Author's note: Hi everyone, I want to give a heads up to everyone reading this story that it contains many dark themes and that if you are worried about any of them, please message me I am happy to answer any questions that you may have!

A knock at the door interrupted the lesson. The whole class looked up from their Maths textbooks.

"Come in," Miss Smith called, pushing her glasses up her nose as she turned her head to see the intruder who dared disturb the peace and quiet of her classroom.

"Ah, Miss Smith, I hope you don't mind me interrupting," the headteacher said from the doorway, gesturing with his pudgy hand. "We have a new student."

"Of course Mr McNab," Miss Smith said, smiling.

The new student stepped forward. He was a tall, bespectacled young man of Japanese descent whose uniform had that unmistakable new look to it. Next to Mr McNab, he looked pale, like he had not got enough sunshine over the summer.

"Please, go ahead and introduce yourself," Mr McNab said.

"Hi," he began. "My name is Osamu Yasuhara, but I am used to being called by my surname. I am moving here from London where my father works at the Japanese Embassy."

Oliver Davis spared the new student a glance before returning to his work. His twin, Eugene, looked a little longer and gave Yasuhara a reassuring smile. No one liked standing at the front after all.

Eugene studied Yasuhara's face. He was handsome in a bookish way, but Eugene could not quite make out the expression in Yasuhara's eyes, due to the reflection of the classroom's yellow lights on his glasses.

Yasuhara had a stretched quality about him, as if he had grown a lot in a short space of time. He looked just a little too thin, his uniform a tad baggy in places. But then again, a lot of the boys had grown over the summer break. Many had come back in trousers that were a few inches too short.

"I'll leave him in your capable hands," Mr McNab said before he disappeared into the hallway. Eugene made eye contact with Yasuhara and quickly looked back down at his work, not wanting to creep Yasuhara out by staring.

"Please take a seat wherever you like," Miss Smith said, gesturing around the room. "I'll find you a workbook."

Yasuhara walked down the central aisle to the back row.

"Can I sit here?"

Eugene looked up, confused. His heart skipped a beat at the unexpected and dazzling smile he was greeted by. Yasuhara was pointing to the empty seat next to him. Though he supposed upon further reflection, the only other free seats were right at the front. No one in their right mind would willingly sit at the front.

"Of course," Eugene said, recovering from his initial shock. Usually, he and his brother sat alone in the back row.

"Great," Yasuhara said as he slid into the seat.

Oliver had not looked up at the intercourse, but Eugene felt him stir.

Miss Smith bustled over with new books and set about explaining the current topic to Yasuhara. As they were only in the second week of the term, Yasuhara had not missed much.

"I'm sure Mr Davis here will help you if you need it, won't you?"

"Yes," Eugene replied, smiling at the teacher until she retreated back to her own desk.

Eugene watched out of the corner of his eye as the new student flicked open the books.

"What page are we on?"

"Three hundred and ninety four," Eugene replied quietly. "Exercise two."

"Thanks," Yasuhara grinned and adjusted his glasses.

"Gene," Oliver muttered, "Do you have a spare pen?"

Eugene spun around and noticed the fading ink in his brother's workbook. He also noted that Oliver was most definitely not doing the work the teacher had assigned. In fact, he wasn't entirely sure that Oliver was even doing maths. It looked a bit like Greek.

Eugene fished a spare biro from his blazer pocket and handed it over. Taking the pen in hand, Oliver returned to his work.

"So your name is Gene?"

Eugene spun back to his right to look at his new neighbour.

"Yeah, sorry I should have introduced myself."

"No worries," Yasuhara replied with an easy smile. "Are you a boarder?"

"No, we live in the village."

"Shame, I've yet to meet someone who boards."

"I know someone," Eugene remarked. "But she's in the female dorms."

"They're next to the boys' dorms though, right?"

"Well yeah, but if you get caught there you'll get expelled," Eugene pointed out. "Though I suppose the common room is shared."

"What's her name? Your friend?" Yasuhara asked.

"Mai, Mai Taniyama."

Eugene could not help but notice the momentary pause in his brother's writing. He made no comment but smiled at Oliver's predictable reaction.

"Cool, I'll keep an eye out for her," Yasuhara said, grinning. Eugene was not sure he liked the expression his new deskmate made.

They fell silent and the low murmur from within the class became deafening to Eugene's ears.

"So... You moved here from London?" Eugene asked in an attempt to make conversation with Yasuhara.

"Yeah, I had no choice."

Eugene tilted his head, not wanting to intrude but curious nonetheless.

"I got kicked out of my old school," Yasuhara clarified.

Eugene recoiled, his eyes wide. This young man did not look like a troublemaker at all, but, Eugene supposed, he should not judge on appearance alone. Just because Yasuhara wore glasses, it did not make him a nerdy, goody-two-shoes bookworm.

"Really?" Eugene asked, attempting to hide his shock.

"Yeah."

Eugene did not miss the widening smirk on Yasuhara's face.

"What for? If you don't mind me asking."

"I got in trouble, they kicked me out."

The smirk morphed into something that appeared more… Bitter? Eugene was not sure. He frowned but did not question Yasuhara's evasive answer.

"Are you two working back there?" Miss Smith called from the front.

"Yes Miss," Eugene replied and returned to his work.

At the end of the lesson, Yasuhara walked with Eugene and Oliver to the canteen. Once they had collected their food, Oliver led the way to their usual seat by the window where two girls were already eating.

They were both petite, Japanese and pretty in their own ways.

"Hey!" Eugene greeted.

"Who is your new friend?" one of the girls asked. She was the slightly shorter of two, with black hair and porcelain skin.

"This is Osamu Yasuhara," Eugene said. Yasuhara offered his hand to the girls.

"I usually go by my surname, Yasuhara," he said.

"Masako," the shorter girl introduced herself, taking Yasuhara's hand with her own. But instead of shaking it, Yasuhara turned it over and placed a light kiss on the back of her hand, causing her cheeks to flush.

"Mai," the other girl said as she tucked her brown hair behind her ear. Yasuhara kissed her hand too, resulting in another red face.

Oliver huffed in the corner.

"Ah, so you are the girl Gene mentioned. He said you board here?"

"Yeah. Are you boarding too?"

"Well, my family lives in London, it's a little too far to commute."

The girls voiced their sympathy as Eugene and Yasuhara sat down. A silence settled over them as they all began to eat their lunch.

"What do you all do?" Yasuhara asked, halfway through his lasagne.

Eugene chewed contentedly on his own lasagne until he noticed that Yasuhara was watching him. Suddenly he was acutely aware of how his face must look while eating. Did he have sauce on his face? Was that why Yasuhara was staring? He wiped his mouth with his hand, just in case.

"Biology, Chemistry, Maths and French AS levels," Eugene replied after a hasty swallow.

"Cool." Yasuhara grinned at him before looking around at the others for their answers.

"We're both fifth years," Masako said, nodding her head towards Mai. "So the required GCSE subjects and then my options are French, History, Drama and Business Studies."

"Same, but Computing instead of Business," Mai added.

"Noll does Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths," Eugene answered for Oliver, who had finished eating, started reading, and had shown no inclination to reply for himself.

"Awesome," Yasuhara said. "I do Maths, as you found out earlier. And I'll be doing History, Economics and Politics."

"What do you want to study at university?" Eugene asked.

"Law, you?"

"Medicine."

"You must be very smart then."

"Any idiot can study medicine as long as they can remember a lot of facts. It requires no intelligence," Oliver muttered.

"Oliver!" Mai rebuked. "Gene is intelligent!"

"But that has nothing to do with his choice to do medicine. The assumption was incorrect."

"So how long have you two been dating?" Yasuhara asked, directing his attention to Mai and Oliver.

Mai's face flooded scarlet.

"We're not!" she insisted.

Masako giggled behind her hand while Oliver returned to his book. Eugene rolled his eyes and gave Yasuhara a long-suffering look.

"Sure," Yasuhara said, smirking. "So how long is the lunch break?"

"Another half an hour or so," Masako replied.

"Are we allowed off site?"

"No, not without permission," Mai said.

Yasuhara sighed and sat back in his chair.

"I need to return my library book before History," Masako said, facing Mai. "Do you want to come?"

"Yeah," Mai said. "I need something to read."

The girls jumped up and said their goodbyes, leaving the boys to finish their lunch.

"So Mai's spoken for, huh?" Yasuhara asked but did not wait for an answer. "Shame, she's cute. Though I suppose it is up to her if she wanted to date elsewhere."

Oliver stood up and excused himself. He left the canteen with undue haste under Eugene's watchful eye.

"He won't admit he likes her," Eugene said with a sigh. "Pair of idiots…"

"How do you know the girls? Do you normally hang out with the lower years?"

"Not really, Masako went to the same primary school as me and Noll so we just sort of always knew each other. Mai and Masako were in the same class in first year and so…" he trailed off with a shrug.

Yasuhara nodded but did not say anything else.

"So yeah," Eugene went on, feeling the urge to speak again. "We've just always been a little group of friends. Even when I went out with Masako."

"You dated her?"

"For like a week," he clarified. Eugene could feel a blush rising to his cheeks. "It wasn't even serious. We didn't even kiss or anything."

Eugene cursed himself for revealing so much. Now Yasuhara would think him pathetic and—

"Cute."

Cute? Eugene had not expected that and was not entirely sure he appreciated it either. He did not need to look in a mirror to know his cheeks were turning pink.

Eugene tried to think of another topic, anything but his failing love life and the embarrassment of being called 'cute'. Fortunately, Yasuhara came to his aid.

"Could you show me where Austen Wing Room Five is? I have no idea where anything is in this school and I have Economics next period."

"Sure," Eugene said. "Come on, I'll show you around."

Eugene gave Yasuhara a rough tour of the entire school grounds and finished up with the Austen Wing just before the bell. The majority of the buildings were old, constructed a few hundred years ago like grand manor houses. Only the library was relatively new, it had been the school's flagship project for the last few years as it consisted of several new study and seminar rooms for the Sixth Form students.

"Room Five is just down there," Eugene said, pointing.

"Cheers," Yasuhara said. "I guess I'll see you in Maths then?"

"Yeah," Eugene said and Yasuhara grinned at him. "If you have any other questions about the school or anything, just ask, I don't mind. I'm happy to help!"

"What's your number?" Yasuhara asked.

Eugene's eyes widened.

"Excuse me?" Eugene gulped.

Had Yasuhara been standing that closely a second ago? How had he not noticed that Yasuhara was just a little bit taller than him? And why was his heart racing? Yasuhara was new, it was normal he would want to make friends. Having your friend's phone number was not unusual.

"...So I can text you with any questions I might have?" Yasuhara stepped back with a smile.

"Oh! Yeah, here I'll write it down for you," Eugene muttered. He pulled a scrap of paper from his pocket and scribbled his number down. "If I don't reply it's because I'm in class. We're only allowed mobiles out in the common room."

"I'll see you later then," Yasuhara said as he pocketed the scrap.

"Yeah, later!"

Yasuhara walked off in the direction of his classroom while Eugene decided to head to the Sixth Form common room. He let out a breath he did not realise he had been holding and tried to focus on something important. What homework did he have?

Eugene ended up sharing Oliver's table in the common room. Oliver was still working on something that was obviously not schoolwork. Eugene left him to it, he had more interesting things to think over. Like how to work out the formulae of mathematical series and why had Yasuhara been expelled from his previous school?

"I can hear you thinking from here," Oliver muttered. "What is bothering you?"

"He just doesn't strike me as the kind of guy to get himself kicked out," Eugene said with a frown.

Oliver did not respond as the subject did not interest him. Eugene continued to neglect his Maths homework until the start of the final period of the day; Biology.

"Hello, boys! I thought I'd come and pick you up soon as the weather is so dreadful," Luella greeted them at the school gates. Normally the twins would walk home due to the short distance. "I need to pop to the shops to pick up a few things for dinner too."

"Thanks, Mum," Eugene said. Oliver followed without a word. They climbed into the back of their mother's car and it pulled away into the oncoming rain.

"So did you have a nice day at school?"

"Was alright," Eugene said. "There was a new boy in Maths."

"Really? How come he's late to join?"

"He didn't really say, but his dad works at the Japanese embassy."

"Oh how exciting," Luella said. "What about you Noll? How is Mai?"

"She's fine," Oliver muttered. "Gene is just as aware of her health as I am."

"I was just including you in the conversation," Luella said, smiling knowingly. "And how is Masako?"

"She's fine too."

"I'm glad, you should all get together sometime, you haven't done that in a while have you?"

"Yeah, maybe," Eugene said. He contemplated the amount of homework he currently had and was unsure how he was going to fit in a social life too. If only he had finished his maths homework during his free period.

Their mother's idea of a picking up 'a few things' turned out to be a full-on weekly shop. Oliver scowled as they followed Luella around. Eugene took charge of the trolley and listened politely to his mother's ramblings about her own day at work.

"Oh bother, I forgot, we ran out of handwash too," she mumbled. "Gene, be a dear and run back and get some. It doesn't matter which one."

Gene passed the trolley over to his brother, who had been eying the packets of sweets on the nearest shelf. Gene smiled; a certain female friend of theirs enjoyed sweets very much.

He walked to aisle three, where the handwash sat alongside the soap, shampoo and other toiletries. Gene perused the current deals and ascertained which brand was the best value for money. Once set on a brand, he inhaled the various scents and finally settled on a zesty lemon one.

"Gene?"

Eugene looked up. Yasuhara stood a few feet away clutching two different deodorants.

"Hi."

"What are you doing here?"

"Shopping with my Mum," Eugene replied. "I thought you weren't allowed off site as a boarder during the week?"

"They made an exception, I don't have any toiletries," Yasuhara said, brushing the question aside. "But I'm torn between these two. This one—" he indicated the one in his left hand, "—smells better, but it might clash with my aftershave and this one—" he indicated the other can, "—isn't as strong, but I'm not sure about the smell."

Eugene blinked.

"Yeah," he agreed dumbly. Who thought that much about deodorant?

"Could you give your opinion?"

"Sure?"

Eugene closed the gap between them and sniffed the tops of the deodorant cans where the slightest whiff of their scent hang.

"Now sniff me," Yasuhara instructed. He offered his neck. Eugene glanced around, but they were quite alone in aisle three. He gingerly leant forwards and sniffed. "It's a nice aftershave huh?"

Yasuhara was right. It was. Though Eugene had no idea how he would describe it. Kind of like a forest in spring? It smelt refreshing and natural.

"Yeah," Eugene agreed, trying to ignore the blood rising to his cheeks. "I think the lighter deodorant would work better. It wouldn't overpower the smell of the aftershave."

"You reckon?"

"Yeah," Eugene said and smiled. "Well, I better get back to my Mum. See you at school tomorrow?"

"Definitely," Yasuhara said.

Eugene turned and walked away. Within two steps he managed to trip over his own feet and narrowly missed falling on his face. Without looking back, he continued forward, hoping against hope that Yasuhara had not seen his blunder.

When he caught up with his brother and mother, he noted that there was a pack of Magic Stars in the trolley. He knew his mother would not have picked them up as she was on a permanent health kick, which meant Oliver must have.

Eugene raised an eyebrow at Oliver, who stared back defiantly.

"You took a while," Luella commented as she chose between two types of sun dried tomatoes.

"Bumped into someone."

"Oliver asked if he could have some sweets, if you want some too, just go and pick up a pack."

"I'm alright," Eugene replied. "Though it's interesting that he chose the milk chocolate ones that happen to be Mai's favourite…"

He ignored the daggers Oliver was sending him.

"Well I hope he shares them with her then," Luella said. "That girl is tiny, she could do with some fat on her. I swear they don't feed them enough when boarding." She paused. "Is that new boy boarding?"

"Yeah."

"Well if he ever wants some proper food, invite him around okay?"

Eugene sighed.

"Mum, I am not inviting around every boarder that you think is underfed."

"Well someone has to look out for them," Luella said. "I don't know how any parent could send their child away like that."

Eugene refrained from rolling his eyes. He was distracted, however, by Oliver nudging him and showing him a text he had received.

Mai: The new boy has gone missing! Teachers are in a panic…

Eugene frowned. He had just seen Yasuhara. He had said they had let him out to get toiletries. Had he been lying? Or was it just a miscommunication?

"Come on boys," Luella called over her shoulder. They caught up and followed her to the checkout as Eugene pondered the behaviour of his new friend.

Author's note: Hi again! So first up I want to thank Tiffo the chicken flea for helping me with the name, TeaAddictedGhostHunter for the image and both of them for editing this monster of a story and helping me with ideas. I have over 75k words written so far for this and I am finishing it off for NaNoWriMo! I plan to update weekly so expect chapter 2 next week!