Chapter 1:

I look and I look, what is he thinking? I thought, I can't read him at all. Is he going to attack? Is he thinking about a strategy? Ugh! This is so frustrating! Hurry up and attack, damn it. Just when I finished thinking those thoughts, I was already lying on the ground with a sword next to my neck. Fast! I thought.

"And that is for spacing out while sparring."

"Hey!, I was thinking what was going to be your next move!"

"You know you don't have to think so much, just watch me." Said my childhood friend Taiko, with a smirk on his face then turning to a big smile while getting up from on top of me. He then gave me a hand to get up and follow him. I stuck my tongue out, but of course, I still grabbed his hand and followed him.

"Come on, don't be so slow" Taiko said while running faster and faster.

"Shut up, give me a break" I said while trying to catch up to him. We ran all the way to my house. When we get to my house we take a shower and then go to school. Taiko and I always do this every morning, go to our secret hide out we have, practice fighting with swords and hand to hand combat and then run to my home and get ready for school. When we were little Taiko and I thought that the world was going to end, we still do actually, it's like a feeling we have deep inside of us, because things are not how they used to be when we were little, they are worse now. My mother told us that the wickedness of the past is worse now in my time. So Taiko and I thought that we had to protect our family foe when that time comes. My only family is my mother and my sister and as for Taiko only his father.

"Neruhiko! Hurry up Taiko is waiting and you're going to be late" said my mother from down stairs, wow speak of the devil.

"Ok, ok, is Taiko ready?" I said while putting on my pants in a hurry.

"Of course, he's not like you"

"Tsk, whatever" I said almost finished. I went running down the stairs and saw Taiko waving a strawberry and chocolate milk.

"Which one?" said Taiko smiling.

"Do you really have to ask?" I said while putting on my shoes.

"Hahaha, yeah, I just wanted to make sure" he said while giving me the chocolate one. I smiled and said to my mom that we were leaving. She told us to be careful. Taiko and I are both guys and have the same age, seventeen. We've been together since the age of five. We came to know each other because he moved next to us with his dad. Our first meeting was when my mother went and welcomed them to the new neighborhood and to introduce ourselves. When we saw each other there was a fuzzy and warm feeling, a happy emotion in the both of us. I knew he felt the same way because when we started to hang out together, he told me how he felt from our first meeting and it was the same feeling I had.

"Hey, are you listening to me?"

"Huh? wh-what?"

"I was saying if you study for the exam today!"

"Oh, sorry I wasn't paying attention."

"Mm, I noticed, and what were you thinking about that you weren't paying attention to me?" said Taiko with an annoyed tone.

"Oh…um… I was thinking about us." When I noticed what I had just said, I looked at Taiko and he looked at me with a shocking expression while blushing.

"Wh-wh-what! Why about us, we are not "something" right or are you thinking w-we should b-be something… b-but wait, you're my friend and-"

"No, not like that, you idiot, I was thinking of my-our past together" when I said that his face looked blanked and then rapidly turn crimson from embarrassment of him over reacting. I started to laugh and laugh till I couldn't laugh anymore; his face was just so…cute. Wait, what am I thinking, Taiko is my friend, I shouldn't think of him as cute, just…sexy…WAIT NO! When I cameback to my sense I felt a soft and warm thing in my lips. When I really come back to earth I see Taiko's face really close to mine and I feel my lips being pressed to his. Taiko was kissing me! And the weirdest thing is…that it felt kind of good…

Taiko broke the kiss and with a hint of blush he said "That's payback, for ignoring me and making me blush so much." He turned his back to me and told me with a playing tone "Neru, hurry up, or were going to be late~" I stood there totally out of it…but I quickly came back and started walking towards him. We kept talking like always, like it was nothing, but for some reason my heart wouldn't stop beating so fast.