A/N: Sorry for taking so long on the next chapter guys! I'll try to be better at managing all of the stuff I'm working on in the future. Anyway, enjoy the new chapter.

Souji was outside and waiting for Yosuke before the time they had agreed on. The sun was just beginning to touch the city as Souji thought about last night's dream. He still remembered it vividly and the amount of detail was amazing for a dream. What bothered him the most was how real the dream felt. Not that it would ever be real. I was aware of it being a dream anyway so I just need to forget about it. It's no big deal.

"Hey Souji!" Yosuke came out of the door to the apartment complex yawning. "Wow, you didn't have to get out here so early. How long have you been waiting?"

"Not long. Besides, I don't want to be late and being early is better than being on time." Souji smiled and the uncanny pair began walking the five blocks to their school.

Yosuke thought on that for a few steps, then smiled and shook his head. "You seem the type to do exactly that."

"What type is that then?" Souji smirked at his new friend, causing Yosuke to blush. He liked the way that the brunette was prone to embarrassment at the tiniest of things. It was cute.

While Souji was thinking about how the blush on Yosuke's cheeks made him ten times cuter, Yosuke was struggling to find a way to explain what type his friend was. "W-well you are kind of a gentleman I guess."

Souji pretended to look affronted, but he was really amused at Yosuke's answer. "Kind of? My dear sir, I am a gentleman."

Yosuke looked at the gray-haired teen, puzzled for a moment. He realized that the otherwise stoic-looking Souji was making fun of him. He couldn't help the grin that spread across his face even though he had nothing witty to come back with. "Indeed. But what is a gentleman to do when he is…shoved spontaneously!"

Yosuke hip checked Souji a bit, jostling him over as they stepped onto the school grounds. Unfortunately, Souji had been shoved into wrong teacher. It was Morooka aka King Moron. Yosuke tried to hide his face, but he was caught immediately.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Hanamura? Don't you have anything better to do than roughhouse at school? I know you are from the city, but that doesn't give you the right to act like…" Morooka continued to rant at Yosuke while Souji openly stared, startled at the man. Yosuke assumed it was because King Moron was the only teacher he knew that cursed more than teens. However, Souji was staring so impolitely because of his dream. Every detail was the same down to the cheesy suit he wore and the way he had his hair parted. No, I must have seen him somewhere before. Dreams are just processed information. He must be from Inaba if he knows Yosuke. I must have seen him while at my uncle's house.

Souji had himself convinced of this and snapped out of his thoughts to save Yosuke. "Excuse me, sir. I am extremely sorry for bumping into you. It was half my fault too. Please excuse us but we need to find our class before school starts."

Morooka grunted something like 'slutty city kids' before leaving the pair behind to go to the front office for a teachers meeting.

Yosuke's jaw was hanging as he stared at Souji. "Wh-what…how did you do that? Morooka- you just got the biggest hardass to back down. Dude, you're amazing."

"Well we really need to get to class. What's your classroom number?" Souji pulled Yosuke along by the elbow when he didn't start walking.

Yosuke thought about it for a second, not realizing that the hand that had pulled him along was still holding onto him. "I'm not sure yet. They're squeezing us all into the gym to assign class numbers to us. Do you mind if we exchange emails so that we can keep in touch easier and maybe meet up during lunch? I-if you don't have any other plans."

"I don't at the moment." Souji repressed a laugh, but a smile slipped out despite his restraint. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and exchanged it with Yosuke. "Maybe I'll even share some of my homemade lunch."

"Wh-what? That's so girly dude. I am not eating some of your lunch." Yosuke blushed again and Souji couldn't help but stare at how it fit Yosuke so well. That just made Yosuke's blush turn darker. "Well, we should be getting to class before school starts. I'll see you at lunch then?"

"See you." Souji watched Yosuke for a few moments before shaking his head and walked to his class.

Souji's classroom was full of chatter as the students sat in their desks, waiting for the teacher to arrive. There was still a good five minutes before class was supposed to start so Souji sat in his desk and idly listened to the conversations around him. While Souji was widely liked by teachers and students, he didn't have anyone that he'd call a close friend. Although that's not entirely true. I was close to Jiro-san last year. He's gone off to college someplace pretty far though.

Souji was brought out of his inner thoughts when their homeroom teacher, who was also the basketball coach, came into the classroom. The bell hadn't rung just yet, but he addressed the class anyway. "Good morning everyone. I know you are all excited about the new students coming in this year and things will be a little crazy for a while. We've had to squeeze a lot more seats into each classroom and usually that's not a good thing for you. It will mean though, that you have to do a lot of studying on your own, but we're helping out fellow high schoolers. Anyway, I need a student to volunteer to go fetch the incoming students."

No one's hand went up. Usually, there would always be the one student who volunteered for anything and everything. Not this time. Souji sighed, his hand the lone member in the air. His teacher grinned, "Mr. Seta, I see that you are taking the initiative. The group that is due in this classroom should be in the gym."

Souji walked out of the room, taking the hall pass with him into the empty hallway. Souji let his mind wander while he walked toward the all too familiar gym. It brought back memories of playing basketball with the team last year. Jiro-san was the team captain and was the one that initially convinced Souji to play the sport in the first place. Jiro had taken it upon himself to take the first-year under his wing and teach him how to play basketball. Jiro was ecstatic to find out that the tall teen was a natural at it.

Their friendship began fast after that. Jiro dragged Souji to places and had him hang out with him all the time. At first, Souji had been wary of this popular guy that was trying so hard to become his friend, but after awhile, Souji became used to the easy-going basketball player.

Souji woke out of his revelry when he stood in front of the gym doors. He went into the gym, expecting more chatter from idle students, but everyone was silent and Souji easily picked out the culprit. Mr. Morooka. He was keeping a stern eye on all of the students. When he spotted Souji, he immediately started running his mouth off. "So it's you again. Goddamn it took you forever to get here. Now you're gonna make all of these assholes late because you wanted to take you damn time getting over here. Now show these assholes to the classroom. I'll be seeing you all in third period so don't get cocky on the first day and think you can skip to go see some girls."

When Morooka left the building through a different door, Souji sighed. The class began talking and raising clamor immediately. "Hey, who are you?"

"We have such a cute classmate this year."

"You should let us ditch."

Souji got a little irritated and raised his voice, "Quiet. Please."

Everyone shushed up, but one person was trying to see over other heads. The brunette hair looked familiar, but Souji focused on the group as a whole. "I don't care if you talk, but keep it quiet so we don't get in trouble."

Souji began leading the group back to his class, but it wasn't too long before he felt a tap on his shoulder and then an arm reaching across his neck, "Hey partner!"

Souji grinned at his friend. "I thought I saw some familiar brown hair."

"Oh yeah, is it that noticeably different?" Yosuke blushed, happy that Souji had been able to pick him out of the crowd. When he realized that his train of thought was extremely girly, Yosuke blushed some more and changed the subject. "So got any friends in the class already? Y-you know somebody that's not transferring."

Souji chuckled softly, "No, the only real friend I had went to university this year. I have teammates on the basketball team, but a lot of them are on it for competitive reasons and don't like that I'm good or that I play for fun."

"That's too bad, but why would they resent you so much for just liking it instead of playing competitively?" Yosuke was really beginning to admire Souji for the amount of skills the gray-haired teen seemed to posses.

Souji shrugged, "The third year I knew, Jiro-san, he made me team captain before he left."

"Wouldn't that make them jealous?" Yosuke gave Souji the same quizzical look that Souji was giving him.

"Why?"

Yosuke sighed, leaning on Souji a bit, his arm still slung across Souji's shoulders. "Because being team captain is a big deal. How good are you?"

Souji shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. He didn't really know and didn't care. He wouldn't have even gone for the second year if Jiro-san hadn't practically forced it on him. Souji noticed that Yosuke's arm was still resting on his shoulders which must have been a feat to be comfortable since Souji was a few centimeters taller. He grinned. "Is your arm okay like that? You're a little too short for that to be comfortable."

Yosuke's face went completely red and he jerked his arm back. "Uhhh…well, I um sorry? It wasn't uncomfortable for me, but if it was for you-"

"No, no." Souji laughed. He was usually very quiet, but somehow Yosuke managed to bring out Souji's emotions. "Oh, here we are."

Souji opened the door for the Yasogami students and waited until they all entered until returning to his seat. The teacher introduced himself to the new students and began his lecture on what he expected from the students this year and when a student asked about the basketball team, the coach/teacher ranted for half an hour until the bell rang for break. Souji was relieved to have that class over with though.

"Hey partner, some of your new classmates want to meet you since I took up all the time on the way here." Yosuke didn't look apologetic when he talked to Souji, but when the girls glared, he backed away with hands up.

Souji sighed inwardly. He was always quite popular with the girls, but this usually lead to more problems than most guys would believe. For one, he could feel the glare of his fellow male classmates very distinctly. Although, Yosuke didn't seem to be jealous at all when he was standing next to Souji. He was talking to some of the girls cheerfully while Souji scanned the classroom, avoiding eye contact with everyone as best as he could. His eyes flew open wide when he saw two girls from his dream the night before. Chie and Yukiko were standing a little farther back, talking animatedly to each other. They looked exactly the same from his dream except that the uniform was different.

Souji realized he was staring and decided to look elsewhere again. His gray eyes landed on another Inaba student who looked relieved to catch his eye. "Hi, Seta-san, I'm Kou Ichijo, but you can just call me Kou. I wanted to introduce myself because I'll be trying out for the basketball team and I heard you were the team captain."

"Nice to meet you." Souji nodded. "You can just call me Souji and I look forward to seeing you at tryouts. You know to go to the Westside gym right?"

Kou looked confused, "I heard from another student it was at the east one. From Shiro-kun."

Souji sighed, "I thought it might be him." Souji lowered his voice, unaware of the way people stared as he whispered in Kou's ear. "Listen, he's a huge jerk and mad at me because the last captain put me in charge. If he tells you anything else, just ask me about it, okay?"

Kou nodded seriously, then laughed, "Thanks for the talk Souji."

As Yosuke slid over and asked what was up, Souji could feel an intensely heated glare from someone across the room. He knew who was staring him down as he told Yosuke that he'd tell him about it on their way home from school. All of this was getting to be a little much for Souji's liking. He was having weird dreams that seemed to affect his life in a weird way, Shiro was out to get him for being captain, and Souji had a feeling that this was just the beginning of it all.