{Third Person}

Koyuki and Ayato stood silently, hand in hand, reading over the year's seating arrangements a third time.

The twins had always been practically inseparable, especially after a certain accident when they were younger. They very rarely left each other's side outside of the house.

Neither of them had any friends besides their siblings, Saiko and Shoko. That hadn't ever really been a problem for them, though, since the twins were always together. Even at school.

Up until they were about to start their second year of junior high, they had been lucky enough to be put in the same classroom. Naturally, their luck didn't last forever.

Standing in front of the board now, they both reread the sheet a fourth time before Ayato finally spoke up.

"This is bullshit."

Koyuki glanced up at her brother, noting his little pout fondly.

"I think we'll be okay. We should go, right? Mom and Dad might get upset if we decide to leave over this.."

Ayato scoffed.

"Yeah, right. They wouldn't give a shit if we burned the building down, as long as they didn't have to take care of the mess."

That might have been a bit on the extreme side, but he wasn't entirely wrong. Koyuki wanted to say it was, but she wasn't too sure herself.

"They might. It's possible they'd notice if we were home all the time."

"They aren't even home most of the time."

That was true. After a certain event, their parents had been away almost all hours of the day. Busy with work or social lives or whatever, they almost always came back insanely late.

When they were home, they slept. A lot. Either that or they just stayed in their rooms, only really leaving for meals. Neither of the twins could remember them going to any of their school things. Ever.

They were just so.. distant. The twins understood why, but that didn't mean that they weren't upset about it sometimes.

"I know."

Koyuki spoke quietly. An uncomfortable silence fell between them. Their grips on each other's hands tightened.

After a minute, and some thinking, Koyuki broke the silence.

"They probably won't care, but any highschool we want to apply to will."

"Are you planning on going to high school?"

"I don't know! I'm too flustered to think properly right now!"

Ayato looked down at his sister. Her cheeks were a bit flushed and she was scowling at the wall. She sighed and spoke again.

"Look, I'm not happy about this either. All I'm saying is that we should probably try it. Just this once, okay?"

Ayato groaned.

"You don't have to go again if you really hate it."

"Fine.."

She wasn't sure if he agreed to be nice or just to shut her up, but she smiled.

"Thank you, kiddo."

She stood on the tips of her toes and ruffled his hair, noticing that she was considerably shorter than her brother.

The twins went their separate ways and made it to their classrooms just before the bell rang.

Almost instantly, Koyuki started having a mild panic attack. She glanced around and realized that she barely recognized anyone. For a moment she found herself hoping that Ayato would want to stay home after this.

'Why did I think this was a good idea..'

In her panic, she zoned out. She stared blankly at the desk in front of her. Thanks to that, she didn't notice everyone else running out to the hall not long after she sat down.

She wouldn't notice until someone came to get her. Another student, a girl with pink hair who looked like little more than a blur to Koyuki, tapped on her shoulder, causing her to jump.

"Sorry to bother you, but you might wanna come see this."

The girl explained what she knew of the situation to Koyuki on their way out.

Ayato had gotten into a fight before the teacher came in. It was a pretty brutal one, too, from what the girl had heard. Most of the damage seemed to have been dealt to the other guy, who looked especially banged up.

By the time the teacher got there, the seemingly one-sided fight was over. Ayato stood slightly away from the other boy, blood trickling out of his nose. The other boy was lying on the floor, curled up and covered in both blood and bruises.

The teacher quickly pulled Ayato back further and told him to wait where he was before taking the other boy to get patched up.

Ayato glared at the boy. Even as the teacher helped him out, Ayato's eyes never left the back of his victims head until he was completely out of sight.

If they had, he might have seen the guilt-stricken face of his twin as she stood in the doorway, trying to make sense of everything that had just happened.