The Way Things Work

by Huredhiel

Remake: In a series of twist and turn events, Rei has to make his way throught his new college, his new house, this new country, and his new roommate KAI.

1. This is my life

The way things work by animelover6000

"This is your life and today is all you got now.

And today is all you'll ever have.

Don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes.

This is your life are you who you want to be,

This is your life are you who you want to be,

This is your life is it everything that you dreamed that it would be,

When the world was younger and you had everything to lose."

Switchfoot

This is my life

My name is Rei Kon and I am seventeen years old. My birthday is April 12. I am currently living in Japan with my Aunt Nina, my Uncle John, and my cousins Lee, Mariah, Kevin, and Gary. I go to school at Kotowana College. My life is pretty normal, but the only problem is that I have a crush on somebody. This somebody is not a girl, I can tell you this now, this somebody is a very sexy, hot, if I talk to you I will drool, guy. Yes for all you slow people I am gay. I don't really remember when I found out that I was but I think it all started when I first came to Kotowana College.

You see I moved here from China. I was born and somewhat raised there. We moved to Japan because my uncle wanted to get out of the country and experience new things. Not that I really know what that means but I just go along with it. I just started school yesterday and I think that I am already falling in love with someone. That person is of course as I told you a guy at that. I guess I can walk you through what has happened and what is currently happing. Now I think that it would be best if you paid very close attention because I may jump back and forth between now and then. I remember how it all started out. (This was just yesterday.)

YESTERDAY

My Uncle and Aunt drove me and my cousins up to Kotowana College. We had no idea that they were going to enroll us into a public school. (We have always been in a private school.) We arrived at the school; my cousins and I were kind of surprised that the school was so close to home. The school was within walking distance of the house but it would really be dangerous because of the heavy flow of traffic. Well we came to the entrance of the school and walked in. The school was plain and not that big, the walls were covered in a sky blue paint and on that paint was a painting of an eagle and I would guess from the looks of it I would have to say that the eagle is the school mascot. My Aunt, Uncle, cousins, and I walked into the main office. We walked up to the counter and waited for the woman at the front desk to get done talking on the phone.

While my Uncle and Aunt were waiting for her to deal with them, my cousins and I walk to some chairs that were lined up against the glass windows. My cousins and I idly chat with each other when he walked in. The sexiest man that I have ever seen alive, and at that moment in time I didn't even know that I was gay. He had eye length gray bangs and long dark blue hair in which he kept tied back. He had these deep crimson eyes that whenever you just look into them you could get lost in them. He walks up to the desk and stood by my Aunt and Uncle and waited for the lady at the front desk.

Finally after a good ten minutes the lady at the desk got off the phone and looked at the three people that were standing in front of her desk. She looked at my Aunt and Uncle and ask them what were they there for. My Aunt told the lady that my Uncle and she was there to enroll my cousins and me. She nodded her head and look over to the beautiful boy and asked him why was he in there. He simply told her that he was bringing a letter to the office.

She nodded her head in understanding and told him that she would give the roll the Assistant Dean. He nodded his head and turned to walk out of the office. That is when it happened, that was when we first lock eyes. It seems like forever that we look at each other, but in reality it was only a split second then he walked out the office.

The Head Dean of the school walked through the office door and over heard my Aunt and Uncle talking to the lady at the front desk. He told my Aunt, Uncle, cousins, and me to follow him back to his office. Once we reached his office he told all of us to take a seat in the brown leather chairs that were surrounding his very well polished red oak desk. My Uncle handed the Dean my cousins and my records, for a long time the Dean look over each pile of papers making noise of approval and nodding his head.

Finally after what seemed like forever he lifted his head and looks into all of our faces, he scan over my cousins faces first then he reach my eyes. My golden eyes look into his dark brown eyes, the man was a little handsome. He had short raven hair and knowing eyes, his face was hard but soft at the same time almost as though he has seen things that a person his age should not have seen. He was a tall medium built man but he walked slightly hunch over. His eyes averted to my Aunts and Uncles and he spoke these few sentences that told us how bad he wanted us at his school.

"Your niece and nephews may go to this college but under one condition, I don't want any trouble making in my school. If I so much as hear about you five causing trouble in my school I will kick you out and ban you from ever coming back on my school property. Do you understand?" Just like his body, his voice is just as medium toned. My cousins and I nodded our heads in understanding and he sat back in his chair and crossed his arms.

He smiled at us and told us that we can either start today or tomorrow and that someone will show us to our dorm rooms if we needed the assistance. The whole family put on our fake smiles, got out of the chairs and walked out of the room. Before we closed the door we heard him call out to the lady at the front desk, whose name I am taking it to be Mrs. Rose, and told her to take care of whatever questions that we had.

We walked to Mrs. Rose who was standing near the door leading out of the office. With a big bright smile on her face she asks, "So would you like for me to show you around? Or perhaps to your dorm rooms? Or do you want to see the lunchroom?"

Man I couldn't believe this lady, she can talk a mile a minute and from the looks of it she wasn't going to stop talking. I leaned over to my Uncle who was on my right and whispered, "I think that we should start school tomorrow, that way today we can go sightseeing and look at where everything is."

My Uncle nodded his head in agreement but my cousin Mariah, who was on my Uncles' right, declared, "No I think that we should start today. At lease that way we could meet up with people now than wait until tomorrow and not know anybody."

My Aunt who was trying to get Mrs. Rose to stop talking told us, "No I think that we are going to go with Rei's idea and go home for now, you five will start school tomorrow; you could meet up with new people then, but all I know is that if we don't get out of here than I will tear Mrs. I-like-to-talk-a lot tongue out of her mouth."

Ah yes, did I fail to mention that my family and I have specialize in martial arts? My Aunt can be really dangerous when she puts her mind to it. We all look towards Mrs. Rose who was still talking and decided that we would spare her tongue and leave for the day. My Uncle was the one who got Mrs. Rose to stop talking and told her that we had to leave but we will be back tomorrow so that she could show us to our dorm rooms and other things. With a smile and a nod of understandment Mrs. Rose lead us to the front doors of the school and bid us farewell.

Finally being able to leave that crazy lady we got in the van and headed for home. The ride there was full of talk and questions. Questions like 'I wonder what this school is going to be like?', and 'What kind of people are we going to meet there and will they be nice?' I looked out the window as they talk faintly in the background. All I could think about was that beautiful and very sexy crimson eyed man. I wondered if I would have any classes with him or even if I will ever see him again. I let out a sigh and continue to stare out of the window, well I guess all I have to do is wait until tomorrow and see what will happen.

We drove to our new house in Japan; we live in a community called Waterford. It's a nice little community and it is peaceful, on our way driving up to the community you can see llamas, donkeys, bulls, cows, chickens, and a whole bunch of other animals. Reminds me of home sort of, we had a bunch of animals that we took care of in our village.

Inside of the community there four main sub-divisions, the Town homes that was to your left when you first entered the community, the Village which was your first right that you would come to when you drove a mile and a half from the Town homes, across the street from the Village was the tennis court on the right hand side, further down the road was the playground on the right hand side, towards the center of the culdesac was the swimming pool area, then on the left hand side was the club house where they hold parties and other events. Now when you look past the pool there is a big lake that people go fishing in and other things. There is also a path around the lake where many people go walking, and then behind the lake are some more houses that belong to the Cove sub division. Well further down the road from the village are the Highlands on your right, then the Cove on the left. It's a very big community but it is peaceful.

Our house is in the Village, there are three streets that have multiple houses on the left and right hand side of the street. We live on the second street the tenth house on the right hand side. My uncle parked the car in the garage and we walk into the house from the garage door. From the garage there is a short hall that leads from the garage to the kitchen. In that hallway the washer machine and the dryer was held there along with a little storage area where we held cleaning supplies. The kitchen was big and spacious, on the left side of the kitchen was an opening that leads to where Mariah, Kevin, Gary, Lee, and I slept. On the left part of the hallway was Mariah, Kevin, and Gary's room. On the right end on the hallway was Lee and my room. In between our rooms was the bathroom, I had never seen a bathroom like this because it had a slid door.

Moving back to the kitchen on the right side of the kitchen there was an entrance to the living room. From the living room was my Aunt Nina and Uncle John's room. The house was big and not something that we was use to, back in the village in china we had a small place, almost as big as a one bedroom house, but with less room.

Aunt Nina came to our rooms and told us that we needed to go to sleep because we were going to go to school tomorrow. With many replies of protest and groaning, everyone finally went to bed. Well everyone except for Lee, lying on my cot I turned to Lee who was on my left side and silently ask him, "What is wrong Lee? Why aren't you asleep?"

Lee turned to me and looked me in the eyes; I could see his golden eyes shining in the moon light that was coming in through our window. After a long moment of silence he finally said, "I saw the way you were looking at that boy with the blue hair that walked into the office." He paused and looked me straight in the eye; all I could do was stare back. He was looking at me almost as though he was looking into my soul. "Look Rei, I was just wondering are you gay?" he paused again and he looked out the window. I was glad that he was facing that way because my mouth was hanging wide open. Was I gay? I mean I don't think that I am, I dated Chainx most of the time when we were in China and she was the longest relationship that I had ever had with anyone. Exactly three weeks, and I know what you are thinking that is not long but it was for me.

I looked back at Lee and replied, "No I am not gay. At lease I don't think that I am. When I was looking at him I was just admiring his hair and his eye color." The look on Lee's face was that of disbelief. He turns over in his cot facing away from me and whispers, "Right."

I rolled over on my cot and face the ceiling, man what if I am gay? What will happen? I guess only tomorrow can tell. I sigh one last time before sleep finally took me.

EARILER TODAY

Lee and I awoke to the sounds of my Aunt bursting through our bedroom door screaming at us to wake up and get ready for school. Mariah came into our room jumping my cot screaming about how today was going to be fun, and how she can't wait to meet new students that go to the college. I tried to push Mariah off of me but it was all pointless considering the fact that it was six o'clock in the morning and I was not used to waking up this early in the morning. Lee finally got Mariah to get off my back and out of our room, I look at Lee who was going through the closet trying to find something to wear for the (or rather our) first day of school. I wondered to myself if that conversation that I had with Lee last night was all a dream or did it really happen. I got my answer when Lee turned his head and looked at me from behind his back. "So about last night,"

I groan and look towards the suitcases that Uncle John set out for Mariah, Kevin, Gary, Lee, and me. We are going to be staying in the dorm rooms for the remainder of the school year, but our Aunt wanted some of the clothes to stay at the house just in case we came back for some reason. I turn my attention back to Lee and ask, "Yeah, what about it?" I don't know how but I am sure that I can just tell that Lee is smiling, grinning, or something like that.

Lee gets his stuff from the closet and set them on his suitcase and looked back at me, "Well nothing really, I was just going to say that if you are gay than it is ok with me. Actually I have been gay for the last," he pauses and looks up at the ceiling with his hand on his chin, "year now." I stared at Lee in shock; I couldn't believe that I was hearing that my kin was gay. I mean it's not that I had a problem with it, because I actually might be gay. Lee chuckled at the way my eyes were bulging out of my eye sockets. He came over to me, sat on my cot, and slapped me in my face. He didn't slap me hard enough to turn my head and leave a mark but it did kind of hurt.

I look back at him and cocked my head to the side, "So how did you know that you were gay?"

Lee looked out our window before saying, "Well I know that I knew that I was gay when I met this guy in the village named Keith. At first Keith and I were just really good friends; but then, as we began to spend more and more time together, Keith told me one day that he liked me and that he wanted to go out with me. At first I told him that I was not into guy like that but I still wanted us to be friends. Well as more and more time went by I began to see him in a new light, I began to see the side of him that I was only suppose to see in a girl. You know like how beautiful he was in a certain light or when he wore certain clothes I would sometimes wonder what is up under all of the clothes that he had on."

Lee looked back at me then smiled, "Finally after two weeks of thinking I went to him and told him that I liked him just as he liked me and I asked him if he would like to go out with me. Well he said yeah and after that I dated Keith up until we found out that we had to leave to come here to Japan. Me and him promised to each other that we would stay in contact with one another, but I don't really know if we are going to work out."

I looked at Lee and asked, "Why don't you think that you guys will work out? I mean it really isn't a long distance relationship; you two are about a couple hundred miles away from each other. Even then you know that you can go and visit him when we have breaks from college."

Lee stood up and walked over to the suitcases and got one. He took his clothes off of another and began to pack up his clothes, "Well I hope that he just don't have another lover by the time that time comes around."

I got up and went to the closet and began to take my clothes out of it and put them into my suitcase. Once most of the clothes and some of the shoes were out of the closet, Lee and I put everything by the front door then we went into Mariah, Kevin, and Gary's room. They were almost fully packed and wanted to know when Aunt Nina and Uncle John were going to take us to the school so we could see where our dorm rooms were. Lee volunteered to ask and left the room, which left Mariah, Kevin, Gary, and I to talk about the new school. Gary was the first one to ask a question, "So do you think that they will give us food and if so how will we pay for it?"

Kevin laughed at Gary before answering, "The same way we pay for anything else, we will use a card that they give us. I think that it will have money on it and we use it to get things out of the cafeteria, vending, and drink machines."

Mariah looks at Kevin and Gary then she snorts, "Well don't you sound all smart Kevin. Maybe when you get in class and the professor asks you a question you answer just like you did Gary and you may ace all of your classes."

Kevin glared at Mariah and Gary laughed, I chuckled at all three of them and then left the room. I walked into the kitchen and looked around for food, not to my surprised there wasn't any food. Since I had all of my belongings pack up I sat on our leather couch and clicked on the television and flick through the channels. The door was open that lead to their bedroom, I could hear Lee, Aunt Nina, and Uncle John condensate about the new school and the dorm rooms. Seeing that there wasn't anything on the tube I shut it off and walked into my Aunt and Uncle's room. Aunt Nina and Lee continue to talk when Uncle John comes over to me and he asks in his thick Chinese accent, "So how do you think college is going to be to you?"

I smile at my Uncle and said, "Well I hope that everything is fine, the school looks nice and from the few people that I saw while we were there they seem a little nice too. I hope that the dorm rooms are a nice size; and if the bunch of us don't get dorm rooms together than I at least hope that the rooms will be near each other and that we have nice roommates." He nodded his head in understanding and pulled me into a hug. I hugged him back and smiled at him when he let me go. He told me that he was happy for all of us to be going to college and not failing in life like he almost did. Right when he said that Mariah, Gary, and Kevin walked into the room to tell our aunt that they were ready and that we could leave the house whenever they wanted to. My Aunt and Uncle told us that they were ready and for us to began to pack things up in the van.

RIGHT NOW {PRESENT}

Once everything was in the van we all got in and began our trip towards the campus. The place that we had gone to in order to enroll, to our surprise, was not the main campus; that part of the school is known as the Dean part of the school. The main campus was a good mile away from the Dean mini campus.

Now the main campus was a sight to behold; it looked like something you would see in Europe with all of the big windows and stone walls. There was even an eagle made inside the entrance window to show to all new comers that this school was the home of the eagle. Mariah, Kevin, and Gary all made sounds of astonishment as we drove pass all of the buildings. Mrs. Rose was in a golf cart showing us around the campus, once we reached the dorm rooms she stop her cart and got out. Uncle John parked the van next to Mrs. Rose's cart and we all got out.

It took us a moment to catch up to Mrs. Rose, for a women in heels she sure can walk fast, once we caught up to her she began to talk, "Ok so the girls dorm rooms are over to your left and the boys, if you walk down a little further, is on the right. We have security patrolling the area for anyone who tries to enter the opposite sex dorm."

She never stop walking but she did stop talking for a moment to look back at us then she said in a deep hard voice, "Going into the opposite sex dorm rooms is unacceptable, if you go in there you will be expelled from the school and band from ever stepping on this school property again." Then her voice got really cheery; she smiled and said, "Well I will show the boys to their dorm rooms and then," she pause, "your name is Mariah right?"

Mariah nodded her head to Mrs. Rose, Mrs. Rose smiled at Mariah and continues her talking, "So where was I? Oh yes I will show the boys to their dorm room and introduce them to their new roommates, then we will take little Mariah to her dorm room."

We all followed the fast walking Mrs. Rose to the men's dorms, she told Mariah that this is the only reason that she could come into the men's dorms, unless she is not being showed around by Mrs. Rose herself than she should never catch Mariah in the men's dorms. Mariah nodded once again and we first walk to Lee's dorm room, Lee had a dorm room on level C and the room number was eight. Mrs. Rose knocked on the door to see if anyone was in the room. Come to find out the person who I guess to be Lee's roommate asked who it was. Mrs. Rose told the person that it was her and that she had a new roommate for him and that he needed to open the door.

The person on the other side of the door griped and complained before opening the door, we all came face to face with a silver haired muscular boy who only had on a pair of light gray jogging pants and a black wife beater that hung off one of his broad shoulders. Mrs. Rose introduces him to us, "Brian this is your new roommate Lee, Lee this is your roommate Brian. I hope that you two get along very well, Lee you can either leave your stuff in here and continue to walk around with us or you can get settled. Which one do you want to do?"

Lee weighed his options out for a moment then said that he would come with us so that he could see where we all were going to stay. Lee said his goodbyes to his roommate and then got on the elevator with the rest of us. We went up two floors to hall E.

On that hall was Kevin and Gary's room, rooms two and twelve. Kevin's roommate was a man by the name of Matt; he was also a newcomer to the college and would help Kevin out if he needed anything. (Just for you to know Kevin's room is two and Gary's twelve.) Just like Lee, Kevin put his things into his room and stayed with us to see where ever one else stayed, after a moment we moved down the hall to Gary's room. His roommate was a blond haired American who went by the name of Max. Max seems like a nice boy, he had these boyish features that I thought he would never grow out of. Gary set his bags in his room and left with us to see where my room would be, come to find out my room is one floor above Kevin and Gary's.

My room was on floor F, which seems like one of the words letters that there could possibly be. Making our way down the hall we come to the room that says F14. Mrs. Rose knocks on the door and waits for a moment, after a little while we heard some noise coming from behind the door. A moment later that same man who I saw yesterday was standing in the door way with nothing on but a towel, Mrs. Rose who must have been us told the two tone haired crimson eyed boy to let us all in. The boy glared at all of us before letting us into, what looked like when we first stepped in, a two bedroom pen house.

The two toned haired man asked a he closed the door, "Mrs. Rose who are these people that you have brought into my place?"

Mrs. Rose turned to the young man and smiled, "Well Kai you know that you don't have a roommate right? Well out of the sky came this fine young man," Mrs. Rose pushes me in front of her and squeezed my shoulders, "he needed a roommate and here is an empty room."

So that is his name, it's Kai. A sexy name to match his sexy self, I smiled and waved to him, "Hi there, my name is Rei Kon."

Kai looked at me and scoffed, "Is this the joker who you are suppose to be rooming me with? You couldn't find me anything better to have as a roommate?"

Mrs. Rose glares at Kai before answering, "Now Kai be nice, he is your roommate and you are going to be nice to him. Also you say anything as though he is some sort of…well I don't know a thing." Kai sighs and pinch the bridge of his nose and ran his fingers through his head.

My Aunt Nina steps up and takes Kai hand in hers and says to him, "Well I thank you for sharing your room with my nephew. I hope that you two will get along very well and there will not be any problems out of the two of you."

Kai looks down at his hand and then back to Aunt Nina then back down to his hand again. Kai put his hand on top of Aunt Nina's and pulled her hand away from his. "I," he paused and looked at me then looked back at Aunt Nina, "will try to be a good roommate to your nephew, but I cannot say that I will always be nice," he pauses and looks at me, "especially when my new roommate ticks me off, but besides that everything should be ok between Kon and I."

Gosh he may be sexy be he sure can act like a piece of shit when he wants to. Instead for me speaking what was on my mind I just smiled and promised that I would try my best not to get on his bad side.

After many hugs and kisses goodbye Aunt Nina and Uncle Joe left, soon following them was Mrs. Rose and Mariah who still had to be showed to her dorm room. Kevin, Lee, and Gary stayed around for a bit, but then I notice that Kai, my new roomie, was getting a bit annoyed and told them to leave. Once everyone was out and in their place I began to unpack my belongings in my room.

After a few moment Kai came into the room with a pair of dark blue denim jeans and a red polo shirt on, "Look, I'm going out for a bit I don't want my," he pauses and tips his head up before looking back at me, "I don't want our place to be a mess, so unpack everything and put your stuff away when you are done." With that said Kai left the room and walked to the front door. Before he left he called out, "Also there is not any food in the house so if you get hungry I suggest you go out and get some food." With that sentence Kai left the flat leaving only me to my thoughts.

Kai isn't always going to be like this, he has to change sometime. Really only tomorrow can tell what new things are going to come so it is best just to wait until then to see how things unfold. Who may know this Kai may be a really nice guy. Seeing that it was afternoon and I am really tired I think that I am going to take a nap and see how I feel later on today.

Hey guys just edited some stuff and reposting it along with chapter two. Yes, lol, you all read that right a new chapter. I cannot say what all has stop me from writing but I am back now and I have my spunk back. So I'll be updating regularly now. Thanks for everyone who is sticking with me; it's making me feel like a million bucks to get reviews from you guys really it does. Well off to post chapter 2 3