Chapter One: Tomi

Sala let out a sigh of relief as he finally finished unpacking. He only had a few things but he had been losing a lot of sleep lately and he was tired. His parents had been worried by his sleepless nights, of course. He had been studying during the three-week break so he could get ahead of his classes once they began. But they knew that if their son wanted to stay on in Ichigo High, an international school that was way beyond their budget, he had to stay at the top of his class.

Sala collapsed facedown onto his comfortable dormitory bed, feeling the soft linen caress his skin. He closed his eyes wearily, mulling things over in his head. He always found it rather funny how his dorm room was more spacious than his whole house. Sala rolled over on his side, opened his eyes slowly, and faced the wall. He hated thinking about home. It had always been this way on his first day back to school. And he never got used to not having his dog around. Black Hayate had been a nagging presence at home, even while he was studying. A wistful smile spread across his face as he remembered he would be taking Hayate to the park this weekend.

I guess I could survive without Hayate for five days, Sala resigned, aimlessly tracing circles with his finger on the creamy white wall.

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted as the door flew open and a voice, familiar but yet different, drifted in. Sala groaned inwardly as he listened to the voice, recognising it. He had been bunked with one of the rich kids again. Whatever hopes Sala had of being roomed with another of the scholarship students were shattered and he sat up reluctantly to look at his roommate, Tomi Matsumoto, the star player in the school's football team and Sala's classmate for the past two years.

Sala noted that the last time he had seen Tomi, his hair had been spiky and black, with blue-tinted tips. Now, it had grown a bit longer and was strawberry blonde. Sala also noticed that, in the course of three weeks since he had last seen Tomi, his voice had changed considerably. It was actually a very nice voice, the kind that had just recently matured. Sala knew this would just gain Tomi more fans.

Girls would probably find his new voice sexy, he mused, blushing as he thought it. Where did that come from?

Sala looked away as Tomi sat on his bed, letting his feet dangle, and chatted away obliviously on his phone. His manservant was adeptly unpacking his three suitcases of clothes.

Sala could not help but stare at the amount of luggage the guy had brought with him. He couldn't imagine that Tomi would need all those clothes.

The manservant went to the adjoining bathroom and Sala watched as he started to unpack cases of what looked like hair gel, hair spray and lots of temporary hair dye. Sala's mouth hung open. Tomi had more hair products than his own mother!

But what surprised Sala more was that he was classmates with the guy for two years and, in just a few minutes, he had found out more things about Tomi than in the two years that they had known each other: the boy was exceptionally vain, for one.

"Of course I would love to attend the party, Aunt Haruka! I've been looking forward to it the past few weeks already. Yes, I will see you then. I'll bring Kaida as well? Perfect! Love you too!" Tomi was saying cheerily and then he snapped his phone shut.

Ah well. At least he isn't one of those snobby international students, Sala thought, trying to console himself. If there was anything he hated more than snobby rich kids, it was snobby international kids. They were always so full of themselves. At least the rich Japanese kids were a bit easier to get along with. Not that Sala ever talked with them much, anyway.

"Hi! I guess we're roommates, huh? I'm Tomi," Tomi said suddenly, smiling at Sala. Sala frowned at him, suspicious at his friendliness.

"Sala. And I know who you are," Sala stated blandly. He tried to match Tomi's congenial tone but Sala's underdeveloped social skills kicked in. However, instead of shirking away from Sala, like most people did, Tomi merely laughed. Tomi's laugh was catching and Sala found a small smile tugging at his lips. Just then, the manservant finished unpacking. He stepped out of the bathroom and coughed to catch his master's attention.

"Thanks, Wyatt! I'll call you when I need you. You may leave," Tomi told him, waving his hand dismissively. Wyatt bowed politely to Tomi, and turned to Sala uncertainly before bowing at him, too. Sala shifted in his bed uncomfortably, unused to the foreign gesture, as the manservant let himself out.

"Sala Suzuki, right? I loved that essay you wrote on The Odyssey," Tomi commented when Wyatt had left, referring to something Sala had written for their Literature class the year before. Their literature teacher then had liked it enough to read it aloud in class, to Sala's utter mortification. Sala blushed then and he blushed now as well. He didn't think Tomi would remember something like that.

"Oh, it was nothing," Sala replied, deadpan. He let his eyes drop to his bed sheet and started tracing the intricate patterns there, searching for something better to say, feeling an uncharacteristic need to fill the silence, which was deafening to Sala's ears. But Tomi seemed unaware of Sala's apparent discomfort.

The taller boy got up gracefully and walked over to his desk, which Wyatt had also arranged for him. Tomi hummed cheerfully to himself and seemed to glance through the titles of worn paperback books before he picked one up and settled back in his bed to read. Sala was envious of how comfortable he looked, lazing in his bed, periodically flipping the pages of his book while he, Sala, was too nervous to even not stare at Tomi.

After a while, Tomi glanced up at Sala, probably sensing that he was being watched, and grinned. He shifted the book slightly so that Sala could see the title.

"It's Death Note. Of course, I've already finished reading the entire manga. But I just like reading it again. L is so cool! And Misa-misa's so cute! And I love Misa-misa's outfits! I'm thinking of gathering a group so we can cosplay Death Note. Um... Do you read manga, Sala?" Tomi asked, interrupting his own tirade as Sala just sat there, unresponsive.

Tomi looked at Sala expectantly.

It finally came to Sala's attention that he had been staring at Tomi the whole time. He was so embarrassed that he was even distracted from the fact that Tomi had committed a taboo by using Sala's first name when courtesy dictated that he should have used Sala's surname. Sala looked away, unaccustomed to the sudden attention.

"Um... No, actually. I don't read manga," he replied, looking up and happening to glance at the clock. His eyes grew wide with a sudden realisation and he jumped out of his bed. Tomi's look shifted from shock (that someone actually did not read manga) to one of concern.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, his eyebrow shooting up.

"I'm supposed to meet with Watanabe-san. He had some things to discuss with me," Sala replied, frowning worriedly. He was afraid Watanabe-san would tell him that he needed to pull his grades up, in order to stay on the scholarship program. Tomi seemed to sense his worry and smiled reassuringly.

"Don't worry! I'm sure Watanabe-san just has a few extra assignments for you," Tomi said, chuckling. "You better get going, Sala. He hates when people are late. See ya at the orientation!"

"You're right. See you then." Sala hurried out of the room. Even though he wasn't the athletic type, he sprinted all the way from his room to the Administration Office, which was a couple of hundred meters away because Tomi was right about Mr. Watanabe. The man threw a fit when people were late. As Sala hurried to catch his meeting, he couldn’t help but think about Tomi. He was still suspicious that the over-privileged boy was being nice to him. Sala concluded that maybe Tomi wanted something from Sala but Sala had no idea what it could be. Most kids were nice to Sala because he helped them with homework but classes hadn’t even started yet and Tomi was smart enough that he breezed through all his subjects.