06 | R

MEIJI OSAIMAI PRIDED himself on many things. Growing up, he had been raised by parents who were patient and understanding and because of that, it was in his nature to be the calmest among his easily volatile friends in situations of calamity.

He was the one who was always the problem solver and the arbitrator between others. It was what he was good at.

However, as he sat on the benches of the field nearby, for once even he was at a loss.

His best friends refused to talk to each other or even acknowledge each other's presence, save for the few moments on the court but even that was only because they had to.

It had all occurred as a falling domino effect of Serena's death.

Meiji closed his eyes, feeling an onslaught of memories washing through him. Unlike countless others, Meiji had the decency to admit that he had bullied Serena, not severely but he had through name-callings and a few pranks here and there. Nonetheless bullying was bullying and he wouldn't sugarcoat his own actions.

As he grew older though, he stopped, realising that his actions were wrong.

But although he stopped—but that didn't mean everyone else did. And to an extent, he was at fault still. He had been a spectator, he watched as she continued to get bullied. He never stood up for her. It was a regret that would live with him for as long as he was alive.

For Keith, it was a different story. Soon after the arrival of Vanessa Tan in their freshmen year, Keith seemed to quickly realise the error of his ways. Whether it was because he had a crush on the new girl or because he genuinely wanted to stop, Meiji wasn't sure but all he was sure of was that that year, Keith changed.

He thought he had been discreet when helping Serena during the aftermath of their pranks or by calming her down in the hallways when she was having panic attacks but Meiji saw it all. He merely never told Seth.

At that time, he had justified it by telling himself it was because he didn't want Seth to get angry with one of their best-friends but the truth was, he felt pity for Serena. Serena hadn't wronged him in any way shape or form, always greeting him with a carefree smile and never once getting mad at him for his malicious pranks. She had always tolerated him, smiled or waved him off whenever he did it.

He never understood how she could have been so strong, so forgiving, especially in instances when Seth was the aggressor in place of him. His pranks could only scratch the surface of what Seth did to her. Seth Naifeh always seemed to be hell-bent on destroying Serena.

It was especially bad at the beginning of the accident, back when he was still hurting and the wounds were fresh. He spat out vicious comments vehemently, not caring who it hurt or who it was directed at. His anger peaked at an all time high, to a time where he seemed to have forgotten that Serena was once his best-friend.

Meiji Osaimai had never clearly understood why Seth had bullied Serena to the extent that he did. He had only met Seth after the accident happened. All he knew was that the accident had killed someone close to the both of them, it had occurred when they were both thirteen and it was shortly before Meiji came in as a freshmen at fourteen years old to Oaksville.

Although there were, of course, rumours surrounding the incident, he had never heard the story directly from either of the two involved. The matter too personal and painful for either party to reflect upon.

"Aw Meiji, you look down, what's up?" came the voice of Jake Bulliard as he waltzed up to Meiji, disrupting Meiji from his train of thought.

"Fuck off Jake." Meiji said, annoyance lacing his tone as he shrugged Jake's heavy arm off his shoulder.

His actions that day when he barraged into the locker room only heightened the dislike Meiji felt for him. The sole reason Meiji even bothered to interact with him was because he was a decent basketball player, but even on the court he was too cocky for his own good. Their team had sacrificed a few games resulting of his selfishness and insistence to make the 'winning' score.

Off the court though, he kept their interactions as limited as possible.

And he had good reason for that, too. Jake was a douche bag in every possible way, he was a misogynistic, racist and sexist ass who cared for no one else but himself. He was stretching himself thin with all of the members on the basketball team, especially with his disobedience.

The current disobedience had sprouted from a few months earlier when Seth had given a clear command to stop their harassment to Serena prior to her death. Some listened, some didn't. Some in the latter category being Jake.

Meiji didn't know what game Jake was playing at but he knew for a fact that Seth wouldn't take someone disobeying him lightly.

"Is it little old dead Serena?" he mocked, "Tearing your friendship apart—"

"Don't you have anything better to do?" interrupted Meiji, finally looking up at Jake.

Everyone knew that you should never cross Seth Naifeh.

"Tragic really," he continued ignoring Meiji's interruption, "Serena died before I could even have sex with her."

Meiji narrowed his eyes, "Excuse me?"

Jake smirked, knowing he had caught Meiji's attention. "I mean yeah, she was such a prude with her martyr act of 'saving it for marriage' but with a little convincing, I'm sure she would've loved a piece of," he gestured towards himself "this."

"And if she still refused?" Meiji questioned, daring a response from Jake. Jake held a careless smile on his face as he replied leisurely without hesitation,

"No worries there, a drink or two should've loosened her up. Plus, the drinks I would've given her would've made her sleep through the entire ordeal— even better if you ask me."

Meiji didn't know what repulsed him more, how leisurely Jake had said that or the fact that he had seemed to have it all planned out. He had implied that he would drug her drinks, take an unwilling person to bed, fucking r*pe her—he was sicker than Meiji had initially believed he was capable of.

There was truly no extent of that fucker.

Meiji could only see red as he stood up from the bench angrily, readying himself to throw a punch. Jake's smirk deepened, it seemed that this was what he'd been looking for Meiji for ; the opportunity to snap and possibly kick him off the team, playing off his injury as an attack.

That didn't deter Meiji, the bench time would be worth it. No one mentioned doing deeds like that and got away with it, let alone someone who had said it in such a casual tone.

The sound of skin-to-skin contact as a punch was thrown echoed throughout the large field only —

He hadn't been the one to throw the punch.

Jake cursed loudly, spitting blood onto the concrete pavement. Meiji remained silent fist still clenched.

"What's your problem man?!" he glared at the stranger, clutching his jaw.

Meiji admired the blood splattered on the floor as the stranger chuckled darkly,

"My problem? My problem is you claiming to enjoy r*ping people, even more so with a person buried 6 feet under. At least have some respect, Jake."

"Bro, what the fuck?! I thought out of all people, you were affirmative in hating Serena."

The stranger scoffed, "There's a difference between hating someone and aspiring to perform actions that are downright disgusting and immoral. Just because I didn't like her and had my share of immoral actions towards her, doesn't mean I would like to r*pe her. At the very least, I have more decency than that.

Separate your hormones from your feelings, Bulliard. Don't let me catch you saying shit like that again."

Jake mumbled curses as he turned and walked off the field, his entourage of loyal friends who had been waiting from afar for a fight, following after him.

Meiji scoffed in disgust, at least that was one person gone. Turning back to the stranger, Meiji spoke curiously, "I thought you'd left."

The stranger pulled back his hoodie, revealing a solemn-faced Seth.

Meiji doubted the punch had injured Seth much, if at all. Seth was deadly strong, which was expected given he was one of the most athletic people on campus. Besides being a basketball player, he had also participated in several boxing and underground tournaments in his spare time. Without a doubt, if he had wanted to, he could've easily knocked Jake out cold.

"Yeah, well, I was going to. Then I realised you were still out here, came to check on you." he said gruffly.

"Good thing I did too. You looked like you were about to lose it on Bulliard."

Meiji breathed out a sigh as he turned from his friend to face the setting sun in the looming distance, "I was going to. Can't believe that Jake could even think of doing something like that."

Seth shrugged, "He's a dumbass. Nothing that we can do to change that."

"He's more than a dumbass, he's a whole future sexual assaulter in the making if someone doesn't smack some shit into him."

"Let's hope then, that the memory of his broken jaw will stay with him for a while."

Seth sat down on the bench next to Meiji, "Look bro, I know you're upset about Keith and I but some things are not worth twisting your mind over. Keith made his choice."

"But are we really just going to throw away our friendship just like that?"

"What are friendships even worth if he can't even bother asking me the truth but take the side of her immediately? Think I didn't know he helped her when I specifically told him not to? He went behind my back, broke the bro-code and yet, I still didn't call him out on it."

Meiji's jaw unhinged itself — Seth knew. He had known all along. At his astonished expression, Seth chuckled darkly.

"Yeah, I knew alright. The only reason I didn't interfere was because I knew she needed help far beyond what she could do herself."

"Then why even do it?" Meiji asked the unspoken question, "Why bully a girl you cared for?"

Seth stood up abruptly at his question.

"Some things are better left unsaid. Don't expect us to mend our friendship. It's all in ashes now." he replied curtly as he began to walk off. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Meiji sighed and clasped his hands together. As always, riddles.

As he laid his hands back on the bench, his fingertips touched an oddly smooth surface. Curious, he ducked under the bench to see what it was.

Under the bench, was a carefully placed letter. He scoffed. Was this a new trend of leaving love letters to your significant other?

As he extracted the letter from the underside of the bench, he realised with a startle that the letter was addressed to him.

Fumbling with the sealed opening, he eventually was able to open the letter and began reading its contents

***

DEAR MEIJI,

You remind me a lot of the Japanese biscuit, you know, the meiji biscuit— did you get my pun?

If you've gotten this letter, it means that I'm dead. No, I'm not going to arise from the dead like they do in the movies, jump out and say "Boo!" because let's be real, reincarnation is cool but crazily scary.

I know you're probably in disbelief to receive a letter let alone the fact that the destination of the letter was under the school bench which is disgusting because highschoolers put their gum and other miscellaneous belongings under there but I knew that, despite all that vomit-inducing knowledge, that this bench was your comfort zone.

It was where you went whenever you needed to think. I guess if you truly found it under the bench, that my delivery man really did go to extraordinary lengths for this. Go figure.

Call it a sixth sense but I assumed that you would come here one day to think soon after my death and simultaneously collect this letter awaiting you—whenever that may be.

So, here it is. My final adieu to you, Meiji Osaimai.

I wrote you a letter because I wanted to resolve the unspoken underlying messages in the interactions between us.

I know your actions could sometimes be interpreted as malign to passerbys' but I want you to know that I truly did not feel that way about anything you did.

For me, I believe that there's a reason for everything, why you came into my life and why I came into yours. Though you teased me and called me names, I knew it was all for fun. I wasn't too hurt when you did that to me as I could tell that it was your odd way of showing you'd grown fond of me.

Meiji let out a small chuckle at this, though he hadn't said it aloud, reading Serena penning that down on paper, that she had known that his teasing was done fondly relieved an invisible weight that he didn't know had been present off of his chest.

I would also like to ask you for a favour—pretty please. Please help me look out for Declan. Declan is hot-headed and does things he regrets when he's mad but he's also the gentlest, kindest male I know. Give him a chance. He garnered his reputation for a reason and I don't want him to go around breaking noses once I'm gone.

Meiji let out a loud snort, if Serena could see him now, she wouldn't have to fret a single bit. Though Meiji didn't keep up much with the rumour-ville of Oaksville, even he had heard Declan Jones had turned over a complete new leaf—his days of breaking noses were long gone.

Most of all, I want to resolve the blame that you may harbour over my passing. I don't blame anyone for my circumstances, least of all Seth. I know he was hurting the most. It hurt me that I was the root of his pain.

Meiji's heart clenched for Serena. Though he didn't know the full story of what underwent between the pair despite the visible hurt in her eyes that came to light everytime Seth bullied her, anyone who paid attention could see the underlying love she still held for the teen boy.

It was why his words were the ones affecting her the most. Meiji couldn't begin to imagine the pain Serena felt everyday.

But you need to understand that I deserved every word he threw at me. Because before he met you, before I met Vanessa or Yasmin, way before. He was my first friend and there was a time when he and I got along like two peas in a pod. I thought nothing could ever separate us. But that was before the accident.

The accident that changed both our lives permanently.

I know you know part of the story and honestly? That's more than enough. You're a smart guy, I know you can piece two and two together.

Meiji took a deep breath. Once, a long time ago, he had asked Seth about the accident. The cold look he had given the Japanese male was enough for him to never want to ask him the same question again. But Serena was right, Meiji had known her since freshman year. With a little work, he knew he could piece the true story together.

The accident led to my and Seth's friendship expiring. In a way, the accident did justify Seth's actions. Anger does that and I never blamed him for once for doing what he did to me. I wouldn't use the term bullying, because it feels like such a vilified term and our situation was far too complex to be able to be delineated in a single word.

Another resolution to our unspoken message, to justify why Seth did what he did.

Now, my final agenda. I'm yielding to you a fact that I've kept enclosed within me for a long time. A fact about Vanessa Tan.

Meiji froze. The girl he loved so long ago?

Meiji, there's a reason why Vanessa refuses to look you in the eyes after so long, keeping up the pretense that she hates you. She's scared. I don't know if you know this, but the loss of your 'friendship' really broke her. In the aftermath of it, she couldn't even leave the house for 3 months because everything she saw reminded her of you.

She narrowly missed developing schizophrenia because she just couldn't stop hearing your voice every night. My heart broke for her each time I saw her tears staining her pillow, mouth etched into a silent cry of pain.

She never directly told me why she broke up with you but after observing her parents and their countless attempts to engage their newly, brilliant and available daughter with bachelors for parties—

It became clearer.

Meiji's heart plummeted.

All this time, he'd thought it was something wrong with him. He had never imagined it was because of her parents. He had told her countless times that he'd travelled to the ends of the earth with her, it didn't matter if her or his parents disagreed—they were happy and to him, that was all that mattered.

When she had told him to stop coming over, he had tried to contact her again but it seemed that she'd turned her back on him permanently. She ignored his calls, his pleas and eventually, he understood. Or, at least, tried to. The past 3 years had been tough on him.

He continued reading,

With this in mind, I hope that you'll be able to make amends with her. You were both the definition of 'right person, wrong time' but times have changed. It's been three years. Hopefully this time 'round, it'll work out.

That's truly all I wanted to write for your letter.

Thank you, Meiji, for being the brother I never had.

Go get 'em tigerSerena Wilson

Meiji let out a chuckle of disbelief. With new resolve brewing, he knew exactly who he needed to speak to.