Two Fridays later, I was getting out of the school's gates once again. Students were rushing home because of the cold weather. I only put my beanie on and headed opposite of the house.

"Kakipi!"

...Was that my imagination?

"Hey, Kakipi!"

I nearly stumbled into him. He suddenly jumped right in front of me. "Hi," I greet, stepping aside to continue walking.

He followed me. "Awesome weather, huh?"

"Awesome," I agree.

"Today's a Friday right?"

"Yeah."

"So you're off?"

"Yup."

"Awesome, hey, come with me. There's this nice place I'd like to show you."

So I did.

He took me to a rundown cafe. And by rundown, I mean it. The place was located near the warehouses. Some of the bricks looked a little too fragile, and the sign that once read 'Cafe', now read 'Cat'; the little curve from the 'f' had fallen. Inside, it looked more like a bar than a cafe. There were some old dudes already inside. We sat in the corner; surprisingly this booth was in good shape. I ordered a sundae-I've been into them lately-and Ken ordered nothing.

"Where've you been?" I finally ask.

He thinks for a while, then with a shrug, says, "Thinking."

Good enough for me, though.

"Did you miss me or something?" he asks, a smirk creeping to his lips.

"Not really. Though I was bored," I admitted.

He grunted and looked outside the window. It was already dark out; dusk was a fresh dark blue.

A waitress came and set down my sundae. I thanked her and took a bite. I shivered a little, the ice-cream was cold.

For a while we didn't talk. But then I remembered something. "Ken, did you meet with these guys? They were looking for you."

"Huh? Oh yeah. Yeah I already spoke to them. Why?"

I shrug. "Just wondering."

He eyed me suspiciously. "How'd you know about them?"

"..." I thought of how to answer, but decided to tell him the whole incident; excluding the dog part. Mind as well give him a story, right? It was worth it, because at the end he was laughing.

"Sorry about that, Kakipi. Didn't think they'd involve you or anything," his eyes were still crinkled from laughing. "Why'd you assume that they were talking about me, though?"

Before I could stop myself, I said, "They looked wild."

He raised a brow. "Wild?"

I nod. I could feel a blush, but I doubt he could see it. "Yeah, but you're more tamed than they were."

His brow raised higher. "Tamed?"

...I sputtered a laugh. "I meant to say, that they looked messed up and dirty, like you. 'Cept to me you're a bit..."

"Clean?"

"Far from it, I bet. More like, 'tidy'."

"Huh."

"Yeah...go ahead and laugh."

So he did; but he soon stopped when the news turned on.

"A strange sickness has infected three people. It started just three days ago. A young girl was taken to the hospital, and was identified by police as a missing child. She was examined by doctors and was reported to be sick with an unknown illness. Doctors had allowed one of her guardians to visit her. Her guardian immediately fell prey to the illness and is currently being hospitalized as well. Doctors decided to quarantine the two victims, but just hours later, news spread that another person-miles away from them and having no connections-was infected with a similar illness. Investigators have found no similarities except for the symptoms.

The missing child was to be interrogated by police about her disappearance, but have postponed it for now. Searches for the missing children have begun once again-"

The television turned off all of a sudden. I mentally sighed to myself; hearing the news, especially about the missing children, put me in a bad mood. Don't really know why, though. I glanced at Ken, he had a strange look on his face; was he angry?

"Ken? Something up?"

He snapped out of it and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, sorry."

"...It's freaky isn't it?"

"What is?"

"The whole 'missing children' incidents," I made air quotes with my fingers, skillfully not letting the spoon drop.

"Pretty fucked up, if you ask me," his eyes narrowed solemnly.

"Why would they all be kidnapped though?" I murmur, not quite asking him.

"Why do you assume they're kidnapped?"

"...Why would thirty kids disappear in a few weeks? Makes sense to me."

He shrugged. "I guess. The illness is new though."

"Yeah..."

We stay silent for a while. I'm a little uncomfortable; talking about this got my adrenaline pumping for some reason. Something inside me started to get riled up...

"Hey, Kakipi, let's get out," Ken says, standing up already.

Without replying, I get up also. The air outside wasn't too cold, but it was enough to cause me goose bumps. We walked in silence, neither of us having nothing to say, I guess. We had just turned a corner when we heard shouting. Ken pushed me back against a wall, signaling me to be quiet.

"Run! Run!" a boy shouted, running past us.

A couple of other boys ran by, panting like dogs. What're they running fr..om...? Aw geez, how happy and lucky I am to be next to Ken; he seemed to have better senses than I did. A dark figure practically flew past us. It followed the boys nonstop. For just a few seconds, all was quiet; not even the wind blew. Then, one of the boys cried out.

"Please let us go, Mister! We won't do it again!"

"Yeah! We promise, Mister!" another added, his voice sounded shaky.

"You low-lives broke the rules; you must be punished," Officer Hibari's voice was as icy as ever; I started pitying the boys.

Ken and I winced when the sound of metal smashing against a bone rang out. A scream and sob followed.

"Let's get out of here," Ken whispers, dragging me to follow.

We ran as far away from that street, stopping only to catch our breaths.

"That was fucking scary," Ken wheezes.

"That would've happened to us two weeks ago," I mentioned.

"To you, you mean."

I somewhat glared at him. "Us, I mean."

For a moment we stare at each other, probably coming up with comebacks. In the end though, he laughed.

"You're right. You're right. Let's meet up tomorrow at the market street, yeah?"

"Sure. Night then," I make my leave.

Today was an okay day, I guess...

...

I'd waken up early today. I was a little excited, to be honest, about meeting up with Ken. This was-no, this is the first time I'm meeting up with someone. I walk to the market street at a normal pace. I just realized that this is the first time in about three weeks that I'm going back to that street. Last time I'd almost been hit by a car. Wonder what'll happen this time?

When I get there, my stomach right away start rumbling; I didn't eat any breakfast at the house. I see the bakery and started my way over there, but not before I hear someone call me.

"Hey, Kakipi!" Ken runs up to me, almost crashing into me at the last second.

"Morning."

"Where're you headed?" Ken is starting to remind me of a dog; a puppy to be exact.

I nod my head towards the bakery. "I'm hungry."

"You eat bread for breakfast?" he asks like it's unnatural for a person to eat bread first thing in the morning; is it?

"Tastes good when it's fresh. C'mon," I enter the bakery with Ken following behind. The inside of the building was warm; fresh baked bread scented the air inside. Already I can feel my mouth watering; and I almost burst out laughing when I see that Ken literally is, but I don't, of course.

"This tastes so good, pyon!" his face was filled utmost glee. But-

"'Pyon'? Really?" who says that?...This guy, of course. And he calls me weird.

"At least I'm not a total mute, like someone I know," he says smugly, taking another bite at the sweet bread.

"...Better than being hearing-impaired; that must explain all the excessive shouting."

"Are you calling me deaf?"

"That's what I said. What, hard of hearing?"

"Why you-!"

"Oh look, free gum."

His looks around frantically. "Where?"

"...Are you diagnosed with ADHD or something?" with a sigh, I stand up and sweatdrop as I see him across the street, yelling at the vendor to give him gum.

Five minutes later, we're walking down the street; me with a sundae, and Ken with his gum-that I paid for.

"You must really like gum, huh?" I ask, though it's not much of a question.

"Strawberry's my favorite, pyon!"

"...Riight..."

We spent the whole day here, in the street market. We went inside the flower shop, where Ken flirted-pretty sukishly-with the cashier, Kyoko. She had only giggled and naively thought of him being funny. Haru, one of the employees, giggled at the poor flirt that was Ken, while another employee, Hana, stared dubiously at us. This went on until the owner, Bianchi, came in and asked if there was a problem. I hauled ass the minute I saw her enter, not waiting for Ken. The reason being, Bianchi was known to be brutal against hopeless flirts. So I wasn't at all surprised when Ken came up to me with a stunned expression on his face.

"You ass."

I shrug. "Gotta learn the hard way."

"'Hard way' my ass!"

And so the chase started. We spent half of the day chasing each other like a bunch of kids. In estimates, we crashed into ten food stands, tripped thirty times, tripped others twenty times, broke five windows, stepped on three dogs' tails-a third of the chase was because of this-and almost caused a car accident fifteen times.

After we called it a truce, we decided to eat. We settled into eating at a new cafe. The food was amazingly cheap, and we entertained ourselves while we ate. We contemplated about how the waiter, Tsunayoshi, would look like if he wore the female's uniform. Ken had spurted his drink at this, causing a few too many people to eye us weirdly.

The rest of the day we spent by causing mischief. We pulled pranks at unsuspecting bystanders, though we almost got caught by Lal Mirch, some military chick. We followed some people, angered a couple of vendors, angered some animals, stopped thieves, and explored some alleys.

All in all, it was fun.

We agreed that tomorrow, we'd do the same thing. Once school started, which was a week before Winter Break, Ken did the usual and waited for me after school. The routine was so normal and natural, I didn't notice that there were things changing around me.

mne, i'll start pushing this up more further...so th nxt. chps. will seem rushed and stuff.