Ia hated being touched.

She wasn't sure why. While she could come up with lots of reasons - perhaps it was due to her parents' frequent absences due to their work, or the fact that she never really had a mother until her father remarried when she was eight - none sounded right to her ears. In especially dark moods, often when lying in bed late at night, staring up at the empty ceiling, Ia would wonder if there was something fundamentally wrong with her - if her quietness and social anxiety were attributes that she had been born with, and thus could never be changed.

After all, no one else seemed to have the same issue. From Ia's observations growing up, other people dealt with contact fine. They hugged, cuddled, and did all sorts of touchy, social things. Ia would watch them sometimes and envy them - envy that easy sense of social interaction that came so normally to people.

It should come as no surprise that Ia removed herself utterly from her school's social ecosystem. People, as though sensing something off about her, generally tended to keep away. And that was just fine with Ia. She had observed enough of her peers to know that with attachment came pain and drama. Ia didn't need any of that to distract her from important things in life, like studies or music. Other people had their soap opera squabbles and immature little arguments - Ia had her compositions, her instruments, her mixes, her music, and she was fine with that.

Other people were irrelevant. This was something Ia firmly believed. She was her own island. She didn't need anyone else, and that, Ia thought, was that.

-o-o-o-

The streets were brimming full for a small town like Yamaha, and on her way to school, Ia had to squeeze past several groups of students complaining about the start of yet another school year. Ia couldn't really blame them - the weather was warm and balmy, a lazy late summer morning. Part of Ia just wanted to go home, crawl under her blankets, and go back to sleep.

Not that she could do that, of course, so instead Ia put on her headphones, drowned out the noise, and walked quickly to school. Her classroom was mostly empty when she got there, and Ia walked to her seat and sat down. No one acknowledged her as she did, and Ia didn't care. She had grown too used to being excluded to feel the sting. She read a book until class started, and her teacher, a nervous-looking brown-haired man, wrote his name on the board - Hiyama Kiyoteru - and cleared his throat.

"Along with a new school year," he began, "we have a new transfer student as well."

At that, the classroom immediately hushed, and heads turned towards the closed classroom door with interest. Transfer students were extremely rare in this small town. Even Ia looked over at the door, a little curious despite herself to see whoever this newcomer would be.

Through the door walked a self-assured girl with cheery purple eyes and dark hair, her skin pale. She wasn't wearing the prescribed school uniform, instead wearing some black and purple bunny hoodie. She looked pretty and cheerful...the kind of girl who would blend in easily with the classroom and make a lot of friends.

"Um...hi everyone," said the girl, her voice perky and energetic. Too perky and energetic for the morning. "My name is Yuzuki Yukari. I hope I have fun here!"

"You can have the seat next to, hm..." Kiyoteru cast his eyes across the room, "Piko."

Yukari nodded and smiled before walking over and taking the seat next to Piko. The teacher waited for them to finish exchanging greetings and then the class begun. Ia listened for a few moments, but the material was all review, boring stuff she already learned before, so sighing Ia returned her attention to her book.

Eventually, lunch, as it always did, came.

A transfer student's choice of who to spend their lunch with on the first day is one that is crucially important. It usually determined who the transfer student would hang out with, which clique she or he would associate with. To Ia's utter unsurprise, the transfer chose to hang out with Piko, who hung out with Oliver, who in turn was friends with Sonika, who was friends with Gumi, who was, if not friends, acquaintances with almost everyone else in the room. It was an intelligent choice, Ia supposed.

So for Ia, nothing changed and nothing would change. She ate her lunch, alone, as everyone else laughed around her.

-o-o-o-

"You didn't come to school today," Ia remarked as she dropped her backpack on the floor and kicked off her shoes.

Her stepsister, Mayu, shrugged as she sat in front of the television, watching something about steampunk vampires. "I was sick."

"No you weren't," said Ia automatically. That was Mayu's default response for everything.

Mayu sighed melodramatically. "Fine. I was working on some new plushies." She held them up for display. One of them was of a cute rabbit with an axe inexplicably in its head. The other was a white, furry cat with some kind of weird expression stuck halfway between a scream and a smirk.

Ia decided not to comment and turned towards the kitchen. "Do you want some tea?"

"Sure!" Mayu perked up. "What kind?"

"Um," Ia studied the labels on the containers of tea, "what kind do you want?"

"I want some royal milk tea."

"...royal milk tea? What is that?"

"Oh, Ia, Ia, Ia," sighed Mayu, shaking her head with a melancholy expression, "you have so much to learn."

"I'm a year older than you," Ia pointed out.

"Age is nothing next to experience. Royal milk tea is when the milk is boiled along with the water and tea leaves. Haven't you ever been to a tea shop? Oh, wait," Mayu paused and frowned, "I forget that all you do is stay in your room and listen to music. You should come with me sometime."

"No thanks," Ia said automatically as she took out the requisite ingredients.

Mayu scowled at her, hugging her bunny plush closer to herself. "You need to get out more, Ia!" She pointed an accusing finger at her. "You're older than me, so you have to set an example."

Ia shook her head. "I set enough of an example by going to school. Anyways, there's a new transfer student in my class today-"

"I know!" Mayu bounced up to her feet, eyes suddenly bright. "I heard. Yuzuki Yukari, right? Hmm," Mayu placed a finger to her lips, eyes thoughtful. "Her name sounds nice. Yu and Yu. And they both end with 'i' sounds. I wonder why she moved here to the middle of nowhere, though."

Ia blinked. "How did you know about her already?"

"Ah, my friends told me," Mayu said, falling back on the couch. "Yamaha is so small, everyone knows about her."

Ia raised her eyebrows. One of the benefits of having friends, she supposed. Shrugging, she turned back towards the stove and began to make the tea.

-o-o-o-

The days passed, ordinary and slow. The transfer student seemed nicely settled into her life at school, sitting with Piko and his friends at lunch, laughing frequently. Despite herself, Ia was a little amazed - the transfer made friends so easily, unlike Ia, who never had any friends. But that was fine. Ia was too busy. She wasn't lonely; she just had no time for things like 'friends', and she was too used to her solitary lifestyle. It was a little comforting, the monotony of it all.

But all of that changed the day Yukari marched over to Ia's desk at lunch, sat down next to her, and started taking out her lunch.

Ia looked up from her book and stared at Yukari in complete confusion. What? Why was Yukari sitting next to her? Ia never even talked to her before, and in her experience people don't randomly eat lunch with total strangers. Ia looked around, surreptitiously - Piko, Oliver, Sonika, and all the rest were staring at her, looks of pure confusion painted on their faces. Unused to the attention, Ia sank back into her book. Maybe if she ignored it, the stares would go away.

"Hi Ia," said Yukari as she bit into her sandwich.

Ia slightly raised her eyes, warily looking at Yukari, sizing her up like she would an enemy. Unsure of Yukari's aim or objectives, Ia wasn't quite sure of what to do or say.

"...hello," Ia said, guardedly. "Why are you sitting with me?"

"I felt like it," said Yukari, smiling. "You looked pretty cool, which is why I decided to talk to you!"

Cool? Ia began to look at Yukari as if she was some kind of space alien. The word 'cool' had never been used with Ia. Ever. "...right..."

"So...what're you reading?"

"Um...House of Leaves," said Ia.

There was a slight pause.

"By Mark Danielewski," added Ia, feeling a very small burst of hope in her heart. Maybe, just maybe, Yukari read that book too.

"Oh. I've never heard of it," Yukari said, extinguishing Ia's hopes as easily as a bucket of water thrown on a candle. "Um...have you ever read Dusk?"

Ia frowned deeply at the mention of that vampire romance novel and disdainfully shook her head.

"...guess not, then," said Yukari, sounding a little disappointed. She began listing the names of various romance novels that Ia had never read and would never read.

"Previous Off?"

"No."

"Headphones?"

"No...look," Ia put her book down, "I don't read books like those."

Yukari gave Ia a very dour look. "You have no idea what you're missing." That said, she took Ia's book and flipped through it, her eyes quickly widening. "What the...what's happening in this book?" She flipped it around and pointed at a page of messed up boxes of text. "How do you even read this?"

Ia felt the urge to smile at Yukari's obvious confusion, her face remaining perfectly impassive. "It's a strange book."

Yukari shook her head as she paged through it. "No kidding. I can't read this," she said with a laugh, handing Ia back her book. "So now that we're acquainted, wanna hang out after school?"

What? No one ever invited Ia to hang out after school with them. That was something that happened to Mayu, not Ia. For a moment, Ia thought she misheard. "What?"

"Let's hang out after school!" said Yukari, cheerfully.

Ia stared at the girl in disbelief, hardly believing her ears. "Wh...what? Are you serious? Me?" She pointed at herself. "Why not with your friends?"

"Well, I want to get to know you better," said Yukari. "So just say yes or no."

"Did your friends put you up to this?" Ia asked, unwilling to believe it. Nothing like this ever happened to before, and she felt shaky, strange. "Is this some sort of dare?"

"It's not a dare," said Yukari with a smile that communicated nothing but absolute friendliness and trustworthiness. "They're not putting me up to anything. So? How about it?" She held out her hand.

Ia eyed it. Never before had a hand seemed so threatening. She hesitantly raised her hand and extended it so that she was grasping Yukari's hand in a sort of handshake. Though she hated to be touched, Ia could manage this much at least. Ia realized that she was trembling a little. Was she really so excited about something so...minor to other people? Ia swallowed, hard, and Yukari tightened her grip around Ia's hand, reassuringly, as if to tell her that she's in capable company.

"So...right after school?" Ia asked. "Today?"

Yukari grinned and nodded. "Yup. Today."

-o-o-o-

When school ended, Ia made her way outside to the gates where Yukari told her where she would be waiting, but along the way she bumped into Mayu, who was hanging about rooting around in her backpack for something.

"Hey, watch where you're going," Mayu began, irritated, but upon seeing it was Ia her anger quickly died. "Oh, sorry! Didn't know it was you."

"It's fine. What're you looking for?" Ia asked, a little curious despite herself. Her sister rarely rooted around her backpack quite so vigorously. Mayu looked as though she was throttling the thing.

Mayu bit her lip. "Um, just my math homework. My friends gave me the sheet but now I can't find it. How about you? You look like you're in a hurry."

Ia paused. She wasn't sure if she wanted to tell Mayu about Yukari's invitation. After all, Ia was still a little afraid that Yukari didn't mean it, that it was all some big prank, and Ia didn't want to lose even more points of respect in her younger stepsister's eyes. "I have to work on some new mixes back home."

Mayu frowned, disappointment clearly evident in her eyes. "You're walking so fast to lock yourself in your room again?"

"Yeah, bye," Ia said, and before Mayu could protest, Ia practically ran over to the gates, her heart thudding loudly in her ears. She was beginning to feel that sinking fearfulness, one that hit her at full force when she reached the gates and saw that Yukari wasn't there, not even after Ia stopped and talked with Mayu. All at once, despair crashed down on Ia's mind. Her feelings about friendship were so new, so fragile...but Ia stayed there and waited, hoping against hope that it wasn't a big joke. She could already see it in her mind's eye, Piko and Yukari sniggering to themselves about Ia wasting her time waiting.

"Sorry for the wait, Ia," called Yukari, and all at once Ia's fears were replaced by a wave of relief. Turning, Ia saw Yukari running over, looking rather hurried.

"What took you so long?" Ia asked, trying to disguise her feelings with a scowl. "I'm not used to waiting for other people, you know."

"Ah, sorry, sorry," Yukari grinned apologetically, "Piko wanted me to see a new magic trick of his."

"I see..." Ia sighed. "Well, what now?"

That took Yukari up short. She paused and thought. "Oh, um...what do you usually do after school?"

"I study," said Ia. "Or...do music things." She didn't quite trust Yukari enough to elaborate, and hoped that Yukari wouldn't press.

Unfortunately, press she did. "Music things?" Yukari perked up. "I like music. What do you do? Do you play an instrument?"

"Um, something like that..." Ia said, beginning to regret this entire proposition. Yukari picked up on Ia's reticence and confusion passed over her expression. She looked as though she wanted to ask more, and Ia hoped she wouldn't.

"Well...okay," said Yukari, slowly, and then her expression returned to one of a cheerful smile. "So what do you want to do?"

"Um..."

There was an awkward silence for a few moments as Ia stared off into space and Yukari shifted her weight from one food to another, before the silence was abruptly broken.

"Well, when there's nothing else to do...we can always go shopping!" Yukari said, her voice suddenly energetic again. "Shopping, topped off with some food at the food court...I'm fixing to watch a new movie too, so it works out! How does that sound to you?" Yukari turned, looked at Ia. "Dinner, shopping, movie...is that okay with you?"

Ia didn't know what to say, taken off guard by Yukari's colloquial use of the word 'fixing' and by the prospect that she'd be spending dinner with this strange new girl too. To someone so unused to social interaction, this much seemed like a lot...yet, it was strangely appealing as well. Ia nodded, hesitantly.

"Great!" Yukari grabbed Ia by the wrist. "Let's go then! Off to the mall!"

That said, Yukari started running, practically dragging Ia behind her.