~ Day 24- First Names ~

It had never bothered either of them. They'd been pushed in a class together on the first day of high school because of their illness and because of the privacy of their tiny class, they just went ahead and called each other by their first names without really thinking twice about it.

But one day, Takane noticed that it had gone too far. Representing their little class, she had to do nothing but to tell some teacher the name of all students. But, since that only included her and Haruka, it shouldn't have been tough- two names to remember, one of them her own.

And yet, as she stood there, telling him her own name, she realised something. "And the other students?", the teacher asked and she stared at him with wide eyes, frozen in shock.

When she found her tongue again, she coughed into her hand awkwardly. "We've only got two students in our class", she told him and he shrugged. "Um, his name is...", and then, Takane paused. Well, of course he was Haruka, but... to her, he was just Haruka. She knew he had a surname like everyone else and she knew that she knew it, but then and there, she couldn't remember it.

"Don't you know a single person's name?", the teacher urged her on in annoyance. Takane glared at him in turn and huffed as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Well, of course I do!", she half-yelled and thought hard. Haruka had done the same as her when choosing his in-game nickname- that was, putting together a few syllables from his first and last name. In his case, that resulted in 'Konoha'. Since the only syllable that was to be found in his first name was 'ha', the 'kono' part surely came from his surname.

Ko... kono... ah! "Kokonose Haruka", she replied then, finally remembering that stupid last name. It was only because she hadn't really heard anyone speak it in the past sixteen months. "Birthday is the 24th December."

The teacher frowned but sighed as he finally got to write down that damn little list. Then, he hesitated. "Haruka is female, right?", he asked innocently, but Takane took offense to that and snorted with a haughty smirk.

"No, no, he's just got a girly name", she said in a tone that left it open for interpretation whether she was being sarcastic or not. As the teacher gave her a pissed glare, she straightened her pose and coughed awkwardly. "He really is male."

After that, she was sent back to class, even though no teacher had thus far bothered to go to them. "'Self-study' is our own study, isn't it?", Takane sighed as she sat down next to Haruka. "No wonder I'm so bad at school. The teachers are just too incompetent."

"Maybe it's your own fault, too?", Haruka meekly asked her and she gave him a pointed glare. He put up his hands in surrender, though his giggling made it hard to take him the least bit serious. "You took surprisingly long."

Takane frowned. "Yeah. Because I couldn't remember your surname", she bit out in a tone that implied that it was Haruka's fault for her not knowing his full name. Somehow, it was stupid to do so, since Haruka just laughed a bit at that. "Shut up", she hissed when he had stopped chuckling. "You only ever call me Takane, too."

"Your last name is Enomoto, though, isn't it?", he smiled and Takane groaned. Of course he'd know her name and she'd be the stupid one. "But you really gotta remember my last name, Takane!"

His serious tone took the girl by surprise and she looked at him with wide, curious eyes. "When we get married, it'll be your own name, too, you know!"

Takane hit her head against her desk and sighed. "Who says I'm marrying you of all people?", she barked at him and hid her face in her arms. "Stop talking bullshit you don't know the meaning of and don't suggest gross stuff like that!"

Haruka smiled at her as he saw the tips of her ears redden.