Chapter 1

“Yo!!!” Mizushima Hiro called out to his five year old sister who was standing by the sea shore in front of their house and was looking out to the sea.

“Why does the sun go down like that through the sea nee-chan? Doesn’t the sun drown too?” Riko-chan looked at him with curious wide eyes as he walked towards her.

His sister statement made him smile.

“That’s because the earth revolves around the sun. The sun has to sleep too you know! Just like what you’re supposed to do in a few minutes. It’s already 8 o’clock Riko, and if mom sees you here, she’ll be giving us both trouble. You should go back to the house and get some sleep.” He ruffled his sister’s hair and patted her butt to go back to the house.

Riko ran as fast as she could towards the back door as he looked over her. When she finally got inside the house he glanced back at the sunset before him, heaved a deep sigh then started to enjoy the sunset alone.

“Wow… that’s a nice way to explain a sunset to a child.” A girl’s voice suddenly invaded his peaceful time. His head swerved to the girl’s direction.

“Do I know you?” He asked giving her a look that says go away, but the girl decided to sit down on the sand a foot away from him and give him a cocky smile.

“Not really… maybe? But thanks for asking.” She easily answered and diverted her attention to the setting sun.

“If you have noticed… I was here first, and that’s my house…” he pointed his thumb at his back, “so if you don’t mind? Go some other place to hang out with people your age. You’re mom has probably given you a curfew, you might as well go home.” He told her clearly giving off an annoyed tone, but she completely ignored him. A kid like her irritates him so much, especially when they tell him he did something wrong. It was also part of his personality to dislike the opposite sex and their species alike, starting to their pre-teen years and above. Toddlers don’t disgust him much but when they start thinking and talking nonsense like the kid whom he just met, it just starts to get to his skin. Amid this anti-female scheme he has, his mom and his kid sister whom he loved more than his car was an exception to the rule.

The girl, who just talked to him, is already annoying the crap out of him for disregarding him like that. She looked like 12 or 14 years old, short in stature, with a long wavy dark hair, a few freckles on her face which is barely noticeable unless someone looked long enough just like what he’s doing right now. This girl seemed old fashioned too, with her white blouse and a below the knee floral skirt. He’s been staring at her ever since she got there wondering what’s with her attitude and curious as where she actually came from. Kids from his place don’t usually dress up like that, with the beach and sun to enjoy, her outfit was very unusual.

The sun was already gone and he wasn’t aware of it because of his curiosity.

“Have you taken notice of my freckles yet? The way you’re looking at my face it might as well vanish.” She muttered without even looking at him, then she slowly stood up and brushed the sand from her skirt and started to walk way. Unexpectedly she looked back at him and gave him a more genuine smile which was so unlike the smile earlier. This caught him off guard because the kid was unexpectedly pretty. Then she waved at him.

“Mizushima Hiro, it was nice finally meeting you.” She shouted out as she walked towards the house next to theirs.

How the heck did she know his name? Who was that kid? And what’s with that accent?

He couldn’t help thinking to himself as he walked back to his own home and sighed about missing the sunset.

Hiro was eating on the kitchen counter as his mom entered the room, “Mom, do you know the kid next door? That puny little girl with long hair...” He asked nonchalantly as he continued to munch on his sandwich.

“Oh, I guess you’ve met her then. Isn’t she just lovely?” his mom looked at him with approval.

“Ohm… yeah. Especially when she opens her mouth.” He tells her sarcastically as he got down from his chair and took his back pack. He was walking to the door as he called out to his mother.

“I’m off to school mom. Bye!” He waved at her.

“Hiro!” his mom called out stopping him mid step, which made him turn around to look at her, “Aoi needs a ride and I told her dad that you’ll be glad to give her one since you’re both going at the same place. Be nice to her.”

“Who in the world is Aoi? Who is his dad? How did you even meet this guy? Mom? What did you just get me into?” He asked her wearily, since his mom does such things without asking him. While trying to argue with his mom, the doorbell rang.

“That must be her… she’s my friend’s daughter.” She told him as she opened the door.

“Hi Mrs. Mizushima, it’s really nice of your son to bring me to school. I hope I’m not late?” The girl he was talking about earlier was at their doorstep, with a bright smile on her face nonetheless.

This kid was going to ride with him to the University?

“Mom, she’s riding with me to the university? Are you asking me to baby sit her?” he asked his mother incredulously. Then the girl in front of him snorted, he turned to look at her with disdain. She tried to hide a sly smile in front of his mother while his mother explained that she just needed a ride and not a baby sitter.

“Honey… you’re being mean.” His mom gave him a warning look.

“This girl is Yu Aoi, our new neighbor and the daughter of my friend. She’s old enough to take care of herself so there’s no need to baby sit her, besides you’re going to be late if you don’t get going.” His mom smiled at him and shoved him to his car while Aoi followed suit and made herself comfortable at the front seat.

“Bye, Mrs. Mizushima!” She waved at his mom as he opened his door to enter the car.

“Ok, car rules. No barfing, no removing of seatbelts and no putting heads or arms out of the car. Are we clear?” He told her with his index finger in front of her face.

She just gave a smirk as she looked at him sideways. Then she nodded and looked in front of the car and smiled at herself which caught him off guard once again. He heaved a big sigh and switched the engine on. It just felt so weird that a simple smile like that affects him this much.

They both rode in silence inside the car for a couple of minutes when the kid decided to speak up.

“Your mom and my dad has been long time friends just in case you don’t know. They saw each other last week at the local shop and I got to meet your mom yesterday so I ended up getting a ride to school, so thank to you.” She told him while looking outside the window.

“Oh… so you’re talking directly to me now? This is you making small talk right?” He said to her sarcastically.

Aoi looked at him blankly and shrugged, “Not really. That was just information giving, because it seems that you don’t know anything much that’s happening around you…”

Being told like that by a kid was a gut punch. It was partly real, since he’s been terribly busy with a lot of things, that he wasn’t paying too much attention to his mom or little sister lately. School has been eating up most of his time, his part time job and internship was time demanding that he rarely get to enjoy the sunset at beach and to add that he’s about to start a babysitting job which he never knew of until that morning.

He glanced at the girl beside him and took a good look at her clothes. Yesterday he was amazed how a kid like her still wore skirts, but today he was totally flabbergasted to realize that she was still in that kind of clothes. This time her skirt was ankle length and ruffled at the edges with big orange sunflowers printed all over. It was good though that she decided to wear a shirt this time and not a blouse. Who even wears blouse these days? Oh yeah… he forgot, Aoi Yu wears blouse and skirts.

“…while I, on the other hand notice a lot of things. Like the way you look at me right now. Why on earth do you keep on doing that?” she asked him half irritated, “Do you hate my fashion preference so much that you have to always check out my clothes? Are you gay or something?”

Upon hearing this comment, he almost stepped on the breaks just to yell at her, good thing his self control was on the top level because if it wasn’t, he was so ready to throw this brat out of his car. He tried to level his voice as he started to answer her.

“I am not gay. I was just checking out your clothes because I was curious, because kids your age do not usually wear clothes like that. It’s just unusual.” He said this painfully slow so that Aoi would understand his intentions perfectly, but she just shrugged and looked back outside the window.

A few seconds later, he saw the University building, which was in front of the elementary and high school. It was a pretty big university, complete with everything. His mom and dad never really understood why he wanted to get away from his hometown when everything was all within his reach. With that thought, he also realized that he never got the chance to explain it to his dad.

He parked the car then waited for Aoi to get out of the vehicle before he climbed out and locked the door.

“Yo! Kid, that’s the elementary school right over there,” he called to Aoi and pointed at his right side, “and I won’t be able to bring you back to your place because I’ll be working over time. Take the school bus instead ok? I can’t baby sit you all day. I got to go now.” He looked over at her as she stood beside his car with her flip flops, sling bag and a frown pasted at her face. He’ll be damned if this kid cried and asked for him to take her to school.

“My name is Aoi. Yu Aoi!!! And it’s not Yo!!! Try to remember that, smart ass!” She called out after him.

Shaking his head he turned his back from her and ran as fast as he could towards the university entrance and didn’t even bother to look back at the girl.

~~~End of Chapter 1~~~

Words from me:

I had this story tucked in my files for some months now. Thought i should just give birth on it online since i've had too much Aoi Yu and Hiro Mizushima overload. hope you guys like this one ne? ^_^v