"W-what did he said?!"
He stood there for a while until they went back into the house, Julian squatted down, leaning to the wall, he stared at the grass, eyes tearing up wide open. "I-I need to collect my mind." Twenty minutes later he thought that he is collected and calm enough again, he decided to act as he would've just come from the party back home.
"I am back."
His grandparents already slept, his step mother was in the living room, having a phone call with her family in Japan, he knew, his father was for some reason in his room, Julian went in, his father didn't hear that he was already home; a direct confrontation is going to happen.
His voice was uneven, trembling, he tried to be as serios and calm as possible, but he couldn't but to get tears in his eyes.
"D-dad, why didn't…you tell us…sob."
His father made big eyes, as he would know that Julian knew it.
"What…what do you mean?" His father stayed calm and cold, but the facade began to break subtly.
"You know exactly what I am talking about! Sob…" Julian had already much more than just having some tears in his eyes.
"Sigh…you mean…you mean in the backyard with your grandmother…"
He was just nodding without saying another word more.
"Come here, I think there is no use in hiding it more than I already did, would you let me explain?"
Julian sat down next to his father. "Look, I am also going to tell you because I changed towards you, you already asked if anything is okay, I always said yes, but…it wasn't…" His father also began to have some tears in his eyes.
"When I found out that I am sick I thought that maybe it's better that we have a bit more distance between us…because…because I thought that it will be easier for you if…I don't make it…"
Julian thought he finally found clarity why his father acted that differently, but it wasn't the only reason.
"It was also something different why I acted so different, when I saw you bringing friends over, even a girl, and I saw that you are completely different to them, made me think if I maybe…maybe just should let it be it, I know that teenagers often don't want to spend time with their parents as much as when they are kids but…you just…just acted completely differently…"
Julian looked at his father with big eyes even though it was hard because he was still crying.
"You explained everything, maybe I should too…"
"When I took distance from you, around the time we went after Japan…sob…I also had a reason…sob…when you called the principle if there is maybe still a place left for me at the school…sob…I heard you also talking…about…me, I was going for a walk and…and…when I came home I heard you talking with…him…do you remember what you said?"
This call was already over halve a year ago, but Julian seemed to almost remember every single word, so his father needed to think for a while. "I am sorry, when I called him…sob…to that time…I took…certain substances…drugs, this is also how I met you stepmother…sob…I met her in an addict group…"
Julian couldn't believe what his father said right now.
"W-what…no, don't joke around?!"
"Not a joke…I did it after your mother…"
Now everyone exposed themselves for their behavior, suddenly his stepmother stepped in, saw both crying, very unexpected, she was speechless.
"Does, she now about it…sob…"
"No…maybe we should do now…"
"What do you mean and what happened to you two?"
His father also asked her to sit down, they told her everything, she burst out in tears, after an hour or two they calmed down, slowly went to sleep, then Julian lay there, in his bed, thinking about what happened right now, everything felt so surreal, he finally knows why his father was like this, he has cancer and he even managed to open himself because what happened.
A few days later they travel back to Japan, something weird happened, he doesn't see any ropes anymore in any way?!
"W-why, why don't I any ropes anymore?"
"Sigh…I can't do anything about it, to be honest I haven't used it that much anyways, there are things that matter more for becoming the most popular in school, that's still my goal…but there are still one week of the holidays left, I think I should meet up with Kaito and Tsubame!"
He met up with Kaito and later in the day with Tsubame and so on; multiple months passed by, in these few months much happened, he got closer to Tsubame, his father cancer got better, with time he even regained the rope ability, soon in only over a month the new school year starts! But the biggest achievement was him reaching the top five hundred in only about three months, since the winter holidays went missing his popularity was going up super-fast!
"Heh, everything runs as best as possible, perfect! Everything is perfect right now, if I go up in the ranking so much as now, I will easily reach the first place, Hehe! I made so many files about almost everyone that I needed to transfer them to my laptop; this is only a little risk, back then I thought it's a bigger risk."
As he walked in the hall as he did already so many times, he noticed something, people standing or walking in the hall gave him weird looks, he could hear them all whispering. "Are they talking about me? Oh no, that's something I don't really need right now!"
He asked some people if there were any rumors about him. But the most tried to avoid him and tried to interact as less as possible with him, but there was one, he knew that this guy doesn't has any reasons to hide it and the guts to say it.
"Hey Yuuma Nao, we haven't saw each other for a while, haven't we?"
"If this isn't Julian Mercer, we really haven't seen us in a while, do you want to use finally the favor? It makes me nervous if someone doesn't use a favor I gave them, there is always the chance that they might ask me in fifty years maybe, Hihi!"
"Uh, no not now but if this continues maybe, tell me who spreads those rumors about me, don't tell me you don't know anything about this, and I don't use my favor for this!"
"Okay, okay, chill, you exactly know who it is or at least have a suspect, your smart enough to know that, right?"
"You mean really him?"
"Yes, it is absolutely him, no doubt in my opinion!"
"Good grief, but thanks!"
"This might get on a level like Ran was…"
"Kato Ichiro, I know this guy, I even observed him once, he has one of the detailed files of all, I don't exactly remember everything, but this is exactly why I have the files."
In a break he looks at his file, hoping that not a single person can see what is on his laptop.
"Interesting, I definitely don't remember everything about him, I can still remember the nickname I gave him, the rumor master, for me what fits him the best, I looked a bit at different rumors that existed, eight from ten rumors were probably from him, maybe the number is even higher, there are even rumors that say that you can hire him to gossip and rumor, besides that, he is on the school for already five years, he didn't passed the third class two times, that means he is actually already twenty years old, but I don't think he doesn't passes because he isn't smart enough, he does that on purpose!"
"Staying in school on purpose sounds insane or dumb, but it is still an elite school, maybe he stays in the school to get hired by rich kids just to get the money, maybe the money is even so good that he stays because of that! But he would be smart enough to pass, maybe it's also just fun for him, if it really him, what I am very sure about, he either got hired or does it for fun on his own, I don't know if it's even matter that why he is doing it?"
Ding, dong, ding.
After that class, school was already over, he went out of class, in the hallway, he saw him, he looked good, like a model, but Julian could definitely see that there is something evil beneath it, as Julian walked past and he continued staring at him, Kato said interesting with a devious smile "We are going to have lots of fun, you know someone asked me to do it but the more I heard about you the higher the chance got that I would've do it on my own, you know?"
Julian stood still, looked in his eyes, he tried to be frightened before he said something, but Kato found it entertaining.