2

Shiroiwa Junior High School Third Year Class B of Kagawa Prefecture was never chosen to compete in the program. Greatly relieved by this fact, Shogo Kawada (Male Student No. 5) had begun to come out of his shell. Though still not terribly social and most certainly not the most popular student in his class, he had managed to build trust with a friendlier group of his fellow male students. Though still not terribly close with any one of them, he regularly invites his newfound friends Shuya Nanahara (Male Student No. 15), Shinji Mimura (Male Student No. 19), Yoshitoki Koninobu (Male Student No. 7), and Hiroki Sugimura (Male Student No. 11) to his home, where he lives alone. The boys still have no idea about his involvement in the Kobe Program. In fact, the only thing they knew about the mysterious Shogo Kawada is that his parents are both dead and that he is a year older than they are.

At this fact, Shogo soon grows depressed. Nobody of significance in his life was aware of what sort of fate he had met. Another student whom he had been developing a fondness for, Noriko Nakagawa (Female Student No. 15), was also in the dark when it came to his past. She was the only person whom he felt that he could trust with this information, and he did. One chilly night in mid-May, she swung short but slender legs out her bedroom window and stealthily moved through the streets after a brief phone conversation with Kawada.

She reaches his home surprisingly quickly, as he sounded rather distressed on the phone, and she falls right into his arms when he opens his front door. His voice sounds strained when he greets her. Once safely inside, Shogo directs Noriko to the couch, saying that he needed to confess something. He had also said that she was the only one whom he could ever tell this to, and begged her not to think differently of him.

Right then, he confessed everything. He told Noriko about the Program in Kobe, how desperate he was to find and protect Keiko. He admitted to killing his friends in desperate hope that he and Keiko could escape. He told her that he had only seen Keiko twice in the duration of the Program. The first time, she ran from him and the second, he had discovered her body.

Shogo had expected Noriko to get up and leave after that, but instead, she opens her arms to him, one hand around his waist and the other resting on his shoulder. She held him for half an hour as he fought against the tears, knowing wholeheartedly that they were coming. So many emotions were bubbling up to the surface, all of which he had worked so hard to keep repressed. There was the grief that possessed him any time that he dare recall his old life in Kobe, fear of being rejected if anyone found out about his past, the insecurity of possessing these emotions in the first place. Then there was the sudden relief. Noriko knew everything, and she had accepted him. He wanted to be with her, yet so did Yoshitoki. What could he say to his friend when Noriko looked upon him with that doe-eyed expression (an expression, until very recently, she had looked upon Shuya with)? There was a reason that he had, until just then, repressed his feelings for Noriko. The nature of his new life, of course, was still very precarious. Did he really want to risk his newfound friendships because of his feelings for this quiet but pretty girl who just so happened to be embracing him at this very moment?

Of course, he had only been made aware of Yoshitoki's crush as a result of overhearing a conversation between the boy in question and Shuya. Officially, he had no idea. Regardless of who would be hurt if Shogo pursued his feelings, Noriko's dainty right hand had just moved up from his broad shoulder to his cheek.

She had moved from kneeling in front of him on the couch to sitting quietly in his lap, and before Shogo was able to process the fact that she was making advances on him, her face met his with a gentle kiss. He grew stiff at this first, but very soon reciprocated the motion, closing his eyes and allowing one of his hands to rise up and comb through her soft, shoulder-length hair with his fingers.

It was awhile before either of them opened their eyes again, and upon doing so, Shogo was met with Noriko's warm, dark eyes. Their noses were touching at the tip, and the girl was smiling softly. Even in the rather low light provided by the dim lamp on the other side of the sitting room, he could see traces of dark ruddiness, standing out sharply on her fair complexion, along her cheekbones. Slowly, she raised her right hand to Shogo's forehead, stroking the knife scar softly with the pad of her thumb. She leaned in and whispered something in his ear. Shogo was extremely surprised by her words.

"Are you sure?" He was genuinely shocked about how forward she was being. Still, he was a hormonal sixteen year old boy. When she nodded, he showed no hesitation when pulling her into his arms and carrying her to the bedroom, bridal-style. She went breathless at his strength and agility, the red slowly taking over more of her face. She didn't even seem disgusted when, once perched on his bed, he pulled out a pack of condoms from the back of his sock drawer. All she did was pat the space next to her on the bed, beckoning him toward her.

Foil package now on hand, Shogo initiated the contact this time, leaning in as he approached to kiss the girl. She then grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pulling him down on top of her as they kissed. Shogo's shirt came off first, Noriko working one button at a time as her companion buried his face in her soft, jet black hair, breathing in her scent deeply. The two had stripped down to nothing in minutes, Noriko quietly examining the array of scars that Shogo kept hidden under his shirt.

"What did they do to you in that Program?" Noriko asked rather timidly, her voice breathless as she laid her head against the warm skin of his solid chest to listen to his heartbeat.

Instead of launching into an explanation, Shogo answered with a whispered, "I'll tell you later," before beginning to kiss the girl down her body, gentle and passionate.

Ever since that first night those two had spent together, alone in the complete and total privacy in Shogo's apartment, they had been all but inseparable.