<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/a/ac/Taro03.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Taro Ikeda (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=257738.msg12730054#msg12730054)<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Cafeteria<br/><strong>Time:</strong>Flashback - a few days before school starts, breakfast time<br/><strong>With:</strong>Shizuma + Open<br/><hr/>"So we really went to school together?" Taro murmured. That was unexpected, but remembering those days didn't seem to affect Shizuma's attitude towards him at all. That was just as surprising to Taro. Sadly, he couldn't quite recall Shizuma from their time in junior high, or could he? There had been this odd feeling that there was something about this girl he should have realized. But surely he would recall a girl with pink hair? Only, if...<br/><br/>He held up his hands, thumbs at right angles, and formed them into a square, like someone framing a scene. He held them so so they blocked his view of Shizuma's hair, squinted, opened his eyes wide again, shifted his hands a bit. Slowly he nodded. "Your face looks rather familiar, when I ignore your pink hair. I am sorry if I can't recall you quite as well as you can me." The apology came from heart, and it showed in his face. Maybe she had been a wallflower, as she said, but he felt it would have been so much nicer if he could recall anything about her.<br/><br/>"Thank you again." He took the offered piece of orange, almost expecting another sudden revelation to hit him from out of the blue, but, as nothing earth-shattering happened, he put the slice of orange on his tray. "I'll save it for dessert." He pointed at his still unfinished breakfast and slowly began to eat his egg and toast, taking small bites only. He didn't want to get distracted again from anything Shizuma said, and what he heard next was something that did require a lot of attention.<br/><br/>What she said, how she said it, that blush... She couldn't have been the one, could she? Taro looked down at his plate and bit his lower lip. The way this morning was going, almost everything seemed possible. But if she had been the one, she had done it for all the wrong reasons.<br/><br/>Taro took another bite, just to buy himself some time. He chewed slowly, swallowed, looked up. After drawing a deep breath, he finally said: "Shizuma-san, I am afraid you were mistaken about me, back then. I guess you never saw one of the fights I was in, but I wasn't bullied. No one picked on me." Taro closed his eyes, drew another deep breath.<br/><br/>"I am the one who started those fights. I was too full of myself, thought I was something better than everyone, just because I had good grades and trained a lot in martial arts. I was foolish, arrogant, and cocky." He couldn't help frowning at the stupid boy he had been. "It wasn't others who picked on me. It was I who started fights. My parents didn't take me out of school because I was a victim. They took me out of school because I victimized others."<br/><br/>As he fell silent, Taro turned towards the window. The reflection he saw still had tussled, ruffled hair. Yes, the resemblance was there now. The resemblance to the nasty little asshole he had been that Shizuma never had seen in him.