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Akito was always a carefree kid. He was good at sports and he always tried his best too. He sang as his hobby but it was always just a hobby.
After playing outside, when he walked into the house he heard yelling.
"SHUT UP!" a familiar voice yelled. "YOU DON'T GET IT!"
"Of course I do," another voice said, calm with a hint of anger. "You're just talentless. You'll never be an artist. Yo-"
"JUST SHUT UP!" the voice yelled full of tears.
Akito could hear the sound of stomping and a door slamming.
Ena and dad were having another argument.
It was a brutal one. And loud.
Akito walked into the room where his dad stood with a disappointed frown on his face.
He paused, debating whether to give the man a cold stare or ignore him for yelling at his sister before deciding he was petty enough for the former.
He glared at his dad before walking over to his sister's room.
She was in one of her moods right now and who could blame her? Akito could only worriedly sigh as he heard furious paper tearing and sobs.
He shouldn't talk to her now.. maybe later when she's calmed down.
Akito went to his room and laid on his bed with a scowl.
That old man had no right to yell at Ena like that.
She worked hard on her art.
To make him proud.
Only for him to dismiss her efforts.
He thinks back to the time when he walked into Ena's room when she was out and saw everything.
The piles of unfinished drawings.
The mess of her room.
He remembers seeing the trashcan overflowing with paper spilling out. The broken pencil sharpener.
A pile of erasers that had been used till it was but a nub.
Akito knew what happened.
It was another argument and it had stuck with Ena.
Akito sighed being pulled back into the present.
He sat up and thought to himself.
' This isn't fair. ' Akito crossed his arms and huffed. ' She always works so hard to impress others. It isn't fair of him to say those things. '
Akito walked over to Ena's room and strained his ears to listen if she stopped crying.
He nodded to himself in satisfaction when he heard soft snoring instead before going back to his room.
From then on he would make a promise to himself.
' I will work hard and give everything I've got at everything I'm doing. It's not fair to Ena if I didn't try my best at everything. '
After the promise he took everything seriously.
He started to develop his singing and he always stayed a little after sports practice.
He started to grow a hatred for people with talent who never put that talent to use.
For people who would barely try and never use their full capabilities when they easily could.
They would never be as hard working as Ena.
They would never have to put in all their time and effort only to have the person who's supposed to support them in what they do put them down.
Only to have that person belittle them.
Only to have that person look down on them.
They would never understand or know what it felt like.
Because after all.
' There's no one like my sister. '
~~~~~
Akito walked to school passing shop by shop staring ahead. He passed a store that was selling cheesecake and mentally reminded himself to stop by after school.
Ena... she seemed a lot happier these days.
Sometimes he would wake up at night and hear her chatting with someone.
No... not someone... there were multiple people.
Akito was worried that they would be creeps but sometimes Ena would forget to plug in headphones and he would hear three other feminine voices that were always welcoming.
He decided not to worry about it, it was his older sister after all and she would know if she was talking to creeps.
Plus, those people made her a lot happier.
Akito entered her room once when she called him over to help her with something and saw that it was a lot more cleaner.
She was slowly getting better.
Akito walked through the doors of Kamiyama High School and was greeted by multiple voices from various conversations.
As he walked he paused when he heard a few people talking.
"98?! How did you get that high of a score?! You're like almost never in class."
"It was no big deal... I barely studied."
"Are you kidding me! I studied so hard yesterday and I only got a 81! That is so not fair..."
"Pfft, by studying you mean glancing at the imaginary notes you didn't take?"
Akito frowned at the conversation as he kept walking.
Though he wasn't crazy about school, how could one just say that they studied so hard when they didn't even take notes?
How could someone just be that academically gifted that they barely tried and never put in the effort.
It wasn't fair to hard working people like Ena who clearly tried her best.
He hated those people.
He made another mental note to not interact with them as he went to class.
~~~~~
Akito disliked Kohane at first.
She had potential and talent but she always seemed like she didn't put a lot of effort into singing.
He hated that.
It was until he realized how hard she worked.
Then he had a sort of revelation of sorts.
Ena was hard working, but she was also overworking .
Being hard working like Kohane isn't like Ena.
Being hard working like Kohane doesn't completely ruin your mental health and relationships.
It doesn't cause you to stop eating.
It doesn't cause mental breakdowns.
At the new information he learned Akito decided to always make sure that Ena was taking care of herself in ways that wouldn't harm his ego.
He stop by her room and tell her that An gave him some cheesecake that was too big for him to finish.
He would tell her that she should take a break from art to shower because she "smelled."
He would pretend to put up a fight about going shopping and letting Ena win to get her to go outside and take walks.
Just like that Ena was getting better. Between her new friends and the adjustment of her ungodly sleep schedules, she already looked a lot better.
Though she looked better, had her art gotten better?
Akito knew what Ena thought and how she thought her artwork hadn't improved but anyone with eyes could clearly see otherwise.
Akito was glad Ena was doing better, and he was even more glad that she started to slowly stop obsessing as much about her art and toned it down to a point where it wasn't affecting her health.
Some part of Akito wishes Ena knew all the hard work he put into helping her but he also didn't knowing how embarrassing it would be.
Either way everything was fine.
He got to have his sister back.
The sister that would smile and not lock herself in her room all day.
The sister that started to draw for fun again.
She was back.
Akito was happy.