As children, Kuro, his brother Mizu, and their next door neighbor Phillip were best friends, always playing together. In their teenage years, when the brothers’ emotionally abusive father fell ill, their friendship fell apart. For a time Mizu dated Phillip, and conflicted and frustrated, Kuro sought comfort from random strangers and did drugs.<br><br>The three men are now adults and Mizu and Phillip have broken up, with little chance for reconciliation. Without anywhere else to go, Phillip and Kuro move into a dumpy apartment, and Kuro hopes the two of them will be happy together. Maybe they’ll even have an opportunity to kindle a romance.<br><br>But Mizu is extremely jealous of their closeness, and both men have their own issues they’re struggling with and trying to recover from. To make matters worse, Kuro is losing sleep, as he’s constantly waking up at three a.m. Will Phillip accept Kuro’s feelings, or will he go back to Mizu? Can Kuro reconcile with his brother and his past?

3 A.M.

I don’t even know why I am doing this. I haven’t achieved anything. I barely got my high school diploma. I am attending a community college in the fall. My life hasn’t “started” in the sense everyone said it would. The road ahead feels exhausting and pointless. Years of more school to potentially get a job, which I will inevitably hate. In truth, this is one of the most depressing days of my life.


“Hey Kuro. You ready to go?” Phillip knocks on the wooden frame of my door.


“I can’t tie this stupid thing,” I stammer, flinging my hands wildly in the air. “Fuck, I have no idea why she’s so insistent on me wearing a tie.”


“Hey, it’s your day. You don’t have to wear the tie.”


“She’ll bitch at me endlessly if I don’t wear this tie. It is obviously not my day. If it was my day, I wouldn’t be going to this thing. And I wouldn’t be having my graduation dinner at Applebee’s because Grandma can’t handle anything with flavor.”


Chapter 12