Chapter one

The fleeting shadows of birds flying past cast shadows, penetrating the dark room through the horizontal, wooden blinds, with the sunlight slipping through. The birds' loud cries stirred a 17-year-old boy with short, chocolate, wind-swept hair from his slumber. He opened his dark red eyes, the colour of aged blood left at a murder scene, where he blinked for a few minutes, reminding himself where he was and who he was. He groaned and got up from the simple, plain gray mattress with the thick, grey and warm blanket, which he kicked onto the floor. He wore a crinkled black shirt with green shorts, and his hair stood up.

The boy's room consisted of a desk with a new computer on it, and numerous gadgets, with dozens of books laid scattered on the floor, and many more on bookshelves, a closet, and two other doors, one leading to his bathroom, the other to the hallway. He stumbled upon the hard covers of the books, and pulled up the blinds, sunlight bathing itself in his room, flooding the room with its yellow, almost glorious rays, exposing everything, to even darkest corners of his room. He shielded his eyes, and stared out at the high-rise buildings nearby then glanced at the black hanging clock above his bed, which read: 7:00 am. He kicked the books aside, and opened his closet, and pulled out a white t-shirt and old, comfortable black jeans, and threw them onto his bed, and rummaged around his room, looking for a pair of socks.

Some one knocked on his door, gently, and opened it, and there stood a girl around his age, smiling as she surveyed the room, as the boy pulled out an old sock from under a pile of classical books "Good morning Ryou… and what are you doing?" laughed the girl, she wore a light pink shirt, covered by a ebony jacket over it, silver shorts, and knee high black socks. She stared at Ryou as she crouched next his bed, peering underneath it, struggling to keep her giggles in. "Nothin'" came the reply from underneath his bed "but why are you in my room Shino? Can't you wait in the waiting room?" Shino smiled, and stood up, and started to pick up the many books scattered on the ground, and put them back in their proper place on the bookshelves. Ryou reappeared from underneath the bed, sneezing, yet triumphed in his victorious mad search for a pair of socks, when he noticed Shino going through something.

He brushed off the dust on his clothes, and walked over to Shino, and glanced over her shoulder. "Oh, that book. My father bought me that book last year. It's really weird, with the story of Pandora's Box…" Ryou shrugged and gently pushed her into the hallway, closing the door, as she kept on going through the book. He quickly changed, and tried to pull on his socks, to find to his dismay; that they didn't fit.

He walked out of his room, bare-foot, and saw Shino sitting on the stairs. A maid, named Mina, climbed up the stairs, holding a basket full of laundry. "Ryou, why are walking around bare-footed? Here, I washed your socks the other day…" She pulled out a pair of socks for him. Then the maid disappeared into the other rooms of the two-story house which Ryou shared with his father. Ryou then climbed down the stairs, to where Shino was sitting and stared at her. Her soft, almost sad, violet eyes reading the book, her smooth, short silver hair framing her pale face, and the graceful movements of her arms, and body, turning the pages were part of the many things that Ryou was always intrigued about Shino, she seemed to have a seductive, mystery air around her, even though he had known her for over a year. She noticed him standing next to her; she closed the book and looked up at him, "Oh, sorry, this book is really good." She smiled again, standing up and handing the book back to Ryou. "Err, no problem…" he took the book back, and placed on a table as they walked down the spiral stair-case.

"So, are we going to meet Atoli today?" asked Shino, as she put on her boots, making sure that her knee-high socks appeared above them, waiting for Ryou as he pulled on a brown jacket with a white trim and his white sport shoes. "Yeah, we're meeting her at some café," Ryou mumbled, opening the door for Shino.