"Oi Jun, we've got to go back to the studio immediately." Masaki said while we got off of my car.

"I know, I know. This won't take long." I held the bouquet of tulips with my hands and entered the cemetery. We walked to the direction of her grave and saw two bouquets placed on it. Maybe Kazu and Riida came here already, I thought. I gently put my bouquet on the leftmost while Masaki placed his on the other end. "I wonder how you're doing up there." I whispered and looked at the sky. 

---~~~---

“Let’s go to the haunted house~!” Kazu dragged us through the school corridors. It was noisy everywhere. Oh, the time of the school year that I love the most. School festival. Our class decided to be a café for the event. But since the four of us – Kazu, Sho, Chii and I – took the morning shift, we have our free time now.

“Wait!” Chiyomi stopped. I guess she became tired because we ran through the crowd of people in the way.

“Ah, gomen.” Kazu stopped and started walking. We walked by twos. As usual, Kazu walked beside Chii. Sho and I were following them.

“The haunted house is done by Oh-chan’s class right?” I heard her ask. “Yeah.” Kazu answered. I looked at Sho, he seemed jealous. Well, I had to admit, I was too.

We eventually reached Riida’s classroom by the end of the hallway. There was a pretty long line in front of the room. Then we saw a sign by the door which said “Only two people should enter at a time.”

“Let’s do janken!” I guess Sho will never give up easily and let Kazu have her on his own. Kazu agreed without any complaints so the three of us played janken. At first, Kazu did paper, Sho was scissors and I was rock. On our second attempt, all of us did paper. On our next attempt, Sho was rock. Kazu was rock.. Paper beats rock.

“Yosha~!!” I won! I get to be with her!... For the haunted house. Oh well.

“Jun-chan, yoroshiku ne~” She stood beside me as we lined up. Am I lucky or what?! Sho seemed disappointed. Kazu was.. normal. “Waa~ I’m getting excited~!” Chii said. Her eyes sparkled as I watched her.

---~~~---

Finally, after a long time of waiting, it was our turn to enter. I was getting scared because for the whole time we were waiting, all I could hear was screams… and Kazu laughing with Chii. But never mind that, this time.. is my time with her. So the two of us went ahead while Sho and Kazu was left there by the door.

It was dark. Well, of course, it should look haunted. But fortunately, we were provided with one flashlight. We continued walking through the “haunted” maze. I was surprised at the sudden fall of a doll from the ceiling. I stared at it as it landed on the floor. I flashed the light on it, its arms were covered in red paint. I looked at Chii, she was a bit scared, I could tell. We started walking again. Then I felt a cold hand touching mine. I sharply looked at her. Her hands were shaking. I squeezed her hand. I smiled at her. She smiled back. But while we were smiling at each other and not looking at where we were going…

“Kyaa!” Chii screamed. A person wearing an all-black suit and a white mask touched her shoulder. Chii turned to me and buried her face on my chest. I wrapped my arm around her. She was crying.

“Oy! Why are you hugging?!” The guy whispered. He removed his mask.

“Riida?” I said. Chii looked at him.

“Oh-chan?” Her eyes were shining, with tears about to fall.

“Chiyomi, don’t cry.” He told her. He pat her head and wiped her tears. “Do you think you could continue?” Chii shook her head. A girl walked towards us.

“What’s wrong?” She asked. Riida explained that we can’t go further and led us to the exit. We looked at the line. “Kazu and Sho went in already, huh.” I said. Then I felt her cold hand hold my arm. I looked at her.

“I want soft cream.” I thought about it. I didn’t really care about leaving Kazu and Sho have the scare of their lives. I started walking with Chiyomi still clinging onto my arm. We started to walk down the stairs until I heard someone shout. Hah, Sho, the scaredy cat.

We went out of the building to go to the booths on the school grounds. We headed to a soft cream stand as we squeezed ourselves in the big crowd checking out the other booths while she was holding my hand so that we wouldn’t get separated. I bought chocolate-flavored soft cream while hers was strawberry flavored. We looked for a spot where people aren’t around and thought about the school gym.

---~~~---

“Are you okay now?” I asked. She sat on the grass. It was quiet behind the school gym

“Yeah.” She smiled and sniffed as she finished her soft cream. “Finally~” She stretched her arms upwards and leaned on the wall.

“What?” Finally what? She wasn’t crying anymore.

“I have this time to be alone with you.” Crap. She was looking straight at me.

“Eh?!” I blurted out. I suppose I was turning red.

“You’re the person in the group I least get to bond with." Wait. She was acting a while ago in the haunted house to escape from Kazu and Sho..? No way. "You’re always surrounded by your girlfriends~” She teased.

“Ha? I don’t even have one!” I shouted. Oops. She became quiet for a while.

“I was joking, sorry.”She crossed her legs and looked down. I walked to her and sat beside her. “No, I’m sorry.” I said. She looked at me and smiled.

“But seriously, a lot of girls are asking you to go out with them. Why won’t you at least pick someone?” Nice question. But you can’t know the answer.

“I can’t. I won’t.” I told her plainly. Because it’s you.

"Aww that's too bad. Any girl would be lucky to have you as her boyfriend." Now you're saying that.. Can I be yours? "Anyway, it should almost be time for the concert, right?" She stood up and started walking.

"Chiyomi!" I called. She stopped and looked around.

"Hm?" She was smiling. Damn, her beautiful eyes always caught mine.

"Uhh. You can always approach me, anytime. Never mind those other girls, okay?"

 "Oh you." She walked towards me. "Thank you." She grabbed my arm as we heard rock music playing. "Let's go~!" We both ran towards the main building where the stage was located in front of it. While we were, again, squeezing ourselves through the crowd, I saw Kazu wih his guitar.

"Oi Matsujun!" He shouted. "Where did you go?" Crap. "No wait, we're the next performers. Sho and the others reserved seats for you!" He shouted as he was walking backwards towards the stage.

"Oi Jun!" I heard Sho shout. He was already seated with Masaki and Riida. Two seats were vacant beside Riida so we went to sit there. "Where did you two go after the haunted house?"

"Oh, we got hungry so we bought soft cream." Chii said.

"But you took so long-" 

"Ah! There they are!" Chii interrupted and pointed to the stage as Kazu and his bandmates were going up the stage. People were giving them a round of applause.

"Uhm, mic test.." Kazu tapped the microphone. People laughed. "Konbanwa minna~!" He said. "Please listen to our song, 'Rakuen'"

"Nino~! Ganbatte~!" Chiyomi stood up and shouted. A number of people were standing up too. Well, the chairs were only limited, so of course. 

"Kya! Ninomiya-kun kakkoi~!" I even heard a girl scream. Wow, Nino sure has fans too. Chiyomi swayed as the song started playing. Her eyes sparkled with all the lights of different colors, coming from the stage.

"The scenery of this town that I saw with you, there's no way I'll forget it." from the song Rakuen. (君と見たこの町の景色は忘れられるはずないでしょう。ー　らくえん)

---~~~---

"Anou~ Matsumoto-kun?" The four-year old Chiyomi approached me. This was during the summer festival. It's been a week since we met her. She was wearing her yukata, it really suited her. "What are you doing in this kind of place? Why won't you join Sho-kun and the others?" She asked me. We were behind the temple, where not much people are. 

"I'm.. shy." Yes, the me back then was this kind of person. I looked down. She faced me and held my face, she looked straight into my eyes.

"Matsumoto-kun, your eyes are beautiful~" She said. 

"Eh?" That was sudden. And random. I looked at her and for the first time, I saw her eyes, shining. 

I guess it was because of her that I didn't live my life as an introvert. I learned how to get along with other people because of her. It was because of those beautiful eyes of hers, that I'll always believe in. 

Who would've even thought that an introvert would become a very famous model now.. 

---~~~---

To be continued.. ^__^

Yup. MatsuJun became a model in the future~ In this fic. XD Well he is, in real life too, I guess. So Jun, Nino, Sho and Chii are classmates. Ohno's in a different class, as well as Aiba. Haha Sho, the scaredy cat. XD 

Janken - Rock, paper, scissors (the game)

Yossha - an interjection which is similar to 'Yay'

Kakkoi - 'so cool'

So Tulips = "Beautiful Eyes." :") Lol can you imagine Jun being an introvert. XD 

Haha there's an insert song. <3 Nino's song "Rakuen" or 'Paradise' in English. If you heard this song, it has the same tune as Arashi's Fight Song. You know why? Because they used Nino's composition, the tune, for their song. 

*edit (01/14/12): 

future is highlighted gray

present stays normal

past is colored brown

Next chapter: Aiba-chan's POV~ XD