A/N: I didn't think I would upload this, but here you go! Listen, guys. This story was meant to be a manga, but I had to turn it in to a story barely a third through (Which leaves me disappointed TT^TT) That is the reason for a weird writing style and manga characteristics (for both the story and the characters.) *sighs* I hope you'll understand. =_=...Anyways, at some point in time, my writing skills faded. But I still decided to go on, for the sake of the story itself at least. So prepare yourself for crappy writing skills, I'm sorry.

Another thing, if you're looking for some romance, you're not really gonna get much. There's a little bit of "moments" if you get what I'm saying. But no, nothing really happens in terms of the characters getting too much into the "romance" factor. Their relationship is more of a...growing...family...friend thing, alright?

And no, I don't write in a proper story format. The conflicts come and go, unusually. ~This is mostly like a Slice of Life manga put into words~ But please give it a try.

It was the morning sun seeping through the window that awoke her. And that was it. Her eyes opened slowly...really slow. Then finally, she blinked a couple times, and looked around the brightened room, with a disappointed look on her face. She wasn't disappointed with anything major in particular. She just didn't want to get up so early (11:47 being very early to her...on this particular day.) She yawned, sprung up from the bed, and rubbed her eyes. Then proceeded to leave the room, gently closing the door behind her.

Hi there, I'm Chiaki Sakurai. I'm the middle daughter of the three Sakurai sisters.

She was walking down the stairs quite sleepily, having to hold on to the stairway for minor support.

I thought that I would be living my summer scared, worried, and lonely. But I didn't think that a lot of unexpected things were going to happen to me.

She finally reached the bottom, and rubbed her dark eyes once again before looking up. Her hair, choppily layered and up to the shoulders, was a shining light chocolate in the bright, sun dappled house.

Things that I never thought would ever happen in my whole lifetime. Feelings that I never thought I would ever feel.

"Good morning, Mom! Dad!"

This is my story.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

The only thing that answered her was the continuous whirring of the air conditioner. "Aoi? Hana?" She looked around, wondering if she should say something else. Then she closed her eyes doubtfully and scoffed. "Wow, Chiaki." She told herself. "You know it's not really a dream. This is for real now." She replayed the memories in her mind, falling back to two days ago, early morning, near the beginning of summer vacation. She watched herself hugging Aoi tightly, and proceeding to do the same to Hana. Aoi, the eldest, was going to college somewhere far away, and their little sister Hana was going with her, because of the prestigious middle school nearby.

Her mind then leaped forward a bit, to the day after, when she was at the same airport, waving her mom and dad goodbye. They both had new jobs, even farther away.

She was going to be alone for a while. At least until summer vacation was near its end, when the four of them promised to visit her, and see each other again. But looking around at the neat, but empty house, Chiaki felt like it wasn't such a good idea to leave her alone.

Because she was panicking as usual.

"But...but...that means..." She stammered to herself, looking at the kitchen in front of her, then to the living room on her right. "But I...this house is so big! How can I take care of this alone! I can't do this!" Foolish thoughts crept through her mind and lingered there, pounding down on her without mercy. Cleaning! Cooking! Money management! Going from place to place! Robbers! Rapists!

"Why...?" She asked, as if her mom and dad were really there. "Why did you do this to me?" She remembered how irresponsible and clumsy she was, too. Nothing at all like the rest of the family.

Finally, she pounded her palm with a fist, and tried to look calm about the situation (which wasn't really working.) However, she was very determined about the whole manner, and grinned from ear to ear. "That's ok. There's a solution to everything! All I have to do is work hard! I can do that!"

She looked around the empty house...but her grin faded. "But it'll be lonely, won't it?"

A/N: Ohkay. This is a short chapter. But don't worry, it's just the beginning. We'll be having some long chapters ahead, trust me. I hope you'll leave a review. Constructive criticism is greatly encouraged. And suggestions. And perhaps just...any review at all. This story needs to live - ^ -...