The five years old Atobe Keigo pouts and crosses his hands over his chest. He doesn't cry - he does his best not to let tears out - but he looks with great anger after Marui Bunta who walks inside the kindergarten.

Wondering face appears in front of his eyes, mere inches from him. "Nya, what's wrong Kei-chan?" Kikumaru asks, his head tilted to one side and his eyes somewhere between worried to curious.

"Marui-san stole my red tractor!" Atobe calls out louder than he actually should, causing some of the other kids in the playground to look at them.

The other kid jumps up on his feet. He smiles at him and then starts running into the building, calling behind his shoulder, "just wait here Kei-chan!"

He comes back after 15 minutes or so, and Atobe is already frowning again because he is tired of waiting. But then Kikumaru hands him a folded piece of paper and he loses his annoyance to his curiosity. He opens the paper to find a really bad drawing of a red tractor. He smiles. "I will keep this forever!"

"Mom?" Atobe asks his mother when they have dinner that night.

"What, sweetie?"

"Why did you marry dad?"

His mother looks surprised by that question. She thinks for a moment, them smiles. "Because he made me smile," she said.

Atobe thinks hard. Then he looks at his mother with a serious look and declares "Eiji-kun makes me smile. I will marry Eiji-kun!"

His mother laughs and pats his head. "Very well, honey. But first finish your food."

They don't go to the same elementary school because Eiji's parents with their 5 children don't even have one tenth of the fees Atobe's school requires. In the first few weeks they see each other every day, but soon enough they realized it isn't possible to keep going like that. So they decide to sleep at each other's over the weekends. They usually sleep in Atobe's house because Eiji's father doesn't seem to like Atobe very much.

They kind of lose contact during middle school. Atobe's parents send him to England, no matter how hard he tries to protest. "It's a tradition of the Atobes to go to study in England," they say. "You will not break it."

So the only contact between them is when Atobe calls Eiji from England, which doesn't happen much. His parents want to teach him he needs to save money even though he has so much of it.

They go to the same high school, though, because Atobe comes back from England and he finally gets his parents to agree to send him to a public school. It is then, when they are together again, that Atobe realizes Kikumaru and he will never be the best friends they used to be.

It starts the first time Kikumaru comes to sleep over. The moment Atobe opens the door for him - he wanted to see Eiji so much he didn't even think about letting a servant letting him in - Kikumaru jumps on him and hugs him tightly and calls "Kei-chan!" in a voice happier than Atobe ever heard.

He doesn't say anything, only tightens his hold of his friend.

"I missed you," Eiji says when they separate.

They talk for hours, caring their conversation deep into the night. It's okay, because they see each other for the first time after so many years and there is no school the day after anyway. They don't ask each other about the three years they haven't seen each other. Instead, they talk about things they remember, about their time together before Atobe has left.

When Atobe finally asks about Eiji's life, the redhead looks at his feet and says quietly, "I have a girlfriend. We've been together for over a year now." And then, like he tries to change the subject as fast as he can, he says, "I play tennis now. It's really fun. You should try too."

So Atobe ignores the girlfriend part, pretending not to hear.

But every time he sees the happy smile on Eiji's face when his girlfriend is near him he adds another brick to the wall he has started building around him. And in the end the wall is too high and even the acrobatic Eiji can't pass it.

When they graduate from high school they are no longer in contact.