I hummed softly as I walked down the street, only a half-block away from the High School I attended. It was snowing lightly, so I was in a good mood. I believe that snow always makes things better, though most of my friends would full heartedly disagree with me. But, the few goods things that happened in my life, happened when it was snowing.
They just didn't get it though because I had never explained my situation. I'm a foster child, so I'm always moving from place to place. Every time something seems permanent and final, I always get moved. I hate living like this, but, as the fates would have it, my biological parents have been hunting me down. (They even went as far as to check all the High School databases in Japan to find me.)
Needless to say, my parents are insane. I don't have many memories of them – I pushed them all away – but what I do remember is all because of the scars left on my arms, legs, and stomach. My parents has managed to escape before the police could catch them, leaving me for dead at the mere age of six.
I walked into the High School and over to my locker. I put away one of the many books I bring to school to read during class. Unfortunately, I was one of the smarter students and I got things done really fast.
"Ai!" I turned around at the voice just in time to get tackle-glomped by my best friend. "How've you been?"
I growled and pushed her off of me. "You're a pain, Shiori!"
Shiori put on a face of feigned pain. "You're so mean to me!"
I sighed and closed my locker after standing up. "You know, you shouldn't do that! One day, you're going to cause me to kill myself against these damn lockers!"
Shiori just laughed. I growled again.
Another voice behind me sighed. "Shiori, you know how uncoordinated Ai is."
I turned around and blushed lightly, as I always did in his presence. "Hey Hatori."
Hatori nodded once. "Ai."
I stared at him. Hatori was always so cool, collected, mysterious, and just all around handsome. His face always seemed fixated on something, like he was always aiming for something bigger than, well, what he was. (Guess we have that in common, probably why we're such good friends.) But, I couldn't help but to notice him like just about every other girl did. His short black hair and those icy blue eyes added even more to the mysterious air surrounding him. Not to mention that he seemed to always be hiding something – him and his cousins…who are strangely nowhere to be found.
"Um, where're Shigure and Ayame?" I asked, looking around. They both had a tendency to sneak up on me and Shiori when we aren't looking – it always scares the living shit outta me too.
Suddenly, a boy with short brown hair jumped out of literally nowhere and glomped Hatori from behind. "Hi there, girls!" He said happily – sometimes, I think it's a little too happily.
"Hey Shigure!" Shiori says to him with almost the same enthusiasm. She's had a crush on Shigure ever since I've been here; it's kind of scary.
Hatori looked at Shigure and said calmly, "Where's Ayame?"
"He's…sick today." Shigure said hesitantly.
I growled again, Ayame always did this! "THAT BASTARD SKIPPED AGAIN?! IT'S THE FIRST DAY OF EXAMS, AND HE SKIPPED!!!"
Hatori sighed. He didn't like my easy-to-be-angered attitude, but I can't help it. Around Ayame and Shigure, it's hard not to get angry easily.
"Kusanagi!" A teacher walked over, it sounded almost as if he was scolding me again.
I sighed; I almost forgot the teachers here don't like loud noises in the hall. "Sorry, Sensei, it won't happen again." Though that was a complete lie, I'd probably be yelling again tomorrow.
"No, it's not that." I was confused, normally a teacher would only get my attention if it was to quiet me. He handed me an envelope.
I turned the envelope over and saw my name written in a formal script that I had come to fear. I stared at the name written on the envelope. It said Yukino Nakamura, my real name. I breathed hard as my heart rate sped up. I couldn't believe this, I had been here under a false name – Ai Kusanagi – for nearly two years, and now I'm going to leave.
I started shaking and crumpled the envelope – with a letter that explained why I'm being moved again, though I knew my parents somehow found me, inside – and threw it into the nearest trashcan.
"Kusanagi, you need to read that!" The teacher scolded.
I glared at him; tears streaked my face. "No! I'm so sick of this, I don't care anymore!" I turned back to my three friends, who were all confused.
I looked directly at Hatori, and almost as if he could read my mind, he coldly asked, "Who are you, really?"
"Hatori!" Shiori smacked him upside the head. "What're you saying?!"
I bit my bottom lip for a moment before saying, "I am Yukino Nakamura. I am a foster child who's been living under the false name Ai Kusanagi."
"W-What?" Shiori and Shigure stared at me in shock. On the other hand, Hatori seemed unaffected, as if he'd expected as much.
I rolled up the sleeves of my shirt to show three pale scars running up my arms from my wrists up to my elbows. "My parents are not Ritsuka and Masami Kusanagi. In fact, I don't even know my real parents. But they left these scars, and they're hunting me."
Hatori started glaring at me now, and for some reason, I felt like I'd just been slapped across the face. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I was told to not say anything, to not trust anyone."
"You could've trusted us." Shigure said almost a bit forcefully.
"Then you and Hatori stop being such hypocrites and tell us what you're hiding!" I snapped. I hadn't meant to, but it just kinda happened.
"How come Sensei knows?" Shiori asked in a much milder tone.
"The teachers in the school know so that they can protect me on the off chance my parents find me and come here." I turned back to my locker and pulled everything out. "Seeing as I'm not welcome here by you guys anymore, I guess I'll go."
I turned and followed the teacher to the office. "Goodbye, my friends."
…
7 years later…
I softly hummed as I walked up to my new place of work, the cold wind blowing my white jacket around me. I had just graduated College, but barely.
Lately, my mind's been going back to the day seven years ago whenever I left the place I returned to for my practice.
I went to College to become a doctor's assistant. Oddly enough, I ended up being the assistant to a family doctor. Apparently, this guy has a large family, but not enough time to look after the entirety of them. I hadn't been told who it was, but I couldn't help feeling some odd sense of familiarity as I walked up to a large estate.
I stopped in front of a large closed gate. I looked back down the row of houses that I had walked passed just a moment ago. It wasn't like I was seeing if someone would suddenly walk up and show me how to open the door, but I've become slightly more paranoid now that I've had one more brush with death recently than I wanted.
"Who are you?"
I jumped and looked back to see a young blonde haired boy sitting on top of the gate wearing something that seemed right out of a candy commercial – all bright and colorful.
I struggled for words as my face turned bright red from getting startled so easily. "Um, I'm Yukino Nakamura. I was sent from Tokyo University to help with a family doctor at this address."
The boy smiled and jumped down from the gate, opening it. "It's a good thing you came, Hari's been having a hard time lately keeping up with everyone."
"Hari?" The guy I'm being an assistant to has a strange, strange name.
"Yeah!" The boy stopped in front of a house. "Here's Hari's house! I'm Momiji, by the way!"
I smiled a little at the bright and bubbly boy. "It's good to meet you, Momiji."
"Hope we can hang out sometime, if you're not too busy helping out Hari."
"Me too." I glanced around Momiji. "Could I meet, um, Hari?"
Momiji continued smiling as he turned around to open the door, except that someone opened it before him. "Oh, hi, Hari!"
No way! I felt my mouth drop to the ground, I made no move to push my dark brown hair out of my face as the wind blew by, I was frozen to the spot. Aside from a large portion of his hair growing over his left eye, he still looked like the same boy I was friends with in High School.
"Momiji, I told you not to call me that to someone new. They're bound to get confused." Hatori scolded quietly to the young boy. He looked at me and the same look of shock passed over his face.
"H-Hatori…Sohma?"
