What a life

Not enough attention

I decide not to head back to the pool after what happened earlier so I decide to doodle in my room until I'm interrupted by yet another knock at my door. I invite them in, looking up to see Hikaru when the door opens.
"Hey Hikaru. What's up?" I ask. He notices my sketches and smiles.
"Well, Ryo told me you were good at art but I didn't expect this." He points to my realistic sketch of an elephant. I'm really running out of ideas...
"I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or insult." I jokingly answer. He chuckles and sits down opposite me, taking a sheet of paper and pencil for himself.
"Ryo told me your manga is in the daily newspaper." I say, making simple conversation between us. Hikaru and I haven't really talked much since I arrived here and now is the perfect time.
"He was just kidding." Hikaru replies, putting effort into his drawing but at the same time shielding it from me so I can't see.
"I have my own manga book." He takes out a manga from his back pocket and pushes it in my direction.
"Hey! I've read this!" I marvel at him, not knowing he was the one behind my favourite manga this whole time.
"I love the bit when Freya and Caleb had to solve that murder but it turns out there wasn't one!" I say, referring to the book. He chuckles and looks up at me from drawing.
"I based it on the story of these two people I ship." He says. I look up at him and half-smile mischievously.
"Oh? Who?" He looks back down at his drawing and laughs.
"These two people in Class A called Ace and Charlotte. You wouldn't know them." We continue to draw together and catch up since we rarely talk.
"I heard you were alone in here so I came to talk to you about something." He brings up out of the blue. He puts his pencil down, still hiding the drawings on the paper, and shifts his gaze to the floor. I look up at him expectantly, also putting down my pencil.
"Well, you seem to be quite close with some of my brothers like Ryo and Kyoya. You talk to them a lot but...not me. Do you hate me?" My eyes soften at this and a take his hands in mine.
"Of course I don't hate you." I reply in a soothing, kind tone. He smirks slyly and raises his eyebrows.
"So you love me?" He asks mischievously. I roll my eyes and scoff.
"I love you platonically." I say. Hikaru inches closer with a cunning smile spread across his face. He lifts my head with two fingers.
"I want you to show me then."
"I can show you by being your friend. That's what platonically means." After I say this, Hikaru knocks me to the floor, straddling over me. My cheeks flush, not pink, but dark red.
"Just friends, huh? Maybe I can make you try and like me more."  He traces my jawline with his fingers while I lay there paralysed with surprise.
"H-Hikaru..." I'm hardly able to get the words out of my mouth.
"Well...we leave the girl alone for five minutes and already I've missed my chance to make a move." A voice says at the door. Both of us stare wide-eyed at Ryo who poses at the door.
"Dearest twin, I thought we had a deal." Ryo then teases. At the sight of his brother, Hikaru stands and allows me to sit up.
"Ryo it's not what you think-" I try and explain but Hikaru cuts me off.
"A deal? As if!" I stay standing in between the two, fretting over what to do and occasionally trying to interrupt but I just get cut off. In this fight, it's as if I don't exist.
"Don't act like you don't like her!"
"Why are you so protective? You jealous or something?"
"Of you? Never!"

The two go at it for minutes but eventually I get fed up and storm out the room and towards the stairs. I throw myself onto the sofa and start sobbing.

All I'm doing is breaking this family apart. Is it really good for me to stay here? With my face in a pillow, I didn't notice Naoki sitting next to me.
"Aya what's wrong?" He asks soothingly. I sit up and look at him, the mascara following the tears down my face.
"I'm just tearing this family apart, aren't I?" I cry. Naoki holds me close to him and lets me cry on his shoulder.
"If it's about the twins it's fine. They fight all the time. Don't sweat it. I've been living with them for over sixteen years now." I take my face out from where it was buried in his shoulder and look at him with my blurry vision.
"Sixteen years? How old are you?" I ask, not trying to sound rude.
"Twenty-four." He answers. I bury my face in my hands and continue to cry, not bothering to even try and hold back the tears.
"They really like you, you know. Even more than friends." Naoki puts his arm around me in a comforting way and and I lift my face from my hands, wiping away tears.
"I know that. It's so difficult to even live with them. I'm sorry..." I close my eyes and slowly exhale, trying to calm myself.
"You know, maybe you should go and have a swim. Scientists say that's the best way to relieve stress sometimes." Kyoya says, entering the room. I look over at him and smile.
"That's not a bad idea. Can you two try and keep the others out while I'm there, it'd really help since all Ryo has given me is a bikini." I giggle and Kyoya lets out a light chuckle and nodding.

I return to my room to find the two twins have left and get changed into my bikini. After wrapping myself in a white robe, I run down the hall to the stairs and make my way to the pool, clearly forgetting a small detail...