Kenji and Yuki Chapter 1 (First Draft)

Kenji and Yuki Chapter 1 (First Draft)

When I looked out the window, I noticed that night time loomed over the city. Despite this however, it was buzzing with activity. Horns honking, sleek box trains speeding by on the elevated railway, dazzling rectangular neon signs of all sizes and colours brightly shining down on the streets, and groups of stray pine needles getting tossed around in the breeze. I was sitting at a black marble table in a toasty, brightly lit restaurant and the scent of finely grilled beef wafted through the air. My mouth watered and my stomach growled as I wondered if it tasted just as good as it smelled. As I continued to stare out the window, I yawned and sighed heavily, as I had spent quite a bit of time working on a test for my science class that was part of an online program called Japan Distance Learning.

From what my aunt Chizuko told me, it was basically a program that allowed students who didn't cope well in a regular school environment to get their education from home. When I opened up to her about the bullying I was experiencing in June of 2015, she pulled me out and put me in this program, which wasn't too long after the school year started back in April of the following year.

Oh, I'm sorry. Where are my manners? The name's Yuki. Nice to meet you. Anyway, the test I was working on came in the form of an essay. I was required to write a minimum of three paragraphs and I could only use the articles that Izumi-sensei provided as sources. However, I was really interested in the topic of the essay and planned on writing at least five paragraphs. After guzzling down three Cokes, I was able to focus and complete the first four paragraphs within the span of two or three hours without much of an issue.

By the time I finished writing the beginning of the fifth paragraph though, I couldn't seem to come up with anything else. I tried to read over what I'd written so far and hoped that something would come to me. As I did so however, it seemed that something would happen every five seconds, such as the sound of a dish breaking or a group of people laughing as loudly as possible, that forced me to turn away from the screen. Some time later, I looked at the bottom right corner of my laptop screen and noticed that it said, "22:30. 2016/11/10." When I realized that I still had nothing, I slapped both of my hands against the sides of my head, closed my eyes, and growled. When I was working on this, it was a Thursday and while it wasn't due until Sunday, it was the last thing I had to do that week and I wanted to get it done by tomorrow so I could enjoy my usual "Work-Free Weekend", which basically consisted of visiting Kathy on Friday and sleeping all day on Saturday and Sunday.