It was Monday...the first day of the first week of the first school year. And there sat Fuyumi at the back of the classroom, a light gray- haired boy with dark piercing blue eyes. He considered himself a poet...a storywriter like those among Shakespeare or Homer. He wrote stories of horror, science fiction, and so on, but mostly romance. The reason he liked to sit in the back of the room was because then he could skillfully hunt his prey, as he liked to call inspiration. He was searching the room for someone visually attractive to him, so then he could give them a personality of his own...mostly women. Although they were all very nice looking, none had interested him. Most were flamboyant, loud, well-endowed girls, which really were quite boring to him...he wanted someone quiet, shy...someone interesting.

Then a young lady with short, raggedy, brown hair walked inside the classroom. Her shoulders slumped forward and her head tilted downwards, but just enough to see the most interesting part of her : her eyes. She had reddish, brown eyes that reminded him of the falling leaves outside in the autumn morning. It was perfect...Fuyumi already had a title for this new-founded story..."The Flame in the Autumn Morning". He whipped out his favorite pencil and writing pad, hand poised, but stopped. A name. He needed a name. Ah, yes...the teacher is taking 's only a matter of time until she called hers and she would respond. He waited...he was soon becoming very impatient. But then her name pierced his ears. "Akimi?" the teacher called and she replied. Her voice was small; almost non-existent...he was loving every minute of this.

Throughout the class, he noticed that she kept looking over at him. Did she know that he was writing about her? 'No, just a coincidence,' he thought, 'She seems to be doing her schoolwork anyway.' Then he realized that he had a worksheet in front of him. He looked over at the teacher...she didn't seem to know, so he put his writing pad for now.

*~*~*

"Fuyumi, wait up!" called Natsumi, one of his best friends. She had long, golden hair, almost reaching down to her butt and bright, cheery, green eyes. "Fuyumi!" she screamed running as fast as she could without tripping (she was very clumsy), but still to no avail did he hear her. She pounced on him from behind to get his attention, which almost made both of them fall to the ground. But just before they did, another one of their friends, Harumi, a tall, pale young man with silky black hair that grew a little past his earlobes, skillfully caught both of them. "Thanks..." Fuyumi said, brushing himself off. "Fuyumi, what is your deal?!" Natsumi yelled, "I was running and screaming at the top of my lungs to get your attention! Didn't you hear me?" Harumi laughed lightly and said, "Yeah, since she is pretty loud anyway. I'm surprised you didn't hear her either. Or, were you just ignoring her?" She hit him hard in the ribs. "I am not that loud, and Fuyumi wouldn't ignore me...would you?" she said, looking at him.

Fuyumi rubbed his eyes. He really hadn't heard her, he was just thinking too hard to hear anything at the moment. "Sorry..." he simply said. "Let me guess," Harumi said in an observing tone, "you've started a new story again. Who's the main character this time?" Fuyumi paused...what was her name again? Oh yes... "Akimi..."he said. "Ooh, is she cute?" Natsumi said with a hint of jealousy weaving through her words, "Why don't you ever write any stories with me as the main character?" She wasn't really interesting to him...although he didn't want to admit it, she was a lot like any of the other stood out to him among the crowd...she was interesting to him.

"Well..." he said, thinking of a good excuse, "all my other story lines are not as nice as I would want them to be for you. Once I get a really great story line, you'll be the main character...I want to save my best inspirations for my best friends, you know." Whatever he did to make her believe that worked because she seemed a lot happier now. It was tiring for him to have to please her all the time, but at least she was happy...'I guess ignorance always proves to be enjoyable...' he thought. The three of them parted at the bell to their classes, and then went home at the end of school...it was always the same, but that's alright with them...they were happy.