. They were supposed to eat the bento sandwiches they prepared after two classes which were reading and writing.

Kazu, who inadvertently got involved in Oh-chan’s spicy adventures, stopped clinging to Oh-chan in the meantime and just focused on the task at hand. He still had mild pain in his chest from all the coughing he did earlier. Because of this, Kazu didn’t notice where Oh-chan wandered off to. The latter was eventually at the sink – exactly where Sho-sensei warned them earlier.

Before he knew it, Kazu suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder and a bleeding finger was being presented in front of his face.

“What happened, Oh-chan?!” Kazu worriedly asked, holding Oh-chan’s wrist to examine the injury. It was still bleeding, but not briskly at least.

“I got curious about the cans where the tunas came from, so I touched it,” Oh-chan said with a shrug.

Kazu raised his hand straight up, “Sho-sensei! Oh-chan is bleeding!”

Sho-sensei approached them right away in panic, while Kazu was scouring for something in his backpack.

“I brought bandage, Sho-sensei,” Kazu said as he brought out his yellow emergency pack. “Masa-nii always hurts himself so he makes sure we always have bandages in our bags.”

Kazu helped Oh-chan clean the wound with running water and soap, and placed the bandage on Oh-chan’s finger himself as Sho-sensei supervised them. Kazu graciously helped in preparing Oh-chan’s tuna sandwich bento so the latter could rest his finger.

“Good job earlier, Kazu-kun,” Sho-sensei called out to him before he was able to exit the classroom, to which Kazu beamed back.

Masa-nii was on time that day to pick the twins up. Upon seeing him, Kazu ran towards Masa-nii to inform him of the events of the day. “Masa-nii, Oh-chan hurt himself so I used one of the bandages that you kept in my bag.”

“Really? Where did he hurt himself?” Masa-nii asked as he held the hand of each twin – Kazu to his right and Jun to his left. Kazu showed Masa-nii the pointer finger of his right hand.

“What design did you choose?”

“Light blue with yellow stars. Oh-chan liked it. Let’s buy more, Masa-nii! Oh-chan gets injured a lot. It may happen again. We can give it as a gift,” Kazu said before he skipped the puddle that was on their path.

“No, Kazu. Only when it’s needed. Kazu can place the bandage on him like I taught you.” At this, Kazu’s eyes lit up. Meanwhile, Masa-nii was acutely aware that Jun was being too quiet. Before Masa-nii could closely observe Jun, Kazu had another idea.

“Masa-nii, Oh-chan likes fishes. Let’s show him the animals you take care of,” Kazu proposed excitedly.

“There are no fishes in there, Kazu,” Masa-nii said gently as he gave a short pat on Kazu’s head. “But maybe we can take him to an aquarium,” Masa-nii offered. He noticed that Jun perked up upon hearing that, but not as energetic as how he previously was.

“How about you, Jun? How was school today?”

Instead of Jun, it was Kazu who answered. “Jun-chan enjoyed making sandwiches with his best friend Toma-kun.”

“He’s not my best friend!” Jun vehemently denied. “We don’t even get along well.”

-=-

After they got home, Masa-nii went back to work but not without promising them that he would cook curry for dinner. “Oh-chan likes curry too! He cooks with his mother,” Kazu commented before setting up their tablet to play his usual games.

After Masa-nii came home that afternoon, Jun was in an even darker mood than when they came home from school. Masa-nii placed the grocery bag on the counter and brought out the ingredients. Jun wordlessly helped in peeling the potatoes and carrots.

“Aren’t you going to play before dinner, Jun-chan?” Masa-nii asked as he carefully watched Jun’s facial expression.

“Kazu is playing shoot-the-ball with Oh-chan.” There was an increase in the force of how Jun was peeling the vegetables, as if channeling his energy on the task at hand would make him feel refreshed.

Jun was practically sulking because Kazu was not paying attention to him anymore. Even at home, Kazu wasn’t playing with him anymore. It was always Oh-chan here, Oh-chan there. In Jun’s point of view, it was as if his existence was already forgotten by Kazu. It was like Kazu’s memories of them always sticking together was wiped out entirely.

They learned nursery rhymes together, with Kazu pretending to be the lead guitarist of a rock band while Jun was hitting the chime in their house with a long stick at the end of each line of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

They had fun playing jumping rope – one end tied against the back of the chair as they took turns in who will hold the other end to make loops so the other could jump in.

Just a few months ago, they studied a magic video on TikTok for a week, and performed the magic to Masa-nii who was so impressed with them.

They used to have lots of fun together, Jun thought. He missed his Kazu.

-=-

For their art session the following week, the project was design-your-own-shirt. Each of the students was given a plain white kids-size T-shirt. Like the cooking session, they were back to their old groupings of four. There was cloth paint of different colors laid out at the center of the table, with brushes of various sizes that they could use.

Oh-chan started to get to work after Sho-sensei gave his instructions. After he came home the day he got injured, he had a daily reminder from his mother to always follow the teacher’s instructions.

“What are you drawing, Oh-chan?” Kazu asked, apparently amazed that Oh-chan was able to quickly think of what to draw, as if they were told beforehand to prepare even though they weren’t.

“Son Goku,” Oh-chan replied tersely as he was starting to draw the outline.

“Oh, I didn’t know you liked Dragon Ball. I wonder what I should draw,” Kazu said, not even starting with his artwork, but rather just watching Oh-chan draw to get some sort of inspiration from the latter. “Oh, it’s raining,” Kazu said, his line of sight facing the window.

“How about you paint a rainbow?” Oh-chan suggested without lifting his eyes from his painting.

“Ohh, that’s a great idea!” Kazu said. He inspected the colors and noted that all the colors he needed were present. He eventually got too engrossed with the project that he didn’t notice his twin sneezing on the other side of the table.

“Wear this,” Toma said, giving his jacket to Jun. “You seem cold.”

Normally, Jun would ignore Toma or even get irritated by him, but he was really feeling cold at that moment, and thanked Toma instead. He wanted to ask Sho-sensei to turn up the temperature of the air-conditioning but he didn’t want to seem too demanding. He just drew comfort from the warmth of Toma’s jacket, and hoped that focusing on the art project would make him forget his discomfort.

“What will you draw?” Jun asked Toma, trying to strike a conversation as a form of gratitude for the latter’s kind gesture.

“A camera,” Toma replied. “I like taking pictures.”

“Of what?”

“Mostly of people. And animals.”

“My brother works in an animal shelter,” Jun shared as he watched Toma draw the general outline of his artwork.

“Really? That’s cool!”

“Maybe we can visit Masa-nii’s workplace sometime,” Jun offered as he began to get to work as well. He decided to paint a baseball glove and ball. Sharing a story about Masa-nii made Jun remember that he used to play catch with his siblings in the playground near their home.

“That would be great,” Toma replied excitedly. Jun didn’t expect that he would suddenly get along well with him. Maybe it was the feeling of being ignored by Kazu that caused him to look for companionship elsewhere. Jun remembered that Kazu referred to him and Toma as best friends. Maybe Kazu recognized that they could be good friends if they just stopped fighting all the time. The sneezing came in bouts, and it was a good thing that it didn’t interfere much with Jun’s masterpiece creation.

For the final touch, Jun wanted a handprint on the back of his shirt so he asked Kazu to add one for him.

“What color do you want?” Kazu asked as he paused from his artwork and carefully placed the paint brush he was using earlier on its designated area.

“Whatever you like. You can use rainbow colors similar to your shirt,” Jun offered eagerly. Kazu chose to use his left hand since being left-handed, he felt that it represented him more. He added red, orange, yellow, green, blue on his fingers starting from the thumb to the pinky finger, then violet on his entire left palm. Kazu placed his handprint exactly where Jun wanted it – on the left upper back of the shirt – looking as if a hand of someone was pushing his back.

“That looks great! Thanks, Kazu!” Jun said before going back to his area. Feeling that Kazu’s style had a good effect, he did the same color pattern on his right hand, and placed his handprint on the right upper back.

“That looks great, Jun-kun!” Toma praised him and Jun felt elated.

Having some pigment left on his hand and feeling that washing it off was such a waste, Jun surprised Kazu by suddenly placing his handprint on the front of Kazu’s shirt near the rainbow’s end. Kazu was indeed surprised, but not in the way Jun intended. Being with Kazu since they were young, Jun could recognize some of Kazu’s emotions based on his facial expressions. At that moment, Kazu’s eyebrows were crumpled together, lips bitten as if in an effort to control himself from saying something really mean. Jun heard a slow deep sigh; he could almost feel Kazu’s chest heaving like an ocean wave he saw on TV.

Just as Jun was about to apologize, he was hit with an oncoming urge to sneeze. He turned his head to his shoulder to muffle the sound instead. Kazu wordlessly got back to work and Jun felt like he missed the timing to apologize to his twin.

After Jun washed off the paint from his hand and got back to his work area, Toma said, “I asked Sho-sensei to turn up the temperature since you feel cold.”

Jun almost wanted to hug Toma tightly. Toma was the best thing that happened that day, Jun thought.

He couldn’t even feel happy nor proud of his artwork even though many of his classmates praised it. He had a lingering feeling of guilt and regret for what he did to Kazu’s shirt. It didn’t help that he wasn’t comfortable with the cold and his episodic sneezing.

It was raining during their dismissal time from school. Jun was about to remove the jacket to return it to Toma but the latter refused. “Just return it some other time. It’s still raining outside. You might still get cold.”

“How about you?”

“My uncle will pick me up today. He brought his car.”

“Oh, thank you then. You’re too kind today. It’s weird.”

Toma laughed at Jun’s comment. “I just wanted to be friends with you.”

“Really?”

“Really. See you tomorrow, Jun-kun,” Toma said before waving goodbye.

Masa-nii was at the waiting area carrying one large umbrella and two small ones.

“Things are a little busy at the animal shelter today so I’ll take you both straight home, then go back to work quickly, okay?” Masa-nii said as he handed the yellow umbrella to Kazu and the purple one to Jun.

“Where did you get that jacket, Jun?” Masa-nii noticed the neon orange jacket that Jun was sporting then.

“It’s Toma-kun’s jacket,” Jun kept his answer short, not wanting the attention to be focused on him.

“Oh, your best friend,” Masa-nii said as he wrapped his arms around Jun while they were walking. The older brother knew that Jun had a tendency to easily get cold. Jun merely shrugged then nodded in reply.

As soon as they got home, Masa-nii turned on the warmer and got Jun into a new set of clothes. “I’ll make hot soup for you later after work, Jun-chan. Now, get some rest, okay?”

When Kazu checked up on Jun, he found his twin sleeping with the blanket on. He wanted to make Jun eat some soup but they were not yet allowed to operate the microwave. He just left a bottle of room temperature water on Jun’s bedside table in case he felt thirsty when he woke up. Kazu diligently did his homework while waiting for their mother or Masa-nii to come back home to have an adult in the house to take care of Jun. After finishing his homework, he opted for a simple game such as Super Mario Brothers but he kept on falling into pits causing the words “Game Over” to flash on the screen.

-=-

“Okaa-chan, I’m not feeling well,” Jun said the following morning. He still looked weak and lethargic after an overnight rest. His mother made him eat a bowl of porridge but he was only able to take in half of it.

“He might have a virus. I took a break from work today. I’ll take care of him,” their mother said as she saw them off.

“I'll take you to school, Kazu. Jun-chan will stay here,” Masa-nii said, carrying the bento for Kazu.

“I’ll take care of Jun-chan too. I have bandages!” Kazu said as he tried to bring out the first-aid pouch from his bag.

Instead of telling him that it would be useless, their mother indulged Kazu’s thoughtfulness. “Which design would be good for Jun-chan?”

“I think the purple with yellow stars is good,” Kazu said handing all the bandages with that design to his mother.

“I’ll make sure to give it to him when he wakes up,” their mother said as she patted Kazu’s head.

“Can I play with him when I get home?”

“I’m sorry, Kazu. You can’t stay close to him because you might get the virus too,” their mother said patiently, squatting to be at almost the same height as Kazu to see him eye to eye.

Kazu gave a soft sigh of surrender before he bade his mother goodbye.

-

“Oh-chan, did you get a virus before?” Kazu asked. They were back to their usual seating arrangements since the group activities were done. The absence at his right-hand side was acutely felt by Kazu.

“No. Why?” Oh-chan asked, but Kazu just sighed in reply. It was only then that Oh-chan took a good look at his surroundings and found that Jun was indeed absent that day, which was a first ever since school started.

“Did Jun-kun get the virus?” Kazu gave a short nod in reply.

“Oh-chan, I can’t play with you tonight. I need to take care of Jun-chan,” Kazu said with a sense of responsibility, sounding like a soldier about to go to battle.

“Can you draw a dog Oh-chan?”

“A dog?”

“Jun-chan likes dogs, but dogs don’t like him. If I draw, he may not be able to recognize that it’s a dog,” Kazu pouted.

“I can draw it. But I think he’ll like it if you draw him one too,” Oh-chan said.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

They got to work as they ate their bentos during their break. Absorbed with what they were doing, they didn’t notice that there was someone at their back peeping at their works.

“Satoshi-kun, you’re really good at drawing! That’s a cute pug!” They were startled upon hearing Toma’s loud voice behind them. “But Kazu-kun, what is that supposed to be?”

“It’s Hachiko! How can you not recognize it?” Kazu pouted. “Ah, Toma-kun, thank you for giving your jacket to Jun-chan yesterday. He can’t come to school today since he’s sick.”

“Oh, I hope he gets well soon,” Toma said, feeling lonely that his seatmate was absent.

“You can sit beside me if you’re lonely over there,” Kazu offered.

“Oh, that’s great,” Toma said, moving to Jun’s seat without asking for permission from Sho-sensei.

“I’ll return the jacket to you tomorrow,” Kazu said.

“It’s okay.”

-=-

“Masa-nii, can you give this to Jun-chan?” Kazu said as he handed the two drawings to his older brother. “So he has a dog to keep him company.”

“Don’t worry, Kazu. I’ll make sure he gets these. I’m sure he’ll feel better if he has dogs to keep him company,” Masaki said as he carried the tray of food to Jun’s room.

“He likes dogs but he gets achoo when a dog is near,” Kazu added. “Oh! Can we play shoot-the-ball, Masa-nii?”

“Kazu, we only have one cellphone in this house,” Masa-nii replied gently.

“Okaa-chan has one! I just heard her arrive,” Kazu insisted.

“Oh, alright. Just for a few minutes. Jun-chan needs to rest, okay?”

Kazu was not allowed to enter Jun’s room as precaution. Masa-nii made it a habit to wear face mask before entering Jun’s room to be safe. He arranged it such that Jun had his phone while Kazu had their mother’s phone. The video messaging app was already turned on and connected when he gave the twins their respective phones.

They quietly played shoot-the-ball for a few minutes. Jun didn’t say anything while Kazu was staring at him the entire time. Even though they hadn’t seen each other for just one day, Kazu already missed him. It didn’t help that the last time they were together he was angry at him. It didn’t help that at that time he knew that Jun was feeling cold and feeling bad for what he did to Kazu’s shirt, yet he didn’t do anything to appease Jun. Kazu felt a mixture of guilt and longing; he just really wanted to hug his Jun-chan.

“Are you feeling okay, Jun-chan?” Kazu asked.

Jun merely nodded in response.

“You don’t need to act strong, Jun-chan. If it hurts somewhere, just tell us. We’re here for you,” Kazu said with conviction. “And… I’m sorry for yesterday.”

“No, I should be the one to apologize for—” Jun started but Kazu cut him off.

“No! I knew you were feeling bad but I didn’t do anything,” Kazu said sadly.

“I miss you, Kazu,” Jun confessed his honest feelings once and for all. “You’re always with Oh-chan. I miss you. I’m sorry. I know it’s wrong to make you stay with me all the time,” Jun said, already in the brink of tears.

“Oh, Jun-chan...” Kazu said, refraining himself from saying sorry. Somehow, he felt that apologizing would only make Jun feel worse. “Oh! I haven’t shown you my latest kendama trick!” Kazu said, trying to steer the conversation away from sad territories. It was always Jun who first saw his kendama tricks, and the latter would always clap in amazement at Kazu’s skill.

Kazu placed the cellphone leaning against his pile of books and notebooks to serve as a makeshift stand. He got his kendama from his toy rack and stood at the center of the room for more space. He angled the cellphone so he was at the center of the screen.

“This is called “airplane”. It’s hard. I got hit many times during practice,” Kazu said. He held the ball of the kendama and let the handle part dangle. With the flick of his wrist, he made the wooden handle part go up and the pointed tip to shoot in the hole on the ball part. Kazu widely grinned and made a grand gesture of showing Jun his success. Jun clapped excitedly, albeit less energetic than how he usually was.

“That’s amazing, Kazu!”

“I’ll teach you once you get better,” Kazu said reassuringly. As if on cue, Masa-nii entered Jun’s room to make him rest.

“Good night, Jun-chan.”

“Good night, Kazu.”

The following day, Jun felt as good as new after sleeping for ten hours straight.

-=-

It was their summer vacation when Oh-chan invited Kazu to go bug-hunting. It was such a rare opportunity that an invitation came from Oh-chan, so Kazu agreed immediately despite hating bugs. Or was he frightened of them? He wasn’t really sure of his feelings towards the creepy creatures.

Oh-chan, on the other hand, seemed to love them. His favorites were stag beetles and rhinoceros beetles. He had drawings of those in his sketchpad.

They went to the garden beside the amusement park – the same place where Oh-chan was able to catch some bugs the year before. Oh-chan’s mother left her son to Masa-nii’s care. They set up their picnic mat on an area near a large tree for shade. It was a good thing it was not raining that day, with just the right amount of wind.

“Let’s go, Kazu!” Oh-chan said, his outdoor insect net in one hand, and a little insect cage on the other hand. He brought two more nets for Kazu and Jun, but the latter declined.

“You go ahead. Masa-nii and I will play catch,” Jun said, bidding them goodbye. Jun came to terms that he could not monopolize Kazu’s attention and affection even though they were twins. Besides, being away from Kazu also caused him to get to know other people more.

Jun wasn’t fond of insects in the first place. He just wanted to spend time with his brothers. Jun knew that Kazu hated bugs as well, yet his twin decided to come to spend more time with Oh-chan. He was looking forward to the terrorized look on Kazu’s face when the two would return.

With their little backpacks in tow, Kazu and Oh-chan set off.

“It’s been a while since we played catch, Jun-chan,” Masa-nii said while doing some stretching.

“Let’s go!” Jun said as he secured his baseball glove to his left hand.

-

“Just look at the body of the trees, Kazu. Rhinoceros beetles usually stay there,” Oh-chan said as he was methodically looking at each tree trunk from top to bottom, going through the whole circumference of each one.

Kazu’s plan was to just look from afar and call out to Oh-chan if ever he found one.

“Ah, look! I found one stag beetle!” Oh-chan said as he picked up the beetle with his bare hands and placed it in the cage. He lifted the cage at eye level to show it to Kazu.

“It’s cute, ne?” Oh-chan said, turning the cage left to right to observe the beetle more closely.

“Yeah...” Kazu replied noncommittally.

They continued their search, moving from tree to tree.

“Ah, I found a bug, Oh-chan!” Kazu said pointing at what he found.

“That’s a ladybug, Kazu,” Oh-chan said patiently.

“You don’t collect ladybugs?”

“They are small. The cage has large holes. They will just fly away,” Oh-chan said as he showed the cage to Kazu again to demonstrate his point.

“Oh. You’re right,” Kazu said dejectedly.

“It’s okay. I’m sure there are more beetles out there,” Oh-chan said in encouragement before he went back to the tree he was inspecting earlier.

“Oh-chan! I found another one! It’s larger and black!” Kazu exclaimed.

“You get it and place it in the cage! I also found another stag beetle here,” Oh-chan said as he caught another one.

Meanwhile, Kazu didn’t know what to do. If he waited for Oh-chan, the beetle might escape. However, he didn’t have enough confidence and bravery to touch the beetle. Besides, he might just startle it and let it escape even more.

“Did you catch it?” Oh-chan asked as he approached Kazu.

“Not yet. It almost escaped,” Kazu lied. The beetle didn’t even move an inch.

“It’s a rhinoceros beetle, Kazu! Well done!” Oh-chan said as he caught the beetle with his right hand.

Oh-chan caught Kazu’s left hand with his own left hand and positioned it palm up. As Oh-chan was about to place the beetle on Kazu’s palm, Kazu withdrew his hand with all the strength he had, leaving Oh-chan in shock.

 “Yuck!” Kazu said, almost in tears out of fear and disgust.

“I thought you like bugs that’s why you joined me,” Oh-chan said, innocently confused.

With his cover blown, Kazu was afraid to look at Oh-chan, and played with his fingers instead. At first, he was okay just looking at the creepy creatures. But then Oh-chan made him hold it, and that was his limit. He heaved a deep sigh before answering softly, “I just wanted to spend time with you.”

“Oh, okay then. Just look for the bugs and I’ll be the one to catch them,” Oh-chan said kindly as he led the way to the next tree after placing the rhinoceros beetle safely inside the cage. Kazu was extremely relieved and thankful that Oh-chan didn’t make a big fuss out of his lie. With his pent-up stress released, Kazu suddenly charged towards Oh-chan and gave him a huge hug from behind.

While swaying Oh-chan from side to side inside his bearhug, Kazu found another rhinoceros beetle on the trunk of another tree to their right-hand side. “There, Oh-chan! Another one!” Kazu said pointing at it. He released Oh-chan from his hold so the latter could catch another one of his beloved beetles.

Kazu moved further along their trail to inspect the trees on the left-hand side while Oh-chan stayed on the right.

As Oh-chan was busy looking at his caged beetles, he tripped on a protruding branch of a tree and stumbled forward.

“Oh-chan!” Kazu turned around after hearing a loud thud. He found Oh-chan’s right knee bleeding.

“Oh no! I have bandage in my bag,” Kazu said, about to bring out the contents of his backpack.

“But we need to clean it first,” Oh-chan said.

“You really get injured a lot, Oh-chan,” Kazu commented as he helped Oh-chan back on his feet.

“I do. So I know how to clean my wounds.”

Kazu merely chuckled in reply. They slowly walked back to the picnic mat, careful not to cause any more pain to Oh-chan.

When they reached the area of the picnic mat where Masa-nii and Jun were, Jun was only slightly disappointed that Kazu didn’t have a terrified expression on his face. Instead, Jun-chan ran to them to help support Oh-chan on the other side as Masa-nii tended to Oh-chan’s wound.

-=-

“Let’s have a contest, Oh-chan and me, versus Jun-chan and Toma-kun. The team with the most fishes win,” Kazu proposed.

“You really team up with the fish-lover, huh?” Jun commented.

“What’s the prize?” Toma asked.

“McDonald’s burger with twister fries and soda! Masa-nii’s treat!” Kazu volunteered.

Masa-nii was only mildly surprised that he got dragged into the little kids’ negotiations since he was already used to Kazu’s antics. He was just glad that they were all able to get along well in the end. Before classes ended, the four made plans to go to the summer festival together, with Masa-nii as their guardian. The goldfish scooping booth was the first one that caught their attention.

“The losers will only get water, and can only watch as the winners eat and finish their meals,” Masa-nii proposed evilly.

“Bring it on!” the kids chorused.

As the kids were busy, Masaki saw someone familiar a few meters away. “Sho-sensei!” he called out as he waved to get the teacher’s attention.

“Oh, Masaki-san! You’re here,” Sho said as he jogged to where Masaki was at.

“Are you alone?” Masaki asked.

“Yes, I was curious about the summer festival attractions in the neighborhood. I come every year so I can know what to talk about to the kids once they get back to school.” Sho-sensei said. Masaki was impressed with Sho-sensei’s dedication to his job. Even during vacation, he was still thinking about the students. “How about you?”

“I was accompanying the kids,” Masaki said as he pointed at the kids who were absorbed in the little contest they came up with.

“Oh, I didn’t notice!” Sho-sensei exclaimed. Masaki giggled at Sho-sensei’s slightly exaggerated reaction.

“I’m so relieved that they are finally getting along well. Gone are the days when I was always on alert-mode in case Jun-kun or Toma-kun would break into a fight. Even if I place their seats far apart, they seem to gravitate towards each other,” Sho-sensei said as he lovingly watched the kids playing together.

“Yeah, Jun-chan even invited Toma-kun to the animal shelter I work at since he discovered that Toma-kun likes taking pictures of animals,” Masaki said.

“Oh, you work in an animal shelter? I was just thinking of buying a puppy,” Sho-sensei said.

“Really? Come visit our animal shelter then,” Masaki invited as he gave a calling card with the address to Sho-sensei. “You may find a puppy that you can adopt.”

“Great!”

“Ah! Sho-sensei!” the kids chorused as if in class when their contest was over. The teacher replied with a big wave and an even bigger smile.

“So, who won?” Masa-nii eagerly asked.

“We won!” Jun and Toma cheered merrily, arms around each other as if the earlier months of the school year when they were almost ready to break each other’s neck didn’t happen.

“The fish-lover lost!” Jun teased.

“What happened?” Masa-nii asked.

“He felt bad for the fishes and freed them after catching them,” Kazu said snappily, evidently annoyed.

“They were begging me to free them,” Oh-chan said, pouting as he kept on looking down, avoiding their gaze.

“Oh, you can talk to fishes now?” Kazu said, with his arms crossed in front of his chest. One second, he was annoyed; the next second, he was eyeing Sho-sensei with mildly concealed mischievous interest.

“Sho-sensei, join us at McDonald’s for lunch!” Kazu proposed.

Masa-nii snorted upon hearing Kazu’s invitation. Knowing Kazu, he knew that the cute little monster could somehow coerce Sho-sensei into buying lunch for them even if they lost.

Masa-nii saw that Kazu and Oh-chan shared a meaningful glance after Sho-sensei agreed to join them. It almost made him wonder if the act earlier was only for show.

“Let’s go!” the kids said excitedly.