Vin stood in front of the window, watching the rain fall behind the glass. Tonight was gloomy. The sky was nearly covered in grey storm clouds and the street down blew was quiet. No cars passed by, but a few pedestrians were walking here and there.

It seemed even quieter in Vin's apartment. The only light that was visible in the living room was a lamp that stood on a side table near the television.

Vin ore a plain white night dress. The hem of it barley touched her lower thigh. This was the only pajamas she had and what she only chose to have. She didn't exactly liked wearing pants at night unless and there was another person staying with her. She watched the rain drops hit the window and run down it.

Second term started tomorrow and Vin knew she should have been asleep by now. Vin wasn't sleepy at all. It had been a long weekends of working and she should have been exhausted. She wasn't. Instead she choose to watch the rainfall through her living room window.

Vin placed her hand against the glass. The glass was cold. Too cold to tell if it was a summer night. The last night of summer vacation.

She didn't have much of a summer vacation. She worked mostly and tried to avoid her classmates from school in she had ever ran into them at work. She worked in a convenience store and she new she'd get bullied over that if any of her classmates had found out.

A dark shadowy figure shifted to life across the room. It was near the couch, watching Vin. Like it always did. It had always been around her ever since she had been a young girl. Vin had no idea what it was. The only thing she knew about it was that she was the only person who could see it.

It followed her everywhere. Vin was used it to, but the fact that she didn't know what it was bothered her.

When Vin was young, her parents thought she was a strange child and thought she could see ghosts. It did nothing but float around her and follow her wherever she went. One of the good things about it was that it disappeared whenever Vin somehow told it to. The other thing, it was actually quite helpful sometimes... quite strangely.

She didn't want to guess it a demon or somebody she knew watching over her. She didn't want to be wrong, but at the same time she didn't want to be right about it either. The figure never harmed her or anybody before. It was always calm and never aggressive.

It's shadowy body frame seemed like a very dark brown. Close to black. It's eyes seemed a dull blue and strangely, only during the night. During the day they were brighter. The figure was odd. Sometimes it would mimic Vin's movements.

Vin silently turned and looked at the dark figure across the room that had shifted to life only a few seconds ago. Vin and the figure locked eyes for only a moment. Vin tore her eyes from it and quickly hurried into her room.

Her flip phone was buzzing on her bed. Vin knew the only person who would call her this time of night was her friend, Shuko Murao. Shuko was the only friend she had after she started attending Kokusai high school. When she Shuko was around, no bullying or abuse would happen. Nothing would happen to Shuko because she wasn't a weird. Those where were alone were easy targets.

Vin quickly went over to her bed and picked up her phone. Right after she answered it, Shuko was the first one to start speaking.

"Vin! I can't sleep. Can you believe school starts back tomorrow?"

"Sort of..."

"I'm guessing you can't sleep either?"

"You got me..."

"I wish you stayed in my family's vacation home with me." Shuko frowned, "It would have been more fun with you there. Did you miss me?"

"You got me again."

Ever since Vin's family had died in a car accident, the only person who ever made her smile again was Shuko. Shuko was the only person who was nice to her. Shuko was always somebody Vin could go to for anything. Shuko had known about the bullying but never knew how bad it got after she found Vin near the gymnasium with a bloody lip and blood on her fingers.

Shuko had talked Vin to the point where Shuko had drifted off to sleep herself. Vin had fallen asleep, herself. In the morning, Vin found that she never hanged up the phone. Vin laughed for the first time in awhile. Shuko became embarrassed and apologized to Vin for falling asleep on her, but it never bothered Vin.

The way to school was quiet, like it always was. Walking half way to school without Shuko was a little scary. Vin never knew which classmate she would run into on the way. She would have preferred to she live in the same area where Shuko lived, but Vin didn't exactly have a lot of money like Shuko's family did.

Would things be different if she did live near Shuko?

Vin silently walked through the school gates and headed towards the front of the building. She looked down, avoiding the gazes from other students. She wanted no trouble from anyone this morning. Having to talk to anybody here was bad enough and it would always lead to something she wanted nothing to do with.

The hope of avoiding her classmates has quickly drifted away after a male student with long blonde hair called to her. Daiju Koshiba was one of Renki Toshima's friends. Daiju was called Daizen by Renki. Daizen was walking with his other friend, Kino Ohira. Daizen smiled once Vin turned around.

Vin lowered her head again, feeling herself start to shiver from fear starting to grow. Even though she knew they would do nothing to her out in the open, she was still scared of what they might say. Or how they might look at her.

"It's been awhile, huh?" Daizen asked. His voice sounded a little cold.

Daizen was the one who always knew how to get to Vin. He knew how to scare her and get her to be quiet if he didn't want to hear her talk. When Vin was sitting alone in class, in the gym or outside after school, he would always walk up to her and sit by her. Vin never understood why he liked to be near her, but it scared her.

Kino was always the one who tried to avoid Vin. He didn't believe in "hanging out" with losers. So he thought her to be one.

Vin didn't answer Daizen. She only nodded.

"Mind if we "barrow" you after school?" Daizen stupidly asked. He has no idea Renki was behind him and was listening.

Renki glared at his friend, seeming like he was going to burn a hole through his head. "What the hell are you doing? You talk too loud. Somebody could overhear."

"Sorry!" Daizen quickly apologized, "I was joking!"

Vin started to feel a little nervous and awkward just being there. Not knowing what to say, she didn't think they would let her off that easily. Maybe they were just lightly toying with her. She has expected Renki to say they needed her after school. She began to walk away, hoping nobody would say anything to her.

By the time Vin reached the school's front doors, she sighed. Relieved she didn't have to spend another second with Renki and his gang.

Vin entered the school and went over to the rows of shoe boxes. She searched for her shoe box number 22. Students from other classes stood around and chatted with other students. Vin was already wishing to be somewhere else. After she opened her shoe box, she took off her shoes and set them on the top shelf.

Breath, Vin. Breath.

Vin hesitated to take her uwabaki shoes out of her shoe box. She lowered her head, feeling like she would burst into tears any second. No. She couldn't. Not here. Not in front of all these students. She knew if she had, there would be consequences.

Vin looked up at the black shadowy figure. She wanted to ask it a question even though she knew she wouldn't get an answer from it. The figure didn't speak.

The figure stared back down at her, hovering in the air near her. Silently.

What was the point of having this figure here if it wasn't going to help her?

Vin took her uwabaki shoes out of her locker and easily slipped them on her feet. She made her way to the second floor, looking around to see if Shuko was anywhere.

In class three a few second years were already looking around for which desk they had been assigned. Yusuke, the class's senpai had already found his desk. He brushed his messy yellow side swept, making sure it didn't look too bad. He cared about his looks too much and always wanted to look good for "the women of the world".

He saw Vin enter the classroom and quickly bolted out of his chair. He rushed across the room to her, putting on his usual kind and charming smile. "Good morning, Yiryu!"

Vin said stopped in front of Yusuke and silently looked at him. She found it strange that the most favored student in the class would approach her. Had he became ill or something?

"Are you doing anything tonight?" He kindly asked.

Vin managed reply without stuttering. "...I... have work..."

Yusuke immediately frowned. "Oh... that's too bad." Then his smile came back. "Maybe we could walk home together?"

"Oh..."

Yusuke leaned in toward Vin a little and whispered "I hate seeing you in so much pain..."

Vin's eyes widened, surprised to hear what he said. Why would he say something like that to somebody who almost the entire class bullied? Yusuke knew about the bullying but never did anything to stop it. Why he was he...

"If you're all right with me, I'll listen to your problems."

Vin felt as if her heart would stop. Was it true what she was hearing? "I..."

Yusuke smiled once again and patted her shoulder. "If you're not comfortable answering now, you can give me your answer after school."

Vin could only nod painfully.

Yusuke turned, keeping the smile on his face. He went back across and started heading to his desk but was stopped by two female classmates. "Good morning~! You two look cute today. Do you want something from me?"

The girls blushed and giggled. They offered him to go somewhere fun on the weekend, but Yusuke politely declined.

Shuko rushed into the clasroom and wrapped her left arm around Vin's right. Excited to see her best friend, she pulled her along to the other side of the room. "I missed you so much! I have so much to tell you!"

Vin let her friend pull her along. She smiled a little, "Can't wait."

Shuko placed her school bag side her shoe box before turning back to Vin. She took her hand and quickly placed something small in it. "I have a gift!"

"Huh?" Vin asked, a little confused. "It's... not my birthday."

"So?" She pointed at Vin's hand, "I know you like penguins." She smiled and began waiting on Vin to see what sort of gift she got her.

Vin opened her hand and almost instantly, her eyes lit it. The gift that Shuko had given her was a small penguin key chain. "Oh.. it's beautiful." She chuckled a little.

"Beautiful?" Shuko questioned.

Vin shrugged, not knowing what to say. Vin felt she was being sarcastic calling it "beautiful". She picked the small key chain up by it's chain to exchange it all around. "It's 100 percent a penguin and not seal. Or dolphin."

"I know my sea animals." She said, "Let's go find our seats."

Vin couldn't argue with that now that Shuko was here. She put her school bag in her shoe box before heading across the classroom to the teacher's podium. "Isn't... our seat number the same as last years?"

"Seat 22." Shuko reminded her, wrapping her left arm around Vin's right again.