It's a new year of school. It just started today and they say the 2nd year of High School is pretty tough. So I am not sure how much I will be able to update starting next week. But I will stick to the scedule as well as possible. Hope you guys enjoy this.


It was on the last Friday before school would start again. It was about night-time and Haruka was preparing to make dinner. Rei had requested some kind of fried vegetables and Haruka had agreed. However that had only been because Makoto told him to make something other than mackerel because it was really expensive. Haruka could only agree.

"You doing okay, Haru?" Rin entered the kitchen and leaned against the wall in a relaxed pose.

Haruka said nothing. He had no clue of what to say anyway. He just cut the vegetables and let that be it. Rei had found some kind of vegetable that Haruka had never seen before. Supposedly it was from Europe but that didn't help Haruka much in how to prepare it.

Rin pushed off the wall and walked closer to Haruka who was holding said vegetable in his hand while watching it like it would somehow tell him how to prepare it.

"What is that?" Rin asked.

"Some kind of European vegetable," Haruka turned it in his hand. There were a few more of those things.

"You don't know what to do with it?" The smirk that appeared on Rin's face as he said those words pissed off Haruka. Like he knew anything!

Haruka turned his back to Rin demonstratively and started pealing the vegetable. "I do," He snapped and Rin's smirk turned to a smile.

"That's good I guess," he said before he turned to walk out of the kitchen.

Just then a ring on the doorbell was heard and Rin changed his direction from the living room, to the door. Rin was slightly nervous. They didn't know anyone in the neighborhood and nobody had been at their door ever since the first night when Makoto had ordered pizza for them. Of course it could be this Shigino Kisumi, who Makoto spoke of some time ago, but Rin found that very unlikely.

He opened the door with a slight hesitation in his movements and looked outside. What he saw out there, made all nervousness disappear completely.

Outside was a boy with short brown hair. He looked to be about Rin's own age actually, though he was taller than Rin. He seemed to be just as nervous as Rin had been but he too lit up when he noticed it was a boy his own age behind the door.

"Hello," Rin smiled at the stranger.

"Hi, I'm Yamasaki Sousuke," the boy said. "I was send over here to ask if you had any eggs. We need it for dinner but the store has closed,"

Rin thought for a bit. Did they or did they not have some eggs they could give to the Yamasaki family? He didn't know. But Haruka did.

"Hold on just a sec," Rin said. "I have to ask. How much do you need?"

Sousuke seemed to think about it. "Four eggs," he said. "But three is fine too,"

Rin nodded. "Okay," He then walked into the apartment and into the kitchen. "Haru do we have any eggs?"

"Why?" Haruka asked.

"Because the Yamasaki family are in need of four eggs," Rin said.

"In the fridge," Haruka just said as he started frying the vegetables.

Rin smiled. "Thanks Haru," he said before grabbing four eggs and heading back to the front door. "Here you go, by the way I'm Matsuoka Rin," Rin said.

"But the door says Tachibana right?" Sousuke asked as he received the eggs.

"We're all adopted," Rin said. "The surname Tachibana is just a formality. Makoto lets us keep our own surnames to lessen confusion for everyone,"

"I see," Sousuke said. "We're your next door neighbors, we live right over there," he pointed to the door across from Rin's.

"Funny. I haven't seen you around," Rin said. "We moved here at the beginning of July,"

"I've been on vacation with my family in the north all month," Sousuke said.

The boys stood in silence for a bit. None of them wanted to break the conversation and go home but they didn't know what exactly to say either.

"Do you know what school you'll be going to?" Sousuke asked.

"9th grade Sakura Junior High," Rin answered. "So will my twin," he said.

"Great! That's my grade too," Sousuke said. "Then we'll see a lot more to each other,"

Rin smiled. "That's so great!" he said. "I look forward to going to school with you and get to know you better,"

"I do too," Sousuke said before they heard someone coming from behind Rin.

"What's going on?" Haruka asked.

"Haru, this is Yamasaki Sousuke, he'll be in our class at school and is our next door neighbor," Rin introduced. "Sousuke this is my twin Nanase Haruka," he said.

Sousuke nodded. He wondered why Rin would call Haruka his twin when clearly they weren't related, but he didn't ask. There would be another time for that, won't there? He then looked at Haruka, and Haruka looked back. As their eyes met, they knew, that they would never get along.

"What's going on here?" Makoto came up the stairs and noticed Rin and Haruka in the doorway and Sousuke standing outside. "Who are you?" he asked Sousuke.

"I am Yamasaki Sousuke," Sousuke said "I just came to lend some eggs,"

"I'm Tachibana Makoto," Makoto said. "It's nice to finally meet a member of the neighbor family," he said.

"It is," Sousuke agreed. "Anyway I should get home now, Bye," he quickly went into his own apartment and Haruka returned to his cooking. Rin and Makoto entered the apartment.

"You're home early today," Rin said.

"I saved up some overtime," Makoto smiled. "I figured it would be fine, besides I really wanted to spend some time with the four of you," he put his bag on the floor and took off his shoes. Then he walked to the kitchen to greet Haruka before continuing into the living room where Rei and Nagisa were watching the Olympics.

Rin walked into the kitchen and started laying the table.

"What do you think of Yamasaki?" Haruka asked.

"Sousuke?" Rin looked up at Haruka for a second. "I like him. He seems like a really nice guy. What about you? Don't you like him?" Rin asked.

"Not really," Haruka said as he finished the vegetables.

"He'll be in our class you know," Rin informed.

Haruka shrugged. Rin had mentioned that earlier hadn't he? Yeah he had already mentioned that when introducing Sousuke.

"I should get the others," Rin said sensing the negative emotion coming from Haruka. He couldn't understand why Haruka would feel so negatively about Sousuke though. But hopefully this would be long forgotten soon. Yeah it would. Haruka and Sousuke would be great friends. Rin was sure of that.


That's that for today :) Sorry it was a lot of dialogue.

Flowering Lotus: Thanks for the review. It was nice to finally get one. I don't really like spoiling my own work, but I suppose I can do it. To answer your request, it is actually already written and it will be the next chapter.

Anyway thanks for the support from all of you, thanks for putting up with this so far and I hope you'll keep reading!

See you next time!

Jackie