Hikari Haruno and Junpei Iori have been friends ever since he saved her from a bunch of bullies. That was 15 years ago. Back then Hikari had the biggest crush on him, but never said anything fearing that it would ruin their friendship. However, in the 5th grade, a girl named Tari came into the picture and soon began going with Junpei. When Hikari found out, she was heartbroken, but decided that if Tari made Junpei happy, she was happy. Hikari tried to become friends with the girl but she resounded very rudely and thought that she might be treating Junpei the same way. She told Junpei about it, but he didn't believe her, which caused her to get angry with him and from that point on, they weren't friends anymore, which is what Tari wanted. In the 10th grade Hikari met a girl named Maiko, who was kind of tom-boyish and Junpei met Daisuke, who is a little perverted. Who would have thought they'd be in the same class.
It's not until Junpei and Hikari get partnered together that they begin to discover how they really feel about one another.
Chapter One: An Unexpected Love
"Junpei, we need to work on the project, so come over to my house so we can start it." Hikari told him during class.
Tari walks over and wrapped her arms around him. Hikari walks off, not saying anything to her and joins Maiko and Daisuke at their table.
After school, Hikari walks out the building and waits for Junpei by the entrance with Maiko. Hikari turns around to see Junpei and Tari walking down the hall holding hands.
"Doesn't it just make you sick?" Maiko asked her.
"...I guess." Hikari responded. Maiko sensed the sadness in her voice.
"You okay, Kari?" Maiko asked concerned.
Hikari looked at her with an expression on her face that Maiko couldn't read. It was mix between sadness and anger but, it also had a hint of guilt.
"I'm fine...I'm just a little tired." she told her.
Maiko wasn't buying it. She knew better then that but, decided not to push the issue.
"Alright. I'm gonna head on home; Daisuke and I got a lot of work to do. I'll get you later."
"Bye..." Hikari said keeping her eyes on Junpei.
Maiko walked off just as Junpei and Tari got to the door.
"Bye Tari," Junpei kisses her.
"Bye Junpei," Maiko kisses him back.
Hikari rolls her eyes as she waits for them to finish saying their goodbyes.
Junpei waves bye to Tari and walks over to Hikari. "Okay, let's go..."
"Okay..."
Later at Hikari's house
"Okay, I thought that we could do our project the ancient gods of mythology."
"The what of what now?" Junpei asked.
Hikari rolls her eyes.
"Hey, are you hungry?" she asked him.
"I could use something to eat."
So they go into the kitchen and Junpei sees the note that her mom left her saying that everybody went to go shopping for groceries.
She made Ramen for both of them because she remembered that Junpei likes ramen.
Flashback
"Ah! Get away" screams Hikari.
"Not until you give us your lunch money," says a bunch of bullies.
Hikari runs but trips on a tree's roots. They run up to her and try to punch her but someone says, "Hey pick on someone your own size." They look at someone behind Hikari and they see that it's Junpei and runs away.
"Umm... are you okay?" he looks down at Hikari. She nods, but then Junpei sees her knee is bleeding so he puts a band-aid on it. Hikari blushes and says, "Thanks... umm what's your name?"
"Junpei"
"Oh I'm Hikari"
He helps her up. "Thank you..." her face turns redder. He then blushes.
"You're welcome, hey do you like Ramen?"
"Yeah, do you?" Hikari asked, thinking of how random the question was.
"Yeah, I eat it every day. Want to share some?"
"Okay..." Hikari said smiling up at him.
END OF FLASHBACK
Hikari smiles as she eats her ramen.
BOOM!! It began to rain.
Hikari screams and the lights turn off and on.
"Damn, the lights turned off and it's starting to rain hard!" Junpei says as he looks out the window.
He looks over at Hikari and she is shaking like she is terrified. He stands her up and holds her in his arms. Hikari's face turns red, but she is still shaking. They stay like that for a few minutes until Hikari looks up at him then pulls away. Then the phone rings. It's Hikari's mom she tells Hikari that they couldn't drive through the rain so she bought a hotel room and tells Hikari that she's already talked to Junpei's family and he could stay for the night.
"Mom..."
"Oh, got to go sweetie, be good."
Hikari hangs up the phone and goes back over to Junpei what her mom just told her. His mouth drops wide open.
"Are you serious?!"
She nods. He sighs and asks her if she has any clothes he could change into. She walks up to her mother's room with him following behind. She gets a white shirt and a stripped pant which used to belong to her father she turns around and gives them to him.
He goes into the bathroom and takes a bath then when he's finished he remembered that forgot to ask for a towel. "DAMNIT, DAMNIT HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN?!" he says to himself.
"Umm... Hikari?" he says.
"Yeah?" she says while she waits for him to get out of the bathroom.
"Can... I... um... have a towel?" he says with his face red.
Her face turns red and she gets a towel and knocks on the door. He sticks out his hand and takes the towel. She runs into her room with her face still red.
"OH, MY GOSH! Well at least I didn't see anything and he didn't see me in only a robe," she says in her head.
He comes out with the white shirt and stripped pants, his face still a little red. He goes in Hikari's room to give her the towel and sees that she is in only a robe. She turns around and her face turns red.
"AH! GET OUT, OUT, OUT!" she screamed throwing one of her house shoes at the door.
"SORRY, SORRY!" he says as he runs out.
She closes the door and leans against it.
"Of course that had to happen!" she says as she gets ready to run into the bathroom. She runs in without him seeing her. She takes a bath and gets her towel and dries herself quick and runs into her room. After she put on some clothes on she walked downstairs with her face a little red. She was wearing an oversized button-up shirt, short-shorts, and socks.
"I'm sorry"
"...it's okay..."
There was a long silence until Hikari said that she'd get him a pillow and a blanket. She went upstairs and got them for him. She walked over to him and put a pillow under his head leaning over him.
BOOM!!
"AH!" she screamed as she jumped onto his chest shaking.
He looked at her for a second and held her. She looked up at him.
"I'm sorry, I had a bad ex-"
He interrupted her with a kiss. Her eyes widened and then closed. "Junpei," she said in her mind. Then her arms slowly wrapped around his neck. He pulled back to let her breathe.
"I like you too."
Her eyes widened and she pushed him away.
"No... this... this, it's all wrong!" she said starting to cry. He then held her close to him, but she kept on trying to make him let go, but he didn't let her go.
BOOM!!
"AH!" she screamed and held him tightly. He then leaned over and kissed her. She then turned her head and she let go of him, but he was still holding her.
"Let go of me," she whispered.
"No," he whispered back.
"Why?"
"Because, I like you."
"But Tari..."
"No... Hikari."
"...but..."
He kissed her to make her be quiet.
"I told you only you. Ever since pre-school I've liked you. You do remember how you and I met each other, don't you?" She nods.
"Well that day all I just wanted was you to be okay and safe then Tari came into the picture."
"She was so mean to me and you just didn't believe me."
"Yes I know and I am sorry for that. Will you forgive me?"
"I don't-"
"If you don't, I won't let you go," he said smiling.
She smiled and said, "Then I really, really don't forgive you."
"Oh... then I'll hold you tighter," he said playfully.
He then looked down at her while she was looking up then kissed for the longest he could, but she pulled away for air.
"I don't like you..." he said. She pulled away from him and was about to slap him, but then he said, "I love you." Her eyes widened and she started to cry. He held her close to him until she fell asleep. When she fell asleep he picked her up bridal style and put her on her bed and kissed her forehead.
Soon after this, Junpei broke up with Tari but, it wasn't pretty. Tari went into a kind of jealous rage and decided to do whatever it took to get Junpei back.