Megumi's POV: 

Wait, what? 

Yuki, Miku, and Kaito together? Why were Miku and Kaito here?

“Gumi, we came to see Pocky,” Kaito called.

I cautiously walked up to them.

“How’d you know she was coming back today?”

Miku rolled her eyes. “Honestly, you say that we’re silly but sometimes you can be pretty hectic too. You told us, remember? Actually, you blubbered to us that your poor Pocky was leaving, and you made us promise to come over when she got back.”

My mouth opened, closed, and then opened again. “Oh ...”

Yuki laughed, and then suddenly stopped.

“Who’s tapping - Kino-san!” he yelled. I wondered why his voice shook.

Kino-chan was here too?

Wow. We really were getting a lot of company.

“Why are you here?” Kaito asked Yuki.

“Kino-san, it’s nice to see you ...” Yuki said.

“Answer Kaito’s question,” Miku said.

“Nakajima-san, thank you. Same here.” Kino-chan said.

“Who are those two?” Kei-kun asked Mama.

“I’m familiar with Yuki-kun, but I don’t know the girl,” Mama replied.  

“Stop ignoring Kaito and me!”

“I’m sorry for what I said last time, Nakajima-san.”

“Ah, no, it’s fine.”

“Oba-san, how has Gumi been?”

“Will someone at least answer the question? Why is Yuki here? And what about everyone else?”

“Oh, Gumi’s been fine. She’s made new friends just a week after school started.”

My head spun. I nodded firmly, cupped my hands around my mouth, and proceeded to scream, “OI!”

The crowd quieted down.

I sighed and said, “Can we at least do this inside? The door’s wide open. And with everyone trying to talk over everyone else, you’re very loud.”

Mama whispered to no one in particular, “My girl’s so grown up.”

I pushed her into the kitchen, saying, “You go finish washing the dishes. We’ll go up to my room now.”

“Ah, I left the water on!” She ran off.

The others marched up the stairs after me.

---

Yuki’s POV:

In Gumi’s room, we managed to make a circle on the floor.

“Kino-chan, how come you’re here too?” Gumi asked first.

“I came to talk with you, but I guess we can do that later.”

“Why’s Nakajima-san here?” asked Kaito.

“What, I’m not allowed to come over?” I snidely replied. “After all, Gumi is my girlfriend. I have enough reason to want to visit her house.”

“Gumi has a boyfriend?” the brown-haired boy asked.

Gumi smiled at him. “That’s Kino Kaede and this is, um, Nakajima Yuki,” she told him. “For those of you that don’t know him, this is Kei-kun, my cousin. He took care of Pocky for us.”

“Gumi, you have a boyfriend?” Kei-san asked again.

“Apparently. It’s Yuki, over there.”

“You’re at the first-name level already?!” Kei-san said in a shocked voice.

“Who’s Pocky?” Kino-san asked.

 “In answer to Kei-kun, apparently. In answer to Kino-chan, Pocky is my little doggy. She’s somewhere downstairs. If you’d like, I can go get her.” She stood up and walked out, giving me a pleading look before she left.

Great. She was leaving it up to me to manage this bunch of idiots. And all of them had come to see her, not me, so why was I stuck with the responsibility?

“I have an idea,” I said. “Why don’t we all just SHUT UP?!”

Surprisingly, they actually listened.

“I’ll introduce myself first. My name is, um, Nakajima Yuki. My status with Gumi is boyfriend. Now it’s Kei-san’s turn.”

“What’s the point?” Miku said. “Gumi already introduced -”

“Please don’t interrupt!” I nodded at Kei-san.

“Eeto, my name is Nakajima Kei, and I’m Gumi’s cousin.”

“I’m Kino Kaede, and I’m Gumi’s friend.”

“My name is Hatsune Miku, and even though I think this is stupid, I’ll go along with it. Although, really, I don’t see why some boy that Gumi met only a week ago is ordering -“

“Kaito, why don’t you go next?”

“Um ...” He shied away from Miku’s glare and then quickly whispered. “Fuuga Kaito, Gumi’s best guy friend.”

“Great.” I clapped my hands together. “Now we all know each other, and all of you can leave.”

“What?! We haven’t even seen Pocky yet!”

“I came here to talk with Nakajima-chan, and I’m not going to leave until I do!”

“Actually, regarding that, I need to talk to oba-san and oji-san....”

“Nakajima-san,” Kaito said innocently. “Aren’t you the only one who should leave?”

“Yes, please,” Kino-san agreed. “N-Not that I don’t like having Nakajima-san here, but I’d rather talk to Nakajima-chan alone.”

“I can’t believe Gumi has a boyfriend ...”

I stood up. “You know what? Maybe I’ll go check on Gumi and then leave.” I walked out of the room and breathed a sigh of relief.

What did I do to deserve this?

---

Gumi was tickling Pocky’s tummy, laughing as the dog squirmed around.

“What are you doing down here?”

“I couldn’t handle them. You should know, Miku and Kaito are here to see Pocky, Kino-san wants to talk to you, and your cousin needs to talk to your parents before he leaves.”

She thought for a moment and asked, “Can you call Miku and Kaito, send Kei-kun to Mama, and then wait with Kino-chan upstairs?”

I hesitated.

“What, do you not want to?”

“Not really ...”

“Is it because of Kino-chan?” she asked.

“Well ...”

“You don’t like her?”

“Not exactly ... it’s just that ...”

“Can you try? For me?” She stopped tickling Pocky, and the dog poked its head under her limp hand. They both looked at me with puppy eyes.

“Fine,” I relented.

“Arigatou!” She flung her arms around my neck and squeezed me in a tight hug. “You’re the best! Now go!”

I ran to the stairs, dazed, and then slowly plodded upwards. At the entrance to her room, I paused and put a hand on my neck, right where her hand had touched me.

The memory of the hug was still vivid in my mind.

For some reason, all I could think about was the dream I’d had last night.

All I could remember was the last part, when she said, “Yuki, I want you to stay here, with me, forever,”and then hugged me, the way she just did.

All I could feel was happiness.

---

Megumi’s POV:

“We’re sorry,” Kaito said, smiling as Pocky ran around him in circles. “We ... Miku?”

He glanced back at Miku, who was staring out a window. I thought I saw something sparkling on her face.

“Miku?” I timidly asked. “Are you crying?”

She looked at me, and I saw that she wasn’t, at least not physically. Her face, though, was twisted in pain.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, throwing her arms around me. “Sumanai.”

When she finally released me, she reached over to Kaito and held his hand.

“The truth is, we’re dating,” she admitted.

“I know.”

“Really?” She didn’t seem surprised.

I nodded. We knew each other too well.

“Everything’s changing, isn’t it?” she sighed, looking out the window.

“We kept this secret from you. You’ve got a boyfriend. You’re more social in class, I can tell, and we’ve only been at school for a week.

“I’ve been acting like such a lately, but that’s because I’m envious. You and Kaito are growing up, and I’m still clinging to our childhood.”

Kaito added, “And Nakajima-san is always around. You didn’t tell us that you were dating him. We’re not as close as we used to be, and it’s sad.”

I tried to keep from crying, because I knew in my heart that they were right. We were still closer than siblings, but it was different now.

It was like we used to be one being, and now we were realizing, “Oh, I have my own body and heart. I am independent.”

“Someday,” I said, gathering them in a group hug, “we’ll tell each other everything. And then we’ll laugh about this.”

“I agree with the first part, but will we laugh about it? I’m not too sure,” Miku said.

“But won’t we?” Kaito asked. “Even if you feel like crying now, there will always come a time when you can look back and think, ‘Why was I so sad?’”

“Even Kaito has his deep moments,” I chuckled.

We sat together like that; I’m not sure for how long.

The silence was broken by Pocky’s barking.

“Okay, you two stay down here while I go talk with Kino-chan,” I instructed, standing up. “I’ll send Yuki down. Maybe you three can bond.” Miku pretended to faint.

I laughed and walked upstairs, passing by my parents and Kei-kun, who seemed to be having a serious conversation.

As I walked into the room, Yuki jumped up and asked, “Can I go?!”

Without waiting for an answer, he walked out. I realized, too late, that my eyes had followed him down the stairs.

As I closed the door, I thought of Miku and Kaito.

Their words were so true. So much was changing.

But for me, it was different. For me, the changes had been so smooth and pleasant that I hadn’t noticed them. And now I could only stare in wonder at the unexpected new surroundings, without moving, because they were so beautiful that they took my breath away.

---

“I like Nakajima-san,” Kino-chan told me.

“Y-You mean Yuki?”

“Yes. I told him that I would not give up, but ...”

That explained why Yuki was so awkward around her.

“Nakajima-chan, I want to know how you feel about Nakajima-san.”

I took a deep breath and prepared to confess.

“The truth is, I might very well be falling in love with Yuki.”

She stared.

 “But I’m not the type of person to fall in love in a week, despite all the time Yuki and I have spent together. And he doesn’t seem like the type, either. So that’s it. I don’t know what will happen, but this is what I know now.”

Kino-chan stood up and replied, very seriously, “Nakajima-chan, eeto, may I call you Gumi?”

“Gumi is fine.”

“Then, Gumi, like I said before, I will not give up.”

“That’s fine.”

“So we’re rivals now.”

“True.”

“But I’d still like to be your friend.”

I smiled up at her. “I was waiting to hear that. Can I call you Kaede-chan, then? I’m not the type to fall in love quickly, but I think I can open up to others pretty fast.”

Kaede-chan nodded, and we grinned at each other.

“Good luck.”

“Good luck.”  

---

Yuki’s POV:

“You and Gumi aren’t actually dating, are you?” Miku asked. She and Kaito were playing fetch with Pocky. The dog was smart, switching between them each turn.

“Huh?! W-What?! Of course we’re dating! Where’d you get the idea that ...”

“Don’t even bother. Gumi already told us.”

“What?! When?! Where?! H-How?!”

“Calm down. It was at the karaoke place. I just wanted to ask, how do you feel about Gumi?”

“Um, well, she can be annoying but it’s fun to and ... um ...”

“That’s enough. That’s all we wanted to know.”

Kaito threw the ball across the room and then faced me. “I’ve already said this before,” he said, “but I wanted to repeat it. Don’t you dare hurt Gumi.”

“Okay.”

“And one other thing. Please do more than that. Please protect her, because for some reason I feel like you might have to.”

“Okay.”

“And one last thing.”

“What?” My voice was a little sharper than I’d intended, and Kaito smiled at that.

“Good luck.”

“For what?”

“Nothing. It’s just a blessing.”

I turned away from them. Gumi was ridiculous. Bonding? Yeah, right.

But, all the same, I felt like I understood Miku and Kaito a little better. They really did want to protect Gumi. And, well, at least they’d given me their blessing.

That was a good start. 

This chapter was overly-dramatic, but still really fun to write. And it's pretty important. :P

I'm not sure how many people are reading this though ... probably none ... :( Well, anyways, please comment or subscribe! :)