Chapter 1: Strangers In Many Ways

Shinichi was ecstatic to bring his best friend and longtime crush Ran Mouri all the way to Los Angeles for summer break. Well, he'd be traveling with their parents too, but it was still all so exciting for him. Sure, it wasn't his first time going to LA, but it was Ran's. Of course, he'd never actually talk about it, but he imagined all the things he would do there, like take her to the beach. He wasn't actually sure about the specifics, but Ran was excited about everything. She watched countless TV shows that took place in Los Angeles… or near Los Angeles.

"Shinichi! We have to go to Hollywood… or Long Beach… or…!"

He smiled at how excited she was. He could just stare at her eyes forever. And ever.

He cleared his throat. "Yeah, cool," he replied nonchalantly.

"What do you mean 'Yeah, cool'?" she was offended by his apparent indifference. "Couldn't you act a bit more excited here? We're gonna be spending the rest of the break here after all! Gosh, I still can't believe I'm here!"

Acting indifferent to everything she did was his way of hiding how he felt. It was easier, since they had such distinct interests that at first glance, you wouldn't even think they'd be friends since childhood. And yet, they still gained a kind of understanding of each other because they grew up together. It was very simple.

They bantered like this often, and right now was no exception. Even when they were pushing their luggage through, trying hard not to let it slip away as they walked through the crowds. In front of the tons of paparazzi trying to get a pic of the world-renowned actress Yukiko Kudo and her equally famous husband, writer Yusaku Kudo.

"Excuse me, excuse me!"

"Sir, would you please…"

"Miss, is there going to be…"

They paid little attention to what they were asking, focusing on getting out of there. And they eventually did and got into the car. Shinichi sighed. "Well, that was crazier than I expected."

Ran took a deep breath. "Be thankful we're still alive." Shinichi rolled his eyes at the remark.

"Shiho, I need to borrow the computer for a second. I gotta send something—"

Shiho Miyano turned around to see her sister Akemi, who suddenly came in while Shiho was reading an email. Shiho attempted to hide the screen from her, repeatedly saying that "It's nothing," but Akemi sensed that there was something. And a sort of light bulb turned on in her mind. "Oooh! You got mail from Shin again!" she started teasing her sister.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever!" Shiho tried to laugh it off. "Just give me a minute."

Akemi pushed Shiho away from the computer enough to read out loud a part of the message. "I'm going to L.A. for summer vacation—" she read, shocked. "Wait, Shiho! Let me read all this!"

"Akemi, it's not like I'm gonna meet him!"

Still, Akemi fantasized about Shiho meeting him. She always wanted her little sister to take a break from being "the genius that got a full scholarship to South Preparatory High thanks to science" and get some sort of social life. And who would be better than a guy that's around her age and is probably just as smart as her? Well, it would probably be nothing more than a fantasy because online friends usually don't meet up.

Akemi smiled. "Yeah, but if you guys want to, you know who can drive ya!"

They looked at each other in silence until Shiho reminded Akemi of what she barged in for. "Didn't you come here to send something?"

She remembered. "Oh yeah, I gotta send something to Jodie. She's coming down here tomorrow so we can catch up, by the way."

Jodie Starling was Akemi's best friend from college. Although Jodie returned to her hometown after graduation, they still kept in touch and talked all about their lives through email. They discussed all sorts of things, like each other's love lives, what they ate that day, or sometimes, even a little bit of gossip. Shiho was glad she was coming back to Los Angeles. She was one of the few non-Japanese girls who didn't make fun of her name.

Shiho got out of her way, and took out a book to read. Shin's recommendation for today was Wisteria Lodge. She usually reads long novels, but this was nice too.

Then while reading, Shiho got a little curious about who exactly the guy she'd been talking to was. "You know, Akemi, would Shin ever want to meet up with me?"

"Uh, maybe," Akemi thought about it too. "But you never know if he's actually an old guy or something." Shiho looked at Akemi in disbelief. All that enthusiasm just to suggest something like that. I mean, there is a difference between fantasy and reality.

"Yeah, that might be true," Shiho nodded. "I don't think many 15 year olds read Sherlock Holmes obsessively."

Akemi smiled and winked right there. "Well, not many 16 year olds are science geniuses either, and here you are. You never know…"

Shiho smiled to herself, and she wondered if he wanted to meet her too. She tried to shake off the thought, but she also felt like she didn't hate the idea of becoming real life friends with Shin. Whoever he was. Her sister was right, she needed more of a social life.

Akemi's message was sent to Jodie, so she switched right back to Shiho's account, where she read Shin's full message. Shiho looked up from her book and back at the computer to notice that she was actually reading the message. "Hey, that's a message for me."

"Hm, well, your name isn't exactly Sandy, no?"

She could only laugh. Shiho's name was Shiho, and she didn't even use the name Sandy at school either. She just thought it was a good online alias since it was short, cute, and easy to remember. Shiho remembered hearing the name in some movie, but she couldn't quite pinpoint it. But still, the message was meant for her. "Well, now it is."

"Alrighty then," she stood up beside the chair as she watched Shiho take the lead in writing her reply.

From: sandy_gray

To: shinster01

Subject: Re:Heading To Los Angeles

I hope you have a fun time in Los Angeles. I know there's a lot of nice museums downtown, and Hollywood seems to be very popular around here.

Shiho was beat. She didn't know what else to write. She let go of the keyboard to think about it, and was caught off guard when Akemi leaned in and started incorporating her own ideas into the message.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

Anyway, if you are ever around Beverly Hills, we can always meet up. If not, that's fine.

xoxo,

Sandy

Shiho struggled, trying to take control of the keyboard and eventually the mouse until she accidentally clicked the send button. She stared at the screen in horror. "Onee-san!"

"What? You wanted to invite him to hang out, so I wrote it out for you!"

Shiho was angry, alright. "First off, we don't even live in Beverly Hills, we're like 40 minutes away… and I do not end my messages in 'xoxo, Sandy'! He has a girlfriend, for crying out loud!"

Akemi's jaw dropped. "He has a WHAT NOW!?"

"Well, not a girlfriend, but he likes this one girl he's known since he was like, five. Oh, my god, didn't I tell you this?"

She stood up and continued to panic. "No, no you didn't!"

Shiho got comfortable on the chair again, "Well, it's fine. I'll write another message. Couldn't hurt."

Well, actually, I'm not from Beverly Hills, but my sister loves going there so if you want to meet we could always meet there. And I was trying something out with the 'xoxo' thing, because my mom's British and they end their letters like that there. And I wanted to try it out.

Sandy.

Shiho sent the message, and Akemi burst out laughing. "Shiho, you totally got that 'British people do that' thing from out of nowhere!"

She ignored her. "Let's just get something to eat."

"We're going out tonight?" Akemi asked. "Sure thing. I gotta freshen up first, though."

Right now it was Shinichi and Ran's time. The sunset looked beautiful, and they were walking near the beach. "Wow, isn't this nice!" Ran exclaimed.

It wasn't like she never saw nice beaches before, but it was special now. And for Shinichi, now seemed about the right time to confess his feelings to her. He walked ahead of her while Ran stopped to look at the sunset. She looked too pretty to ignore. He started to think about the what-ifs, and decided to take a chance.

"Hey, Ran!" he called out.

Ran was pretty distracted by the scenery so she turned around, startled. "Huh?"

And then, she tripped and was about to fall down on the concrete road from the sidewalk.

"RAN!" Shinichi called, trying to reach her, but he didn't catch her in time.

Instead, an unknown boy pulled her back on the sidewalk, and they both took a deep breath. "Gosh, that was pretty dangerous," he chuckled. "Are you okay?"

To Ran, this boy was cute. Really cute. She couldn't find the words to describe just how cute he was, but something about him really made her want to get to know him. I mean, he saved her, just like in one of those web novels that Shinichi never understood.

Her eyes lit up. "Um… yes…"

Shinichi was the first to realize that Ran was definitely blushing. The boy smiled back at her, which made him a little angry. Why couldn't he be the one to make her heart beat? Who was this guy, even?

"Well, I'm glad… you're okay."

"Yeah. Um, my name… is Ran."

"It's nice to meet you, Ran. I'm Eisuke."

He watched them from a distance as they began to hit it off. How did all of this even start? He didn't know, but it was obviously not making him happy.

He was the one who was with Ran all this time. Hell, he had a crush on her since kindergarten!

It wasn't fair. And he needed to change how she felt somehow.

How would he even do that?

She was laughing with him, and that boy asked her, "Would you like to have dinner together?"

And of course, Ran accepted. "Yes," she looked over at Shinichi and pointed at the restaurants nearby, inferring that she was going to go there with this Eisuke guy.

But Shinichi couldn't pay much attention to it. He was much too jealous to watch them go, so he turned around to watch the sunset by himself. He then wondered what to do.

How would he make Ran's heart beat at this rate? He needed to make her jealous.

He thought that he could easily romance someone at the beach, but most of the cute girls seemed to be adults or were already taken. He didn't have any idea what to do, so he began walking around, searching his mind for the ideas.

It would be very convenient if he actually knew someone in Los Angeles.

As he had that thought, he glanced over at the internet cafe on the other side of the road and stopped in his tracks. Perhaps he could…? No… that probably would not work.

But would it? That woman was the only girl he knew lived around here.

Her name was Sandy. He didn't know her real name, but she was the pen pal he had been emailing for the last year or so. He knew that she was supposedly a year older than him, lived in Los Angeles, and was too shy to make friends in real life so she started chatting on mystery book forums. But who knows if she was lying? She joked one time that she was an 81 year old woman. Obviously, he didn't think she was that old, but he thought about if she was lying.

Still, despite his level of intellect, made known to everyone he knew since he was a little boy, he was still a jealous, impulsive teenager whose crush may or may not be "stolen away" from him. So, he walked into the internet cafe to send a little message to this girl he knew.

Akemi just finished getting ready to go out. She put something a bit more presentable in

"Wait, before we go, onee-san!" Shiho heard the email notification sound. "Shin sent a message, I gotta respond. He must have arrived already."

Akemi rushed over next to Shiho. "What does it say, what does it say?"

She read it out loud. "Didn't know British people did that… I'd like to meet you… yada yada yada… Holy!" Akemi caught up with her and gasped.

"HE WANTS TO GO OUT WITH YOU!" Akemi beamed with happiness. She never knew a guy who would be interested in her sister. "And look, he said he's staying in Beverly Wilshire!"

"Well, not really… and you can't really trust something like that…"

Akemi paid no attention to Shiho's point and was oddly excited about driving her over to their meeting place. "Oh my god, I've never been to Beverly Wilshire!" Akemi paused. "Wait, wait, let's go there after we pick up Jodie from the airport! Even if he ends up being a fake, we can still have fun! And if he's real… OH MY GOD!"

"Onee-san, he just wants my help to make his friend jealous… it's nothing that serious."

Akemi continued. "And he'd be super rich too… it's like a dream come true!"

Shiho was confused. "Who says he's super rich?"

She rolled her eyes. "God, Shiho! If a guy's really staying at Beverly Wilshire for an entire month, he's loaded! Believe me."

She sighed. "Even if he's rich, he's not taking me out for real."

"That's how all those stories start."

Akemi has always been obsessed with romance movies since… pretty much the day she was born. She always dreamed of a perfect love, one that played out like a novel. Good thing she got one. Shiho, on the other hand, wasn't that great at communication in general, and didn't share the same optimism of finding her true love.

"Well, I don't think mine's gonna start like that. He's so not my happy ending."

"Hm, that's fine too," Akemi smiled. "Whatever makes you happy," she said. And she really meant it. "You need more friends than lovers anyway…"

They hugged each other, and Akemi walked out of the room to wait for Shiho to finish typing up her response.

Shinichi was still at the cafe. Now that he was actually in a cafe, he wanted a smoothie, so he was sipping one that was lemon flavored. He had to admit that it actually tasted good.

He didn't expect that Sandy would respond so fast. It was about to be dinnertime, so he was expecting her to respond a little later than now. He read the message.

I'm glad you thought of me as a suitable fake girlfriend, even though I am 81 years old. I don't have a problem with meeting you tomorrow at 3pm at that hotel. I do have to note that my sister and her best friend are going to come along. After all, I don't have my license yet, and her dear friend is coming over to Los Angeles for a little vacation to see her boyfriend. They deserve to have a little fun. I mean, I'm not particularly looking forward to meeting her special guy, but I am curious about him since he's a guy neither me nor my sister have ever met before. I'll update on that when the time comes.

Sandy

At this point, Shinichi was almost sure that she was not 81 years old. That was for sure.

He smiled, as he sipped the last of his smoothie. He looked forward to hanging out with a new friend tomorrow. Well, new friends if he ends up getting along with the other two girls.