Before you start reading, I would like to say that I'm not using an OC but just the reader. The only thing that I'm going to change is that I'm going to give the reader a name instead of using "[F/N]" or "_", because I find that it kind of ruins the whole mood. The name doesn't have anything special meaning, it's just to keep the flow up. Now go and enjoy some Mikoto lurv!

What a Shame
What a shame to judge a life that you can't change.
The choir sings, the church bells ring, so won't you give this man his wings?
What a shame to have to beg you to see we're not all the same.

"Haruka, if you don't get up now you're going to be late for school! This is the last time I'm telling you!" your mother called from downstairs. Her voice was so loud that could hear it through the shut door and all the blankets covering your head.

"I'm coming, I'm coming…" you muttered groggily, still half asleep.

"Haruka!" your mother's voice called once more, not having heard your response.

"I'm coming!" you yelled back, throwing your pillow against the door in irritation.

After kicking the blankets away, you rolled out of the heavenly warmth and purposely landed on the floor with a loud crash. Now completely awake, you smiled as you heard your mother mutter a complaint about the racket you caused every morning. Quickly glancing at the clock hanging on your wall, you realised you did not have very long to get ready so you hurriedly got up and while you changed out of your sleeping attire and into your school uniform, you kicked your pillow back onto your bed. You didn't spend much longer on your appearance – save for the short brush of your hair – before you stumbled down the stairs.

"Itadakimasu," you yelled at your mother as you shoved the sandwich she had made for you into your mouth (which she did only for you, because you never had enough time to eat something proper anyway) and grabbed your schoolbag. You did all that while skipping through the hall, trying to put on your shoes without losing too much time.

"I'm off! Bye!" you called one last time, not sparing your mother another glance who merely shook her head at the energy you could only display in the morning.

Once you were halfway to school, you allowed yourself to take a look at the time on your phone and with an accomplished smile you found that you were earlier than expected so you decided to take it slow for the rest of the walk.

It seemed that is was going to become a pleasant day. It wasn't too warm or too cold, there weren't many clouds and the sky was beautifully blue.

You had a feeling that today was going to be your lucky day…

With a sigh, you stared at the piece of paper that had just been handed to you by your teacher. The look of disappointment on his face had been enough to inform you about the results you had gotten for your latest test.

Just like all the others before this one.

Failed. Again. Your lucky day, huh?

Well, your locker had been empty this morning when you switched to your indoor shoes.

But it had been empty for the past few weeks.

You were beginning to see a pattern here. Whenever you would dare talk to a boy for longer than a certain amount of time, the girls would start to bother you. That would bother you and you would talk to the boys even more, ending in a never ending loop. But why was it your fault that you were accustomed to a higher quality of communication than those fake girls could offer, anyway? The boys viewed you as one of them, nobody had to be afraid of you sleeping with anyone.

Of course, their brains were too little-developed to actually process any of this so you had to stick with having as little contact with others as possible. Not that you minded or anything, you almost feared their stupidity to be contagious and you very much liked being sane.

That being said… Why was it still that those brainless dipshits would always get better results than you at everything except sports?

Sports… Your mind wandered off towards the other test you had taken some time ago to get a recommendation for a unique opportunity to study at a special sports school. A small smile appeared on your face as you thought about all the possibilities that might bring with it… Doing your favourite pastime all day long, every day. Now that would be paradise-worthy!

"Shouta-san, please try to keep your mind in the classroom." Your teacher's voice halted your train of thoughts and with a quick nod you redirected your gaze to the blackboard at the front of the classroom, ignoring the whispers that were suddenly being thrown between girls sitting at the other side of the room.

You couldn't help but catch the word 'Suoh' and with a frown you wondered what he had to do with them. Suddenly remembering something, you looked back outside to where you had been staring only moments ago and to your horror realised that you had been staring at no one other than Mikoto Suoh all this time. He was sitting outside, leaning against a tree with his arms folded behind his head. You weren't sure but it seemed as if he were asleep.

Lowering your head, you tried your best to hide your pink cheeks with your hair while concentrating on what the teacher was babbling on about – something about algebra. That seemed to work for the thought about maths seemed to cheer you up a bit.

Yes, maths and sports, that was really all there was to Haruka Shouta.

The sound of a bell signalled the end of the day and without even listening to the teacher who was quickly trying to finish his last sentence the whole class rushed out of the room. You weren't about to waste your precious energy on getting away from this building as soon as possible and politely nodded your head at your teacher before heading out of the room as the last student.

The hall was noisy and crowded all of a sudden, pupils everywhere were talking about their plans to make homework together or saying goodbye to their friends before running off to the lockers. You caught bits and pieces of a conversation about a group of boys from your class going out to play baseball together.

As they ran past you, one of them bumped into you.

"Ah, sorry Shouta," the boy – Arata Hideyoshi was his name – started and the fact that he had dropped the honorific was enough to catch the attention of one of the girls from your class, who sent a frown your way.

"Don't worry about it, Hideyoshi-san," you replied loudly and sighed inwardly when you saw the girl shrug and leave without further ado.

"Would you like to join us in our game?" he continued and your heart almost stopped beating at the question, fearing that your period of peace at school was about to get broken off abruptly.

You had probably been overreacting, for nobody was paying attention to you anymore. But as much as you felt like sweating this pent-up stress out of your body, you just couldn't afford to start another war against the class. Not when you had to try your best to get better results at school…

"Ah, thank you for asking but I'm too busy right now. Maybe next time?" you replied with an apologetic smile. The boy merely shrugged and gave a quick wave before sprinting off after his friends.

As you made your way to the lockers too, you couldn't help but smile at the happy faces surrounding you, even though you were quite jealous of how they could get along so well with each other. The closest thing you had had that you could compare to such a relationship was when a stray dog had been roaming around the street you lived in. Each day after school you would share your lunch with him, whether it was raining or sunny. But one day he just stopped coming and after asking around it had become quite clear that someone had called the police to put the poor thing to sleep.

While you unlocked your locker, you said a little prayer and opened it only to notice that it was just like you had left it – empty and clean. With a sigh of relief, you reached in to grab your outdoor shoes and your heart did a summersault when you saw a piece of paper swirl to the ground. You quickly bent down to pick it up but didn't dare to open it, though your posture relaxed significantly when you realised it was an officially sealed letter and not some angry mail from one of your fans.

Once you had switched your shoes, you closed your locker again and made your way out of the building while carefully tearing the envelope open. The official insigne of your school was printed at the top of the letter that came out was enough to make your heart race and you slowed down to read what it said.

We are sorry to inform you…

You stopped moving, one foot hanging awkwardly in the air as you stared down at the paper in disbelief. How on Earth was it possible to fail the admission exams for a school where sports were the main subject? Were you really that stupid?

The results hadn't even been fully processed by your dumb brain when the next images went to torture your mind: what were you supposed to tell your parents? Of course they had hoped that you wouldn't 'throw your life away with something that couldn't guarantee you a stable life', especially your father was against all this.

But if you told them that you had managed to fail to get accepted into that 'useless place where no one has a proper future ahead of them'… You could already feel your father's fist against your face.

In a reflex your hand flew up to your face, as if your body were already expecting the punishment as your other hand crumpled the letter into a ball.

"Failed a test?" A voice from behind you scared the shit out of you and you held back a scream by clapping your hand over your mouth.

Twirling around, your fright was quickly replaced with surprise when you realised the boy you had seemingly been staring at during class was the one who had scared you just now. Somehow that struck you as odd, for he had never spoken to you before so why would he start doing so now?

Mikoto Suoh frowned as he got to see your face and you wondered what had upset him, but then you felt your eyelashes grow heavy all of a sudden and before you even knew what was going on you rubbed your arm against your face to wipe the tears away before they could fall.

Neither of you said anything else and you just stared off into the distance while the strange boy continued to investigate your face for any further signs of pain.

"Why were you crying?" he asked rather abruptly and for a moment you faltered, wondering if the normal rules of social interaction did not mean anything to him. Especially the most important one of not asking someone about their tears when they had made it quite clear that it was not something they were willing to talk about.

"I wasn't crying," you replied sternly, averting your gaze again.

"Yes you we-" he started once more but was cut off when you threw your wrinkled ball of fail-letter at his face. Luckily for him he managed to catch it before it hit him and he stared at it in confusion, as if asking himself where it had come from all of a sudden.

When he looked back up, he was surprised once more by the fact that you were already sprinting off and for the first time in a long time he thought that he might not be able to catch up with someone.

A sudden curiosity filled him as he examined the crumpled paper and carefully unfolded it, trying his best not to tear it as he did so.

We are sorry to inform you that you did not pass the entrance examinations for x school, oriented to train athletes to their maximum potential.

Average scores:
Math: B
Science (Physics, Biology, Chemistry): D
Social Science (Geography, History): F
Language (Modern/Classical Japanese texts): D
Foreign Language (English): B
Health and Physical Education: A
Arts: D
Home Economics: C
Citizenship: E

It took you three days to muster up enough courage to break through your daily routine of getting up too late, hurrying to school, trying your best to concentrate during class while having as little contact with the other students as possible to avoid any unwanted attention. You did so during lunch break, ignoring the curious glances others were sending your way for you normally spent your break eating your food alone inside the classroom while reading some manga.

Your manga tucked under your arm and your hands holding the bento your mother had prepared for you, you pushed all the doors standing in your way open with your foot until you were outside. You didn't even have to look for him for his red hair would have stood out no matter where he was.

Mikoto Suoh was sitting beneath a tree again and you weren't sure whether he was asleep or not. You quickly found out though when you went to sit next to him and found him staring at you when you were just about to take a bite of your lunch.

Your mouth wide open and your chopsticks hanging in the air must have made for an amusing image because the redhead decided to show you a small grin. Can somebody remind you why people tried to avoid this boy? Because he was so dangerous, right?

"You want some too, Suoh…san?" you probed.

"Mikoto."

"Eh?"

"Just call me Mikoto."

"Okay then… Mikoto… Do you want to share my lunch with me?" you asked in a second attempt to get him to warm up to you.

He just stared at you before shaking his head and going back to his seemingly asleep state.

Oh well, that meant more for you!

You were just about to take your first bite, finally, but Mikoto decided to grab your attention again. Feeling slightly frustrated, you promptly shoved the piece of fruit into your mouth and watched as he held up a piece of paper that was in a horribly wrinkled state. You put your chopsticks down and accepted it, quietly looking it over and without thinking you pressed your hand against your cheek, attracting unwanted attention to the area.

Before you could realise what was happening, Mikoto had grabbed your hand and was examining your face. You saw a sign of recognition flash through his eyes as he noticed the almost invisible swell of the side of your face and the makeup you had used to cover up the bruise.

"Who did this?" he asked with a rather calm voice and you shrugged, quickly looking back at the letter that now rested in your lap.

To your relief, Mikoto didn't pry any further and seemed to deem it too unworthy to use his precious energy to fret about it. The two of you just sat there in silence, save for your soft munching as you ate your lunch and his heavy breathing. He seemed to be sighing permanently!

And that is how you met the man who would change your life forever.