Chapter 2: Executing the Prank!

Fate was playing games with Alex Hal. Due to hormones hitting him hard, he did many rebellious things past few years. Failing to pass the annual exam was the last nail in the coffin; which led his father to make the ultimate decision of sending him to military school.

It was his mother’s intervention that convinced his father otherwise and which is why instead of military school he was here, thousands of miles away from home in this foreign country.

He didn’t know that such a country existed until his father informed him where he was going to complete his education.

So today, here he was unpacking his bags. He was in a dorm room which was at the far end of the dormitory.

It was strange that no boys were living in the rooms surrounding his room. The only person in this part of the dormitory was a boy named Hiroko who he was sharing his room with.

The same boy who’d tried to pull a prank on him when he asked where the boy’s washroom was. Hiroko had sent him to the girl’s washroom which was under maintenance.

This means it was a pathetic prank, a good old idea, but lacked proper execution.

He told him so when he met him and his three friends later that day.

Something he shouldn’t have done because currently his future was hanging through a single string. One call back home and the next stop would be Military School.

‘I must lay low and try to avoid any kind of conflict because any mistakes and I am done.’

Being a foreigner, he expected people to look at him as anyone will look at a stranger. But after his arrival, all people even the watchmen were looking at him with sympathy. This was confusing for him.

A knock on the door got him out of his self-loathing. He opened the door to find Hiroko standing there with a weird smile on his face.

“Hi.” Alex greeted Hiroko, trying to start a conversation. But his roommate didn’t reply. Hiroko went to his side of the room and went straight to bed.

“Tonight, I am going to pull an all-nighter, so don’t disturb me in my day sleep.”

‘What kind of person pulls an all-nighter on Saturday night? And there is one more day to go before the official start of the school year. Maybe there is no weekend culture in this country? Well, that’s going to suck!’

It was a little bit before midnight Hiroko was up from his ‘sleep’.

His roommate thought he was asleep, but in reality he was pretending and making a fool out of his roommate for the last seven hours! Take that, you Gaijin!

Due to not getting enough sleep last night, his eyes were feeling heavy but he didn’t give up. He wanted to prove something-not to that Gaijin-but to himself how dedicated he was to the Art of Pranking!

‘Let’s prepare for the big day tomorrow.’ With that, he pulls out his small diary to memorize the lines that he had to tell this Gaijin. No, these were not simple lines; these were Mantras that would enlighten this Gaijin to his-The Pranking King’s-Greatness!

Alex was feeling rested after a goodnight’s sleep. He didn’t sleep well yesterday due to anxiety about being in a foreign country.

‘Well, that was really good sleep, I think I should also sleep today to relax all the stress that I had to suffer for the last fifteen days.’ With that thought, he turned around in his bed and came to see a really weird sight. His roommate was looking at him with large bags under his eyes and a creepy smile on his face. He felt a shiver through his spine, the same that he had felt the previous afternoon.

“Good morning, roommate.” Hiroko greeted him with the same creepy smile on his face.

‘That’s creepy.’ “Morning,” Alex replied, while not making any other comment about his roommate.

“I wanted you to apologize to me.”

“What?”

“Oh, an old habit, it’s the first time I am doing this.” He took a deep breath and spoke again “I want to apologize to you for that washroom prank.”

“Don’t worry, it wasn’t a big deal. I mean it was just a childish prank, no harm done.” It was like a lightning passed through him; Hiroko had a really painful expression on his face.

“Are you alright Hiroko?” Alex asked, worried that something must have happened to his roommate or maybe something he said must have hurt his feelings. “I mean to say I accept your apology; you don’t need to stress yourself for such a small thing.”