Hiroki sat on the couch putting away his school books for the day. School was done a few hours ago and Jimmy decided not to come over to the house for the afternoon. This left him with nothing to do but start on his homework early. Luckily for him, the load was light today, allowing him to finish all of it early and give him plenty of time to goof around later. As he put the last book in his bag, he looked across the room and observed Ulrich and Yumi in their usual tutoring session together. Having Yumi be one year older and one grade higher helped out Ulrich when it came to his studies. He was never a bright child. Below average was a term most people would use to describe the boy. With this knowledge in mind, he made a promise to both himself and his friends that he would do whatever he could to break out of the below average mold and show everyone that he was better than they thought he was.

Yumi's little brother admired Ulrich. To him, Ulrich was kind of like the older brother he never had. He was more experienced in things Hiroki had barely even done yet. He was always open to share those experiences with him and even give him advice. Unlike his older sister, Ulrich was kind to him and never snapped at him or turned down a request. Every little brother dreams of having an older brother like Ulrich. Hiroki loved having him around and wished that he and Yumi would stop dancing around each other and just hook up already. That way, his sister would be happier and he would get to hang out with Ulrich more often.

"So this is how it works, right?" Ulrich asked as he pointed to a problem he had just solved in his notebook.

"You got it," Yumi replied, smiling. She got up from her chair and stretched out. "We might as well take a break. I'll be back in a minute." With that, she went upstairs to take care of a few things. Hiroki saw his opportunity open up. He walked over to Ulrich and sat down in front of him.

"What's up, Hiroki?" Ulrich questioned.

Hiroki stammered as he spoke. "Um... can I ask you something? You know... man stuff related?"

Ulrich looked worried. He had no idea what Hiroki had in store when he mentioned 'man stuff'. "Um, sure, ok. What's going on?"

"Well," Hiroki started, "you know how I told you I kinda liked Milly Solovieff?"

Ulrich nodded. "Yeah, I remember. That was the time you took Yumi's diary, right?"

Hiroki nodded in the affirmative. "Yeah, well, I wanna go ask her out on a date but... I don't know how to do it. I was wondering if you could teach me how to do it?"

"What makes you think I'll be good at teaching this to you?" Ulrich asked, a bit relieved that the 'man stuff' wasn't so complicated of a topic after all.

"You're super popular with the girls," Hiroki answered, "so you must have had thousands of dates and asked out thousands of girls."

Ulrich scratched his head. "Actually... that's not true. I haven't asked anyone out in my life, much less dated anyone."

"Not even my sister?"

Ulrich crossed his arms in a giant X. "Good friends. That's it."

Hiroki sighed. "If you can't help me, then who else can I turn to?"

Ulrich breathed deep and gritted his teeth. "I can't believe I'm going to say this but I know exactly who can help you out here."

"Oh no! Not him!" Yumi said, suddenly appearing out of nowhere, standing beside both Ulrich and Hiroki.

"How much did you hear?" Hiroki asked.

"Enough to know what's going on." She turned her attention to Ulrich. "You are not asking him to help out my little brother with this."

Ulrich shrugged his shoulders. "Why not?" he asked. "He's the only one I know with any experience in this sort of thing."

"That doesn't make him the best source of help," she retorted. "What if he teaches him the wrong thing? I don't need my little brother turning into a mini-Casanova."

Ulrich shook his head. "That's not going to happen. I'll make sure of it." He spoke again after a brief pause. "Trust me."

Yumi threw her hands in the air, giving up on the argument. "Fine, whatever, but if my brother starts trying to hit on every girl in his class, I'm going to kill the both of you."

Ulrich turned his attention to Hiroki. "Then it's settled. Come over to my dorm after school and I'll get you set up."

"Great," Hiroki replied. "So who's going to help me out?"

Both Ulrich and Yumi answered in unison.

"Odd."