Makoto was talking to himself again, a common habit of his.

"Dinner!" he shouted to the dry ocean air, "What's gonna be for dinner? But I'm hungry now, so what should I eat before dinner? Something wet, like mochi… mochi…? What about kakimochi? Fancy tuna for tomorrow."

He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and set his backpack on the ground. He unzipped the first zipper and began to rummage through it when he realized that he didn't recognize the clean text books, or the neat looking folders that held unrumpled homework papers. This wasn't Makoto's backpack, which was usually a cluttered mess.

He looked at the name tag sewn on the inside: Nakajima Ryosuke

"No!" Makoto cried, "I took his bag by mistake… can't help that they look alike."

But what went through his head, he couldn't help but think...

Ryosuke's soft pink lips coming closer and closer until they touched his own. They liked it. And his black, onyx eyes… he could get lost in those eyes…

Makoto stopped, feeling his face flush. He shook his head vigorously. His heart was beating through his chest. He wanted it to stop. Stop, make it stop, make it stop, make stop.

"What…" He breathed. Makoto felt his forehead. "What was that just now…? What… was I thinking…?"

It was just that. Thinking of how soft and slender Ryosuke's hands were, how his pale skin seemed to be, how it glowed. It's like he just fell into a trance… just… into a trance.

"No…! That's why I…" Makoto continued to mumble to himself as he took small steps along the sidewalk. He threw his backpack over his shoulder. "Ki… ki…" he wanted to say the words himself, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He felt it would hurt his pride too much.

"Hey, Makoto…" said a familiar voice. Just as he turned around, a pair of lips touched his, gentle and cherry flavored. Startled by this, Makoto jumped back, arms up in the air, voice incredibly high with shock.

"D-Dad! W-W-W-Why!?" Makoto shrieked, his face rapidly turning red.

His father, Kaito, laughed it all away. Makoto felt a sudden shiver crawl down his spine. Father's aren't supposed to kiss their sons on the lips like that. At least not anymore, he was seventeen now.

"Ha! Makoto, I expressed the word you were just saying!" he smiled. Makoto shot his father a death glare and continued walking, head down and broad shoulders arched. Kaito ran to catch up to him.

"That's not funny, Dad." Makoto used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe away the cherry flavored mess on his lips, "You're way too old to still be kissing your son on the lips."

Kaito frowned, saying, "What? It doesn't matter to me how old you are!"

"It's not something to brag about either…" Makoto sighed. Kaito patted his son's broad shoulders.

"Hey, Makoto! What was that all about?"

"What?"

"The, 'ki' you were saying to yourself?" he asked.

Makoto turned away, feeling his face, yet again, grow red with embarrassment. As if he could ever tell his father how he felt or what he was thinking about. Especially that. Of course, with Makoto assuming this, he also realized how his father was the type to laugh at anything serious. But something like this was way too embarrassing.

"You've got amazing perception…" Makoto said, eyes narrowed. "It's amazing that you'd hear something like that."

"Don't you think your dad is spontaneous?" Kaito asked, attitude full of pride.

"Yes, in some ways, I do." Makoto said, "But what I was saying was ka-ki-mochi… I thought I'd grab a snack before dinner."

Kaito's shoulders slumped.

"All we get is kakimochi…?" Kaito asked, disappointed. "No fancy tuna?"

Makoto chuckled, smiling for the first time since he left Ryosuke's house.

"Where were you?" asked Riku, stomping her foot.

She crossed her arms, staring daggers at Kaito and Makoto, though Makoto didn't understand why he had to be in trouble with his father. After all, this was his writing assistant and editor. They were sitting on their knees with their heads down. Riku glared down at the both of them.

"We went on a walk!" Kaito exclaimed, nervously.

"You… went for a walk?" asked Riku, pushing up the bridge of her glasses, "Where?"

"D-Down on the beach… Right, Makoto?" Kaito nudged his son's arm.

Makoto nodded, though Riku wasn't buying Kaito's story. She turned to her godson, giving him a look. As serious as she was, her physical appearance noted otherwise. She was small for a woman in her mid-thirties. Her professionalism allowed her to dress in a dark purple feminine business suit and even a tie. Her chestnut colored hair pulled back in a tight ponytail.

"Makoto…?"

"Okay, here's the truth." He began with his hands up innocently. "I admit that we went on a walk down on the beach and we hit that tiny convenience store by the boardwalk. We only had a little money on us, so we had to con some poor girl into buying kakimochi for us."

He held up a small plastic bag of the kakimochi crackers, then tossed it in his father's lap. Gawking at the evidence before him, Kaito was in complete shock. He grabbed Makoto by the head and started rubbing his fist in his hair.

"You traitor! Cruel child! Evil child!"

"Ow!" Makoto cried, "Cut it out!" he closed one eye to take the pain.

"Mr. Takabayashi…" Riku said in a calm voice. Makoto and Kaito turned to her, "If you ever decide to escape again, I'll kill you."

Riku only said this because Kaito seriously needed to finish his draft on the new novel he was writing and the transcripts were due two weeks from today, but Kaito seemed to get bored with possible writer's block and snuck off when he could, thus running into his son.

"But…" Kaito thought out loud, "Since my opponent is Riku… I'll just escape and have nothing to worry about!"

"We'll see about that!" Riku gritted her teeth and clenched her fist. She swiftly ran forward with the intention to hit Kaito in the face, but Kaito grabbed her arm and flipped her over, landing on the carpet with a loud thud. Quickly, Riku stood back up and charged again. Kaito punched her so hard in the gut, she doubled over, letting drool fall out of her mouth. Makoto scooted back in disgust.

"Whoa—some drool came out!" he cried. Kaito could do nothing else but laugh. Until he stopped, he bent down to Riku's level and said, "You need work, Riku…"

The frail woman wiped her mouth in attempt to stand up, but failed.

"You…! This isn't over!" she coughed, "I won't let you escape! You can't bail all this work onto me! And since we're friends, I'll let that punch slide…!"

As Kaito continued to gloat, Riku stood up, nearly losing her balance and grabbed Kaito's collar. She dragged him into his office.

"No!" Kaito said, still smiling. "Makoto! Save me!"

Riku shut the door behind them. Makoto sighed.

"What's with those two?" he asked out loud to no one in particular. "Every single time..."

He laughed as he picked up Ryosuke's bag and walked to his bedroom.