-Chapter 3-

-Nino-

Homeroom couldn't have gone any slower, the pressure of having to introduce myself paired with Shin practically forgetting I existed just made it seem to last forever. I looked out the window and sighed, "This day just keeps getting better and better..."

"...kano... Miss Nakano! Would you care to introduce yourself to the class?"

I turned my head towards the front, my homeroom teacher and everyone else in the room staring at me. "I abruptly stood up and went to the front of the class. "Ummm... Hi. My name is Nino Nakano, I'm a new student at this school and I hope we can all be friends!" I did a deep bow, hoping that no one could see how bright red my face was.

I sat down on my desk with my head held down, "God, couldn't time just fast forward? I can't wait to go home!" I thought to myself as classes continued. After what felt like hours of random nonsense, it was finally time for lunch break. I was about to leave when the girl sitting next to me spoke.

"Hey Nakano-san! Wanna have lunch together with me? It'd be pretty sad if you ate on your own, and judging by your introduction you're the shy type of girl, aren't ya?" she said with a huge grin

If I remember correctly, her name was Rin Takebayashi, and judging by her demeanor I doubt saying no would do me any good. "Oh... sure, that is if you're really okay with it..."

Rin slung her arm around my shoulder and grinned even more. "Of course I'm okay with it! I want your first day to be great, and we wouldn't want someone like Mr. Gloom and Doom to ruin it for you after all." She subtly pointed to Shin, who was already leaving the classroom.

I walked with her outside of the classroom, wondering why she disliked Shin so much "But wait, isn't he one of the most important students here?"

After some awkward silence, Rin laughed. "You have got to be joking, sure he's got basically the best science scores in the whole school, but aside from that he isn't so special. If anyone's special, it's gotta be our student council president! I mean the guy literally has an official fan club in the school!"

"But isn't he the—" was all I could say before some guy nearly ran into us, we almost got knocked down if it weren't for his good reflexes, expertly sneaking in through the gap between me and Rin.

"Hey! Watch it, Goro! You nearly ran us over!" Rin shouted as she regained her balance.

The boy continued running but turned his head towards us. His golden eyes, red, messy hair, and insanely goofy smile reminded me of Shin. "Sorry about that! I gotta submit this essay entry for a competition!" and seconds later, he was out of sight.

"Jeez, that guy! I get that he's a literal walking bundle of sunshine and all, but where does he have all that energy?" groaned an exasperated Rin.

We spent the next few minutes walking and talking about ourselves. Apparently Rin was the secret president of the Shin Uesugi fan club and was also the secretary of the student council. "So you must be really close with Shin, aren't you?" I asked teasingly.

Rin's face turned bright red. "Well of course! I-i-it's pretty normal for the secretary to be close with the president after all!" I found it amusing that even the most extroverted of people could still regress to something like this at the mention of her crush.

When we approached the cafeteria, I saw Shin emerge from the library across the hall. "Hey you go ahead, I need to check something out first." Rin gave me a confused look but shrugged her shoulders and left. I walked up to Shin, who apparently changed his hair color yet again to a white wig. A big pout forming on my face. "Hey, what was with your attitude earlier? After all that talk about wanting to be friends you basically gave me the cold shoulder!"

Shin looked confused and spoke in eloquent English, "I'm sorry miss, but do I know you?" after realizing I couldn't understand him, he blushed and spoke in Japanese, "I believe you have the wrong person, I'm sorry miss. I would love to help you find who you're looking for, but I currently have other matters to attend to. Hopefully the next time we meet, it would be for a more favorable situation." and after saying all that he left for who knows where.

I stared at Shin as he walked away from me, "Ok talk about being a jerk! He's actively ignoring me and pretending we don't know each other!" I ended up stomping my way to the cafeteria and found Rin, who had already bought a meal for me.

"Seems like buying you food was the right call, judging by your expression, you're pretty hangry aren't you?" she said with a grin, and the grumbling of my stomach confirmed it. "So what's got you so pissed off?"

"Well, how would you feel if someone you wanted to be friends with suddenly forgot who you were and ignored you?" I asked as I took a huge bite out of the beef bowl she bought me.

"Ohh thats pretty rough, Nakano-san. But if I were to be honest, I'd probably feel the same way as you." said Rin as she munched on her sandwich.

"Right? Like seriously, guys can be so insensitive sometimes..." I sighed, with Rin nodding in agreement. And unlike how slow classes seemed to be, lunch break ended within the blink of an eye.

Rin and I were walking back to the classroom when she noticed a friend of hers, a boy with golden eyes and long blue hair tied in a bun. He seemed to be annoyed with Rin but seemed like he was used to her shenanigans already. Seeing as how they weren't going to stop chatting soon, I went ahead and sat on my desk. Shin was already there, studying. "Hey, Shin. What's with all the studying? It's not like we have any tests coming up."

He looked up, clearly annoyed, the look he gave me was as if someone mistook you for somebody else. he sighed and said "Clearly you don't know how important studying is, if you want to get good results and a good job, studying is the best way to achieve it! Now if you'll excuse me, Nakano-san, I've got some material to read."

I felt like I was about to cry, how could someone who was so nice to me earlier act so coldly now? It just didn't make sense! I then felt a hand on my shoulder and looked behind me to see Rin.

"You shouldn't interrupt him when he's studying, he'll chew you out like there was no tomorrow!" she said with a sympathetic look.

I pouted and walked back to my desk, and I spent the rest of the school day spaced out. The bell finally rang and in no time at all, Rin and I were walking out of the school. "Finally! can't wait to leave this horrible day behind me..." I said as we reached the train station.

Rin smirked, "It wasn't all that bad, I mean I'm pretty sure you enjoyed lunch break!" as she playfully punched me.

I sighed, "I guess... but the way Shin treated me earlier still stings, he was so friendly when I met him earlier but now... he's such a jerk!"

Rin looked confused for a bit, "Shin? But the guy who snapped at you was—" suddenly her cellphone rang. "Oh shoot! My mom's calling me, you can go ahead without me, I'll see you tomorrow Nakano— Nino-chan!"

Confused, I went on ahead. Now that I survived school, all I had to do now was survive my meeting with my new tutors today. Before boarding the train, I bought the magazine I promised to get for Hiro and got a lot of food we can snack on for the next couple of days. After a few train rides I finally made it back the station closest to my place, I reached my home within a couple of minutes and fiddled with my keys. "The tutors should be inside by now... I wonder what they're like..."

I opened the door and entered, saying "I'm home!" as I took off my shoes. After not hearing Hiro's usual "Welcome back!" I got curious and entered the living room, only to see a familiar face, or should I see faces, all kneeling down on the floor with stone tablets on their laps, with Hiro staring at them with the intent to kill, one of the Shins noticed me and smiled nervously.

"Ummm hey Nino, it's nice to see you again, could you help me and my brothers out? Your younger brother's trying to assert his dominance… and I think it's working!"