At the end of the first term, we went out one weekend like we normally did. Only this time, we were expecting an extra guest, the cute girl who invited Hiromasa to the culture club. We'd decided to go to a local revolving sushi bar, and we'd hardly been sitting down at the dark red vinyl booth for five minutes, before Hiromasa started chewing at his fingers.

"Dude, seriously." I grabbed Hiromasa's hands and set them on the table. "Relax."

"How can I relax?" he said, his voice climbing in pitch. "She's going to be sitting right across from me. I've never seen her outside of school." He started to breath heavily. "We've hardly talked about anything but the culture club. What will I say?"

"Nothing, if you hyperventilate," I said.

He glared at me. "Not helping."

"Just try to stay calm," I said. "It's all going to be fine."

"Sounds like someone has a crush." Saki made a grab for a plate of tuna sushi that came by on the conveyor belt.

"We're waiting," I said before she could grab it.

She clicked her tongue and planted her elbow on the table. "Well, little miss culture club had better hurry up. I'm hungry." She leaned her face against her hand lazily.

"Her name is Miyasoto Kimiko," I said.

"Yeah, yeah," Saki said. "She had just better hurry up. Otherwise, I'll starve to death and lover boy will have a stroke or something."

Hiromasa groaned and buried his head in his hands. "I didn't even really mean to invite her. She just casually asked me if I was doing anything fun over the weekend and I said sushi bar. So, she goes, 'I love sushi bars', and I invited her without thinking."

Saki sighed. "We've heard the story, like, sixteen times."

"You're forgetting the part where she asked to exchange phone numbers and you started freaking out because you finally realized what was happening," I said. "How many times did you say you dropped your phone? Three?"

He groaned again and leaned his head back against the seat.

"A number is good, though." Saki grinned. "Think of all that late night texting you can do."

His face filled with color and Saki started to laugh. "Maybe you can get pictures too." She laughed harder.

"Will you shut up?" Hiromasa leaned across the table and put his hand over her mouth.

"Um," Miyasoto appeared in front of the table.

Hiromasa jumped and jerked his hand away from Saki's mouth. She laughed even harder.

"Keep it down. You want to stay and eat, don't you?" I whispered harshly at her.

Saki took a few deep breaths to calm herself. "I'm good."

"Sorry I'm late," Miyasoto bowed slightly. "I lost track of time. I'm Miyasoto Kimiko."

"Nagase Kaito," I said.

"Higoshi Saki." Saki gave a wave. "I prefer Saki, though."

Miyasoto nodded and slid into the booth next to Saki. "Nice to meet you all." She looked at Hiromasa in the seat across from her.

I nudged him with my elbow.

"Oh, uh." He rubbed the back of his neck and grinned. "Hi, Miyasoto. It’s nice to see you outside of school."

She smiled. "Thanks. You too.”

"Can I eat now?" Saki asked.

I sighed. "Really?"

"What?" Saki grabbed a few plates off the belt as they came by. "You told me to wait. I did."

I shook my head. "Don't mind her Miyasoto."

She giggled. "It's alright, really. I'm sorry I kept you waiting."

Saki merely gave her a thumbs up, since her mouth was too full to talk.

"What do you want, Hiromasa?" I asked. "Rolled omelet?"

He nodded. "Although, Saki already has one." He reached for it.

Saki growled as soon as his fingers touched her plate.

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He jerked them back. "Or, I could keep my fingers, I guess."

Miyasoto laughed. "Pretty possessive, huh?"

"Yeah." I grabbed some dishes off the belt and put it in the middle of the table. "We're still working on table manners."

We continued to eat in silence for a while. I don't think I'd have had a problem making conversation with Miyasoto, but I didn't want to be the one to do it.

After a while, I nudged Hiromasa with my foot. He looked over at me with a confused look on his face. I titled my head in Miyasoto's direction.

"What?" He mouthed at me silently.

I made sure she wasn't watching and jerked my head in her direction.

He shrugged and shook his head.

"Talk to her," I mouthed slowly.

He still looked baffled.

"Oh my God," Saki said "Talk to her."

Miyasoto looked up and laughed nervously.

I sighed. "I was trying to be subtle about it."

"It's not my fault he's an idiot." Saki pointed her chopsticks in Hiromasa's direction.

He scowled at her and turned back to Miyasoto. "So, you said you like sushi bars, right? What's your favorite?"

She smiled. "Eel. I really love the texture and the sweet sauce they put on it."

Hiromasa nodded. "That sauce is pretty good." He paused. "I've always wondered why eels are so mean. They are always snapping when you see them at the aquarium."

"Actually, they aren't snapping at all," Miyasoto said. "That's just how they breathe."

"Really?" Hiromasa said, sounding genuinely impressed.

Miyasoto nodded eagerly. "And did you know young eels are called elvers?"

She went on to impress Hiromasa with several more facts about eels, and then they moved on to some facts about fish in general. Turns out, Miyasoto was pretty brainy. They started to look pretty natural together and I almost felt bad that Saki and I were there at all, but I guess maybe having a little encouragement to start out with was for the best.

I turned my attention back to Saki while they talked. She was still grabbing plates off the belt without any signs of slowing down.

"If you keep that up, you won't have any room for your strawberry cake roll," I said.

She pushed air through her teeth. "Like that would ever happen."

I chuckled. "Yeah, I guess not." I reached for one of her uneaten plates of fish roe sushi.

"Trying to get bitten?" She grinned.

I smirked. "Careful. I'll..."

I'll what? Bite back? I caught myself doing that sometimes- almost falling back into my old patterns. It felt natural to flirt with her the way I used to. I forgot myself occasionally.

I retracted my hand. "I'll wait for another one."

She smiled and pushed the plate towards me. "You're trying too hard."

Ah, so she'd noticed? I guess that was inevitable, not that it ever stopped her from baiting me. Maybe she just liked messing with me, or maybe teasing just came too easily to her and she simply couldn't turn it off.

"Thanks." I picked up a piece of sushi with my chopsticks and popped it in my mouth.

Saki sat back and patted her stomach. "Maybe I am getting full after all."

"Too full for cake?" I plopped the other piece of sushi in my mouth.

She chuckled. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Not at all." I shook my head. "I love buying you food. It's the only thing you actually let me buy you."

"Really?" She sighed and started to pout. "And I was just about to ask for that phone."

I rolled my eyes. "You're so full of it."

She laughed and grabbed one last plate off the belt.

"Getting a second wind?" I asked.

Saki shook her head and pushed the plate of eel sushi towards Miyasoto.

Miyasoto stopped her conversation with Hiromasa and looked at the plate, then at Saki. "For me?"

Saki nodded. "You said it was your favorite, right?"

A big smile spread over Miyasoto's face. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Saki said.

Hiromasa and Miyasoto went back to their conversation.

Saki caught my eyes and scowled. "What the hell are you smiling at?"

"Nothing," I said. "Were you watching for it the whole time?"

She folded her arms and shrugged, looking away from me. "Not really. I just happen to see it."

Somehow I wasn't entirely convinced.

We wrapped things up at the sushi bar and all went our respective ways home. Hiromasa and Saki took different trains than me and Miyasoto, so pretty soon it was just the two of us standing on the platform.

"Hey, Miyasoto," I said, after some time had passed.

She looked over at me. "Hm?"

I turned to face her. "I know we just met and I have no right to ask you any favors, but I'm going to anyway, because if I don't I'll regret it."

She nodded and her face turned serious.

I bowed. "Please try and be friends with Saki. I know she's a little rough around the edges, but she seems to like you and I think it would be good for her."

She laughed. "You were so serious. I thought it was going to be something crazy."

I stood up and rubbed the back of my head. "Well, I thought it might come off as a little odd."

She shrugged. "Well, to be honest, I was going to try anyway. Hiromasa said she doesn't hang out with anyone but the two of you. And a girl needs other girls to talk to, you know?"

I smiled and nodded. "I agree. Thanks, Miyasoto."

And just like that, Saki and Miyasoto started hanging out together. Sometimes we all got together as a group, but occasionally just Miyasoto and Saki would do something by themselves. This made Hiromasa extremely jealous because he felt like he was missing out. Personally, I couldn't have been happier. I wanted to be the best friend I could to Saki, but I think even with my best efforts, my emotions sometimes interfered with that. Better to leave it to someone who wasn't in love with her.

Sometimes my curiosity got the better of me and I'd ask Miyasoto what they talked about, to which she always replied, "Girl talk." That answer always drove me insane. She always said it with a smile too, which led me to believe that it couldn't be anything too heavy, but who knows what girls talk about behind closed doors? I guess it really didn't matter. If Saki could've opened up to anyone, I think it would've made her feel better. In the end, she needed help. It didn't really matter how or from whom.

Hiromasa and Miyasoto started texting pretty regularly. I could always tell when it was her. He'd get this huge smile over his face and start typing away. I was glad. I thought Miyasoto made a much better match for him than Saki. Although, admittedly, my opinion on the matter was pretty biased.

He told me he was going to ask her out over summer vacation. I sincerely hoped she'd say yes. I suspected his chances were pretty decent, which was good, because I don't know what he'd do if two girls turned him down. He's a pretty resilient guy and he gets over stuff quickly, but he's not made of stone.

Before long, we'd said goodbye to the first term. The year seemed to be moving at a breakneck speed. An invisible clock ticked somewhere in the back of my head. What was I going to do about Saki's mother? Was there even anything I could do except make Saki's life better outside of her home? Saki had said, "If I can make it until graduation, she and I might stand a chance." If. Did that mean that there was a chance she wouldn't, and the monster would win?