The night went by like any other night, but with Eiji looking forward to a weekend alone. Or so he thought…

It was eight in the morning and Eiji woke up to the repeated use of his doorbell. Eiji got up slowly and walked to the door scratching his head.

“Yeah, Yeah I hear you! Who is it this loud in the morning…?”

Eiji opened his door to see Hikari, Ryo, and Kohaku in front of him smiling. Hikari raised her hand for a slight wave.

“Yo!”

Eiji immediately tried to slam the door, but unfortunately Hikari grabbed the end of the door on time.

“Why are you guys here!? How do you know where I live!?” Eiji panicked trying to pull his door closed with all his might.

“While you were going home last night we followed you to see where you lived! Now that we’re here let us in!” Hikari strengthened her pull on the door as she glared at Eiji through the opened crack as if she was going to take advantage of him.

So that’s what she was planning! I knew she wouldn’t have just let me go home!

“Who does that! Are you guys stalkers!” Eiji screamed and kept trying to pull, but in the end Eiji lost his grip and his door opened. With Eiji on the ground Ryo walked up to him and lent out his hand

“It was Takaki’s idea! Since you bailed on us yesterday! Ha ha!”

“That’s because she told me to leave!” Eiji stood up immediately and stared at the group of people in front of him.

“Well since the doors open we’re coming in!” Hikari and Kohaku walked past Ryo and into Eiji’s living room.

Scratching his head, Eiji gave up and closed the door behind them.

“Ahhh! Just do whatever you want!”

“So this is where you live? Kinda small don’t you think?” Hikari stated as she looked around Eiji’s apartment

“I mean, since I’m usually alone I don’t really need a big place to live in…” plus this is the cheapest building my parents could find… Eiji thought to himself

“Ah… But you’re no longer alone! You got us! Is this your room?”

Hikari saw a door at the corner of the living room and went straight towards it, without thinking at all she opened the door and went inside.

“Morino! Machida! Come here and look at what's in Eiji’s room!”

“What’s in his room!?” Kohaku replied by dragging Ryo with her towards Eiji’s room with Eiji right behind them.

“Wow! That’s a lot of manga!”

“I read a lot.” Eiji replied, staring at Hikari, Kohaku, and Ryo messing his room up.

“Are these all romance mangas!? I didn’t expect you to be that kind of guy Eiji!” Hikari lifted up five different types of manga showing them to Eiji.

“Yeah, I like the endings… Now stop messing up my room!” Eiji took the books out of Hikari’s hand and placed them back on his shelf.

“Well since we’re already here, let’s celebrate our new formed friendship with a party in your house!” Ryo jumped up putting his arms around Eiji.

“Yeah! We should do that! Right Eiji!” Kohaku speed walks up to Eiji’s face and stares at him with Hikari staring at him from behind her.

Contemplating on whether to be afraid or feel bad Eiji sighed and just decided to give up and go with the flow. “Just do whatever you guys want, I don’t care anymore…”

“Yay! Let’s go shopping for food! And party till tomorrow!” Hikari jumped up grabbing Eiji and dashing for the door.

“Hey, wait for us!” Ryo and Kohaku ran after them thinking about all the food they were gonna eat.

“Let’s make curry and get some karaage!” Kohaku screamed with her sparkling eyes thinking about how delicious that would be.

“Ha ha, we’ll get whatever you want Kohaku! It’s a party after all!” Hikari replied while still dragging Eiji to the supermarket.

“Yay!”

Eiji felt as if he was the side character between his group of friends, unable to speak up for himself. I guess having them over won’t be too bad. At least I don’t have to make dinner myself now.

Just then Hikari stopped out of nowhere and Eiji flew past her due to how fast she was dragging him. However rather than falling to the ground he hit something hard, as if it was a metal pole. Eiji looked up and saw the most giant, muscular man he has ever seen.

“Ah… Dad, why are you here!?”

D, did she just say dad!? This scary looking giant man is her father!?

“Eiji get off him! You’re embarrassing yourself!”

Eiji stepped back and clearly saw another demon, but this time he’s twice the size and has a beard. The bearded demon grabbed Eiji before he could get further away from him.

“Why are you alone with my daughter hmmm!?” Staring right at Eiji breathing heavily near his face

“You trying to put the moves on my little girl!?” tightening his grip as if he was going to tear off Eiji’s arm

Just then Hikari slapped her father in the head with a face as red as a tomato

“Dad! Let him go! You're embarrassing me! We’re just going shopping together!”

With friends! You forgot we’re shopping with Morino and Machida! Don’t make this worse for me!!!

“HUH!? SHOPPING TOGETHER!?” Hikari’s father seemed as if he was about to breath fire and completely roast Eiji alive

“Yeah, so leave us alone! Or I’ll never forgive you!”

“W, w, what? You used to love me! You said you wouldn’t date anyone else but your daddy!” Hikari’s father turned pale and almost cried

“That was when I was ten! Now leave before you embarrass me any further!”

“Fine! I’ll leave, but if you hurt my daughter or try to put the moves on my little girl I’m gonna…!”

Before Hikari’s father could finish his sentence he was pushed away and Eiji was left alone fearing for his life.

“Hey Eiji! Sorry we’re late! What did we miss?” Ryo came from behind Eiji with Kohaku and slapped him in the back, almost scaring Eiji to death.

“N, n, nothing happened… Just that I was greeted by death itself…”

Eiji stands in place with Kohaku and Ryo confused and wondering just what happened to him and Hikari.

“I’m back! Sorry about before! Now let’s go shopping and party!”

Hikari came back dragging Eiji along into the supermarket and Eiji regained his train of thought.

I can see where she gets her monstrous strength from… This is why I prefer to be alone!

Back at Eiji’s house, Hikari prepared party poppers for everyone. Luckily Eiji had a large enough table to fit all the food they bought.

“Here’s to our new formed friendship!” Hikari screamed

“Yeah!”

Everyone cheered, popping their party poppers, all except Eiji who just popped it because he thought he had to.

“Let’s eat!” Ryo yelled as he poured juice for everyone raising his glass in front of everyone smiling.

With everyone enjoying the food it seemed as if Eiji wasn’t having any fun at all.

“What’s wrong?” Hikari asked Eiji leaning towards him

“I, I don’t know…” Eiji looked away from Hikari which got the attention of both Ryo and Kohaku

“Don’t worry! We’re your friends! You can tell us anything and we’ll help you out! Right guys!” Ryo cheered looking towards Eiji then turning his head towards Kohaku and Hikari

“Yeah! We’ll help you when you’re lonely or when you’re sad! Just trust us!”

Kohaku raised her fist towards the air looking at Eiji with her serious eyes

“Ah… It’s nothing! Let’s eat! Ha ha!” Eiji smiled replying towards the warm support from his friends and began to eat the food quickly.

“If you say so!” Ryo and Kohaku went back to eating, but Hikari just kept looking at Eiji as if something was wrong…

She sighed and joined in on the karaage and curry everyone was eating.

“This curry tastes so good!” Kohaku screamed happily licking her spoon clean

“It’s okay…” Eiji looked up towards her

“What!? You’re saying there’s better tasting curry than this!? You gotta give me some in the future!” Kohaku grabbed Eiji’s hands and stared at him straight in the eyes with her sparkling eyes

“Ah, sure! I’ll make some for you! Ha ha!”

“You’re gonna make it for us!? I can’t wait to try your cooking Hamasaki!”

“Me too!” Ryo joined in and hugged Eiji

“Alright! Now let go of me Machida!” Eiji began to feel disgusted again with how Ryo keeps getting way too close to him.

Takaki began to laugh and pointed at Eiji

“You said it! It’s a promise! You can’t break it no matter what!”

“Yeah, It’s a promise…”

“Anyway, it’s pretty dark out we should be going.” Hikari stood and and began to clean up

“I want to stay longer, but I guess you’re right!” Kohaku replied as she cleared out the plates and cups with Ryo

“See you next time Eiji! It was fun today!” Everyone waved and smiled at Eiji as they left his house.

As Eiji closed the door waving back, he leaned on his closed door and fell to the ground. He looked at his phone once more and on it read and attached was a picture of a blonde haired guy smiling and staring straight at the camera.

“I’ll see you soon, Eiji!”

Eiji sat still for the remainder of the night, he clenched his phone and stared down at the floor. Why? Why is he here!?! What else does he plan to take from me!?!

That night, Eiji felt as if time had stopped, his eyes filled with emptiness, unable to fall asleep he decided to read manga to help forget his troubles.

Eiji picked up a book and began to read. However, rather than feeling better Eiji felt worse than ever. His vision began to blur and water dripped off his face onto the manga.

Why? Why can’t I be happy like you? Will I be able to get a happy ending like you?

Just like that Eiji’s eyes began to close, everything around him was turning black, and before he knew it he fell asleep with tears still flowing.

The next day, Eiji remained home unable to get out of his bed. He ignored the texts he’s been receiving and all the calls he got. He felt hopeless and as if he had nothing in the world.

Suddenly, while Eiji was moping around he hears banging on his doors.

“Eiji! Why haven’t you replied to my text messages!?”

The voice and banging on Eiji’s door were from Hikari, but Eiji remained silent and in bed.

“I know something is wrong, but I won’t ask you for details, just know that you have friends now and that you can count on us…”

Eiji remained silent covering his ears and curled up into a ball.

“At least come to school tomorrow, just know that we’re worried about you! Just remember you’re no longer alone...”

Just like that, Hikari’s voice disappeared and Eiji knew she walked away, but remained absolutely still contemplating what Hikari had said.

Eiji slowly reached out for his phone and opened it to see six messages from Hikari.

In it he read

“I had lots of fun today! We should hang out more!”

“You seemed a bit down during the party… Are you okay?”

“Eiji are you there?”

“I don’t know what happened, but just remember your friends are here for you.”

“If you don’t reply I’m going to get mad!”

“I’m coming over tomorrow morning!”

Why does she care so much? Why won’t she leave me alone?

Eiji curled back up into a ball and drowned himself once again into the darkness which surrounds him as he slowly closed his eyes once more.

Unable to fall back asleep, Eiji finally decides to get out of bed and walks to his fridge. Seeing his fridge empty Eiji decides to head out and buy food. So he decides to put on some clothes along with a jacket to keep warm.

Just when he was about to leave, Eiji see’s a piece of paper near his doorway.

Eiji picks up the piece of paper and read

“You’re not alone…”

Not thinking much of it, Eiji crumbles the paper up, shoves it into his jacket pocket and leaves his house without looking back.

Why am I still like this? It’s all in the past, so why should I keep acting like this? Maybe he’s a changed man, maybe he just wanted to say hi to me… He kept my number all this time… I probably won’t see him again, right? Yeah he doesn’t know where I am! So everything should be fine right!? Eiji’s mind kept filling up with thoughts trying to cheer himself up. In the end Eiji just looked up and smiled giving himself the benefit of the doubt.

While Eiji was staring off into space he heard a voice from the other side of the street

“Hey Hamasaki!”

Eiji turned his head to see Ryo waving at him and approaching him

“You seem pretty happy today!” Ryo slapped Eiji’s back and began laughing

“Yeah…” Eiji muttered

“Takaki was pretty worried about you yesterday, but I’m glad to see you’re doing fine!”

Eiji felt his mind rushing with thoughts, but the only words that could come out of his mouth were

“Yeah…” Eiji nodded

“I’d love to stay and chat but I have somewhere I have to go! See you next time!” Ryo headed off in the opposite direction and waved goodbye to Eiji.

However rather than waving back Eiji just kept walking towards the store for food.

Back at home, Eiji promised to himself that he would change and ignore the past. He clenched his fists together and screamed, but nothing came out.

Eiji fell down to the ground, ate his food, and went straight to bed, he took out the paper from his jacket pocket and stared at it.

“You’re not alone…”

His vision got blurry, his pillow got wet, and in the end he fell back into darkness.

The next morning Eiji decided to head to school, however rather than bumping into Hikari on the way there, he was left alone.

In class Eiji got to his seat and stared at the door. His eyes widened and he began to lose his breath. At the front door, a black haired man who was about the same height as Eiji was staring right at him, grinning.