~REVISED: Notes at the end~

Ruki woke up at 7:30. She opened her eyes blearily, and looked around. She looked at the time, "Dammit! I thought I'd set my alarm!" she jumped out of bed, and quickly went into the bathroom to shower. After, she ran back into her room, and got changed.

It was now 7:45, "Damn, it takes me half an hour for me and Ryou- what am I saying? Me to walk there! And breakfast takes about 20 minutes! I'm gonna be late and I played hooky yesterday! If my mom finds out, I'm so gonna-"

She must have been talking to herself loudly or something, because she heard a door open, and her mother call tiredly, "Ruki? Are you still here? You're normally eating breakfast by now..."

Ruki hurried the making of her breakfast, and ended up burning it, "ARGH!" she exclaimed in frustration.

Her mother walked into the kitchen, "Oh Ruki-chan! Shall I drive you into school?"

"You might miss your precious photo shoot!" Ruki told her sarcastically.

"Ruki-chan! Don't say it like that! It'll be fi-!"

"I'm leaving!" Ruki cut in, a bit of food in her mouth, grabbing her bag, and storming out the door.

Ruki's mother stood there in surprised silence for awhile, then, "Oh Ruki-chan..."

Ruki ran as fast as she could, although she couldn't reach the speed of her trail of thoughts, 'Stupid mom! Like hell I was gonna get a lift with her, ugh! At least I don't have to deal with stupid pretty boy! And- Oh no, that party! Those idiots, they're just so-'

"Hi, Ruuki! Think you could slow down?"

'Speaking of idiots...' thought Ruki, not slowing down, 'Here's the king of 'em.' "Pretty boy? What're you doing here? Now we're both gonna be late!"

"We'd better hurry then, hadn't we?" Ryou replied cheekily, now running beside her.

"Argh!" Ruki exclaimed in frustration, for the second time that morning.

They reached the gate, eventually, and stopped. The bell had just gone, and the students were still moving to class.

"Phew! We made it!"

"Who's "we"? And anyway, why were you there?"

"I was waiting for you."

"What are you? A dog?"

"Aw, Hime... Heh, maybe I am!" He said, that stupid grin on his face once again.

The thing was, Ruki couldn't tell if it was truthful or not, that stupid grin.

"RYOU-SAMA!" Ruki's thoughts were interrupted by Ryou's fangirls, who bounded over, "Oh, hello, Makino-san." said one or two, disdainfully.

"What's your problem?" Ruki muttered under her breath. She wasn't gonna put up with their crap, she hadn't done anything! They looked startled, then looked at her coldly and turned back to Ryou.

"So, Ryou-sama!"

"What're are we gonna do today?" they asked him, innocently.

Ryou narrowed his eyes at them, something Ruki never thought she'd see him do, "What's your problem with Ruki?" he asked calmly.

The girls, all five, went red, "R-Ryou-sama.." stammered the first one.

She looked to the other girls, nodded, and they turned to Ruki and bowed, "We're very sorry Makino-san!"

Ruki didn't need this, they seemed so... stupid. "W-Whatever!"

Ryou shrugged, and one of the girls exclaimed, "Ah, Ryou-sama! We're late for class!" and without another look at Ruki, the first one grabbed Ryou's sleeve and pulled him away, but not without Ryou calling, "See ya later, Ruuki!"

Ruki snorted, "He's nuts." She said aloud.

She began to walk to class. As she did, she heard a couple of girls whispering excitedly. Whilst she couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, she did pick up the words "Kouji-sama.." and suddenly really did not want to know what they were talking about. 'Some of the girls here...' Ruki couldn't even begin to describe them.

A few metres away from the school building where her class was, Ruki thought she heard a harmonica playing. It was a very pretty melody. Ruki decided she wasn't just hearing things and that she was intrigued enough to find the source. As she followed the sound, she walked past the small bits of shrubbery, and behind an old school building. Whilst it didn't look dilapidated, it certainly didn't look like it'd been used for awhile. At the top of the steps, she saw a boy playing the harmonica she'd heard. It was that older boy, who had blonde hair and wore the high school uniform, she'd seen the day before, the one who seemed a bit protective of Takeru. He had his eyes closed, and seemed to be putting his heart and soul into his song. It was soothing, listening to it. For one moment, Ruki felt she could forget everything; it was such a nice melody. She didn't move from where she was stood, and simply closed her eyes and listened. When he seemed to have finished, he put his harmonica in his pocket, and stood up. That was when he saw Ruki.

"Uah!" He grabbed onto the rail to stop himself from falling down the steps.

Ruki blinked, "E-Eh?"

The boy regained his balance and stood up again, "What are you doing here?" he asked, annoyed.

Ruki felt indignant, "I'm allowed to be where I want, aren't I?"

He took a deep breath, then laughed a little, "Well, no... You should be in lessons now, really. Practicing to be a delinquent?"

Ruki couldn't even think of a response. She simply opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, then narrowed her eyes at him. The boy sat down again, "So, you heard me huh? And... Oh! You're the girl I saw the other day! When Takeru-kun..."

This was something Ruki could respond to, "Yeah, so?"

"Was it deliberate? Pushing Takeru-kun over?" He asked, a little heatedly,

"What? No! I-I didn't even- Jeez, overprotective older brother, huh? Whatever..."

The boy calmed down a bit again. "Heh, he's not my brother. Although... he does kinda... " the boy trailed off.

Ruki felt confused, "But you look similar... And you seemed sort of... "She said, her confusion sounding in her voice.

The boy looked intently at her, "...Sort of what...?" he asked.

Ruki shrugged; even she wasn't sure what she was getting at. "...Exactly what I said; you seemed like a protective older brother.

The boy gave her a funny look, and then shook his head, "I'm Ishida Yamato."

"Oh. Yeah, uh, Ishida-sempai." Ruki replied, shrugging.

Yamato looked at his watch, stood up quickly and walked down the steps, "Damn, I'm pretty late. Oh well, I'm late a lot, and at least I got away from those stupid..."

"Fangirls?" Ruki finished for him.

Yamato blinked at her, "Yeah... I don't get them. Actually, they get on my nerves some of them. Not all of them are bad but the ones who are... They keep threatening Sora!"

"Sora?"

"My girlfriend."

Ruki suddenly remembered Ryou earlier, the look he'd given those girls. She'd never seen him do that, it was just for her... She shuddered at this thought, and shot it down fast. "Surely you should just tell them to leave her alone?"

"I have."

"Hmph. They're just stupid. Oh well."

Yamato gave her another odd look, "Whatever... What's your name?"

"Makino Ruki."

"Makino-chan? Well, see ya around." He turned and walked away.

'Ok, I think that's taken the official weirdest encounter of the day trophy.' Ruki thought. "Oh dammit!" She remembered she had class. She turned, and walked quickly toward her class, "Saki-sensei is gonna... ugh!"

When she reached the class, Saki-sensei told her to wait outside. She was questioned about her absence the day before, and got a detention on behalf of her gym teacher. Ruki wasn't sure how she could've avoided it. At break, she went to her classroom and sat down in her seat.

Saki-sensei sighed, "You and Ryou-kun. Honestly!"

"Ry..ou..?" she asked slowly,

"Shh! No talking, this is a detention!"

Just then, the door opened, "Sorry I'm late, sensei!" said Ryou's loud, annoying, makes-you-want-to-hit-him voice.

"Shhh! Take your seat and keep silent! This is a detention, remember, Ryou-kun?" Saki-sensei repeated exasperatedly,

"Oh yeah, sorry, Sensei!" Ryou said loudly again, and Saki-sensei glared.

"Just take your seat!"

Ryou walked over to his seat, next to Ruki. He waved at her and mouthed, "Hi!"

Ruki rolled her eyes, and looked to the window. She saw Yamato walking past with a boy who had a massive shock of chocolate brown hair, and goggles. They were walking together and laughing. The boy was carrying a football under his arm, 'Soccer eh..? Heh, wonder how long it's been since I played that.' she thought, a little nostalgically.

They walked out of the window's view, and then Ruki saw Juri walk past with Tomoki beside her, chatting away, with Takuya right behind them, grinning. 'So, Tomoki's found someone new to bug huh?' Ruki thought idly.

They walked out of sight, and then Ruki saw Jou-sempai walk past, with Mimi beside him. He looked very cheerful, and was blushing a bit, whereas Mimi was smiling happily talking. Her dyed pink hair bouncing on her shoulders. As they walked past, she saw Miyako walk slowly behind them, creeping a bit, obviously spying on them. ('Okay, this is really turning into a tedious procession of Who-I-Know now...') Ruki rolled her eyes at Miyako though. 'Jeez. She needs to quit doing that; it's like watching paparazzi spy on celebrities or something sad!' She couldn't help but feel amused. Behind Miyako was Ken, who seemed a little nervous, and seemed to be whispering something to Miyako. Ruki could only imagine:

Ken: Miyako-chan, should we really be doing this...?

Miyako: Oh relax, Ken-kun! They don't realise-!

Ken: Yeah but...

Miyako: No buts!

Ruki stifled a snort of amusement. She got through the detention and the next two lessons without too much bother. (From Ryou that is.) When lunch happened, she didn't want to bother with the next detention, as she had a headache and Ryou would only make it worse. She walked outside. She needed a bit of fresh air and to eat her lunch, then, she decided, she'd go to her detention. She leant against the building, and got out her lunch, and began to eat. As she did, she noticed a young boy, about Tomoki's age, walking past. He was wearing a purple jumper, white trousers, and his hair was pretty odd to Ruki. It looked like a bowling ball.

"Excuse me, what are you looking at?" the boy must have noticed her staring.

Ruki jumped, "W-What are you talking about?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I'm taught its rude to stare at people..." Ruki shrugged. 'What's with this kid?' He looked to the floor, then said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot my manners..." He bowed, hands by his sides, "My name is Hida Iori. Um, and your name, Sempai?"

Ruki raised her eyebrows, 'Manners? Why care about those? And anywayz, how old is this kid? Why is he worrying about stuff like that...?'

Ruki." she said simply. She wasn't going to be so formal.

"Your last name?"

"None of your business."

"Ok... Um... Ruki-sempai, have you seen a boy named Tomoki-kun around?"

"That whiny kid? Haven't seen him in awhile actually-"

"He's not whiny." Iori said quietly.

"He sure seemed it to me." Ruki replied, bored.

"How can you be so...!" He stopped himself and shook his head. "Well, I guess you haven't, sorry to bother you..." He said quietly and was about to walk away, when Ruki asked, "Why?"

"Huh?"

"Why do you want to see him?"

Iori looked taken aback. "Uh... No real reason... I just wanted to see if he was ok..."

"Oh, a friend of his huh? Surprised he has any..." Ruki picked up an onigiri with her chopsticks.

"Is it right for a Sempai such as yourself to speak like that about those younger than you? And no. I'm not exactly a friend of his... I mean, I'd like to be I guess..."

"Eh?"

"Well... I want him to hang out with some of my friends and me but... He's always hanging out with the older kids, and Junpei-sempai can be so harsh sometimes and I've never even talked to Kanbara-senpai..."

Ruki snorted, "I'll talk to him then. Jeez, it's not that hard. Junpei-san is an idiot really, same goes for Takuya-kun."

Iori's eyes lit up ever so slightly. He didn't even seem to notice her insults. "Would you really do that? I mean... Thank you."

Ruki shrugged. She didn't understand why she was being so nice, both kids bugged her, she decided. "I'll probably see the kid with Juri-san somewhere, so I'll ask him then."

"Thank you..."

"Jeez kid, it's not like it's a big deal." Iori hadn't heard her, he seemed happy. He bowed to her, and then strolled away.

Ruki shook her head, "Or maybe that encounter was weirder..."

"Helping out the kids? Ruuki-hime, you are too kind!"

Ruki swivelled round to face Ryou who'd just walked out from nowhere, "If I see your face one more time..." she muttered, seething a little.

"You'll jump into my arms?" he said, sounding mock-hopeful.

"You wish." she replied,

"Yeah, I do wish!"

She poked him in the cheek, "Shut up!"

"Having fun?"

"What are you talking about now?" she asked, exasperatedly,

"Well... Ah, never mind. Anyway, shouldn't we be in detention now?" Ruki ate the rest of her onigiri fast. (Except one, because Ryou snatched it out of her bento box, but not without a death-threat.)

As they walked back, Ruki asked, "That Iori kid..." Ruki wasn't sure how to continue that sentence.

Ryou shrugged, "Well... Iori-kun has always wanted to be friends with Tomoki-kun... But he's never known how to talk to someone like Tomoki. Actually, he doesn't know how to talk to a lot of kids his age. Ya might not have noticed, but that kid is really mature for his age."

"Who couldn't notice? ...If you knew about all this though, then why didn't you do anything?'"

He shrugged, "Me and Iori's father, before he died, weren't on great terms y'see, and Iori was especially close to him..."

Ruki stopped, "He...!" She looked at the ground, "...N-No..."

'...I've got a lot in common with that Iori kid, apparently...'

"Huh?"

"Nothing!" Ruki snapped,

"Sorry!" Ryou shook his head and looked away.

After lunchtime, and the final lesson, as the bell rang, students streamed out onto the playground. Ruki was just one of those that streamed out onto the playground. She was determined to get away from Ryou, since he had been annoying her all lunch. She quickly walked to the secluded path, which took her to "The Glade".

As she walked, she heard a thump behind her. Startled, she looked around quickly, it was Kouichi! He had fallen flat on his face. He quickly got up, looking embarrassed. He had a massive bruise coming up on his right cheek.

He rubbed it, "Owww..." he mumbled.

Ruki sighed, "...Are you okay?"

He looked at her, and went a little red, "Eheh, yeah! Sorry, I guess I'm a bit of a clutz..."

Ruki shrugged. "Yeah yeah, maybe put some ice on that or something, I dunno..."

Kouichi laughed, "Oh, eheh, will do."

Ruki didn't know why she'd suggested anything. She turned away from him and walked away.

When she reached the small wooded area, she sat on the log, and looked up, "So you are still coming here...?" She sighed, "I might've guessed..."

"Hey, you expect me to stop coming just 'cuz you're here? You think of yourself too highly, y'know?" Kouji told her, walking over to the tree he usually leant against.

Ruki was about to snap, when she noticed a bruise on his right cheek. She immediately thought about Kouichi's fall earlier, and blurted, "How did you get that bruise?"

Kouji shrugged, "I dunno, it just appeared. Like, 10 minutes ago."

"Doesn't it, like, hurt at all?"

"That's what the girls' who stalk me ask."

"Oh great, more fangirls." Ruki remembered the girls who had said 'Kouji-sama' and shuddered a little bit.

Kouji snorted, "Anyway, no, it doesn't hurt, which is kinda wierd. Oh well, must'a bumped into something, and not remembered."

"Hmm..." Ruki murmured, thinking. It was a strange coincidence. She shook her head, that's all it was. A coincidence.

Kouji looked at her, curiously, "What?"

Ruki shrugged, and looked to the pond.

Kouji was silent for awhile, then said, "Yeah... I know.."

Ruki looked up, "Huh?"

"Kouichi... He fell over earlier, and got a bruise in the same place, yeah?"

Dumbfounded, Ruki nodded her head slowly. Kouji saw the weirded-out look on her face and laughed, which weirded her out all the more.

"You can laugh?" she asked him, half-incredulously. This made him laugh all the more.

Ruki snorted, and shook her head.

When Kouji stopped, he continued, but the normally, bored, slightly depressing look wasn't in his eyes, for once. "Well... It's happened before... Hey... Why am I telling you all this?"

Ruki shrugged.

After another half an hours' worth of silence or so, Ruki stood up. "I'm gonna go. See ya."

As she did so, there was a loud rustling near the entrance.

Ruki was startled, but Kouji shook his head, "It'll be a rabbit. See ya." Ruki walked cautiously to the entrance. When she reached the point where she and Ryou parted ways, if they were walking back together; 'Err, correction: If Ryou is being an idiot, and walking next to me when I don't want him to.' she told herself.

As she looked at the fence, there he was, sitting on it.

As she approached, he waved, "Hey!"

Ruki rolled her eyes, "You're so sad... "She told him.

He laughed, "No, I just realised. Please don't tell Iori-kun that I told you that his father is dead! Or that you know his father is dead at all!"

Ruki shrugged, "Whatev-!"

"Ya gotta promise!" He sounded so... childish. It was strange.

"Look! I won't! Okay?"

Relief spread across Ryou's face, "Thanks! Now, I gotta go to the store so-!"

"How do you know?" she interrupted him. How did he know of it in the first place?

"Eh?"

"How do you know his father is dead?" she asked slowly and deliberately.

Ryou looked to the ground, "Because... I saw him die."

Ruki's eyes widened.

Ryou looked up, and smiled sadly, "But that's a story for another time, g'night!" He turned, and ran off.

"But..! Ahh! Stupid pretty boy!" There wasn't much else she could do, so she went straight home.

As she got through the door, her mother told her she was going tomorrow, and how she was sorry and the rest of her typical speech.

Ruki couldn't have given a damn, "I don't care!" she snapped.

"Ruki-chan! Maybe if you'd just go with me this year-!" But Ruki had already gone upstairs. Her mother looked at the floor sadly.

Ruki sat on her bed, and looked through her books. She thought about Iori, and how similar he was to her, and Ryou, whom had actually seen Iori's father's death. At least she hadn't experienced anything like that.

"Oh but..." she whispered to herself, "My father is dead, and my mom... she doesn't see me... "She buried her face in her pillow, and muttered, "My life still isn't that great..."

/

~REVISED: Righty-o, I seem to have made the standard amount of dialogue change! And obviously improved grammar, speech placement and so on... Yes, getting better now me'thinks~