Responsibilities, responsibilities, responsibilities-she was sick of it.

All he had were responsibilities nowadays. His days were filled with paperwork and missions. There was nothing she could do.

They often argued about this.

She was a mere human after all. How could she understand?

But Lord knows she tries.

She doesn't complain when he's too tired to carry on a real conversation on the phone or when there is no phone call to begin with.

She tries her best to understand when he shows up late for their 'dates' because of a meeting. She tries her best to shrug it off when he cancels because of a mission or paperwork overload.

But this was all too much.

Their last date had been a week ago and she still could not forgive him.

It was their first lunch together after nearly a month without seeing each other and she had really been looking forward to it.

But OF COURSE, her brother had to be on a school trip with Rukia and the others. So when Hollows began to appear, her date left her all alone sitting at her favorite café. She had waited an hour before leaving.

It took her twenty minutes to reach home and another ten to shower and change into her comfy home clothes.

And only then, did she get a text.

'Where the heck are you? I'm at the cafe, ditcher.'

Fuming she had replied, 'thanks for taking ninety minutes you jerk.'

Ever since then she hadn't replied a single text or answered a single call.

And damn there were a lot of them.

Before the incident, she would receive about 10 messages in total from him, plus the evening phone call. But now that she was avoiding him, more than fifty messages would light up her phone all through the day. He would call every other hour and still she could not be bothered to.

He had left her, made her wait alone and then accused HER of ditching HIM.

She doubted she could ever forgive him. She didn't think she wanted to.

A WEEK LATER

Karin was living her life normally. Wake up, breakfast and delete the last 20 phone calls, school. Soccer, lunch, shower and delete the last 100 messages. Homework, help out at the clinic and dinner. Then she would listen to his voice mails one by one, deleting them from her phone one by one. She'd fall asleep with her face against the pillow fighting the tears.

She refused to give in. It was his fault for always being busy and never having time for her.

Now it was her turn. Now she had no time for him.

Besides, if he really wanted to see her he could come to her front door by himself.

She was fourteen for goodness sake she wasn't some love struck fool who'd forgive him after half an hour.

She was Kurosaki Karin, still kicking ass at soccer with her team.

Finally, on a Saturday afternoon she sat up on the bed.

It was his reistsu, no doubt about it. And it was getting closer.

Was he finally, after two weeks going to come and apologize face to face?

Or was he here to end their stupid relationship properly?

She wondered as she tied her hair up in a tight ponytail. She took small steps own the stairs. It was late autumn and she was in warm home clothes. A long-sleeve that reached her mid-thigh and tight fitting leggings that kept her warm.

Finally, three knocks resounded through the living room. No one else was home. Ichigo and Yuzu were out with their friends and their father was shopping for supplies for the clinic.

She opened the door and blinked as the wind blew strongly at her.

Standing there right before her eyes was Hitsugaya Toushiro.

He stood there in black pants and a thick blue jacket. His white scarf and hair brought out his eyes. He was pale and dark eye bags hung beneath his staring eyes.

"Karin," he whispered.

"What?"

He wasn't shocked by the indifference and irritation in her tone. She looked back at him with uncaring eyes.

His mouth opened and then closed, then it opened and he sighed before taking a step back.

She blinked and opened her mouth, "why are you here Hitsugaya?"

He winced; she had called him by his surname. She had always called him by his first name or one of her various nicknames for him.

"Karin, I came here to…" "To what? End this for good?"

His eyes were filled with pain and regret; the guilt devoured her from the inside.

His mouth opened again and then closed. She rolled her eyes and moved the door. "Come back when you've got something to say."

The door slammed shut.