It was roughly around in the afternoon; a few seconds after the final bell had rung. The classroom was bursting with chatters. Students grouped up together and started gossiping about the teachers, while some just asked for each other's notes. Minato laid face first on the desk, having zero intention of lifting himself up. He was still drained from the previous night.

"Hey, wake up! Don't sleep here!" a voice of a girl told Minato with her hand tapping on his shoulder lightly. "If you want to sleep that much, go back to the dorm."

"Mmh..." Minato Arisato reluctantly growled in displeasure. Though the classroom was quite noisy, just resting his head on his arms against the desk cured the problem, at least until she spoiled it... "Come on! Wake up!" The girl now sounded annoyed. The tapping on his shoulder was no longer. Instead, he felt his body was rocked back and forth.

"I'm up, I'm up!" he replied her while still hiding his face under his arms. Then, he lifted himself upward just to see a girl was wincing back at him. "If I had known where my room was last night, I wouldn't have dozed off in class you know," he said with a sigh.

"I know, geez..." the girl rolled her eyes to the ceiling and also let out a sigh. "But it was partially your fault. You room number was written on the key that you lost," she reminded him. It was true that the key was sent to him days before the departure, and Minato somehow managed to lose it. But still, he blamed the dorm's manager for sending him the key too early.

"You guys shouldn't have given me the key that early," he said this before a long yawn. The girl standing next to his seat just shook the argument off. Her name was Yukari Takeba, also a junior like Minato. She was wearing a pink cardigan with a neatly-done tie around her collar. Her slender, smooth legs were revealed by the little-too-short skirt (about 15 centimeter above her knees), while her shins were covered by stocking. He could not help but admire Yukari her loveliness. Any guy in the school would fall head over heel for her just from looking at her.

She was popular, but then again, there was hardly any guy that she actually hung out with. Minato learned this through a gossiping of some boys he overheard during the Opening Ceremony (some of them were talking about how he got to walk to school with one of the most popular girls at school, despite being a transferred student). Guess the guysl had eyes on him now.

It was not until this morning that Yukari first greeted him in the lounge. She found him lay motionlessly on the sofa when she came downstairs to make some coffee. Her heart almost skipped a beat upon seeing him, since her first thought was that Minato was a thief. Considering the situation, anyone would have thought the same.

"Anyway, you can't sleep here; school's done a moment ago," Yukari spoke. "You should start packing up."

"Ooooh. And just as I thought something smelled fishy." Right before the blue-haired teen could react to the girl, a voice shot from behind them along with an approaching figure of a boy. "Damn, didn't know you were that fast at fishing boys, Yuka-tan!"

"Again, Junpei?" Yukari was annoyed but otherwise used to the situation,as if this had happened many times before. "Seriously, are you gonna say that to every guy I talk to?"

As Yukari had introduced, the guy's name was Junpei. Judging through his voice, this Junpei guy was the energetic type. He dressed in the school uniform with a baseball cap on his head. "Aw, I just wanted to say 'hi' to the transferred guy," then he turned to Minato. "Hey man, the name's Junpei. Junpei Iori." A grin spread across his lip as he fixed the cap on his head.

"My name's Minato Arisato."

"So, how's it going?" Junpei leaned down, placing his elbow on Minato's desk. "Word on the street says that you two walked together, hand in hand to school this morning, what's up with that?"

"Whoa there!' Yukari interrupted him. "Together. Yes, we did. But hand in hand? That's just something you made up."

"Still, walking together with the new kid to school on the first day seems too good to be just a coincidence to me," Junpei tilted his head and stared at the ceiling, putting his two fingers on his chin.

"She and I just live in the same dorm," said Minato. "She asked to assist me to school, that's it."

"That's right," Yukari relieved when she heard him say that. "He just moved here, and I didn't want him to get lost so I just showed him the way to school." As if reminded of something important, she glanced fast to the clock hanging on the wall. "Oh, I've got something to take care of, so I can't escort you back to the dorm today," she said apologetically. "Um, do you remember the way back?"

"Yeah, I think I've had it covered. You can go," Minato replied.

Having said that the girl in pink quickly escaped the classroom, not forgetting to say sorry one more time, "So, it looks like it's just you and me then." The boy in cap was first to speak after Yukari left. "You're new around here, right? No worry, I'll be your guidance for the day," he said, with a sense of pride in his voice.

"Okay then."

And the they exited the classroom. Minato thought that he was going to be back late, since he knew that he will be taken to some place with this new companion of his. The guy sounded exciting when he took the honor of showing the new kid around. Well, that was Minato's thought until they reached down to the first floor...

"Iori!" a deep, loud voice emitted from down the hallway behind them. "I've found you…"

"Shit!" Junpei was startled. "Don't tell me…"

He slowly turned back, and the blood from his face drained when he acknowledged the figure five meter away from him. "Now I've got you!"

It was a bulky-looking male student; six feet tall, muscular; well, someone to be afraid of.

"You know this guy?" Minato asked Junpei, despite the fact that the guy was obviously terrified.

"Dude, can't talk. See ya! Gotta run! Bye!" And he dashed away to the opposite direction of the big student, staggering a few steps since he took off so quickly.

"Oh, you ain't going nowhere today, pal." The student started chasing down Junpei. With his massive build, every step on the floor he made were also massive. The floor was literally shaking.

They both disappeared from sight a moment later. But just three second later, a faint shriek could be heard from distance. Minato stood there, alone in the hallway, still dumbfounded from what had just happened.

The silence began growing.

"Guess I'll have to walk back alone," Minato said, sighing.

"Now where should I go next?"

He stopped upon reaching the school gate. He'd tried to re-imagine the scenario that he saw when Yukari brought him to school this morning; to no avail though. Obviously, he forgot the way back. Left now looked like right and right looked like left. Minato couldn't identify whether that he did come from the right or from the left this morning.

Asking someone perhaps?

A wise idea popped out in his mind. Minato decided that he could ask some of the students, or teachers the way to Iwatodai dorm. Because it was the only co-ed dorm around the area, the chance of having someone to know about seemed pretty high.

When he decided to go back into the building, he could see someone was walking towards the gate. Minato thought that it was a good idea to ask this person about the dorm, so he went for it.

That person was a girl. She has her hair tied up in a messy, ponytail style, with the color of brown, like Yukari's. She was walking straight ahead, but her mind was wandering somewhere along with the music she was drowning in with her small, red, clip-on headphones.

"Excuse me?" Minato approached the girl, politely wanting to ask her for direction.

The girl lifted her face up and looked at Minato's. It seemed like she'd just snapped back to reality. Abruptly, she took her headphones away from her ears and let them hang around her slender neck, and the music was playing quite loud. "I'm sorry, may I help you?"

"Um, I just wanted to ask for direction."

"Oh," she stared at him for a moment, which caused Minato to feel a bit uneasy. "Wait, aren't you the transferred student?"

"Yes, I am. How do you know?" he asked, but he already knew the answer to that. Rumor spreads fast around here...

"We're in the same class," she said simply. "And you were sleeping the whole time," along with a sigh.

"Hehe, I was too tired, since I've just moved here last night," scratching the back of his neck, Minato chuckled to hide his embarrassment.

"Anyways, what area are you staying in at the moment? I might know about it," the girl brought back to his question.

"Do you know the Iwatodai dorm?"

"You live around there?"

"No, I live there. You know where it is?"

Suddenly, a hint of surprise shown on her face. The girl's brows rose up, as if she'd just discovered some shocking event. Then, as quickly, she lowered her head, resting it on her first two fingers, the girl let a smile between her teeth. She looked at Minato again. "Sure, I know the way."

"We're here." They finally came to a stop in front of the dorm. As she said goodbye and began to walk away, Minato blurted out.

"I haven't asked for your name yet. Mine is Minato, Minato Arisato," and added a smile.

She turned around, said, "Our names sound alike then," she fixated a gentle smile. "Mine is Minako, Minako Haruki."

Chapter 2- End

With that, Minako shows up! As obvious as it can be, she seems to react weirdly when Minato says that he is now living in the dorm, right? Well, just in case you haven't figured it out, she does...

Disclaimer: I do not own Persona series