Rui and I had gotten a rude awakening from Emu helping her older sister make breakfast. When I remembered it was Monday, I grumbled in disappointment.

"Hmm?" Rui drowsily cooed, slowly opening his eyes. 

Once I was mostly awake, I sat up on the couch. "What time is it? Are we going to be late for school?!" I said in a panic. 

Emu ran out of the kitchen, and flopped onto the couch. "Nope! We aren't going to be late." She started smiling weird. "You and Rui fell asleep together! Both of you looked so cute cuddling eachother!!" She squealed, her eyes sparkling how they did. 

My facial expression was all over the place. Flabbergasted, embarrassed, confused. I probably looked super weird. "Oh... um, okay." I felt like I was supposed to be grossed out. 

Nene and Honoka came walking in, they looked like they didn't sleep that well. 

"Tsukasa's snoring woke Nene and I in the middle of the night." Honoka groaned. "He's still asleep, we can't get him up." 

Emu hopped up and ran off to wake Tsukasa. I could hear her joyfully yell, "WONDERHOY!!" in his ears. 

"DWAAAAGH!" Tsukasa screeched. "私を起こそうと耳元で叫ばないでください！" I could hear the sound of his loud footsteps, coming into the living room.

I saw two tall men walk in, they must have been Emu's brothers. They both had serious faces, one wore glasses. Both looked judgmental, yet in different ways. 

Emu zoomed back to Rui and I. She grabbed my hand, and then Honoka's. "Come meet my siblings!" She brought us to the kitchen, where her sister was. "This is my older sister, Hinata! She's very nice." 

Hinata looked up from the food she was cooking, and smiled at us. "Hi." She had the same kind look in her face as Emu, and her smile was warm and inviting. 

Emu pulled us over to her brothers. "This is Shousuke, and that is Keisuke. They help run Phoenix Wonderland! They're very rules, rules, rules and important business!" 

Her brothers silently stared at Honoka and I for a moment. 

"これらはあなたの新しい友達ですか？" Keisuke asked Emu, he had a smile on his face. At first, I was a bit scared of him. But he looked a lot nicer smiling. 

"はい、お兄さん！" Emu squealed. 

"Hello." Shousuke and Keisuke greeted me and my sister. 

I heard the sound of plates clinking, and the smell of scrambled eggs and bacon. 

"The food is ready!" Hinata called. 

All of us went to sit at the big table, after a little while Emu's parents came and sat down too. Her family began to converse in Japanese. Hinata had made bacon and eggs, my favorite. 

"Bacon and eggs are my favorite..." I said shyly. 

Hinata smiled. "Emu told me, she said I should try making them for you!" 

I stopped to think, I never told Emu that was one of my favorites. "How did she know? I never told her..." 

"You did tell me! In your sleep, you said: 'My favorite food is bacon and eggs... but that's against the law!' So I told Hinata to make bacon and eggs!" 

"Oh..." I was starting to realize how often I said weird junk in my sleep. 

After we all ate, we took turns changing into our school uniforms in Emu's room. Then we walked to school. Emu had to depart from us at one point, since she went to a different school, one for girls only. Nene and I walked holding onto one of Rui's arms. Honoka was close behind Tsukasa. 

We were already near our classroom, and Honoka had interrupted the peaceful silence I was very much enjoying. "When are you going to let go of his arm." She complained at me. 

I quickly turned my head to look at her, accidentally slapping Rui with my hair. I had it up in a ponytail instead of those half up half down space buns I'd always wear. "Oh no! I'm sorry..." I apologized to him for accidentally hitting him with my hair. 

"It's okay." Rui smiled. I finally noticed the little bit of red eyeliner he always had on. 

I looked back to Honoka. "To answer your question... I will never let go of his arm." 

Honoka laughed at me. "You're going to have to, you don't sit next to eachother and we're already outside of the classroom." 

I sighed, reluctantly letting his arm go. "We will meet again, Rui's arm." I said to his arm as a joke. 

All the way through class, I didn't pay attention to a single thing. I was too busy staring at the back of Rui's head, wondering how thick and soft his hair was. 

-

It was one of our breaks. I was functioning without a brain, so before Rui got up from his seat I basically laid on my desk, reaching for his hair to touch it. I succeeded! His hair was even softer than I had imagined... "Oh my God! Your hair is so soft, what conditioner do you use?!" I loudly blurted out before falling onto the floor, hitting my chin on the back of his chair. 

Not everybody was out of the classroom, but the students remaining burst out laughing at me while I was on the floor, my nose bleeding. "まさに完璧です！奇妙な少年にとっての奇妙な少女。" One of them said. I didn't know what they were saying, but I knew it definitely wasn't something that I'd like.

Rui helped me up, and wiped the blood off of my nose with his hand, then from his hand he wiped it on his pants. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." I was lying. Everything was going white and I felt lightheaded. My nose was still bleeding. 

Rui smiled at me reassuringly. "Alright. Let me go get you a tissue." He brushed the little bit of dirt on me off. 

Honoka had left the classroom as soon as it was break, so I didn't know anybody there.

Some random boy walked up to me. "Stop hanging out with that Kamishiro, before he sells you on the black market. He's very strange... he has a bunch of weird robots, and he creeps around on the rooftop. Only weirdos hang out up there. Kamishiro is nothing but bad news." He said to me, then walked out of the classroom.

That was the weirdest interaction I had with someone at that school so far, besides the one time some girl walked up to me saying Rui was insane, he doesn't sleep, and I needed to stop talking to him as soon as possible. I was starting to realize Rui didn't have a very good reputation... and how every time somebody saw me hanging out with him their face nearly turned pale. 

I stumbled out of the classroom, my eyesight deteriorating by the second. I saw Rui walking over to me with a tissue in his hand. I flopped onto him dramatically, giving up on trying to stand. "Rui, I think I'm gonna faint..." I was kind of glad I was about to faint, maybe I would get a free pass to go home. 

Rui picked me up, and wiped the blood off of my nose with the tissue he had gotten for me before. I could hear Honoka talking to Tsukasa in the hallway, praising him for being so amazing or something like that. 

I ended up being fine, so unfortunately I didn't get a free pass to go home. Eventually it was lunchtime, and so we went to the cafeteria to eat. For some reason Emu was there. 

"EMU!" Tsukasa yelled. "You need to stop sneaking into our school to spend time with us!!" He looked and sounded very disappointed in Emu as he stood staring at her with his hands on his hips.

Emu hung her head all sad. "But I like spending time with you..." She whined. 

Rui wasn't paying attention to Tsukasa and Emu's little squabble, he was busy smiling at some pretty light pink haired girl. She had a nice red ribbon in her hair. 

"私が見ているのは神城ルイですか？" The girl giggled as she walked over to him.

"こんにちは、ミズキさん、特製スパイシーカレーは楽しんでいますか？" Rui asked her with a smile on his face. 

The pretty girl smiled back at him. "はい。この女の子はあなたの新しい友達ですか？" 

Rui glanced at me for a second. "彼女は確かにそうです。彼女の名前は節子です。彼女は英語を話すことだけを知っています。" He sounded proud. "Setsuko, meet Mizuki. She's a good friend of mine." 

"Hello there!" Mizuki smiled and waved.

I was a little suspicious of her. Perhaps she would try to take Rui for herself? I didn't realize it, but the jealousy bubbling up inside was visible on my face. 

Mizuki laughed and patted me on the shoulder. "Awww! Don't get all jealous, Rui and I are just buddies." How in the world did she know what I was thinking?! "I already have some ideas for a dress you could wear... you would look so cute in ruffles! Maybe I could get you to be my human mannequin." She smiled mischievously.

I tried making a face at her like I was confused so it'd seem I didn't like Rui.

"Setsuko looks cute in nearly anything." Rui remarked with a smirk. It was almost like he knew I would want to cover my face from embarrassment. 

I tried to fight it, but I started blushing. I nervously put my hands over my face.

"Aww... Don't be shy." Rui and Mizuki said simultaneously. Rui tried to gently pry my hands off of my face whilst Mizuki failed to hold back giggles. 

Finally Rui did it, he removed my hands from my face. But when I opened my eyes I was greeted with two criminally cool guys on the other side of the cafeteria. One of them had ginger hair with a blond streak, the other was tall, and had hair that was dark blue on the right, and light blue on the left. They were speaking Japanese to one another. The ginger one had such beautiful olive green eyes. I knew right then and there I could not compete with their swag. 

"Setsukoo..." Rui murmured. He was grinning right up in my face.

I squinted at him, I wondered what I would do next. Like my father always said: "You only get to choose once." Every day we have to choose what we we're gonna do. "What are you doing?" I questioned him timidly.

Rui took a step closer and looked at me innocently. "What do you mean?" He was obviously playing dumb.

"Have you ever heard of... p-personal space?" I stuttered, my anxiety increasing by the second. My heart was pounding and I could feel my hands all sweaty. Personal space was Hara's thing, and I hated to use it on Rui, but I had to. 

Rui silently proceeded to put his hands on my waist and pull me closer to him. "Hmmmm?"

"Did I st-t-tutter?" I asked, my voice trembling. 

Rui looked to the side as if he were thinking. "I believe you did." 

Mizuki witnessed this whole interaction. "あなたは彼女を怖がらせていると思います。" She told him quietly. 

Rui immediately stopped, and we all ate our lunches together. Honoka sat next to Tsukasa, she constantly gave him praise for how awesome and smart he was.

After school when we got home, I decided I'd go exploring on my own. I didn't have any plan for where I was going or why, I just wanted to go.

"Mommy! I'm going out." I called as I quickly walked over to the front door. 

"Going out where?!" She yelled back with the annoyed tone in her voice she always had. 

"Exploring!"