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The heat was brutal today. He's laying on the rooftop of the school building, jacket discarded and cap resting on his face to block his eyes from the sun. His uniform shirt sticks uncomfortably to his skin, slickened with a gross amount of sweat. A cicada echoes loudly in the distance.He should be in class. He should be, but that doesn't mean he's going to go back. Jiro thought he was going crazy sitting in that classroom as the teacher droned on about logarithms and some other math shit he didn't care to listen to. Her voice had quickly melted into mere background noise as he stared out the window, shaking his leg restlessly and tapping his pencil against his desk to the beat of the anime opening stuck in his head. Apparently his teacher hadn't appreciated the rhythm as much as he did, because minutes later she slapped her hand onto her desk, seething, "Yamada-kun, could you at least pretend to pay attention? And stop with that incessant tapping. There are students here who are actually trying to learn."Whispers broke out among his classmates, some snickered under their breath. The boy behind him muttered, "Even if he tried to learn it wouldn't matter, he doesn't have a brain to begin with."Jiro's pencil snapped in his hand and he whipped his head around to glare back at the boy, "The hell did ya just say?""Yamada-kun!" His teacher hissed. Jiro had stood up abrubtly, purposely shoving his chair so it'd slam into the desk behind him."Fuck this," he declared as he had stormed out of the classroom.And that's how he ended up here, a victim of the unrelenting heat when he could be inside enjoying the comfort of the air conditioning. It's not like it was his first time skipping class, nor his first time leaving in the middle of one. That's not what was bothering him. And neither was the berating from his teacher, she had never really liked him to begin with. He was used to her disappointment. "Even if he tried to learn it wouldn't matter, he doesn't have a brain to begin with." Jiro slammed his fist onto the ground. Goddammit, is that really what they all thought of him? That his intelligence wasn't worth more than a fucking rock? It wasn't a secret he didn't have the best of grades, and sometimes certain kanji are incomprehensible to him but still, he deserved more credit than that, didn't he? It's not like Jiro was ever bullied or ostracized by his peers. Even if he was embarrassed to admit it, it was safe to say he's a fairly popular guy. His classmates smiled and greeted him when he passed them in the halls, girls would anxiously gather around him at lunchtime to offer homemade bentos, and almost everyday his friends would approach him asking either to hang out after school or ditch altogether. He was Yamada Jiro—open, kind, and dependable. Why should something like grades effect how he was valued as a person? Jiro knew he was capable of getting good grades. Not good enough to shoot to the top of the class like Saburo, but good enough that they'd be worth commending. Still, Jiro wasn't the type to work hard at something he couldn't put his heart into. To him, test scores were merely numbers and letters. To him, there was no benefit in slaving away for hours studying about quadratic equations and Newton's third law when he'd never need it again in the future. What's the point in filling up his brain with all that useless crap when it could be reserved for something more worthwhile?Jiro wasn't stupid, he just thought with his heart rather than his head. In any situation, he'd always be the first to act on his emotions rather than logic. If something feels right, then what else is there to consider? It may make him impulsive, and it may get him into some bad situations, but that's just the way he handles things. Since when did being emotional equate to being an idiot? He pushed his hand through his dampened hair and groaned. He really should find someplace shadey to lay, but he was too hot to even consider moving a muscle. This morning Nii-chan had warned him it'd be scorching outside, but he assured him he'd be fine as he scurried out of the house wearing a long-sleeved shirt. Nii-chan had been right, as always.Never once had Ichiro mocked Jiro's intelligence. No matter how many tests he failed or classes he skipped, Ichiro remained proud of him and praised him in the other areas he succeeded in. He understood—as a former not-so-excellent student—that grades didn't determine a person's capabilities. Nii-chan was the living example of an extraordinary person who never let a lack school smarts stop him from achieving greatness. And Jiro wanted to be just like his older brother, so how could he not live by the same ideology? Saburo, on the other hand, called Jiro stupid more than a dozen times a day. In fact, it's like the taunt had been surgically attatched to his name; he can't remember the last time he heard Saburo refer to him as anything besides Stupid Jiro.But that in itself had become a term of endearment. Like when Jiro had run to Saburo's middle school in the rain to bring him the notebook he'd placed into Jiro's bag by mistake—Jiro had stood at the entrance with soaked clothes and heavy breaths as Saburo snatched the notebook from him, cheeks dusted pink, and muttered, "Stupid Jiro."He knew Saburo didn't think he was stupid. The taunts and jeers towards his intellect held no real weight behind them. They were just as empty as the insults Jiro threw back at Saburo in their pointless little arguments.Though he'd never admit it aloud, Saburo was one of the most brilliant people in the world. And if someone that smart didn't think he was an idiot, then he couldn't be, could he?Jiro's phone buzzed against his leg. He reluctantly removed the cap blocking his face from the sun and squinted at the screen.Ichiro: bought the fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood boxset just now. u guys up for a marathon all weekend?Saburo: Anything as long as I can spend time with you Ichi-nii!hell yeah I am!Saburo: Stupid Jiro, aren't you supposed to be in class?
aren't you, brat?
Saburo: It's my lunch period dumbass.Ichiro: no fighting or else i'll watch this entire thing by myself.
sorry nii-chan
Saburo: I'm sorry, Ichi-nii.Jiro's lips quirked up in a smile. As long as his brothers thought highly of him, no one else's opinion really mattered.