There wasn't much more talk about Saki around the house, or much talk in general really, not that I expected there to be. They chose to ignore the matter, probably because they had no means of controlling it, which suited me just fine. I was actually pretty excited the day they left because it meant I could start seeing Saki again.

When they left it went like every other time before that. No long, sad parting words. No show of affection. Not even an, "I'll miss you." I told them to be safe on their trip and they told me to take care of myself, and that was that. I'd be lying if I said I hoped, or even cared if it went differently. Saki had done what she could to stir the emotions inside of me. For the most part, I would call this a success, but there were emotions towards my family that hadn't even been touched. As I watched their car pull out of the driveway, I didn't feel a single bit of sadness. Maybe I wasn't numb at all. Maybe part of me was just dead.

Saki and Hiromasa started showing up again, and things more or less went back to normal. We hung out almost every day, usually doing nothing but playing games or finishing up our summer work. A couple of times a week, Saki would lead us to another reckless or destructive activity, but nothing new, no place we hadn't gone before. Not until that last weekend before school started again, when I found myself outside a traditional looking house in a fairly nice neighborhood in the dead of night with my heart pounding so hard in my ears I thought I might go deaf.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Could you repeat that? Did you say 'we're going in'?"

Saki's lips spread into a smile. "You got it."

Hiromasa shut his eyes and jerked his head left to right frantically. "No. No. No. No. Absolutely not. No way. No. No. No."

Saki rolled her eyes and started up the stone steps leading to the house. "How out of character for you to refuse, Hiromasa."

"What are you going to do once you're inside?" I asked.

"A game, of course," Saki replied without turning around.

A game? What game? The "let's see how much stuff we can steal from this house before the cops show up and haul us all to jail" game?

"Saki..." I started, unsure of what to say to her.

This was the first time I was considering not going along with one of her crazy plans.

She stopped with a groan and tilted her head back. "Would you two stop being such babies if I told you it was my father's house?"

"So, you live here?" I asked.

"No," she said. "But my father does."

I was elated that I finally grasped some of Saki's situation. It wasn't much, but it was something. If she didn't live here, but her father did, then her parents must have been divorced and Saki must live somewhere else with her mother. It was on the hopeful discovery of more information that I made one of my stupidest decisions to date.

"Hiromasa," I turned to face him. "You should go home. Seriously this time." I walked up the stairs towards Saki, leaving him behind.

She grinned and continued up the stairs. We circled around the house to the back door. Saki placed her hand on the door knob.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Wait," Hiromasa said, running up to us.

I sighed. "You should really go home. I'm not joking."

He marched up to me and stared me in the eyes. "And let you get ahead?" His voice was low. "I don't think so."

"Are you serious right now?" I asked quietly. "This isn't even about that."

Saki laughed and stuck her hand into Hiromasa's hair. "I didn't even have to harass you that much this time." She gave his head a shake.

Hiromasa pulled away and smoothed his hair.

She smirked and turned back toward the door. "And now..." She grabbed the doorknob and pushed the door open, letting it swing in slowly, exposing the pitch black hallway.

She stepped inside and disappeared into the darkness. I took a deep breath and ventured in after her. I didn't go very far, for fear of bumping into something. I couldn't see a thing, not even Hiromasa, but I heard his footsteps behind me, as well as his whimpering.

The door slammed shut causing me to jump and Hiromasa to scream. A moment later, the lights flicked on. I squinted at the sudden change. Saki was standing next to the door laughing hard, her fingers on the light switch. As I'd guessed, we were standing in the hallway. The dark wooden floors branched off into two other rooms to our right, a bathroom, and what I guessed was a laundry room.

Saki took an immediate left. Hiromasa and I followed, which led us to a very clean and white looking kitchen. The stove and fridge were stainless steel and looked to be top of the range. I'm not sure what her father did for a living, but he seemed to be making a lot of money doing it. Saki opened up one of the cabinets and started digging through it.

"Jackpot," she said, pulling out a short, thick bottle, filled almost to the top with brown liquid.

Well, at least she finally had a bottle with a label I could read. Whisky. Something told me Hiromasa and I weren't going to get out of this one with a simple refusal either. Saki set the whisky down and rummaged through another cabinet. She pulled out three glasses, holding them by the rims. She definitely knew her way around. This obviously wasn't her first time here, and not her first time stealing booze from her father's house either.

"Where is your father by the way?" I asked.

"On his yearly summer trip with his slut of a wife." She shut the cabinet doors and held the glasses out to me. "Carry these."

I took the glasses from her. Hiromasa, who had been unusually quiet, was gnawing away at his fingers.

"Stop that," I said. "You're going to make them bleed."

Hiromasa pulled his hands away from his mouth and clasped them behind his back. Saki led us out of the kitchen and flicked on the lights of a large sitting room. More of the traditional look, right down to the shoji doors and tatami mat floors. Saki took the glasses from me and placed them on the short wooden table in the center of the room. She intentionally spaced them out so we would all be sitting on different sides. I wondered if that was some subtle hint at my closeness level, and then thought better of it. Saki does not do subtle.

She set the bottle of whisky down in the center of the table and her lips crept into a smile. "We're going to play a drinking game."

Hiromasa whimpered. That was probably the correct response. My drinking experience had been few and far between and they all included Saki goading me into it. It was pretty clear who the winner was going to be.

"What sort of drinking game?" I asked.

Saki sat on the cushion at the head of the table. "This one actually took a little thought. At first, I was going to have us play king's game, but that's not so much fun with only three people."

"What's king's game?" Hiromasa asked.

"A game where you draw lots to elect a king." Saki took the top off the bottle and put a few splashes of whisky in everyone's glass. "Everyone else gets assigned a random number. Then the king tells the numbers what to do, unaware of who has what number, but it's no fun without at least four because you always know who the numbers are."

"So, what's your alternative?" I asked, sitting at the table opposite Saki, deciding to give her a little space tonight, just in case.

"It's more like truth or dare with a drinking component. We start with one person and move clockwise." She moved her finger in a clockwise circle. "The person next to you choses truth or dare and you ask your question or give the dare, but..." She tapped the glass with her nail. "You can choose to decline and take a drink. After it gets back to the first player, the direction goes counterclockwise. Repeats of past dares or questions are against the rules."

"Hardly seems fair," I said. "You could outdrink either of us."

She smirked. "That's why there's a limit. We pick a time and a set number of drinks for the game."

"I see." I pulled out my cellphone. "What's your time limit then?"

"Hm." Saki tapped her chin. "Let's say thirty minutes and three drinks." She held up three fingers.

"That isn't very many outs," Hiromasa said, and finally took his seat to the left of Saki.

Saki smirked. "Well, that's not the fun part of the game. So, who wants to start?"

"Why don't you go first?" I suggested. "You thought of it."

I entered the time limit into my phone and started the timer. "Go." I set the phone near the whisky in the center.

Saki turned to Hiromasa. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare," he said.

She thought for a moment. "I dare you to go upstairs and put on a dress you find in the closet."

Hiromasa's eyes went wide. "I'm not doing that."

"Take a drink then," she said.

He picked up his glass and hesitated.

"Sometime tonight." Saki pushed the glass towards his face.

He gulped down the liquid and scrunched up his face in disgust. Saki poured a little more into his glass after he set it down.

"Your turn," she said.

"Truth or dare?" he asked me.

"Truth," I answered.

"What the hell don't I know about you?" he mumbled. "What's your favorite food?"

I laughed. "Tonkatsu, but you knew that, right?"

"You suck," Saki said, glaring at Hiromasa.

Hiromasa shrugged. "I couldn't think of anything."

"Truth or dare?" I asked.

She smiled. "Dare."

"Alright." I smirked. "I dare you to not eat strawberries for a year."

I watched the smile vanish from her face and her eyes fill with panic as she realized the night was not going to go as she'd planned. The obvious and tempting thing to do was force people to do embarrassing things, but I had an entirely different goal. I had been waiting patiently for months to learn anything new about her, but this hadn't gotten me anywhere. I wasn't going to corner her and demand all the answers, just nudge her a little bit. If I could graze the surface, maybe I could finally make some progress.

I would choose truth every time. There was no point on wasting my time on dares, and I wasn't concealing anything. There wasn't a question I could think of that I would have a problem answering either. Every time Saki chose dare, I would have to pick something that gave a long term consequence. I doubted I could make her blush, but I could certainly think of things she wouldn't do. She would have no choice but to choose truth, and because of the drink limit, answer the questions. She couldn't have chosen a better game for me.

Saki regained her cool composure, took her drink, and then poured more in. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth," I said.

"How many girlfriends have you had?" she asked.

"Four. Possibly five."

"What does that mean?" Saki asked.

I shrugged. "Not sure if one of them counted."

"Why not?" she asked.

I grinned. "Sorry. No freebees. You'll have to wait another round."

She glared at me. "Fine."

"Hiromasa?" I glanced at him.

"Truth," he said.

"Is that payback?" I glanced up at the ceiling, as if it held some sort of secret question. I smiled. "Did you actually go commando the other night at the pool on your way home?"

His face turned red instantly.

"Yes," he muttered, looking down.

Saki and I laughed.

"Truth or dare?" he asked without looking up.

"Dare," she said.

He thought for a moment. "I dare you to climb up on the table and sing Kagome Kagome."

Saki grinned and climbed up on the table, then immediately started belting out that weird children's song about birds in baskets and turtles slipping, all the while twirling around like a ballerina. At the end, she took a bow. Hiromasa and I laughed and applauded.

"Truth or dare, Hiromasa?" she asked after sitting down.

"Dare," he said.

She smiled. "I dare you to run down the street naked."

"I'm obviously not doing that." He sighed. "Why are yours always so sadistic?"

"Did you expect anything else?" I asked. "Why would you pick dare from her?"

"At least he's playing," Saki sneered. "You haven't picked dare once."

I shrugged. "I'm a boring guy."

Saki rolled her eyes and turned her gaze back to Hiromasa. "If you aren't going to do it, you have to drink again."

Hiromasa sighed, squeezed his eyes shut and took the shot. He grimaced as he set the glass down. "Your turn."

"Truth," I said, and leaned back on my hands.

"Seriously?" he groaned. "Why do you only pick truth?"

"Is that your actual question?" I asked.

"I guess." He shrugged. "I can't think of anything else to ask you."

"Because I can't be bothered to humiliate myself. It seems much easier to answer questions."

"Easier and boring," Saki said.

I grinned. "Oh, really? I'm not bored at all. Truth or dare?"

"Truth," she grumbled.

"Does your father know you break in here to steal booze?" I asked.

She drummed her fingers on the table. "No. I haven't spoken to him in nearly four years."

"You haven't spoken to your own father in four years?" Hiromasa shook his head. "That's a long time."

"Why?" I asked.

She smirked. "No freebees."

I chuckled. "I guess I deserve that one."

"Truth, I suppose?" Saki asked.

I nodded. "Yep."

"Why don't you think one of your relationships counted?" she asked.

"Because I don't think she ever cared about me, ever thought she did, or even wanted to. I was just a way to pass the time."

For a second, I saw real sadness on Saki's face, something beyond pity, true empathy. As if she knew exactly what it meant to get tossed away by someone you thought cared about you, but then, of course she did. We were sitting in her father's house. A father she hadn't spoken to in almost four years. And then, just as quickly as the look appeared, it vanished.

"Your pick, Hiromasa," I said.

"Dare," he said.

"I dare you to pick dare again when Saki asks." I grinned.

"What the hell?" He rose out of his seat and leaned over the table towards me. "I thought we were friends. You're the one who told me to stop picking dare from her in the first place."

Saki started laughing.

"Sorry," I said and laughed a little. "I couldn't think of a better one."

He sighed and sat back in his seat. "Saki?"

"Dare," she said again.

"I dare you to punch Kaito in the arm."

She grinned and cracked her fingers. "With pleasure."

"Revenge, huh?" I asked.

He nodded with a grin.

"Well played." I tipped my drink at him.

Saki crawled around the table and socked me in the shoulder.

I grunted. "You could have held back a little, you know?"

"I did," she said, returning to her spot across the table.

"Maybe you should consider a career as boxer." I rubbed my arm.

"Dare, Hiromasa?" Saki asked.

"I guess I don't have a choice." He glared at me.

I shrugged. "You could have taken a drink."

"And waste my last one? Yeah, right. Besides, I'm going to show you. Whatever it is this time, I'll do it."

Saki smiled mischievously.

"Probably," Hiromasa said. "I'll probably do it."

"I dare you to drink as much as I pour in your glass all at once."

Hiromasa swallowed hard and nodded. Saki's smile got wider and she began to pour the amber liquid into his glass. His eyes got wider and wider as she kept pouring, eventually stopping when the glass was about half full.

She gestured at the glass. "Go ahead, or do you intend to chicken out?"

Hiromasa glared at her and snatched the glass off the table. He took gulp after gulp until he drained the whole glass, then slammed it back on table.

Saki giggled. "I'm impressed."

Hiromasa grinned at her in his usual cheesy manner, and then turned to me. "Well?"

"Truth."

Hiromasa sighed and started taping the table. An entirely different kind of grin spread across his lips. "Are you in love with anyone?"

I could answer every question except that one. That bastard. When did he suddenly become so sadistic? Wasn't Saki enough? I picked up my glass and took my first drink of the evening. Heat bloomed in my chest almost immediately. Turns out, I wasn't a fan of whisky either. Saki leaned over the table and locked eyes with me as she refilled my glass, her lips turned up at the sides. Crap.

"Truth," she said, after sitting back, not even waiting for me to ask the question.

"Why did your father leave?" I asked.

Saki rubbed her finger along the rim of her glass, keeping her eyes cast downward. "He couldn't deal with my mother's emotional outbursts."

I nodded. "You know what I'm going to pick."

"Were you in love with Izumo?" she asked. "That is the one you don't think counted, right? You've talked about her before."

"I guess I'll give you that one since you guessed correctly. She is the one I don't think counted, but no, I didn't love her. At the time I thought I did, but I've come to realize it was just infatuation."

Saki nodded silently.

"No more dares for me," Hiromasa said. "Truth."

"Where did you put your boxers after you took them off?" I asked, after considering it for a minute.

He chuckled. "Under some trees nearby."

Saki and I both exploded with laughter.

"Some poor kid is going to find those on their trip to the pool," Saki said, which sent us all into a long lasting laughing fit again.

"Truth or dare?" Hiromasa asked, still laughing a little.

"Dare," Saki said.

"I dare you to kiss me." Hiromasa glanced over at me and smiled.