After that, he attended all of my shows. He'd make comments, I'd teach him some music terms when he asked about certain parts of songs. And me? Well, I felt kind of bad for telling him what I thought of his game. Yes, I have a soft spot. So I started attending his games. And I found something out – he is a tennis monster. Seriously. I was scared of him. I'm never playing tennis with him.

At the beginning, I was his excuse not to practice 24/7 with Kevin. I felt kind of used. He even started playing guitar to tell Kevin that he wasn't just observing. And he never really left. Now, he's our guitarist.

But I noticed something. When we got to winter break, I didn't have to come up to him to ask if he would stay here. He asked me where I was going. And then he told me that maybe I could spend some time in Japan with him. It would be nice. I told my dad that it was to meet my pen pal, visit new places, and to not let a friend down. He was surprised, expecting me to ask to go to Brazil. And said he wouldn't miss this opportunity.

So I went. And, shit, it was colder in Japan than I ever thought. But I saw snow for the first time.

My jackets were all from Brasilia (which, at minimum, hit fifteen degrees celcius) so I was basically freezing. We were snug on a bus on our way to SeiGaku. Apparently, it was Ryoma's school in Japan. Just if you were wondering, I pretended I didn't know the Japanese name formality and called him Ryoma. He ignored it.

When we got out of the bus, it was a whole other deal. I froze. It's that kind of cold that seems to go through to your soul. I just stood in place for awhile.

"Daijobu?" Ryoma asked out of pure politeness.

"Um, NO!" I said honestly. I hate it when I feel pressured to say yes when I know I'm not okay. He laughed at me. I guess now I could at least get a laugh from him.

"Mada mada dane!" he smirked. Only then did I notice that all the times he smiled or laughed because of me it was because of my disgrace. But it's progress.

We walked to a locker room with his arm wrapped around me.

"Wait here." He was still smiling. Shit, he just loves to see me suffer.

He came out with a white jacket with blue stripes on it, with something in Japanese written on the back.

"Ryoma!" I said with my eyes wide open.

"Hey, it's mine!" he laughed. "I'm not taking anyone else's." I sighed. That was a relief.

"I want you to meet some people." Ryoma said with a smile. What he didn't tell me before was that he knew that, at this time, place and date, there was always a regular's meeting. To see if they're not all out of shape for the winter and all.

For some reason, he whispered that we should hide behind a wall until everybody left. And after a group of about 8 people went out, he motioned me to follow him. We went into a warm office where there was a woman who seemed to be in her fifties. She had red long hair and quite a lot of wrinkles.

"Ryuzaki-sensei!" Ryoma greeted warmly as he took his cap off. Why the hell doesn't he just keep the cap off?

"Ryoma!" the teacher said excitedly as her eyes widened. For some reason, she passed right through us and leaned out the door, yelling, "Minna! Ryoma is back!" in Japanese.

As soon as she said that, the group of 8 people we saw coming out ran right back in excitedly, except for a serious one with glasses, one with a creepy smile, one with a bandana, and one with glasses and a notebook in his hands. The one with the notebook looked at me and stopped in his tracks.

There was one guy with red hair and another with spiky black hair. Both jumped on Ryoma so suddenly, making me take a step back.

"Echizen!!" They yelled in union. I could make out more or less what they were saying.

"Mou, you didn't even tell us you were back! You didn't…" the spiky-haired boy said excitedly.

"Ochibi, you're so mean, nya!" the red-haired boy said in a cat-like voice. I was holding back laughter as I watched this whole scene unravel. The red-haired boy looked at me with a confused face, and as a smile grew on his face he spoke up again.

"Ahn, is this ochibi's girlfriend?" he said slyly.

"Nanii!?" Ryoma exclaimed.

"Iie, we're just friends!" I said calmly. "And colleagues in school and in our band."

"Minna, this is Demi-kun." Ryoma said quickly before anybody could ask about the band. "Demi, this is Ryuzaki-sensei, Eiji-sempai, Momo-chan-sempai, Oishi-sempai, Taka-san, Fuji-sempai, and our buchou, Tezuka."

"Yoroshikun!" I said happily as I bowed before them. We were going to be out soon anyways, so why not be nice?

"Yoroshikun!" they all replied, bowing all at the same time. It was kind of scary how Japanese people are this kind. Seriously, in the US, you say hi, they just nod at you back.

"We should celebrate!" Ryuzaki-sensei spoke up. "Taka-san, I know this is much to ask, but could we celebrate at your father's sushi shop?"

"Of course, sensei!" Taka-san replied kindly.

"Ano, Ryoma…" I whispered nervously in his ear. "I don't know how to eat with raishi…"

"I'll teach you." He said with a smile. I knew it. He was smiling because he knew something I didn't.

As we walked to Taka-san's restaurant, Eiji-sempai looked at me and smiled slyly again, with a creepy chuckle.

"Isn't that ochibi's jacket?" he said in a cat-like way as he leaned in next to my ear.

"Yeah, it's Ryoma's." I confirmed, wanting to smile so much. This would flip Ryoma out officially. By not giving an explanation and calling him only Ryoma, his friends would make their own conclusions and bother him forever.

"Ochibi, nya! You have to tell us the story!"

"Here's the story!" Ryoma said in a sarcastically happy voice. "I went in, got my jacket, and she wore it."

"Nya, ochibi, you're so mean!" Eiji-sempai whined. I chuckled. I decided that, for this trip, my goal was to flip Ryoma out by making his friends think we were dating. Then and there, I just decided it.

So I did the most bold act I had ever done since I met Ryoma. The one thing I never had courage to do. The shop was in sight, alright. So I did something no one had ever done before.

I took his cap.

I know. It's like commiting suicide. But Ryoma knew me better. He knew I meant no harm. And as I ran ahead with it, he ran right after me. And he had a pretty big smile on.

Maybe there were other reasons why he smiled around me. And I know the reason. He's absolutely sure that we're inseperable.

Inseperable friends.