Seems Unmei is starting to make his way home now, I’ve gotta make sure I don’t lose sight of him…

Unmei thinks to himself on his way home, “Seems like this semester will mirror the last. The only difference is Kazuya won’t be around, his locker was already taken by someone else...”

He’s walking a little slower today, hopefully he doesn’t take too long because I do have to get home-

“Sato?”

We see Ayame Sato look at a very confused Denki with a look of shock and a bit of fear.

“What are you doing hiding behind this bush, looking at Unmei and talking to yourself? What are you up to?”

Nervous, Ayame is not sure how to handle being caught. 

“I… I wasn’t following-”

Denki cuts her off. “There's no point in hiding it; everyone knows you like him. That and your phone is showing a reminder that says ‘follow Unmei after school - 15:30”

On the outside, Ayame acts more nervous and quiet, most of the time, but on the inside? Well, if her inner thoughts could be heard by others, people would know she’s a little off the rails. “WHO’S THAT CALLING ME CRAZY? ANYWAYS, WHAT IN THE NAME OF HELL IS HE SAYING? FURUKAWA! CONFRONTING ME? BLASPHEMY, A ROUSE!”

With an irritated expression and obviously fake smile, Ayame clears her throat, then snaps back at Denki, “I'm not sure what you're talking about. How could you accuse me of something like that? And I should be the one asking why YOU are following ME.”

Denki isn’t falling for her act; he’s an idiot, but he’s not stupid. “Are you dense? I'm here because I noticed you were following Unmei like a little rat follows cheese, which makes sense because you are very rat-like, and I’d like to know why.”

Ayame begins to get annoyed; she never liked Denki and fought with him often… mostly in her own head, though.

Despite her annoyed look, Denki continues, “plus, instead of STALKING him, you could just ask him out, you're kinda-” Denki is interrupted by the sheer volume of Ayame’s internal thoughts.

“Oh… HE IS ABSOLUTELY DEAD, GONNA KILL THIS LITTLE PIECE OF” She stops herself from accidentally speaking the rest out loud.

“Ahem… I am not STALKING him, I don't have any interest in him anymore; he's not my type at all. I just walk this way to get home... that's all,” Ayame’s attempts to hide her motives aren’t very effective. 

Denji can see right through her, “Right sooo.. if you just walk this way, then why are you taking pictures of him too?” He snatches the unlocked phone out of her hands and begins to scroll through the several recently taken photos of Unmei.

“Wait- no uh... I'm just birdwatching! Yeah... birdwatching that's all!” Wait, she seriously thinks he’s going to believe this? Even if Denki was stupid enough to buy such a lie, the grin plastered all over her face is a dead giveaway.

“Are you calling Unmei a bird? Not a very nice thing to call your crush.” Ayame is taken aback; he is really starting to piss her off.

“No, that’s not what I meant- ”, she’s interrupted by Unmei, who’d recognized Denki’s voice, and suddenly appeared next to them.

“I knew it was you ‘round here. What's going on, Denki?”

“UNMEI THIS GIRL-”, Denki finds himself abruptly crushed in Ayame’s arms with his mouth muffled. Denki begins to blush because Ayame decided the best way to shut him up was by holding his face to her chest while crushing him with her arms.

Unmei, taken aback, simply ignores it. “Uhm… hello, Sato.”

“HI UNMEI!” Ayame’s face turns red, seemingly forgetting about where she’s put Denki. “I’m just walking with Furukawa over here, haha.”

Unmei seems a little confused and begins to wonder to himself, “She’s calling me by my first name? I didn’t think we knew each other that well, at least, I only know her by her family name because it’s the same as Yamato’s.”

“Wait, who are you again?”

Silence.

Ayame, stunned, breaks the silence, “uh.. What. Remember? It’s me. Ayame Sato. I’ve sat behind you in class for two years? You’re friends with my brother. How don’t you remember me? We even dated in junior high!”

Unmei’s blank and confused expression remains seated on his face. “What? Wait, you and Yamato are siblings? I thought you just happened to have the same last name…” 

“You seriously didn’t know me and Yamato were siblings… you’ve been friends for years now.”

“I haven’t really been to his.. Er- your house all that much.” This is only half true. Unmei HAS gone to the Sato house many times, but he simply never noticed her, nor did he pay attention when she was mentioned.

“ Wait.. ohh, aren’t you that girl who Mr. Tokimune got upset with? Other than that, I don’t really remember you, so you must have mistaken me for someone else if you think we dated.”

Ayame once again falls into one of her internal fits, “HOW DOES HE NOT REMEMBER ME AND THE UTTERLY SUBLIME AND LOVING MOMENTS WE SHARED AS A COUPLE, THIS IS BLASPHEMYYYY!!! I AM ONE HUNDRED BILLION PERCENT CERTAIN I DIDN’T DREAM OF US DATING, IT REALLY HAPPENED, IT'S TRUE!!!”

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I’m gonna bring my friend here to my place,” she says once she remembers she’s been holding Denki captive this whole time and finally lets him go.” 

Denki, stripped away from his version of heaven, begs Ayame, while being dragged away by her, to let him return, “Wait, no! I want to go back, just five more minutes!”

“Uh… alright then, see you later, Denki and Sako.” Unmei continues his walk home.

Turning her head back, Ayame aggressively corrects Unmei, “IT'S SATO! YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS, I’M YAMATO'S SISTER!”

“Sorry? What’d you say?” Despite not being even 10 feet away from them, Unmei genuinely zoned out and didn't hear Ayame.

Realizing she just yelled at Unmei, Ayame shrugs off what he said and replies to him with a high-pitched tone, “Oh, it’s nothing, don't worry!”

--

Denki, still asking to return to his previous resting place on Ayame, gets himself held up by the collar and receives a glare of death comparable to a horror monster. 

“You will forget that any of this happened, YOU GOT IT?”

“Y-yeah, sure, I’ll forget it. Now let me go, you gremlin!”

“Gremlin!?” To return the favour of Denki’s kind remark, Ayame promptly throws him to the ground.

“Ow.. gee, thanks for that.”

“No problem… cutie.”

This has probably been the strangest interaction Denki has had with a girl, which isn’t surprising considering how much girls tend to avoid him. “Did she just call me.. CUTIE?! She’s so strange.” His brief moment of internal thought is ended by a kick to his stomach.

“WHY ARE YOU GIVING ME THAT LOOK?” Ayame practically screams into his ear.

“What look? And why do you keep hitting me?” Before he could get an answer from her, she walked off.

“WAIT!! DO YOU REALLY THINK I'M CUTE?” He gets a little too excited, considering how much she was hitting him.

Ayame turns back for a moment to yell at him. “SHUT UP!!”

--

Unmei is now finally close to home, but that little interaction set him back much more than he’d have liked. “What on earth was all of that? I hope Denki will be okay being left alone with that girl. Though now that I think about it, I do remember her. She’s the one who bought me a half-million yen sweater before Christmas break. I’ll have to ask Yamato if they’re really siblings, though.”

Unmei arrives back home after the first day of the new semester, and he is beaten. Unfortunately for him, he can’t lie around on his bed just yet; he’s got chores to do. 

After doing some laundry and putting away all of the dishes, he hears a knock at the front door.

After opening the door, Unmei finds Yamato standing on his front porch.

“Oh, hey Yamato.” Unmei seems a little surprised by his sudden visit.

“Hey man! Can I come in?”

“You’re asking me? Last time you came over, I just found you already on my couch without having even knocked!” Despite his complaints, Unmei lets Yamato inside, where they eventually park themselves on the couch.

“Unmei, I’m gonna be honest with you, I need girl advice.”

“You’re asking… me? Again? What makes you think I can help any more than I have every other time you’ve asked me? Not a single time has talking to me changed anything.”

“That's because you never actually try to give me advice on the situation! You’re always going on about focusing on school and how girls are a distraction. But I seriously need your help this time, please?”

Reluctantly, Unmei agrees to help him, though he’s not too sure what to tell Yamato. See, due to the rule set in place by his father, Unmei really doesn’t know much of anything about girls, aside from what he knows about his mother. But first, before attempting to do the impossible, Unmei had something on his mind he needed to clear up.

“Alright, Yamato, before you tell me what you’d like help with, I want to ask you something.”

“Sure, what's up, Unmei?”

Unmei pauses for a moment, not too sure how to say what he wants to ask. “Well, you see, I spoke to this girl earlier- ” before he could continue, Yamato cut him off.

“Whoa, whoa, what. You’re telling me you can’t give me any girl advice, yet you’re over here talking to some girl! What happened to them being a distraction?”

“No, wait, it’s not like that! I was just going to say she told me her name is Ayame Sato and that she’s your sister, but I never knew you had a sister.” Yamato went quiet, his face remaining dumbfounded for a few moments before sighing.

“You… didn’t know I have a sister? Dude, she’s been obsessed with you for years, how don’t you know this?”

Unmei is starting to feel pretty dumb for not knowing about this, though this isn’t the first time they’ve had this conversation. Fortunately for Unmei, Yamato’s memory is about just as bad as his, and they’ll likely both forget about this later.

“Oh well, I don't know, but thanks for clearing it up, I guess. Anyways, what was it that you needed help with?”

“Huh? Oh, right! So basically, there’s this girl I like, and I’d like to ask her out, but I can’t think of how.”

“Right… I see. Well, I still don’t really see how I could help with that. Why are you asking me about it anyway? Wouldn’t it be better to ask Denki? He seems to know more about romance than I do.”

Yamato nearly falls off the couch laughing, “Denki… and romance? Man Unmei you’re hilarious, ” he isn’t wrong to laugh, Denki has even less experience with women than Unmei does, “ that idiot couldn’t ask a girl which way the bathroom is without scaring her off, plus, you’re actually quite popular with the girls at our school.”

Unmei shakes his head, “I would have to talk to them to be popular, which if you haven’t noticed, that’s not something I spend my time doing.”

“I’m serious Unmei! They’re for sure looking at you, you’re far more attractive than me, I don’t even have abs like you!” Yamato’s comments begin to worry Unmei that he might be after him rather than a girl.

“I know they’re looking at me Yamato. They can look all they want, it doesn’t make any difference to me because I’m not going to talk to any of them.”

“Alright Unmei I get it, you don’t talk to girls, but still could you just give me some advice or tips or something! I really like this girl and don’t want to mess anything up.”

Unmei finally gives in, but even if girls really do like him, he still doesn’t have the kind of experience Yamato seems to think he does. “Oh, alright… fine. Well, I suppose just talk to her how you’d talk to anyone else, like one of your friends? You’re already friends with other girls, so it seems to me the issue here isn’t what to say but rather that you’re nervous.”

Yamato is sitting in awe, staring right into Unmei’s eyes, not blinking even once, so he doesn't miss a word. Though he shouldn't need to keep his eyes open to do that… he’s not deaf. It’s sort of scaring Unmei a little.

“Uh… well, yeah. Just ask her to go to karaoke or something. Girls like karaoke, too, I think. I don't know.”   

Just as Yamato is about to say something, once again there’s a knock at the front door. Unmei stands up from the couch, “Huh, who else could be here? Denki already went home…”