Day 45

[from I Watch You Sleeping]

I wake to the sound of my alarm clock beeping. Still half-asleep, my arm flails across my bedside table and my hand presses down about half-a-dozen times before I finally hit the snooze button. I look at the clock. It's 7:15am, just as it should be. At least I haven't overslept, but considering how tired I feel, that's not surprising.  Rather reluctantly, I slip out of bed, stretch my back and prepare to get ready for school.

God, I hate Mondays.

***

After a quick shower, I pull on my school uniform, grab my bag, and head downstairs into the kitchen for breakfast. My parents are already there, as is my annoying little sister, Natsume.

"Hey, Ken-chan! Ready for school?"

"I keep telling you, don't call me that," I tell her as I sit down at the breakfast table.

"Now, Ken, dear," says my mother, "it's just her way of showing her affection." Affection. Yeah. Right. My mother places a plate in front of me, with a couple of slices of buttered toast on it.

"Well, I wish she wouldn't," I say, picking up a slice. "It's annoying, and in front of my friends it's embarrassing."

Natsume seems to find this amusing. "You mean friend," she says teasingly. "I mean, Raiden's the only friend you've got, right?"

I slam my fist down on the table angrily, causing my plate to jump slightly, and glare at Natsume. "That's not true!" I bark at her. It's kind of true, though. The only other real friend I have is Sakura, I guess. But hey, the truth hurts.

My father immediately puts down his paper and glares at me in turn. His glare is a lot more fearsome than mine. "Kentaro!" Crap. My parents only call me Kentaro when I'm in trouble. Kentaro is my real name. Everyone just calls me Ken, though, except Natsume, who insists on "Ken-chan". Ugh.

"I will not tolerate that sort of behaviour at the breakfast table!" my father snaps. "Do you want me to confiscate your PS3?" My father always threatens me with that. It always works. Being unable to play video games when I got home… I dunno how I'd cope with that.

I heave a defeated sigh. "Sorry, Father," I say. "Sorry, Natsume."

Natsume beams in triumph. "That's okay, Ken-chan~" She's just doing it to wind me up now, I know it.

I eat my toast in silence, and thankfully, Natsume does the same. I've almost finished when the silence is broken by my mother snapping her fingers, the look on her face telling me that she's just remembered something.

"Oh! I nearly forgot!" she exclaims. "Ken, dear! This arrived for you in the mail this morning!"

She hands me a brown envelope. A letter? Who'd send me a letter? If my friends had anything to tell me outside of school, they'd just text me, or message me on Facebook. This must be important. I look at the front of the envelope. There's no sender's address, just "Ken-chan" scrawled crudely in red ink. This means that whoever sent this must have walked up to our front door and shoved it through the letterbox. It must be very important indeed.

For some reason, though, the writing on the front sends shivers down my spine. Red ink tends to have that effect on me. It just looks too much like it's been written in blood. Especially when it's a giant "F" scrawled across your test paper. Thankfully I don't get too many of those.

My thoughts are interrupted by my mother gasping rather loudly. "Oh, look at the time!" she exclaims. "You two are going to be late for school if you don't hurry up! We wouldn't want that, now, would we?"

I shake my head, a half-eaten piece of toast clamped between my teeth. Sasaki-sensei would be very disappointed if I came in late. Nobody likes to disappoint Sasaki-sensei. I quickly polish off the rest of my toast, then grab my bag and head out the door. Just before I leave, I grab the letter from off the table and stuff it into my bag. If it's this important, I should probably read it as soon as possible, so I guess I'll open it once I get to school.

***

Like most Japanese high school kids, I walk to school rather than being driven there. Thankfully it's only a short walk away. I started my third and final year of high school last month; Natsume's in her final year of middle school. Thank God I'll graduate before she arrives.

As I pass through the school gates, I pull out my phone quickly to check the time. I've got a few minutes left before homeroom. That should be enough time to read this letter. I slip my bag off my shoulder and lean back against the brick wall of the main building. Usually I'd stand here and watch the sunlight streaming over the treetops, of the students trickling in through the main gates, happily chatting away. But today, I have a letter to read.

I take the letter out of my bag. Again, the red lettering on the front gives me chills. I ignore it, tearing the envelope open. I take out the letter inside and read it.

HI, KEN-CHAN! I'M WRITING THIS LETTER TO CONFESS MY FEELINGS TO YOU. I KNOW YOU'LL FEEL THE SAME WAY, SO I KNOW YOU'LL ACCEPT THEM. I LOVE YOU, KEN-CHAN. I'VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU. YOU'RE SO HANDSOME AND SMART… YOU LOOK SO PEACEFUL WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING… HOW I WISH I COULD BE LYING THERE BESIDE YOU… PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE ME, KEN-CHAN. I BREATHLESSLY AWAIT YOUR REPLY.                xxxxxxx

I fel my heart pounding in my chest. What… is this? Is this some kind of practical joke? Yeah… I bet this was Raiden. This is exactly the kind of stunt he'd pull. And yet…

I notice something else in the envelope. I fold the letter up, place it in my school bag, and reach back inside the envelope.

This looks like a…

No. It can't be.

It is.

It's a photo of me. In my bedroom. Asleep. It appears to have been taken through my own bedroom window. I reel back, a horrified gasp escaping my drying lips. …who? Who took this picture? How? And most importantly… why? And why send it to me?

There are more photographs inside the envelope. I take them out with a shaking hand. They're all the same. Me. In my bedroom. Asleep. In every single one of them. This is… insane. I guess I was wrong about this being Raiden. He would never go this far. But then…

If this wasn't Raiden…

…who the hell was it?

I jump as the bells ring out to signal the start of homeroom. Damn. I better put these photos away before somebody sees them. I quickly stuff them back inside the envelope, then stuff the envelope back in my bag, along with the letter. Then I pick up my bag and make my way over to my classroom.