Sorry for the long delay... I was very busy catching anime and manga, and the latest I'm reading is Wild Adaptor, by Minekura Kazuya-sensei. It sppoks me because Ren is starting to feel like Tokito... I hope what I guess is wrong because I did write my story first before I read that manga! Please, do review!


Ren grumbled a little as he looked to his left and right, bag pack in hand. His sister was still sick, and he knew he should be at home tending to his sister, not standing outside Lyserg's house like an idiot while waiting for him to open the door.

"Ah, gomen, I was bathing! Please, do come in!" Lyserg managed to murmur as he opened the door in a huff, towel around his waist and a shirt draped around himself; clearly, Lyserg had been rushing because his shirt was placed backwards to front, but Ren decided not to say a word and wait for him to notice it himself.

A few minutes later, a rough knock on the door led to a grumpy Horohoro standing by the door.

"I'm here, Diethel."

"Ah, so you are! Come in, come in, Ren's here already!" Lyserg smiled as he ushered the other into the normal looking living room. Sitting down opposite Ren, Horohoro only grunted. Ren rolled his eyes.

Finally dressed right, Lyserg smiled a little and sat beside Ren. The lone tongari teen looked at his friend, who looked a little overeager, fingers tapping happily, legs swinging as he hummed a tune.

Something is wrong.

Obviously, Horohoro noticed because the next thing that happened was Horohoro staring straight at him.

"Where's the other guy?"

"Well, he's coming, he's coming!" Lyserg replied cheerily, too cheerily for him. Ren felt a sweat building.

"What is this party about anyway? There's no special occasion or anything." Horohoro spoke, eyeing the green haired teen.

"I said before, for the sake of building friendships!" Lyserg declared, now standing, eyes shining. "We need to bond and be best friends…"

"I don't want to best friends with him!" Ren and Horohoro spat at the same time. Lyserg looked at them innocently.

"Lovers then?"

"What the…!!!" Ren was blushing again. Horohoro smirked, laughing inwardly. This new guy really is naïve.

"Hello?" a voice followed by a knock on the door. "I'm here!"

"Yoh!" Lyserg greeted as he opened the door to reveal the last participant of their sleepover. "We are waiting for you!"

"Only you." Horohoro snapped. Yoh glared at him. Ren decided not to answer.


Tao Ren can never be associated with an idiot. Ignorant as he can be, he cannot, and never could be, labeled as stupid. He could see very well that Yoh and Horohoro are definitely not companionable with one another. Despite paper-like shielding, which was actually futile, Ren can see them very clearly with little gestures in itself.

Like the time when Yoh had moved rather uncomfortably carrying Horohoro home with Lyserg that time when he got hurt, or when Yoh shot Horohoro laser beam-like stares, and some other things he had lost track of. There were many such encounters, whatever that was, that had happened, it must hurt.

Bad.

Furthermore, Asakura Yoh was not blessed with an Oscar-worth performing skill. Seriously, they are the one who was idiots for thinking Ren did not notice any miss.

Therefore, when Yoh and Horohoro are positioned against each other, hand holding different coloured of chess pieces, Ren knew, it is definitely not going to be a beautiful sight.

"All right, game starts now!" Lyserg smiled, as the two former best friends glared at each other. Ren felted the cold emanating from the two people in question and shuddered a little.

"Black starts first." Horohoro muttered, moving a soldier two-step to front.

"Wrong move." Yoh spoke back, forcefully pushing his soldier to face Horohoro's soldier.

"Well, you are always being so pathetic, as always." Horohoro glinted evilly, another soldier moving two steps.

"You are the one being pathetic." White soldier.

"That is so unkind of you." Black soldier.

"You know you deserve it." White soldier.

"I never knew you can be so sarcastic." Black soldier.

"I learned it from you, Horohoro." White soldier.

"Enough trivial pursuits, ne?" Horohoro looked up at Yoh for a sudden. "Why are you here in the first place?" Black knight ate a white soldier.

"Lyserg invited me, as he invited you." White horse ate a black soldier.

"Then is our way of invitation same?" Black knight ate white horse.

"Of course!" Lyserg beamed, as the two paused to stare at him.

"Shut up."

"Oh." Lyserg answered stupidly, as Ren shook his head.

"Then my greatest sympathies." White queen ate black knight.

"You're going sarcastic again, ne, Yoh?" Black soldier ate white soldier. "I didn't affect you that much, did I?"

"You never know, buddy."

So much venom there was; Ren swore he could feel the sensation in the room suffocating. He stood up.

"I'm going to the kitchen."

The moment Ren left, Horohoro and Yoh stopped their game and threw icy looks at Lyserg, who looked at them calmly.

"Lyserg, why did you ask us to come?"

Lyserg smiled.


Ren looked at the spacious room that was Lyserg's kitchen. The kitchen utensils were arranged neatly, each fork at its specific place, each spoon without amiss. The plates arranged from big to small, without fail. Ren glanced around for the refrigerator, to get a drink and cool himself from the tension. What was Lyserg thinking when he had made them play chess?

Finally seeing the refrigerator, Ren silently cursed himself for not noticing it earlier. Opening the door to various assortments of drinks, he finally picked on Pepsi and was putting it to his mouth when…

"Damn you!" the liquid spilt itself over Ren's shirt and the floor, the person holding the tin somewhat shaken by this phrase. Gritting his teeth as he walked back to the living room, all his initial shock and anger dissipated at the sight before his eyes.

Horohoro and Yoh were holding Lyserg with his hands behind his back, his face on the sofa arm. The two aforementioned boys had their hands on each arm, face with an expression that was indistinguishable between anger or pain. To say they were furious would be an understatement, though.

"You shut up." Horohoro cursed in a poisoned voice. "Don't ever meddle into my affairs! No wonder you were giving such an evil smirk just now; you want us to act like your puppies, to tell everything and then cry like a Barney show? We WON'T!"

"Mending by blackmailing is not a right!"

"I only want to fix your friendship; you were such close friends and besides, she wants it to happen…"

"You have no right to do that." Yoh warned. "We are not children!"

"Er… what are you two doing?" Ren blinked at last, ending the overbearing silence. Lyserg looked up from the armrest, face relieved.

"Ren! We were just talking…"

"He here, is trying to be nosy about our affairs with this girl…"

"I thought you promised her never to talk about this again?" Horohoro glanced at his 'accomplice'. "Your promises break fast."

"She fucking told him!" Yoh shot back.

"Him?" Ren blinked again.

"He means me." Lyserg replied weakly.

"That is her business, since when was it yours?"

"Well, since Lyserg knew about it, why not tell Ren as well?"

"That is not in your place to say also." Horohoro muttered at last. "It is his business then."

Ren blinked for the third time, clearly not comprehending the exchange of words, which to him sounded foreign and downright, weird.

"Are you stupid or what?" Yoh yelled at Ren all of a sudden, making Ren twitch. "We are talking about you here! Give some reaction, hello!"

"Yoh." Horohoro snapped. Yoh and Ren turned to him, the former with a annoyed expression, the latter with a curious face. "Ren need not know this."

"He's already involved." Lyserg said from below them. "She chose him."


"Today, we have a new classmate. She's from Kyoto, her name is Morika Tamao. Morika-san, please introduce yourself…"

"You know, Yoh, I wonder how this new girl will look like… Hey!" Horohoro and Yoh, who had once again came in late for class, was talking aloud when they went in through the classroom door. Kazuki-sensei looked at them, pursing her lips as her speech was clouded by Horohoro's loud laugh. Horohoro's last words came because he realised that he had disturbed the class. This girl, who had pink neck-length hair, turned to them. Yoh half expected her to smile shyly, since he had some thought that pink haired girls usually smiled, like some girls in the next class. Ah, first years are always so fun…

This girl looked at them coolly.

"Er… Morika-san?"

"Yes, sensei?" she turned back to the teacher, who blinked. "I'm so sorry, my name is Morika Tamao, and you can call me Tamao-chan. Is that all I need to say?"

The teacher nodded.

Tamao nodded back somewhat arrogantly and sat at the remaining empty place in the class, which was incidentally next to Horohoro's seat. She folded her arms and looked at the two teens in front and the teacher impatiently. The teacher sputtered as she turned back her attention to Horohoro and Yoh.

"You two…"

"Sorry, sensei!" was all Horohoro mustered as he dragged Yoh back to their places, Yoh seated at Horohoro's right. Which meant that Tamao was beside them both…

"You two, don't try to disrupt me just because I am seated next to you two." Tamao spoke as lessons began.

Horohoro and Yoh were speechless.


"What the hell…" Ren released the breath he did not realise he was holding as Lyserg finished Morika Tamao's first day in class, sitting comfortably on the couch as he was already released. Yoh and Horohoro wore wistful faces, both not saying a word. Somehow, the room became silent again, and the sun shone hot on their faces, since it was already around two o'clock in the afternoon. Ren swallowed his saliva and stared at three of them. All of a sudden…

"You know, I actually feel relieved he knew about this. If we could just court him like we did Tamao-chan…" Yoh began.

A delayed time bomb finally exploded in Ren's head. The bomb, which Ren had been trying to fight for so long, resisting with his utmost power, something that he thought had defused, was rising higher and higher in terms of pressure, finally flowing its contents Ren thought could remain buried in the soil at his brain… Realization struck to Ren in that moment of time, his grips loosening on himself…

"Why must I be similar to someone else?" Ren interrupted, eyes now rounded in dispersed water. "Why can't I be myself? Why on earth must there be someone similar to me, BETTER than me?! Why?!"

Everyone is better than you…

YOU ARE USELESS!

The voices in his head rang again. Ren held his head, the cup falling to the ground and shattering into shards of glass. He fell down kneeling, the voices ringing louder than ever before.

That inhumane voice…

That inhumane pain…

Why is god always playing with him? Was he never good enough to be himself? Must someone else always be better than him? Who is that Morika girl? Why did she act like him? Was he so bad until he cannot become himself? Does he have no originality in himself?

You are useless, Ren. Look, even your sister is better than you! You filth!

"Shut up! Shut up!" Ren shrieked, shaking his head to try to remove the headache he is feeling. The glass had cut through the cloths of his shirt, penetrating his skin, drawing blood… and he could not budge. No, he could not. He is filth. He can never be himself. He will always be in someone's shadows…

You are from tainted blood.

"Ren!"

Look, you are acting just like me; you COPYCAT! A girl with pink hair and unseen face stood in front him now, face curled in a smirk. No one loves you, no one! Horohoro's mine! Yoh's mine! You're no one's!

"Ren! Look at me!" all of a sudden, someone walked through the crunches of glass, kneeling in front of him, looking at him sternly. Ren could not look at him; he was too filthy to be seen… "Ren!" the voice came again, shaking his shoulders. "You had better look at me, damn it!"

The cursing woke Ren up. Still, he was still shaking; his eyes dazed; his body going limp; his body losing control…

The last thing Ren recalled was falling into a strong, sturdy chest.


If you had been following this from the start I believe you would've understand the first chapter by now, ne? Anyway, thnaks for reading, remember, I want reviews!