Takato opened the door to his parents' bakery, hearing the familiar bell chime that followed and taking in the sweet aroma of the delicious-looking breads and pastries on the surrounding shelves. "Hey mom, hey dad, I'm home!" he called out.

"Welcome home, Takato," a feminine voice replied, the voice of Takato's mother. Yoshie Matsuda soon made herself known and walked out from behind the backroom with a basket of breads in her arms, smiling at her son. "You have a good day at school?"

Takato smiled back. "Yep, I got a 90 on my sketch book project."

"That's great honey! You really should have gotten a hundred on it though, you're such a fantastic artist," she said, recalling the numerous sketches and paintings that lined the walls of Takato's bedroom. "Oh well, no sense crying over it, 90 is still a good mark. Help yourself to a snack and then go work on your homework, alright?"

Takato nodded. "Kay."

After grabbing a cinnamon roll and a can of ramune and slipping his shoes off, Takato walked a flight of stairs and down a short hallway and opened a wooden door to his bedroom, basking in joy and smiling.

Takato was always happy to enter his room because he took a lot of pride in the dozens of drawings and paintings he'd done himself. Some of them were characters from Digimon, others were various landscapes, but most of them were a collection of him and his friends or family members. The majority of his pictures were of him and Jenrya.

The brunette threw his backpack down at the side of his desk, which was covered with various art supplies and only a small section of it was left free, and took a seat on his bed, taking a bite of his cinnamon roll and placing the ramune can on the end table next to it.

As he munched on the delectable pastry, he heard a small ringing noise coming from his pocket. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone. The caller ID showed that it was the phone number of his school.

~x-X-x~

After his afterschool Tai Chi class and a quick shower at the dojo, Jenrya stepped into the porch of his family's loft. He took notice to his older brother and sister bickering on the couch – something about pizza and money – but gave it little attention and made his way to his room. Just as he was about to open the door to his room, he was soon bombarded and tackled to the floor by a short girl dressed in a pink t-shirt and white short, Xiaochun.

"Hey, Jianliang!" she said cheerfully.

Jenrya sighed. After twelve years of living with Xiaochun, he should expect the daily tackle from her, and yet she gets him every time. "Xiaochun, don't you think you're getting too old for this? You're twelve years old and in middle school," he stated, looking up at her from the floor.

"Maybe, but not getting on your nerves, that never gets old," she answered, giving him an amused grin. Though, she took the hint and allowed her brother to stand up. "Mom and dad called to say that they're going to a movie right after work, so Jialing and Lianjie are gonna pay for a pizza, but they've been fighting over it since the call."

"For the last time, I'm not paying for vegetarian pizza, it's disgusting!" Lianjie shouted angrily, sticking his tongue out for emphasis.

"Well I'm not paying for a pizza covered with a whole cow's worth of meat on it!" Jialing yelled back. "With the food they make at college, I can't afford the calories as it is!"

"Why? Afraid all the guys won't like you if you don't look like a mop handle in a dress? Speaking of which, don't you ever wash your hair? It looks like a mop tied in a ponytail."

Jenrya and Xiaochun flinched as they watched the argument progress, staring in fear as Jialing's eyes narrowed and gave the eldest child the angriest stare he'd ever seen. Lianjie just pushed Jialing's button… big time.

"Oh, that's it… IT'S ON!" Without any warning, Jialing jumped across the couch and tackled Lianjie to floor, causing a wrestling match to break out between the two.

Jenrya looked at Xiaochun and shrugged his shoulders. "Guess we're on our own for supper," he said, making both of them laugh. Jailing and Lianjie were often bickering; which, half the time, resulted in a wrestling match… and broken furniture. Thankfully, their family made quite a lot of money, so they could easily repair and/or replace broken furniture. "Wanna head over to Lotteria while we wait for those two to tire themselves out?"

Xiaochun nodded. "Hold on… You're paying right?"

Jenrya laughed. "Of course."

"Then I'll be ready in about five minutes." The girl quickly raced to her room and slammed the door shut. Jenrya brushed the dust off his uniform and entered his own room.

He quickly changed out of his uniform and into a blue t-shirt, black jacket and a pair of jeans. He grabbed his wallet and slipped it into his pocket. Just as he was about to leave with Xiaochun, he heard his phone ringing from his jacket and pulled it out and smiled. It was Takato. He tried not to explode in sheer joy as he hit the 'Talk' button.

"Hello? Takato-kun?"

"Jen-kun, guess what!"

"What?"

"I got a call from the school about an hour ago… I won the dinner at Subarashii Ryorii!"

Jenrya nearly dropped the phone as he heard the news. It was earthshattering, at least in his opinion.

Sure, he was happy that Takato won the raffle and was going to dine on delicious – and incredibly overpriced – food. He really was. The only thing that upset him was that Takato was going on a date with some random girl that he didn't even know, and not him. He would have loved to go on that date with Takato, and see him all dressed up in a tuxedo that would probably be too big for him, making him seem even smaller and cuter than he already was.

But he didn't even have a chance anyway. The contest was for a boy and a girl only, not two boys. He would just have to suck it up and be supportive of his best friend, and hope the date went well.

"Jen-kun, hello? You still there?"

"O-Oh, sorry, guess I zoned out for a second there. Congrats Takato!"

"Thanks! Sorry you didn't win though…"

"No, don't worry about it… I'm happy for you, hope you have fun. Do you know who you're going with?"

"Nope. They said that they won't tell me until Friday. They're gonna announce at the end of the day on Friday."

"Alright, I hope you have fun. See you tomorrow, Takato-kun…"

After hitting the 'End' button and pocketing his phone, Jenrya couldn't help but sink to his knees in despair. This was the last thing he wanted. He never wanted Takato going on a date with anyone else but him. Jenrya loved Takato more than anyone else could ever dream. That sweet, innocent, girly face of his made him want to melt into a puddle, and his smile made him feel like he could touch the sky on his bluest days.

He sighed. Takato was going on this date and there was no way he could stop him without telling the brunette how he felt, he would just have to accept it and hope the date goes well… or up in flames.

And who knows? Maybe Takato might accidently spill soda on his date's dress, she'll get mad and run out of the restaurant, and they'll never speak again. That thought gave Jenrya enough good spirits to stand up again and got him to go out to meet Xiaochun at the front door.

"It's about time, Jianliang! What took you so long?" she asked in an impatient tone.

Jenrya faked a smile. "Oh nothing, just had to find my wallet," he quickly lied. His focus drifted to Xiaochun's new outfit, which consisted of a white tank-top with a pink heart embroidered in the center, a pink skirt, white knee socks and a small, red purse hanging off her shoulder. She had also let down her hair from its two pigtails, letting it flow down to her neck. That wasn't something she normally wore, especially not to a place like Lotteria. What was she up to…?

"Nǐ yào qù fùchū, húndàn, guòlái!"

"Ō, chángshì, ràng wǒ, biǎo zi!"

Jenrya flinched at his older siblings' cursing at each other in Chinese from across the room and quickly looked at Xiaochun. "Please tell me you don't know what that means…"

"Do you want the truth? Or do you want me to lie so that you don't get in trouble with Mom and Dad?"

"Which do you think?"

Xiaochun grinned. "Nope, I have no clue."

Jenrya smiled proudly and ruffled his hands through her hair. "And that's why you're my favourite… Now, let's go before you hear something else you shouldn't know, come on," he said as he quickly pushed his younger sister out the door and shutting it behind him.