The Orphan Flower

Shinya

He's Takuya's younger brother

Immature? Hey, he's still a kid.

Never leave unattended

Yes, he's in the story

And so, we continue on…

"So Rika?" Ryo began to ask as he saw her glancing at the pool water in front of them. "What are you going to do?"

"Ryo."

He turned to her and smiled. "Yes?"

Pointing at something in the water, which was nothing, she simply replied. "I dropped my earring in the water."

Confused he leaned closer to look at the water. "Where? I don't see-" but was cut off when Rika pushed him in the pool and walked away.

"Oh, and by the way." she added before leaving the area. "I'm not wearing any jewelry in case you haven't noticed."

………………………..

Takato's Party

"Go on Juri. Go talk to him." Izumi urged her brunette friend who was too shy to walk up to him.

"I'm too nervous!" she argued and sat down between them. She looked over at the boy who was talking happily with his friends. "Besides, I don't want to interrupt."

"Interrupt?" the blond asked as she began laughing. "There's no interrupt in party. The more the merrier they always say."

"Speak of the devil." Rika mumbled as they turned to see familiar faces from school.

"Hey, Rika look! It's Ryo!" Izumi announced loudly on purpose to receive his attention. As he saw Izumi point to him he smiled and waved and walked over to them.

"Izumi…" Rika muttered only to find that her two friends were walking away, grinning.

Juri looked at her friends worriedly. "Is it alright to leave her like that Izumi?"

"Oh, don't worry. I trust Ryo." she grinned as they walked elsewhere to hang out.

Without having to look at him coming towards her, she sat on the edge of the pool and continued looking at the water and how deep it was.

"Hey Rika!" the annoying voice continued.

"Ryo." she mumbled.

"Rika."

"Ryo."

"Pumpkin?"

Suddenly receiving glares and almost being drowned to death, he gave up. "Geez, calm down…Rika."

"That wasn't funny." she glared.

"I'm sorry." he sighed as he looked away.

Without hesitation, she quickly answered. "You're not forgiven."

"Well, I know a way that you can forgive me." he smirked as he looked at someone

behind her.

Rika, who noticed him looking at someone behind her, suddenly realized that she was going to be pushed in. Before she could do anything, she was already given a push into the pool. Swimming up to the surface, she glared at Henry and Ryo.

"If you forgive me, I'll save your life." Ryo announced. "Are we agreed?"

"Never!" she shot back.

He gave her a worried look. "You're going to drown if you don't know how to swim."

"I'd rather take death than be here with you." as her words accidentally slipped out. She saw Ryo's expression turn into worry and hurt. "Oops I hurt his feelings." she noted, but shook her head. "Why do I care how that hero boy feels?! He's right…if he doesn't save me soon… no, I meant: if no one else is going to help me…I'm seriously going to drown………….but then again… my life was never full of love and care. Remembering that……really hurts…" as she sighed and let herself sink in the water.

"Rika!"

………………………….

"Juri, tell Takato that I have to take an early leave." Izumi told her friend as she gathered her belongings.

"W-What?" she asked in disbelief that her friend was going to dismiss herself and leave her behind.

"Sorry, I'll make it up to you some other time." the blond quickly muttered and walked out of the house. "I'm really glad that I could get out of that party."

"Takato's house is pretty big…" Izumi remembered. "I wonder why I never took notice of it." checking her watch, she sighed tiredly. "I don't know what to do at this time. It's not even dinner yet." and heard kids running around and swings.

Turning around, she smiled slightly as she saw that she was passing by the park. "Well, it couldn't hurt to visit, could it?" as she sat down on one of the swings and looked up at the sky. "If Mom and Dad were here, they would've teased me for coming here." as she laughed remembering something from childhood, and checked to see who was still in the park. "Hm… Don't I know that kid?" she wondered as she saw a boy shoveling in the sandbox all alone.

Suddenly appearing next to him in the sandbox the boy almost fell out from the sudden appearance.

"Am I really that scary?" she asked him, confused that it was the first reaction she received from him.

"W-Well, you appeared out of nowhere." the boy shrugged as he continued making a sand mountain.

"Sorry, I thought you were someone I knew." she apologized.

His eyes suddenly brightened up. "Oh, you must know my brother Takuya!"

"That idiot……is related to this kid?" Izumi thought. "Yeah, I guess you could say, I know him."

"He went to a friend's party. It was at Takato's house." the boy explained in case she was planning to ask. "My brother has lots of fan girls and often, they take me for ransom."

She shook her head. "Don't worry, I'm not a fan girl. I don't even like him that way."

He stopped building his sand mountain project and gazed at her. "You know… if you were Takuya's girlfriend…you'd be the coolest girlfriend he ever had!" he commented.

"We just met, how can you judge me so fast?"

Smiling just like his older brother he shrugged. "Just a feeling. I'm Shinya by the way."

Interrupting what Izumi was about to say. He answered for her. "And you're Izumi, I know."

"H-How…" she wanted to know.

Shinya laughed. "Do you know how obsessed my brother is with you?"

"I don't think I want to know." she muttered as they looked at each other laughed.

"Shinya!" a familiar voice sang.

"Oh no, it's Mimi." Shinya mumbled hoping his sand mountain would hide him.

The pink haired girl who already spotted him giggled. "Found you!" she pointed ignoring

the fact that Izumi was also there. She grabbed his hand and announced. "Your brother is waiting for you at Takato's house." and dragged him away.

"What a weird moment." Izumi thought in her opinion. "Why do people come at the most obvious scenes?" as she grabbed her bag that was beside her and walked out of the park.

As she was passing by Takato's place the second time, she didn't take notice that she was walking around the block, ending up where she started in the first place.

"Shinya come back!" a voice yelled out of the house, causing her to look at the scene across the road. Seeing that he was running away from the house and running across the

street, he didn't realize what was coming towards him. Hearing that a car was going to come by, she panicked silently. "Shinya is going to be hit by the car."

Taking no chances, she ran into the road and pushed Shinya out of the way, leaving her where she was fated to be in, as she fell painfully to the ground. "At least… I got him out

of the way……..that's all that matters……"