"N-no way..."

Akari watched as Yuka ran past her with the basketball, performing a layup so smooth that it looked like she was gliding on ice. Akari couldn't do anything to stop her. The ball went through the hoop effortlessly and Yuka landed elegantly on her feet, turning around to beam at Akari.

"How was that, Akari?" Yuka said excitedly.

"H-haha, very good...!" Akari winced through a forced smile. "Very good indeed..."

All those months spent training herself up for PE and Akari was destroyed by a girl with manicured nails so pretty it didn't even look like she had ever touched a basketball in her life.

After a few more one-sided defeats, Akari walked gloomily off the indoor courts, sitting herself down at the side. She glanced in front of her, watching the other students in their class practice around the courts. The PE teacher was somewhere in the middle, yelling at a group of girls that had attempted to sneak out in the middle of class.

Yuka glanced across at Akari on the floor, then dropped the basketball to allow a pair of boys to use the hoop, before jogging over to her friend.

"Akari?" Yuka said as she approached Akari. "What's wrong? You just suddenly left the court..."

"It's nothing...!" Akari shook her head, trying to smile at Yuka. "I'm just a little tired, that's all. Don't mind me!" She glanced around the courts at all the other classmates still practicing. "You can practice with other people if you want. I don't mind."

"Hm..." Yuka mused, following Akari's gaze. "But it would be no fun without you, Akari." Then Yuka turned her head back, strolling over to sit down next to Akari, surprising her. "I think I'll just sit here with you instead."

Yuka had sat herself down rather close to Akari, the side of their arms were lightly touching onto each other, and Akari could feel how warm Yuka's skin was after their basketball practice on the courts.

'U-uhm, she's a bit close! I've never had a friend before so I never had someone sit this close to me!' Akari thought, her face heating up. 'The side of her arm is kind of touching mine, but isn't it rude if I moved away from her? ... I kind of feel like I'm the weird one here for thinking so much about something so small. And it's not like I really mind... In fact, it feels kind of g--'

"Akari."

"Y-yes?!" Akari jumped, glancing to Yuka at her side.

Yuka stared at Akari's reaction for a second before bursting out laughing. "W-what the heck was that, Akari? Your reactions are always so..." She clasped a hand over her mouth to stiffle herself. "Anyways, I was just going to say that you played really well."

Akari blushed, embarrassed by being laughed at by Yuka. 'Dammit, why can't I react like a normal person for once...?!' "Really...?" Akari said, averting her gaze. "But you played so much better than me..."

"Even so, I think you are probably the best girl that I've ever played against." Yuka smiled genuinely, flashing her pretty sable eyes. "I mean it."

Akari looked up at Yuka's smile, surprised by her words.

'Yuka is really a nice person.' Akari thought to herself. 'The first time I met her, she had this sort of disinterested look in her eyes that I thought she would be hard to talk to. But now after becoming her friend, her eyes seem a lot more warm and open...'

"Hey you two!"

The sharp voice of the PE teacher called out to them and they glanced over to see the PE teacher strutting over from a distance. "You girls trying to get out of doing PE as well?!"

"Oh crap," Yuka sighed, getting up to her feet. "That stupid teacher. Don't worry, Akari. I'll tell him that we're just resting."

Before Akari could reply, Yuka ran off to go talk to the PE teacher.

'I... I was going to tell her that I'm not really tired...' Akari thought to herself, staring at the argument that was already breaking out between Yuka and the PE teacher on the court. 'It's probably a bit too late for that now though...'

~x~

The lunchtime bell chimed and everyone in the classroom instantaneously started shuffling from their desks for lunch.

"Everyone is to read chapter two by tomorrow before class, don't forget guys!" The history teacher said, but he might as well be talking to himself. The only one in the classroom that had listened was Akari who was still at her desk, scribbling down the teacher's words in a neat little reminder to herself at the back of her notebook.

"Akari~!"

Akari's pen jerked halfway across her page as she glanced up bewilderedly at Yuka.

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Yuka grimaced, staring down at Akari's page. "Did I do that...?"

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"Yuka...!" Akari laughed lightly, recovering from her shock. "What are you talking about? It's not your fault!" She slammed her notebook shut quickly, packing her things into her bag. Normally no one would come up to Akari when the bell rang for lunch in middle school, so she usually continued to write notes to herself for a while after the bell.

"Anyways, lunch?" Akari said merrily as she pulled out her lunchbox from her bag. 'Eating lunch with a friend! I'm so happy!'

"Yep," Yuka nodded, then smiled apologetically, "Also, sorry for bringing this up so suddenly, but do you want to eat lunch with my other friends as well?" She clasped her hands together with a weak laugh. "I-I don't mean to force you or anything! If you don't want to, I can just eat lunch with you, Akari..."

"O-of course! I don't mind!" Akari quickly said. "What are you talking about, Yuka? That wouldn't be polite to your other friends. Of course, I'll come!"

"Great! Thank you, Akari!" Yuka replied. "You're seriously the best!"

Akari laughed lightly, not really knowing how to react to that.

"Let's go then!" Yuka said enthusiastically.

Following Yuka's lead, Akari walked out of the classroom with Yuka, feeling anxious about meeting Yuka's friends.

'I didn't even know that Yuka had other friends in the school...' Akari thought. 'But looking at Yuka and how pretty she is, I should had known that she had other friends too. I wonder what they're like... Also, I hope they like me...'

"Relax, Akari!" Yuka smiled, grabbing onto Akari's tight shoulders and causing her to jump. "My friends are going to love you! Trust me!" Then Yuka's eyes darted to her side unsurely. "Although, they're kind of weird, haha..."

Akari laughed weakly despite having no idea what Yuka was talking about.

Eventually, they reached the school rooftop where two girls were sitting on the ground, waiting for them.

Walking over with Akari in her clutches, Yuka smiled apologetically at the girls. "Sorry, we're late!"

They stopped in front of the two girls and Akari glanced at them with a nervous smile.

One of them had shoulder-lengthed brown hair with a thin braided string to one side. The other had long coral hair tied up in ribbons behind her head.

"This is my friend, Akari!" Yuka said, introducing Akari to the two girls. "She's in the same class as me!"

"H-hi...!" Akari stuttered.

"Oh, she's adorable!" The brown-haired girl got up and hugged Akari so nonchalantly that it almost felt natural. "She's just like you said, Yuka! I want to take her home!"

"What are you talking about?" Yuka sighed. "I never said anything to you. Stop giving Akari the wrong idea."

Yuka wrenched the brown-haired girl away from Akari, much to her discontent. "Sorry about that, Akari. Erina's just joking around..."

The brown-haired girl waved Yuka off then bowed to Akari. "Erina Uo is my name, but please call me Erina."

"Nice to meet you, Erina..." Akari bowed her head in return, not sure how to feel about what just transpired.

"And this is..." Yuka gestured at the empty space where the second girl had been sitting before. "Huh?" She blinked, glancing around. "Where is--"

"Akari!" The second girl had teleported in front of Akari and was staring intently at her with idolising eyes. "How did you manage to train Yuka to become so much more sociable? What kind of magic trick did you use?"

"...?!" Even Akari taken by surprise by the girl's sudden presence in front of her. "Uhm..."

"Pleeease tell me!" The girl with coral hair wailed. "I had been trying to get Yuka to make a new friend for over a year and--"

BAM. Yuka karate chopped the coral-haired girl at the tip of her head, sending her plummeting to the ground.

"Hah... hah... why can't you guys just act normal...?!" Yuka wheezed with an embarrassed face. "You're scaring Akari!"

"S-sorry, Akari..." Erina strolled over to pick up the coral-haired girl from the floor. "We were just really excited to meet you. Anyways, this over here is Kiyoka Hachimure. Please just call her Kiyoka too."

"Nice to meet you, Akari..." Kiyoka slurred, her eyes spinning. "Sorry about earlier..."

"I-it's fine! Honestly!" Akari shook her head with a smile. "I didn't mind at all!" Then she flicked a worried glance to Yuka. "Uhm, Yuka, is Kiyoka going to be okay...?"

"She will be fine." Yuka replied.

"Anyways, let's eat lunch, shall we?" Erina suggested with a smile.

~x~

"Eh? You scored a point against Yuka in basketball?!"

Kiyoka stared at Akari with a wide mouth, her chopsticks frozen in the air. The four of them were sitting down at an empty space on the rooftop, eating their lunch together.

"Yeah, it was just one two-pointer..." Akari replied, smiling weakly. "And to be honest, it was only because I got lucky..."

"No way, you earnt that one fair and square." Yuka said, picking up some rice to eat from her lunchbox with her chopsticks.

"Well, in the end, I was still terrible." Akari laughed. "I think the score was like 2 to 14 or something..."

"You're still pretty impressive, Akari." Erina said, smiling at Akari. "Yuka used to play in the junior nationals for basketball back when we went to middle school together."

"H-huh, no way..." Akari glanced at Erina, stunned. "I had no idea..."

"Yup." Kiyoka chirped in. "Yuka used to be so cool back then. Erina and I would always go to cheer for her matches." Kiyoka sighed, glancing down at her lunchbox. "Then she dyed her hair red and became all emo."

"Kiyoka." Yuka stared at Kiyoka with a forced smile, crosses appearing on her head. "Who the heck are you calling an 'emo'?"

"W-well, Yuka is still cool now." Kiyoka laughed. "Just in a different way."

Akari smiled as she listened to the three of them talk about middle school. She kind of felt left out, but she was just happy to be eating lunch with the first friends she had ever made. All those days eating lunch alone at her desk back in elementary school and middle school. It felt so different to be eating lunch with others. In a good way.

"Akari!" Kiyoka pouted at Akari, her coral hair bouncing. "Who do you think is the best looking?"

"Huh?" Akari blinked, snapping out of her thoughts. She had zoned out for a few seconds and the conversation seemed to have suddenly jumped to a completely different topic.

The three girls were looking at Akari intently, waiting for her answer.

'Whaaat? How am I supposed to answer a question like that?!' Akari thought in her mind, her face stuck in a forced smile. 'Well, if I really have to give an answer then...'

"Yuka...?" Akari said.

The three girls blinked at Akari's answer.

"H-huh?" Kiyoka said.

"Uhm..." Yuka was at a loss for words too.

"A-Akari..." Erina laughed weakly. "Kiyoka was asking who you think was the best looking celebrity on that television drama last night..."

"..."

'Whaaaaaaaaaat....?!' Akari's mind froze.

"Wait a second..." Kiyoka squinted her eyes at Akari. "What question were you answering, Akari...?"

"I-I just thought you were saying something else, that's all...!" Akari stammered in self-defence.

"But what question did you think you were answering?!" Kiyoka persisted, trying to go up to Akari to plea for her answer. "Y-you can just say that without telling us what question it was!"

"I'm kind of curious as well..." Erina added in a light chuckle.

"T-that's enough now...!" Yuka said, going over to drag Kiyoka from Akari. "Stop bothering her...!"

Akari blushed madly, hiding her face in shame. 'I want to fall in a hole and disappear...'