If this is a dream, please don’t let me wake up from it. Nino was staring very hard on his diary that he had been keeping since he started elementary. He was very busy writing all the events that had happened to him the other day. It has been his dream for so long to be able to confess his feelings to Satoshi and now, they were officially together.

“I guess that the heavens really wanted me to have him,” he said out loud.

I promise this love even for a hundred years. You are the person that I want to share my time with. Every thing about us is precious. If you are here, I don’t need anything else. I promise that I will definitely make you happy. This irreplaceable encounter is really a miracle. The song of our beginning is echoing.

~***~

Jun was staring into the clouds as the wind pushed them to move away to a new place. He was sitting on top of the roof and tried to isolate himself from the busy surroundings inside the house as the bakery was packed with people that afternoon.

He was unaware that there were no more people down at the bakery and that his parents noticed his disappearance. His mother asked Sakurai where he was and Sakurai said that he’ll look for him. Little did Jun know, the roof wasn’t his own hiding place any more. Sakurai went up to see Jun staring away.

“Hey,” Sakurai said. He stifled a laugh when he saw that Jun bounced in shock as he called him.

“Hey,” Jun answered.

“They’re looking for you downstairs.”

“Don’t mind them,” Jun said, “I need time alone in some days. It just happened to be today.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Sakurai pondered at this for a moment. He looked at Jun’s figure in the fading sun light. He seemed to think about something that was really deep. Sakurai didn’t know if he should be asking about it but he wanted to know more about his friend.

“Don’t worry,” Jun said, causing Sakurai to look at him.

Jun had sighed deep as the clouds moved fast in the wind’s breath. There was a storm coming that day that was why there were loads of customers in the bakery. They wanted to avoid running out of food in the middle of the storm’s wrath. After sighing, there were already droplets of rain that fell onto his face and body. Sensing this, Jun and Sakurai went inside, into the room that they were sharing.

~***~

“Can’t you please stay away?” Mao Inoue pleaded to Masaki.

“I can’t,” Masaki answered.

Masaki waited for Mao after the class. Masaki had a crush on her since the start of the semester and he wanted to confess his feelings for her. He wanted the girl to be his once and for all, now that she had split up with her boyfriend Jin Kazuya, who was a year younger than them and also the president of the history club.

Mao walked away from Masaki but the latter still followed her to the lockers. Masaki already made up his mind to get Mao as his girl. She was sweet and smart. She was a part of the student council and she was one of the best students in school when it comes to academics. Apart from these, he also thought that Mao has a beautiful model figure.

As Mao took out her shoes from her locker, she spotted Jin with two girls tailing him. They were giggling and smiling as Jin said something that looked like funny. Jin didn’t notice her. Or maybe he tried not to look like he saw me, Mao thought. He kept on talking and walking with the two girls until Mao lost sight of them.

“Come on, Mao,” Masaki continued.

“Alright,” Mao answered, totally irritated, “What do you want?”

Masaki stared straight into her eyes and answered, “You.”

Mao suddenly lunged and punched him in the face, “How dare you?”

Masaki was taken off-guard but he held his composure. He clutched on his left cheek where Mao hit him with her fist. He smiled at her then left. He couldn’t take on a girl with such a high spirit and not when she just saw her ex-boyfriend with some other girls. Why can’t she just say yes? Masaki thought wearily as he left the girl with tears in her eyes.

~***~

Sakurai was lying down on the couch inside Masaki’s dorm room and was reading a manga. He had been waiting for an hour for his friend but he didn’t know where he went. He was already thinking about going out when Masaki entered the room with a bloody cheek.

“What happened to your face?” Sakurai asked.

“A girl punched me,” Masaki answered, “I asked her out and this happened.”

Sakurai laughed hard as he said, “You-asked-a-girl-and-then-she-punched-you?”

Masaki managed to get a hold of a towel and washed it with cold water before putting it on his cheek. He sat down on the floor near the couch and leaned his back on the seat. He stretched his legs and put it on the table in front of him, spilling the glass of water onto his pants that Sakurai left there.

“What the-?” he exclaimed, “Is this the worst day ever or what?” He took some paper towels and dried himself off with it.

~***~

The next day, Mao was looking for a magazine in a book store where she often went to buy some school supplies. She was preoccupied in the magazine rack that she accidentally bumped into a person. “Sorry,” she apologized but was cut off in mid way when she saw that it was actually Jin.

“Watch out,” Jin said irritably.

“I didn’t see you,” Mao spat.

“Well, you should be careful.”

After saying that, Jin went away into the other section of the bookstore. Mao just got more bothered with her ex-boyfriend’s behavior. She remembered the time when they broke up just because of a little misunderstanding about her duties in school. Jin was almost expelled at that time due to fighting with some students coming from another school and she couldn’t defend his actions.

“It’s only because they provoke him, sensei,” Mao said to the vice principal.

The vice principal was staring outside the window as if the trees were worth watching at all. She didn’t want to look at the student’s eyes for her own eyes were in its dragon’s stare mode. She couldn’t be calm if she looked at Mao and Jin that time.

Jin didn’t look at the vice principal as he said, “I wouldn’t fight if they didn’t insult me.”

“Akanishi-san,” the vice principal spoke, “You should be careful of your actions as long as you’re still wearing the uniform of this school. It’s in the hand book that you shouldn’t be involved in any kinds of trouble when wearing the uniform.”

“He’s sorry-,” Mao started to defend him.

“Inoue-san,” the vice principal addressed her, “I’m not speaking to you but to Akanishi-san.”

Mao bowed her head. She felt ashamed of being reprimanded by a teacher, “Gomenasai.”

Jin looked at her with pleading eyes. He didn’t want to get expelled just because of this. He never intended to fight at all but when they insulted his older brother, who was in the hospital for being bullied and almost killed by the gangsters from the other school near theirs, his cool composure just snapped and he blindly beat all of the boys without thinking its consequences.

“Sorry, Jin-kun,” Mao asked for forgiveness.

“Don’t worry, I completely understand your decision,” Jin answered sarcastically.

Mao was filled with tears as she tried to embrace Jin but he moved away from her arms. He didn’t care about Mao anymore now that he had been suspended. He knew that he was at fault but he never thought that Mao wouldn’t continue to protect him from the vice principal’s decision. Yes, he wasn’t expelled but he had to endure a whole week of suspension and hateful looks from their peers.

“I think you should stay away from me,” Jin said, walking away feeling betrayed.

Mao shouted from the top of her lungs, “I will wait for you.”

Mao couldn’t stop the tears from falling as she remembered how they ended up like this. She didn’t want to leave him alone knowing that he was also suffering but it was also painful for her to hear those kinds of words from him. All she could do was to wait for him under this storm before they really fell apart. However, she knew that she could only do it until she felt that it was useless.

A/N: Here's the next chapter. It includes Aiba's love story with Mao... I have no idea how it ended like this but I hope that you'll have fun reading.