Hibisha: And we have another update from yours truly.

TOBF: Oh Thank God! I thought you were gonna quit this and start theTala project.

Hibisha: I don't own IE only the plot. And I AM working on the Tala project. I just need to work one all these stories together. Especially Burn's and Afuro's. Onwards mateys!

"Chapter 6"

I stared at Nagumo in anguish.

"You didn't have to take the blame for me you know." I whispered. Nagumo sat wincing as he flexed his fingers where he had received sharp knocks from a wooden ruler. When we had been caught, Nagumo had quickly pretended that he had taken me along against my will. And I felt really guilty. I took Nagumo's hand in my own and began to rub it slightly, hoping the massage would ease the pain a bit.

"It was my idea." came a terse reply. I continued what I was doing, ignoring the sharp hisses emitting from Nagumo's mouth. I frowned at him, silver brows furrowing. Releasing his hands suddenly , I folded my arms defiantly across my chest.

"I was just as into it as you were." I pointed out, "You never actually forced me to do anything." The two of us sat in our room, on his bed. Even though Nagumo had taken the majority of the punishment, I was still grounded as was he. It was sometime around noon and all the other kids were outside playing. I could see Reina and Kii playing from the window and looked at them wistfully. Suddenly, as if realising I wasn't happy, Nagumo threw a pillow at me, grinning from ear to ear as the soft projectile collided with my face.

"So how was it?" He asked eagerly, his hands planted infront of him as he sat cross legged with his body leaning forward, golden eyes sparkling. I gave him a confused look.

"How was what?" I asked, tilting my head. I saw him roll his eyes.

"The trip to Mars." he said sarcastically, "I meant the library!" I laughed. I couldn't help it. Even though he had been punished, he seemed to be really happy about the plan he had pulled off-according to him, getting caught after doing the work was still success. Hitomi-chan didn't know. She thought we had been making our way to the library, not away from it. Otherwise the punishment would have been worse. I sighed and got up, walking over to my side of the room. Our room had orange walls. In one corner was our shared closet ant the other corner had our dresser. Our bed were on opposite sides of the room, pressed sideways against the wall. The window of our room over looked the garden. Thick black carpeting covered the floor.

I flopped back on my bed. Hitomi-chan had removed all our toys and games from the room. Although, she had made a slight mistake-never keep the two of us locked together. Ever. Because the two of us together meant the chances of us reflecting on or 'wrongs' was highly low. And by low I mean underground.

"Let's play Dark Room!" Nagumo suggested. I agreed. There had been a time when I had not known what that game was but it had been nearly a year with Nagumo-I knew names of games I shouldn't know. We pulled the shades on the window and pulled at the curtains. I was to hide first. Nagumo turned out the lights and I silently hid. Waiting. Didn't take that long for him to find me though.

We played till it was time for dinner and went downstairs, trying to look as humanly bored as possible. Hitomi-chan looked at us sternly. I decided to act more afraid and fixed my eyes on the ground. Of course, Hiroto just had to come walking by at that moment. He just had to.

The three of us froze. Hiroto opened his mouth to say something but Nagumo was already walking away, dragging me along. Not that I complained. I hated Hiroto. What he did had been inexcusable. I had half a mind to snap that jerk's neck in half. Hiroto had better watch out. Because I was waiting for him.

I looked at Nagumo from the corner of my eye. He was staring at the ceiling, eyes wide open. I sat up in my bed and bit my lip nervously. Nagumo had been acting strange lately. It had been five days since the whole incident with the library. I hoped Nagumo wasn't still feeling bad about Hiroto's betrayal-the bastard wasn't worth it. Taking a deep breath, I stared at the ceiling, playing with the buttons on the blue pyjamas.

"I'm from Korea." I said suddenly, hoping to snap him out of his possibly morbid thoughts. It seemed to do the trick. His head snapped in my direction. "My mum was Korean and my dad was Japanese so I guess I'm both? Anyways, I was born in Korea and mum moved here after I was born." Nagumo looked like he was going to die from shock.

"So-you're Korean?" He asked, eyes flashing with excitement. I nodded shyly. Nagumo threw his head back and laughed.

"So am I!" he exclaimed with uncontained excitement, "Except, both my parents were Korean. But I had to move here in Japan after-" the rest of his words trailed of. I sat up and looked at him with a confused look. Nagumo had once again flopped on his bed with his back turned to me. Whatever had led to his move here, he was not happy about it. Unsure of what I should do, I felt tormented that my best friend was in pain and I was sitting here doing nothing. Suddenly an idea came to me.

Getting out of bed, I made my way over to Nagumo's bed. Taking a deep breath, I slid in beside him and wrapped my arm around him. I felt his body stiffen before he relaxed. I didn't need to ask to know why he was sniffling. He shifted so the he was on his back and I was curled up next to him, clutching his red pyjamas. I didn't let myself fall asleep until I heard his breathing even out and the erratic raise and fall of his chest to turn into a rhythmic movement. Closing my eyes, I tightened my hold around the redhead, nuzzling my face into his shoulder.

"Goodnight Nagu-chan." I muttered before I slipped into a peaceful dream.

Hibisha: So cute...

TOBF: Aww! That was adorable.

Hibisha: Pliss people review. I'm working my hands off here!