Rei yawned for the tenth time. He was in a foul mood. He wasn't a morning person and dreaded having to force his eyes to open early in the morning. Still, this matter could not wait. He had to go to Miku's house and find her and apologise to her, lest she misinterpreted his actions as rejecting her.

Walking briskly, he reached her house in a mere 5 minutes, which was a short walk away from his own. His finger lingered hesitantly on the doorbell. To wait or to ring? He did not want to disturb her family members early in the morning despite his desperation to apologise to her. He slapped his hand to his head, rebuking himself for rashly deciding to go to her house, and yet not daring to even ring the doorbell. Then he remembered that Miku lived only with her younger sister, Gumi.

He decided that since he was here, he might as well ring the bell, rather than wait outside for god knows how long.

"Coming," a sweet voice answered. The door creaked open narrowly, just enough for the other person to see who he was. A child with large mint green eyes and bushy teal hair stood outside the door. She should be Gumi, Miku's sister. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Who are you? Are you Miku's boyfriend?" Gumi asked bluntly.

"No, I'm just a friend. Is Miku in? I want to speak to her," he replied politely.

"Miku, your boyfriend is looking for you!" Gumi called out to her sister. Then she turned towards him and beamed triumphantly.

Annoying brat, Rei fumed. He glared at her, wondering how such a young child could be so frustrating and so...irritating.

Well, at least he knew that Miku was single as her sister had wrongly guessed that he was her boyfriend. Then another thought struck his head. Either too many guys came to her house until Gumi didn't know her actual boyfriend or none came. The latter was unbelievable though.

The sound of footsteps approaching snapped him out of his conflicting thoughts. The door opened again. It was Miku this time. "Oh, Rei, I didn't expect you to come, so I didn't get ready or open the door," she waved her hand as she explained, seeming flustered. Rei was mesmerised at her beauty. Her usually straight teal hair dropped around her in wavy curls, the darker tone of her hair matching perfect the mint green eyes she had.

Miku invited Rei in, to his surprise. She stacked the sofa cushions neatly at a corner of the leather sofa and invited him to sit.

"So, what's with the sudden visit?" Miku asked Rei casually, smiling tentatively at him. Rex explained feverishly, hoping that she would forgive him, "I'm sorry for tearing up your letter yesterday. I didn't mean it. It's just-"

"Oh, it's okay. I didn't take it to heart,"she smiled cheerfully at him, interrupting his explanation. She felt relieved. She knew that Rei wasn't the type of guy to intentionally hurt people's feelings. He just didn't know how to express what he meant, given the lack of practice. Rei had few friends. He distanced himself from people. All the friends he currently had, had taken the first step to talking and socialising with him.

Rei felt confused. Why had Miku interrupted his explanation? What was she afraid to hear? That he only liked her as a friend? No, that wasn't true. In fact, he wanted her to be more than a friend. It was just that he didn't want to be the one confessing. It would give her the power to reject him.

Well, they would be quits then, having rejected each other a single time. Still, he didn't have the pluck of courage to confess his true feelings to her.

If they were only friends, they could be close without having these misunderstandings. If he could just be near her daily, he wouldn't mind their not being a couple. He could watch her from afar. He smiled bitterly.

"Are you okay, Rei?" Miku asked concernedly. He had smiled strangely, as if he had some heavy thoughts on his mind. Little did she know that they were about her.

He shook his head numbly, running his hand through his hair, then stood up suddenly. They were going to be late for school.

"I forgot all about school!" Miku seemed to be thinking along the same lines as him. She went into her room and changed into her school uniform quickly, swiftly snatched her school bag and exited the house.

They were running together towards school. Usually they took the bus, but they had no time to lose, for the bus only came after a long time.

Rei led the way, as he had a better stamina level and knew how to get to school on foot, having done so in several occasions. He knew that they couldn't enter by the front gates. They couldn't even be seen by the school's security guards who aided the discipline master by catching students who were late.

Around a bend, Miku tripped as she sprinted and couldn't stop in time to turn. She sprained her right ankle and fell heavily on both of her knees, which scraped the jagged cement flooring. Rei noticed that Miku did not run after him. He saw that she was kneeling on the floor, with her knees bleeding and her ankle twisted in an odd angle. He knew she couldn't and was afraid to get up or move in case her ankle ached terribly.

He knew that he couldn't just leave her behind. He walked towards her and checked her ankle. It seemed to have been severly sprained. It would hurt badly if she accidentally bumped her ankle against any surface. Taking special care not to touch her right ankle, he put her arms around his neck, while he tried to piggyback her. It slowed him down considerably, having to carry an extra weight on his back. However, he didn't mind.

As he reached a row of brickwalls outlining the school compound while still piggybacking Miku, he had to find a way to get her over the high wall. He set Miku down first, and crouched down on the floor, so that she could use the extended height of his back to clamber onto the wall more easily.

Miku did just that, setting her leg with the injured ankle onto the wall first, then pushing off his back with her other leg to raise it onto the wall too. Now, she sat on the wall, not daring to jump down, for fear that her ankle condition might get worse.

Rei took 10 steps back. He held his breath and ran towards the brick wall, leaping cleanly over it while using his right palm as a pivot on the flat top surface of the wall. He aided Miku in climbing down the brick wall and piggy-backed her to the nursing room. Her injuries had to be treated.

Miku whimpered. She hated the sting of the yellow medicine against her skin. It hurt. She had fallen once before, when she was very young and her skin hurt like this too. She bit her lower lip and closed her eyes, trying to block out the pain she felt by not looking, as the Nurse dabbed her wound with alcohol. It wasn't working apparently. She was glad that Rei didn't have to see this side of her. She would have felt very embarrassed otherwise.