(Note: This chapter takes place in the third year of high school, and is told from Hikari's point of view.)

Teruya Syo.

Most people get the wrong idea about him. They tend to think that he's one of those heartless people, but he's considerably popular. He says he has no interest whatsoever in having a girlfriend.

In reality, he's very kind, cheerful and bubbly. He can draw people in really easily. He loves a good joke. He's kind and warm. I tend to be drawn to warm people.

I realised that I like him last year. And not just as a friend. But I'm just another girl. There's nothing distinguished about me. The only thing I'm known for is being class representative last year. I'm just an average girl.

I can tell he doesn't like me that way. He doesn't see me as anything more than a 'friend'. A rather undistinguished one at that. Nobody believes that we could ever happen. It would take a miracle for him, a guy who doesn't have any interest in a girlfriend, to like me, an average girl.

So it's best not to say anything. Even if I really, really want to. It would just make things weird.

***

Our classes don't change when we go from second to third year. They usually remain the same. So I was comfortable with everyone. Luckily, I wasn't chosen to be class rep again, thank goodness.

I just finished club activities, and I was about to go home, but then I remember that I forgot something in class. I told Arisu, Erika and Hamasaki-kun to go ahead, and ran back to class. There was someone there.

"Pikari! Perfect timing!"

Oh, that ridiculous nickname from junior high. I know who that is.

Our new class representative, Ashikaga Isao. Not particularly tall. Black hair. Known to be loud and boisterous, but he's a quiet kid. A close friend of Teruya-kun. I really can't see him as anything more than Ashikaga-kun – the existence. I know him well because we went to the same junior high, and were in the same class for first and third year.

I took a step back. "What do you want?" I ask suspiciously.

"Nothing." he said, but he was obviously going to add something. "You were class rep last year, right? So could you help me with this? Pretty please!"

"No, you're bringing it all back to me!" I said, trying to escape.

"Pikari-sama, I beg of you!" Ashikaga-kun pleaded.

(Note: '-sama' is the most respectful honorific. It is pretty much equivalent to saying 'master'.)

"No. That name has no appeal."

"I'll treat you! Come on!"

"No."

"It's simple!" Ashikaga-kun waved his hand at pile of books. "I just need to count these and take them to the staffroom!" He accidentally knocked over the pile, and looked behind him. "Oops..."

I sighed. I can't leave it like that. I came over and picked them up, handing them to Ashikaga-kun. We worked silently, then...

"Pikari, you like Syo, right?" he asked nonchalantly.

I stiffened, then slowly turned to glare at him. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm just... striking up a conversation." he replied. His tone and face made it seem entirely sincere, but knowing him, it definitely wasn't.

"You do, right?" he asked again.

"...no comment."

"I know you do~!"

"Then why are you asking~?"

"I wanted to confirm it." Ashikaga-kun said.

We didn't say anything for a while. Then I stopped again as I handed him the last book.

"Hey, Ashikaga," I began, and he looked up at me. "Does Teruya-kun really not want a girlfriend?"

He took his time to answer. "He doesn't." he admitted. "He had a girlfriend in junior high, though."

I stiffened. "He did?"

Ashikaga-kun nodded. "I heard she was pretty toxic for him. Katashi knows better, but I know that she made Syo's life pretty miserable."

Sonoda Katashi. He's Teruya-kun's childhood friend, so he has known him longer than Ashikaga-kun.

"I see..." I placed the final book on the pile, and turned to leave. I can tell Ashikaga-kun didn't like it.

"Pikari!" he yelled, and I looked back. He gave me a reassuring smile. "I know you aren't like that. You aren't toxic or anything. I'm sure for you...Syo..."

He struggled to find the words, but I understood what he intended to say, and gave a hollow laugh.

"An average girl like me?" I asked skepticially. "I know you mean well, but don't kid yourself. I know I hardly exist on his radar."

I left the room, and this time Ashikaga-kun didn't stop me. Because he knew...that what I said was probably true.

***

Teruya-kun would never be intentionally mean. Wait...I don't think he has a mean bone in his body. Well, minus his very mean-looking default expression. Today, at school, everyone was crowding around him.

"What's going on?" I asked Erika.

"Oh," Erika said in a tone that implied that she didn't care, but she most probably did. "He got his ears pierced so everybody is drooling over it."

Hamasaki-kun got shoved over. He had displeased look on his face. "Honestly, he just put two holes in his body, what's so great in that?"

Erika glared at him, as if demanding him how he dared to question the greatness of ear-piercings.

"Why so suddenly?" somebody asked.

"My brothers took me out and said, 'Syo, you're a man now. So you need to prove your manliness.' And they gave a me a list of things I could do, and I just chose this, because half the stuff on it was pretty inappropriate."

"Inappropriate how?" Arisu asked mischievously. Teruya-kun looked at her, with an expressionless face.

"Inappropriate."

Arisu caught me staring. She always catches everything. "What do you think?" she asked me, grinning.

Teruya-kun saw me, and gave me a friendly wave. I diverted my eyes. I could tell I was blushing. It was stupid.

Hamasaki-kun glanced at me. "What's with you?" he asked, but it seemed as though he couldn't care less.

I shook my head, and he exhaled heavily. I wanted to be doing something, so I got out a bottle of water and drank from it.

Out of absolutely nowhere, Hamasaki-kun said, "If you like him, confess to him."

I spat out my water, making everybody look at me, and at the very unfortunate person on whom the water had been spat. Poor Erika.

I coughed, as everyone stared at me. I waved my hand, and everybody looked at Hamasaki-kun, as if asking him, "What did you do?" But he just shrugged it off.

As everyone returned to their own things, Hamasaki-kun addressed me again. "I mean, he's a nice guy and all. He's nice to you, right?"

"Oh wait, Kono!" Teruya-kun came running over. "Don't you want to get dried up? You'll catch a cold."

Erika's eyes were shining as Teruya-kun gave her his sweater. She wrapped it around herself, and gave him a bright smile.

"Oh, Kono-san can make such a face." Hamasaki-kun commented, nodding.

"Shut up!" Erika barked at him. Hamasaki-kun returned an equally nasty glare.

Yup, those two don't get along.

Hamasaki-kun shrugged and turned back to me. "So what were we discussing? Ah yes. Teruya is a nice guy."

I glanced over to Teruya-kun, who was waving Erika off with Arisu. I gave a small smile. "I'm not special." I shook my head. "Teruya-kun is just nice to everyone."

***

I was sitting in the classroom when everyone else had gone home. I was very faintly aware of someone singing loudly and approaching the classroom. When they entered, they jumped really badly.

"Oh," Ashikaga-kun tried to get his breathing back under control. "It's just you, Pikari. You scared the living daylights out of me."

I nodded.

"Are you possessed or something?"

I shook my head.

"I see...then what are you pondering?" Ashikaga-kun asked, approaching me cautiously.

"I was thinking...maybe I should confess." I said absent-mindedly.

"Wow, really?" Ashikaga-kun looked ecstatic. "What's with the sudden change of heart?"

I shrugged. "I thought maybe I'd feel at peace after being rejected."

"Hey, who said you're going to be rejected?" Ashikaga-kun asked, pouting.

"Forget that." I said dismissively. "I'm just thinking how I should do it."

Ashikaga-kun stared at me for sometime, and I could see the crease between his eyebrows. Then I suddenly remembered who he was.

"Ashikaga-kun, how should I do it?!" I asked him.

"You're asking for my advice?" he asked incredulously.

I nodded.

Silence. Then...

"You're asking for my advice?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, you have a girlfriend, right?" I said, I could feel myself getting pointlessly excited over this. My eyes were bright, and I could tell Ashikaga-kun thought I lost it.

"I do..." he replied, recoiling away from me, but I grabbed his hand to prevent him from escaping.

"Then tell me how you confessed!" I demanded him.

Ashikaga-kun thought for some time. Then he grinned. "Ah, so you seek the charming ways of Ashikaga Isao, and how he charmed the heart of a beautiful maiden." he laughed.

I suddenly frowned. "But aren't you and Hamaguchi-san one of those on-and-off couples?"

"Shut up, Pikari~" Ashikaga-kun sang, stretching.

"Yes, yes," I smirked. "Please continue."

"It's simple really. Just observe..." He got down on one knee, and he was still holding my hand. Then he passionately put a hand over his chest, and looked up at me, and he had this...'look' on his face. "And the you speak the three magical words."

I contemplated it for a moment. "Ohh!" I suddenly said. "Wow, so that's how you confess to someone. Wow, that actually had my heart beating. And that too Ashikaga-kun!"

"What do you mean 'and that too'?!" Ashikaga-kun yelled angrily.

I thought for sometime, then was faced with crushing realisation. I looked up at Ashikaga-kun with cold eyes. "But that's for guys." I told him.

"What did you expect? I am a guy!"

"Oh yeah," I said, looking down on him distastefully. "You're a guy."

"What did you think I was?!!"

I ignored him, and folded my arms, thinking. Ashikaga-kun moved towards the doorway, and then said, "Okay, I'm leaving. See you tomorrow, Pikari."

"It doesn't really need to be special or anything," I said under my breath.

"Special in what way?" Ashikaga-kun asked, stopping.

"Special in no way. Actually thinking of something feels like preparing a pig for slaughter." I said.

"Hey, don't compare your confession to a pig." Ashikaga-kun said, frowning. "Has Hamasaki influenced you or something?"

"No, not really. I'm stating facts." I told him.

Ashikaga-kun looked annoyed now, which surprised me. He slammed his hand on a table angrily, making me jump. "You're annoying!" he yelled.

I blinked.

Ashikaga-kun realised the effect he was having, and he backed down and cleared his throat awkwardly. Then he said, "If I was always afraid to confess, I'd never be happy with Hamaguchi-chan. If you sit around like that stupidly, nothing would ever happen." He glanced at me half-heartedly. "It's all a matter of courage, you know?"

I nodded. I didn't have anything to say. Ashikaga-kun was this type of person. You think you know everything about him, then out of nowhere he becomes the most distant person on the planet.

Like when I was bullied in junior high. He would tease me and annoy me and laugh at me to the point I wouldn't want to talk to him anymore, but at the end of the day, I could still consider him a friend.  He knew when he had pushed me to my limits, he knew when to get angry.

"Pikari, it's all a matter of courage!"

He would always say that. Even when it had no relevance to the topic, he'd still say it.

Ashikaga-kun was silent, but he finally said in a softer voice, "Syo is afraid to make a commitment to a relationship, because he's afraid that history would repeat itself. He made a commitment once before, and it almost destroyed his life."

He turned around and started to leave, and then turned back again. He marched up to me, and I thought he was going to hit me. I yelped and shielded my head, and he paused and looked at me weirdly.

"What?" he asked.

I looked up, and he snatched up his bag. He swung it over his shoulder and continued to look at me questioningly.

Oh, he was getting his bag, I thought, lowering my arms, feeling stupid.

"Isao~" A girl poked her head into the classroom. Ashikaga-kun's girlfriend, Hamaguchi-san.

"Oh, coming!" Ashikaga-kun turned back to the doorway, and walked over to her, as I watched. Hamaguchi-san is cute and petite and feminine. I'm not. Ashikaga-kun sure was talking big if he liked girls like her.

"Hey, Pikari!" he called, and I snapped out from my daze. "Aren't you coming?"

Hamaguchi-san looked at me questioningly. She gave me a small smile.

"Oh yeah," I said, grabbing my bag and standing up. "I'm coming!

---Continued in next part---

Syo & Hikari
(Yes, that is his neutral face.)