"Come on, Saki. Please." I pressed my palms together and bowed my head. "I'm not saying you have to do all the homework, just some of it."

It was the last day of the first semester. Saki had passed her exams, barely, all thanks to me and Hiromasa. My new struggle was trying to get Saki to do the homework they had assigned over summer break. I was sure if I didn't get her started on it, all hope was lost. She hung in through the semester, but without the structure of a school day, I couldn't imagine what was going to happen. I don't think something like arson on a grand scale was too off the mark. She had gotten increasingly frustrated and foul mouthed over the weeks leading up to the end of the semester, and I shuddered to think of the atrocities that awaited Hiromasa and I over the summer.

Saki groaned and flopped back in her chair, letting her limbs and neck go limp like a ragdoll. "Why the hell would I do homework on the last day of school? It's called a break for a reason, you know?"

"I'll give you a bag of potato chips and a pack of milk candy," I said.

She tilted her head towards me. "Spicy chili flavored?"

I nodded. "Of course."

"Hm." She sat up. "Two packs of candy and melon bread."

"Deal." I smiled.

"But, this is only for the one time. I make no promises for future homework sessions."

"Oh, really?" I folded my arms and grinned at her. "What if I promise to give you a strawberry based dessert every day until you finish?"

She gritted her teeth and drummed her fingers on the desk.

"I'm back," Hiromasa said, walking up behind me. "What did I miss? We're going outside, right? I'm starving."

"Fine," Saki growled. "But, I will only do a maximum of an hour a day."

"Agreed, but only if the hour starts when you actually start doing work, and not when you get to my house."

Saki rolled her eyes and grumbled. "Deal."

Over the past few months, Saki and I had developed a number of games. Game number one: food bargaining. The game was simple; I would request a favor, which usually involved something scholastic, then Saki and I would haggle until we reached an agreement. I used strawberries as my trump card, since she loved them so much. They had to be fresh strawberries though. Strawberry flavored things wouldn't work. I discovered this when I tried to barter with strawberry milk and got laughed at. The game usually went largely in her favor. Honestly, she could ask for more than she did. I would probably have given her anything she wanted, and I think she knew that.

"Sure," I said, finally answering Hiromasa. "Let's go."

The three of us left the classroom and started down the hall.

"What were you guys talking about?" Hiromasa asked while we walked.

"Getting Saki to do homework over the break," I said. "Which reminds me, how about that cell phone situation?"

Saki sighed, exasperated. "Are we really going to do this again? You're not getting me a phone."

"How can I contact you on summer break?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it. I'll find you," she said.

"That's not very reassuring. Besides, how am I supposed to send you 'you up' texts without a phone?" I grinned at her.

She chuckled. "I suppose you're right. Phone sex using public phones is getting kind of awkward."

Hiromasa choked. Saki and I both laughed.

Game number two: flirting game. This one developed pretty naturally between the two of us. The object was simply to stump or fluster the other person. This usually ended in a draw because Hiromasa would cave long before either of us did.

"Is that a yes?" I asked, holding an exterior door open for Hiromasa and Saki.

"No, that's a piss off, as usual." Saki stepped through the doorway.

We went to our usual spot, under the shade of a large tree.

Many students, including us, had started to migrate outside for lunch as the weather got nicer. As always, I took my seat much too close to Saki. Hiromasa sat across from us with his usual look of disapproval. I couldn't care less. I wasn't going to hold back on his account. It's not as though my boldness was going to get me anywhere, but it was certainly preferable to sitting apart from her.

The final game: closeness game. This game might have been entirely in my own head, but that didn't stop it from being my favorite. It was the simplest of the three. I sat as close as I possibly could to Saki and she pretended not to notice or care. I assumed this was probably the case. Her personal space meter was so far out of whack that it probably didn't seem at all unusual to her. I abused the hell out of that fact. Hiromasa gave me judgmental looks, but I'm pretty sure that's only because he could never bring himself to sit that close to her.

It started out innocent enough. One day, while we were sitting outside, it started raining, so Saki had moved closer into the protection of the tree. She sat so close her arm touched mine. Then it occurred to me, with all that weird behavior before, it probably felt like nothing to her.

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Ever since that day, I made sure to sit close enough so that our arms, legs, or both were touching, and she never said a word. It was the closest I could get to her without actually sitting her in my lap, which, honestly, on my more masochistic days, I would have preferred, but I think that act might have registered somewhere, even on Saki's meter.

I handed Saki a yakisoba bun and a strawberry yogurt parfait, which she practically started drooling over. She had come to terms with me giving her lunch; hence the food bargaining game. However, other gifts were still out of the question.

"So, do we have any plans for the summer?" Hiromasa took the lid off his bento box.

"As always, I've got nothing." I took a bite of my own yakisoba bun. "Saki?"

She smiled. "I'm sure I'll think of something."

We were so screwed.

"Any clues?" I asked.

"You should know by now, that just isn't going to happen." She finished off the yakisoba bun and started on her parfait, which she savored.

Near the end of lunch period, when we all stood to leave, Hiromasa stayed back.

"What's up?" I asked, glancing back at him.

"You can go on ahead, Saki," Hiromasa said. "I just need to talk to Kaito for a second."

"Whatever." Saki gave a wave over her shoulder without looking back.

Hiromasa waited until Saki was well out of range before he said anything. "Listen. I've got something I need to ask you."

"You're being oddly serious. Should I be worried?" I asked.

He cocked his head and rubbed the back of it with his hand, grinning. "Sorry. I just wanted to talk to you alone, and I'm not sure how much time I'll get later."

"Talk to me about what?"

His expression turned serious again. "What is Saki to you?"

I shrugged. "A friend. Why?"

"Well the thing is..." He hung his head. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

I laughed. "You don't have to be embarrassed. Whatever it is, I don't care."

He lifted his head back up. "I....kind of...like Saki." He pressed the tips of his index fingers together, nervously.

Obviously.

I nodded. "I know."

"And you like her too, right?"

Equally as obvious.

"Yeah," I said.

He let out a depressive sigh and hung his head. "I thought so."

"Well, don't get too disheartened. It's not like I've actually done anything about it."

"Really?" He asked, his expression bright again.

"Yeah." I rubbed the back of my neck. "She's not exactly the romantic type."

Hiromasa squeezed his eyes and both his fists shut in a silent cheer. "So, I still have a shot then?"

"Huh? Weren't you paying attention? I said she's not into it."

"Well, have you actually told her you like her?"

My eyes dodged to the side. "Not exactly."

"We should be rivals."

I cracked up. "What the hell? Rivals? You've got to be joking."

He folded his arms. "What's so funny about that?"

"Because you're saying that like one of us will eventually win, and it's just not going to happen."

"Come on. We just have to agree to no hard feelings at the end."

What kind of naïve statement was that? No hard feelings? Of course there would be. Just saying things out loud doesn't make them so.

"I don't think you're getting this." I grabbed hold of his shoulders. "This is poi-n-t-less." I formed the word slowly with my mouth.

He grinned. "Afraid you'll lose?"

"Lose?" I let go of his shoulders and smirked. "As if I'd ever lose to you."

"Great. It's settled then." He slapped my shoulder as he walked past me.

I stood there for a second, dumbfounded. What the hell just happened? Did I actually let myself get tricked by Hiromasa? I rubbed my face with both my hands. Maybe I should've gotten more sleep.

We all headed back to my house after school to get a start on our summer work. Saki was clearly less than thrilled, but we got out our books anyway. She sat slumped up against the side of my bed. I, of course, sat next to her. Hiromasa took his seat across from us. We had been working for less than twenty minutes, when I glanced over at Saki, only to find her head leaned back on my bed. She was holding a manga book a few inches from her face.

I sighed. "How long have you had that?" I reached over and snatched it out of her hands.

Her arms flopped down by her sides and she groaned. "I think I might actually be dying of boredom."

"I hope you know that this doesn't count as part of the homework hour." I waved the book at her.

She moved her lips, silently mocking me. I scowled at her and tossed the book out of her reach.

"What number are you on?" Hiromasa asked, and moved over to sit on the other side of her.

She picked herself up from her limp position and pointed at the notebook in her lap.

He nodded. "You need to add this to this first." He tapped at the problem on her paper.

She started to scribble stuff down on the page and he pulled his hand back, but was careful to leave his shoulder against hers. He glanced up and locked eyes with me for a second. I must have had the most stupid looking wide-eyed expression on my face.

He was more daring than I'd given him credit for. I guess the gloves truly were off. Why was he even trying so hard? Hadn't I told him this whole thing was pointless? But then, what was this wave of heat that washed over me? Why were my fingers itching to pull her closer?

Saki left later that evening, saying she'd keep in touch. I really hoped the promise of strawberries was enough to make that true. Hiromasa was getting ready to leave too, but I just couldn't let that whole thing drop without saying anything.

"You surprised me today," I said from midway up the stairs.

He was sitting at the entryway putting on his shoes. "I don't know what you're talking about."

I snorted and leaned against the wall. "Come on. Don't play dumb now. I mean for a guy who blushes every time a girl touches him, you sure got pretty close today."

He chuckled and glanced back at me. "I guess you haven't noticed then. I've been getting a lot better since we started hanging out with Saki."

He was right. I hadn't noticed, but it was true. I thought back to the last few weeks. All that teasing and hair touching was gradually wearing down that shy exterior of his.

"Not to worry." He stood up, tapped his shoes into place and turned around to face me. "I know I'm not at your level yet."

"That's probably a good thing," I said. "A lot of girls find that shy thing endearing."

He snorted. "Yeah, sure. Why do you get all the girls and I don't then?"

I smirked. "Well, if you're worried, I can give you some numbers."

He smiled and shook his head. "See you later." He waved and shut the door behind him.

I descended the rest of the stairs, crossed through the dark living room into the kitchen, and flipped on the lights- cold, white, and sterile, as always.

I filled the electric kettle with fresh water and turned it on, then grabbed a pork flavored instant ramen container out of the cupboard. I sat it on the counter and leaned against the island while I waited for the kettle to boil.

Summer breaks are usually great. I get a chance to let my face rest from all that fake smiling and finally get to do what I want to do, which is usually just hanging around in my room and shutting out the world, with the exception of Hiromasa.

My first year in high school, I made the mistake of having a girlfriend over most of the summer, which was utterly exhausting. She always wanted to go out and do or see things, like swimming, fireworks, movies, the sun. Faking enjoyment that much is very draining.

This time, I had a very different problem. I hadn't been faking things a whole lot lately and the girl I wanted to see had no reliable way of communication. That only left me with several options, showing up to that abandoned apartment with crossed fingers, wishing on shooting stars, sending up smoke signals, or waiting for her to show up at my house. I hated being at her mercy. I'd gotten used to seeing her almost every day, aside from the painfully long gap on Golden Week, and the thought that I could go days or weeks without talking to her gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Love sucks.