Me: Hi, guys! I'm really sorry my updates take so long, especially this one. I kinda lost the motivation to write over the past year and then I was swamped with academic requirements. Now I'm rather free though and I think I got my drive back, so here's another chapter. I've read the reviews and taken them into consideration (will reply to some of them in the next few chapters) so here's a story centering around Shuuzo and Isaki!

Past: The First Meeting

"I meet people and they become chapters in my stories."

Avijeet Das

1.

She gazed at the towering building and smiled wistfully. She had done it - she had gotten into Teiko, just as her father expected her to. It wasn't that she doubted herself or her capabilities of getting into such a prestigious school such as Teiko. She just hoped she'd go to the same school as her cousin, Toru, where she could be—

"Watch out!"

She barely had any time to react before a basketball hit her on the head, knocking her off balance and falling to the ground. She huffed, glaring at the direction where she had heard the voice from, fully prepared to deliver a lecture veiled with insults. It was a boy with raven-colored hair and grey eyes.

"Sorry 'bout that. I told Takeru to stop the moment we were near the gates, but the idiot wouldn't listen," he told her as he held out a hand for her to hold. She huffed again but took the offered appendage. He pulled her up and she dusted off her skirt, hissing softly when she noticed her scraped knees.

"Great," she grumbled out loud. Her father was going to scold her later, should he notice her scraped knees. Her mother, on the other hand, would go on and on about how a lady should never have wounds.

"Apologize, you damn idiot," the boy dragged a boy with sandy colored hair in front of her, grabbing the latter's head and forcing him into a bow.

"S-Sorry! I didn't mean it," the boy — the aforementioned Takeru, probably — said.

She sighed, controlling her facial expression before replying, "It's fine."

She adjusted the small backpack on her shoulders before walking into the school.

Behind her, she could hear the boy with grey eyes grumbling about Takeru.

2.

"When I call your name, please stand up and introduce yourself," their homeroom teacher told them.

They were arranged in terms of their academic rankings, and she was happy to note that she was in the first row. She was rather disappointed to note that there were two other people smarter than her. She would have to correct that sooner or later.

"Ichinose Mitsuo."

"Mizuchi Saruhiko."

She stood up proudly, pleased to note that she was the only girl in the first row. "Yamada Isaki."

The moment she stood up, she heard someone choking at the back. Curious, she turned her head around and her eyebrows rose by a fraction. The two boys from earlier were in her class. She resisted the urge to glare at them once more before facing back forward and sitting back in her seat.

She learned that the boy with grey eyes was Nijimura Shuuzo, and the one with him was Nakamura Takeru, but she didn't care.

They weren't important.

3.

Classes were a breeze for her, at least, the classes for today. The first two periods were Math and English, her best subjects. Math was something she genuinely enjoyed, while English was one of the few languages that her father had made her learn when she was still a child.

The bell signalling recess resounded and everyone had gotten up, some gravitating towards the people they already knew, others heading down to the cafeteria to eat, and others making friends with those sitting near them.

She wasn't here to make friends, anyways, so she didn't bother socializing. Instead, she brought out the bento made for her by her personal maid, Setsuko. It contained her favorite hamburger steak. Her lips twitched into a small smile as she ate. It was just as delicious as the previous ones.

"That's the first smile I've seen out of you today, Yamada-chan!" Nakamura Takeru noted with childish glee.

She rose an eyebrow at his presence in front of her table, noting that Nijimura Shuuzo was there as well. "Nakamura-san, Nijimura-san. Did you have any business with me?"

"He wanted to eat lunch with you," Nijimura told her with a grumble.

"I think I'll pass," she said, closing her eyes as she took another bite, hoping they understood that she didn't want to talk with them.

She ignored Nakamura's kicked-puppy expression and Nijimura's gaze.

They weren't important, after all.

4.

Later that day, they had PE class. Their focus for the day was core exercises, to her disappointment and dismay. The girls and boys were divided, since they would be doing different kinds of activities appropriate for each of the sexes.

Her teacher, Mutou-sensei, had them doing exercises that unfortunately required the use of her knees: stretching, jumping jacks, squats, push-ups and sit-ups. Every time she moved her knees, she ended up hissing quietly. The wound had not healed up properly yet, and she was too prideful to go to the infirmary for a simple wound.

She was just lucky that her knee didn't give out until they had reached the classroom once more. PE was, thankfully, their last period of the day, so by the time she had limped to the classroom, most of her classmates were gone. She gathered her things and glanced at her knees again. The exercises from a while ago had made the wound open up again slightly. She grimaced before getting some cotton from her bag and lightly dabbing on the wound.

She threw the cotton in a nearby trash can before making her way down the stairs.

"Need any help, Yamada-chan?"

She grumbled in her head. She recognized that annoyingly hyper voice. "No, thank you, Nakamura-san."

"It's the least we could do for hurting ya!" he insisted, skipping down a few steps and standing in front of her, hands outstretched for her to give him her bag.

"You mean what you did," Nijimura scoffed, but he shrugged. "Still, he has a point. Taking off the additional weight of your bag will at least alleviate some of the pain."

"I don't require your assistance," Isaki insisted as she made her way down the stairs, but Nakamura refused to budge. She frowned. "Nakamura-san, if you please?"

Nakamura stubbornly shook his head. "C'mon, Yamada-chan! Please?"

She glanced at a nearby clock and noted that her father would get irritated if she arrived home later than the time he indicated. She sighed before reluctantly handing Nakamura her bag. This was just so she wouldn't get scolded. "Fine."

"Thanks!" Nakamura cheered, carefully handling her bag as they made their way down the stairs.

By the time they got downstairs, her driver and their limo were already waiting outside. This was another reason why she didn't want them following her around. Ignoring Nakamura's flabbergasted face and Nijimura's surprised expression, she took her bag from Nakamura and made her way to the limo.

A few steps away from the car, she turned around, and blurted out a "Thanks" before heading inside and ignoring how Nakamura was happy by her statement.

5.

"So, why'd you move to Teiko, Yamada-chan?"

She didn't know how it happened. Maybe Nakamura had assumed that because of her response yesterday, she would allow him and his friend to join her for break times. They had suddenly walked towards her during lunch and moved some chairs to join her at her table.

She also didn't understand why they were trying to be friends with her. Was it because of her knees — which had already been cleaned and bandaged by Setsuko — or because they had some other ulterior motive? She was rather suspicious of them, but she would give them the benefit of the doubt.

"It's an excellent school and springboard for high school, don't you think?" she replied.

Nakamura nodded. "That's true. I'm actually surprised I got in! I didn't really study for the exam properly, but maybe it's because Shuu helped me study for it!"

Isaki's gaze transferred to Nijimura, who just shrugged at the statement. She hadn't expected that. She knew that Teiko was for those who were either academically gifted or those on sports scholarships, but regardless needed a modicum of intelligence to get in. She just didn't — well, to be fair, she didn't think of Nakamura and Nijimura much.

There was never any reason to.

Until now, it seemed.

6.

They weren't friends.

Nakamura and Nijimura just insisted on sitting with her during lunch or walking with her to and from the classroom during PE.

That didn't make them friends.

Even if those two always talked to her and always included her in their conversations, even if they genuinely wanted to get to know her (without any ulterior motive, as she finally deduced after two weeks into the school year), even if they let her in on inside jokes, even if they asked her for homework help sometimes, even if they gave her their contact details, even if, even if —

They weren't friends.

She didn't need friends.

7.

She didn't know why she ever agreed, or why her father even let her go out of the house without any supervision from one of their butlers, but she found herself at the amusement park, waiting for Nakamura and Nijimura.

But we're not friends, she repeated to herself over and over.

After two minutes, the two stooges, as she'd taken to calling them in her head, arrived with laughs.

"Sorry, Yamada-chan! We took a while to wake up," Nakamura apologized to her.

"You mean you took a while to wake up. I had to dump cold water on your face this morning," Nijimura grumbled.

Isaki found herself chuckling at the duo, earning surprised looks from the two of them. It took a moment for her to realize what she was doing before she schooled her face into a perfectly blank expression once more.

Before they could comment on her behavior, as she assumed Nakamura probably would, she asked, "You two are… childhood friends?"

Nijimura nodded. "Unfortunately, our fathers are best friends, so I've known him since we were in diapers."

"He's practically my brother!" Nakamura cheered as he regaled her with stories from their childhood.

She listened to his stories — she also found that story about the origin of Nijimura's fear of dolphins pretty amusing — but she couldn't help but feel a pang of loneliness, and maybe even jealousy. She wanted something like the bond that they had, she wanted a sibling, and back then, she —

"You okay?" Nijimura asked her quietly from her other side. Oblivious, Nakamura blabbered on and on, but Nijimura seemed to have noticed her discomfort. She scolded herself inwardly; he had been able to see through her.

"I'm fine," she said, responding to Nakamura's current story of how they named a rubber duck Dr. Ducky when they still had bubble baths together.

She completely ignored Nijimura's gaze as they walked.

Later on, if she said she was touched about his apparent concern, she would deny it vehemently.

8.

She had enjoyed their amusement park trip, and when she got home, at exactly five o'clock on the dot, she realized that she actually did enjoy their company.

She let out a smile the moment she entered her room.

Is this what it feel like to have fun with friends, Toru-nii?, she wondered as she recalled the day's events. She and Nakamura seemed to have struck an unspoken alliance on ganging up on Nijimura in the bumper cars, and in making Nijimura sit alone on the scariest rollercoaster in the park. Nijimura, though, won a stuffed panda at a target shooting booth. She hadn't known he was that good at shooting with a gun. She was surprised, however, when he gave her the panda.

"I don't need it," he had insisted. She had accepted the panda, though, and was pleased to note that it was very fluffy. She hugged the panda close and hid her smile in its fur.

They then had dinner at a nearby fast food restaurant, Maji Burger, before Nakamura and Nijimura insisted on walking her to her limo. She had offered them a ride, surprising herself, but they had insisted that they preferred walking home.

Overall, it was good day, and maybe, just maybe

She could consider them as her friends.

Me: So, the chapter's kind of shorter than usual, but I hope that it's okay! I will do my best to update sooner. I'll be getting into this pattern, too: 2 chapters of present time and 2 chapters of past time, so the next chapter will also focus on the past! Do tell me if you want any particular prompts to come up for the present/past chapters.

Enjoy your day!