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Suguru Getou had parents.

They taught him how to play „Scrabble”, even some „Scrabble Original”, the English one, even though that was very difficult.

So difficult that he has no idea how come Satoru and Shoko had more wins over him in „Scrabble Original” that he over them, but that was okay. Apart from Satoru being an insuferrable winner and – rarely – insufferable loser, that is. Suguru Getou sometimes wondered if Satoru sometimes used his Six Eyes to somehow cheating at Scrabble.

However, Suguru’s parents had taught him that cheating in the game of Scrabble was literally impossible.

So, yeah, surely Satoru was cheating. Perhaps. But Satoru was the fool there, because he was cheating while not knowing that he wasn’t cheating.

„That’s the spirit!” Suguru’s mom would exclaim whenever Suguru’s dad won. „I win, my husband is the best ever!”
„That’s it! I win, my wife is the cleverest woman on Earth,” Suguru’s dad would whisper almost quietly whenever Suguru’s mom won.

Satoru did not understand the TRUE, unwritten, made-up by parents rules of „Scrabble Original” especially quite like Suguru did, and so did not understand, that whether Suguru won or lost to Satoru or Shoko, Suguru was always the winner at „Scrabble”, and especially at Scrabble Original (the English one, the one that Suguru always won at with his parents. Well, he always won (and sometimes lost, aka won) at normal Scrabble, too.

The only way to lose at Scrabble, Suguru knew, from his dear parents, was to throw the board. Because playing Scrabble was only something done with people closest to you. And if you threw the board at the people you loved, the people who loved you, if you threw the board petulantly – even if somebody had to reds in a row, if you threw the board pettily – you lost, if only momentarily, because the people you played Scrabble with, they would always forgive you

always


always


*******

Suguru Getou was now twenty years old. He had no parents. He had killed

no, he had done what he had to, no exceptions, and so




One day, when he returned home, he saw Mimiko and Nanako playing „Scrabble Original”.
He wasn’t sure why he was upset. He, the day before, gave them some change and encouraged them to buy some board game, maybe Mahjong or Monopoly, maybe „Who wants to be a Millionaire” in English (they could use learning some English language), maybe cards instead („Magic the Gathering!” Mimiko exclaimed and