I tried not to notice how light my bag was as the train came into the station and the call to exit came over the intercom. I stepped onto the platform and pulled out the note I had made regarding the apartment building that would be my new home. I hoped the directions my sister made for me would take me to the right place and started walking.

As I made my way down the streets I passed some people about my age that were standing outside a restaurant gossiping with each other. I paused to listen in on what they had to say. With school starting tomorrow, it was possible these would be my classmates.

They stopped talking when they noticed I was listening in on them. One of them whispered something to the others and they stared at me until I got frustrated and walked away. I already give off the wrong impression here, apparently. Some things never change.

The sun was starting to set when I got to the place my directions told me to go. After double-checking the address I texted my sister a "thank you" and walked up to the door labeled with the landlord's number. Setting down my bag to rest my arms, I knocked on the door.

After a moment of waiting, I heard movement behind the door and a middle-aged man opened the door for me. "Ah, you must be Kishinuma!" He smiled easily at me, making me turn my head away. Figures that the first nice person I'd meet here would be the one I expected to be a jerk.

Realizing I never confirmed his statement, I nodded. "Yeah. That's me."

The man extended his hand. "I'm Takeshi Saito. You can just call me Takeshi, though. No one else bothers with honorifics with me anyway."

I hesitantly shook his hand. I wasn't so sure of referring to my landlord by his given name in our first meeting. "I'll probably stick to Saito for now. Is there anything I have to sign or fill out?"

Saito shook his head. "We already handled all that stuff through email. Digital signature and stuff like that. Very fancy and modern." He handed me a key. "Your room is on the second floor, room nine. I'll show you how to get there."

I picked up my bag and followed him up a stairwell and down a walkway. He indicated a door that indeed had the number 9 printed on the tag. I tried the key on it and opened the door.

Looking inside the apartment revealed that it was a lot more spacious than I was led to believe. I walked in and saw that there was a separate kitchen area, a decently sized bathroom, and two bedrooms behind the living area.

I turned to Saito and pointed at the second bedroom. "This place looks a lot better than what I'm paying for rent. Is this the right apartment?"

Saito chuckled. "Sure is! You see, I've had a hard time getting anyone to take this room, so I lowered the price to attract more attention."

I took another look around. Why would a nice place like this have no takers? "What happened here?"

Rolling his eyes, Saito made a gesture with his hand to indicate craziness. "Apparently some people think it's haunted because someone went missing from here years ago." He gave me a knowing glance. "You're not superstitious too, are you?"

I sighed. "My wallet doesn't allow for superstition. This is the best place I could find on such short notice." I dropped my bag in the entryway and waved at Saito. "Thanks for showing me in."

He nodded. "Anytime! I'll send you an email reminder when your rent's due. Enjoy!"

Saito walked back down the walkway and I shut the door. I unpacked the things I brought with me and tried to straighten out the new uniform I had to buy for my new school. Starting tomorrow, I'd be a second year at Paulownia Academy High School.

After everything was put away, I made a list of food and other supplies I'd need to buy after school tomorrow and put it near my school bag. Still tired from the long train ride, I texted Miki and Satoshi that I had made it to my new place safely and went to sleep.

—

I kept my gaze on the ground as I walked to school the next day. It was the start of a new term so I wouldn't get too many questions about why I had to transfer schools for my second year of Senior High, but I didn't really want to draw too much attention to myself anyway.

I adjusted the new school jacket a bit as I walked, noting how different it was from the gakuran jacket I wore at Kisaragi. I couldn't bring myself to wear the school tie despite being told it was part of the uniform. I hoped no one would call me out on that, but since I didn't know how strict the school was on uniform I brought it along in my bag.

A sudden cry of pain from behind me made me turn to see what happened. A boy wearing the same uniform as I was lying on the ground clutching his chest as a girl huffed and stormed away.

I briefly considered just turning and going on my way. It wasn't my problem, after all. Maybe the kid deserved to be knocked down. I guess part of Satoshi had rubbed off on me, though. I sighed and walked over to the boy and offered a hand.

"Girl troubles?"

The boy laughed. "My Sayaka is a stubborn one. Don't worry about me."

He took my hand and stood up. He picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder before looking me over. "You new around here? I don't remember seeing you last term."

"I just transfered here for this term." I hesitated, then added. "I'm Kishinuma. What's your name?"

"Inumaru." The boy offered his hand for a handshake. "Always fun to meet a new classmate!"

I shook his hand reluctantly and gestured to the road. "We should get going. It's only the first day, but we shouldn't be late."

Inumaru nodded. "Yeah, I heard this one teacher is really strict on tardiness and absences. I hope we don't get him for our homeroom teacher."

We walked the rest of the way to school together. I wasn't really interested in the smalltalk Inumaru insisted on, but I gave him halfhearted responses when I was paying attention.

When we got to school and checked the class rosters it turned out both of us were in the same homeroom. Inumaru winked at me. "Let's get seats right next to each other! That way we can share notes during class."

I sighed and accepted that Inumaru wouldn't let me avoid him now. I started hoping this Sayaka girl wasn't justified in hitting him, or else I'd be in for a long year.

While settling in at our new classroom, I noticed that Inumaru was paying more attention to the fact that Sayaka was in the same class as us than what the teacher was saying. I couldn't blame him though… it was all just a bunch of start of the year information that I could probably sleep through and still be fine. With that thought, I laid my head down on my desk and closed my eyes.

—

I woke with a start as someone poked me. I looked up, expecting Inumaru to be pestering me. However, the owner of the offending finger was the bespecticled girl sitting in front of me.

"You're the transfer student, right? Get up there!"

I grumbled as I remembered that I'd be presented to the class, being the new student and all. I stood up and walked to the front of the room and endured the teacher introducing me to the class. Once it was over, I headed back to my seat. I tried to ignore the disapproving glare from the girl with the glasses when I walked back to my seat. I slumped in my desk when I reached it.

The rest of the first day introduction material went by quickly and we were dismissed early. Inumaru turned to me as soon as the teacher left the room.

"Hey, come with me for a minute."

I watched him jump out of his seat and race after the Sayaka girl. I sighed and picked up my bag before following him out of the room.

We caught up to Sayaka and the girl who had poked me in the hallway. Inumaru smiled and called out to them.

"Wait, my Sayaka! Don't you want to walk home with me?"

The two girls turned around and glared at us. I could feel the annoyance radiating from them and wanted to back away. But Inumaru didn't seem fazed at all and kept walking towards them until Sayaka shoved him away.

"I'm not 'your' Sayaka! And I'm walking home with Naho today!"

Inumaru grinned. "Are you sure? Saenoki could walk home with Kishinuma instead!"

I stared at him. He only brought me along so he could get Sayaka alone, didn't he? "Hold on, I didn't agree to this…"

Inumaru gave me a strained smile. "Come on, you can't have anything against walking a girl home, can you?"

"Don't pester the transfer student with your schemes, Inumaru." The girl with the glasses sighed. What was her name?… Naho… Saenoki? I stopped trying to piece together her name when she turned to examine me. "Maybe I will walk home with the transfer student, just to keep him out of trouble."

Sayaka's eyes went wide and she clung to Saenoki's sleeve. "B-but Naho, who will walk me to my recording session?!"

Inumaru smiled and tilted his head at Sayaka. "I can!"

Sayaka hid behind Saenoki and glared at Inumaru. "Nevermind, I'll just walk alone!"

Inumaru shrugged. "I'd prefer not to make a girl walk to her job all alone, but if you insist I'll walk home on my own for today." He smirked at me. "See you tomorrow, Kishinuma."

Inumaru walked away and I watched him go down the hallway… in the opposite direction of the exit. Where was he going?…

I felt a hand tug at my jacket sleeve and I turned to see the glasses girl… Saenoki, examining me.

"I can't believe you actually befriended him of all people, but I suppose there are worse acquantainces." She adjusted her glasses. "I'm Naho Saenoki, I sit in front of you."

I nodded, not sure what to say to that. "Uh, yeah."

Saenoki raised an eyebrow. "Letting the teacher's introduction stand?"

"Oh, uh… I'm Kishinuma." I tapped my new ID tag with the name "Yoshiki Kishinuma" printed on it.

Saenoki nodded and turned to look behind her. "It seems my friend Sayaka Ooue took the opportunity to get away from Inumaru as quickly as she could, so we might as well walk together for a bit."

I hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. "Alright." I looked back in the direction Inumaru went. "What's their deal, anyway? I saw Ooue hit him earlier this morning."

Saenoki sighed and shook her head. "They live next to each other and were childhood friends. I think they have different ideas on what that means now."

I nodded slowly, getting the picture a bit better now. After I processed the new information I motioned for the exit. "Let's get going. Lead the way."