Author's Notes: Rei Nishina is a canon character. She appears in episode 6 of the anime, and is known as "Chrys" in the dub. She was/is Keiichirou's old girlfriend. She never appears in the manga.

This fic is set before Keiichirou went to work for the Shirogane family, with the assumption that Kei and Rei knew each other in school.

"Keiichirou-kun!"

Keiichirou Akasaka looked up from the book he was reading under one of the large trees in front of his middle school. "Ah, good afternoon, Nishina-san!" he greeted her warmly, though warily. Rei Nishina could be unpredictable at times.

"Bleah" Rei made a face. "I don't like being called by my last name. It sounds so formal. Like we don't know each other."

"But it's polite," Keiichirou pointed out, not caring one way or the other.

Rei stuck out her tongue. "I don't want you to be polite if it means you'll be boring. Or," she bent over to stare at his book, "more boring than usual. What, do you carry a book with you everywhere?"

"Eh..." Keiichirou looked down at his book, a historical novel called 'Shogun,' by an English author. He needed to brush up on his English if he was going to visit his friends in America. Old Japan from a foreign viewpoint was surprising and interesting. "Well, I do need to work on my English."

Rei made a "pffft" sound and stood up. "Boooring. How can you even read that? It's -" she suddenly grabbed the book from his hands, causing him to loose his place. "Reh? It's over a thousand pages long! How can you stand to read over a thousand pages of tiny English words? You're insane, Keiichi-kun."

Before Keiichirou could make a move to grab back his book, the bell for school rang, motivating Rei to squeak something about being late, and run off.

"...She took my book," he muttered, then realized that the bell really had rung, and he would soon be late.

During the course of the day, he didn't see Rei at all, even though the seventh-grader usually made at least one attempt to pass herself off as one of his eighth-grade class' members. By the time school ended, he was thoroughly enjoying this new experience called "silence."

After school, however, he didn't see Rei anywhere, and his attempts to call her later in the evening about getting his book back were to no avail, as she was never home. She hadn't called back by morning, nor was she anywhere to be found in the schoolyard the next day.

He would've enjoyed the peacefulness of the day again if he had been able to stop worrying after she failed to appear and disrupt class. Others in his class shared the same mentality; by lunchtime they were jumping at every little sound, sure that the "crazy seventh-grader" was going to blow up the school any minute.

The school day ended without any incident other than one of the boys in class who had gone screaming out of the room that he "couldn't take the suspense anymore." As Keiichirou gathered up his things and prepared to leave, a group - it looked like at least half the class, he estimated - walked over.

"Akasaka-san, we feel that in order to preserve the well-being of our class, someone needs to talk to to that crazy...Someone needs to talk to that girl who pops by our class every day," the seemingly appointed leader of the group stated, while his minions nodded fervently behind him.

"...Eh?"

The other boy sighed. "We need you to talk to that girl about why she hasn't been here. We have been waiting for her to disrupt class for the past two days, and nothing has happened. At this rate, half of our class will run out screaming like Osaragi-san did, twitching, waiting for that girl to deliver the final blow that will destroy our class." Behind him, the minions applauded his speech.

"Nishi...Rei-san? I haven't seen her since yesterday morning," Keiichirou explained, edging away. Why was this group talking to him?

"Well, we've seen you talking together, and as it is imperative that we get to the bottom of her disappearance, we have elected you to hunt her down. Good luck, and if you don't return by nightfall, we will hold memorial services for you in the auditorium." the group sped away before Keiichirou could protest. He watched them go, then finished gathering up his belongings. I have to find her anyway, he thought. She's still got my book.

As he walked out of the classroom,a younger girl ran up to him, a frantic look in her eyes. "Akasaka-senpai, you have got to stop her!"

"Eh? Stop who -"

"She's been in the library every spare second for the past two days!"

"Who's in the li-"

"If she doesn't stop soon, her eyesight will go bad and she'll get a hunched-over back and she won't care about shopping or karaoke or walking in the park or making jewelry or anything anymore!" The girl gasped, out of breath.

"If it means that much to you, I'll go -"

"Yay! Thank you, senpai!" She grabbed his arms, forcing him to follow her down the now-empty school halls into the library. "Talk to her!"

Keiichirou gazed around the library. It was empty, save for a few older students browsing the shelves or on computers. There wasn't anyone he could see who looked like they could invoke the younger girl's fury. He decided to walk around the large room once before telling the girl there was no one to talk to. However, as he reached the back of the library where the resource and research books were, he saw a table covered in books - English books and Japanese-English dictionaries, he noted as he got closer. When he approached the table, he was surprised to find, amidst the piles of books, Rei was immersed in his Shogun book, and was making notes in a notebook beside her.

"Rei-san? What are you doing?"

"Waugh!" Rei jumped in surprise. "Ah, Keiichirou-chan! Eh, nothing much..." she attempted to cover up her notes. Keiichirou brushed her hands away and picked up his book. As he did so, small notes fell out, causing Rei to squeak in indignation. "Kei-kun, my notes! You're dropping them all over!"

"Your...Oh, so sorry. Let me pick them up," Keiichirou bent down, and glanced at the pieces of paper he was picking up. They were all full of English words and their Japanese counterparts. "Eh, Rei-san, you're translating my book?"

Rei blushed. "Well, you seemed to be so into it, you're not paying attention to me - I mean, you're not paying attention to any aspect of your social life."

Keiichirou smiled. So that was why she's been acting so strangely. "Rei-chan, would you like to translate it with me? I could use the help."

Rei stuck out her tongue. "Maybe. If you make me one of your delicious cakes."

Keiichirou settled down in a chair beside her. "But I could just buy you one. There arecafes we pass on the way home..."

"Keiichirou Akasaka, is the concept of romance totally lost on you?"

Hiding behind some bookshelves nearby, Rei's classmate smiled. Ah, just like a shoujo manga... Then her shoulders slumped. Now she really won't be able to spend time with me.