Chapter 6

Yuki groans as she slowly wakes up.
“Did you rest well?”
Her eyes turn to the speaker, seeing Jen sitting on the floor with his back against the far wall.
“You’re always around, aren’t you?”
Jen nods slowly.
“I try my best to.”
Yuki looks at herself and notices she’s still dressed in her school uniform.
“Have I slept in this the whole night?”

Jen nods and gets up.
“I didn’t feel it would be appropriate to undress you.”
Yuki smirks slightly.
“Not appropriate? You don’t strike me as the kind of person to care about someone else’s modesty.”
Jens shrugs lightly.
“I did it for you, not me. Seeing a naked body doesn’t mean a thing to me. However, if I was to strip you, you probably wouldn’t be very amiable. How would you know I didn’t do something to you? Right?”

Yuki glares at him and lifts her nose as she gets out of the bed.
“Can you leave? I’d like to change.”
Jen walks out, lifting his sunglasses to cover his eyes again.
“Fine, but don’t take too long.”
He shuts the door behind him and leans against the wall next to the door frame with his arms crossed. Yuki begins to change when she hears his voice.
“Do you really have that much problems with taking your clothes off? I could have undressed and redressed three times by now.”

She ignores him and continues removing the uniform. Folding them up, she places them within a drawer in her dresser before withdrawing a blue skirt, a beige blouse, a bra and white panties. She places them close to her body and walks to the door, still only clad in her panties, bra, and the necklace. The door opens and she looks down both sides of the hallway, not seeing Jen anywhere. She quickly walks down the hall, down the stairs, and turning around the corner to the bathroom.

She sets the fresh clothing on the bench against the wall. She looks at the door leading to the bath and goes to it, opening it quickly. After looking around, she sees he wasn’t there either. She frowns lightly while still leaning against the inward opened door.
“Weird, where is he?”
The door to the hallway opens up, and Jen gets a good view of her slightly bent over form from behind.
“I’m right here, since you ask.”

Yuki quickly gets behind the door and her face reddens in a mixture of anger and embarrassment.
“Oh, will you knock next time?!”
Jen shrugs and takes a seat on the bench, careful not to sit on her clothes.
“You were asking for me, so I figured that I’d go ahead and reveal myself.”
He smirks slightly.
“Though I wasn’t expecting you to go revealing yourself as well.”
Her face reddens more and she slams the door.

She turns her attention to the bath and proceeds to wash herself. After a few minutes, she wraps a towel around her dripping form and exits the bath. She sees Jen gone again, and finds his behavior odd and confusing. Pushing the thoughts away, she begins to get herself dressed. Having finished dressing, she finishes drying her hair and sets the towel on a hook. Going to the sink, she brushes her teeth before leaving the bathroom.
“Jen, where did you go now?”

Not receiving an answer, she begins to go around the house looking for him, for the sole purpose of him not sneaking up on her again. She eventually stops and goes to her room. The door opens for her, and she walks in. A light breeze hits her face, and she sees him sitting on of the window seal with his legs dangling, the coat tail within the room.
“Took you long enough.”
She makes a face at his back and fetches her purse.
“Like it’s any of your business.”
She counters.

She begins to head back out of the door when he speaks again.
“Anxious to see a movie? It’s been a while since you last saw one.”
She stops and turns to look at him.
“How did you know?”
He continues looking out at the almost endless sea of houses beneath the blue sky.
“I could say that you mumbled it in your sleep, but the truth is, it’s been on your mind for a while.”
She stalks over to him and places her hands on either side of the window frame.
“And you’re reading my thoughts again? Will you stop that?”

He lifts his head and looks at her, locking eye contact.
“Not gonna happen. I have to protect you, and knowing all possible threats are necessary to fulfill my duty.”
She frowns at him, not breaking the eye contact.
“My thoughts are private, and are not meant to be read. If you don’t stop, I’m going to keep this forever.”
She brings her left hand to caress the star ball.

Jen grinds his teeth in response to her touching it.
“You could try, but the fact remains, you won’t outlive me. And as you are the last one I have to protect, I will kill any that tries to stop me from taking it back.”
Yuki glares at him and removes her hand from the star ball to push him off the window seal. He falls to the ground, but gracefully lands. His coat tail falls back into place and he looks up at her.
“So, are you going to the movies or not?”

She makes a face at him and closes the window. She goes to the doorway and exits the room, running right into Jen.
“Ow, did you have to do that?”
Jen shrugs nonchalantly.
“Not really, but I didn’t feel like waiting hand and foot for you either.”
She glares lightly and walks ahead of him. They leave the house and begin walking to the train station.

“Are you going to walk with me there? I thought you preferred to stay out of sight.”
He continues walking next to her.
“May as well. After all, it’d do well for your social reputation if it was thought you had a boyfriend.”
She opens her mouth and tries to form words, but the sheer shock of his statement ate at her.
“Boyfriend?! Like I would ever consider going out with someone like you! You dress way too dark, you’re more of a pest than anything, and you don’t listen to a thing I say!”

He picks at his ear.
“I’m sorry, were you saying something?”
She yells in frustration and runs off towards the station. He easily keeps pace with her and smiles at her.
“I must have hit pretty close to home to have gotten such a strong reaction from you. What, do you like me or something?”
He asks, teasing her. She swings her purse at him, but it doesn’t come close to connecting.

“Why can’t you just go away?!”
He puts his arms behind his head and turns around to run backwards.
“I believe we’ve been down this road before, in both senses of the term ‘road’.”
She grinds her teeth and continues running, getting extremely irritated at him. She blinks as he suddenly disappears from sight and slows down to a stop. Looking in each direction, she doesn’t see where he had gone.

“Jen?”
Scanning the rooftops, she doesn’t see anything except a few birds perched on an electric wire. The ground shakes, and she falls to the ground. The birds fly off in a panic, afraid of what’s occurring. Yuki looks about for Jen.
“Jen!”
Is it an earthquake? The ground shakes again, but this time, she sees a large cloud of dust forming from a street away. Intrigued, and figuring Jen was somehow responsible, she runs in the direction of the cloud.