Chapter 1

It was a usual sight on a week day afternoon to see Mikan Tsumiki running, if tripping over your own feet at a rapid pace is considered running, down the street, trying desperately to reach the safety of her house as none other than Hiyoko Saionji chased her, with Mahiru Koizumi trailing behind of course. Tsumiki usually ended up face planting somewhere along the way, giving Saionji, who wasn't very athletic herself but could certainly run correctly, time to catch up. At this point Saionji usually pushed Tsumiki back on the ground as she hopelessly tried to get up. Saionji would then yell out obscenities at Tsumiki and get a couple of hard kicks in before Koizumi would wrench Saionji away, to preoccupied to even apologize to Tsumiki. Tsumiki usually sustained pretty nasty injuries from this, but it wasn't anything she couldn't fix as the Super High School Level Nurse.

This sequence of events transpired almost everyday after school. Tsumiki felt like it was part of her everyday routine, something she couldn't escape, but desperately needed too. She pulled her knees up to her chest, feeling tears stinging at her eyes again. Her disheveled, raven hair hid her face as she buried it in her knees. She started sobbing. Her chest heaved with every gasp she took in. She felt like she had to move, for fear of being seen and bullied again.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder and she tensed up, ready for whatever beating was about to occur. However, she was not hit. All she heard was a rough voice saying "Hey, are you okay?"

Kazuichi Souda was perplexed to say the least when he had stepped out of his house to find a girl sobbing right in front of him. He did a mental double take and then silently freaked out while he tried to decide what to do. He could just walk by, completely ignore her, but that didn't sit well with him. He ended up deciding that it would be best to approach her.

He laid a soft hand on her shoulder, and felt her flinch. She must be used to abuse, like himself.

"I'm so sorry!" Tsumiki yelped, standing up quickly and attempting to run away.

As expected, Tsumiki began to fall once she tried to run again, but Souda caught her. Tsumiki, braced for impact, opened her eyes to find herself face to face with the ground. She was then pulled up slowly and placed back on her feet.

"I'm so so sorry! I've caused you so much trouble!" Tsumiki said, burying her face in her hands.

"Why do you keep apologizing? I chose to help you so it's not your fault." Souda stated, causing Tsumiki to look up.

Tsumiki was baffled. Why was this stranger so nice to her? Why did he care about her? She felt weird inside, and made a mental note to come up with a shot to fix that later.

"I'm Souda by the way."

"Tsumiki."

"Hmm, Tsumiki huh? I kinda like that name."

Souda flashed Tsumiki a smile, showing off his sharp teeth. Put that on top of his wild pink hair, narrow eyes, and mechanic outfit, Souda looked like a pretty scary dude. Which, as anyone could assume, scared the living shit out of Tsumiki. But he did help her, so maybe he wasn't that bad.

Souda was pretty sure that this chick probably hated him by now. She probably wanted to be alone, but he couldn't leave her. Something kept him there on that sidewalk, trying to get the girl to warm up to him. He just chalked it up to not wanting to go back inside his house.

"Your face." Tsumiki muttered.

"My face? What about it?" Souda replied.

"You have a cut."

Souda touched his cheek. He had forgotten about that.

"Let me fix it." Tsumiki whispered.

"You can do that?" Souda asked.

Tsumiki nodded and started towards her house, which was only ten feet away. She was close today before she face planted. Not bothering to look and see if Souda was following her, Tsumiki opened her door and walked in her house.

"Wow, bro! You live here?" Souda asked.

Tsumiki nodded.

"Then I guess we're neighbors." Souda said.

Tsumiki kept walking to her medicine room in the back of the house, not sure whether to be happy or terrified about Souda being her new neighbor. She had of course known that the house next door was for sale, she had run into the "For Sale" sign on multiple occasions, but she was probably too busy running away from Saionji to pay much attention to whoever moved in. At least until now.

Souda was kinda glad to have Tsumiki as his neighbor. He was hoping that she would be friends with him so he wouldn't be a lonely loser, but at this rate, it would take more effort to get her to be his friend than if he just tried to be friends with anyone else. However, he still felt like he needed to try.

Tsumiki lightly patted the table placed in the center of her medicine room, and Souda hopped on it and proceeded to make funny faces in the mirror across the room. Tsumiki could help but let out a little snicker when she turned around to find Souda making a monkey face. She quickly hid it when Souda turned to face her, scared to death that he might get mad at her and hit her. Instead he just said "Alrighty Doc, whatcha gonna do?"

"Im going to clean... and then evaluate... maybe stiches... or a shot for the pain."

"Wow! No shots! Please no! I hhhaaaatttteee needles! Just please fix my face."

Souda added a puppy dog face for good measure, but it only ended up making Tsumiki more afraid. She nervously walked over to the table and spread out everything she would be using next to Souda. Tsumiki took a deep breath before pouring some hydrogen peroxide on a gauze. She used this to clean out the wound, making Souda flinch at the sudden sting.

"Sorry." she muttered.

The cut wasn't deep enough to require stitches, much to Tsumiki's displeasure, so after cleaning it all she had to do was bandage it up. When she was done, Souda lightly touched the bandage before saying "Thanks Tsumiki!"

"Umm, Souda." Tsumiki said before Souda left.

"Yeah?"

"How did that happen?"

Tsumiki was about to slap herself for asking such a stupid question. She was sure that Souda was going to annihilate her now.

"Oh, my dad. It's nothing to worry about." Souda said.

Tsumiki closed the door behind Souda, thankful that no annihilations had occurred today. She was beginning to think that maybe this Souda character wasn't so bad, but that's what she thought last time, and look where she ended up.

Souda walked home, recounting today's events. For some reason, he wanted to be friends with Tsumiki. She was shy and kinda annoying, but he thought that was only cause she was scared to be who she really was. Souda was determined to find that side of her. He thought that maybe his new life here wouldn't be so bad if Tsumiki was there to fix him up after one of his fights with his dad.

...

Tsumiki sat staring out of her bedroom window, starring up at the stars. She did this almost every night after homework. Stars were so lucky. They were so far away, so distant. They seemed like they didn't have any problems at all. Tsumiki was about to go to bed when she noticed a light turn on in the house next to hers. Souda's house. Before Tsumiki had time to react, Souda had walked into view, and noticed her. He smiled and waved.

Tsumiki was so shocked that she ended up tipping her desk chair over and landing smack on her back. She rubbed her back as she used her desk to help herself up. Souda gave her a sympathetic look. Suddenly, Souda started running around his room, throwing things every which way. Tsumiki laughed, but scolded herself afterwards.

Souda had come up with the best idea ever. He may not be a genius, but he was pretty smart. He just had to find his large pad of paper. Ah ha! In the bottom of the dirty clothes pile! How did it get there? Souda grabbed a pen and wrote "OUCH" in big letters, then showing it to Tsumiki.

Tsumiki grabbed a pen and a piece of paper, which were conveniently located at her desk, and wrote "SORRY" back. "WHY?" was her response. Tsumiki didn't know what to say to this. Instead she just wrote "BYE" and pulled her curtains over the window. Why? Tsumiki didnt know and figured it would be better just to go to sleep and hope Souda just dropped the subject.