_Chapter 34~ Treasure Me_

"Reina," Daichi sighed as soon as we met up after the bell for lunch, Erika off prancing around the school by herself. "We're not in the same class anymore!"

"It sucks, right?" Miyabi pouted. "I was hoping we'd all be in the same class too. Iwasaki's so lucky!"

At the mention, I fixated my gaze on the said guy for a brief second before immediately looking back at them. He luckily didn't notice.

"Then again," Daichi began, tilting his head, "Reina's not really the best classmate. She's always daydreaming in class."

"Really? I was so sure she'd be super dedicated," Miyabi said in surprise. "Well, Iwasaki isn't any better so I guess we both suffered equally for a year, haven't we?"

"What a long year too."

Miyabi beamed, swinging an arm around his shoulder. "Thank goodness I have you now!"

Daichi winced at the contact, gingerly placing his finger by his cheek. My eyelids rose in shock to the band-aid he had pasted there.

"Daichi, are you all right?"

He quickly forced a smile at my question. "Yeah, fine. Just had a little accident."

"Jeez, you gotta be more careful, Daichi," Miyabi scolded. "Were you working in your shop or something?"

"Yeah... I got splashed in the cheek with hot tea." He awkwardly laughed. "More importantly, are you okay, Reina? I heard about Raidon Tsuki and Keisuke Yamasaki's visit to your class today. Didn't they get dragged to the principal's office sooner or later when Mrs. Hamada arrived?"

"Yeah, yeah! I heard that too!" Miyabi said, throwing up his arm.

"Thank goodness Mrs. Hamada arrived," I breathed, recalling the very scene. The two delinquents were dragged out of room by the terrifying old lady we called a principal and Mr. Matsuda was finally able to begin a normal class.

"I was so worried about you, Sheep! I wanted to race out of my class so I could protect you!" Without warning, Miyabi brought my body to his for emphasis.

"Oh, did you hear my cry for help?" I went along with it, wryly smiling as I did.

"Of course! There's no way I didn't hear your heart cry for mine!"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah... Can you let go of me now?"

"Yeah, you're being rude Miyabi," Daichi interjected with a frown. "I never get to hug Reina."

I deadpanned.

"And you think I do? She's typically so vicious!" Miyabi defended. "She tried to bite off my hand the last time I tried! Bite it!"

No I didn't. I tried to push him away from me. "Hey—"

"Leave her alone." In a split second, Ryu pried both Miyabi and Daichi away from me and forced them to keep their distance. As always, he had come to my rescue. I let out a breath of relief.

Miyabi sheepishly chuckled, holding up his arms as Ryu continued to glare at them. "Sorry, sorry," he apologized as Daichi bobbed his head in a bow as well. "Iwasaki... you really treasure Sheep don't you?"

His hostility slipping, Ryu blinked at the question. His countenance matched my baffled one.

"He... does?" I asked, glancing up at him for an answer.

Ryu met my eyes, and like an innocent puppy, tilted his head to the side. "I... do?"

Daichi shook his head the same time Miyabi let out a laugh.

"Clearly you value her in your life. Even with that whole bodyguard thing too, you're always looking out for her safety because you don't want her to get hurt," Miyabi explained with a shrug. "She's not just anyone to you."

"Doesn't he just see her as a friend then?" Daichi questioned from beside him, perplexed.

"No way, no way," Miyabi refuted, throwing his hands behind his head. "It's not that simple."

Digesting his words, at first, Ryu paused. His brows knitted together almost in wonder as his grey eyes met mine.

I tentatively asked Ryu, "Is that true?"

"Depends," he responded, equally as careful. "Do you... treasure me too?"

My eyelids shot up a fraction. A bashful smile grew on my face. "O-of course," I said. "We're friends, right?"

Ryu's expression to follow was somewhat adorable because he broke out into a full-on grin. He had grown so happy and I felt touched that saying something simple like that could get him to react this way.

"Oh, yeah," I began. "I've been trying to bake something lately but I'm not sure if it'll turn out good or not. Do you want to try it, Iwasaki?"

Without a second's delay, he bobbed his head. "I bet it will taste good; whatever you make always is."

My cheeks warmed. "I-I see..." This was so weird. Why was my heart pounding this much? It'd never happened before. Could it be that I was nervous because I still didn't know how to ask him about Aki? Earlier with his name, too. But...

"No fair! I want some of Sheep's baking!" Miyabi whined.

"Me too!" piped in Daichi. "It's really good!"

I turned to them and smiled weakly. "Sure... if you guys don't mind, I'll make you something too."

"Ooh, yay!"

"How lucky!"

They high-fived. It was obvious they'd gotten closer.

As they continued on with their own animated talk, I shuffled my feet back and forth in antsy. Why didn't I try to say it?

"Hey... Iwasaki," I began, directing my focus upwards and locking eyes with him. "Earlier... when I started panicking... thanks for calming me down."

Ryu shook his head. "It's fine," he said, and the corners of his lips quirked up. "Seriously," he went on, "you get so scared when it comes to them but you always seem to forget that Aki is involved with them too."

Aki...

Frowning, I swallowed hard. "Iwasaki... about Aki..."

"You have a bit of bed hair." Ryu's comment successfully flustered me.

I reached for my head, reddening in embarrassment.

"N-no way? It was like this all morning?" I frantically flattened it the best I could. "Stupid hair...! And it's the first day back too!"

I peeked upwards, only to see him laugh a bit under his breath. "I was kidding," he spoke with a small smile. "I kinda wanted to see how you'd respond. Your hair's fine." Leaning over, he ruffled it a bit and was startled when he pulled his hand away. "Well, maybe not anymore?" He tried again, and again much to no success.

"Hey, stop it!" I finally snapped, pushing him away. I frowned at him as I attempted to fix my own hair.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"You should be sorry." I pursed my lips. "You orange."

Ryu flinched. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that? I don't like it." Narrowing his eyes, he threatened, "I'll call you 'Sheep.'"

"Huh? No!" I internally cringed. "I'd hate you for that!"

"You'd... hate me?" Ryu frowned at the idea. "Then I won't say it. But... can't our regular names be enough?"

I bit the inside of my cheek, hating the fact that my heart kind of melted as a result. Although I wanted to tell him to stop taking me so seriously all the time, I also somehow couldn't muster the courage to say that I feared that his 'regular name' may not even have been his real name....

*  *  *

"So, why are we at a daycare again?"

Daichi met my gaze from beside me, puzzled by my gaping at the building before us.

"I have to pick up my little sister," he replied as if it were obvious. "I always stop by this time every day."

My jaw fell. "Huh? You have a little sister?"

"Yeah," he replied. "My parents are too busy running their shop to stop by so every morning I have to drop her off and pick her up in the afternoon."

Was that so? I bobbed my head, tracing the path to where other parents were picking up their kids and greeting the owners.

Daichi smiled as a little girl came running up to him and hugged his legs. "Hey Suzu, how was your day?"

"Good!" chirped the little girl, smiling a toothless grin.

"That's good." Daichi scooped up her tiny hand, waving goodbye to the daycare lady by the doors before leading the way once again. "Let's go to Mom and Dad, all right?"

"All right!" sang the girl.

"Hey, Daichi," I hissed, hopefully in a voice his sister wouldn't hear. "The only reason I came with you today is because you kept saying you wanted to take me somewhere surprising. If you were taking me to a daycare the entire time—"

"Of course not, Reina," Daichi assured me. "We're actually going somewhere."

"But—"

"Dai, who is she?"

My words were cut off short by the voice of the little girl, and I turned my head down to look at her. Her brown eyes were wide in curiosity, and I couldn't help but 'aww' a little inside. She really did resemble Daichi.

"Hmm..."  Daichi began, his attention forward as he led the way. "Someone I go to school with?"

Prying her gaze away from me, the little girl peered up at her older brother. "School...?" she repeated with a frown. "So you're not friends?"

Daichi blatantly flinched and he vigorously nodded. "Uh... yes, of course we are. Friends, that is."

She beamed, almost ecstatic to hear that. "Are you and Big Sis the best-est of friends?"

Daichi laughed at that. He looked my way for a brief moment, shooting me a bashful wink. "Yeah... we're the best-est of friends."

Albeit that would've been the typical response to a question coming from a girl her age, it still succeeded in catching me off guard. My lips settled into the state of a tiny smile. I'd never really thought about it before, but did Daichi really consider us to be friends? I mean, sure we do call each other by our first names, and we hang out often... He always helped me out whenever I needed too.

I knew it was because he promised to stick with me since that day I did him that favour, but still... It was unrealistic. Nobody, even him, would go so far as to befriend somebody like me for something like that.

There were many people in my life who I thought were close, but they weren't in the end. They all stopped contacting me when I enrolled into Akelius so it was tough to call them my friends anymore. All because it was a delinquent school. So that led to my belief that I shouldn't become friends with anyone in such an institution, but that perception of mine had done an entire one-eighty in less than a year....

Out of nowhere, the child slipped away from Daichi and stared up at me with her big brown eyes. "Hey, Big Sis. What's your name?"

"My name?" I replied with a smile. "It's Reina."

"Reina?" For some reason, a strange look came over the little girl. She glanced back up at Daichi. "That's the name Dai always mentions."

Blinking, I turned my gaze to Daichi as well.

He recoiled. "Huh? N-no, I don't!"

"Yes, you do!" his sister accused. "You always talk to somebody on the phone about Reina!"

Daichi was red in the face. "Suzu!" he hissed, yanking her away from me. "You promised not to say anything!"

The little girl giggled. "Dai, your face is red."

"Whose fault do you think that is?"

Suzu giggled some more, running off ahead and standing beside a red-faced Daichi. I couldn't help but smile as well.

"You talk about me to somebody? That's not creepy at all."

Daichi let out a loud breath, shielding his face from me with his hand. "I think she's referring to one conversation I had with Miyabi."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why were you two talking about me?"

"Miyabi was asking me if you two made eye-contact would he turn to stone, or if he got to know you more would he somehow turn into a sheep too..." Daichi responded, shaking his head as he did. "Strange things like that."

I twitched. Of course that idiot asked that kind of stuff about me. That was it. He officially scored himself to be on my list. Not the good kind, mind you.

The ringing of Daichi's cell phone woke me from my thoughts and after answering and talking to whoever was on the other side, Daichi's lips curved downwards in disappointment. He bid them farewell and Suzu curiously cocked her head to the side.

"Who were you talking to, Dai?"

"Mom," Daichi responded. "She said she's still trying to close up the shop. I've got to take you there instead."

"Really?" Beamed the toddler. "Yay! Let's go! Let's go!"

Suzu took the initiative to yank her older brother forward and it had taken Daichi all that he could to keep his ground. He craned his neck in my direction, flashing me an apologetic frown.

"Do you mind if we stop by my parents' shop?"

"What about where you were taking me?" I questioned.

"It wasn't even going to be somewhere amazing. I was thinking maybe the amusement park since I got a free tickets, but...." I cringed at the mention but seeming to understand, Daichi continued, "How about we sub my shop in for that rendezvous I owe you?"

If that was what all this was about... I shrugged. "I don't mind. Actually, I'd love to go. You sell really great stuff." A smile fitted onto my face at the recollection of the last time I was there. "Especially your hot chocolate. I wouldn't mind having that in my system again."

Daichi seemed a little startled. "You actually like it?"

"It was delicious," I assured him. "I don't know what your store did with it, but it was so good!"

A sheepish smile took over his face. "It's normal hot chocolate, though."

"Stop being so modest."

"But it's not even cold outside, you shouldn't need hot chocolate. Leave it to only the winter time."

"Stop judging me, Daichi." I rolled my eyes. "Your store's hot chocolate is good enough to have during all seasons. I'm going to go there more often for sure."

Daichi's eyes widened at first but it wasn't long until a soft smile grew on his face. "Thanks, Reina. I really hope you do keep coming."

Blinking, I bobbed my head. "Yeah... Don't worry, I will."

"Thank you."

I made a face. "Stop saying thank you. It's weird."

He laughed. "Sorry."

I tugged him forward. "C'mon, let's just go." I paid his giddy younger sister a glance. "Suzu can't wait to go, too."