“... Damn it!”

Eiji looked out his window to see complete darkness enveloping his neighborhood. He painfully went and reached for his phone. I know I said she wouldn’t leave me alone, but she didn’t have to hit me that hard!

“It’s six in the morning! The pain must’ve been too hard on me..” Eiji muttered to himself

As Eiji got out of bed he felt every part of his body emanating extreme pain and soreness, forcing him to crawl to the restroom which was only a couple feet away. After accomplishing his morning routine of brushing his teeth and showering since he was in too much pain to shower yesterday night. Eiji’s pain started to decrease due to his shower and he noticed his phone lighting up as he got out. Eiji checked his phone and realized he got a message from a number he didn’t recognize.

The text message read “Are you okay? Sorry for beating you so hard!”

Ah! It’s Takaki! Why is she awake so early? How did she even get my number!? Just then Eiji received another message

“You’re probably wondering how I have your number right?”

Is she an esper!?

“Yeah…” he replied

“Well.. last night I took your phone before you left and got your number. Don’t worry I d, d, didn’t look through your phone or anything!”

She definitely looked through my phone… Not like there’s anything to see…

“Anyways, what do you want?”

“I couldn’t sleep thinking I hit you a bit too hard…”

I didn’t think she would be the type of girl to care for others with how violent she was, She really is a weird girl…

“Yeah I’m fine… Now get some sleep and leave me alone”

“Hey don’t say that! Also be nice to Morino and Machida! You should make friends in college! Anyways see ya!”

Eiji closed his phone and laid back on his bed. Why does she care if I’m alone or not? Just who exactly are you? Takaki Hikari…

Eiji began to drift away from his consciousness, as he slowly started closing his eyes he eventually fell back to sleep…

As Eiji slept he felt as if he was being transported to a different area, he felt wind blowing on his face and heard the sound of the cicadas, as he opened his eyes, he sees the same girl he saw before, but this time she was wearing a sundress with a sun hat.

“Don’t forget me! Eiji…” She shouted holding her hat down and smiling

Right when Eiji was about to ask who she was, the wind blew hard, so hard that he closed his eyes once more and woke up completely out of breath.

Who was that girl? Why… Don’t I remember?

Eiji grabbed his head in pain because of the headache he received. He turned to the side and noticed it was daylight, he turned to look at his phone and began to sweat hard, it was nine thirty in the morning and he was late...

“I OVERSLEPT!!!” Eiji screamed as he dashed to wear his clothes and leave for school.

How did I fall asleep? Ahhhh! Hopefully I’m not too late!

Eiji ran like his life depended on it, but was shortly stopped when he bumped into a girl while running and fell down to the ground.

“Ah! I’m so sorry! I was late to class and didn’t see you!”

Eiji got up, patted down his clothes and reached out his hand to help the girl, the girl had short brown hair and seemed to be 150 cm tall, a bit shorter than Hikari.

“Wait… You’re Morino right?”

“Ah! Yes! You’re the guy who got beat up yesterday! Hamasaki right?” Kohaku replied as she took his hand and stood up.

Is that how she remembers me?

“Yeah... Well since you’re up I’ll go now!”

Eiji began to run again before he could even hear what Kohaku had to say.

Completely out of breath, Eiji makes it to his second class. Walking to take his seat in the corner of the room he looks around.

Is Takaki not here today? Did she oversleep too? Does that mean I’ll have peace and quiet for once!? Eiji’s happy thoughts of being alone filled his eyes with joy, even though people were looking at him weird, Eiji didn’t seem to take notice of any of them.

As Eiji’s class ended, a blue haired guy walked up to him still smiling with the thought of being alone. The guy took a deep breath, slowing moved towards Eiji’s ear and screamed

“HEY EIJI! You remember me right!?”

Startling Eiji completely he jumped up, tripped, and fell onto the guy looking at his face from on top of him.

“Ah!, you’re… Machida right?”

“You do remember me! Can you get off me now?”

Eiji flustered and heard someone else walking up towards him. A bag drops to the floor and Eiji looks up to see Kohaku looking right at them. Her face started to turn red

“S, s, s, s, Sorry! I, I, I didn’t know you guys were busy right after class!” screamed as she began to run away flustered.

“I, It’s not like that! Come back Morino!”

Eiji quickly got up to chase after Kohaku, but before he could get up, Ryo reached out and grabbed his head, moving closer he whispered in Eiji’s ear with a smile

“Let’s hang out together today. I won’t let you go until you agree!”

Eiji completely disgusted, trying to move his face away from Ryo’s. He once again could hear footsteps coming towards his direction. It was Kohaku again but this time with her phone out. Eiji looked up and saw Kohaku smiling, she pointed her phone towards them and began to take pictures. Kohaku began to laugh creepily as blood began to drop from her nose.

“Stop! It’s not what it looks like!” Eiji tried to get Kohaku’s phone, but instead Ryo pulled Eiji’s face closer to his.

“Fine! Fine! I’ll hang out with you guys! Now let me go!”

Ryo smiled and let Eiji go

“See! That wasn’t so hard now was it?”

Eiji flustered and glared at Ryo. He’s a demon and she’s weird! Are all of Takaki’s friends as intense as her?

“How did you guys know where my class was?” Eiji asked as he finally got up from the intense situation

“Oh, Takaki sent us a text this morning on where to find you! See look!” Ryo replied as he handed his phone to Eiji, in it the text read

“I won’t be going to class today! Meet up with Eiji, he needs more friends! Do whatever you want to get him to join you! He’s in the same class as me!”

That girl! I knew being alone was too good to be true! Eiji felt anger towards Hikari, but was eventually interrupted by Ryo

“Hey it’s fine! We should probably help Morino right?”

Eiji looked towards Kohaku and saw her standing there, still laughing with a nose bleed.

“Ah! Morino stay with us! Don’t die!”

After Kohaku was taken care of, Ryo and Eiji sat down next to her

“I didn’t expect her to react that much to what I did! Ha ha!” Ryo stated holding his stomach laughing

You freaked me out too! Ahhh! I don’t even know why I’m still here!

“Anyways, what do you want to do? It seems like Morino is fine now.” Ryo asked Eiji

Hearing those words Kohaku jumped up instantly with sparkling eyes as if nothing ever happened to her.

“Ah! I wanna go to the mall!”

“Actually…” Eiji tried thinking of an excuse to leave and be alone, but as he was about to finish his sentence Kohaku got closer and stared at Eiji with her puppy dog eyes. Eiji tried to resist giving in, but in the end he admitted defeat.

“Nevermind…” Eiji felt as if he had fallen into a trap that he could never escape from.

At the mall Eiji and Ryo were following Kohaku around as she looked around with shiny eyes at the many things she found interesting, most girls would look at clothes or shoes, but Kohaku only looked at stuffed animals.

“You see, whenever Morino wants to go somewhere, I can’t argue with her since she’s so childish.” Ryo told Eiji as he laughed a bit, Kohaku heard what he had said and ran up to him and stared.

“Are you calling me a child!” Kohaku made a angry puffy face

“You act like a child so you are one! Haha!” Ryo replied laughing a bit harder

“But I’m not a child! Tell him Hamasaki! Unless you think I’m a child too…” Kohaku turned her head and stared at Eiji with puppy dog eyes and a puffy face.

“N, no! I don’t think you’re a child.”

“See Machida! Hamasaki doesn’t think I’m a child!” Kohaku linked arms with Eiji sticking her tongue out at Ryo

Just then Eiji turned his head to see Hikari staring straight at him and Kohaku linking arms. For some reason seeing her staring at him made Eiji sweat a bit. As she quickly walked closer Eiji began to sweat more. Hikari walked up to Eiji’s face, began patting his shoulder, and smiled

“Hi Eiji! I see you two are getting along quite well! Huh!”

“You’re hurting me…” Eiji said under his breath

Kohaku let go of Eiji and began to be flustered, unable to say a word. Ryo walked up holding his stomach

“Ha ha ha! They’re a lot closer than you think Takaki!”

“HUH!? I see you got closer to my friends huh!” Hikari began to slap Eiji’s shoulder harder

“That’s a lie! You trying to kill me, Machida!?” Eiji stared at Ryo with high intensity as Ryo began to laugh harder

“My bad, my bad! Anyways why are you here Takaki?”

“Oh! Since I missed class today I thought I should do some shopping at the mall! I didn’t expect to see Eiji to be such a player.” Hikari stared straight at Eiji as her words stabbed him through his chest

“I said it wasn’t as it looked!”

“Ha ha! I know, I know! Well since you guys are here too let’s go shopping together!”

Just then Kohaku regained consciousness and was filled with energy running towards Hikari to hug her

“Yes! Let’s shop together Takaki!”

As Hikari was being distracted by Kohaku, Eiji quietly stepped back thinking he could sneak away, but before he could take another step back Hikari grabbed his arm and glared at him.

“And where do you think you're going Eiji? HMMM?” Hikari smiled at Eiji, making him sweat more than he ever has.

“I, I, I’m sorry!”

Kohaku walked up to Eiji staring at his eyes with her puppy dog eyes as if she was about to cry

“Do you not like hanging out with me that much?”

“N, n, no! Let’s go shopping right now!” Eiji replied in a hurry trying to calm Kohaku down

“Okay! Let’s go!”

Kohaku went back to her normal happy self and returned to clinging onto Hikari.

“See! I told you! There’s just no denying Kohaku. No matter how hard you try!” Ryo patted Eiji on the back, shaking his head and laughing a bit more

“Anyways, let’s go shopping!” Ryo linked arms with Eiji dragging him towards Hikari and Kohaku

“Ah! Stop! I can walk on my own! People are staring at us!” Eiji panicked as he tried to remove his arms from being linked with Ryo’s arms.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, let’s go! I gotta make sure you don’t leave!” Ryo tightened his hold of Eiji and began putting his head on Eiji’s shoulder.

“AHH! Let go! I won’t leave! I promise!”

“Awwww! Well if you promise!” Ryo finally let go of Eiji’s arm and smiled as Eiji had to catch his breath for the traumatizing experience he just had.

As Eiji rushes to get away from Ryo and goes to catch up to Hikari and Kohaku he notices them standing in front of a stuffed animal store looking around.

Huh. I didn’t expect Hikari to be the type to still like stuffed animals. I guess she also has a cute side to her…

Hikari turns her head seeing Eiji nearby and waved her hand

“Eiji! Kohaku and I am gonna buy some things. Can you and Ryo carry them for us?”

Jut when Eiji was about to reply Ryo snuck up behind him and patted his shoulder

“Of course we will! That’s what men should do! Right Eiji?”

“Y, yeah…” Eiji replied hesitantly, being a bit worried about what Ryo was planning…

After an hour had passed both Eiji and Ryo were carrying stacks of stuffed animals and clothes while the girls were busy locking arms together.

“So why did we agree to do this?” Eiji asked Ryo as he was trying to keep his balance and keep up with the girls

“What do you mean?” Ryo smiled

Before Eiji could answer, he hit a bump and lost his balance falling down to the ground with everything going black.

Eiji opened his eyes and saw two dolls holding hands. What is this? Did someone make this?

As Eiji tried to look closer he began to hear his name.“Eiji!”, but Eiji ignored it and kept leaning forward.

“Eiji! Keep yourself together!”

In an instant Eiji opened his eyes and realized Ryo was looking down at him. As Ryo’s face got closer and closer to Eiji’s, he realized what was happening and felt large amounts of disgust and fear.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!”

Eiji screamed at the top of his lounges struggling to break free, but instead headbutted Ryo right in his nose.

“Ah!”

Both Eiji and Ryo began rolling around on the floor as if no one was watching them.

“Takaki told me to give you the breath of life since you were unconscious! This is how you repay me!”

Eiji got up and glared at Hikari laughing with Kohaku and pointing at him

“You were unconscious when you tripped and hit your head, so we were worried and asked Ryo for help, but it looks like you're doing fine now!”

Eiji ran to Ryo grabbing his collar and spitting fire

“Don’t listen to them next time!”

Ryo kept laughing with Hikari and and Kohaku

“Fine! Fine! Now that it looks like you’re fine let’s leave!”

“You should probably head home first, I bet your head hurts from that fall” Hikari told Eiji while they were picking up the bags that were on the floor

“Ah… Okay”

Eiji handed over the bags he picked up to Ryo and began to walk away while holding his head. Why would she let me leave like that? What is she planning? And what was that doll?

Eiji looked up into the night sky and breaths out and smiles

“It’s quiet again… Nice and peaceful”