A few months later…
"Well…it's been already now a year since I decided to go with my dad after Japan, speaking of my dad, it looks like my dad recovers again from the cancer, at least that's what the doctors are saying."
"Beside that; behind the leader of the student's council gave me lots of popularity and I make job pretty well, I guess? But…I still want to become the most popular in school, becoming the president of the council boosted my popularity approximately in the top three or two hundreds! Combining that I am good at my job plus even putting effort in it beside that; I am probably now in the top one hundred!!! Heh…finally…"
The gap between top five hundred and one hundred is much bigger than the gap between one thousand five hundred to only five hundred.
"Sigh…but this is exactly the problem now, the higher your realm is the harder it's going to be to rank up, same as in chess, getting from a low Elo to a middle or high Elo isn't that hard, but getting from a high one to a peak one; this is actually the hard part!"
Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!
"Mom?"
"Hello? Is everything okay?"
"Yes and no, you know the hospital where your dad does the chemo therapies? Come there, or no I pick you up…"
"Wait, wait, wait a second, what's wrong?"
"I explain it when I picked you up…where are you right now?"
"In school, should I wait?"
"Please, just wait there for a few minutes until I am there!"
Hanged up…
"Hey is everything?"
"Oh, hey…you know that with my father, right? I-I think somethings wrong there, my stepmother is going to pick me up now, we test this restaurant later, okay?"
"Oh, yeah sure, go if you need to, it's okay."
New school year means different classes, even though Kaito´s class is now much apart from Julian´s class they are obviously still best friends.
Julian got picked up and they went to the hospital, and after a while his stepmother, who was frightened, began to talk. "Today…I was with your father in the hospital and…it looks like…it got…worse…"
Julian stayed quiet for a while and right before he wanted to say something he got intervened. "…I know that you aren´t a child anymore, you even turn soon eighteen…so I am going to be honest with you…the doctors said…we should maybe…go for the worst scenario…"
Even though it hit him like a truck he stayed calm in a silent pensive way, he wanted to say something like "It's going to be good again…" or "He is strong, he is going to make it…" But before he could she started crying and needed to stop at the street edge.
…
After a while of tears Julian also began to cry, a little later she began again to drive until they arrived.
Everyone was the opposite of calm and peaceful, the only exception was his father, not only it got worse, but the doctors highly recommended him to stay in the hospital; this is also what he did…
Julian went to school, did the minimum amount of pensum he needed to complete as the president, spend time with his father in the hospital, did his homework and slept; this cycle kept on for almost two weeks.
"Love you dad, tomorrow is Saturday, so I come a bit earlier, just that you know, see you!"
He and his mother ate a bit later and watched a movie together, as his stepmother almost fell asleep, someone called, she was completely awake instantly, it was the hospital, his father's state looked critical.
Julian´s grandparents and uncle also even went after Japan already before, just in case.
The doctor explained that he was in a coma similar now.
They visit him as often as possible, even on Monday he didn't went to school…
And then, Monday evening…he stopped breathing…
Everything went so fast afterwards, the burial and other things just happened so fast then.
"Sigh…what an ass situation, my step mother needs to work now much because she owns now the company, or be correct she as absolutely no knowledge about how to run a company, back then almost always when you came home you could've already hear her but now this house is empty…"
He still took that week of where his father died from school…but now, it's time again.
"At least the school handled everything discrete, the official reason was because I was sick, but the principal knows the real reason…"
As he went in and encountered Kaito, he was distanced.
"Hey…if you need anything you can ask me, I hope you know that."
Julian nodded and walked further with an arrogant but at the same time expressionless and empty expression, he fully concentrated on becoming popular, he was now in the top one hundred, he was never any closer to this goal.
As he walked further, he bumped into someone. "Oh, I am sorry." Julian recognized this young first grader, he was someone that climbs up the popularity ladder extremely quickly, popularity wise he could become a potential threat.
"Look where you walk, you little brat!" And then disappeared in the distance.
"For sure is he going to be a threat, need to get rid of him!"
Still, on the same day he began anonymously spread rumors about this young boy, that he is a fraud, only acts that friendly, and so on, only a few days later his whole popularity sank down like nothing.
He also distanced himself rapidly from Tsubame and Kaito, being rude and distanced, but also saying directly no to them, once on the way home he encountered Tsubame.
"Julian, we need to talk…"
"I know what happened with your father was bad but…if you have a problem you can come to me, I also spoke with Kaito, he also told me that you were no different to him! So please say to me or him just what's wrong!"
Hearing that, he literally turned around and walked away, even hearing her crying in the back.
"Annoying…" He thought silently in his head
"Well…nothing stands in my way left now; in this position I can become easily the most popular in school now!"
The next day in school he saw some first graders in the hallway laughing about something, as he passed by they recognized him as the president of the council and looked at him full of an innocent curiosity, they only look they earned was a unfriendly frightening one. "Those idiots…this one kind of remind me on Kaito…anyways, now it's easy to spend time with other popular people, heh…"
As time went on, he began to only spend time with cool popular students, one time after he spread again rumors over someone he didn't like, he encountered Kaito in the hallway while he was with the cool ones.
Julian is kind of in this friend group the leader, everyone likes him, not just that, they are also seeing him as someone better, someone they want to be like, as he saw Kaito he did not dare or wanted to look at Kaito, he stopped talking, being more quiet than usual and as they almost passed Kaito, he approached him.
"Hey Julian…could we maybe talk?" His voice silent almost as he did something wrong!
Julian´s new friends were confused and said, "Hey Julian, you know this weirdo?"
"No, I don't, maybe he is crazy or something…" He said his empty gaze already went somewhere else into nothing.
His friends loved his answer for whatsoever reason and even laughed at Kaito for a short moment; until they already forgot him…
"Something weird happened to me, I see the ropes again…after I talked to Ruri they started to become less and less, after my father…they came again…"
But something still came into Julian´s way…
The next day in school, when he was alone for a moment, someone approached him.
"Why did you spread all those rumors about all those students? Do you even know what this does to them?"
He stayed cold, no indifferent and said "Try to prove it, good luck…" And walked away.
"If there is someone that knows that I spread all those rumors the best option is just to make rumors that he made the rumors, but they need to be as strong that no one even listens to him, only if one listens to him and he says that I am the responsible for the rumors it can be already a risk!"
Still on the same day he spread secretly the rumors, even though for a long time he stayed determined after time he even left the school because the hate was too much.
"I am soon becoming the most popular in school, that's all I wanted all the time; right?"