Chapter 2

Enter, Miura Yumiko

"Well?!"

Well what?

"I'm waiting!"

Waiting for what exactly?!

He was the one that had been apparently dragged here under false pretense, so why was she acting as if he was the bad guy here?!

The way she was tapping her foot though, alongside her expecting glare made it pretty obvious that she was honestly expecting him to do something.

What did she want from him though, he didn't know, and frankly right now he wasn't in the mood to deal with this kind of nonsense, especially from Miura of all people.

So doing what he saw as wise, he quickly turned around, his hand going straight to doorknob of the door with the only intention of leaving this place, and Miura, behind.

When the door didn't open, he knew he was in far more trouble than he had thought.

"How dare you?!" Hearing Miura's snarl from behind did not help either. "After everything you've done to me, you now try to leave me like that?! How dare you, Hikio!?"

"What are you even talking about?" He finally turned around, his frown of annoyance matching Miura's enraged visage. "What have I even done to you, Miura?"

Seriously, what was this girl's problem?

"How about ignoring me for two years, huh?!" Her next snarl came out as she slowly moved towards him. "How about pretending to not know me for two years, you asshole!"

Her yells were actually enough to make him pause this time, which also made him realize two things.

First, that this was the first time he had heard Miura curse, which was probably not a good sign.

And second, he had no idea what she was talking about. Ignoring her? Pretending to not know her for two years?

"Oh no you don't!" She continued, apparently noticing the confusion he was feeling. "You don't get to act as If you don't know what I'm talking about, Hikio, not after yesterday!"

After yesterday?

Was she talking about-

"This!"

Seemingly having no patience whatsoever though, Miura actually pounced on him, with one of her hands going directly towards his right wrist, and with more force than he expected from her, she raised his hand, pretty much slamming it towards the wall besides the door of the rooftop.

Her action not only earned her a hiss of annoyance from his lips, but also forced him to look at where she was holding him.

That also just so happened to be the moment the sleeve of his uniform ended up sliding down a bit because of his now raised arm.

The result? He was face to face with that same green bracelet that had seemingly started this whole mess.

That same bracelet that he clearly remembered taking out, but not putting back again.

So why the hell was it back on his arm?!

"So don't you dare act as if you don't remember me while you're wearing that, Hikio!" Miura's hiss forced him to tear his gaze out from his hand and back to her eyes, allowing to not only see the clear frustration in her gaze, but something else too that he only saw now because of how close they were.

Her eyes looked…watery, almost as if she was about to cry.

Not that he was able to ponder that for too much.

His gaze drifted down, since next thing he knew Miura was raising her free arm in a way that made it clear she wanted him to look at the point right below her wrist.

And what he found was another bracelet, one that looked exactly like the one he was wearing.

Only that instead of green, this one was black.

"Because I certainly do remember you, Hikio."

It was minutes later that he found himself sitting on that same rooftop, his back pressed against the still closed door and his right arm resting on his raised knee.

His eyes moved from the front to his right wrist, watching the emerald bracelet resting there for just a second, before moving his eyes to his right, them now landing on the also sitting figure of Miura.

Her own gaze was locked onto the black bracelet she had shown him before, but unlike himself who could only look at his bracelet with mostly confusion, Miura was looking at hers with an actual smile.

It was a complicated one, to the point he didn't dare to try and describe it, and if he was being honest, he didn't know someone like Miura was able to show such myriad of emotions.

But then again, considering what she had just told him, perhaps he shouldn't be so surprised about Miura surprising him.

After all, if what she said was true, then the two of them had been childhood friends at one point.

Nine years ago, to be precise.

Just that thought though, was enough to make him rub his forehead in disbelief, not only because of how…insane the whole idea sounded, but also because he didn't remember any of that.

Heck, when she had started, he honestly believed she had been bullshiting him or something in that regard.

The pictures she had shown him on her phone though, had pretty much thrown away any notion of her lying to him.

To say that seeing pictures of himself when he was a kid alongside a very young Miura had almost made his brain short fuse would be an apt description. It was all just so surreal that even when presented with hard evidence, he still found himself in disbelief.

It also raised a lot of questions, which he still found himself pondering over even now. Why had he forgotten it? Surely, he should have remembered something from that time, right?.

Miura clearly did, and yet he did not. Hell, he didn't even remember putting on the stupid bracelet this morning, let alone keeping the thing for almost ten years!

And yet even now he just drew blanks when trying to think about it.

He had to admit, a part of him even felt bad for her. Those memories were obviously important to her, he could tell that much just by her current expression, and yet he had seemingly forgotten all about her...

That did raise one question though.

"Why didn't you say anything before?" He blurted out while giving Miura a side glance.

Because of that he was able to see her body tense for just a moment, although her eyes remained focused on her bracelet.

For a moment he honestly thought she was ignoring him, until he saw her lips move in a mumble that he wasn't able to hear properly.

"Excuse me?" He said, but in return now he was getting nothing but silence. "Now you want to be silent-"

"I was scared, ok!?" Her sudden yell caught him by surprise, something that was followed by her glaring at him. "You never said anything and kept acting as if you didn't know me!"

"And I thought..." She continued, her fierce tone growing softer with each word, just as she started pulling her knees closer to her chest. "I thought you had forgotten about me... or that you hated me, so you were ignoring me..."

Of all things that could have happened today, actually feeling bad for Miura Yumiko had not been in his list, and yet as he saw her hugging her knees, looking far more vulnerable than what he thought was possible, he was not able to avoid the feeling from growing inside of him.

Especially since, even though he had not done it on purpose, he was still feeling responsible for her current state.

"I'm sorry." His apology left his lips out of a sudden, easily earning Miura's attention. "For forgetting you, I mean... I'm sorry."

Even though he truly meant it, he still knew that his apology probably sounded lazy, if not downright lame, so he was honestly expecting some sort of rebuke from Miura.

What he got though, was her shaking her head before glaring at him once more.

"You didn't forget." She spoke with a scary amount of conviction. "You kept the bracelet on so, a part of you never forgot, Hikio."

Her words made him pause, his gaze matching hers for a bit before a sigh left his lips. He didn't know if she had said those words to convince him or herself, for in his ears they sounded like a straight up excuse.

But her eyes were telling him that saying more would do little to change her mind, so he simply shook his head before turning his gaze once more to the front.

He had to wonder though, what was he supposed to do now that he was made aware of all of this? Sure, it was definitly a turnaround that he had never in his wildest dreams expected, but even so he still argued: did it really change anything?

It wasn't him trying to be insensitive, but them being childhood friends happened so long ago that there was really no way it had to weight on their present, right?

Hell, they weren't even the same person by now! Sure, he couldn't talk for Miura, but he himself had definitly changed a lot from when he was a kid. He didn't know how this friendship of them had started, but he could not imagine him being actual friends with someone like Miura now.

Just the idea was enough to give him a headache if he was being honest...

"You're thinking something rude, aren't you?" Miura's voice intruded on his thoughts, with her now frowning at him.

"Of course not." He answered immediately, perhaps a bit too fast he realized.

"You were." She argued back without missing a beat though. "You were doing that face you do when you're thinking of rude stuff."

"What? What face-"

"Even years later you haven't changed that much." She cut him off with a grin, which combined with her words was actually annoying him a bit. "I mean, you've obviously changed since you aren't a crybaby anymore-"

"I was not-"

"But Hikio is still Hikio." She finished with a shrug, almost as if what she was saying was the most obvious thing in the world.

Although in his eyes she was just doing his best to annoy him even now it seemed.

But his gaze kept trailing her, even as she slowly stood up while checking on her phone, with a sigh leaving her lips right after.

"It's getting late." She whispered; this time high enough for him to hear. "Guess we'll be picking this up later..."

Wait, later?

"What are you talking about?" He asked as he also stood up, a frown of confusion in his face.

Miura was back at glaring at him, almost as if she was challenging him to say anything else.

This time though, he did keep his ground, returning her glare with one of his own.

And in response? She suddenly thrusted one of her fingers at him, her nail almost poking his nose with how close it was.

"You owe me." She said with nothing but seriousness, only earning a perplexed look from himself. "You ignored me for two whole years, Hikio, and I'm going to make sure you make up for all that lost time before we graduate!"

"So, you better get ready because that loner shtick you have is not going to cut it anymore." She was now smirking at him, almost as if in triumph. "I'm at the top of the food chain here, Hikio, and I'll drag you with me, you like it or not!"

For some reason, Miura's words were filling him with more dread than anything else he had heard on the last couple of days.

And considering he had been engaged against his will and almost got beaten up by a bunch of thugs, that was saying something.

"You can't just decide crap like that on your own, Miura." He said to her back as she swiftly moved to apparently unlock the door.

"Well, I just did!" But her tone was that of steel, only making him grit his teeth in annoyance.

But before she left through the now open door, she gave him one last side glance, with her other hand moving to seemingly rub on her bracelet.

"And don't think I have forgotten the promise you made to me, Hikio." The suddenness of her low tone, alongside her words, made him pause, only for her voice to grow as fierce and loud as he expected from her right after. "So you better not make me wait even more, you hear me!? I won't forgive you twice, Hikio!"

And with that, she was gone, almost as if she was in a hurry, leaving his bewildered form behind as he tried to make sense of what just had happened.

He wasn't able to, of course, so in the end there was only one conclusion in his mind.

Miura Yumiko was fucking insane.

3rd one down, the shortest one so far but for this one I just wanted to do this one specific moment, to get things going so to speak. Why Miura as the childhood friend? Sounded fun to be honest. Of course, I needed a 'childhood friend' plot, so it was between Miura and Kawasaki for that.

Kawasaki ended up getting something different of course. Got to take advantage of the delinquent stuff and all.

Some of you have asked about the other girls. I don't want to spoil of course but I do have stuff planned for the obvious ones, so to speak. Others I'm still on the fence about. Some have even asked about Totsuka, that one would be fun though, wouldn't it?

Thank you all for having read this far, and thank you for all the reviews, follows and favorites!

Next Chapter: The Calmness before the Hell.

Plots so far:

1) Yukinoshita Yukino: "Because of my grandfather, my high-class Club President suddenly became my fiancée."

2) Miura Yumiko: "I discovered the most popular girl in the school was my old childhood friend and now she won't leave me alone!"