• “You’re up early, or is it me that’s running late? I could have sworn that you don’t usually wake up before I leave.” Shiori said. Her expression was somewhat confused.
    “Today is a little different.” I explained to her that I needed to go over to Kei’s house to apologize. If I didn’t do it before school today, then everything would become awkward between us.
    “So basically…you woke up early…because you wanted to apologize?” I nodded to her.
    “Sounds like a lot of trouble, you must really like him.” She smirked.
    “I don’t love him!” I shouted.
    “Ha! I said, like! I never mentioned anything about you loving him.” I narrowed my eyes as she began to laugh.
    “Well, Ms. Love Struck. I must be on my way to work.” Shiori grabbed her coat, I followed her out.
    “Make sure you mention your feelings clearly. Don’t hold back!” Shiori sang loudly as she teetered off to work.
    “How rude!!!” I yelled and began to walk down to Kei’s house. I do NOT love Kei! I just feel that I need to apologize because what I had said sounded harsh. I mean, he saved me from going over board. If I were to give into temptation…then it would ruin everything. Ugh!!! Now Shiori’s got me thinking about unnecessary things again! I shrugged off the thoughts as I rang the door bell. I took a deep breath.
    “What are you doing here?” I looked up and saw Kei standing there. In front of me…I think I might just hyperventilate…
    “Miki? Are you ok?” Kei asked.
    “Um…no.” I couldn’t do this, so I turned around and ran away.
    “Miki!” I didn’t stop running.
    I finally stopped in front of the school gates.
    “Aya…” I heard someone say. So I walked into the school gates, and went around the corner. And sure enough, Mami and her group of girls had cornered Aya again. In the same spot where they were last time. This time I wasn’t going to hold back!
    “Hey!” I intervened, “I thought I told you to stop picking on Aya!” I said.
    “I wasn’t going to do anything but apologize.” Mami was serious.
    “Oh…” Was all I managed to say.
    “You were right Miki, I am in love with Rui. Which is why I always followed in everything he did. But I realized my own actions, hurt everyone around me. And Aya, I’m sorry for everything.” Mami and her group, bowed.
    Aya and I were speechless.

    “Hey Miki.” Akane, Kaori and Meiko greeted during lunch. I finally remembered their names and it felt good. Kei had come late to class again, he looked like he wanted to say something to me but also couldn’t. Right as the bell for lunch began, his friends from another class called him over.
    “Hey Miki.” Aya came and sat with us. The other girls smiled and said hello as well.
    “Oh isn’t this sweet? Aya, you’ve finally made some friends.” Rui came over and stole something from Aya’s lunch.
    “Hey! You should go get your own lunch for once!” I stood up. He chuckled, and walked over to me instead.
    “Rui stop!” Mami came into the picture.
    “You dare speak up to me?” He sneered at me, ignoring Mami completely. She looked worried for me, but I really didn’t care what happened to me.
    “Get away from Miki!” Akane stood up too.
    “Yeah!” Kaori and Meiko followed.
    “Boys.” Rui said, and his group held them all down.
    “Don’t bring them into this! Your problem is with me.” I said, and his attention went right back to me. The whole class became silent and Rui leaned in.
    “You sure have a big mouth, maybe I should shut you up with a kiss like I did with Aya.” He smirked as he leaned in closer to me.
    “Hey!” Everyone, including Rui; turned to see who it was by the door. It was Kei, standing in a pose that looked a little…sexy?!?
    “I don’t know what’s going on here Rui, but I don’t like the reports I’ve been getting.” Kei said.
    “Kei.” Rui spit out. No wonder there was never a feud during class, it was because Rui was from a different class. And during lunch, Kei would always disappear. So they never really met often in school.
    “I advise you to leave.” Kei narrowed his eyes.
    “What if I don’t want to?” Rui snaked his head, trying to be intimidating.
    “I don’t want to damage school property like last time.”
    “Then you shouldn’t move so much, so I wouldn’t have to miss so much!” Rui went to charge Kei. But another guy stepped in front and punched Rui in the face first. It was so fast, that it took me a while to realize who it was!
    “Jiro, you didn’t have to do that.” Kei said.
    “Sorry, but I don’t feel like paying for anymore damages.” He replied with a smile. My eyes went wide. Jiro was a delinquent too?!
    “You’ll hear from us again!” Rui exited the room with his group following. Mami quietly began to laugh as she too, followed.
    “Aya, are you alright?” Jiro went to her side. She began to blush.
    “Hey, Miki can I talk to you for a minute?” Jiro asked. I followed him out into the hall.
    “About before Miki, I wanted to tell you that…”
    “You wanted to know if Aya was doing good in class.” I said. He looked embarrassed.
    “I originally thought that you were going to ask me out.”
    “Miki, I’m…”
    “It’s fine. After everything that happened, I knew it had to do something with Aya.”
    “I’m sorry…”
    “You don’t have to be, you like Aya and you can’t help it.” I smiled. He smiled too.
    “But…” I became serious, “I can only protect her so many times, if you want to be her boyfriend; then make sure you take care of her. Cause if you don’t, I’ll definitely kill you myself.” I got in his face, then stepped back.
    “Well, bye-bye.” I smiled and walked back into the classroom as he looked stunned. The angel has now broken through her shell. I’m different after all, I thought. And I don’t mind at all.
    “Hey, where did Kei go?” I asked. Aya looked at me calmly.
    “He went out.” She shrugged. Hmm, I need to find him to apologize and thank him all at the same time.
    “Ok, be right back.” I said as I ran out the door. The only place that he would be that came to mind, was the roof. So that’s where I headed too.
    I ran up all the stairs until I finally made it to the roof top. That’s where I found Kei, he was leaning against the railing; looking out. The wind blew evenly, and it felt nice. I walked over to him slowly.
    “Found you.” I said. He didn’t say anything or even moved a muscle. I looked around aimlessly, it didn’t have to be this hard.
    “Why are you here? Why did you REALLY transfer? Tell the truth, Jiro already told me. You said it was because your father is overseas and your mother disappeared.” He asked. I didn’t know Jiro and Kei were such good friends. If I knew that, I wouldn’t have even bothered to lie.
    “I transferred here to start over with myself.” I walked over to him and leaned next to him.
    “My old life…it was never really me. I just wanted to fit in, and do the right thing. But some thing stopped me from doing so…”
    “Eru.” Kei said. I looked at Kei shocked.
    “Sorry, I overheard you and Aya talking.” Does that mean he heard us crying too?! Oh well, I shook it off.
    “Well, his name is actually Takeru. Eru is his nickname.” I explained, “It’s true that I lied. My parents and I were living together after my sister decided to move out a long time ago. But when I lived with my parents, it always felt like that. When my father went to his business trips, my mother would be gone too. She would be out with her friends. I would always be alone, and when I would be with Takeru, I would feel loved. I would never feel like I was alone.”
    “Having your parents bother you, is more annoying.” He said.
    “Is that why you don’t live with your parents?” I asked.
    “How did you…?”
    “When I was over at your house, the phone rang. It was your mother…”
    “Oh, well just like you; I used to live with my parents. But it wasn’t me who abandoned them, it was them who abandoned me. One day after school, my father found a new job in another country. My mother was so thrilled, that she agreed to the moving us all. But I didn’t want to leave, I had all my friends here. Everything was great now, so why would I leave? With my mind set and the arrangements made, I stayed back and started to live on my own. It’s not such a complicated story.” I nodded and smiled to him. Even with this little information, I felt like I knew him a little bit better.
    “I want to apologize.” I said suddenly. It was the perfect time to say this, or I wouldn’t be able to do it again.
    “For what?” He turned to me as I turned to him.
    “That time with Aya, I had said some things that were hurtful.”
    “Yeah, they were.”
    “Next time, you shouldn’t do such reckless things. I don’t want to be responsible for what happens to you…”
    “What do you mean?! I saved your life! Is this some way of saying thank you?! Do you know how worried I was about…?!” I grabbed Kei, and kissed him.
    “I’ll only let my boyfriend worry for me.” I smiled as I ended the kiss. He was speechless, and after a second passed; he hugged me close to him. This warmth, felt nice; I thought as I hugged him back tighter.

    “Up early again this morning.” Shiori commented. I smiled.
    “Nothing really.” I said as I ran out the door. She didn’t need to know so much right now.
    “Morning.” Kei greeted as he waited for me. I smiled and rushed over to him.
    “Morning.” He chuckled. We were just a little bit early so we could spend more time together. Even if Kei was a delinquent, he was a different type. He wasn’t like Takeru, who only went out torturing people. He helped people, which is something Takeru would never do. I was like a love sick puppy right now, I was so into Kei. I giggled.
    “What’s so funny?” He asked. I grabbed his hand and intertwined our fingers together.
    “Nothing.” I replied.
    “You’re a very suspicious girl, I wonder what I’ve gotten myself into. You must have been thinking something perverted just now, right?” He said.
    “No I wasn’t!” I replied.
    “Was it something creepy at all?”
    “No!”
    “Ok, here’s another one. You were thinking about how in love you were with me.” He said it as if it was like eureka! I blushed anyhow.
    “Oh-ho. So I was right!” He teased. So he wants to tease me.
    “I was thinking about someone.” I said innocently. He looked worried now.
    “Wait, who is it? I want to know!” So stupid, it’s you! I wanted to say.
    “Nope.”
    “Is it Jiro? You’re thinking of liking him again?!” He almost shouted. Inside I couldn’t help but laugh.
    “No. Stop guessing!” I said.
    He kept asking me all the way, until class started. And even then, I looked over to him and he was thinking hard about it. I rolled my eyes.
    “Class, we have a new student. His name is Sumimaru Takeru.” A boy entered the class, my eyes widened. This really couldn’t be happening.
    “Just call me, Eru.” He said. He looked around the room, and I could already tell what he was looking for. When his eyes spotted me, he smiled. This was bad, I’ve never been this scared since I left him…