"In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past, bridge to our future."

The sixteen-year-old Klaus Weber uttered this sentence smoothly to his friend sitting at the seat in front. Being the last students to stay in their classroom, the garbled noises from the schoolyard stood out to the two friends.

Sunset dyed their classroom orange.

Crows cawed somewhere outside as they flew.

There were several students in the tennis club practicing in the late evening, and Klaus could hear their shouts even from his class. If someone was to ignore this, the atmosphere surrounding Klaus and his friend could be considered quiet.

Klaus Weber. A first-year high schooler at the Yokoyama Ichi Academy. His ocean blue eyes were a distinct contrast to his neatly cropped dark hair. His diversions while at school? Getting together with friends and those who he considered family as often as he could. Participate in events with them and alike.

To someone like him, being alone without a friend, a family member to talk with was something he never wanted to experience again.

Speaking of which, the friend sitting in front of Klaus at the time was Akeno Aoi. With her thin eyes staring at Klaus indifferently, she brushed a few fingers over her other hand.

"That quote. Alex Haley, was it?"

"Correct!" A wide smile appeared on Klaus's face.

"Then, how about this one?"

Klaus coughed an exaggerated cough and straightened his sitting posture. "The family is the most important organization in time or eternity. Our purpose in life is to create for ourselves eternal family units."

"...Joseph Fielding Smith. That was a quote by Joseph Fielding Smith."

Once again, Klaus smiled at Aoi's correct response. He practically muttered those quotes a multitude of times to her, so it wasn't difficult to guess. As best friends, they were close, so it was hardly a chore for Aoi to remember the quotes and who had said them.

"I'd heard them for too many times. Pick a new quote. Choose one that's not related to family or anything of the sort," said Aoi. The words she spoke came out as monotone as ever. They lacked any ego or drive. While this was true, Aoi's eyes glinted with slight happiness every time Klaus brought up his list of quotes randomly.

But her expression was almost the same that no one noticed, not even Klaus.

"Hmm, you have a family of your own, Aoi. I was born an orphan, raised by my grandmother, and learned to do everything by myself."

"That was quite an exaggeration. I don't remember the last time you cleaned your room by yourself. In regards to sports, you're hopeless."

"Ugh... Don't bring those up!"

"There's only the two of us here," Aoi muttered as she ran her hand down her shoulder-length dark hair.

Aoi adjusted her glasses and then grabbed her schoolbag. Knowing she wanted to leave, Klaus did the same as well and swept his gaze over the classroom. Since both of them were on duty, they'd swept the floor and wiped the windows after their classmates left.

"Wait for me at the gate," ordered Aoi.

"Where are you going?"

"The staffroom. Just wait for me at the gate, Klaus."

With almost silent steps, Aoi walked away and turned into a corner in the corridor, leaving Klaus alone. Ah, he had forgotten. They had to return the keys to the storeroom. Klaus realized this and bit his lip.

Well, the boy was prone to forget things quickly.

On the ground floor, Klaus sauntered over to his shoe locker and pulled out his shoes. He had put a bit of strength into his pull without him realizing, and a white letter immediately fluttered before his eyes. It took a few moments before Klaus could register the object lying near his feet.

"Wait, did I..." Staring at the nameplate soldered onto the shoe locker's door, he shook his head. It was indeed his shoe locker.

"Hm." He quickly glanced left and right. Good, no one else was there at the moment! It would be unwise for him to wait any longer, and so, he picked the letter and hid it in his schoolbag.

Opening it in his room would be the best choice. Though, even after Klaus had resolved to this, his heart couldn't stop thumping against his chest.

"A love letter? It can't be, right?" He said to no one in particular.

He balked at the fact that he'd just received a love letter. That couldn't be it? He never had any experience with this sort of event before, so he had many doubts. No one would think of giving something like this to him. After all, a lot of girls he knew described him as annoying since he wouldn't stop coming up with quotes during conversations. He was self-aware of this.

Though by letting his negative thoughts took over, Klaus quickly concluded that the sender had mistaken his shoe locker for someone else's. Hence the reason why he found the letter first.

Wait, this didn't feel right as well.

It was late evening. Wouldn't it make more sense for the sender to place the letter in the early morning? Leaving it in the shoe locker for a whole night would surely trouble the sender more than he or she would've wanted. That person wouldn't be able to get a good night's sleep, thinking about it.

"Ah... but what do I know? If it does turn out that he or she got the wrong person, I'll just put it where it is supposed to be."

A simple plan, but common sense would tell him otherwise if he thought about it a few more times. There was a good chance that the intended person was someone he didn't know at all, if barely. Klaus proceeded to focus his line of thoughts in a different direction. Indeed, he quickly thought that the sender didn't get his shoe locker mixed up, that he was the intended person all along.

Standing by himself at the school gate, Klaus mentally made a list of the possible girls who had placed the letter in his shoe locker. Could it be the class's representative, Kitabayashi Arisu? Or perhaps his secret admirer was the student council's vice president, Fukutsuchi Emiko! No, this list had some girls that were out of his league. He had to trim it down.

"What's this about a love letter?"

"Wah!"

Aoi looked at Klaus with a steady gaze, neither curiosity nor puzzlement visible in her eyes. At least Klaus thought so when he saw her.

"Nothing... The family is one of nature's masterpieces!"

The quote came out of nowhere. Klaus put up a wry smile, somewhat contradicting himself. He was an open book to his best friend through and through.

"A quote by George Santayana. That aside, you're nervous. Did something happened while I was gone?"

Aoi didn't appear to be worried, despite what she said. Her emotionless countenance sometimes made even Klaus a bit dumbfounded when he wanted to respond to her questions.

These two walked to school every day, and it didn't take more than fifteen minutes for them to reach their neighborhood. Klaus halted in front of his house and slowly turned to face Aoi behind him.

"Have you ever thought of sending a love letter to me?" Klaus blurted out of nowhere, asking a straightforward question.

He'd hoped that his deduction was correct, that Aoi was the one who'd placed the letter.

"Let me guess. Someone sent you a love letter, and you haven't opened it yet. But since you're not close with anyone other than me, you're assuming I was the one who'd given you the letter."

She'd guessed everything!

"Um..."

"I see. Then, good luck with your first romance."

Aoi lazily waved Klaus goodbye and walked to her house a few blocks away. For someone who had known Klaus for a long time, she knew Klaus had no experience in this sort of matter. As far as she was aware, his focus was solely on his hobbies and fascinations.

Klaus's hobbies? During his free time before dinner, he would tend to his collection of books. Yes, each book, each story revolved around the character's relationships.

"Spirits Beyond. Rise of the Wandering Noble Family. Black Tears of Brynhildr."

It was only five more minutes before dinner, but Klaus decided to read one more book before then. He sat on a chair and skimmed through the scented pages of Spirits Beyond. It didn't take more than a few seconds until he had reached the page he wanted to read.

The page described a scene where the male protagonist who had grown up by himself stumbled into a certain girl. This girl recognized him as her younger brother, but he denied any relation between them quite adamantly. The protagonist had grown to hate his family for leaving him by himself and quickly ran away from the scene. He ran away from his older sister.

With a sigh, Klaus put the book away. This emotional scene always got him excited. More often than not, he would try to find time to read the book over and over.

"Spirits Beyond" wasn't the best book he had read, but the protagonist resonated with him quite a lot. An orphan searching for his family, but in the end, chose to forget about them.

A strange feeling welled up in his chest. Yes, the sense of uncomfortable deja vu hit him every time he read this scene. Why? He didn't know the answer.

"Ah, the time!" It was already time for dinner.

At the dining table, an elderly smiled at Klaus when he stepped into the kitchen. Dinner for that night was chicken curry with fragrant, fluffy rice.

Klaus had helped cooked the rice and cut the chicken into sizable pieces roughly an hour ago.

"Eat slowly. The food won't be going anywhere." Klaus's grandma let out a small laugh. Klaus shoved lumps of rice into his mouth, refilled his bowl of rice, and slathered more curry on his plate.

Since Klaus was young, this woman had been taking care of him by herself.

Words won't be enough to describe how grateful Klaus is towards her. Due to this, Klaus wouldn't hesitate to spill whatever he had in his mind.

"Grandma, someone put a love letter in my shoe locker!" said Klaus after he'd finished eating.

It was worth noting that he had not opened the letter yet. Regardless, he ran his mouth and spoke in a prideful tone. This accomplishment enraptured him this much.

"Who is it? Do I know her?" Grandma asked curiously.

"I haven't opened it yet. But whoever this girl is, I'll make her like me more with the newest quotes I'd discovered. She'll fall head over heels over me, I'm sure."

"Ah, but don't neglect your studies, okay? You're a smart student already, so I don't want your academics to be affected. Make good use of your time," said Grandma. "Anyway, don't forget to introduce her to me when you can."

"No problem!"

To be so excited, it was proof that this was indeed Klaus's first step into his adolescent romance. Not to say it was wrong to be thinking this way.

Klaus went back to his room after chatting with grandma for a little while and rummaged through his schoolbag. His fingers pressed the white letter as he pulled it out.

Sweat trickling down his forehead, he gingerly opened the letter with his free hand. A folded sheet of paper poked out from inside.

Thum! Thum!

Akeno Aoi let herself in through the wooden door and stared at the letter in Klaus's hands. She raised an eyebrow at it.

"I didn't say you could come in!" Klaus said with slanted eyes. "And when did you come in?"

"You haven't read it yet?"

"No... I'm about to. Why are you here this late anyway?"

"I can't help but question myself. I want to know who it is."

"Tch. Don't be a busybody."

Klaus wanted to read the letter by himself, so Aoi's presence miffed him, more than he'd thought it would. Regardless, Klaus motioned for Aoi to sit on his chair as he unfolded the white sheet of paper.

It wasn't uncommon for Aoi to visit him at random times. After all, they had known each other since elementary. He was used to seeing her quite a lot after school.

"So, so, who is it?" asked Aoi with an indifferent expression. Her words didn't match the face she was making.

"...."

"Hey, I'm talking to you."

"Is this a prank?"

Klaus gave the paper to Aoi and sat on the floor. He buried his face in his hands and sobbed exaggeratedly. Snots of shame flowed out, and tears of embarrassment trickled down his cheeks. Who would do this?! A devil in human form! Klaus cursed silently.

Aoi stared at the letter, and as if wanting to exacerbate Klaus's mood, read the contents out loud.

"Klaus Weber, I'd known you for a long time. You might not believe nor remember me. To err is human, after all. There are so many things I need to tell you. I need to see you in person. I'll visit your classroom sooner or later, so be prepared.

Regards, your loving father."

"Is this a joke? Your father is..." Aoi wanted to comment on the letter, but Klaus's sobs ceased the action.

"My parents died a long time ago!" Klaus said with teary eyes. "The only ones I have now are you and grandma. Who thought about this heartless prank?!"

"Now, you're acting like a five-year-old... You're exaggerating. Ignore this and..."

"Aoi! I won't forgive anyone who makes fun of my family! If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together but separable – each segment distinct."

"What? That's a quote by Loretta Cottin Porgrebin, right? That came out of nowhere."

Klaus shook his head and stormed out of the house, his hand gripped a slender wooden stick tightly. Where did he get it? Aoi called for him, but the man paid her the scantest attention. He would visit this student who'd sent the letter and wack him or her in the face!

Though, he had no clue as to who this person was, and more importantly, where he or she lived.

"Stop being an idiot."

Aoi pulled him by the collar and slapped him squarely on his cheek.

"Wha... Aoi?"

"You become an idiot every time you let your emotions take over. If I wasn't there for you each time this happened, then you would've been caught doing stupid things."

Again, Aoi said these words with little to no emotion showing on her face.

"Aoi..."

"And since I'm always with you at school, the other students will think I'm weird as well."

"That's your reason?!"

"Anyway, enough of this. Throw away the letter and finish your homework. I'll let you copy mine this time."

Klaus nodded and thanked the benevolent sister with a smile. He wanted to do his homework by himself before, but an offer like this was hard to resist. As for the stupid letter, he would just keep it for now until he could find the sender.