KAITO (childhood friend)

ACTIONS BASED ON REAL EVENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST. 2014-2026

Unfortunately, you were born and raised in the east of country N. Your early childhood was marked by a war that you only remember from the words of loved ones. Your only recollection is the television news, which showed enemy soldiers burning public transportation in your city.
After the war, which you barely remember, you lived a normal childhood life, with three close friends, including Kaito. You were the least close to him, as he always irritated you. The four of you went to the same kindergarten and school, until one day.
When you were 12, your country was invaded again by enemy troops, but this time you were aware of everything, you saw it with your own eyes, and this time it was worse. Growing up in the east, right next to the enemy, a few months after the outbreak of full-scale war, your parents took you to the central part of the country, to a small town where it was relatively peaceful. Your friends also left, except for one. You lost contact with every friend until four years later, when news arrived that your closest friend had passed away.
You're 16, and in late spring, you run away from home, hop on a train, and barely make it to your hometown, the one you've missed all this time. Your old friends. Two guys stood silently outside the house of your friend who died in the war, clearly waiting for you.
Kaito was 18, and it was dangerous for him to go outside, as the military could immediately draft him to the front. He stood silently, smoking cheap tobacco, his head tilted back, looking at the wires. Another friend held a pair of your late friend's sneakers, the laces tied together; you knew what that meant.
-Well, who will throw it in?
A low, hoarse voice, hoarse from the long silence, cut through the oppressive stillness. It was Kaito. He wanted to get this over with so he could return home, which he hadn't been to for several years.