"And they say weddings are supposed to be fun," she mused. "First Yoh gets taken away, and now I'm back at another wedding. I don't know, it just doesn't seem fair."

And there Tamao was crying alone, or so it seemed, at Ryu and Jun's wedding, out in the garden. In her mind, things weren't so good and getting worse. But out of nowhere, she heard a voice that would have some reason in her life. The voice said, "Snap out of it. Do you think it's really that bad?"

Tamao was a bit scared to hear a voice when she had come outside to go and be alone. Nervously, she asked, "Who are you?"

The possessor of the voice stepped out of the darkness and revealed himself to be Tao Ren, the ever confident Chinese shaman. He said, "Don't you recognize me, Tamao?"

She timidly nodded, wondering why exactly Ren had come out here in the first place. Nonetheless, she decided to stay quiet in her solitude as events unfolded.

He told her, "Don't worry about what has happened; something like that will only come back to haunt you. Trust me, I've lived it and you know it just as well as I do."

Tamao slowly smiled and agreed with Ren. Perhaps things wouldn't be so bad after all. She curiously asked him, "So Ren, why are you out here in the first place?"

He confidently chuckled and said simply, "I wanted to get away from this atmosphere. Just because I gave my blessing to these two doesn't mean I want to see how the festivities turn out. But that's a different story altogether. I just wanted to hear myself think for a while."

Tamao nodded and told him, "Well, thank you for coming out here… at least I like that you did it."

"Don't worry about it. Let me tell you something Tamao. I-"

"Um Tamao," a voice started, "I don't quite know how else to say this, but you and I are supposed to dance now, remember?"

Tamao answered, "Right, I'll be right there Horohoro." Then she diverted her attention to Ren, "Well, I'll be back soon enough. Thank you."

Quickly Tamao went off to dance with Horohoro. All the while, Ren simply shook his head in disapproval of what she did. He didn't much think about Horohoro. In his mind, the Ainu was simply an annoying fool that had to hang around. Ren simply walked on his way home before Tamao started to dance.

Inside, Horohoro told her, "I'm sorry I had to break up that moment you had there, but Anna told me that I had to come and get you, because I was breaking the tradition of the dancing."

Tamao simply smiled and said, "Don't worry, it's no big deal. If he wanted to tell me something, he'll wait. He knew we'd be dancing."

He smiled and started to dance with her. All in all, the two of them actually knew how to dance together, probably since they both knew how to dance together. Nonetheless, the two of them moved well together, making both of them feel at ease in each other's arms.

After they were through dancing, Tamao said, "Thank you. I liked that."

Horohoro simply smiled and told her, "It was nothing; as long as I could dance with someone like you I'm sure it'd be wonderful."

By this time a small blush had begun to express itself upon Tamao's cheeks. She tried to hide her face by looking down, and began to say, "Thank you Horohoro" very softly.

He simply reached his finger under her chin and attempted to help her look into his eyes. However, she simply ran away after that, simply unsure of what to do in a situation like that.

When she returned to the little garden area she had talked to Ren in last time, she found that he was not there, so she figured that the best thing that she could do would be to go home for the evening, knowing that things might have been a little better had she let them develop properly.

The next day rolled around with Tamao in no better of position to judge what had happened the night before. As she often did when she didn't know quite what to do, Tamao asked her kokkuri board about the situation at hand.

It told her that there was a chance something could happen with both boys. It told her to watch out for Horohoro's appetite and for Ren's temper. Otherwise, the board told her nothing but to make a good choice.

Suddenly she heard a knock on her door. She gasped, "W-who is it?"