"Morning, Ema," Erik greeted her. He wore the same smile he'd worn every morning when he greeted her. Half-hopeful, half-nervous. It was adorable, which made her hate it. Except, it was too adorable to hate when he was smiling at her like that. It was only when he wasn't in front of her that she could hate it.

"Morning, Erik," she greeted. It was the Friday of his first week of school, which definitely wasn't enough time to get used to him being there. She still woke up in the mornings hoping his appearance here was something she'd dreamed. But only in a nightmare kind of way, not a 'I wish this would happen' kind of way. In the month after he broke up with her, part of her had hoped Erik would suddenly show up wherever she and her dad were, telling her it was all a big mistake and that he still wanted to be with her. Why couldn't he have felt that way then instead of now, nearly eighteen months later?

"There's no Yusuke with you today?" Erik asked, looking behind her.

"He was running really late today and told me to go on without him." She'd come with Fuuto in a car instead, but gotten out a few streets. People already knew about the movie and that they ate lunch together. The last thing she needed was people gossiping about her coming to school with Fuuto in the mornings now.

"So, is he from the family you live with?" Erik asked. Ema remembered that on Monday he'd tried to ask that at lunch and she'd interrupted him.

She hesitated before admitting, "Yes." She didn't know why she felt so reluctant to tell him. Was it because she felt he didn't deserve to know personal things about her life anymore? Or because she was worried he'd get the wrong impression about her and Yusuke's relationship? She firmly told herself that she didn't care what he thought about her and Yusuke. It wasn't his business one way or the other.

"Why didn't you want me to say that in front of your friends?"

"Because they don't want anyone spreading weird rumors about them, idiot," Fuuto said, sidling up to Ema's side. She wondered if he'd just arrived. "What do you think teenagers will say about a guy and girl living together in high school when they're not related?"

Erik's eyes widened as he gave Ema a stunned look.

"Yusuke and I aren't a couple!" she snapped, her face flaming red. Then she wanted to take those words back. Hadn't she just reminded herself that her relationships weren't any of Erik's business?

"And this idiot just proved exactly why you don't want anyone knowing you live together," Fuuto said. Ema didn't correct him that it was Yusuke who wanted that and not her. Yusuke had a point since Erik had just reacted like he thought something might be going on between them.

"Right," Erik said, flushing red as he stared at the ground. "Sorry. I'm sure you would have told me if you had a boyfriend when I—" He cut himself off, glancing at Fuuto.

She was grateful he stopped before saying whatever he'd planned to say, but then Fuuto said, "When you threw yourself at her like an idiot saying you wanted her back?"

Erik threw Ema a hurt look that made her want to crawl into a corner. Why did Fuuto have to make things more complicated? Especially when things were already so difficult with Erik. And she hated feeling like she needed to explain herself to Erik over and over. Why couldn't she get it through her head that it didn't matter what he thought? That he didn't have a right to expect anything from her or to be hurt?

"I didn't tell Fuuto anything," she said, trying not to speak through gritted teeth. "He guessed all that on his own."

"So, you two are good friends?" Erik asked, staring at Fuuto like he wasn't sure why anyone would want to be good friends with him. "Did you two know each other before you shot that movie together?"

Her eyes widened. "You know about that?" she blurted. Why did Erik know about the movie? Had her dad told him? Except, she didn't he knew about it. As a minor, she'd needed an adult's permission to be in the movie, but her father had transferred guardianship rights to Masaomi so she wouldn't have to wait for him to get permission for school events and such.

"Yes, we are good friends," Fuuto said, looping his arm through Ema's. "Really good friends."

Ema sighed, disentangling herself from Fuuto. She was sure—at least pretty sure—that Fuuto was being protective of her. But he was only making things worse. "Fuuto is Yusuke's younger brother," she explained. "They have different last names because Fuuto uses a stage name. I only did the movie as a favor to Fuuto. It's a long story."

Fuuto crossed his arms over his chest and shot her an annoyed look that seemed to say he didn't appreciate her rejecting his protectiveness. She tried to give him back a look that said she didn't appreciate him being a jerk and making her feel like she needed to be the nice one here.

"So, he's another childhood friend," Erik said, seeming relieved.

"Right," she said, even though she and Fuuto hadn't been friends back then. It was easier than going into a lengthy discussion about their relationship. "I'm like an older sister to him," she chirped, missing the surprised and annoyed look Fuuto gave her. "He's just being protective, that's all. Don't pay any attention to him. I have to get to class now. Bye."

"Bye," Erik said, spinning to watch Ema leave. Fuuto scowled at both their backs.

~.~ rorak

"All right class," the teacher said. It was the third week since Erik had shown up at school. Ema's scores had dropped a little thanks to his appearance, so she was determined to give her schoolwork all her focus. "You'll be starting a new project today that you'll work in teams for."

Imai met Ema's eyes and gave her a thumbs up that Ema returned. The two of them liked pairing up for class projects.

"This project will be a little different though. We want to encourage more interaction between the third-year classes, so your partner will come from another class."

Ema gave a disappointed sigh as Imai's shoulders sagged. Then a horrifying thought occurred to her—what if she ended up partnered with Erik? But there were a couple hundred students in her year. Surely, the chances of being paired with Erik were slim, right?

"The pairings will be random," the teacher announced, which set off a chorus of groans from students who'd probably hoped to pair up with friends in other classes. She raised her voice to be heard over the groans. "I have the names of thirty other students in your grade that I'll hand out to each of you. You are NOT allowed to switch names. The point is to encourage more interaction between students, not for you to spend time with people who are already your friends."

She went down the aisles of desks, handing out papers with names on them.

Ema held her breath, telling herself that it would be fine. The teacher paused when she reached Ema's desk. Bending down, she quietly said, "The new American student is struggling a bit to keep up with his school work. Since you spent time in America and speak better English than anyone else in your grade, we paired him with you, okay?" She put down a slip of paper with Erik's name on it before moving on.

Ema spun around to argue that she already knew Erik, so partnering with him wouldn't meet the criteria of interacting with new people, but the teacher didn't take note of her. Not wanting to make a fuss, she turned back around, staring down at the little paper with dread.

~.~

"It's crazy how we ended up paired together for this assignment, huh?" Erik said later that day, giving her his darn half-hopeful and half-nervous smile. He gave her the same smile every day at lunch since he'd joined them for lunch every day. He had decided to join the soccer team, which apparently meant he was part of their group now.

And she wanted Erik to have friends at school. She was happy he had friends. She just didn't want them to be her friends. He seemed to make a point every morning to be somewhere he'd see her so he could tell her good morning, then he was at lunch every day, and now she had to do an assignment with him. Thank goodness Yusuke wasn't part of the soccer team anymore, so she didn't go to the practices anymore. Though she knew Sasakura would be really disappointed if she didn't go to the games. She didn't know what she'd do about that yet. Aside from not wanting be where Erik was more than she had to, she was really afraid he might misread why she was at the game.

"Sure is crazy," she said, trying to hide how unenthusiastic she was. The teachers must not have told him that the two of them were paired together on purpose. They probably didn't want to embarrass him by telling him he was falling behind.

"You could almost call it fate," he joked, giving a self-deprecating laugh as he rubbed the back of his head. It was all so familiar—Erik joking with her, poking a little fun at himself, and rubbing the back of his head—that it almost brought tears to her eyes. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that he got to come to Japan and be his same old charming self and act like they were still friends. It had taken her ages to get over him. And now here he was, making everything hurt all over again.

"Right," she said quietly. The teachers deciding something behind the scenes wasn't the same thing as fate—right?

~.~

Ema and Erik made plans for when they'd work together and she ended up riling herself up with thoughts of how awful being so close to him all alone would be. She was too riled up to just go home after school, so walked around town. She ended up outside the café where Iori worked right as he walked out.

She hadn't seen him much since he'd moved out for college. They'd texted a couple times over all the drama with her father and he'd dropped by the house a couple times for things he'd left behind, but that was it.

He smiled when he saw her, but she lost her composure, tears filling her eyes.

"Ema?" he said, stepping closer, peering down at her with concern. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head, trying to hold herself back. Iori didn't need her making a scene right outside of where he worked. And this was her problem, not his. He probably had enough going on with living away from home for the first time and attending one of the most prestigious universities in the country.

"What's wrong?" he asked, cupping her cheek.

"Erik's back," she whispered. If she spoke any louder, the tears would fall faster and she was worried she'd start sobbing.

Iori's brow wrinkled in confusion while he thought, then his eyes widened. "Your ex-boyfriend Erik?"

She nodded. "His uncle transferred here for work and he came with him. He's attending my high school."

His eyebrows lowered and if she'd been talking to anyone else, she'd say that he was scowling. But she'd never seen Iori scowl and wasn't sure he could.

"So after telling you that a relationship with you was too hard, now he's back?"

Her mind flashed to Iori's ex-girlfriend trying to get back into his good graces after cheating on him. Ema remembered the girlfriend hanging around the café, hoping to make Iori have to talk to her. Their situations were very different, but she wondered if Erik coming back into her life was making Iori think of Fuyuka trying to get back into his life.

"It's fine," she brushed off, squeezing Iori's hand cupping her face before removing it. "I'm fine. It was just a shock."

He didn't look convinced. "Did Erik come here because you're here?"

She sighed, then nodded. "He says he hopes we can be a couple again, but understands if I only want to be friends."

Iori raised his eyebrows. "Did he admit that maybe you wouldn't even want that?"

She shrugged. "Not really, I guess. I mean, he didn't talk like he expected us to automatically be friends or anything. I just . . ." Her eyes filled with tears again. "Why couldn't he have felt this way right after he broke up with me? Why now?"

Iori pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her. "You don't owe him anything," he murmured. "Even if being around him brings up old feelings, you don't have to pay attention to them." He hesitated. "Sometimes when I saw Fuyuka, I would think of how happy we'd been together." His voice hardened. "But being with her again would have been a mistake."

"I know I don't owe him anything," she said, laying her head on Iori's chest. "But he really is a nice guy. He just . . . hurt me." A lot.

Iori's grip tightened. "You don't have to forgive him just because he came all this way, Ema. And you shouldn't let him pressure you into anything you don't want."

"He's not pressuring me," she promised. At least, not intentionally. But she felt obligated to be nice, which was how she'd ended up with him at her lunch table. How could she be nice to someone while also holding them at a distance? Especially when that someone wanted to be closer to her.

She was afraid that she wouldn't find the answer and would soon find herself in even more situations with Erik that she didn't want.

A/N: Next chapter, more brothers find out about Erik! Because of course we can't have an interested suitor around without pissing off the Asahina brothers.