As Rio reached out to ring the doorbell, the door in front of us opened up. Standing in front of us was a girl, she looked to be around the same age but a bit older than me. She glanced at me before seeing Rio, and a big smile filled her face.

"You came, I'm so happy you're here Rio-san."

Rio smiled back at the girl in front of us.

"Hey Kaede-chan, I wish this was under better circumstances but it's nice to see you too."

She lifted up her hand holding her bags from the store

"Do you mind if we head inside? These bags aren't getting any lighter unfortunately."

Kaede moved into the apartment, and we followed her inside.

It was a nice and small 2BHK apartment, even as someone who didn't go inside a lot of apartments could tell that much. The living room had framed posters of different movies, shows, and even some product ads near a white wired-telephone on one of the walls. The kitchen looked new, with the appliances looking as though they had been put in recently. Either this Sakuta had just gotten the apartment, or he was well off to keep it looking so nice.

We set the bags down, and Rio quickly put away our purchases.

"By the way, where's Sakuta? I thought he was going to be here."

Rio called out as she finished up.

"He had to go out for a second, he didn't say where he was going but he promised me he'd be back soon."

Kaede peeked her head around the corner and the look on her face made it seem like she was sorry, even though it wasn't her fault.

"So I guess we'll just have to wait for him to come back."

Rio shrugged and headed out of the kitchen, beckoning me to follow her as we ended up in the living room. The TV was on, there was a documentary about Pandas playing. Kaede eagerly jumped onto the couch and patted the spot next to her for Rio to sit down.

"By the way, who's the guy that's with you?"

Kaede looked over at me before staring at Rio. I meekly smiled and waved, and Kaede waved back.

"This is someone I met today, he's going through a rough spot because of adolescence syndrome. So I brought him here to get Sakuta's help."

Kaede nodded, and looked back over to me. "My name is Kaede, Sakuta is my older brother. If Rio-san is helping you out, you must be a good person"

She smiled and tilted her head slightly. I introduced myself, and felt a little more at ease.

As we sat waiting for Sakuta to arrive, I watched the pandas on the documentary currently in the middle of a nap, as the voice over talked about their sleeping habits. The low tone of the speaker mixed with the peacefully sleeping pandas had affected me, and it was only the sound of the front door opening that prevented me from joining the pandas in their nap.

A guy with earphones entered the room, the look on his face making it seem as though he was trying to avoid any contact from the world. As he opened them from his ears, I could hear a faint song stopped playing.

Turn The World Upside Down

I once heard Sakura listening to that old popular album, made by Touko Kirishima few years back.

"I'm glad you could join us Azusagawa, I was beginning to think you ran off instead."

Rio crossed her arms and stared at Sakuta. He ruffled his hair and sighed.

"Koga and Himeji called, and said there was some guy following them so I walked them home. I would have let you know but they made it seem pretty urgent on the phone so I didn't have the time."

He sat down across from us, leaning back and closing his eyes for a moment. Rio reached out and lightly kicked his leg after he did this.

"Alright alright! You don't have to abuse me."

He opened his eyes and looked at her.

"So what help of mine do you desperately need?"

She rolled her eyes at this.

"Actually this is just a favour to me. He's the one who needs the help."

She looked over at me as she said this, and Sakuta and I stared at each other. I introduced myself and held out my hand. Sakuta reached back and we shook hands.

"Kaede do you mind going to your room for a bit, it might make our guest feel a little more comfortable."

Sakuta looked over at Kaede, and I felt grateful to him. Having to tell someone else everything was already going to be hard enough, having a third party there would ruin my concentration.

Kaede nodded, and turned off the TV. As she left the room, she paused and messed with Sakuta’s hair, much to his dismay. Laughing, she continued walking away until we could hear the panda documentary faintly from her bedroom in the apartment.

Sakuta grumbled and tried to fix the damage to his hair, but it was a half-hearted effort.

"You should appreciate your sister giving you help with your looks Azusagawa, your hair looks leagues better than before."

Rio looked as though she was very amused. He ignored her comment, and finally gave up on fixing his hair.

"Sorry for asking, but Kaede is your sister right?"

I asked as Sakuta placed his hands down. He nodded.

"If the help you need is asking my sister out, you're on your own there."

I started to stammer before Rio spoke up.

"It's a shame your sense of humour is so bad, I'm sure Mai-san could have introduced you to some comedians."

Sakuta grumbled at that, and I managed to stop stumbling over my words.

"S-sorry but no. I was just curious about the nameplate outside."

"Ah, yes. Kaede is my younger sister, but there's actually one other person that lives here as well. Well… half if you go into details."

Sakuta's face lit up as he began talking.

"Right now, the one I’m talking about is my fiancé, Mai Azusagawa. She lives just in front of this apartment in the condo but sometimes stays overnight here either in mine or Kaede’s room."

Finding out that I would be staying with two strangers was already tricky enough, now there could be even another stranger?

So, this unassuming man in front of me is engaged. He seemed to be similar to me in how we treated the world, but when it came to relationships we were on completely different levels.

I nodded.

"Now that that's out of the way, it's time for why we're here."

Rio nudged me as she spoke.

"Right, sorry. It's all still new to me, but I am suffering from a strange phenomenon known as Adolescence Syndrome. She brought me here because I have nowhere else to stay."

At that, Sakuta began to pay attention.

I started from the beginning once again, and just as Rio did, Sakuta also spoke up once I mentioned almost meeting myself.

"...and then as I was at a computer at a net cafe, that's when I meet Rio."

I finished and waited for one of them to begin speaking. Sakuta leaned back and thought to himself.

"So, I guess doing it that way wouldn't work huh?"

He said to himself and sighed.

Rio laughed at him with an amusing smirk.

"Even though you had overcome your adolescence long time ago… but still it isn’t ready yet to leave you alone, Azusagawa."

Sakuta sighed and looked over at me.

"I get it. But you don't have to worry, we believe you and can figure it out together. I'm guessing you need a place to sleep?"

I nodded.

"I hope I'm not being a bother by asking this."

I appreciated the help so far, having people who understood that I could talk to was already a huge help. Rio was right, being alone and trying to deal with this would be a nightmare.

Without having someone to help, it would be like trying to swim in a storm without a life vest.

"Well, I'd have to check up with Mai-San, but I think she'd say yes. She's dealt with the syndrome too so she's no stranger to these situations."

Sakuta smiled at the mention of his fiancé.

"You can sleep in my room. I’ll manage on the couch."

I started to speak, and at that moment the sound of the front door opening could be heard. Immediately, Sakuta sat up straight.

"Oh! I didn't realize we were having guests tonight. Did Sakuta offer you anything to drink?"

The woman speaking must have been the Mai-san that had been mentioned.

With her looks, she must have to be a model or an actress. She smiled sweetly at me, and introduced herself. Then she looked over at Sakuta and her sweet smile faded slightly.

"Sakuta, you know you shouldn't slouch in front of guests."

She pinched his ear as she spoke, and Sakuta began to wince as though she was ripping his ear off.

“Ow! I wasn’t--”

"Your clothes give you away, so don't try to lie to me."

She released his ear and gave him a kiss on the cheek, before sitting down next to him.

Beside me, Rio looked over to Sakuta and then to Mai.

"It might have been better to wait, but long story short. He’s Haruki Shiga and is dealing with adolescence syndrome. Plus he needs a place to stay because of it."

Sakuta looked over to Mai and nodded.

"I just got told the story by Futaba or I would have given you a heads up before, but then you came home."

"Sure, you'll have to catch me up on everything though Sakuta."

Mai looked at me, and I nodded in agreement with a bow of gratitude.

"That's more than enough, thank you for letting me stay here."

Rio stood up next to me.

"I thought we might eat dinner and then after we could discuss possible solutions. We have two immediate problems to solve, so some time to think things through would be good."

The rest of us agreed, and Sakuta and Mai stood up.

"If you'd like, you can go wash up. There's nothing a nice warm shower can't help fix, and we can cook in the meantime. Also I'll get caught up from Sakuta so you don't have to tell everything again."

Mai said this to me, wanting to give me some time to myself. I thanked her, and she pointed out the bathroom and handed me a towel.

The sound of the water and the heat of it helped me relax, and my mind began to wander.

"I hope they can figure things out, they seem fairly confident in themselves"

I thought to myself.

As I massaged the shampoo into my hair, my eyes closed to prevent any of the shampoo from getting in them, when suddenly things changed.