~*29*~

As the clock settled on 12:00 am Juni flicked through the radio stations with the volume close to being mute. Nothing caught his attention as merely static leaked out of the speakers. The reception wasn't very good at Kaito's house, it never was. Turning the radio off, he curled up on the sofa as he pulled his blanket over himself. Behind him he heard a door slowly creak open as he popped his head over the sofa's back. A figure walked in from the darkness of the hallway as it noticed Juni, still awake. "Hey" Kaito whispered as he walked over to his friend.
"Hey" Juni replied, moving up the sofa as he sat up straight, giving Kaito room to sit down. Kaito took a seat next to his friend as Juni brought his knees up to his body, wrapping his arms around them.
"Can't sleep?" Kaito asked.
"No, not at all" Juni sighed.
"The sofa not comfy?" Kaito smiled. Juni shook his head.
"It's nothing like that" He replied, quietly laughing to himself.
"Then what is it?"
"I... I keep seeing my mom's face. She looked so sad..." Juni muttered.
"Well yeah... I mean, I'd be surprised if she wasn't."
"I guess" Juni nodded. He looked towards Kaito as a worried expression spread across his face.
"What else?" Kaito questioned, stretching his arms upwards with a yawn.
"I don't like leaving her alone with him... Especially after tonight" Stated Juni.
"He won't do out to her" Kaito replied.
"How do you know?"
"Has he yet?" He asked, gesturing his hands in a confident matter, as if he knew the answer already.
"No... Not that I know of" Juni mumbled.
"Right, so I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, I'm sure your dad we'll be pretty upset."
"I doubt it; you should've seen how angry he was..." Juni sighed.
"You know, my gran used to say 'we hurt the ones we love'..." Kaito said, giving a nod. "I'm sure it will work out."
"I'm not so sure I want it to" Juni mumbled. Kaito rose up from his seat as he began to walk back to his room.
"Try to get some sleep man" Kaito smiled.
"Sure... Weren't you going to get something?" He asked.
"Huh?"
"That's why you came out of your room right?" Juni wondered. Kaito smiled as he shook his head.
"I was just checking up on you... See if you were okay" Kaito stated. Juni nodded.
"Thanks Kaito" He replied as Kaito returned the nod. He turned around and made his way back to his room, closing the door behind him. Juni was left there, alone, in the darkness of the living room. He pulled his blanket back over him as he shut his eyes in an attempt to get some sleep.

"Kaito, hurry up!" Juni yelled as he and his friends sprinted along the road towards school. The clock had hit 8:45, Kaito had slept in, and they were definitely going to be late.
"Yeah, yeah..." Kaito sighed as he jogged along behind Juni. As they made their way along the sky began to grow dark as rain started to pour out of the clouds above. Juni cursed under his breath as he pressed onwards.

They came to the school's entrance... It was empty. School had already begun. Juni and Kaito ran towards their lockers, switching their outdoor with their indoor shoes they attempted to dry off. "See you at lunch?" Kaito asked as he began to walk off, Juni nodded in reply as he too made towards his classroom.

"Don't make a habit of it" Juni's teacher muttered as Juni took his seat. He was alone in homeroom. Kaito, Takeshi and Yumi were together, Kumiko and Ushio were together but Juni was all alone. He looked forwards as his teacher began to read out the announcements for the day. "Nikuman has been removed from the cafeteria an..." Juni heard his teacher say before his mind began to drift off. Thoughts of the previous night with his father ran through his head as he was interrupted by someone trying to get his attention.
"Pssst" Someone whispered from his right, Juni looked over. A boy with dark hair and glasses was looking at him. Another boy to his left along with a girl who sat in front of Juni also had their eyes on him. Getting rather suspicious, Juni spoke.
"Yeah?" He asked.
"We heard about Gaku" The boy with the glasses smiled as the other two nodded.
"What about him?" Juni questioned.
"We heard what you did, standing up to him, punching him in the face" The boy grinned in an eager manner as he pushed up his glasses, realigning them on his nose.
"That was a while back, how did you know about it?"
"We heard it from a boy in our English class" The girl smiled as she gazed on at Juni. "You must be very brave" She stated "And strong" She added. Juni felt himself blushing slightly, if he didn't know any better, he could've sworn this girl was trying to flirt with him.
"I wouldn't say that" Juni replied, letting out a quiet laugh so his teacher wouldn't hear.
"I would" She nodded. The other boy who sat next to the one with the glasses spoke.
"You're kind of hero among people like us" He said. Juni became confused.
"A hero?" He wondered, the three of them nodded. "What do you mean among people like you?"
"You know... Us geeks" The boy with glasses said, rolling his eyes as he made quotation marks with his fingers.
"Right..." Juni replied as he returned his gaze to the front. Before turning back around the girl in front gave him one last smile. At that point, Juni was trying very hard to keep Kumiko in his mind.

Juni had met up with Kumiko and Ushio as they waited for their friends so they could go for dinner. Juni was had been explaining to them what had happened, he didn't mention, however, the girl's supposed flirting. "The guy said I was a hero" Juni shrugged.
"I wonder how they found out" Kumiko pondered.
"Maybe Kaito or Takeshi said something?" Ushio suggested.
"Probably..." Juni sighed. As they were speaking the three students from Juni's class approached.
"Hey Akimoto" The boy with the glasses smiled. Juni turned around as Ushio and Kumiko looked on.
"Oh, hey" Juni smiled.
"We were wondering if you wanted to sit with us for lunch?" The girl asked. Kumiko raised her eyebrow at the girl's question.
"I can't" Juni replied in a gentle tone. "I'm already having lunch with my friends today" He added.
"Maybe some other time?" The boy with glasses asked, Juni nodded. They began to walk off as the girl turned back around.
"Akimoto, I'm having a party this Saturday, well a get together of about ten people" She laughed as Ushio and Kumiko shared a look. "You can come if you want" The girl stated as she twirled a strand of her bright red hair. Juni let out a slight cough, as he gave a quick look to Kumiko she diverted his gaze. Juni turned his head back to face the other girl.
"Um, yeah sure" He nodded "I'll try and make it."
"Great, you can call me Amaya" She smiled as she turned and walked off with her friends. Juni turned to face Ushio and Kumiko. Ushio was looking to Kumiko who had a slight scowl across her face.
"What?" Juni asked.
"Who's she?" Kumiko questioned.
"One of the people I was talking to this morning" Juni replied.
"Oh, so she thinks you're a hero?" Kumiko asked as Ushio looked towards Juni. "Well?" Kumiko said. Juni gestured to Ushio, as if asking for help, but he was on his own. He simply shrugged at Kumiko's words as she looked away from him.
"Maybe we should just go to the reference room and meet the others there?" Ushio suggested. Kumiko nodded as she began to walk off, Ushio joined her friend as Juni sighed and followed along behind.

"Yeah, my bad man" Takeshi laughed as he and the five of his friends all sat down in the reference room. "Someone made a comment about me not being in a fight with Gaku and those guys for a while... So I told him why. I didn't realise we were keeping a secret" Takeshi shrugged.
"Well, we weren't but..." Juni began.
"But" Ushio interrupted "It's made Juni famous" She smiled.
"Famous?" Yumi questioned with a grin.
"Among like three people in my class" Juni sighed.
"He got invited to a party by this girl" Kumiko stated "She was pretty wasn't she?" Kumiko said looking to Ushio.
"I didn't notice" She smiled in reply. Kumiko nodded. Juni and Kaito shared a look; Juni could see a smile spread across his friend's face. It's wasn't funny, Juni thought to himself.
"You gonna go?" Takeshi asked. Juni looked up.
"Yeah... I guess" He replied as he looked over to Kumiko who gave a weak smile as she met his gaze.

Kumiko and Juni walked along the road leading to her home, he had been invited over again. In other words, Masaru needed some help fixing up his car again, Juni didn't mind, he liked doing something that he wasn't especially knowledgeable about. Kumiko stopped before they came to her front garden. "Juni..." She sighed. Juni stopped as he looked at her. "We need to talk about something." She stated. Juni's heart rate began to quicken.
"About what?" He asked in a cautious manner.
"About you living at Kaito's" Kumiko replied.
"Oh" Juni laughed, letting out a sigh of relief. "What about it?"
"I was thinking... It must be hard, Kaito, trying to take care of his grandmother, right?"
"Yeah, just a bit" Juni nodded.
"And, you're sleeping on his sofa. It's not really fair to him if he's having to put you up... Rent free no less, money must be hard as it is without having to buy extra food and all that kind of stuff." She said, giving a sympathetic smile.
"I've only been there a day" Juni replied.
"I know but you said you doubt you'll be back home for a while. So maybe, you may be better off somewhere with a little more room?" She suggested. Juni gave her a look.
"Maybe I could ask Takeshi? His brother has gone back to college for his last semester so..."
"I was actually suggesting that you stay with me" Kumiko smiled. Juni gave a surprised expression.
"Would your parents let me?" He asked.
"Well, I spoke with them this morning after you told me what had happened. They were the one to suggest it at first. They said if I brought you over tonight, well, we could all talk about it" She smiled.
"Really?" He asked, Kumiko nodded. "Yeah" He smiled "Okay"
"Good."
"Thank you" Juni nodded as he placed his arms around Kumiko. They stayed like that for a while, Kumiko, embraced within Juni's arms. The only thing that distracted them was Masaru poking his head out of the front door.
"Hey kid!" He yelled. Juni quickly let go of Kumiko who let out a giggle. "Come give me a hand with the car!" He ordered as Juni dashed over to help Kumiko's father and, his soon to be landlord.

~*29*~

Finally got my laptop back! So, sorry to you that have been waiting. A little short I know. I don't like putting out chapters less than 2000 words but sometimes they just end up that way. Anyways, this may seem similar to Tomoya and Nagisa's arc and granted, it is, but trust me; things won't play out the same way... At all.