"You want to what?"

"You heard me. I said I want to start over."

"Start what over?"

"Us. You and I don't have the greatest relationship and we didn't start out so well, so I want to start all over."

Completely confused and a little wary of her actions, Hiwatari could only seem to stare at her from his seat with a look of disbelief. She had just walked up to him and started going off about a new beginning and starting again. Needless to say, he was a little taken aback by her statement and he was now trying to decipher what it was he was supposed to be doing. How does one handle a situation like this?

"Um, Miss Harada, I'm not-"

"Risa."

"Excuse me?"

"Risa. I want you to call me by my first name."

"I'm sorry, but we're not that close and I don't feel comfortable calling-"

"But I want us to be that close. I want us to be friends, Hiwatari."

"Where did all of this come from?"

"Well, I was talking to Riku last night and I'm not really sure how it happened, but I decided that you needed a friend."

"And you thought you should be that friend? Who are you to be making decisions for me?"

"Yes, I do think I should be that friend. I'm not trying to make decisions for you, but I didn't think you'd be this opposed to having a friend."

"How do you know that I don't already have friends?"

"Because I never see you hang out with anybody or talk to anyone. You're always alone every time I see you."

Before the two could converse anymore, the bell rang, signaling the beginning of class. Risa took her seat and tried to concentrate on the lesson, but she couldn't help but glance over at Hiwatari every now and then. Something about his stubborn refusal made her all the more determined to befriend him. She was rather excited about this new found challenge.

In the auditorium, things were progressing nicely. The set was coming along and the students had been great about getting costumes and whatnot ready. Granted, the opening of the play was still quite a ways off, but Ms. Love didn't want to risk having last minute complications with things. For the first half of the class period, she had some of the minor characters on stage to rehearse and get some practice in, but by the second half of the hour, she had called both Riku and Dark to the stage.

"Alright you two, listen up. Today and tomorrow will be the last days for rehearsing this particular scene. If you don't get it right today, you had better tomorrow, because we need to move on. We've only got a couple more months to get this entire thing rehearsed and we can't spend forever on this one scene. So take a deep breath and get ready to act."

Riku was beyond happy that tomorrow would be the last day she'd have to do this scene with Dark. As far as she knew, this was the only kissing scene for her character in the entire play, so that meant she wouldn't have to kiss Dark again till the play was about to open. So she took a deep breath and psyched herself up to get this whole thing over with. She set her script on the edge of the stage and began reciting her lines.

She and Dark went back and forth, flawlessly speaking to one another while remaining in character. Then it finally came time for their kiss. Riku walked towards Dark and leaned in, anxiously awaiting contact so she could push him away later. When she felt his lips on hers, she could feel her eyes twitch despite them being closed. She forced herself to stay in place, praying to God that Ms. Love would tell them they did everything perfectly and that they didn't need to do the scene again. After staying lip-locked for the required amount of time, Riku went to back away and end the scene, but Dark grabbed the back of her head and held her firmly in place.

Shocked by his actions, Riku attempted to pull away without making it look like she couldn't stand kissing him, but his grip on her was too strong, After another ten to fifteen seconds, she couldn't take it anymore and forcibly pushed him away from her, breaking his grip on the back of her head and allowing her to spit and wipe her mouth roughly and quickly.

"Yuck! What on Earth were you thinking?"

"What was I thinking? What were you thinking? We had that scene down perfect until you shoved me!"

"I shoved you because you wouldn't let me go! The kiss didn't need to be that long!"

"I was trying to make it look real! We're supposed to be in love, genius! Lovers don't pull away from each other after that short amount of time!"

Before the two could bicker anymore, Ms. Love yelled at them both to be quiet. She scolded Riku for being so rash and for messing up the end of the scene. She didn't really say anything to Dark, only lightly telling him that he shouldn't have surprised her like that. Riku rolled her eyes and hoped off stage, happy the bell was about to ring. As she was gathering up her stuff, she noticed Dark walking over to her, but before he could do anymore damage, she spat venom at him.

"If you ever do that again, I'll make you regret it."

His facial expression didn't change at all, but after she walked away from him, he let a visible shiver run down his spine. He had to admit, she could be really intimidating when she wanted to be.

After another long day, the twins found themselves in the same predicament they were in last night. Riku was lying back on her bed while Risa was sitting at their desk. She had been attempting to study some notes for Band that Hiwatari had given her. Much to her surprise, she actually was trying to learn how to play her stupid instrument. But her studies were interrupted by the weird vibe she got from her sister.

"Hey... there's something different about you. Are you O.K.?"

Riku looked at her oddly from her bed and wondered what it was she was talking about.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. I'm getting a strange vibe from you. There's like a mix of anger and happiness. It's hard to explain, but there's something different about you."

Now Riku knew what she was talking about and it made her blush. She sat up, knowing that if she didn't respond that Risa would only pester her more. Sometimes it amazed her how in-tune Risa could be with her feelings. Sure, they were twins, and twins could do that sort of thing, but Risa wasn't really one to pry into her sisters feelings. She was usually too wrapped up in other things to bother with it.

Riku brought her knees to her chest and sighed. Now was as good a time as ever to face the music.

"Well... I had to do that kissing scene with Dark again today. Everything was going fine until he refused to let me go. He just makes me so mad with his ego and the fact that no matter how many times I refuse him, he keeps on trying to flirt with me!"

Normally, there would be a massive wave of jealousy flooding through Risa right about now. Not only did her sister get to kiss Dark, the man of every girl's dreams, but she was complaining that he wanted to kiss her longer than he was supposed to. Risa would have jumped at the chance to kiss him and would have melted into a puddle on the floor if he wanted to keep kissing her. But something was different, and although she didn't know what, she could sense that something about her was changing. Still, she couldn't help but act like the infatuated fan-girl she was known to be.

"What? Riku, you're the luckiest girl I know! Not only do you get to kiss Dark because it's part of the play, but he wanted to kiss you longer than required! How can you complain about that?"

"Because I don't like him, I like someone else!"

The instant those words escaped her lips, she put a hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wide and she was in shock. Did she really just say that out loud? She had only come to the conclusion that she liked a certain someone a few hours ago and she didn't know if she was ready for Risa to know. But if Dark was the anger, then this was the happiness she was sensing, and it would have had to come out sooner or later. She looked over and saw Risa with her mouth hung open and her lips curving up into a smile. She pulled their desk chair over to the edge of the bed and placed her hands on Riku's knees. She leaned in and was almost whispering.

"Who is it? Be honest, because I'll know if you're fibbing."

Riku sighed and hung her head, avoiding her sister's gaze. There was absolutely no way out of this.

"It's... it's Daisuke."