Akari had all but forgotten he had ditched language school and neglected to tell anyone where he was. It might have been usual behavior for him but it never got easier for his poor parents. They ended up sending out a search party for him. Eventually, he ended up back in their penthouse, unable to stop smiling down at his camera. The boy merely rushed to see his mother and father, hugging them tightly. Though confused, they accepted his joy, unable to scold him when he cut them off first.

"I found my picture! My inspiration! Will you look? Will you look?"

The boy's father reached out to inspect the photograph, giving a small gasp of surprise. It was nowhere near as talented as the pictures he would take, but he was a professional. Akari's first picture was impressive for a beginner. He managed to capture the perfect pink sunset sky and found a very unique girl to model in front of it. The colors were incredible. He wondered if the moment was planned or not.

"A little girl," his father chuckled, pinching at his son's cheeks, "Do you have a crush, Akari?"

"A girl?"

His mother excitedly took the camera from her husband, beaming from ear to ear to see what kind of girl the blonde liked. Her smile fell quickly. She darted her eyes up at Akari, giving him a nervous smile when she noticed how happy he looked. The blonde had noticed she was someone special. The woman then passed the camera back and went to grab Akari's hand, beginning to lead him upstairs.

"Did you like the picture?" he asked, "Did you see? She's a goddess."

"It was...very pretty," his mother responded in a hurry, putting on a loving smile to calm his nerves, "Speaking of which, you won't believe who came all the way from Vethela just to see you."

"Uncle Rune?!"

Akari got swept away in his excitement, letting go of his mother's hand to rush towards the guest room. He couldn't wait to see his youngest uncle, even shoving the door open as fast as he could. But it wasn't Rune. After his mother rushed to catch up with him, he froze in place while she exchanged hugs with her eldest brother. Akari glanced down at his camera, wondering if he should show Arien, but when the man looked down to greet him, the blonde suddenly felt very proud - like he just had to show him.

"U-Uncle Arien! Look at who I met today! A goddess! Really!"

The man gave a soft smile at his only nephew's rambling, elegantly accepting the device. With a soft hum, he stared at the little girl in the picture. He stared for a while before his smile got bigger. Arien kneeled down to be on Akari's level, patting him on the head. The blonde blushed. He couldn't believe someone as incredible as Arien was giving him attention like that. He felt so very special and all the more loved when the man hugged him.

"Is she your little goddess, Akari?" he chuckled lightly, taking another glance at the camera.

"Yes! I knew it right away when I looked at her!"

"How sweet. You want to treat her well, right? Maybe you'd like some help with that. I wouldn't mind teaching you a bit."

"I-I'd really, really love that, Uncle Arien!"

"It's just Arien, silly boy."

. . .

Akari returned to the park the very next day. He waited the entire day, even watching the sun set again, but (Y/n) didn't show up. The blonde wondered if she forgot or if she couldn't come. She did tell him she wasn't sure if she could be there. So, he returned the next day and the day after that. Though, no matter how many times he went, he was never able to see her. Even so, he wanted to tell her the good news; that he would be staying in Athain.

As the playmate to one of the princes of Vethela, it was his responsibility to be a best friend and study mate for him. Rei's mother wanted him to be king, so, obviously, he had to go and explore the world. Akari managed to convince him to come to Athain where he would get to perfect his language skills and live in another culture. His mother was happy enough with it, so Rei would be coming over to Athain to study abroad, and that meant Akari would get to stay there, too.

As the Vethelan prince settled into Athain, Akari spent his time looking for the (h/c) haired girl. At any given chance he had, the boy would run around the city to catch a glimpse of her. He must have been lucky, considering it only took him a week. She was walking side by side with some other boy. Akari wanted to go run up to her. He did. But he couldn't. He wasn't allowed to. That was what Arien said - something about being loved but not seen. But Arien had never said anything about following her. It was alright if he wasn't seen, right?

Akari followed her around for years. Whenever he had the time, he would slip away from Rei and go and find his goddess. He learned all about her and did whatever he could to help her. Sometimes, he would leave foods she liked in her backpack and, other times, he would defend her from creeps and jerks. It was immensely satisfying to him, enough for him to completely ignore the other facets of his life, especially school.

"Akari," his teacher sighed, holding up his report card, "If you keep this up, we'll have to hold you back a grade. You won't be able to go to middle school next year."

"That's fine!" the boy grinned, rocking his chair back and forth on its hind legs, "If I get held back, I'll be in the same grade as (Y/n)!"

His teacher sighed, throwing his head back in exasperation. Akari had never been a model student, but, after supposedly meeting that girl, it was all he could manage to think about. His grades kept slipping and slipping but he ignored all of it. He didn't really care about the consequences, and no one except for that particular teacher thought it was worth the effort to set him straight. But that man was adamant about helping him, whether his future was set or not. Though, he always thought the girl Akari was talking about was imaginary. Rei did, too.

"So," he paused, watching as Akari looked dazedly out of the window in the direction of the park, "From what I gather, you seem to have deep feelings for this...girl? Rei tells me you go on and on about her when the two of you boys are playing."

"I can't help it," the boy blushed, taking a sudden interest in the conversation.

The teacher paused, narrowing his eyes at the blonde's sudden change in motivation. The man then rested his chin on the back of his hand, watching as Akari's eyes sparkled and he began to sit up straight. The blonde also put the chair back down on all four legs. Even his posture had changed after hearing about the girl. The teacher took note, raising his eyebrow at it and letting out a bored hum.

"Do you have a crush on her, Akari?" the man asked.

The boy's attitude changed once more, becoming increasingly more shy at the mention of his feelings toward her. He placed his hand at the back of his head, rubbing it nervously as his cheeks turned a light shade of red. And while the blonde denied that assumption, the man wasn't so sure it wasn't love. Giving a sigh, the man stood up and walked over to the whiteboard, snapping his fingers to make Akari glance up.

"Do you know what girls like? They like smart and capable boys who can help them if they need it."

Akari eagerly nodded his head, storing the information almost immediately. The man chuckled. He guessed it really was an effective way to reel the blonde into a tough talk. To help things along, he drew a simple picture of a girl and a boy, labeling one of them "Akari" and one of them "girl", only for the blonde to correct him and make it "(Y/n)" instead. The teacher's drawings weren't very good but Akari didn't comment, hoping the information was better than the art.

The man continued to write on the whiteboard, placing information next to (Y/n) of what he knew of her, which was limited. All he wrote down was that she was a year younger than him, was kind, and smart. He didn't think she was a real girl anyway, so he just went along with what Akari told him to be true. Next to Akari's stickfigure, he wrote down that he was failing his classes, refusing to pay attention, and being cruel to other children because they commented on his hyperactive imagination. The teacher pointed at the girl figure.

"'(Y/n)' is a smart girl, right?" he asked, Akari nodding enthusiastically, a wide and proud grin on his features, "Okay. So, to you, she's a girl that tries hard in her classes and does all that she can to better herself and others. But you are a boy that is failing your classes, harming other students, and ignoring your teachers. Do you really think that she'll like someone like that?"

"No, sir," the boy murmured, dejectedly playing with his hands in his lap and feeling ashamed about his attitude.

"Let me tell you something," the man said, taking a seat in his chair and placing his hand on the boy's shoulder, "If you don't change your attitude and take school seriously, you won't grow into a man that can help a woman out when she needs it. So for '(Y/n)'s' sake, why don't you try a bit more?"

Just as the man had said, Akari started working to better himself. Just because he couldn't be seen by her didn't mean he couldn't be someone worthy of watching over her. The blonde started working harder in school and being a bit nicer to other people. He was even spending time learning how to do housework. Before long, Akari could cook and clean. But it wasn't enough.

Just because Akari tried being nicer to people didn't mean they did the same. Most people already thought he was weird - talking to himself, climbing up things, and actively asking for Rei to hit him. They just kept poking fun at him, taunting him about his "imaginary crush". It didn't matter how much Akari tried to hold back his anger. In the end, he ended up taking it all out on the kids who bullied him. That was the problem. He didn't try to be, but Akari was violent, so his parents ended up having to send him away to a boarding school.

The first time he stepped foot onto the Johto campus, he hated it. He hated the constant surveillance, the rules, the other kids, and everything in between. The blonde especially hated how he was shipped all the way to the other side of the country. Just because his parents had pity on him and let him see Rei every other day didn't mean much. After all, when he was locked up there, he couldn't see (Y/n). That first day, he started crying, only for his roommate to reluctantly introduce himself.

"Hey," the brunette yawned, "Name's Yamato Hisaki."

. . .

A year later, Yamato and Akari had become really close. The brunette looked out for the younger male and Akari entertained him by being an idiot. Yamato thought it was nice to have someone to look after. They were both stuck there but they were stuck together. Yamato even helped the blonde sneak out to go find the (h/c) haired girl from time to time, keeping lookout for him. And though they were both constantly getting in trouble, they had fun with one another, becoming great friends.

In fact, when they were both released from Johto, Akari even convinced him to join him and his other friends in a new school. Except for Shota and Takuya who were a year younger than everyone else, they all started high school together. Jindei was great. Not only was it close to where (Y/n) lived, letting him continue to watch over her from afar, he was able to hang out with his friends. Even so, Akari wanted just a bit more.

The moment he found out that the (h/c) haired girl had been accepted into Keisetsu, their sister school, with a full-ride scholarship, his entire world lit up. He could already see her close to everyday, but, if he went to the same school as her, he would be able to be near her for seven hours. The thought became more and more tantalizing as the school year went on. For almost an entire semester, Akari held off, but, at some point, he was unable to reign in his desires, setting in motion a plan to be transferred there with everyone else.

Akari had always been bullied. That was just a fact. No matter what school he went to, someone was bound to see him as the weak link and take advantage of it. Jindei was no different, regardless of who his friends were. But, this time, the blonde wanted to be picked on, so he did nothing like telling them to the teachers, and he definitely didn't tell Rei about it. Rei would have killed them if he found out, but Akari wasn't looking for any deaths. Unfortunately, he underestimated Yamato.

The brunette was a protective person. He took in people he claimed as his and cared for them like they were his kids, courtesy of his own upbringing as a yakuza heir. The male acted as the mom of their friend group. They liked to joke that Shota was their dad, if only because Yamato was a bit firmer about his scoldings than the redhead. He was also generally nicer. The brunette was constantly looking out for Haru and Akari, who were, by far, the most airheaded and prone to injury. So, there was no way he missed the bullying.

Yamato tried to end things with words. Johto had done wonders to help him keep his anger under wraps, but, alas, the idiots ran their mouths. They must not have been aware of the brunette's terrifying past as "Kage". So, when they didn't stop picking on Akari, he ended up getting violent, trying to put them in their place for touching one of his people. At first, the blonde was overjoyed, thrilled things were going his way. But then someone dropped. They didn't get back up.

The brunette, far too used to fighting with people that could hold their own, neglected the difference between them and the spoiled brats of high society. He ended up killing one of them, sending two of them to the hospital for multiple broken bones and the last one into a coma. Jindei had to shut down after the death of a student. The cause of the death was kept silent, courtesy of the joint efforts of Kazuya Akahito and Tsunade Hisaki, but, nonetheless, the school shut down.

The rest of the students were dispersed to other schools across the country, but Akari and everyone else was sent to Keisetsu. He got exactly what he wanted. But then Shota started becoming overly curious about her, dragging everyone else into it. It became a mess. And Akari's simple desire to be closer to the (h/c) haired girl resulted in her direct harm. He should have known better than to do what he wanted.