I woke up again when I heard the alarm ring. I felt exhausted despite having slept for an adequate time. The events of last night came slowly flooding back to me and I swung up from the bed, alert. Did I really tell Luna that I liked her as well? I couldn't remember. It felt like a hazy dream. I looked besides me but Luna wasn’t there. I could smell food from the kitchen.

I opened the door and found Luna at the kitchen area in my living room. She was cooking something on the stove and had her hair tied up so that her fringe didn’t fall over her eyes. She was staring at the contents in a pot with a fixed expression, her eyes furrowed in concentration and she was biting her lower lip intently. She looked really cute.

Luna let out a cry when she saw me behind her and turned around with a weak laugh, her face red. “Oh, hey Ryo…” She was wearing an apron over her school uniform and the bandages on her arm were gone. There wasn’t even a sign of her cuts.

“H-hey…” I replied, staring down at her arm. Did I just imagine everything last night?

“I wanted to cook you breakfast… I hope you don’t mind…"

I nodded awkwardly and headed for the bathroom to get ready for school. I still didn't know what to think about the whole ordeal. There was no way her arm could heal that fast. But if I had imagined everything last night, then why the hell was I seeing Luna in my apartment? Was I dreaming? Could I be becoming a schizophrenic?...

No… let’s not go there…

I will just assume everything is real.

Then could I trust Luna? How could I be sure that she wasn't just pretending to like me so that she could find an opportunity to make me disappear without a trace? I was still the only plausible witness to the murder that she committed.

I brushed my teeth with that thought in mind. After that, I threw on my uniform and sat down with Luna for breakfast. Luna was awfully quiet and seemed to be watching me with an anxious expression on her face. She was pouting her lips nervously and hasn't even touched her own breakfast yet.

I looked down at the food. It was a traditional Japanese breakfast consisting of rice, broiled fish, miso soup and some other small dishes. It looked really good. I couldn't actually believe I was sitting at home about to eat a breakfast that Luna had specially prepared just for me. I could feel a warmth spreading though my body and I picked up a spoonful of miso soup eagerly.

I raised the spoon to my mouth and stopped. Luna was still staring at me. Her own meal lay untouched in front of her. I felt awkward having someone watching me eat. Why wasn't she eating, herself? She couldn't have… I glanced slowly at the spoon I held in front of me. What if the food was poisoned? I felt a sweat roll down my temple. What if this was how she planned to get rid of me?

"W-why aren't you eating, Luna?" I asked uneasily.

"I'm not hungry." Luna answered. She didn't move. And I didn't move either.

Luna frowned sourly and I saw her cheeks reddened. "Why aren't you eating, Ryo? Don't you like the food?"

I didn't know what to say. At this rate, I would have to take the first bite. "Uh…"

"You don't think that I did something to the food, do you?" Luna had a hurt look on her face and I could see her chewing her lower lip flustered.

I didn't say anything. Luna's cheeks got more red and I could see tears in her eyes.

"I thought you said you liked me." She blurted out and a tear rolled down her face.

I was shocked by her sudden burst of tears. I didn't expect her to cry. Had she really done nothing to the food? Was I just being paranoid? I didn't know whether I could trust Luna or not. I tried to say something soothing but nothing came to mind.

"Ryo doesn't like Luna at all." Luna sobbed and I could see more tears flowing down her face. "Ryo is a liar."

"N-no." I said meekly. I didn't know what else to say.

"Ryo hates Luna." She sniffed. "Luna should just kill herself."

"H-here, I'm eating the food." I said quickly. I drank the soup and looked at her. She waited and I swallowed.

God, I was such a pushover.

Luna got out of her chair, then walked to me. “H-hey…” I wasn’t comfortable with how close she was getting. She pulled me into a tight hug, her head on my shoulder.

“Luna…”

“I love you so much, Ryo…” She whispered into my ear.

“Okay…” I felt awkward. Was I supposed to tell her that I loved her too here?

“Please trust me… I would never do anything to purposely hurt you...”

Her words felt genuine and it made me feel guilty for doubting her, but I couldn’t help it. It was hard to trust someone that could kill without any emotion. Anyways, I guessed I had to play along.

“I trust you, Luna…”

She pulled away from me, then smiled. I felt something flutter in my stomach. Damn it, why was she so cute?

I watched her walk back to her seat and eat her meal nonchalantly. I sighed and ate the food silently. Luna sure cooked well. I couldn’t believe I had thought that she would actually poison my food. I guess Luna really did like me after all.

When we were done eating, Luna cleaned the dishes and I waited for her to walk to school together. It seemed she had bought all her stuff to my apartment. Was she actually planning to live here?

"Done!" Luna exclaimed cheerfully when she was finished with the last dish.

I opened the door and Luna raced to my side. I felt her wrap her arms around my arm.

"We can't go out like this." I said embarrassingly.

"Why not?" Luna pouted. I could feel her fingers slipping through my hand and holding it.

"Well, what will people say when they see us…" I tried to shrug her off but she clung on tightly.

"I will stab them if they say anything."

"N-no!" I cried horrified. I grabbed her shoulders and pulled her in front of me. She was staring at me with a red face. She thought I was going to kiss her or something. I looked at her and tried my best stern expression. "Luna… I don't want you to carry a knife outside."

Luna looked at me puzzled. "How will I protect you then?"

She was actually carrying a knife? Then, she carried one every day to school? I didn't know what to say. I felt like if I said anything wrong, she might jump up and slit my throat.

"If Ryo says so." Luna sighed, her pink lips pouting and I saw her reach behind her skirt. She pulled a knife out and placed it on the table.

I stared fixedly at the knife. It wasn't any ordinary kitchen knife. It was a switchblade. A large one too. The handle was completely black and was made to fit petite fingers. A menacing aura emitted from the switchblade.

"Let's go!" Luna said excitedly as she pulled me out of the house.

Eventually we arrived at the front of the school. I pulled my hand out of her grasp.

"Luna, at school let's pretend we don't know each other." I said. I had stopped behind a bush so that no one would see us. There were hundreds of students walking to school at this time.

"Why?" Luna groaned and she tried to reach for my arm again but I pulled it away from her.

"Because, it will be weird and we would attract too much attention." And if we attracted too much attention people would realise Luna was a psychopath.

"Fine." Luna sulked and she handed me a box. "This is your lunch, don't forget to eat it."

I took the bento and she left without another word. I hoped nobody saw us walking to school together.

I started walking a few minutes after her and entered the school grounds. Hibiya High was a prestigious school for the talented and we had over a thousand students. The school itself was quite big compared to other schools and we even had our own swimming pool.

"Hey, Ryo!" Eiji greeted, slapping me on the back. "How did it go with Yumi?"

"Next time you go around finding dates for me, let me know first." I reached into my pocket and gave what was left of Eiji's money back to him. "I don't need a girlfriend."

"Just trying to help a friend out." Eiji laughed, taking the money from my hand.

I sighed and watched as Luna stroll past us, laughing with her best friend Akane. Akane had brown hair that fell to her shoulders and a pair of hazel eyes. I saw a pack of boys following them, trying to initiate a conversation. They sure were popular.

"Cheer up, Ryo." Eiji said, patting my shoulder. "Luna and you just don't match."

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

I heard the bell ring and we proceeded to our homeroom. Eiji and I were in all of the same classes. Luna was also in the same classes as us. The more I thought about it, the more I realised it probably wasn’t a coincidence Luna was in all of my classes. We entered the classroom and I heard laughter explode.

"Hey look it's Ryo!" A student at the back jeered, everyone laughed and I looked around confused. What was going on?

"That's enough, everyone." The teacher said. I could see rows of paper stapled at the front of the classroom where a crowd of students were gathered around. I walked towards the papers. It was the mid-term results.

I could see Luna's name at the top of the page in every subject. Wow. She had scored between 98s to 100s for all her tests. I searched the papers for my name and I heard the student next to me giggle.

"No need to look, your name's on the last pages." She pointed out.

I saw my name on the very last for maths with a remarkable 21 per cent. The rest were almost as bad. Eiji was somewhere in the lower half of the class.

"Haha!" Eiji laughed finding my name. "You're almost the lowest in every subject!"

Hey, you didn’t do too good either… My eyebrows twitched in annoyance.

I stared back at the papers and groaned. I didn't spent much time studying and I couldn't afford cram school but I never thought I would get this low. I turned around to find a group of classmates snickering.

"Ryo, just go back to Okinawa!" One mocked. "You're only here because your parents paid for the exchange entrance fee anyway."

I frowned bitterly and saw Luna glancing at me with a worried look.

"Be quiet and get to your seats, class will start soon." The teacher said. I took my seat at the back next to Eiji. I didn't have any other friends besides Eiji. And although Eiji was popular with both girls and boys for his athletic skills and looks, he spent most of his time with me.

Class began and I tried hard to concentrate but in the end I decided to just close my eyes and sleep. It was so boring and tedious. An absolute waste of time.

When I woke up, it was lunch time. I was about to get up and buy something from the cafeteria when I remembered that Luna had made my lunch. I took the bento out of my box and opened it.

"Woah! You bought your own lunch?" Eiji threw his arm over my neck and looked at the bento surprised. "Who made that for you?"

It seemed everything in the bento was cut to resemble a heart and Luna had taken the effort to make sure that everything was placed as neat and appealing as possible. I could see Luna glancing behind and winking at me. I hope nobody saw that.

"No one." I replied hastily as I took a quick bite. It was delicious and I ended up wolfing down the rest of the bento while Eiji stared enviously eating the lunch he bought from the cafeteria. By the time I was done, I was famished and I glanced over where Luna sat. Akane and several other girls were surrounding her. She sure was popular.

"Hey, Luna, have you planned on dating anyone yet?” One of the girls asked

“No…” Luna shook her head, forcing a polite smile.

“That’s a shame… you’re so pretty!”

“Yeah, you could probably get any guy you wanted!”

Luna laughed modestly. “No way…”

“Luna doesn’t need to go out and date random guys, just for the sake of it…” Akane interjected, crossed.

Lunch ended without anything happening and I slept through the last few periods. The bell rang announcing the end of school and everyone began packing up. I picked up my stuff and left the school. Eiji had to stay for homeroom cleanup.

I was heading for the train station when I felt a hand wrap around my arm. I looked back and saw Luna, besides her was Akane.

"Ryo!" Luna sang happily. "Let's go to Akane's house for a study session."

I saw Akane shift uncomfortably. And I sighed. "I thought I told you to pretend we don't know each other."

"You said that only when we're at school but school's over now." Luna replied, pouting her lips. She pulled me closer toward her and dragged me in the opposite direction. "Akane said she doesn't mind."

"It's ok if it's Luna…" Akane said, her cheeks reddening but Luna seemed to ignore her.

"Come on, Ryo. Let's go."

We ended up at Akane's house and it seemed her parents were not home. Luna kicked off her shoes and dragged me to Akane's room while Akane walked behind us sullenly. I felt sorry for her but Luna seemed fine with it and she was her best friend. We plumped ourselves down on her kotatsu table and Akane excused herself to make some tea.

"Are you sure Akane doesn't mind about us intruding her house like this?" I asked when Akane disappeared to the kitchen. "It seems kind of rude…"

"Don't worry, she likes me." Luna replied.

"Yeah but that doesn't mean we can just intrude like this." I sighed. Sometimes I really didn't get what Luna was thinking. Most times, actually.

"As in really like." Luna repeated. I raised an eyebrow.

"Akane is a lesbian."