As the young lady walks along the pathway of the Springfield (Boy) International School in the evening; she stopped by in front of the main gate of the school, thought of something at the moment. She looks at the building; kind of very old and unique. The gate automatically opens suddenly once the bell rang, she startles as she moves aside. The first group appears from the building, they are six of them walks toward the gate. Suddenly, the phone of the young lady vibrates.

She presses the on-call button without seeing the in-call name, and answers the phone, “Hello? Daddy? No, I just breathe the fresh air outside. No… just walking around. Nothing. Yup! Hoping that, too. Okay, daddy. I will looking forward towards it. Okay, okay, bye.”

Once she turns around, there are six of young man stands at the back of her. She shocks, and they are smiling at her.

“Hi!” greets one of the young man. “Local?”

She nods and speechless; one of the young man pulls her hand as they walks away from the school, and they brings her to their usual place where they regularly hang out before, it was Hikari-Memoire Coffee-house. As they enter the coffee house, they choose the main seat that fitted seven until eight seats. They sit together, and begin their conversation among themselves. The young lady just silence, and listens to each of the words they are saying. Their conversation quite interesting, but she still cannot joins the conversation as she isn’t known-well the details. However, one of the young man looks at her, and randomly asks her any questions.

“Are you confirm that you are local?” asks the one six young men, looking straight at her eyes.

“I just nodded before you brought me here, I am a local but not from this place. Actually, I was from Osakayama, Osaka Prefecture. I come to this place because of my parent’s decision,” says the young lady. “By the way, my name is Minamoto Yukiko-Genevieve.”

“Mixed?” asks another of the six young man. “Which side? Mother or father?”

“Why should I tell you? I just know you,” says Yukiko, sound unfriendly.

“My name is Kim Donghyun,” introduces one of them, and smiling. “And these my friends, guys, you should introduce yourself.”

“I am No Minwoo, the youngest amongst them by month…,” introduces Minwoo. “Are you familiar with our language, Hangul?”

Yukiko shakes her head, as she is telling the truth; she prefers English and her father-side language, Japanese. She also fluent in French-Spanish since her mother was English-French-Spanish woman. However, she never speaks French-Spanish with outsiders except her mother and mother’s side. She just quiet about that since that is not really important much.

“We’re twin, this is my brother, six minutes older than me, Jo Youngmin, and I was known as Kwangmin, the prankster among them,” Kwangmin smiles after he introduces himself and his twin, Youngmin. “We’re Jo.”

“Hi, I’m Lee Jungmin and this Shim Hyunseong!”

“Nice to meet you, Yukiko,” says Hyunseong, shakes Yukiko’s hand.

“You all, just as weird as someone I know,” says Yukiko, feels very awkward with them. “I just want to know why are you dragging me until this far? I just known as a stranger, for all of you. And… this I couldn’t understand, how come you feels so comfortable with this kind of ‘short-term-so-called-relationship’. We just know each other for a few minutes ago.”

“But… is that fine with you if we befriend with anyone here, am I right? By the way, we are considering you as one of our friend too,” explains Jungmin, “You are the first local that we ever met that kind of friendly towards us.”

“Since when?” mutters Yukiko, gazing at each of them with suspicious look. “Friendly? Not my character.”

Donghyun goes to the order counter and orders the drinks and some of the snacks for his friends. While then, the rest are having their conversation among each other.

“Did you say that you’re from Osaka Prefecture?” asks Kwangmin, leans at his chair, looking straight at Yukiko.

“I did, just a while ago. And you did pay attention on what people said, that’s good,” praises Yukiko, with smile on her face. “Thank you…”

“Besides, your English aren’t that bad. Are you taking English as a major in your study?” said Hyunseong, very curious.

“English was my second language after Kansai and standard Japanese; same goes with my mother’s side, once or twice a year we will have a visit to Luxembourg, visiting grandparent’s house there,” Yukiko tells them.

Donghyun returns once making an order at the counter; he looks very interested in that conversation. Yukiko stops for a while.

“They really looked very suspicious; I think I should stop here or else,” mumbled Yukiko.

Nevertheless, Yukiko changes the topic which more toward them instead of her. Providentially, no one notices about it. They continue the conversation until the day turns dark which Yukiko needs to make a move to her dorm that miles away from the place. Six of the young man offers themselves to walk with her to the bus stop but Yukiko rejects the offer. They insist, and finally Yukiko give up, and let they do whatever they want. The bus stop is not that far from the coffee house, seven of them walk together to the bus top. The conversation never end there.

“Thank you, Yukiko. Our days much more fun than before,” said Donghyun.

“We’re very happy, Yukiko. Thank you for being our friends and we would like to be your friends if that you still want,” said Donghyun, patted Yukiko’s head.

Yukiko moves Donghyun’s hand from her head, she a bit pissed off when someone touch or pat her head; she just doesn’t like the feeling.

“Why?” asked Donghyun, wondering.

“I just don’t like it,” told Yukiko, with the seriousness on her face.

While at the bus stop… the breeze wind blows the area, and it was chills at the moment. The bus is not there yet; Yukiko takes out her coins and prepares it while waiting for the arrival of the bus. Unexpectedly, there a kitten walks pass them. It is mackerel marked on its fur. Yukiko grabs the kitten as she hugs it.

“Do you like cat?” asked Minwoo, looking at the kitten.

Yukiko smiled, and said, “I like animals, and I have registered myself in SPCA. One of my volunteering job. I might not able to help human, at least I can help this tiny creature to find their forever home. Some more, it was separate from its mother cat.”

“SPCA… are you going to be a veterinary one day?” asked Jungmin.

“Kind of, one of them from my list,” said Yukiko, without hesitation. “They are living creature, too.”

Without another reluctance, Donghyun took the kitten from Yukiko’s hand and patting it. He said, “Let me take care of this tiny creature. Our dorm allow us, at least each of us have one animal to adopt. That’s the different rules from Springfield (Boy) International School.”

Yukiko looks more eager once Donghyun offers himself to take care of the tiny creature; however, Yukiko insists that she is the one that will take care of the kitten. Nonetheless, Donghyun persistence towards his own decision. Yukiko give up for second time. No longer than thirty minutes, the bus arrives. Yukiko waves towards six of them once she was on that bus. Before the bus departs, she gives a signal to Donghyun to care for that kitten. She decides to make a second comeback for the kitten another round once she has free time. She was looking forward towards it.

***

The End of Chapter One