Minato sighed as he entered another tedious day in school. The lectures had been for over quite some time ago, but the effect still lingered on him. He was lying on the desk, wishing for someone to drag him up to his feet so that he could go home, but the prayer seemed less likely to be happened. Yukari had gone somewhere as soon as class ended, perhaps she'd headed to her Archery Club, and Junpei- the boy he met yesterday- was caught once again. Apparently, the bulky student who was looking for him yesterday was the school's baseball team's captain. The reason for Junpei being violently escorted away was that he was neglecting the team's practices for weeks.

But no matter he wanted it or not, getting back to the dorm was something he had to do on his own. But really, going straight back there wasn't what he wanted to do at the moment, because he knew he would have nothing to do but sleep when he got back. That Mitsuru girl he met yesterday didn't strike him as someone he would have a relaxed conversation with. So he decided to roam around the school ground before heading back.


Minato found the baseball team practice field. It was bursting with laughter and yelling from every direction. He wasn't sure why he picked this place to go first; perhaps he wanted to look for Junpei. After eying around for the guy, he finally found him.

Junpei was running around the baseball field with his uniform on. Judging from his painful gasping, the guy had probably been running for quite a while. Apparently, instead of practicing along with the rest of the team, Junpei was forced to do endurance training by the captain.

"Two more laps, Iori! You're not done yet!" yelled the captain.

"What?" Junpei exclaimed through his violent breathing. "I've been... running... ten laps already!"

"Really?" For just a moment, the captain seemed concerned, but he quickly regained his normal, fearsome look. "Now let's make it fifteen instead!"

"What?"

Poor Junpei. Looking at his running posture, he seemed like he could just drop down and passed out any second, but the captain did not care. So did the coach; looked like this was just the beginning of his day.

At the corner of his eyes, Minato spotted the Track and Field team was also practicing behind the chained fence, both the boy and girl team. They were running with excitement and enthusiasm. Some were sprinting, some were jumping over the hurdles, and some were running distance. While checking out the team, Minato's attention was drawn onto one certain girl, not the team manager, who with tanned skin was writing down data for the team, but the girl with chestnut hair and red eyes. It was Minako. Minako Haruki, the girl he met the day before.

She was drying her sweat with a towel after her run. As Minato had observed, the girl was the leader of the run throughout the entire practice.

She was now slipping water from her bottle when she saw Minato was looking at her direction from afar. With a quick jerk at the head, she greeted him.

Not sure why that he did, but Minato waited for Minako to be done with her practice and accompanied together with her once again.

"So why did you wait for me?" Minako asked him that with a cheerful expression.

"Dunno. Thought that you might want to show me around," he said so, it was more of an excuse. He just wanted someone to show him the way back again. He was not a type of guy who remembered things.

"Really? Are you sure you're not interested in me?" the girl teased him. Minato knew that, but he just chuckled in reply. "Show you around, huh? Well, there's really nothing but the mall, and some shops at the train station. What do you wanna do?'

"I don't know, you show me."

"So then there's this place that I wanted to go. It's a ramen shop. Do you feel like eating?"


And they arrived at the shop. Minato ordered a regular while Minako ordered a special order. Judging the way she talked to the owner, it seemed like she was a regular here.

"Aw, come on Gensai-san! At least tell me what you put in the soup that makes it taste delicious!" pleaded Minako jokingly.

"Come now, Haruki-chan! You know I can't reveal my business' secret," the owner replied happily and returned to making the ramen for them.

"So, how's life here been treating you? Tough?" Minako turned to him.

"Not really, but it's only been two days here and I'm getting tired of school already," Minato told her. He remembered those long lectured that he had to hear from Mr. Ekoda- who was famous among the students as "the demon of the history of education". To Minato, he didn't like him because of his monotone voice and strictness. Just this morning, he was bashed in the head by a book when trying to doze off. Even worse, the very next period belonged to Ms. Toriumi, the homeroom teacher. She forced the whole class to take notes on the first day and they weren't short. So far, school was not making a good impression.

"That sucks. Thinking of joining a club? I heard they are opening for new members," Minako informed him. Something that Minato vaguely had an idea. He thought he saw something similar posted on the Bulletin Board this morning. "Sport teams also. What do you want to do?"

"I just entered a new school year so maybe later. I want to get used to the school before considering joining something," Minato said.

"Alright, but if you ever want to do it," Minako spoke. "just don't hesitate to do so."

The sweet smell of newly cooked ramen broke their conversation. Their orders were just set on the table for them. Minako happily fixed her stool in a more comfortable position before enjoying her meal. She grabbed the chopsticks, broke them apart, and said: "Itadakimasu!" She cheerfully slurped the noodles.

Minato looked at the girl's expression and also did the same. The ramen was delicious! No wonder the place was packed with customers. Listened closely, Minato could hear people were laughing and smiling while some chanted: "The ramen is so good!" Minato kept eating his ramen, not forgetting to give his gratitude to the red-eyed girl beside him.

Was it the ramen that made Minato oblivious about his surrounding or was it the owner was being sly? Now that he noticed, the man had been staring at the two teens for a while and seemed like Minako saw that as well. Just as she looked up, the man asked: "Is this gentleman your boyfriend?"

She choked, which almost made the noodles escaped through her nose. She coughed a few times and then reached for her water. After gulping it down, she glared at the man: "What?"

"You don't have to be so flustered, little miss," the man laughed. "Of all the time you've been coming here, this is the first that you actually bring someone, and it's a guy!"

"No! No, no, no, no, you don't understand! He's just a friend! I wanted to show him around the area. He just came here few days ago."

"Just came?" his attention shifted to Minato. "Well, hi there. What's your name?"

"Minato Arisato, sir."

"Well, well Arisato, you better treat Haruki well. She's a nice girl. Even I would want her as my daughter," the owner laughed again and returned to his work.

Beside Minato, Minako was sighing deeply. "Don't mind him; he makes jokes like this every now and then."

"It's fine,"

Cheerful once again, the red-eyed girl turned back to her bowl, which was by now cool down a bit. Now that he thought of that, Minato never noticed of her eyes before, the eyes that possessed the color of crimson red, a very unnatural color. Does she have contact lenses on? Minato asked himself that. He could have just asked the girl straight out, but after seeing the expression on her face while eating the ramen, who could have?


The teens quickly finished their meals and paid. Well, it was Minato who paid the check, but was not of his politeness that he decided to cost his money, it was because of Minako begged him so. She told him that she forgot her wallet. Nevertheless, he paid, but wasn't it odd for someone who asked you out for a meal and forgot her money? Minato thought so.

"Thank you very much! You saved me back there. I wouldn't know what to do without you!"

But what's done is done, Minato told himself that. The two were now leaving the station to go into a train, which would eventually take Minato back to the dorm.

On the crowded train, packed with students and businessmen and businesswomen, the two teens managed to find themselves a place to sit down. Once had settled down, Minako slid close to Minato and asked: "How's the dorm?"

"Huh?" Minato replied to the sudden question.

"Don't huh me! I'm asking you about the dorm which you are currently living in!" she nudged his arm, wondering if the boy had paid any attention to her, or to the headphones he'd put on a moment ago.

"Oh, sorry," he put away his headphones. "Not really a lot to say about. It's… fine, I guess. There's a few number of our classmates are living there."

"Like who?"

"So far, there's Yukari Takeba, and another one is Mitsuru Kirijo," Minato frowned, trying to make sure that was there anybody else beside the two girls he had named. "That's about it."

"You forgot Akihiko-senpai," Minako tried to remind him.

"Who?" he stared at the girl. "I never heard of that name before." It was true, the name was unfamiliar to him, and he was sure that Kirijo never mentioned him of a student with that name before.

"O-oh," she paused, as if to come up with an excuse. "H-he is a senpai in our school, pretty popular, especially around girls. I overheard one of the girls said that he lived in your dorm."

"Really? I wasn't informed of him yet, but maybe since I didn't ask. You seem to know a lot about stuff that are going around here."

"Not a lot, just common things. I actually moved back to this city about… 2 years ago," Minako told him.

"Move back? Where were you before?" Minato asked her.

"Well, I was born and raised here, but then somewhere along the way, I had to move to Kyoto to stay with my aunt,"

"You lived with your aunt, huh? How comes?" Up until now, Minato had already to start to feel like he was the only one making questions, but he couldn't help it but to keep asking more about the girl who appeared to have a very similar past to his.

"Ah… My parents… passed away…" the girl fell silent.

"Oh… sorry," and similar it was. Minako also was exactly like him, parentless. "I should have known…"

"That's alright, you don't have to say sorry," she smiled, trying to lighten up the mood a little.

"So why did you move back here? Why not stay with your aunt?"

"Her place was really nice. The people in her house were friendly and treated me very good. Also, she was an owner of a small dojo there,"

"Sounds like a decent place to live," Minato commented.

"I know, but I guess it's just my nature that I want to live independently," she continued on with her story. "So after a while living with her, I decided to move back here."

"Then you're living by yourself now?"

"Yeah, I live in an apartment, not too far away for your dorm. Anyways, that's enough about me. What's your story? You said you just moved back here just like me right? What happened?" Minako shifted herself on her seat so that she could talk to Minato in a more comfortable position.

"My story is somewhat like yours, you can say" he began to speak. "I was born here, but I moved to live with my aunt and uncle up in Tokyo after a… certain incident."

As if to understand Minato's implication, Minako once again fell silent. She scratched the back of her neck like she was seeking something nice to say back to him. She couldn't. "I'm sorry…"

"It's fine. It happened ten years ago. It was a car accident, so fast that I couldn't even believe back then. As a kid, I kept telling myself that they were just out to buy me a toy or something, despite the fact that the people around me told me the truth," he chuckled bitterly. "But in any case, the school called so I packed things up and left."

There a heavy silence hung above the teens. The passengers before had departed from the train, in fact, there was only Minako and Minato left in the car. Without their conversation, the silence grew heavier, except for the sound of the wheels rolling on the track, and the voice of the speaker on the radio.

The train finally came to a stop and the two exited. Shortly after, they arrived at Iwatodai dorm.


"This is my stop here," Minato was the first to say after a while.

"Hey, Arisato?" Minako suddenly called out to him.

"What's up?"

"I'm very sorry about your parents. I also lost mine so I know how it feels like…" she bowed, as to show her compassion.

"Come on, I told you it's okay already. Besides, it's not your fault that my parents passed away, you shouldn't be apologizing to me," Minato reassured her.

"Phew, guess I was worry too much," she seemed relieved after hearing Minato said that. "Well, I'll be going then. Goodbye!" she turned and waved her hand in goodbye to the blue haired boy.

"See ya!" Before Minato could even open the door, he saw the girl turned back and said to him:

"Oh, and remember to stay in the dorm at night time. It can get pretty rough around here when night comes."

"I do will," not understanding her intention, Minato just simply said yes in response. Soon after, the girl's back disappear in the sea of people in distance.


Chapter 4 - End.


Well, not my best work here I must say. I spent heck of a long time just to finish a 2,500 words chapter and it's not even in my liking! Oh well, I tried my best to put a lot of my implications in here so I guess that's mission accomplished? In any case, next one should be awakening.


Disclaimer: I do not own Persona series.