The next day, Mikan sat on her seat in the classroom while in daze. She was busy scribbling notes on the pages of her notebook.

     "Everyone, get your english book and turn it to page 99."

    Their first subject was literature, each student grabbed their books and flipped the pages except for Mikan who was preoccupied with her thing.

    She looked up from her notebook to see some students taking out their books, she grabbed her book from her bag and placed it on top of her notebook. She randomly flipped the pages.

    "What page was it again?" she mumbled to herself.

    "Page 99." she turned around to see Kise who rested his chin on his hand.

    She muttered a faint thank you to him as she started flipping the leaves to the said page.

    She continued to write on her notebook during the class, Kise was curious in why she was writing in her notebook when the teacher isn't even writing anything yet on the board.

    "Sakura-san, what is Haiku?"

    Mikan didn't heard the teacher's question because of how focus she was in writing in her notebook, her teacher repeated her statement.

    "Sakura-san!" the teacher said as Mikan shut her notebook and stood up.

    "Yes, Mam!" she said, fidgeting.

    "Please answer my question." the teacher said.

    "Um...what is the question again?" she scratched the back of her head.

    The teacher sighed as Mikan laughed sheepishly.

    "What is Haiku?" the teacher repeated.

    What is Haiku?

    "What was it again...?" Mikan mumbled to herself, she didn't know the answer to that question.

    "Psst!" she turned around to see Kise who was pointing at his notebook.

    She glanced at his notebook as he has written the correct answer.

    Five, seven, five syllables.

    Kise has given her the keyword as she created a sentence of her own.

    "Haiku is a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five." she said.

    "Correct! You may seat down." the teacher said as Mikan sat down.

    Mikan opened her notebook and flipped some pages, she stopped at a blank page and wrote something on it. Then she showed it to Kise.

    Thank you!

   Kise smiled at her as he also wrote something on his notebook and showed it to her.

    Your welcome.

   Then Mikan wrote something again as Kise leaned closer towards her.

    I'll help you, too. If this happened to you though.

    Whoa. That's reassuring, thanks!

    I have your back :)

    Kise stifled a laugh as he wrote something back to her again.

    Your using an emoticon? haha.

    Why not? :)

You're cute ;)

Mikan blushed after reading his writings, she turned to him as he winked at her.

You're also cute ;)

Was that a compliment? haha.

Haha. :D

Kise drew something on his notebook, he tried to draw an orange but it doesn't looked like it one bit.

What is that?

It's an orange ;)

She cracked a laugh as it attracted everyone's attention, especially Kise who was staring as she laughed without a care.

"It doesn't look like one!" she said.

"It doesn't?" he said as he scratched the back of his head.

"Sakura-san, Kise-kun, keep quiet. We're having a lesson here!" the teacher scolded them.

"We're sorry..." the two said as the teacher continued to discuss.

    Whoops. We got in trouble.

    Kise continued to write as she glanced at his notebook.

    We should be quiet.

♛♛♛

Mikan ate alone outside of the park, she grabbed her lunchbox and started to eat her food silently.

The cherry blossom petals scatter around as some petals fell on her hair, suddenly someone brushed away the petals from her head.

She looked up to see a familiar face staring down on her, she recognized the guy who took her first kiss.

"Aomine-kun?" she said.

"Hey. I was just brushing some petals that got in your hair." he said.

"Oh, thank you." she told him.

Mikan fixed her lunch box as she was already finished eating her food, she put it inside her bag.

"Is your forehead okay now?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's fine now." she replied.

Aomine sighed in relief, glad that the mess he made yesterday is done.

"Okay, that's good." he replied.

"Yes, thank you for worrying." she said.

Mikan noticed that Aomine was holding a basketball firmly in his hands, he was also sweaty as well.

"Um...are you from the basketball club?" she asked, stating the obvious.

"You can tell?" he said as if mocking her.

Mikan flinched from his statement as she decided to ignore it.

"So you practice during lunch break, huh? Good work." she said.

"It's no big deal." he said as he spun the ball around his finger.

Speaking of clubs, she hasn't decided what to join yet.

"Hey..." Aomine spoke.

She turned around to see him frown.

"Are you alone?" he asked.

"You can tell?" she said, returning the mockery.

"Why?" he asked again.

"What do you mean why?" she asked him, confused.

"Well, aren't you the type of person who can get along with other people? Like really friendly?" he said.

I'm friendly?

"I don't know how to be friendly or to get along with everyone, when someone comes to talk to me, my mind turns white as I couldn't think of anything. I ended up not talking." she honestly said.

    "Well, you don't really have to be friends with everyone. There are some people you would probably won't get along with." he said.

    "Just find someone who is completely unique, something that you can't see from everyone else. And for sure, you'll probably get along with that friend." Aomine finished.

    I didn't know that Aomine was good at saying inspirational lines.

    Mikan felt her pulse accelerating, it was the feeling she haven't expressed before. It was the feeling of gratitude.

    "You're right. Thank you." she smiled at him.

♛♛♛

    The class ended like a breeze as everyone started to go out from the classroom and went to their separate ways, some are in groups of friends, probably going somewhere.

    "Goodbye Sakura-san!" Kise said as Mikan looked up from her notebook.

    "Yeah...goodbye." she waved as he nodded and walked out of the classroom.

    "Goodbye, Sakura-san." another voice said lazily as she looked up to see Murasakibara.

    "Goodbye, Murasakibara-kun!" she said as he nodded and walked out of the classroom.

    "Oh, Sakura-san!" she looked up to see that it was him again.

    "Yes?" she asked, closing her notebook and looked up to his gaze.

   "Are you still going to stay here?" he asked.

    "Yeah, I'll probably be here till later." she answered.

    "Okay. Got it." Murasakibara walked out of the classroom.

    What was that?

    She shrugged her shoulders and continued to write back to her notebook. She noticed that everyone in her class already left the classroom.

    Though she continued to write on her notebook.

    "Sanae...Sanae Kae-san...she's the girl who has curly hair. She is in literature club and loves to read novels..."

    "She was reading a book earlier...what was it again? Night..."

    Mikan bumped her elbow on her pencil case as it fall on the ground.

    "Clumsy me, my pencil case fell on the ground." she said.

    Then she realization hit her as she realized something in her statement.

    "I got it! It was Night Fall!" she said as she grabbed her pencil case and began to write on her notebook.

    Unknown to her, someone walked in the classroom using the backdoor, that person was surprised to see that she was still here.

    "Miyuki Miki-san, this girl is the one with the pony tail. She is in the tennis club, she often talks with me!"

    "If I read some more things about sports, will she be interested?"

    Mikan giggled as she continued to write down some of her other classmates in her notebook. Being new in the class, she wanted to know more about her classmates. This was the only way she could think of how to make friends.

   "Oh, there's Tsukishima Hoshi-san, she's the one with short hair. I've heard she's in the gardening club."

    "I wonder what's her favorite flower in the garden? Maybe I should ask her about that!"

   Mikan seemed to be finished with her observation as she laughed.

   "Next time, I'll surely start up a conversation for sure!" she said.

    Then she heard few footsteps that were faint, she looked up to see Kise.

    Mikan hurriedly stood up and grabbed her notebook as she hides it behind her back.

    "Whoa. You scared me." Kise said.

    "W-What are you doing here, Kise-kun?! I thought you went home?" Mikan said, blushing.

     "I was supposed to go home, I was just going to get my bag..." he said as he pointed at his seat where his bag was found, hanging.

    "Did you see? Did you hear?" she asked for confirmation.

    Kise scratched the back of his head as he looked away and nodded.

    Mikan turned silent as she began trembling while her lips were quivering, her cheeks were red.

    "What am I supposed to do? This is the only way I know in how to make friends...I'm not familiar with everyone since I just transferred here."

    Even when Aomine-kun told me those lines earlier, I don't know how to find someone who is unique.

    "I just don't know!" she said.

    Kise was surprised, his thoughts about her has changed.

    "I know the class quite well, if you want, I could help you with that." he said.

    Mikan looked up to him as he smiled at her gently.

    "Sanae-san is a good student. If you have some problems with subjects, you can go ask her for help."

    "Miyuki-san is a good kid. She gets fired up when talking about sports."

    "Tsukishima-san likes sunflowers, and she is dying to talk to you."

    Kise doesn't know why but somehow he wanted to help her, by doing little things.

    "Why? Why do you want to help me?" she asked.

    "I don't know, I just can't leave you alone." he answered.

   Just find someone who is completely unique.

    "Can I look at your notes?" he asked as she nodded.

    Mikan handed him her notebook as he flipped the pages and began chuckling.

    Murasakibara Atsushi.

    He is tall. He also has a large appetite and loves to eat. He seems to be scary at first but he is actually kind.

He flipped some pages and read other informations about their fellow classmates, he laughed at some parts that he thought were funny.

    "What's this? You got the information about them right, despite not talking to them." he said.

    "You think so?" she laughed.

    "I know so." he said.

    Mikan stared at Kise who was busy laughing at the information of their classmates.

    Aomine-kun, I think I found a person who is completely unique.

    Then Kise saw his data, he began to read what Mikan wrote about him.

    Kise Ryouta.

   He is handsome, smart, and kind. He is the first person who talked to me, he is also funny and popular with everyone. I wish I could be more like him.

   He blushed furiously from the info that he just read, he didn't know she thinks of him like that.

   He closed the notebook and handed it back to her, his cheeks were still red. He was used to flattery but this one was too much.

    "You're done reading?" she asked.

    "Yeah." he said.

    Kise adverted his gaze from her as he scratched the back of his head lightly while a few stains of blush was visible on his cheeks.

    "Hey, wanna go get some ice cream along the way home? I know a stand that has some good soft cream." he said, inviting her.

    "Sure! I'm delighted." she smiled.

    "Sweet." he smiled back.

    The two of them walked out of the classroom while talking about random conversations, laughing, and teasing.

    Unknown to them, there was someone who was standing in front of the classroom doors. Holding a orange marmalade in hand.

    I wasn't able to give it to her.

    Yesterday, he heard what was her favorite food as he wanted to give something to her in return for giving him a orange candy.

    He opened the lid as he grabbed the spoon and scooped a spoonful of orange marmalade, he put it in his mouth.

    "Too sour." he said.

♛♛♛

Mikan and Kise were eating an ice cream on the way home. The soft, cold, cream was very cooling as they savored the flavor.

"Wow, this is so sweet!" Mikan said, licking on her chocolate flavored ice cream.

Kise turned to her as he noticed there was some chocolate cream left on her cheek, he wiped it away using his thumb and licked it.

"You're right." he grinned.

He really knows how to make a girl's heart skip a beat.