Natsuki shoved the door open of the girl's locker room exit. The sun shone brightly above her, and she held up her arm, resting it against her forehead in an attempt to shield her eyes. She wore a gray, small-sized t-shirt, which still happened to fit loosely around her, and went down to well-below her waist, covering a substantial amount of her gym shorts. She clutched a small, brown pot filled with soil to the brim, almost to the point of overflowing. She sighed as she walked carefully towards the track, where several other students, both boys and girls, chatted in small groups, while some of them were stretching.

"Physical Education," Natsuki muttered. "Still not great."

"N-Natsuki!" a mild voice called.

The girl in question turned to see her comparatively taller friend, Yuri, who seemed to scurry toward her. Yuri wore the same outfit as everyone else but wore an undershirt with long sleeves extending to her wrists under the gray t-shirt. This is the only class we have together. Natsuki thought. She's probably the only thing that keeps me sane during this period. "Hey, Yuri."

"How are things?" Yuri mumbled.

"Since lunch? No changes to report."

"I-I mean, did you have an enjoyable afternoon?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"That's good to hear," Yuri replied quietly. "Are you, perhaps, taking up gardening?"

"Huh? Oh, well, kinda." Natsuki lifted the plant closer to Yuri. "This is actually my science project."

"Really?"

"Yeah, we finally got the project approved today, and this is the plant I'm supposed to be taking care of. My science partner and I are studying the effect of sunlight on plant growth, and so my job is to grow this plant, keeping it in a sunny place, while he's keeping his plant somewhere dark, and we compare at the end."

"That sounds like a delightful pastime."

"Maybe, I'm just glad that our teacher was okay with it. We weren't sure when to start planting the seeds, because if we put them in today, they'll be done growing before the end of the semester, but we asked the teacher and he was alright with us presenting before everyone else. The participation part I was worried about will be a breeze with this project, and I think overall it'll be easy to write the paper."

"It's nice when things work out."

"You can say that again." Natsuki sighed. "Hang on, I'm just gonna put this plant out of harm's way, and then I'll come back."

"Oh, um, alright."

Natsuki began walking towards the fence, steadying the plant as she walked. The track was separated by a chain-linked fence from the rest of the school property, but there was also a small area between the fence and the edge of school property that students could still access, but was well out of the way of where students could walk. Natsuki placed the plant closer to the track in this intermediate space, careful to ensure it didn't fall over. Why did he put so much soil into this pot? It's made it ridiculously unstable! She balanced it on the grass, slowly letting it go to ensure the pot didn't fall over. She stood up, abandoning the plant in the sunlight. As she turned around, she noted more students had gathered in the grassy area inside the track, and she meandered back towards her peers. Her thoughts were interrupted, a shrieking whistle sound echoed through the outside area, and she noticed a large, oversized man let the whistle fall from his mouth.

"Alright ladies! Form up around me!" the teacher yelled. Natsuki quickened her pace. Mr. Pain isn't a teacher you want to have not like you. She knew that "Mr. Pain" wasn't his actual name, but she couldn't recall what it really was, and the hardened professor seemed to appreciate the nickname more than anything else. Natsuki lightly jogged toward Yuri, taking a place next to her as the students formed a circle around the teacher. "Alright, roll call, shout your names out loud and clear so I can hear you. Yuri Akiyama!"

Yuri raised her hand softly, not allowing the hand to drift above her head. "H-Here!"

Natsuki waited patiently for her name to be called, and when the time came, she responded to mark her attendance. She waited for the rest of the roll call to be completed, and Mr. Pain wrote down a couple notes, and let his hand holding the paperclip fall to the side. "Alright, listen up, a couple of announcements. First, the school sports day is coming up next month, and anyone who wants to participate is more than welcome to sign up for events on the main hall announcements board. If you don't want to be pinned into an event you don't want to do, then you should volunteer sooner rather than later. Don't make any mistake about it, you won't get out of participating by whining to me about it! Is that clear?"

"Yes coach!" the students replied in unison. Natsuki remembered the first time he had announced that, and when the response had been lackluster, they were forced to run laps for the first half of the period. That's the kind of mistake you only make once. Natsuki thought to herself.

"Alright, enough of that." Mr. Pain continued. "I have some business to attend to, so I won't be here the whole period. I just so happened to find the students responsible for vandalizing my car, and I'll be overseeing their detention for this period and after, so we'll forgo most of our exercise routines today. That said, I'll be having you all run a 1.5K, and as long as you're on your feet for the rest of the period, we won't have any problems. Are we clear?"

"Yes coach!"

"Good, now get on it, eight laps, let's go!"

Natsuki and Yuri, being closest to the track, were almost immediately able to get on the pavement, but even so were immediately overtaken by the swarm of students around them. Natsuki began at a slow pace, Yuri matching her speed, but Natsuki seemed to need to put in twice the amount of effort that her tall friend needed to. After two laps, Natsuki was already starting to huff heavily, cursing under her breath. "You know…" she gasped. "It's not fair…that you…get to…have long legs."

"Well…" Yuri started, trying to maintain her composure. "It's imprudent…to assume that I'm…faring much better than you."

"Leave it to you…to sound…elegant…while running laps." Natsuki turned to see Mr. Pain walk towards the main door, where another teacher stood with a tall figure dressed in school gym clothes. "Son of a gun."

"What is it?" Yuri asked.

"That's him," Natsuki answered. "My science partner."

Yuri looked over to the three figures talking. "Goodness," she started. "I have seen him before…he's rather tall."

"Don't let his size fool you…" Natsuki noted. "He's the kind of guy…who could sneeze on a fly…and then spend the rest of the day…apologizing to it."

"I see," Yuri nodded. "Come to think of it…you've mentioned him a couple of times now."

"Huh?"

"Just in passing…during our club meetings."

"What about it?"

"I…" Yuri started, huffing as they ran. "Never mind."

"Natsuki!" Mr. Pain bellowed. "Natsuki Kimura! Come over here wherever you are!"

The girl slowed as her name was called. Yuri slowed, but only for a moment. "Please…take me with you." Yuri lamented. "Or at least end my misery."

"I'll be back soon," Natsuki replied, hustling over to the teacher. Cut past the brief patch of yard separating the track and field from the entrance to the school. As she made eye contact with Kaito, he looked down slightly, muttering something that Natsuki couldn't hear. "Yes coach?" she asked firmly.

"Kaito here tells me you two are friends. He's transferring into this class and I'd like you to show him how we do things here. Any questions or problems with that?"

"No coach." Friends?

"Good, now get back out there. Oh, and Kaito, I still expect you to run all 8 laps. Are we clear?"

"Y-yes coach."

"Good. Now get going."

Natsuki began leading Kaito back to the track, only for her to see Kaito walk up next to her. "I'm sorry, I didn't tell him to call you over here-"

"Hold it right there, Admiral Apology." Natsuki interrupted. "It's no skin off my back. I should be thanking you for letting me catch my breath."

"Oh, um, alright then."

"Let's just finish these laps." She glanced back at the track, noting that Yuri was making her way around the side of the track. "Let's jog with Yuri," she suggested.

"Sounds good."

"Hey Yuri! Wait up."

The girl looked over at them, breathing heavily. "Oh, that was brief."

"This is Kaito." Natsuki explained as the two of them began jogging next to the girl in question. "Apparently, he just switched to this class."

"I know Yuri." Kaito added. "She, Sayori, and I all had the same writing class together last year. Sayori and I still have the same writing class this year too."

"I'm…surprised you…remember us." Yuri panted.

"Well, I remember that, um, you knew the answers to the different questions." Kaito continued. "And, well, it's not easy, um, to forget Sayori."

Natsuki laughed. "That's an understatement if I've ever heard one."

"I couldn't…agree more."

Natsuki was about to say something else, only to find the words stolen by her lack of breath. The sun beat down on them harshly as the three continued running.

"Um, Natsuki?"

"Yeah Kaito?"

"Are you alright?"

"I'm running laps…aren't you-" She paused, noting that the boy next to her didn't seem to be breathing heavily in the slightest. "How in the-...You're not tired?"

"I, um, told you I like to run. I try to go about 2-3 miles per day."

Yuri perked up slightly. "Miles?"

Kaito's eyes widened "Oh, sorry, I try to go 3-5 kilometers per day."

"We know how far it is." Natsuki continued. I think that's the second time he's done that though. Does he have American relatives? "I still think you're crazy…for doing it though."

"Wait, you're running this mile…in addition to…running this morning?" Yuri asked.

"Oh, um, yes." he stuttered. "Is that surprising?"

"How can you even…walk right now?"

"Well, it was in the morning, I'm not tired from that anymore."

"I think…I'd give anything…to not be tired right now." Natsuki grumbled.

"Your diligence…is admirable." Yuri chimed in.

"You even probably think…we're going pretty slow…don't you?"

"It's not a contest." Kaito answered. "I mean, you might even be able to say that we're all, 'running our own race', so to speak."

Natsuki shot him a glare. "You better not have just made a pun."

"It's a figure of speech," he responded.

"It was also a pun."

"I can multitask." Kaito retorted, seeming to get quieter with every word.

Yuri let out a soft chuckle. "I thought it was quite clever."

"You both are weirdos." Natsuki groaned.

"I'm also done with laps." Yuri commented, seeming relieved. "Good luck to you both!"

"How many more do you have left?" Kaito asked.

"Just one…you have three."

"I figured," he sighed. "I'm sorry if I came across as rude."

"Huh?"

"When I…nevermind."

"Alright." As they turned around the track, Natsuki suddenly was enveloped in a shadow. She looked over to see Kaito's significantly taller physique blocking the sun. It's still not fair that he's hardly breaking a sweat. She found herself aligning her stride so that she could keep her face in the shadow, finding the cool that came with the darkness refreshing. Before she knew it though, they turned again, and the two of them approached where the runners started. "Good luck." she mentioned as she slowed.

"Thank you," Kaito said smiling, continuing to jog.

Natsuki veered off into the grass, coming to a halt. She curled over, placing her hands on her knees as she tried to regain her breath. She used her arm to wipe the sweat from her forehead as she noted Yuri approaching from the corner of her eye. "You know, I'm beginning to agree with your comment about him adjusting his pace on our behalf."

"What do you mean?" Natsuki asked raspily.

"Well, see for yourself."

Natsuki looked up to see the boy that they were running with speeding down the track, passing by several other slower students. He had already completed an entire half-lap in what seemed like only a few seconds. He passed a group of girls, who seemed startled when he passed them as quickly as he did. Kaito turned slightly, as if he was saying something to the girls, but then continued running as quickly as before. As he turned the corner again, Natsuki saw a look of determination on his face that she had never seen before. "Wow, he wasn't kidding."

"I am as shocked as I am impressed." Yuri continued.

"Yeah," Natsuki found her gaze being drawn to the bright green eyes of the runner as he ran past them. Before either of them knew it, he circled the entire track a second time, slowing down as he turned the corner, and made his way to the field. He rotated his shoulders by swinging his arms in a circle, breathing somewhat heavily as he tried to regain himself. Natsuki found herself walking towards him. "Do you always run that fast?"

"No…" Kaito said, still trying to catch his breath. "I was trying to see if I could improve my time."

"I see," Natsuki commented. "It sounds to me like you were running with us because you wanted to watch us suffer up close."

Kaito's eyes went wide. "No! Not at all!"

Natsuki laughed, lightly smacking his arm. "Relax, I'm messing with you. It's actually really cool you can run that fast. I'm just complaining because I'm jealous."

"Oh, um, thank you?"

Natsuki looked at him curiously. "Are you thanking me or asking a question?"

"I'm just," Kaito stammered. "I can't tell if you're messing with me or complimenting me."

"What can I say…" Natsuki smiled. "I can multitask."

Kaito chuckled. "Fair enough, I probably deserve that."

The girl looked up at him smiling. "You know what, I've decided."

The boy looked down at her, confused. "Decided what?"

"Well-"

"Hey! Kaito!" A booming voice called. The two of them looked over to see Mr. Pain storming over with an intense look on his face. "You're already done?"

"Y-Yes sir,"

"Do you have any idea how fast you were running?"

"Uh," Kaito looked at Natsuki for support, only for the girl to shrug in response. "My guess was that it took about two minutes total?"

"It was actually about 80 seconds for both of those laps." Mr. Pain continued. "You run track?"

"No sir."

"Cross country?"

"No sir."

"You run in your spare time?"

"Yes."

"How much?"

"About 3-5 kilometers on weekdays, sir." Kaito seemed to shrink somewhat as the conversation continued.

"That's not bad. When I was your age I did something similar." The coach continued. "I'm impressed."

Kaito looked up, surprised. "Thank you, sir."

"If you ever want to pick up track events, let me know. With some training I think we could make something even more out of your work." the teacher concluded. "I look forward to seeing you improve. Enjoy the rest of the period though, you've earned it."

"Thank you, sir."

Mr. Pain walked off, shouting at some of the people still running. Kaito took a deep breath. "It's almost scarier when he compliments me."

"I don't think I've ever seen him that…happy." Natsuki commented.

"Anyways," Kaito shrugged. "What were you saying?"

"It's just in here, Kaito." Natsuki urged.

"I don't think I've been in this classroom before." Kaito noted as they strolled into the empty room.

"This is where we have our club meetings. We're not meeting today, but I wanted to show you something." They both had changed back into their normal clothes, but Natsuki still felt uncomfortable. These blazers are freaking hot after spending so much time in the sun. "It'll be quick."

"You've mentioned this club before. It was the Literature club, correct?"

"That's right."

"Who's in the club with you again?"

"Oh, it's just me, Yuri, Monika, Sayori, and Makoto."

Kaito chuckled. "That sounds like a fun group."

"Yeah, it's pretty cool." Natsuki continued as she made her way to the back of the classroom. "Anyways, it's in here."

"What is?"

She slid the door open to the closet, stepping inside, and turning on the light. The room was flooded with a dim, yellow light, illuminating a cozy room with several cabinets and drawers lining the walls directly facing the closet's entrance. She knelt down, pulling out a pink box on the floor. Monika used to move the box too high, but I'm grateful she doesn't do that anymore. "This is what I'm talking about."

"What's that?" Kaito asked. She picked the box up, struggling to get it off the ground. As she fully stood up, she saw Kaito rush over. He placed his arms under the box, brushing his hands past her own, and he lifted it out of her grasp. "You could hurt yourself trying to lift it that way, you should let me help."

Natsuki felt the urge to protest his intervention, but her feelings of frustration seemed to melt away as she met his eyes. Kaito's face reddened as she looked up at him, and she could feel her own cheeks start to heat up as she suddenly looked away. "T-Thanks." she muttered.

Kaito stepped outside with the box, placing it on the nearest desk. "The box is very…decorative."

"It came with the set." She walked over to the box, pulling the lid off to reveal a collection of pink, softcover books with the title Parfait Girls printed on every cover. "This is the set I was telling you about."

"You mean-"

"Yeah, the one my mom gave me." she continued. "I'll stay after school sometimes and read it if I just want to get away from everything, you know?"

Kaito looked down at the collection, placing his hand on the box as if he was afraid to touch the books themselves. "Yeah, I do."

"Anyways, you mentioned that you were thinking about getting them, and I thought to myself that if you didn't have to spend all that money, then you shouldn't. I'm giving you permission to read my collection, but only if you promise to not tell anyone else about it, got it?"

"I-" Kaito stammered. "I don't know, I'd never want to impose."

"Is it imposing if I literally am the one who brought it up?"

"I don't know, I just don't want to do anything to damage it. I mean, I know how much this collection means to you, and I, well-" he sighed. "I'm really grateful, Natsuki, but I guess I'm just wondering why you'd be willing to share this with me."

"Well, first off, having seen your room and how tidy you keep everything, I'm pretty sure that me just giving this to you will make this set more tidy and better maintained."

Kaito chuckled. "I think you may be overselling my abilities ever so slightly."

"Besides that," Natsuki continued. "I've been thinking about something that Mr. Pain said that's been on my mind. When he called me over to you, he said that you and I were friends."

The boy in front tensed slightly. "That's right."

"That leads me to my question for you." she stated. "Did you say that we were friends?"

Kaito paled. "I, um," he took a deep breath. "Yes, kind of."

"Kind of?" You have the weirdest responses to these kinds of 'Yes or No' questions.

"It just slipped out. I guess I wasn't consciously thinking about it, but-" Kaito's flushed face seemed to turn more red by the moment. "The truth is that I, um-" He sighed. "I-If I made you uncomfortable by calling you my friend, then I'm sorry, but the truth is, if nothing else, I want to be your friend, Natsuki."

Natsuki felt her heart skip a beat. She turned bright red, looking away as she folded her arms. "Geez, Kaito, only you could ask someone to be your friend while sounding like you're apologizing at the same time."

"Well," Kaito stammered. "I think it was you who called me, what was it, 'Admiral Apology'?"

She smirked to herself. "Yeah, I'm clever like that."

"I guess I just don't want to pressure you." Kaito said. "In the beginning, it kind of seemed like you were ignoring me, but over these past several weeks, I guess, I was hoping that maybe, you wanted to be my friend too."

Natsuki suddenly felt a flood of guilt sweep over her. He's not wrong about me trying to avoid him in the beginning. "Look, I'm sorry about that. I had a lot on my plate, and I still do, but I was being a jerk and taking it out on you. I shouldn't have done that, and, well, I'm sorry."

"Well I don't want you to feel bad either!" Kaito protested. "I'm sure that it wasn't intentional."

Stop making me feel worse about this. She gripped the sleeve of her blazer more tightly, unable to meet the boy's gaze. "Kaito, you don't even know me."

Kaito paused, looking up for a moment. "You're right, I know we don't know each other very well, but that doesn't change the fact that I think you're awesome! You've been great to work with on the project, and I really appreciated you sticking up for me when the Shiima brothers were messing with me. Even if I don't know you, you still seem like the kind of person I want to get to know."

And you think that asking me to be your friend in the same tone that someone asks someone else to be a boyfriend or girlfriend is the best way to do that? Natsuki nodded thoughtfully. Clearly, he's nervous out of his mind. She looked up at his eyes again, noting a sincerity that she began taking as the status quo with the boy in front of her. Or is it me that's nervous? "Look, obviously, I'm trying to let you read my manga, we're working together on school stuff, and admittedly, I've told you stuff about my mom that I haven't really told anyone else."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah," Natsuki answered. "My other friends know that my mom isn't in the picture, but they don't know about the fact that my mom gave me this manga. I'm still convinced that they think manga is just for kids. I could never tell them something like that, especially since I could never really convince them to read any of this with me anyways."

"Yeah, it's kind of sad that a lot of people think that way."

"That's not the point though, my point is that when I figured out that you at least thought of me as a friend, I realized I think of you as a friend too. I just figured you might as well know, but let's just…keep the status quo? I guess?" She groaned. "Sorry, I'm not good at this sort of thing."

"It's alright, Natsuki." Kaito said supportively. "Clearly, I'm not that good at this either." They both laughed, holding onto the pink box in front of them. "Sorry, I don't mean to make this dramatic either, but, since you asked, you might as well, um, hear my honest thoughts about it."

"Trust me, Kaito." Natsuki replied. "I don't think you're the problem here."

The setting sun began to peek through the window behind Natsuki, painting the light in an orange glow. "Well, I actually don't have any homework at the moment. Is it okay if I take some time to read some of this now?"

"Sure, like I said, you can use it whenever. Just be sure to put it back when you're done."

"Trust me, anything negative that might be said about you reading this would be doubly worse for me." Kaito noted.

"True." Natsuki added.

"Well, I have one request then."

"What is it?"

"Would you, um, like to read it with me?"

Natsuki could feel a swell of excitement. "W-wait, really?"

"Well, you said that you could never convince anyone to read this with you, I'd be happy to read it with you." His eyes widened. "Only if you want to, if you're busy or have plans, then I don't want to impose."

Natsuki picked up a book from the box, turning around as she grabbed it. She then promptly sat down next to the wall, extending her legs and tucking her skirt as she sat. She tapped the ground next to her. "Sit here."

Kaito looked uncertain at first, but slowly made his way over. "Should I grab another book or-"

"Just sit."

"Alright, I'm coming." He took a few steps over and sat next to the girl. As he settled against the wall, Natsuki held the book toward him. Kaito grabbed the pink cover, holding it in his hands, and examined it, which clearly read Volume 5 on it. "It's a very nice copy."

"It is." Natsuki commented, tucking her knees toward her chest, looking earnestly at the boy next to her. "Are you gonna read it, or what?"

Kaito smirked. "Fair enough, let's get to it."

Natsuki smiled as the boy next to her opened the book.

I hope you enjoyed it! I intend to finish this story, though admittedly, I've been struggling with figuring out how I want to pace it. I think this chapter is good enough though, and it introduces some ideas that come up later. Either way, I hope you enjoyed it.

Additionally, on a more logistical note, I've recently received some PMs on this website regarding this story, but I found that every time I try to respond, my messages won't go through. I appreciate the praise I get in the kind messages sent to me though. However, if there are additional inquiries that people would like to make, feel free to reach out to me through the email I have in my profile. In the meantime, I wish you all the best1

-Paladin