Huh?

I'm alive?

The pain in my chest disappeared and I was suddenly moved into a room?

"Where the heck am I?"

Looking at my surroundings, it doesn't look like a hospital at all.

In fact, it didn't even look like a proper place for a human to live in.

Rotten wall, dusty ceiling.

But why does this room look very familiar?

That cupboard, the stickers on it. That backpack.

Wait...

Isn't this my old bedroom?

Is this flashback of my life in heaven?

'This is my hand?'

It was very tiny.

Bam*

"Oi, how long are you going to sleep? Eat your damn breakfast and go to school."

A fierce-looking teenager barge into the room, dragging me out of the bed.

'Big brother?'

What the hell is this!

Why I'm a child again?!

Why is my big brother here?

Did I actually return to my past?

I have long forgotten everything about my past, I didn't want to remember about it because back then I was a very pathetic person.

Could be considered as the most pathetic person in the world.

It was the worst of the worst.

Thankfully, researching and making games made me forget about everything.

But now that I'm here again, I start to remember my dark past again.

My poor family and my horrible old self.

I remembered how much I disappointed them back then.

Seeing my blank expression, Mervin was confused.

'Hm? He didn't struggle?'

'Usually, he would always start his grumbling like Ahhh, I don't want to go to school or I want to sleep ten minutes more.'

While Mervin was dragging me, my mind was somewhere else, thinking of my current situation.

'How did I ended up here?'

Finally arrived at the table, Mervin lifted me and put me on the chair.

He then sat across me and started gulping down the food he prepared.

"Oi, eat, stop your daydreaming."

"After you ate, change into your school uniform or else you're going to be late."

Without complaining, I started to eat the 'food' as Mervin told me to.

Plain rice and dried anchovies.

The horrible taste of the food... makes me want to puke.

I'm really holding it back right now.

Looks like, I'm really back again.

While eating, I unconsciously stare at Mervin.

Seeing me being weird, Mervin spoke with a mouthful. "What's wrong?"

Gulped*

Realizing that I was staring at him awkwardly I immediately looked away.

Mervin then resumes eating his food. As always, he finished his food as fast as he could so he could go to work.

Right now judging by his look, I've returned to around 2000s.

"This is your allowance, don't f*cking buy snacks."

I nodded my head quietly.

"...Then I'm off to work, study properly you hear me!?."

Bam*

Mervin went off, leaving me alone.

Right, my brother used to work at such a young age.

Meanwhile, I was slacking and even causing trouble for them.

Looking at Mervin who is running frantically to his workplace, I should be ashamed of myself.

He was only 13 years old yet he was already providing for the family.

Though I'm not sure. From what I remembered, Father always opposed the idea of me going to school but Mervin wanted to at least give me an opportunity.

Because of me, he didn't get to study, pursuing a proper education. He sacrificed himself to give me the opportunity to study.

He works very hard to help pay the school fees for me, though father still helped to pay the majority of the fees, it was still admirable for thirteen years old earning money.

This shows how much he sacrifices for me and yet I was displeased that he didn't pay father's debt.

The more I thought about my dark past, the more I hate myself.

Looking at the clock on the wall, I realized there's not much time left.

I quickly finish all of the food and wear my school uniform.

Gah.

This uniform is small.

This body is small too.

It felt weird.

Dropping useless thoughts, I quickly grabbed my schoolbag and run out of the house.

After locking the door, I stood on the place for a few seconds, thinking where should is the school.

Which way is the school?

It's been too long already, I barely remember it.

I decided to leave it to my instinct.

Right, it is.

Slowly, the familiarity hit me and I finally recognize a few places.

I went in the correct direction.

After climbing the hill, I arrived at the school.

Arriving at the school gates, it feel nostalgic.

'I'm back to school again.'

Honestly, my memory for school, none of them is something nice to remember.

I sleep when throughout the class and when it's break time I bully people.

For the most time, that's the only thing I did during my primary school years.

I definitely didn't want to repeat those stupid actions again.

At this moment, I already accepted that I'm back in the past.

Whether it was a dream or not, I don't care, it felt very realistic to me.

The only thing matter right now was that I was given a second chance to redeem myself.

'I will not disappoint them this time.'

-----

As it was a long time already I have forgotten where is my classroom.

To find my own classroom I need to ask a teacher.

That looks that she gave me, she seems to know me.

Alright, I'll ask her.

I walked to her while sobbing.

'That problem child that I was told about is walking toward me.'

"What's wrong?"

"T-teacher, there's a rat in my classroom."

'Eek! A rat?!'

Gulped*

"Really? There's nothing to be scared of. Let's go."

...

...

"Where is the rat!?"

"Hehe, it ran off, I think. Thank you anyway."

Phew*

Fortunately, the teacher was glad to hear that the rat was gone, she didn't' ask any more questions and quickly left.

There's only one empty desk available, I guess that's mine.

Walking over to my seat, a boy suddenly spoke to me as I was about to put down my bag.

"Andy, what's wrong? Why are you with a teacher?"

'Who is he again?'

I tried my best to remember but no matter what I can't recognize him.

Though I've forgotten about him since he talked to me, means he's my friend.

"Nothing special. She just told me a few things."

Usually, I would be sleeping by now and didn't notice anything around me.

But since it's the current me, I noticed that the kids, today, they were awfully quiet.

Is there something that's about to happen which I didn't know about?

"Um, why are the other kids so quiet? There's still time before the class starts right?"

"Oh, they're just probably anxious about the upcoming test,"

The boy replied calmly as though he has finished studying but in fact, he just didn't care.

Test?!? What test?!?

"Um, what test? Is it history? or civics?"

"Worse than that, it's math!"

Even though he said it in a terrified tone, he was probably the only person that could smile while mentioning math.

On the other hand, I was quite relieved when it's a math test.

Thank god, if it's math I can still do it. Primary-school math wasn't that hard.

...

Well, back then it was hard but since I'm adult already they should be easy right?

Fortunately, it wasn't theory-based subjects, if so I'm doomed. There's no way I could answer something that I've never studied before.

"The teacher is coming!"

A kid warned everyone as he caught a glimpse of the teacher's face in the hallway. He then rushed back to his seat.

"Stand up!"

The class representative commanded the whole class.

Afterward, the teacher then walked in, after putting his stuff on the table we bowed.

"Good morning, teacher!"

Everyone said in unison.

"Keep all of your belongings except for pencil and eraser. The rest keep of them, inside your bag, and put at the front."

"You! Switch seat with him!"

The teacher pointed at me, wanted me to switch the boy that sits in front.

"You too! switch seat with her!"

The teacher started to arranging our seat so that we couldn't cheat.

He separated the children according to their grades, the incapable one at the front so he could prevent them from cheating, and the capable one at the back since they will do it on their own.

Of course, this doesn't mean he treated everyone inequally. If they're discovered that they're cheating, they'll still be punished.

After all, he's the 'Devil'.

Everyone has to follow his rules.

No talking, no cheating.

This teacher... even though it has been years.

I can still remember him quite well.

'Same as usual, Mr.Ridwan that I used to know.'

He was the strictest teacher that I ever met, but he's not a bad teacher, it's just that don't be cheeky or naughty in front of him. He can't stand annoying kids.

If you comply with his rules and listen to him, he is actually quite kind.

After finishing arranging the seat, he handed out the test paper and I started to answer them.

As I expected, the questions are quite easy.

[Write one million and twenty-five thousand in digits]

[Order the following fraction from biggest to smallest]

[Round 415,67 to the nearest whole number]

If I can't do these questions, I'll be ashamed as an adult.

I finished answering all of the questions in less than ten minutes.

After I finished, All I did was staring at Mr.Ridwan until the test was over.

An hour passed and all of the children have handed in the paper including me.

We continued another hour's lesson in math.

After another hour passed the math class ended, Mr.Ridwan left the classroom.

The next class was literature.

We were taught by another teacher, Miss Fitri the teacher that guided me to this classroom.

She was a very kind woman, though I misused her kindness and sleep during her class back then.

Another hour passed peacefully, it finally breaks time.

"Hey, Andy wants to bully people?"

The boy that talked to me when I first arrived, approached me and the first thing he asked was bullying people.

Hearing what he said, I finally remember who this boy was.

He's definitely Micheal, my partner-in-crime.

Yup.

His bad behavior was because of me and it's probably my responsibility too, to fix him.

"Um, we should go to the canteen and eat."

I dragged him to the canteen without asking him, but Micheal wasn't opposed to it either.

We eat together at the canteen. Since I've already eaten in the morning, to avoid awkwardness, I bought soy milk which cost 500 rupiahs.

It's delicious and healthy. Most importantly, it's not a snack.

My brother wouldn't scold me for buying that.

Well, not that he will know.

The break time ends and we have to quickly return to the class.

Because the next class is history class which was taught by Mr.Ridwan.

Since it was his class, we can't be late or else we'll be punished.

If it was another teacher's class, most of the children wouldn't mind at all being late for a few minutes and take their time to enjoy the scenery of the hallway.

After all, it's not their fault. The break time given by the school to the kids was too short.

More importantly, most teachers knew what's going on for the kids because their break time is the same as children's break time so they won't blame the kids.

Anyway, you can see the one from our class stopped chit-chatting and quickly ran upstairs.

We also ran to the classroom as quickly as possible.

After the next few hours, the school is over, I bid my farewell to Micheal and gone home early.

Micheal was disappointed to see me leaving early. The main reason he was disappointed was that it was the first time I left early than him.

It's not like me at all to go home early. I usually wait with him until his mother comes and fetched him home.

Tomorrow I'll accompany you, right now, I just can't. I still have to sort my mind out.

There's too much thing going on in my head.

"Bye!"

"Un, Bye!"

-----

Back in my bedroom, I was laying down on the floor.

Looking at the dusty ceiling, I thought to myself.

'Now that I'm back, what is the most important thing I have to do right now?'

Sigh*

Sitting up straight, I shook my head as I look at my surroundings.

Everything is worn-out. The furniture, my bed, the desk.

'I need money again.'

I realized it as soon as I arrived but I didn't want to acknowledge it.

Though money can't buy happiness, it can still at least allows you to live comfortably.

'Anyway, I need to get more money but how do I do that?'

Develop games? but I don't have a computer with me. I can go to an internet cafe and borrow their computer but I don't want Mervin to misunderstand my intention.

I can't just tell him I'm going to make money by making games can I?

He will smash my face on the wall.

So, how do I help them? Should I visit my father's workplace?

He should be working as a mechanic at that store.

If I'm not wrong, at this time he's about to give up on being a mechanic.

That's when the debt came.

I don't know the story of how but he will borrow a huge sum of money from a loan shark.

That money will then be invested to build an internet cafe.

But then a year or so, before he could pay the debt back, he passed away from lung cancer.

Though he has passed away, the loanshark still wanted the money back. Since we're the only ones related to him, they come for us every day asking for money.

For now, the money for the debt wasn't that important. I can solve that if time was given.

What's more important was lung cancer.

Tomorrow I'll go find a job.