Chapter One

"WAKE UP!"

"W-what?" Hitoshi blinked his eyes open.

"Amano-san!" Hitoshi's teacher, Mr. Hayasaka stood looming over his student, glaring down at him. "It is the first day of your first year at high school! We're only halfway through the day, and look at you! Sleeping during the lesson! It's not good enough!"

"Sorry, Hayasaka-sama," Hitoshi muttered under his breath, grinning to himself.

"It is not a laughing matter!" Hayasaka snapped, enraged and frustrated. "In fact...detention! Come and see me after school today!"

"Aww, but-"

"No more excuses! It's your turn to recite the next paragraph of the article we're on now! Page 5, second from the bottom, go, go, go! Arise, boy, to your feet, start reading, keep it flowing!"

Hitoshi clunked to his feet, opened the book and read...

"Ku-"

Brrrrring.

The lunch bell rang. At the right moment. Hitoshi dropped the book onto the table as though it were a piece of litter, and dashed outside.

He sat down in the shade of a cherry blossom tree. Ryou Fujibayashi, a girl from his class, scurried over to him.

"Hitoshi! You'll never guess! I signed up to be a class representative! The elections are next week!"

"Good for you. And why are you telling me this?"

"Well, I wanted to ask you...can you help me prepare for my speech?"

"Why me?"

Ryou looked down at her knees. "Because..."

"Because-?"

"Do you want me to tell a fortune? Through palmistry?"

"Huh? Wha- I mean, okay."

"You're a male, so give me your left hand, Hitoshi."

"Left." He slapped his left hand into Ryou palm.

Ryou widened her eyes in great surprise as she stared at the lines streaked on his hand.

"What?" Hitoshi asked urgently, glancing at her face. "What is it?"

"It-it is foretold that y-you will have a romantic meeting with a nice girl today."

"What?"

Ryou nodded shyly. Then, she spun around and hopped away.

"What's up with her," Hitoshi thought.

"Hello!"

A friendly voice spoke. Hitoshi looked up.

A girl he had never seen before stood in front of him.

"I was wondering if I could sit here?" she inquired.

"Oh, yeah, sure!" Hitoshi shuffled over on the bench. "Plenty of room here!"

The girl was very beautiful. She had dark, gorgeous midnight-blue eyes, so shiny that Hitoshi could see his own golden brown eyes reflected in them, clearer than in any mirror. The girl also had bright, bubblegum pink hair.

She beamed. "Thanks. My name is Mayumi Ando, by the way. In Class A."

"Hitoshi Amano. I'm in Class C."

"Nice to meet you, Amano-kun!"

"Nice to meet you, too."

"Could this be the one?" Hitoshi wondered to himself. "Is she the girl that was mentioned in Ryou's fortune?"

He cleared his throat. "Well, anyway, I know all of the students in the first two grades of this school pretty well, because they were with me in the past schools I've been to, but I've never seen you around. Are you new?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm not new. I started this school last year, but my body was weak, and I always got extremely sick, so I missed a lot of important things in my first year here. And because of that, I had to do a repeat of my first grade."

"So you're older than me by a year."

"Yes."

"Wow."

The two of them ate their lunches in silence, and occasionally, he would offer her some of his food, and she would refuse and give him part of hers, but he would give it back, saying that she needed it.

When school was over, they said their goodbyes to each other and departed ways. As Mayumi left him, waving in the distance, she shouted, "My home is the tiny little family restaurant near the highway behind the school! You should recognize it. Come over any time you want!"

She disappeared and Hitoshi looked up at the sky, realizing that night had fallen. It was time to go back to his own home.