A/N: Made a minor edit by separating first chapter into more paragraphs to increase readability. Okay, due to that, here's an early free chapter. You can expect the rest of the updates on schedule (Wednesday). As usual, feel free to leave feedback.

After school, I headed straight to the courtyard and prepared to go home. I felt I forgotten something, but decided to continue walking. That was just me. As part of the going home club, I always headed home without detours. I have been doing for years since that incident in middle school.

Now I had joined the service club, but club activities were canceled this week. It was a perfect time to fall back into old routine and go straight home.

"Where are you going?" A girl's voice sounded from behind. Thoughts darted back to my past. I could not recall a scenario where a girl asked me to hang out, so I ignored the person.

"Don't ignore me!" She said as she punched my shoulder.

Behind, there was a familiar head of fluffy pink hair done into a bun. Now I remember. Yesterday afternoon, I planned to study today and to meet her in the courtyard. My earlier actions were likely just a habit that I had back in my middle school days.

"Sorry, just a force of habit," I said.

Yuigahama's usual smile faded and she shot a glare at me. It seemed she has been around Yukinoshita too much and it is starting to rub off of her.

"What force of habit, that was just plain rude!"

"Are you calling me rude? Who was the one who just punched me?"

I could almost see veins on her face bulge up. I quickly had to figure out how to defuse the situation.

"Anyway, want to go look for somewhere to study?" I said.

Her angry expression faded, like her anger was never there. Eyes now sparkling like diamonds, her attitude seemed more joyous than usual. We walked together looking around for places to study.

"Hey, how about a coffee shop?" I said.

"Sure Hikki, that seems great."

A sign on the large front glass doors showed that the shop was open late. There was enough time to focus on studying. As I swung open the door, sounds of various people chattering filled the room. People of all ages, drank coffee and ate snacks while conversing with friends. A waft of fresh coffee swept my nose by surprise. Sure it was not the Max coffee I normally drank, but it will suffice.

"Hey, what can I get you two," the shopkeeper said. His facial expression expressed boredom and apathy. I wonder if that how others saw me.

"Two cups of fresh ground coffee please." I figured out that a regular coffee flavor would work.

We both looked around and found a comfortable seat. One great thing about this coffee shop was the soft, plushy, leather seats. My tired legs experienced a sensation like memory foam once I sat down. After several hours of sitting on hard, cold, school chairs for class, this was a refreshing change.

Surprisingly, the place was uncrowded. I expected more students here given that midterms were coming, but there was only one other group of students. Yui thanked me for the coffee and we cracked open our bags and took out our books.

"What should we start with?" I asked.

"How about English," she said.

"Ok. Can you first work through these exercises in this book so I can see what you understand?" I opened up her textbook and pointed to the couple of recent practice problems that were likely going to be used as test questions. As I started reviewing my textbook to make sure I was prepared for the test, she worked through the problems diligently. It was unlike the other student group that opened their books but chatted around.

"Come on Isshiki, we have studied enough. I am hungry," said a blonde girl.

Wow, I am surprised Isshiki was here. She seemed like the type to play around rather than study. I disregarded it was her at first because I only say the back of her head when walking in. Now that I paid more attention, I was confident it was her. The other girl was likely Isshiki's classmate. They went over the counter to order some cake.

"I'm done," said Yuigahama.

I looked over her answers for the English grammar exercises. It looked like she was confused with advice and advise. I wondered how I could explain this.

"Okay think of it like this, advice is something you give to someone else to help them solve their problems. Advise is a verb meaning the act of giving advice. For example, the service club would advise people on how to solve problems. These examples are all considered advice: a swimmer should stretch before swimming, a student should study before exams, and Yuigahama shouldn't cook."

"Okay, thanks I get it. Oh wait, one of the examples on the word advice sounds rude," she said.

"Huh really, how is it rude?"

"You are implying that I can't cook right?"

"Well as long as you get the word, that's great. Many people make that mistake in English."

"Eh, you totally just changed the topic!"

"Okay, you the head chef."

Yuigahama, pleased, went back to studying. I glanced at the other study group. Sure enough, their cake was now finished, but they were still chatting. Hey Hayama, you should be more careful, it looks like your underclassmen are picking up on your group's bad practices.

We worked on several more problems throughout the afternoon. Surprisingly, I managed to learn something. My English although good, was not perfect and Yuigahama picked up on where I was lacking. After, I felt like we had studied enough and Yuigahama agreed.

"I'll walk you home," I said.

"Sure, that seems good. Thanks so much for today Hikki, I felt like I learned a lot." A faint tint of red was coming from her cheeks.

We began walking towards her house. The walk was quite pleasant. The weather was neither sunny nor cold. Outside, the sun was about to set.

"Hey Hikki, you don't have anything planned for the rest of the day right?"

I shook my head.

"Come with me, I want to go somewhere," she said.

I followed her along as she led me through the streets. She directed me to walk up a bunch of stairs. The steep, stone stairs made climbing intense. After climbing for a while, I could see a temple.

Yuigahama made threw some coins into the offering box and prayed. I dropped some coins and prayed for luck.

"Hey, what did you pray for?"

"It is a secret," Yuigahama said.

She then led me to the other side of the temple and there was a pathway with a bench. The view from there was incredible. I sat on the bench and Yui sat beside me.

"I went here often when I was child. I would always pray for good grades at the temple. The view from here was great as well. Whenever I felt stressed over an argument with friends or family, this place would calm me down," she said.

She seemed to treasure that place. Was she stressed over the fact that I ignored her earlier in the courtyard? Blame it on my past because I never had a girl waiting for me at school. Despite what she just said, she had a light smile.

"Hey Hikki, what do you think about Yukinon?"

"Well, she's rude and insufferable, she insults me like no one else, and she has a strange love for cats."

"No, that wasn't what I meant!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you like her, like do you want to date her or anything?"

"I don't know, she is quite cold to me and she didn't even accept my friend request."

"Huh really…" she said, sighing in relief.

Yuigahama looked like she was about to say something. "I…"

"Yes what?"

"Never mind," she said. "Hey, sit closer."

Before I knew it, she moved closed and put her arm around me. Half the bench was empty. Hang on, this was too close, this was bad for any healthy male's mind! She took out her phone and pointed it at us.

"Say cheese!"

I could not help but let out an awkward grin before the shutter went off. We sat there, talked more and watched the sun set before I finally walked her home. Finally on my way back to the Hikigaya residence, my cell phone received a notification. It was the picture she took.

The week came to an end and it was Friday morning. Waking up, I heard the sounds of softly chirping birds and felt a ray of sunshine hit my forehead. I barely opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling.

Slowly, I tilted my head and looked at the time on my alarm clock. There was only twenty minutes before school started. To arrive on time, I needed to prepare soon.

Suddenly, blistering pain was felt on my heart. It felt like a thousand needles were thrusted in. The feeling made it difficult to breathe properly. There had to be a reason I was feeling like this, but I decided to ignore it and crawled out of bed despite the pain.

Grumbling in agony, I barely focused on what was in front of me. A silhouette of what looked like a book was on my nightstand. As I stared more, it slowly came to focus. It was a photo album of the past.

I glanced at the photo album. Out of curiosity; I flipped to the first page. The first few pages were pictures of me when I was a baby. At that time period, my dead fish-eyes still have not appeared. Through the sea of random baby pictures, there were some that had me in the nude.

I should lock these up, I thought. I would melt in embarrassment if guests were to see them.

I flipped through more pages and frowned. These pictures were from my middle school days. Most of the pictures were of me by myself. Nothing significant happened in middle school that was worth taking note of.

However, there was one picture that was notable. It was a picture of my former classmate from middle school, Kaori Orimoto. I wondered why I would have a picture of her in my album.

Trying to dig through my memory, I figured it out. It was a picture I bought from a classmate for 500 yen. That classmate was part of the photo club. Aside from taking proper photos that were displayed on the school website, he had a side business of secretly taking pictures of girls. Recalling that made me cringe at how pathetic I was back then.

The only picture of the girl I loved was not even a genuine picture. That picture made me realize the cause for my chest pain. That night I had a nightmare. It was a flashback back to middle school and how everyone bullied me. The trauma was so strong that I still felt symptoms after waking up. I closed the photo album and placed it back on the desk.

I unlocked up my phone and saw the picture Yuigahama sent me yesterday. It was of us sitting on the park bench after the study session. I signed in relief because I finally had a genuine picture. The middle school events were in the past, and it didn't matter anymore. I was now a different person.

A doubt crept into my mind for an instance. What if she was just like Orimoto, I thought. Everyone is nice on the outside until you get to know them. On the outside everyone looked harmless, but underneath were rough skeletons waiting to be exposed. Phony people all over the world try to fit in. They will not be afraid to drop someone like a hat once the person's usefulness ran out.

I grumbled and rushed out the door, skipping my breakfast. Sorry Komachi, your breakfast will always be the best in the world but I don't know what will happen to my body if Hiratsuka sensei sees me late for class. I grabbed my bike and pedaled like a madman. Well at least that was what I thought. Since I wasn't athletic, I was easily surpassed by other experienced bikers.

I arrived at school still panting, but luckily I had a minute to spare. It was the last day of school before the midterms. Luckily, the lessons were mostly review, and I just coasted on with my still sleepy brain.

By the last period, I regained all my energy. On my way home I dropped by a photo store. The shopkeeper greeted me and I looked over the different options before requesting a size. As I showed him my cell phone photo, a smirk appeared on the shopkeeper's face.

The new photo I received was printed and laminated. Cell phone cameras were not too shoddy these days. Although the megapixel count was low compared to traditional cameras, with the small size I printed, the effects were barely noticeable.

In fact, the photo looked clean and sleek. Upon reaching home, I put my new freshly printed photo inside the album. I figured to overcome the past, I should replace it with present.

"Ohh… who was that Onii-chan," A voice from behind me exclaimed. "Was that why you were back home late yesterday? You better tell me everything that happened yesterday, down to the very last detail! I won't stop bugging you until you do."

That was unusual. I thought I was in my room, with all the privacy to myself. Rather, then me going into someone else's room, it must have been someone who had barged into my room. Oh well, I will forgive her since she was my number one sister.

"I came to check with you because it seemed like you didn't eat breakfast. Was it a secret outing? So, you were so excited that before you knew it, it was midnight. That was why you woke up late."

"No, none of that sort. I had a bad dream in the morning," I said. "That was why I woke up late and skipped breakfast."

I told her in detail what happened yesterday.

"That was all? I don't believe it. You definitely missed a chance right there; this will be just like middle school. You will never find a girlfriend at this rate."

"Anyway, so like I said, yesterday was just a study session for the midterms."

I closed the album but not before staring at it for a while. I already felt much better than I did this morning. I was astonished by how much a good picture could change my outlook.