"Oh, crud."

At the moment, Sunako stunk like an old man with loose bowels. An aging piece of cheese. A teenage boy's gym bag. A teenage boy's socks. Wet dog. A dead animal decomposing in a dump. A homeless drunk's vomit. All those things, plus chlorine.

After her race against Takano, her little parade had dissipated until only the girls from the swim team, led by Chie Orino, forced her back into the pool upon recruiting Sunako into their team. In the pool, the girls had swam a mile, and at the end of practice, they had all played Marco-Polo and enjoyed a good laugh at Sunako's (unintentional) rendition of The Grudge and The Ring.

Now her limbs felt like marshmallow fluff. It was a wonder how Sunako was able to troop over to the shower room without dissolving like the Wicked Witch of the West. Her hand twisted the knob, but much to her horror, it was locked. She heard the vague sound of a humming janitor cleaning the girls' shower.

This brought her back to her original sentiment of, "Oh, crud."

Auntie had sweetly informed her of the new love of her life coming over for dinner and then some. Auntie then proceeded to tell her niece to make herself scarce.

"But why? The house is big enough for-"

Then Auntie had started giggling about naked hide-and-seek.

And then Sunako understood.

Sunako also activated her mental mute button and cried herself to sleep that night.

Right now, she needed to address this problem. There was no guarantee that wherever she would end up wandering to tonight would have any sort of bathing facility. Sunako's eyes flickered to the boys' shower room flanking the girls'. No one was in there besides her. She wouldn't spend more than ten minutes cleaning up and changing, so no harm done, right?

Right, she reasoned with herself. Besides, if someone did walk in, they wouldn't want to watch her showering anyway. She imagined something akin to a blood-curdling scream with hands slapped over traumatized eyes and hasty back-pedaling instead.

Sunako let herself in. She stripped out of her bathing suit and hopped into stall. She fell under the cold spray and sighed.

"Ah." She rubbed her arms with the soap bar she brought. She rubbed the soap bar between her hands, getting them sudsy so that when she made a circle with her pointer fingers and thumbs, a shiny net formed. She blew through the circle and watched with childish delight when a bubble bounced off the dark blue tiled wall.

Sunako was shampooing when horror of all horrors, the door slammed open. She froze with foamy fingers tangled in her long hair.

Whoever had barged in was muttering angrily about women.

"Buddha, I'll need soap for my ears," She mumbled, trying to catch a glimpse through the steam and bubbles of the boy who would make a feminist combust. His muttering abruptly stopped when he noticed her presence.

"Naka...hara?"

Goosebumps spread like a virile infection across her body at the rough and boyish voice calling her name. Sunako's purple peepers widened when she saw her suspicions confirmed; the voice belonged to none other than Takano Kyohei.

"Wha..." The blonde boy trailed off when his eyes similarly trailed down her body. She heard him hiss, "Shit." She felt the heat of his stare on her and her face grew hot and red as she yelled,

"Get out, GET OUT!"

"Ow, ow! Quit throwing stuff at me!"

"Honestly, have you no shame? Avert ye eyes, you disgusting-"

"Why did you-" She chucked another duck. Ooh, that could've been a head-shot.

"-bring rubber ducks with you? And also-" He almost sidestepped another ducky (ear! Ten points for Sunako!) and hoarsely yelled back. "You're bathing in the boy's shower room! You lost your right to bitch at me about shame, Nakahara,"

"Yes, well, the janitor is in the girl's shower room! What was I suppose to do?"

"Gee, I dunno, go to your fucking mansion and take a shower there?"

"I would if I could, you idiot," Sunako hissed, angry at dripping shampoo into her eyes.

Kyohei seemed to gather his bearings and quickly turned around, his cheeks still red. "Whatever. I just need to take a shower and get out. The boys' swim team rode my ass from Tokyo to Kidney,"

"Kidney?"

"You know," He motioned with a flippant wave of his hands. "That place with the kangaroos,"

"I really hope you didn't just call the largest city in Australia, Sydney, 'Kidney',"

"It was an honest mistake,"

"You were a mistake,"

"You're a dick,"

Sunako massaged the shampoo out of her hair, momentarily forgetting that she was naked, not even five feet away from the most beautiful specimen of man. However, she did take notice when Kyohei began wrestling out of his school uniform.

"Stop it! Stop stripping!"

"Shove it. My mom'll probably waste all the hot water crying and reading those pervy books in the bath," Kyohei was down to his white undershirt and unbuttoning at a torturous rate. Man, his pecs...

Sunako squeaked when he hopped into the stall opposite hers. His blonde spikes darkened under the water and his chest...look, look! The soap bar is shaped like a Hiroshi's middle finger. You need to replace it. You need to replace your shampoo soon too oh sweet Buddha I'm going to nosebleed...did he just take my soap? Fucking prick! Well, whatever. I'm done here...I'll yell at him anyway.

Sunako was about to yell at him until the second dilemma within the hour struck. When she reached for a towel, she found none.

"Damn it," Sunako scowled. She turned off the shower. "I forgot my towel,"

"Tough,"

"Let me use yours,"

"Fuck no,"

"Please? I'll use it real quick, change, and bring it back in less than ten minutes,"

"No,"

"Now you're just being unreasonable,"

"You'll get my towel all wet,"

"So I'll bring you my towel,"

The boy in question rolled his eyes, rubbing his scalp.

"You're using my soap and shampoo - without my permission, mind you - so at the least, you owe me a towel,"

He sheepishly placed her strawberries-and-cream soap bar back into the dish in the shower stall.

True to her word, she snatched his oversized towel and changed into her school uniform in record time. Kyohei was scrubbing his back when she popped into the opposite shower and handed him her towel.

They both ended up leaving the gym at the same time. Sunako walked behind Kyohei, who seemed to be walking just as slowly. After some companionable silence, Kyohei spoke as they jogged down the stairs.

"Should a chick be out this late?"

Sunako shrugged. "Doesn't matter,"

There was another silence that Sunako broke after a while. "How are you on the swim team if you lost?"

Kyohei grunted. "You might have won, but the boys' swim team wanted me anyway," He sniffed indignantly. "It's a lose-lose situation, if you ask me,"

"Tough,"

"Bitch,"

"Slut."

Sunako stumbled and then whined, "I hurt. I hurt all over. My legs feel like overcooked noodles. Ow,"

"Tough," Kyohei sneered. "You're two laps sorer than me,"

"I can't even walk. Ow,"

"..."

"Hey,"

"..."

"Are you ignoring me?"

"..."

"You are ignoring me!" Sunako gasped. "Hoe!"

Kyohei's face plainly told her that he wanted her to shut up, but Sunako thinned her lips and continued haranguing him. "How could you?" She sniffled, theatrically shaded her eyes with her hand and cried "Say it ain't so,"

"It ain't so, so shut up,"

Sunako lowered her hand and inspected him closely. Still blindingly beautiful. Still kind of angry-looking, but she was beginning to chalk that up as a part of him. Tired, but his droopy eyelids made her chest squeeze with how adorable he looked while practically sleep-walking.

"Hey, Nakahara,"

"What?"

"Where'd you get those scars?"

"Scars?" Sunako raised a black brow.

"The ones on your side,"

She exhaled sharply. "You were peeking,"

"There wasn't that much steam in the shower," Kyohei replied with a wolfish grin, his eyes sweeping over her waist.

Sunako's knuckles were itching to send him to the sun, but she stopped as his question registered. Her hands sought her side. She scrunched her brows.

"I'm...I'm not sure,"

Kyohei cocked a bronze brow in disbelief.

"They...I've just had them. I don't really know. I don't remember where they came from,"

"Those scars are too straight to be an accident,"

Sunako looked up at him in confusion. The question had thrown her off completely. That comment had her unnerved. She snapped at him defensively, "Are you insinuating something?"

"Someone had to have cut those into you is all I'm saying," He said nonchalantly, though he stared at her side when he thought she wouldn't notice.

"I don't remember," Sunako said and hissed in unease. "Drop it,"

Kyohei looked annoyed, but said nothing. They walked through the bustling city in silence until a female voice suddenly called out,

"Is that you, Sunako?"

Both teens turned to find a beautiful dark-haired woman walking slowly towards them. The woman's mature dark eyes sparkled with tears as she came up to Sunako and clasped her hands.

Sunako stared dumbly at the woman. "Do I know you, ma'am?"

The woman pressed her lips together in a small smile and let Sunako's limp hands go. "I suppose you wouldn't recognize me. You were very young when we met. How are you?"

"Um. Fine,"

"You look well," The woman warmly patted a befuddled Sunako's head. "You've become very cute,"

Sunako elbowed Kyohei when he started snickering, though she was just as baffled by what the woman had said. Her? Cute?

"I suppose I must introduce myself. My name is Naomi Oda,"

"Oh. Uh. This is Kyohei Takano," At the suggestive twitch of Naomi's brow, Sunako flatly finished with, "My friend. And I'm Sunako Nakahara,"

The playful gleam vanished. "Nakahara? So that woman is your guardian?"

"Auntie? Yes," Sunako said carefully.

Naomi frowned. Her face became dark with anger, her warm countenance stormy. "That woman is the reason for so much suffering. So much of your suffering," She said bitterly. "I apologize if I offend you, Sunako," Naomi said, not looking or sounding apologetic. "But I simply cannot tolerate that woman,"

"I can understand that," Sunako muttered, scowling. "Whatever she did to you, I apologize on her behalf,"

"You don't have to apologize for that traitorous-"

"-Mori! Don't you dare touch her. You know she thinks you're a creep. She can hardly stand being engaged to the likes of you, you filthy, no-good-"

Kyohei and Sunako heard the furious male voice shouting from behind them. The spun around simultaneously.

"Takenaga!" Naomi shouted as the tall figure came closer. "Language!"

"It's Mori," He said as he ended his call, his voice level and his tone bored as he addressed her.

"As I said," Naomi huffed. "Language. You ought to be more abrasive,"

The footsteps stopped and the unlikely pair caught sight of a strikingly handsome, dark-haired teenager. He walked calmy towards Naomi. His face was polite and cold.

"What did he call you for?"

The boy - Takenaga, was it? - said, "Nothing important. Just the usual mocking and gloating," He noticed the other two teens and nodded towards them. "Who're they?"

"You remember Sunako, don't you? Or, maybe not," Naomi frowned again. "Sunako's seemed to forget me,"

The boy nodded in acknowledgement, dark eyes studying Sunako's face for familiarity.

"I'm Takenaga Oda,"

Oda? He must be related to Naomi. They do look alike. Maybe she's his mom.

"Sunako Nakahara,"

"Kyohei Takano," He grunted and exchanged a guy nod with Takenaga.

"Well, it's really late, Sunako. You should be heading home,"

"We were," Kyohei nudged Sunako with his hand on her lower back. "Let's go,"

Sunako offered a parting wave and a weak smile. "It was nice meeting you two,"

"Wait," Takenaga said. Kyohei and Sunako turned. Takenaga narrowed his eyes and spoke to Naomi without looking away from the pair. "Mom, isn't she the one who got-"

"Shh," Naomi shushed inconspciously. "Yes, that's her,"

I got what?

Takenaga abruptly bowed and said somberly, "My condolences. Your father was a good man and your mother did not deserve what happened,"

What...? Was? My parents are fine.

"I don't think she remembers," His mother whispered, not well enough for Sunako to miss her words.

"I've heard of that happening to some people," Takenaga rubbed his chin pensively. "I forget what it's called though,"

"Let's go, Nakahara," Kyohei irritably shoved her forwards. "This shit is confusing,"

"Indeed," She whispered in befuddlement. Just what the hell were those two talking about?

That night, Sunako had gone home anyway. Kyohei impatiently towed her to her house without hearing any explanations as to why she was avoiding home in the first place. Then he left.

It hadn't turned out to be a bad thing, though. The second Sunako opened the door, Auntie hurled herself at her and griped about how she had sent that "no-stamina" chump out the door.

That was the second night in a row that Sunako cried herself to sleep.