CHAPTER ONE

"Excuse me, ah... Kikuchi-san!"

"What?" Suzume turned towards the voice. The bell had just rung and she had hastily dashed out of class, not wanting to stay a second longer than she has to. Besides, she had a drawing to finish.

She saw a guy, - specifically, the guy who sat next to her in class - the one with the banana-coloured hair. "Kikuchi-san, you left your book behind." He handed her her precious sketchbook, the one with all her good drawings in it.

"Oh. Thanks." Suzume was glad this guy noticed, or else she wouldn't be able to finish her sketch today. "You can call me Suzume, you know."

"Suzu-chan, do you recognise me?" What sort of question is that? She was getting impatient - after all, this is wasting her time.

"Hah? No. Why?"

"I'll give you a hint. I'm Kise."

"Look, dude. I have no idea who you are. Wait, are you famous or something? Either way I'm no good with celebrities so don't bother." Suzume sighed exasperatedly.

"Whaaaat? You don't know me? I am Kise Ryota, and I do modelling for magazines." His jaw dropped open, extremely shocked that a girl didn't know him.

"Oh, well that explains it - I don't read fashion magazines. Anyway, I'm grateful that you gave me my book, but I'm leaving now." And then she just hurried away. Kise stared after her with a mystified expression, which didn't last for long, since his horde of fangirls had caught up and were screaming at him. God, sometimes he just wished for a peaceful life...

"KISE-KUN WE LOVE YOU!"

"OMG MY RYO-CHAN!"

"HE'S MY RYOTA-KUN!"

He heaved a small sigh but turned back towards them, a winning smile on his face. "Girls I'd really love to talk but I have basketball practice, and girls aren't supposed to watch, sorry."

The fangirls swooned and Kise took the chance to dash off towards the second gym.

Suzume managed to finish the drawing of the sunflowers and now started on something new. She didn't really know what she was doing, just drawing whatever while her mind wandered.

She thought about her parents who lived in Kyoto and her good friend Shinju, who goes to Yosen High in Akita. Shinju is probably the only friend she has right now, despite having started her first year in Kaijo for quite a few weeks already. Yes, people call her antisocial, but she doesn't trust people easily. Not when so-called 'friends' had betrayed her so easily before...

Suzu's attention snapped back to her sketch, and realised that she had drawn a pair of eyes. Eyes that belonged to Shinju. A small smile made its way onto her face and she stared at the eyes for a few minutes. Shinju had mesmerising amber eyes with gold flecks and her teasing grin always made everyone happy. She might not admit it, but having a real friend was good. In fact, it was awesome.

"I'm back!" An excited voice announced, interrupting her train of thought. "Onee-chan, where are you?"

"Here." Suzu replied without much enthusiasm.

"Suzu-nee-chan, is there anything to eat? I'm huuuunnnngry." Her little sister bounded into her room.

"Sora, you go do your homework, and I'll make dinner, okay?" Suzu ruffled Sora's hair and stood up, yawning.

"Haaaahhh? Homework is booorrring." She pouted, stretching the syllables where possible.

Suzu gave her 'the look' and Sora sighed but obeyed, muttering a quick "Meanie." under her breath. She always acted so babyish even though she's in her last year of elementary school already.

A sigh escaped out of Suzume's mouth as she rolled up her sleeves and headed downstairs towards the kitchen. It's not that she didn't enjoy cooking - she did (well most times anyway) - but she was tired and lazy and on the menu today was a very complicated dish...

"Sora..." Suzume tiredly made her way into her little sister's room. "Sora, wake up. It's time for breakfast."

Then watching as Sora stumbled out of bed to brush her teeth, Suzu went back down to the dining room, gulping down the mini-sandwiches - even though they were born in Japan they often visited western countries when they were small and got used to the food there - and orange juice. Sora soon appeared and did the same.

They both went their separate ways after breakfast.

Suzume broke into a run. It was 7:54am already! She was going to be late.

"Suzu-chan!" A familiar voice called to her as she dashed into the classroom and quickly sat down.

"What?"

"Suzu-chan!" Now she ignored the weirdo and turned her attention to the whiteboard. There was nothing on there, since - luckily - the teacher wasn't here yet. "Suzu-chan, do you want to eat lunch together?"

"No." A quick and straightforward answer.

Kise was left speechless. No girl had ever refused him before. Ever. Was he losing his charm?! Kise quickly turned to the other girl next to him and grinned at her.

She fainted.

Okay, so he wasn't losing his charm. Then what? This girl didn't seem to care about him at all, and that was unheard of. A girl who didn't like the great Kise Ryota?

"Hey Suzu-chan..." He nudged her. "Can I be your friend?"

"No. Why?"

Kise pouted. "Because I want to be. Pleeeeeaaaaase..."

"No." She looked at his wide eyes. "I don't need friends."

He blinked and stopped trying to talk to her. Thoughts flew around in his head, more than ever before, and he decided to try again at lunch.

Which was precisely now.

Kise just realised that Suzume had stalked away as soon as the teacher had dismissed them. Ah, damn, now he'll have to look for her as well as try to avoid his - rather annoying - fangirls. The blondie rushed to pack up his stuff and set off in pursuit of this weird girl.

"Suzu-chan, where are you?" Kise yelled. Unfortunately, his dumbness made all the girls in the area running towards his voice.

"HERE YOU ARE!"

"KISE-SAN!"

"I FOUND YOU!"

"Why are you looking for Suzume? Come with us!" The girl who seemed like the leader of the pack offered, flicking her hair and giving a sly grin at him. He bit his lip but didn't say anything, and she took that as fresh encouragement, slithering forward and putting her hand on his chest.

Kise stepped back. "Uh, I think I'm going to go practice basketball for a while. See you, girls!" He didn't really want to play basketball, but he knew that girls who have no business with the basketball club are banned from that place.

Once out of their line of vision, he started searching for Suzume again. He went through the club rooms and gyms, and all the classrooms he knew.

Yet he still couldn't find her.

Now there was only one place left to go. Kise ran across the oval and towards the weeping willow there, and soon Suzume was in sight. She was sitting with her back to him at the base of the small hill, her light amber-brown hair resting messily beneath her shoulders.

"SUZU-CHAN I'VE FINALLY FOUND YOU!" He hollered, although she didn't seem to have heard. Kise stopped right next to her, panting. "Suzu-chan?"

"Woah, shoot!" Suzume cursed. "You scared me to death!"

Kise peered over her shoulders at a watercolour painting of the weeping willow on top of that hill. "Suzu-chan...You are so good at drawing." Then he thought for a while. "Suzu-cchi!"

"Hah?!" She frowned, still not over the fact that he managed to find her and interrupt her precious painting time.

"Suzu-cchi... Don't you have any friends? What you said in class...I'm sure it isn't true."

Suzume blinked. "It is. I don't need friends. All 'friends' do is pretend to be nice to you, then they all betray you in the end." Her voice was bitter, and she lowered her eyes back down to her painting.

That was the precise moment that Kise decided to befriend this girl and prove to her that not everyone is bad. She may seem antisocial and bitter, but he knew that maybe she wanted a real friend too. He just has to prove that he won't betray her and is a true friend.

"Well Suzume-cchi, I'll be your friend."

Suzu, without a thought, declined. To her, it was just like before, those people who pretended to be your friend. What she didn't know was that this insignificant little sentence was the start of something unexpected. She didn't know that, to Kise...

The game has started.

Hello readers, this is going to be a series, so watch out for the other stories too.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything 'cept for my characters or the plot - applies for all chapters