Thanks to all who review this story, this chapter will be a bit longer and my OC makes her appearance in here. Any OOCness of chars do tell, so I can edit it. All the events happened here are before the spring semester starts, which is in March. For anyone who didn't know Jap, Mutou -sugarless, Arigatto - thank you, Gomennasai - sorry, Yorushiku - Nice to meet you

Italic are thoughts

Chapter 2

Next day, after football practice

"Fucking store assistant didn't stock up the Mutou gums. Even have the cheek to tell me that he sold the last box to a customer before me. Who the fuck is that crazy to purchase a whole box of Mutou bubble gums?" Hiruma cussed and grumbled his way home from the convenience store. He's still in a fuming mood when he reached to his rented apartment.

"Eh? Who's the fucking idiot that leaves all these empty boxes all over the place!" Hiruma kicked one of them out of the way. "Wait till I find out who this fucker is…" Digging for his keys and grumbling under his breath, he was too engrossed to notice a tall figure carrying loads of boxes staggering towards his direction. When he finally unlocks the door and swings it open, it smacked into the stranger and sends both the boxes and its carrier toppling backwards.

"Hieeee!" CRASH

"Huh? What the heck…" Hiruma stuck his head backwards and saw a homo sapien being buried under piles of boxes. The hand that stuck out from under the rumble doesn't seem to be moving. Fuck! Don't tell me he's knocked out! Shit! Just my day. "Oie, you alive under there?" Hiruma squatted down and poked the arm.

"Gwaff…" The object under the boxes moved but it seems like he couldn't get up. Hiruma removed some of the boxes at the top and the person managed to push the rest away. "Arigatto. I nearly got suffocated in there. Hmm? Are you in Cosplay?" The person asked, pointing at his ears.

Hiruma blinked in surprise when he uncovered a female under those boxes then got infuriated when she asked about his ears. "These are fucking genuine human ears. Who has the fucking time to play dress-up!" The girl, named Yamamura Kaoru, blinked in astonishment when the elven teen spewed vulgarity at her. She sat back and took a closer look at her new neighbor. He's dressed in high schooler uniform and based from the color and style, she guessed it's from Deimon High. Blond hair all spiked up with some falling forward as fringes. Two pairs of earrings studded on his ears and he has the most intimidating pair of eyes she's ever seen. Overall, he's more devil-like than fairy-like.

The girl turned her head and looked at the door that's opened. Oh, so that's the thing I slammed into earlier. I doubt I'll get an apology from him. Better introduced myself. Basic courtesy. "Hi, I just moved in not too long and going to be your new neighbor. My name is…" Before she could complete her sentence, Hiruma stood up and took out an AK model and points the nozzle at her.

"So you're the idiot who leaves all these boxes lying all over the area!" Suddenly, as if he realized he lost his cool over something trivial, he paused his tirade. Kaoru sees him taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. She pushed the tip of the firearm away from her face and looked up at him. "Let's just start right at the beginning before you start to lose your cool again."

"Who the fuck do you think you are to tell me what to do?" demanded Hiruma. Kaoru raised her brows and pretend he never spoke as she continued. "I'm your new neighbor. My name's Yamamura Kaoru. I moved in recently, about a week ago. Today, I'm just clearing the boxes and unnecessary junks left by the previous tenant. Yorushiku." Kaoru stick her hand out, waiting for Hiruma to respond.

Hiruma is at a loss, something that rarely, if ever happened to him. This female in front of him is not shock to see him wielding a firearm in public, not frightened by his temper and threats, and can calmly re-introduced herself as if she encounter this incident frequently in her everyday life. It reminded him of one of his brief visits to the States.

"It's your turn to introduce yourself after my self-introduction. It's basic courtesy." Kaoru prompted when Hiruma remain silent after her greeting. She didn't know the turmoil under his aloof expression but she did notice that he wasn't looking directly at her.

Breaking one of his golden rules for the 1st time since he moved out from his family, Hiruma stuck his left hand out and pulled Kaoru up from the ground. "Hiruma Youichi. Yorushiku." Kaoru smiled, "There, it wasn't so bad, right? Hey, I bought a box of bubble gums from the convenience store. You don't mind it being sugarless, right? Man, I thought I'd be stuck in an area where the shops here don't sell Mutou gums. Luckily, I managed to locate this San San store that has the last box on sale. So naturally, I grabbed the whole box. You'll never know when the stocks coming in."

Hiruma blinked, replaying back her rambling and latched on to one sentence. "Hold one fucking minute! You are the one who bought the last box of Mutou gums!" Kaoru nodded, and Hiruma's features turned demonic. He pointed the semi-auto rifle back at her and threatened to shoot her. To his shock, Kaoru laughed.

Hugging her stomach, she squatted down and howled some more. Hiruma's temper deflated and he clicks back the safety lock of the rifle. He really can't hold his temper at someone when he or she is not terrified by it. By the time she managed to control her laughter into small fits of giggles, Hiruma already kept the firearm away from sight.

"Gomennasai. I didn't mean to break in to laughter. It's just that, your face. It looks so terrifying yet so funny! And the way you behaved over a box of gums…Gawd, I hadn't had a hard laugh for a very long time. Man, I'm pooped and totally out of breath." Kaoru grinned back at the boy. Hiruma shook his head, his palm smacked on to his face, covering his eyes. He could see it in the school news magazine: 'Deimon High Resident Devil Loses His Edge & Being Laughed At His Threats.' The humiliation is one thing, but his hard-earn reputation will go down the drain if anyone gets a whiff of it.

"Look, forget whatever happened just now. Treat it as if it has never happened and you've never laughed like a lunatic. And don't you ever tell anyone around here about the rifle." Hiruma hissed at her. Kaoru nodded; she didn't dare to make a sound, leastways she break into gales of laughter again.

"Well, at least it explains something." Hiruma looked at her with a slight cock on his head. "You see, the cashier actually told me to just buy a few to half a dozen of the gums. He did reassure me that the next stock is arriving at the end of the month. I don't really trust him and moreover, I dislike shopping for food when I'm busy, like today. So I bought a month's supply of dry products. He was quite pale when I walked out." Frowning in thought, she recalled the cashier mentioned something under his breath about Hiruma and about him being a blackmailing demon.

Hiruma continued scrutinizing her as she stood up and straighten herself. His brows rose and his eyes widen by a fraction. For a female, she is tall. About the same height as Ishimaru, the track and field team runner. He reasoned that it could be due to her height that made her less easily threatened. "Say, since I deprived you of the bubble gums you intended to buy, why not I give you, hm, five sticks. How's that? It's my way of saying sorry to you since you're going to be my friend."

"When in the hell did I become your friend?" griped Hiruma. Kaoru ignored his comment, her right hand stuffed inside her pants pocket, digging for something. "Ah, here it is." She pulled out the packets of gums from her pocket and hand it over to Hiruma. When he didn't respond, she took his left hand and slapped the packets into his palm.

Hiruma looked that the gum packets in his hand and lifted his gaze at her. She looked at him with an expectation of thanking her for her kind gesture. He nodded to her and pocketed the packets. "You're not much of a talker, aren't you?" Kaoru asked him as he turned back towards his apartment. Hiruma stopped for a moment then continued his pace into his home and shut the door. Kaoru huffed at his direction, "Just you wait, my friend. You have no idea that the reaction you gave me is an issue of challenge to my curiosity."

Inside his den, Hiruma sighed as he lean against the door. He heard her mumbling something but couldn't quite make out what it was. Then he heard the shuffling of boxes that tells him Kaoru is packing up the boxes but no sound of footsteps from her as she moved around. She's very light on her feet, pity she's a female. He could use a runningback or better still, a receiver. He proceeded further into his living room and saw the red blinking light on his answering machine. Ejecting the tape, he threw it into his ever-growing pile of recorded mini tapes in the box on his worktable. He'll have to start listening to them soon. Rubbing his face, he'll think better after a nice hot shower and a dip in the tub. Sliding in a new tape into the recorder, Hiruma pressed a few buttons and left it alone.