Melody of Memory

Disclaimer: I do not own Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu.

September 2007

It was a hectic Saturday morning where most people seemed to go out to the same place, for the same purpose and destination, all in the same day. The Habuya shopping district -where the music store Haruhi was employed in was located - was awfully crowded by people from the edge of the street to the other side of it. Restaurants, gift shops, book stores were all engulfed with the excitement of shopping. The music store was no exception, and it was having its busiest times of the day this morning.

Haruhi had been working extra hard today, taking the shift from morning until the evening. She became the cashier when somebody wanted to check out something, and at the same time never stopped answering any questions directed to her. Parents, kids, students and many others had come in and out this store from the time the store opened, and a lot had been purchasing the items as well. Even Yamato-san was helping, encouraging customers to buy more of the music instruments. It was one of the busiest days of their work - the weekend. And poor Haruhi happened to have a shift this Saturday.

As the day getting darker, the number of people coming to the store started to reduce as the tendency of going home had began to creep its way into the mind. Eventually, evening had come and Haruhi's shift was finally over. Exhausted but relieved, Haruhi quickly changed her clothes into something more casual, and brought herself to the corner side of the shop, then stared outside. She was waiting for Kyon to pick her up in the store, and was somewhat glad to see the boy's face as he appeared in front of the door ten minutes later.

"Hey," he greeted her casually.

Haruhi stared at Kyon. "You're late. I've even thought of cancelling."

Kyon looked back fearfully. "Sorry, Haruhi. I lost my way because there was almost like a thousand people here, don't you think?"

"Oh,is it Kyon?" Yamato-san's voice suddenly vibrated within the store. He walked to where the pair was standing, and smiled. "How are you, young man?"

Kyon beamed a polite smile. "Good, thank you Yamato-san. How about you?"

The old man tapped his chest with his fist. "Never better! Weekend is the best!"

Seeing the older man's spirit, Kyon grinned. "Good for you, Yamato-san."

"So, Haruhi," the old man turned to face Haruhi. "I guess you are leaving now then?"

"Yes, Yamato-san."

"I will see you on Monday then," the old man smiled. "Take care, you two."

The two smiled back and said, "We will. Bye!"

--

"Do you understand this one?" Haruhi asked patiently, pointing her pencil in a math book Kyon was holding. "It's easy. All you have to do-"

"Ahh!! I don't get it!" Kyon scratched her head, signing his stress. "I need to take a break, Haruhi."

Haruhi shrugged. "I guess we do need one."

Sighing for no reason, Haruhi leaned back in her chair, and took a deep breath. She and Kyon were currently studying in a coffee shop in Habuya shopping district called "Red Bean". Aside from the inviting wooden environment, the café was a cozy and fun place to hang out and as Haruhi had observed, to study as well. It had those kinds of fluffy, big sofas and a lot of space between each of their seats and tables so that every customers could maintain their privacy. The food was not bad at all, and the beverages they served were outstanding, especially the coffee. They both loved to hang out here, and often spent their entire day left here chatting.

Today, however, Kyon had especially asked Haruhi to teach him mathematics. They had been spending over two hours of studying, and finally Kyon's brain had begun to cry its trouble of accepting some more knowledge. It was understandable, though, considering that he had studied seriously the moment he sat himself on the sofa. Haruhi, on the other hand, exceptionally smart on this particular subject as she was, had no trouble for teaching or studying at all.

Heaving a long sigh, Kyon leaned his back on the bouncy sofa. "My head is probably cracked."

"Do you still want to continue?" Haruhi murmured, slurping down her milk tea from the cup.

"I don't know.." the boy groaned.

"I'm fine either way."

"Oh well.." Kyon mumbled. "I wish I could just be as smart as Nagato-san and get these math problems out of the way.."

Haruhi did not reply, and continued drinking her milk tea. Slurping it with delight, Haruhi blissfully savored the sweet taste forming in her mouth. No matter where she went, it was always her favorite drink to have - milk tea. And Red Bean Café, an outstanding café as it was, served probably one of the best milk tea she ever tasted.

"By the way," Kyon said, looking at Haruhi. "Exactly how good was Nagato-san in.. fighting?"

"I must say.. That she might be better than me."

"Better than you?!" Kyon frowned. "She didn't look like she is strong, tough."

Haruhi said a matter of factly, "It's not that surprising coming from a genius, is it?"

"I guess so." Kyon shrugged. "I have to be careful not to make her angry then."

"Speaking of her," Haruhi said, suddenly remembering. "She is going to teach me guitar."

Kyon's eyes widen in interest. "She is?! How come?"

"Well.." Haruhi mumbled, directing her gaze at the liquid in her cup. "You can say I asked her to."

Despite the vague shaken movement from Kyon, Haruhi knew he almost jumped out off his seat in surprise. "You did!?"

"Yeah.."

"Hmm.. Guess you guys get along pretty well, huh?" Kyon inquired, raising one of his eyebrows. "So when will you two do it? I know you like music.."

"I want to start as fast as I can," Haruhi said animatedly. "What do you think?"

"Well, with your Dad being gone and all, let's just say.. that you should learn everyday whenever you can?"

Haruhi grumbled, "That's not giving a real answer, but well.. that's true enough." Upon receiving the news about her family whereabouts, Kyon was always the one Haruhi could tell the story to. He was the only one who knew about her family, her Dad's problematic issues, and the circumstances she was in.

"You have two weeks free of him, right?" Kyon pointed out. "That's really great. I bet your Mom is happy too."

"She looks like it," Haruhi answered thoughtfully. Her Mom sure appeared to look happier than usual, so that was a good sign. "She smiles more, too."

"You too, you know," Kyon contemplated, smiling at Haruhi.

"…" Haruhi felt heat rising up to her cheek, and tried to hide it by bringing up the tea cup to her lips and drank it ravenously. She did not know why she blushed in the first place, but somehow it just crept its way up.

The boy laughed in ease with reason unknown for Haruhi, and picked up his cappuccino to his mouth. After a short period of silence which Haruhi used to recover the normal color in her cheeks, she broke it by asking, "Anyway Kyon, do you want to learn it too?"

"What? Guitar? No, thanks," Kyon answered quickly, showing no interest whatsoever. "I don't think I'm into that kind of stuff."

"Okay then," Haruhi grimaced slightly at the lack of interest in Kyon's voice. She fell quiet for a moment, fidgeting the sofa with her thumbs.

"Seeing that you are so thoughtful about it.." Kyon picked up a pen, playing it on his fingers. "Why don't you just meet Nagato-san now?"

"Now??" Haruhi's face turned into a confused one. "I can always meet her at school, don't you think?"

"Well.." Kyon mumbled, "I just thought you might want to start early.. say, tomorrow."

"You're right. I do want to start early.. But I don't know where she lives," Haruhi looked idly at her companion. "And I don't know her phone numbers either."

Kyon smiled. "She works at the library today."

--

The Habuya shopping district in the evening was still occupied with rushing people from all directions, tough not that many compared to the earlier time. Kyon and Haruhi walked side by side, slowly approaching the public library located in the end of the street, about five minutes walking from the Red Bean café.

"I'm getting suspicious.." Haruhi started, narrowing down her eyes to the point where she obviously looked doubtful. "It seems like you spy on Nagato-san. For knowing all these things about her."

Kyon grinned, indifferent. "We are classmate.. so it can't be helped."

"Still, it sounds too.. strange."

"If you're talking about why I know where she works, it's because of the class activities we had going on," Kyon explained dutifully. "Nagato said she couldn't help because she had to work at the library."

Haruhi eyed the boy from the corner of her eyes and asked suspiciously, "And what kind of class activities are you referring to again?"

"Just a regular meeting to talk about the school festival."

"And you didn't come because you needed to have a math lesson with me?" Haruhi asked doubtfully.

"Exactly," Kyon grinned widely, and his grin even grew wider seeing the look of disbelief in Haruhi's face.

The next moment, the two were both standing in front of the public library's entrance. The library was rather medieval, three stories building, with an appearance strong enough despite its apparent ages. It had a black huge door blocking the view of the inside place, and lots of windows encrypted on the wall. A big sign of "LIBRARY" was hanging on top of the door, welcoming every person who wished to see the inside.

Opening up the giant door, Kyon and Haruhi stepped inside, and were both inwardly amazed of how neat, smart but at the same time cozy looking the library looked. The quietness, however, was the most striking evidence of what vicinity they were entering; Haruhi even felt like she and Kyon were the only one breathing and moving in this building. As their footsteps echoed softly down the hall, the two marched forward. On the right side of the floor there was a bunch of big glassy tables and chairs circling all over it, clearly indicating a study hall section. Right directly in front, tall shelves of all kinds of books lined up neatly, assembling a horizontal line. On the left was a stair leading to the second floor where the more studying-purpose books such as dictionary were located. The library was pretty big, and seemed to be pretty organized at the way things looked.

Haruhi shifted her glance around. "So where could your classmate be, Kyon?"

"This is my first time here, so.." Kyon murmured. "I don't know. Let's just look around."

The two then walked idly from shelves to shelves, gazing around every now and then, only to see other people but Nagato. Haruhi was about to give up if only Kyon did not encourage her to search further. They explored the whole first floor, and finally were rewarded with the sight of a petite, purple haired girl tidying and cleaning up the glassy tables in the study area.

"Nagato-san!" Kyon shouted first, waving his hand.

The person addressed, puzzled as she was, turned her face to the direction she was called. Then slowly and soundlessly, she slid towards Haruhi and Kyon until their distance was no more than half a meter. She looked up at the taller pair with her amber eyes, waiting for the pair to speak.

"Hey, Nagato-san," Kyon greeted the purple haired girl.

"Can I help you?" Nagato in return asked bluntly, not wasting any time for pointless conversation. With the formality of the question, the purple haired girl had just sounded like a true faithful worker of her job in the library.

..She must have thought we were looking for something in the library.

"Ah, yes." Kyon muttered, still looking shocked for the directness of the question. "I believe Haruhi has something to talk about with you."

"Uh.. That's right," Haruhi stuttered, unprepared to be pointed to be the main speaker all that sudden. She thought Kyon was going to talk more; he was the one who had the skills at this kind of things, after all. "I was going to ask if you are alright with the schedule I have in mind," she muttered. "For the guitar lesson."

The purple haired girl listened, but made no inclination to response.

"Do you need us to wait until you are done working to talk, Nagato-san?" Kyon offered, strangely perceptive.

The other girl glanced at Haruhi, then back to Kyon before nodding her head slightly.

Not giving Haruhi a chance to think, Kyon chirped in, "Alright. How long?"

"Ten minutes," Nagato claimed, then without waiting for confirmation, quickly strode on to finish her work, leaving the pair waiting for her to dwell in silence. Exactly ten minutes later, the purple haired girl came out of a staff room from right below the stairs, having taken off her work-clothes completely. The workers' ID card she had on before was now lacking, and instead revealed was the white jacket she had on. The petite girl approached the pair, and silently positioned herself in front of them.

"Let's talk somewhere else but the library, shall we?" Haruhi suggested, looking at the shorter girl. Haruhi had come to notice that their conversing voices were the only one echoing through within the building; had they not been there, it would be a perfect silence. Apparently library was not a place to do talking.

"…"

"I know!" Kyon cried happily. "We can all go to Red Bean!"

Haruhi rolled her eyes. "Again??"

"Yeah, why not?" he insisted. "What do you think, Nagato-san?"

"Sure," was what the petite girl whispered after a thoughtful seconds.

Then as it was decided that the three went back to the café, time flew by faster that day that night was already on the fall. As the sky was getting darker, the rain crushed the earth afterwards, wetting the ground with its splatters of rainfalls. Haruhi, Kyon, and Nagato were still in the café by that time, mostly chatting about everything they could think of. Nagato was not much of a speaker, of course, but she stayed in her seat regardless. She spoke the most when Haruhi brought up the guitar lesson topic, which ended with an agreement of Haruhi coming to Nagato's house everyday this week, excluding the time they both needed to work - which some of them astoundingly happened to be close. The purple haired girl neither questioned Haruhi's hastiness of learning, nor asking for any further explanation; she just agreed.

Half an hour later, as the rain started to halt its progress of plopping down onto earth, the trio decided to go back to their houses. Kyon because he had his curfew, Haruhi because she thought her Mom would be feeling lonely by now, and Nagato for she had nobody else who sought company with her.

Kyon had already rushed to the train station by the time they exited the café, thus leaving the girls by themselves. Later as Haruhi asked, it turned out that the two of them had the same path to take in order to go back home. Therefore they just automatically walked together, side by side as the drizzle started to disappear. As they reached an intersection near a wooden bridge, they ran off to a couple of nights before, Nagato halted abruptly.

"So your house is that way?" Haruhi inquired, halting her steps as well.

Nagato nodded quietly, looking straight at Haruhi's eyes.

"I will.. see you tomorrow morning, then?"

"Yes," came the latter's reply.

With that, Haruhi turned to the left, and Nagato to the right.

--

Haruhi woke up rather early for a weekend record the next morning, feeling strangely refreshed by the morning breeze coming from the window. The cool wind gently brushed past her body, making the weather somewhat comforting for her body to move around. After taking a quick shower, she wore her slippers and trotted her way down to the first floor where she met her Mom doing her daily morning activities. The older woman had an apron on, and was having her hair tied up into a ponytail, indicating the full concentration she had in what she was doing. Her face was stern with concentration, and her eyes never left the food she was cooking. As her right hand was holding a spatula to stir the food, the other was busy holding a thick-looking book which Haruhi guessed to be a cook book judging from the way the vertical lists on the pages looked like.

Haruhi step forward, approaching the woman who gave birth to her. "Smells good from here, Mom."

The forty years old woman shifted her glance from the book she had on her hands and smiled at seeing her approaching daughter. "Rare to see you up early, Haruhi."

"Uh, yeah.. I just felt like it."

"That's good. Breakfast will be ready in a couple minutes, too."

"Okay," Haruhi retorted, sitting herself in a chair while sliding the newspaper to her direction. She started to scan through them, searching for anything interesting possibly going on. She did not find 

any through the first ten pages, thus refusing to bore herself further, folded it back in half and put it back down.

She took a look closer at her Mom instead, observing the older woman in solemn look. It had been almost over fifteen years that her Mom prepared breakfast for her; it even puzzled her as to how dutiful her Mom was at preparing breakfast. One of the reasons she could think about was the fact that breakfast was the only time when the older woman would get the chance to personally talk or be with her daughter in ease, for her Dad would never be up at around that time. The other reasons might just be her Mom's fondness of cooking, or her determination of filling the stomach in the morning. Other than breakfast, tough, her Mom never prepared lunch boxes for her, and dinner was usually bought or made beforehand when Haruhi came back after work or school.

It was kind of sad to point out that it had been more than three years ago since their family had a nice dinner, or breakfast for that matter - together at home. Not to mention that they automatically did not even have any chance to eat out somewhere as a family anymore, either. Her Dad had changed so much – from already bad to even worse- over these three years, and that greatly influenced the way the family was getting along. Whether he cheated with another woman outside, or he was just having a serious mental problem, Haruhi had no idea.

All she was aware of was the fact that starting from three years ago, she had trouble ignoring a lot eerie, loud noises coming from downstairs which bothered her sleep to no end. When her patience and curiosity finally won the best out of her, she made up her mind to find the source of all the sounds. As she tentatively sneaked a look of what might be going on, the poor twelve years old Haruhi just ran upstairs immediately as crafty and soundlessly as she could the moment she had interpreted what her eyes had laid sight on. Even a twelve years old kid like her could blatantly notice the jeopardy going on; all the noises she heard came from none other than her parents. Fear was what lingered on her body and soul for the first six months, but peering over the figure of her crying Mom somehow made her attempted to overcome the feeling and instead shifted it to determination of protecting the only person who gave birth to her. From that point on, her Mom was her first priority, while her Dad might have fallen down to the last.

The tone of what sounded like her Mom's crisp humming tone immediately grabbed her utmost attention, sending her thoughts back to the current time. The older woman had been in apparent joyful mood ever since yesterday, especially when they had the nice dinner out together last night. The two really enjoyed their time to the fullest, and even laughed together like teenagers hanging out together. It was indeed a bliss for her to watch her mother glimmer in such a happiness, Haruhi decided. She never heard her Mom hummed before, let alone expressing her joy in any forms but small smiles. When working like this, her Mom truly looked like those ordinary, happy housewives in films who was blessed with great children, and loving husband whom none other guy could match. In this state, it would never occur to anybody that she had a devilish, bad-tempered, rampaging mad husband which she actually did in fact.

Sighing in lost thought, Haruhi saw her Mom was done with the cooking and was offering the rice to her. The breakfast menu for today was a new-looking tofu soup with boiled shrimps and also rice, as usual. It smelled wonderful, and just having the steamy bowl of the soup near her was enough to make Haruhi's stomach growl in hunger. After doing a self prayer, the two dig into the delicious meals.

"I am going to have a guitar lesson starting from today on, Mom," Haruhi said in the midst of her tofu's chewing. "I will be out for a while today."

"How exciting," the older woman chirped animatedly, apparently having a good mood. "Are you doing it with Kyon?"

"No, he doesn't seem interested. I am doing it with somebody else."

Her Mom beamed a motherly smile. "That's great for you to have somebody else to hang out with, Haruhi."

"Hmph.. It's-"

"You will get there, don't worry," the forty years old woman assured, cutting her daughter's line. "Just like old times."

"…" Haruhi sighed in defeat, offering no retort to her Mom's words.

The rest of the breakfast went with ordinary chit-chat, without flames or debates. In the midst of their morning chat, Suzumiya Shizuno observed her daughter carefully as the younger girl talked and ate. She was indeed happy by Haruhi's excitement of learning guitar, for she knew that music had always been in the girl's soul and interest. As a mother, she knew for a fact that deep down in Haruhi's heart was buried a soul contemplating to receive attention, to prove the talents hidden underneath that cold, rebellious demeanor she wore. Ever since she was small, Haruhi was originally a cheerful, vivacious girl with stubborn personality once something got into her mind. Unfortunately circumstances were going the way it was now, and the energetic personality had now long been buried that Haruhi had even gotten used to having heard none of its cries anymore. The girl had gotten used to her current cold self now, all because of family problems.

Nevertheless, seeing how cheerful Haruhi was, the older woman got the feeling that it might be possible to reawake the old Haruhi. Probably.

"Hey Mom, I'm finished putting the dishes away." Haruhi's voice cried from the kitchen.

"..Thanks, Haruhi." the older woman responded, still a little at trance. She then stood up softly, sliding the chair back in.

Haruhi grabbed the guitar on the chair and said, "I'll be going now then!" Without waiting for a reply she sped up to the front door, hurrying down to the road.

Inside the house, Suzumiya Shizuno smiled to her heart content; fervently gracious as to how lively her daughter seemed to be.

Five minutes later, Haruhi could be found tracing her way to Nagato's house, carrying the guitar she was lent by with one hand, and a piece of paper on the other. The purple haired girl had given her the addresses of where she lived, and even drew a map over their times hanging out yesterday. She remembered the interception where they separated yesterday, so finding the girl's house took no further than a ten minute walk and that made the trip fast and easy. After a while gliding restlessly down the street, she was finally greeted by a view of a modern looking apartment, all tall and glassy with bright scenery of plants and flowers surrounding the meticulously trimmed bushes. The environment was indeed beautiful, and one would not need to guess as to how the price to live there would assist its impeccable beauty.

Haruhi stared dubiously at the address written down on the paper on her hand. It said Fumiya Apartment number 708. So she was there, all right.

Haruhi entered the expensive-looking building slowly, stealing glances around as she made her way to the elevator. It was very white; the tiles were shiny with the white marble tiles, cozy with the leather carpet, and angelical with the all white-painted walls. Some of the decorations were not plain white, however, but nearly eighty percent of them were white. Upon using white as its domain color, the owner had apparently succeeded in exaggerating the sense of cleanliness and neatness of the apartment. Amazed, Haruhi slid in the elevator, pushed number 7 and finally arrived there after waiting for a while. As expected, this very floor was decorated in white as well, although not as flashy and shiny as the first one. Haruhi immediately searched for room 708, and when she found it, prepared herself to push the bell.

But before she even laid her hand on the small round button, the door swung open, welcoming the small figure of Nagato Yuki. The purple haired girl had a pair of white short on with a blue T-shirt twice as big her size as the top. To match what she wore, the purple haired girl also had a pair of white, fuzzy looking slippers on. The soap smells eradicating from her body told Haruhi that the quiet girl had just recently taken a shower.

Nagato-san moved her body aside, giving Haruhi more space to walk in.

"Thank you," Haruhi said automatically.

Nagato watched Haruhi taking her shoes off, then laid out a pair of white slippers like the one she was having on the floor as soon as the latter was finished.

"Ah-alright," Haruhi responded, quickly took the slippers and put it on. Her eyes went exploring the room she was in; a neat, pastel-colored wallpaper with an unexpectedly small space – for such a glamorous apartment, that was. Frankly she had expected a bigger, more spacious room than this, considering the building's size. Haruhi's thought was quickly recovered to the present as she questioned, "Are your parents home, Nagato-san?"

"No," Nagato answered simply, now carrying a tray with cups of hot tea.

When the heck did she make tea? I did not even hear her moving!

Almost soundlessly as well, Nagato placed a cup at each of the opposing side of the tables, and gazed at Haruhi mutely. Instinctively Haruhi walked to the table and sat herself, followed by Nagato. She peered at the hot fumes from the tea surface, but took a slurp regardless.

Then to Haruhi's utmost surprise, Nagato stated in low voice, "This is the only thing I am capable of to make." The petite girl locked her gaze on the cup in her hands, and Haruhi could swear that she sensed some shyness in the eyes of the purple haired girl.

"That's.." Haruhi scanned through for some fitting words to say, but did not come up with any and said instead, "The tea tastes good, Nagato-san."

"…"

Knowing not of what to say, Haruhi sat in silence, as the quietness once again fell between them. Some minutes passed by, and neither of the two seemed to be convinced as to what they should do next. Nagato had not yet shown any sign of teaching, and Haruhi, determined to be in a good term with her teacher as possible, remained patience. She started to wonder if she needed to gulp out the whole tea in the cup in order for them to move up to the next section of guitar lesson. She was trying to sip the liquid as fast as she could, as a thought suddenly flickered in her mind.

"Have you ever made milk tea, Nagato-san?" Haruhi inquired, curiosity in her voice.

The other girl shook her head as the answer, tough a somewhat interested expression was stapled on her face.

"It's easy," Haruhi claimed. "Do you have some milk?"

The quiet girl nodded.

Haruhi stood up. "Then I will show you!"

Carrying both of the cups in her hands, Haruhi went off to the kitchen, followed behind by Nagato. As she entered the kitchen, Haruhi was greeted with the same pastel color wallpaper; although instead of having carpet like the other rooms did, the kitchen had white tiles. Almost immediately Nagato let a carton of milk out of the refrigerator, and gave it to Haruhi.

"All you do is pour it out to regular tea, probably around a third amount of the tea existed." Haruhi said, showing Nagato the action to her own tea as she spoke. "But it still depends on how you like it. If you like it milky, then feel free to add more milk."

Nagato watched the movement closely, and Haruhi could see the former's eyes widen slightly as the dark liquid grew lighter. As Haruhi was done pouring out the milk to her cup, she offered the carton to Nagato and stirred the tea with a spoon, gently mixing it. The purple haired girl quietly repeated the 

action Haruhi had just done, and after a moment of careful milk-pouring act, she put the milk down near the sink. Giving the spoon to the shorter girl, Haruhi observed Nagato as the latter pulled up the cup and drank the milk tea.

"It is delicious," was what the purple haired girl whispered afterwards.

"That's because your regular tea was good already." Haruhi smiled, taking a sip from her own milk tea. "You can make the cold version of this milk tea, too, of course. And you can add sugar if you want to, too."

"…" the quiet girl gave no reply, and drank the milk tea she just made impassively. A while later, during the time both of them were enjoying the tea, Nagato muttered softly, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

The quiet girl then put her cup down, strode back to the living room, and soon enough opened up a door to reveal another room. Neither of them was in hurry at that time, but Nagato seemed to be moving extremely fast after she drank the tea. Haruhi was astonished by the walking speed the petite girl had just showed, but rushed behind the girl as fast as she could. Nagato then entered in, followed by Haruhi whose eyes could not shine in any less adoration of what she had just seen. The room was still dressed and adorned the same way as the others, but this time it served the purpose of what seemed like a music room with a black grand piano, one electric and acoustic guitar, and quite a bunch of amplifiers. On the right corner there was a small cabinet with shelves full of books and notes, while on the other one a handful cables were gathered.

"This room.." Haruhi muttered in utter wonder, completely amazed at the room. Her eyes were glimmering in excitement no matter where she looked. "..is fantastic."

Nagato made no attempt to comply and instead stood mutely in front of Haruhi. The next minutes afterwards were spent entirely with silence between them; Haruhi wandering and glancing around in the room, and Nagato sitting on the carpet with a guitar on her arms. The two were doing activities on their own, but nevertheless they were engulfed in the same world of interest. Patiently and silently, Nagato waited for Haruhi to finish her observation of the room. Finally, as Haruhi's eyes had a reflection of satisfactory in it, Nagato looked up from her guitar and found the other's eyes were on her as well.

Softly, Nagato asked, "..Shall we start?"

"Sure."

Well, here's the fifth chapter! Many thanks to those who reads and reviewed; Roxius, Sonata82, and zakura. Thank you so much! Your reviews are like my fuel.

And extra, many many thanks to Roxius for becoming the beta-reader. You're awesome.

Hope you all enjoy this chapter, and as usual, reviews are really appreciated. Thanks for reading.