A/N: This is a prequel one-shot to "Bitter Chocolate". I figured its tone wouldn't fit well with the uplifting ending of the fic if I tack this to the end of it.
Was inspired to write this after reading some shoujo manga and watching a couple of high school jdramas (specifically the beginning of episode 9 of HanaKimi 2011).

Warning: I've left some dialogue in Japanese because I felt that they convey the confession more straightforwardly than writing them in English would without making the language sound flowery. The dialogue is simple enough (and regularly come up in anime if you watch them subbed) that I didn't bother putting up a translation ^^;
PS: I watch and like sub and dub equally.

Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite.

Down the corridor he went, winding down the mass of students on their way to the entrance. Stopping in front of his locker to change his shoes, Ichigo's eyes widened and his brows furrowed down further simultaneously as he found a rather conspicuous envelope on top of his shoes.

He looked around, but everyone else were chatting among themselves as they got ready to leave the school, while he stood unmoving, mind whirring with the thought that there had to be some mistake. He never got those things. The other girls usually found him too intimidating to approach like this, and yet...

The hall emptied, and it was a measure enough of privacy that he finally reached in and took the envelope. Swallowing thickly, he turned it over in his hand, and sure enough, there was his name at the front.

Maybe this is some sort of joke? He thought suspiciously as he ripped the flap and brought out the plain stationery, unfolding it to read.

Is this for real? He had a mad urge to crumple the letter, even as his heart began to beat a ferocious rhythm in his chest. But that would make him a tosser, to just disregard someone's confession of feelings for him just like that, joke or not.

He sighed heavily, indecisiveness settling over him, a funny feeling in his stomach. Maybe if he didn't show up in the location that was asked in the letter, then that would indicate that he wasn't interested, right? But at the same time, that would be cowardly, and he had always been someone who never ran away, who always faced a challenge head on.

And this...this was part of the normalcy he had been craving, wasn't it? Another part of the normal high school life, just like school festivals and school trips. He could do this. He could. Yes. Definitely.

Finally changing his shoes, he threw his bag on his shoulder and put a hand with the letter in his pocket, and made his way to the tree in question. If no one was there waiting, surely there was nothing to be disappointed about, right? He would feel relieved that it had only been someone's idea of a joke.

Ichigo stopped in his tracks, couldn't help swallowing as he beheld the girl, expectant and worried, nervously swinging her schoolbag in her hands. He met her familiar eyes, and he could feel both his mind and his heart stop.

"Eh? You came," greeted Inoue, her voice tremulous. "I'm glad, Kurosaki-kun."

He could only give a nod in reply, his voice having left him.

"Kurosaki-kun, I..."

He watched, couldn't help being fascinated, as she herself tried to find words that he could tell hadn't been at all easy to write, let alone say in person.

"I've always had feelings for you."

He steeled himself. He wasn't ready for this. It was with a morbid amount of control that he kept his feet rooted to the ground even as the compulsion to flee filled him.

"This isn't really the first time I've confessed to you—"

Huh?

"—but it would be the first where you finally get to hear it."

Confessed to him before? When did that happen? Surely he would have remembered. But then she said he'd finally get to hear it...what was he doing during the first time she confessed?

"Kurosaki-kun, daisuki dakara—"

"Gomen," interjected Ichigo, the word leaving him as fast as he could make it, afraid to hear the rest of what she had to say.

"Eh?"

"I'm sorry," he repeated, slower, his heart feeling as though it was crumbling under a heavy weight as he watched her expression turn from hopeful to hurt. "Inoue, I..." He felt at a loss, only filled with the compulsion to fill the silence. "Towards you, I..."

Eternity stretched between them, a breeze wafting through the trees that made stray leaves swirl at their feet and blew her hair in front of her face.

"So ka," Orihime said finally, nodding, her hands tightening around the handle of her schoolbag, blinking rapidly and staring at anywhere but him, biting at her lips several times. "Wakata." With a sigh, she composed herself, and gave him a shaky smile. "I hope we can still stay friends?"

He could only nod in reply, afraid that any other words that would come out of him could end up hurting her more, even if he hadn't intended to.

"Ja ne," she whispered softly as she walked past him on her way to the school gate.

Turning to watch her leave, the hand still holding the letter in his pocket curled into a fist, staying him from following after her. An emotion he couldn't name settled in his chest as he eyed her slumped shoulders and brisk pace. He was wishing that this hadn't happened, that he remained oblivious to her feelings, that she hadn't made them known to him.

He couldn't imagine how they could go back to being just friends if he was all too aware of how she felt about him. Everything's changed now. Everything's different.

But all the same, despite himself, hopeless regret lingered in his chest.

"Inoue."

End note: To be continued in "Bitter Chocolate"

Thanks for reading :)
Oct/2011