“Tomorrow's the last day before summer vacation. Please come stay the night at my house tomorrow. My parents wanted to meet you.”

We reached the front of Aya’s house. But wait, what!? She wanted me to stay at her place? Hold on. Her parents wanted to meet me, and if I remember correctly, she said her father doesn’t care about her, and her mother is rarely at home, on that day, the day I somehow saved her life. I asked while stuttering with nervousness-

“W-w-wait...would it...would it be fine if I, a boy, stayed the night under the same roof with you?”

She seemed to a little hesitant at first, but replied positively- 

“Yea, it's perfectly fine! After reaching home, please have your lunch there and come here in the evening. We will have dinner in my house and sleep in my room.”

Whoa whoa wait… Sleep where?? I was turning into a boiling red tomato. She was okay being with a boy of the same age as her, and sleeping not under the same roof, but in the same room?! I got a slight suspicion over her main motive, but if it is what I think it is, then...I guess...I wouldn’t deny it….Ahem, anyways, from the look in her eyes, denial would no longer be possible. So I agreed, still stuttering faintly.

“Oh...O-ok.”

“Please do come. Oh and it's almost time for you. Sorry I kept you for long. See you at school tomorrow then!”

Okay, now I can see vaguely, that she was putting up a fake smile onto her face. From the inside, she definitely was gleaming red with embarrassment. But whatever, she was right, it was getting pretty late for me too. I had to go to the restaurant in the city center for my part-time work.

“Oh yea, ok bye! See you tomorrow!”

“Bye!”

We both waved our hands and I  headed home.

Staying the night in her room, huh.
I thought to myself while walking down the deserted road, beginning to redden. Hah, I don’t have time to keep clinging onto her words, I had to go to work quickly, because it was already a little late. Oh, and I almost forgot, I need to buy an alarm clock...

*       *       *  (Shifting of POV)

Aaaa! How am I going to face him tomorrow...I said some extremely embarrassing things! Only if it wasn't for my mom. She said she wanted to meet him. But still, she’s back home after such a long time, arriving yesterday night after I fell asleep from all that beating by Washizu. I missed her so much.
Also, apart from Hisashi, my mom is the only one who doesn’t treat me like a toy or anything. She cares about me as much as a mother would do to her own daughter. As I’ve said earlier, they are my foster parents and aren’t blood related, but mom doesn’t see me that way and cares about me like her own daughter. This can also be counted as a reason for why I have not yet run away from this household, even though both father and Washizu torment me to hell.

Morning had arrived, and I woke up to the sound of the alarm. Yesterday I got lucky as neither my father nor Washizu did anything to me. I went to the bathroom, got ready and started having breakfast with my mom. Dad and Washizu still seemed to be asleep though.

“Mom, how long will you be staying here?”

“Why? Do you want me to leave?”

She said with a faint smile on her face. I knew she was just playing with me, but I would never want her to leave, never. Since she isn’t anything like them.

“Of course not! Why would I want you to leave? I was happy to see you, and since you are always busy with business work, I was wondering if you could stay here a little longer…”

“Fufufu. Don’t fret. I was joking.”

Yeah, just as I said, she was just playing with me. She has this easy-going personality of hers that loves to play around. I don’t hate it though, in fact, I love it. She’s not like my father or brother, tormenting me, but loves to play around with me while showing love and care. An habitual smile would always be present on my face whenever I was with her. 

“By the way, Aya. Did you invite him yesterday?”

She asked me, with her expression turning serious slowly. Why was she turning into serious mode? Was she not liking that Hisashi was with me? Wait, that won’t make sense as she wouldn’t call him to stay the night if that was the case. Also, I know her, she would never hate someone who tries to help and support me. So then why was she? Maybe I was just unnecessarily contemplating.

“Y-yeah I did. But why...do you want to meet him?”

“I want to see what kind of a person he is, since I heard from your father that whenever you are in a dire situation, you always mutter his name.”

Her serious face suddenly turned happy and then gave a mischievous smile. Now I understand why she wanted to meet him. And I awfully forgot that she can be like a comedian sometimes. And when did father know about it?? Was he eavesdropping yesterday when I was lying on the bed after getting beaten by Washizu? Hmm, suspicious. But that mischievous smile of hers, what was mom thinking about me and Hisashi? She might have misunderstood. My face got reddened so much, just like lava present inside an active volcano.

“Wh-wh-what are you t-talking about mom!!?”

“Fufu, nothing dear.”

Her face still had that mischievous smile intact. You know what? Nevermind. I had school, only 15 minutes left till the gate closes, and the walk is of around 10 minutes. Well, I would be going with Hisashi anyways, and it was about time he arrived. I tried to ignore any more conversation and munched up my lunch. Grabbing my bag, I got out of my home through the front door after greeting my mom, and saw that Hisashi was already waiting for me, as expected, since I was a little late today. He was waiting outside of our front gate. I didn’t know that a bright smile had  already appeared on my face, naturally.

“Hisashi!”

I called him out as I began running towards him involuntarily.

“Good morning!”

“Aya! Good morning!”

“Sorry for making you wait for so long.”

“No, don’t be! I just got here. By the way, we should get going, or else we might be late.”

“Mm, Let's go.”

*       *       *  (Shifting of POV)

So we began walking down the deserted road en route to our school, while having our usual conversation.

“You will come today right?”

Aya asked me in a very insistent tone. Since I already told her that I have parents, which in reality I do not, I had to lie about it-

“Yea, I asked my parents about it...and they agreed.”

“Oh g-great! Yay!”

She cried out cheerfully after hearing me. But I still could feel that she was like a glass of boiling red tomato juice from the inside, as her cheeks were slowly turning rosy red.
But anyways, was it good to keep on lying to her about my parents? I can’t keep it on forever, as a day would inevitably arrive that I would have no other excuse but to blurt out the truth. I needed to prepare myself if that day was to arrive. 

“RRRRIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGG”

"Students, your summer vacation starts from today. Those who have taken summer camp, we will be meeting soon. For the rest of you, we will be meeting after summer vacation. Okay then, off you go, you're free now.”

The teacher gave a small speech to us, the students. Fumu, it slightly felt as if we were in a prison and she had let us free, as she mentioned that we were free to go now.

Everyone started to head to their lockers. One thing though, today I saw neither those three girls who bullied Aya nor this Akio guy and this gang. If I were to predict, this Akio guy and his gang were absent probably because of yesterday. I gave them nicely though. 

Also, about those three girls, what happened? By guessing, they probably got suspended, since the day before yesterday a teacher caught them tormenting Aya. But they came to school yesterday, fumu, suspicious. Probably they didn’t come on their own will. No wait, it might also be that their suspension had been issued late, yea, most likely. But why am I overthinking such a matter? Why should I be worrying about them in the first place, I don’t need to. Lol.

The other classmates, on the other hand, don’t have that courage to take advantage of the situation and bully her, because of me. I already promised her that I would be by her side, protecting her. And those students have already experienced me beating the crap outta that Akio guy, knowing in their minds that they are no match for me.
Anyways, since I had nothing else to do, I slowly packed up my bag to head home with Aya.

“Hisashi, let's go.” 

She stood beside me near her seat while giving her usual, cute and goddess-like smile. Well, good thing that I chose my seat right beside her, as it makes it easy for me to be on the lookout for anyone who might try to bully her.

“Yea, let's go”
I smiled back at her beautiful face and after packing up, picked up my bag and began to head towards the locker with Aya.

“Hisashi, you can come after eating your lunch. Be sure to bring your clothes too!”

She told me as we were in front of Aya’s home, about to part ways.

“Yea. I will be coming in the evening. But isn’t it only for one night?”

“Mm.”

“Okay, then I don’t think I’ll be needing clothes.”

“Oh, Okay. See you in the evening! Bye!”

“Bye!”

It was evening now, and I  stood at her front gate with my legs trembling faintly with nervousness. It was my first time someone ever invited me to their house, not to mention the first time a girl called me to her house also, and so I wore the best clothes that were available with me.

We are even going to sleep in a room together…

The thought about it made me blush intensely, but soon snapped out of it and fixed my hair. I had to make a good appearance, so I need to be proper looking.
I rang the doorbell and heard a voice which seemed to be coming from the inside.

“Yes! Coming!”

Here it comes. I wonder who might be opening the door, would it be Aya? Or someone else? But the voice sounded like that of a female person though, neither young nor old, so, it might be her mom. Oh, it would be a good chance to know her mom’s personality, whether she treated Aya like everyone else or if she treated her like her own child. 

Right now, I was actually trembling, and gulped with nervousness. When the door opened, I saw a young lady inside. It was Aya's mom!

Arisaka_Hiroshi

Hey guys! Sorry for the short update, and in order to compensate it, there will be another update shortly. The next one will be the final update for chapter 1, and from the next chapter onwards, something interesting will begin ;) Hope you have fun reading!