Despite not being in the mood to go out, Asahi was dragged out of his room by Ishida who had decided to exchange all the bet points he had collected, for food. Asahi's lack of interest couldn't have been anymore obvious, yet his beloved friend gave not one flying fuck about it. He was determined to reap his rewards.

Asahi thus had no choice but to accompany him half heartedly. A part of him also believed that good food might just be what he needed to distract himself.

A Hero? That's the last thing that I am. He thought.

However it didn't get any better later on. The tasty meal he had at the Thai restaurant couldn't hold his attention long enough. Irritated and urgently in need of space to sort out his thoughts, his mood progressively got worse and Ishida would have had to be blind to not notice it.

"Are you all right?" he enquired.

"More or less.." 

"You wanna go get something to drink?" Ishida asked, wanting to do something for his friend in return.

"Nope. Let's just go straight back to the dorms"

"Okay.." Ishida shrugged.

And so they did. Once he reached his room, Asahi took off his shirt and fell into his bed, sprawling on top of it.

Now that his body had found a place to rest, his mind decided to do the jogging for him. 

It kept going back and forth between his past and present, straining, entangling and ultimately unable to free itself.

There was just one way to escape and for that, he had to confront them both head on.

His past was tied to Endo while his present which had been going on pretty well, was now disturbed by a not so small perturbation named Nao.

And the impact created by this not so tiny stone, had finally managed to create ripples on the calm river after a long time.

A Hero?

Asahi laughed quietly, mocking himself. There was one thing he was perfectly aware of - that he at the most, was an imposter.

Weren't heroes supposed to be brave and selfless? Weren't they all capable of sorting black and white from the grey and fight for what they think is just? They didn't need no masks, and even if they did wear them, wasn't it to protect the ones dear to them?

Asahi was indeed, quite a lot different from all that. He finally surrendered, deciding to take a stroll down the memory lane and go back to his first year here in Kyoto, in this University. And when he thought of how he was back then, he felt he was more of a Princess Peach than a hero.

A young boy from Tokyo had come to Kyoto. He had fought with his family for his right to choose his future and intentionally moved away, deciding to keep some distance from them ; he wanted them to realize and accept the fact that their kid won't keep revolving in their sphere of influence forever.

His father had always dreamt of introducing both his sons to the corporate world. He had hoped that they would come to love the Pharmaceutical Company that was his father's baby as much as he did, and take over the baton from him some day, to lead it. But the younger one chose to rebel instead.

Long story short, as a result, Asahi was now in his fourth year of Bachelors degree in Chemistry at one of the most reputed institutes in the country.

Once he arrived in Kyoto and tasted the sudden gush of freedom, he realized that a lot of things he'd deeply repressed till then, were now sneakily revealing their faces upon getting the right chance.

 Endo, was one such chance. 

 

 Asahi couldn't forgive him for letting him taste sin, but he could never thank him enough either.

For the boy who was a bit timid, confused and uncomfortable in his new habitat, Endo was like the sun. Love for soccer brought them together in a club and very soon, he found himself being part of a group of four easy going fellows.

I felt so cool back then. He warmly remembered.

There was the gang leader Endo, the brave Shiiba, the very ordinary Mizutani and the awkward himself. 

Ahh, he left out a small detail about one of them. Endo - he was charming and he was handsome.

Endo made Asahi realize that the technique of supressing and pretending he didn't desire something, doesn't quite work that well at all. Progressing from glances to gazes and gazes to stupid gawking, he could only watch as his heart and head  freed themselves of his control and flew away, like a string tied to the kite that was Endo. 

And of course, in the end, he was caught red handed.

But when he stood before Endo, his head hanging, waiting for him to pronounce his sentence, Endo had gently lifted his chin up and placed a light kiss on his lips. Then as if this was nothing out of the ordinary, he'd smiled and walked out of the changing room.

For the first time in his life, he was just so happy that he was caught.