"Mum, dad, I'm home," Masaomi exclaimed out of ironic habit as he stepped inside, shutting the apartment door behind him and dropping his bag near the cramped door. He nearly tripped when he walked forward, remembering just in time that his new home had a small step up from the entryway. He carefully tip-toed over it then continued on his way, shedding his blazer and tie as he traversed the short distance toward the kitchen.

"Yeah, dad, I'd love some orange juice. Chips? Sure. Just what I need after a long day of school." Masaomi poured himself a glass as he spoke flatly, then reached into an upper cupboard to grab the bag of spicy kettle chips, placed mistakenly among a few pans and a ladle in the flurry of moving in yesterday.

"Dinner smells great. I'll make us some tea later," he drawled to the empty air, tone growing more and more sarcastic with each word. "Earl Grey or Oolong?"

He dropped a box of Earl Grey carelessly onto the countertop, peeling off his socks before heading to his new room, bare feet slapping loudly against the hardwood, echoed in the silence. He made a detour and opened the door of his parents' room, bare save for a bed and empty dresser. Plopping down and ripping open the chip bag simultaneously, he started to eat his dinner of champions – if those champions were poor college students with no cooking experience or funds.

Close enough, he thought as he stuffed a handful into his mouth, chomping down on the crispy snacks and staring at the blank wall.

Kida Masaomi didn't like being alone, because whenever he was he couldn't stop reminiscing.

Even now, he could feel the beginnings of a memory with his mother making dinner. He'd been folding haphazard wontons, racing her and her perfectly trim and triangular creations. Eventually, he realized when they went to cook them that he'd forgotten to spread flour on his plate, so that when they pulled up the little wontons their bottoms stuck wetly and ripped away. The two of them laughed later as they ate empty wonton wrappers with boiled meatballs.

The memory itself wasn't what Masaomi hated. It was what followed soon after, the feeling of oppressive hopelessness in knowing that no more of these happy memories would be made ever again.

"That's enough depression for one day," Masaomi said aloud as he pushed himself off the bed, making sure to clean off any crumbs out of habit, and retreated to his new room.

The instant he walked in he felt like he was entering an asylum.

The walls were white, the floors and ceiling and curtains too. All that was missing was the straightjacket – but, oh wait, that was lying outside in the hall, blue and suffocating with 'Raira Academy, KIDA MASAOMI' on the tag.

At least he had a bed. He fell back onto it and grabbed the lonely iPod on the pillow next to his head. "Hello, Death Cab For Cutie." He pressed play and let himself fall asleep…

Only to wake up two hours later like clockwork in time for tea.

"Masaomi, honey, doesn't Mr. Berry look like he wants some tea too?" A blonde woman with premature crow's feet around her shining blue eyes asked the small boy in front of her with a British lilt to her voice.

"I'm not a girl, mum. I don't need to pour all of my stuffed animals' tea," the six-year-old Kida Masaomi proclaimed indignantly, before picking up the plastic tea pot and tipping its spout into the matching flowered teacup before his teddy bear anyways, who sat watching him with glassy black eyes and a confused stitched mouth between tufts of fur.

"There's a good boy. Now, how was school today?" Masaomi's mum inquired, leaning forward on her elbows with a small smile and a sip of tea.

Masaomi scoffed, looking away from embarrassment but plopping down into the chair parallel anyways. "Stupid. Everyone is stupid."

"Oh, honey, what happened?"

"Nothing!" Masaomi exploded. "All I did was kiss Harry on the cheek! And all of a sudden everyone was singing that stupid song about sitting in a tree and that we were gross and we shouldn't do that – and what is that song about anyway I mean who kisses in trees except monkeys and I'm definitely not a monkey because I can talk and everything!"

The blonde woman laughed, a tinkling sound that spellbound Masaomi and seemed as delicate and lively as a set of wind chimes. "Don't listen to them, honey. It doesn't matter, as long as Harry didn't mind."

Masaomi pouted and crossed his stubby arms. "Well, he said it was okay before but then when everyone made fun of us he said it was all my idea and that I was creepy!"

With a small frown, Masaomi's mother sighed, "Sometimes, Masaomi, people won't be what we hope they will. And we can't control that. It's how you decide to handle it that changes the outcome."

His nose wrinkled. "That makes no sense."

A laugh. "Don't worry, Masaomi. You'll understand someday. For now, let's keep this a secret from daddy, yes?"

"Sure," Masaomi shrugged, missing his mother's fondly sad expression as he reached for another biscuit.

"Hey, Mikado-kun!" Masaomi bounded into the classroom, instantly halting early-morning conversation and gaining all eyes on him (as if his hair didn't do that already). "Ohayogozaimasu!"

"Sorry, my pronunciation probably sucks," the blonde laughed as he rubbed the back of his neck. Mikado nodded and smiled, a gesture that Masaomi recognized as 'not-understanding-but-pretending-I-do'.

"Nevermind. Anyways, I'll try to word this better…" he put a dramatic finger to his chin in thought. "Uh…where can I learn Japanese?"

"…At school," Mikado replied, a little confused and probably shocked at Masaomi's stupidity.

"No, no, no, I don't mean like that!" Masaomi sighed. "Uh…I don't know Japanese. Can you teach me?"

"Ah…" Mikado looked away, discomfort plain on his face.

"I'm a fast learner!" Masaomi said, clasping his hands together in a begging motion as he slammed his elbows on to the smaller boy's desk, ignoring the painful jolt to his funny bones. "Please! I mean, Onegaishimasoo!"

Apparently his desperation was clear enough in his voice, even if Mikado might not have understood all of his words. More than a little startled, Mikado shouted quickly as hastily leaned away, "Yes! I teach you!"

"Ahhhh! Thank you so much! Very arigato or whatever!" Mikado bent quickly at the waist in some form of a quick bow, his shaggy hair brushing against the edge of the desk and nearly banging into it. Mikado quickly slipped his palms over the surface before Masaomi could bend again.

"Please stop, Kida-kun! Danger!" Masaomi found himself grinning at both the concern from his classmate (friend?) and his adorable stunted English.

"Thank you so much! I brought a workbook. We'll start at lunch, yeah?"

"Ah…hai."

Masaomi beamed as he flounced away, leaving Mikado deeply confused with the sudden personality change from the mostly-solemn boy of yesterday.

Things were looking up.

"Oh hey, I know that!" Masaomi shouted out in delighted surprise, pointing at the small characters on the page. "Those are the numbers!"

Mikado perked up instantly. "You know this?"

"Yeah, totally! I mean my dad taught me a bit once…" He squinted, pretending he was trying to remember when really he just wanted to change the subject without sounding suspicious. "Numbers. Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyuu, juu!"

Mikado gave a little gasp of awe and an elated smile spread across his face. "Good!"

"Thanks," Masaomi grinned, then jolted. "I mean, arigato!"

"Do itashimashite. Testing now. Four?"

"Shi!"

"Juu?"

"Ten!"

"Shichi?"

"Seven!"

Mikado sat back with a satisfied nod, convinced that Masaomi hadn't simply memorized the line of numbers and not their meanings out of order.

"Yes. Basics," Masaomi exclaimed. He pointed to his chest. "Watashi."

Masaomi pointed to himself. "Watashi. Me?"

"Hai!" He pointed to Masaomi. "Omai."

"Omai. You."

"Hai!"

"Onegaishimasu."

"Iie. Oh-neh-guy-shee-mas."

"Oh, I get it! I was saying the 'u' wrong. Heeee~"

"Sorry."

"Gomennasai."

"Goodbye."

"Sayonara!"

"I will be back."

"Ittekimasu."

"I'm back."

"Tadaima."

"Hey, Mikado-kun, how do you say 'you're super cute and adorable and I want to hug you till your guts squish out'?"

"…"

"Sayonara," Mikado exclaimed as he, Anri, and Masaomi reached their split-up point after school that day.

"Goodbye," Masaomi replied abruptly on instinct, before realizing a split second later that the boy was actually saying goodbye and not testing his Japanese. "Whoops. I mean, sayonara, Mikado-kun."

Anri gave a little giggle. "Sayonara, Ryuugamine-kun, Kida-kun."

The two boys waved goodbye as she walked away, melting into the crowd. Masaomi turned to Mikado. "Arigato, Mikado-kun. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Hai. Arigato, Kida-kun. Sayonara."

Mikado turned and walked a few steps, then whirled back around to see Mikado leave. And he watched until the small boy was completely out of sight.

"Wait, we're doing English?" Masaomi jumped up from his desk dramatically, jaw dropped as Mikado handed out the workbooks like a good little class rep. The American could've cried with joy when he saw the familiar alphabet splayed across the page to form the words 'ENGLISH WORKBOOK'.

"Please sit, Kida-kun," Mikado replied tiredly. He was the only one in the class capable of even slightly taming the blonde ball of energy that was Masaomi. Even the teacher just sat back as the boy took the responsibility into his own hands.

"Sorry, Mikado-kun. This is exciting!" He practically bounced in his seat as he flipped the thick workbook open, landing on the first page that explained nouns, verbs, and adjectives in Japanese and English.

"Wow…I did this in, like, Grade Two," he said, sitting back in his chair and bringing the book with him as he flipped through. None of it was particularly taxing. Masaomi had spent a whole year in elementary school studying mainly grammar. By now he had a firm grasp on the English language, it being one of his best subjects.

The teacher stood and said something in rapid-fire Japanese ("Not that fast," Mikado had said to him after he had complained loudly about the speed. "You only need learn.") and then said, for the benefit of Masaomi, "Up to Chapter Six due tomorrow."

"Pfffft!" Masaomi laughed behind his fist. "Oh man, this is gonna be a piece of cake!"

He leaned forward and flipped back to the first page, blowing the non-existent dust from his mechanical pencil dramatically before beginning to scribble quickly in the notebook, circling verbs in sentences and telling the difference between the different forms of 'there/their/they're'.

By the time class was almost over he had finished up to Chapter Ten and was just getting into conjunctions. He felt a small tap on his forearm, and turned to see Mikado glancing at him shyly.

"Ano…Kida-kun, help?"

He paused for a moment, surprised that Mikado was asking him for help for once, then burst into a beam. "For sure!"

And maybe it wasn't the most glamorous first date, but it's a start, Masaomi found himself thinking as he leaned across the aisle to explain the difference between 'whose' and 'who's' to the curious boy next to him

AN: Masaomi's apartment is quite big and mostly western-style (his dad is rich) and most of the furniture is brought over from America, explaining why he has a bed instead of a futon.

AND! DOES ANYONE KNOW THE NAMES OF ANY SUPER FAMOUS JAPANESE IDOLS/SINGERS/ACTORS? It comes up later in this story and I tired searching Wikipedia but the list is just soooo loooonnngg TT^TT I only know Korean idols from my friends -_-

EDIT: 23/07/11 Changed the 'nee' in onegaishimasu pronunciation to 'neh'. Again, correction of Tears Parallel! That was a silly mistake of mine. I type too fast :S