Kaito twirled his pencil absentmindedly around his finger as he stared out of the window at the perfect morning sky. With the late spring day came the optimal temperature, and the sky was nearly cloudless. It was the ideal day to be outside, but instead, he was stuck in the Japanese high school and left with only dreams of enjoying the fresh air.

The bell to begin the first period rang, and the students that had been standing around the room chatting with their classmates slowly made their way to their desks. The sensei entered the room and set down a binder full of his notes before drawing a breath to begin roll call.

Before he could even call out the first name on the list, he was interrupted by the rapid opening and closing of the sliding door as a late student burst into class. The student bent over, took a second to draw a couple of rapid breaths before taking his seat beside Kaito. The teacher gave him a reprimanding glare before starting on the roll call.

“Cutting it short are we Daisuke?” Kaito whispered as the boy took his seat beside him.

“It’s not my fault!” he hissed as he shoved his dark brown bangs out of his hazel eyes. “My idiot kid sister was being even more stupid than usual, and I couldn’t leave the house until I had to make her lunch! Do you know how incredibly hard it is to make lunch for her? She practically hates all foods!”

“Suzuki-san, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get started now,” the teacher interrupted Daisuke’s ranting with a sharp comment and pointed look. A couple of people glanced at him and snickered under their breath, though Daisuke pretended not to hear them.

Kaito smirked and whispered “smooth” just loudly enough for his friend to hear.

“Oh, shut up Kaito.”

“Now then class,” the teacher began again. “We will have a transfer student joining us today.”

Everyone in the class looked up as their teacher gestured to the door. It slid open and a girl stepped slowly through it. Her left hand clutched a newly bought school bag while her right fiddled absentmindedly with the longer brown hair that fell over her shoulder.

“Please introduce yourself.”

“I’m Mika... Mika Minamoto...” Her voice was so soft that the majority of the class couldn't hear it, but the teacher did not prompt her to speak again.

“Alright then Minamoto-san, you can sit behind Takahiro-san near the window.” Mika's gaze followed the teacher's finger to a black haired individual who was the only one that seemed more interested in what was outside the window than the transfer student that had just come in. She nodded and carefully navigated her way over the school bags littering the pathway between the desks. The last thing she needed was to make a spectacle of herself the moment she entered the classroom.

Mika sat down at the appropriate desk, pulled out her school books, and buried herself in her notes hoping to avoid the curious stares that people kept shooting in her direction.

“Hey ‘ya.”

Mika’s head shot up at the none-to-quiet whisper, and her brown eyes focused on a slightly sweaty boy diagonally to her right. She glanced once to the teacher, who was turned around lecturing, before whispering, “G-good morning.”

“My name’s Suzuki Daisuke.”

Mika gave a slow nod in response.

“I –”

“… And since Suzuki-san seems so chatty this morning, perhaps he can tell us why the armies chose to march to the southern banks of Anegawa to confront the Azai and Asakura forces.”

“Uh… I don’t know…” Daisuke admitted, slumping down in his seat. He made no further comment to Mika after this, for which she was very grateful. The next three class periods – English, Math and Literature – flew by and before Mika knew it, the lunch bell was ringing.

“Heeyyy.” Daisuke’s voice drew her attention once again. “Sorry I got cut off earlier, but anyway, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Yoroshiku,” Mika said, with a polite bow.

“You don’t have to be all stiff and formal,” Daisuke said with a short laugh. “We’re all friends here right?”

“Um…”

“Stop giving the girl trouble Daisuke,” Kaito said, lightly slapping his classmate on the back of the head. “Sorry,” he said, turning to address Mika for the first time. “He’s a bit troublesome.”

“No. It’s…” Mika’s voice trailed off and her eyes widened as she caught sight of his face. Blue eyes? He looks Japanese, but maybe he’s actually a foreigner? Or half and half?

Even if Mika could’ve mustered up the courage to ask, she wouldn’t have been able to as Kaito had already turned his back on her and was ushering Daisuke out of the classroom. Mika released the breath she’d drawn for the unspoken question and pulled out her bentou box.

She had just stood up to head to the door when another call of “hey” forced her to turn. The girl that had said it left the classmate she'd been standing next to and bounded over to Mika in a couple of smooth strides. The girl was a few centimeters taller than herself with darker brown hair tied up in a high ponytail.

“You don’t have anyone to eat with right? You can hang with us if you want. You don’t mind, do you Kana?” The girl turned her head a bit to address the friend she was with.

“Of course not,” the girl replied. Despite her voice being quite soft, Mika couldn’t help but notice that it carried across the classroom. She pushed her rounded glasses back up to the bridge of her nose and crossed over to Mika.

“I’m Hanashi Ayako by the way,” the first girl stated. “And this is Tsuyoku Kana." Ayako pointed to her friend.

“Hanashi-san and Tsuyoku-san,” Mika repeated, nodding to each of them in turn.

“Oh just Ayako’s fine. You don’t have to worry about the formalities and stuff.”

“Okay,” Mika said gratefully. “Thanks for inviting me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ayako said, bouncing over to the classroom door. She was certainly full of energy, Mika noted, and was likely very athletic as well. The other girl, Kana, seemed to be more of the quiet, academic and studious type. Not unlike herself.

As they walked, Ayako gave Mika a short summary of the layout of the school, although most of it didn’t sink into Mika’s head. She was too busy trying to keep up with Ayako’s sweeping pace as they turned corner after corner and finally climbed the stairs.

Two flights later, they were in front of a heavy metal door. Ayako swung it open and let Mika and Kana through.

“We like to eat on the roof,” Ayako said as she came up beside Mika. There was a weathered bench to the right, but Ayako instead guided Mika to the left. “It gives us a bit of outside air after hanging out inside all day, and the weather’s just too perfect to pass up during this time of year.”

Ayako sat down against the fence surrounding the roof, and patted the ground next to her, prompting Mika to take a seat. Kana sat opposite them, against the concrete wall that formed the uppermost part of the roof over the stairs. A small ladder was to her right, allowing the maintenance crew access to the lightning rod that was situated at the top of the platform.

“This is really nice,” Mika commented lightly, as she gazed at the bustling streets below. She could even see the high-rises of downtown Shibuya from here.

Mika had just scooped up a small clump of rice and opened her mouth when a movement from the top of the stair platform drew her attention. She jerked her head up, and could see a lump of a person laying down, but couldn’t make out any of their features.

Ayako followed Mika’s gaze. “Oh, that’s just Kaito. He usually stays up there during lunch. The lazy bum is always sleeping.”

“I’m not in such a deep sleep that I can’t hear you, you know.”

“If you’re not always sleeping then why do you stay up there?” Ayako retorted.

“Well, it used to be quiet enough for me to doze during lunch until a bunch of noisy girls started taking over my area.” Kaito shifted over to the edge of the upper roof to gaze down at Ayako with subtle interest.

“Ah, it’s you,” Mika said as her eyes met his royal blue.

“New girl,” he greeted casually with a nod in her direction. “How’d you get roped into Hanashi’s lot?”

“You shut up!” Ayako retaliated. “If you say it like that, it makes us sound like we’re terrible people or something. Better watch yourself around this one Mika, he spouts crap every time he opens his mouth.”

Kaito gave a sigh, rolled his eyes, and then laid back down.

“So where did you used to live?” Ayako asked when they had finally started eating.

“A small town in Hokkaido,” Mika replied politely.

“Really? Cool! So the amount of people in this school is a lot different then?”

Mika nodded. "My previous school might have been one tenth of the student body here, and the building was just one floor. This high school is so big I feel like I’ll wander around lost for a month.”

“Nah, it’s not that big. But wow. Hokkaido, huh? I’ve never been there before. Why’d your family choose to move?”

“Oh… um…” This was the precise question she didn’t want to address, but she couldn’t be rude to Ayako and ignore it by changing the conversation. And it would come up again anyway…

“It – it was… My grandmother died, and the only other family I have is an uncle who lives here, so...” The words came out in a quiet hurried rush. It was the first time she’d said it aloud since her grandmother’s death four days ago; somehow, that made it seem all the more real.

Mika clenched and unclenched her jaw, trying to calm her breathing and heart rate. She really didn’t want to cry in front of her new friends.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“It's okay,” Mika murmured. So much for lunch. Now all I feel like doing is throwing up.

After a stretch of silence, Kana steered the conversation to the math homework they’d been assigned for the night, and shortly after, the end of lunch bell rang.

Ayako and Kana went straight back to class, but Mika stopped by the bathroom first. She chose the empty stall on the end, and slumped against the wall. She’d been holding herself together by a fragile thread for a week now, and Ayako had unintentionally snapped it.

All she wanted to do was go home. Home to Hokkaido, home to her grandmother’s house. She wanted to feel her grandmother’s arms wrap around her one more time, and hear her say that it would all be okay. But she didn’t have that anymore. It was gone, and she was alone.

The bell for the beginning of class rang, making Mika jump. She hastily wiped away the tears that had rolled down her cheeks and sprinted back to class. Once there, she booked it to her desk, head down, and buried her head in her notes, hoping that no one would notice her eyes and cheeks were slightly red.

“Heyy!”

Mika mentally groaned as she recognized Daisuke’s voice. She really didn’t want to talk to him at the moment. Thankfully, she was spared from having to answer.

“Daisuke, are you really going to get yourself in trouble again today for talking in class? Shut up and pay attention for once,” Kaito murmured as the teacher entered the room.

“Says you.” Daisuke rolled his eyes as he turned around to face the front.

“Thanks.” The word was nothing more than Mika moving her lips behind the opened book, therefore, when Kaito responded with a whispered “welcome” she froze to the spot. Surely there was no way he could’ve heard her, and he couldn’t have lip-read what she’d said since she’d had her head covered.