A/N: Sorry for the long wait for the update. Anyways, enjoy!

Chapter 3

Sora had been giving Akira what seemed like ongoing lectures for the past day since discovering Akira in her dazed state at their front door.

Akira groaned in exasperation as Sora continued on with her scolding again while they were at school the next day.

"I mean, do you realize what could have happened from showing that insane man where you live!?"

Akira knelt down to exchange the books she needed for her class from her locker.

"And he…he…he kissed you! I can't believe he did that! You barely know each other! Well, actually I can believe that knowing the kind of person he is." Sora trailed off and paused for a second, as though recollecting something. "But still, you could have done something, Akira. You didn't have to let him kiss you."

Akira straightened up again, looked at Sora, and sighed. She knew that Sora was just looking out for her, but this was starting to get annoying.

"Sora, look, I didn't know he was going to kiss me. It happened so fast. And even if I were able to have done something, you know how hopeless I am when it comes to my feelings. I'm not sure if I could have prevented it, nor would I have wanted to." They started walking down the hallway to go to Sora's locker.

Sora sighed and rubbed her temples.

"I know Akira. I know it's hard for you to say no when you really like a guy, but Akira, I'm really concerned for you regarding this."

Suddenly, Sora just stopped walking. Akira stopped as well and looked at her friend in perplexion. There was an atypical look on Sora's face. It seemed like a mix of shock and anxiety. Realizing that her friend was staring at someone, Akira followed Sora's gaze to the pair of boys standing somewhat in front of them in the hallway.

The boy with the golden blonde hair stared back at Sora with a similar expression to Sora's. His hair was edged somewhat in his face and he had hazel eyes. There was a silver earring cupped over part of the edge of his right ear.

Wait a second; I've seen this guy before. That's right! He's in the same class as us.

Kida Masaomi Akira thought his name was.

She remembered something from the first day of school.

As Sora and she were picking their seats, Sora had a disgusted expression on her face when she saw that he was sitting in front of her in class. Akira had wondered about it, yet somehow never got around to asking Sora what that was about. Actually, Masaomi was kind of hard to forget now that Akira had thought about it. He had given himself a pretty memorable introduction of himself to the class.

He had stated rather loudly that he wasn't as mature as they would expect him to be and he had chuckled rather heartily. He seemed like a very outgoing and funny guy. Akira had even thought he was kind of cute, but of course it was nothing like how she felt for Izaya. During his whole introduction, and every time he would speak up rather comically in class, Akira noticed that Sora would seem to be mocking him under her breath with a disgusted look on her face. Although, Akira never heard what Sora had said.

Why would Sora react that way to Masaomi?

He had even seemed to gather a reputation for hitting on almost every girl he saw, and typically getting turned down. Strangely enough though, it had seemed that Sora and herself were in the minority of girls who he never hit on by him. In fact, it almost seemed like he tried to avoid them.

The boy next to Masaomi, who had very short dark brown hair and light blue eyes, peered at his friend with the same concerned look she had given Sora herself only seconds earlier. Akira had seen him with Masaomi a lot too, now that she thought about it, but she didn't know his name. He seemed much quieter that his outgoing friend and Akira thought she had seen him blushing a lot because of his rambunctious friend.

The brunette then locked eyes with Akira, and they shared a look of confusion and curiosity. It was almost as though each were silently probing the other for some type of explanation regarding their friends' behaviors. Then he glanced back at Masaomi. Masaomi's look of shock had turned into one of reservation and guilt. Odd. Akira had only seen him as amused and carefree. He looked down at his shoes and shifted awkwardly.

Akira glanced at Sora questioningly again. Sora's apprehensive expression shifted into one of contempt. Sora arched her eyebrows and glared at Masaomi. Then, seemingly in a huff, Sora roughly grabbed Akira's wrist and rushed past the two boys seemingly as quickly as she could. After seeing that they were far enough past the two, Sora relinquished Akira's wrist and exhaled a breath.

"My point is for you to at least try, Akira. I mean, this isn't just some school boy you are crushing on. This is a man who has assisted in many different dangerous businesses. Letting him know any of your weaknesses can end up being very bad for you. This is especially since he comes across as so unstable."

Sora stopped in front of her locker, and exchanged the books she needed.

Akira just shot Sora an incredulous expression.

She's really going to continue the conversation we were already having like nothing weird just happened?

"Sora, um, what was that about? Back there?"

Sora hesitated and glanced away from Akira.

"I mean, he wasn't on your list of people to stay away from, so why did you act like that around him? Is he someone I should be concerned about too?"

Sora sighed and reluctantly met Akira's eyes. There was an unfocused gleam to her eyes, as though she were remembering something.

"No…I didn't warn you about him because he's not dangerous. Well that is, not physically…"

Sora mumbled that last statement to herself, but Akira still heard it.

"Regarding him…that's just my own personal problems with him. I didn't mention it before because, well, I figured it didn't really affect you I guess. Honestly, I would rather you stay away from him as well, but that's just because I don't want to deal with him. He's not technically someone to be wary of, if you wanted to interact with him that is."

"Sora, um, what exactly happened to make you feel this way?"

Sora slammed her locker closed rather hard, but did not appear to be mad at Akira though.

"It…it doesn't really matter…"

"Sora…"

"I'll tell you eventually, alright? I just…don't really want to get into it right now. I hope that's okay."

Sora would not look at Akira as she was saying all of this. Akira just nodded. She would respect her friend's wishes. Since she knew how she felt around this boy, Akira would not go out of her way to interact with him if it made Sora this uncomfortable. Of course, she would not be rude to him either though. She just was not that type of person. Her friendship was more important to her though. Especially since Sora was more like family than just a friend.

"Alright, I'll let it go for now."

Sora bashfully looked up at Akira again and gave her a small smile in appreciation. The two friends walked home peacefully with no interruptions from a certain info broker.

Masaomi let out a sigh as he noticed Sora rush past them, dragging her friend with her. He hated what he was reminded of every time he saw Sora. He hated that look she gave him, like he was an abhorred person who couldn't ever be forgiven. This was especially since every time she gave him that glare and he thought about that…incident, he felt as though he was as awful as she seemed to think that he was. He only wished there was a way for him to fix his wrongs.

She certainly had not deserved any of it…

Mikado was very concerned with the way his friend looked at that moment. He had not even tried to hit on those two girls, and that was very rare for his best friend.

"Um uh…Masaomi?"

Masaomi slowly glanced up at Mikado, looking dreadful.

"Um uh…what-what was that about back there? I-I mean, you didn't even try to flirt with those two girls. That's very unlike you."

Masaomi tried to give Mikado a small smile, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Oh, Mikado…that's something I'll get into later. Alright?"

Mikado frowned but nodded at his friend. He knew there was something upsetting Masaomi that he wasn't telling him, but Mikado wasn't sure what to do about it. He was not used to Masaomi being like this. He just hoped eventually that Masaomi would reveal what it was to him, since he did not want to pry about it.

"Um, okay Masaomi. Wh-whatever you say."

Masaomi's smile turned more genuine at that, and then more mischievous.

"Now let's go pick up some chicks!"

Masaomi chuckled heartily at Mikado's amusing cries of protest. Ignoring his friend's resistance, he began to drag Mikado to the park. There he would most likely hit on older women just to be turned down by every one of them, like what usually happened.

A/N: I added an important physical description of Sora to chapter 2. Sorry, I wasn't sure where to put it before. I hope it makes sense where I put it.