"Kou, are you up now?"

Knocking frequently, Rin expected his sister sleeping late—again—and overslept, seeing it was just past eight o'clock. He tried this before and despite his constant knocking, Kou didn't make any sort of reaction to her brother's overprotective concern. Thinking it was only right seeing if she was all right, Rin took a firm grasp on the golden handle, twisted it, and opened just a mere crack for a peek. Rin's eyes couldn't adjust enough; all was just a great abyss of darkness and all silent. It was almost as if there was no one here in the first place—

Then suddenly, Kou emerged hurryingly out the door, causing her brother to unexpectedly shift quickly away, and closed the door by the back. Kou leaned on the surface of the door, a smiling face plastered innocently. This made Rin question her activities.

"Good morning, brother!" she said cheerily. Kou took Rin's arm with hers and pulled them away in a arm-locked fashion. Before Rin could ask, Kou cut him off. "So sorry about that," Kou apologized. "I was working on a school project—English is so hard, you know?—and I completely lost track of time. I'm starving, are we having breakfast now?"

School project? thought Rin unsurely. I don't remember her saying anything about school work… What's really going on? His left eyebrow rose suspiciously at his joyful little sister pestering to make breakfast for him since yesterday he took the role of chief. Now he was interested and wanted to get to the bottom of this.

XxXxXxX

After breakfast, Kou told her brother she was going to finish up her homework and was excused without question. She prayed that her sudden bolt upstairs didn't cause suspicion as she entered her room, closed the door behind and sighed a reliving sigh. Looking at her room, Kou was astonished that her books and manga were all over in messy piles and, although she wanting desperately to finish her latest work, began started picking them up. Kou had wondered how she could look at her brother's face and lie like that. Why couldn't she just speak the truth of her doings? Rin is her brother after all (even though they were separated so long ago), so it never meant they were distant relatives—just a little shy speaking the truth about themselves.

But how, she thought, am I supposed to tell Rin I'm really a Fujoshi?

Organizing the light novels on one shelf and manga by the upper shelf, Kou prepared her bed and sat on a chair tiredly. Opening her computer, her story was waiting impatiently before her. Kou saw her five hundred word fanfic and groaned miserably. How was this going to end? Or, worst of all, how was this going to be better than the others? All her other fanfics were praised in glory but lately she hasn't written anything good for a week.

Her fans, of course, noticed this and either begged for a new chapter or told her to take it easy. If only she could, with friends who were mostly guys and a brother who was too overprotective—"I don't like the internet," he said this one time, "so make sure not to open anything weird."—and kept tabs on her just like an annoying brother. But she still loved him and nonetheless kept this secret to herself. Not even the closet friends knew her dark secret. She wished she could tell them, but what would they think of her? It was scary, she thought, not telling them anything but letting them know I appreciate two guys and girls to find happiness.

She threw a fist in the air, "Okay, time to do my best and write true love!"

XxXxXxX

"Kou, are you done with your homework?" called Rin, knocking on the door.

This was becoming a thing. He knew this, and it annoyed him. Knocking on her door every time and day was becoming a chore and whenever she came out, she took him by the arm and pulled him away. What was she hiding? Is it a girl thing, or was it just her room? Rin had seen it before and it was messy as if she was throwing a party for animals.

"Are you sleeping or something?" Rin said, feeling worried and brought his hand to the door handle.

Giving it a small twist, Rin opened the door, surprised it was unlocked. Suddenly, he caught sight of his little sister on the computer, talking to herself. "...slowly, he began to caress his lover's cheek with just gentle passion. 'B-but what if we tell them and they don't understand us?' asked Hitori worryingly. Then, with such bold movement, Goro took his lover-"

"Kou?"

"WHAT?"

Rin, taken aback, stared bizarrely at her sister with the sense of defense to protect himself from any un-expecting jump scares. He saw her sister's eyes were red from staring at the screen and her cheeks flaming red. Her hair, to Rin's horror, was fumbled and messy as though she either allowed five hundred birds to nest or she was listening to hard core rock metal again. Kou's face seemed unrecognizable, all outrageous while heaving heavily in breathing. Witnessing Rin must have been something horrifying because she squealed, closed her laptop, combed her hair with her fingers restlessly and raced to Rin apprehensively.

"Uh, I'm sorry, what's up?" asked Kou, acting cool and collected and smiling like nothing had happened.

Rin sensed something off and, naturally as a big brother, questioned her activities.

"Were you talking to someone?" Rin's eyes stayed attached to Kou's.

"No. I mean, yes, I was talking to someone!"

"Who is Hitori?"

"…a friend from school…" She glanced behind her back to her computer, squirming fingers tangled feverishly.

Rin squinted his eyes at her. "And who is Goro?

"…Hitori's friend..." Kou bit her bottom lip.

"...I'm confused, I thought you said you were doing home-"

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND," Kou suddenly bellowed at her brother, took his arm and dragged him out. Before she pushed him out (gently as possibly) she said, "we're fine, you just need to leave us alone! I'll be down soon, just let me finish the story!" And then she slammed the door without a chance for Rin to ask who she was talking about.

XxXxXxX

"Aaaah, please tell me he doesn't know!" Kou cried aloud, marching to her computer and taking a seat, biting her thumb nail anxiously. "I just slip up so bad. What am I going to do? He'll never understand my true ambition of enjoying Goro and Hitori being together! Why can't families allow their children to be themselves instead of misjudging them like criminals?

"I need a plan," she decided silently, opening her computer and typing onward from her last sentence. "But first, I need to finish this chapter and I'll start thinking…" Giggling to herself, she continued onward writing and editing her story.

XxXxXxX

"I'm telling you guys!" Rin shouted. "Kou is a Fujoshi!"

A pregnant silence was only heard in their table.

"Guys," Rin said, confused, "why aren't you saying anything?"

"We already knew she was a Fujoshi," Haruka stated plainly.

"WHAT?" Rin bellowed loudly, heads around the café turned to Rin as Makoto tried to calm him down by pushing him down carefully back on his chair. "You mean to tell me that you guys knew this whole time she was a-will you stop that, Makoto? I'm sitting already!"

"Please, I'm sorry we never told you!" Makoto apologized sadly.

"I WILL HURT YOU!"

"First, let's think of a plan to figure out how we can all live a quiet life knowing our friend is a Fujoshi," Rei said, all heads turned to him like students would for teachers.

Sitting down slowly, Rin listened as the others waited for Rei to speak.

"We could always try talking to her, you know." Rei explained.

"She'll think we're accusing her for something she likes..."

"Unless we don't make it so obvious we are, when we're not. All of us, I mean it Rin, will go to Rin's house and have a nice conversation. What could possibly go wrong with that?"

How about everything? Nagisa thought unhappily.

To be continued...maybe?