He didn't get it. He just didn't get it.

"Gay?" His nose wrinkled at the disparaging meaning the monosyllabic word offered. "You mean homosexual? Is that what you mean?"

"—you know what I mean—"

"That's ridiculous!" he argued. "I don't like men in that sense. What ever gave you the idea that I did?"

"The way you acted around Johan!" she shouted, prompting him to fall silent, although it didn't erase the look of apparent disgust written across his face, polished by the smallest glimmer of betrayal. "You were obsessed with him! After he came into your life, all you'd do was spend time with him!"

Juudai frowned; he bewildered and perplexed as she was dismayed and fraught. "Asuka… Johan is my friend."

"Don't give me that bull!" she instantly snapped back. "Friend, huh? Everyone's your friend! But you treat certain 'friends'better than others. So if Johan's your friend, then what am I? Lower than dirt?"

"Of course not! Asuka, how could you say that—"

"Do you know how the rest of your 'friends' felt? How did you think Shou and Kenzan felt to be replaced by this newcomer?" she spat. "And if that wasn't enough, what's worse you betrayed us! You killed your friends—you killed me in order to satisfy your selfish desires!"

Asuka clutched her chest with a spread-eagled palm, sinking her fingertips into her skin. She felt the pulsing beat of her heart absorb through each pad of her fingers and the sensations running up her arm. Oh how her heart hurt. How badly it hurt.

"I've known you for three years… I've been there for you since your first day at Duel Academia. How could you have just abandoned everything…for a boy you met a month ago?"

Her face scrunched up; she was teetering on the threshold between tears and maintaining a strong will. Her head slowly shook from side to side like a tick metronome. She squeezed close her eyes and let out a sob out of pure frustration.

"I loved you, Juudai—I loved you. But how could you be so selfish?"

The hypocrisy of her own words smashed upon impact with the mental barrier she erected for self-preservation of her sanity.

Juudai was speechless for once. He swallowed a lump in his throat and hung his head in shame. "I made a mistake," he said to the floor.

"Please. You're wasting your breath stating the obvious," she mumbled.

"I'm sorry."

"I know."

"You're still my friend."

"...I know."

Maybe that's all they could be.