Chihiro tensed, slowly looking back and forth from Aoi and Sakura to Mondo and Ishimaru. She should have realized that there was a reason that they were stalling for time earlier and always finding a reason to hang out with her a bit longer. Usually, they were quick to leave; either they wanted some time together for themselves, or Ishimaru wanted to make sure that they were not late for something.

"Oogami-San," Ishimaru commented. His eyes turned to the smaller girl.

Her hair, Chihiro noted, still looked slightly wet. It was so much easier to focus on that than the two boys in front of her.

Mondo stood tall, his eyes firmly rooted on the two girls. He had his fists tightly clenched at his sides.

"Asahina-San," Ishimaru continued. "It is so good to see you; there is something that Owiada-San and I would like to have a serious discussion with you."

Chihiro bit her lip.

"Yeah," Mondo broke in. "It's pretty damn important."

Aoi looked to Chihiro. "Are you busy with something else?"

Chihiro looked away from her.

"We can always go get doughnuts another time. I understand, Chihiro."

No, she thought. It's not that!

For once, Ishimaru made no comment on his foul word. Instead, his frown deepened. "Fujisaki-San has informed us about the two of you and her..." He waved his hands in the air, never finishing the sentence; she had seen him do the same when he was discussing Mondo before.

"Is there a problem that you have with it?" Sakura's expression remained neutral. "I understand that this might be something of concern to you two, but I can assure-"

"Yeah, yeah," Mondo said. He rolled his eyes. "You two are just the best girlfriends ever, right?" He sneered.

"You have not been breaking any rules, have you?" Ishimaru looked ready to burn a hole through the two of them. "Whether these rules were rightfully set up by the school or Chihiro herself-"

Mondo ran forward, his right fist held high. "If you two did anything bad to Chihiro-"

"Stop!"

The room silenced; Chihiro's words echoed across her apartment walls. Had she really been that loud?

"You two are acting absolutely ridiculous! What makes you two think that you can boss me around like this?" She put her hands on her hips.

"Chihiro..." Mondo looked away from her. "We were talking to them, not you."

"I'm actually supposed to believe that? You guys looked ready to stop our relationship only a short while after you learned about it." She forced back tears from her eyes. "I trusted you guys with another secret of mine because you two are my closest friends. I didn't think that you would actually freak out; you two have known Aoi and Sakura as long as I have! They're both incredibly kind and well behaved, and they make me happy. What's so wrong with that?"

The two of them both looked sadly at her, then at each other.

"Well," she repeated, "do you have an answer?"

Again, they remained silent.

"Come on." Chihiro turned to Aoi and Sakura. "I'm really hungry, and a cream filled doughnut sounds wonderful."

Aoi brightened, her familiar grin spreading across her face. "It does!"

"Chihiro..." Ishimaru reached out a hand to touch her shoulder; she nearly stepped out of the way, but stopped. He only called her by her first name when the two (and usually also Mondo) were alone together. "I apologize for my previous actions. You clearly know what you are doing, and I know you would not purposefully break any rules."

Mondo looked over to her; everything about him seemed down. His frown was deep, his eyes down on her, and his shoulders slouched. Even his pompadour seemed down, almost like he hadn't used enough hair product. "I'm sorry, too. I was such an asshole, getting angry over something that I hardly understood."

The two of them both looked like a set of very sad puppies.

"If something ever were bothering me, I would tell you." Chihiro looked over to the two expectant girls. "And I am hungry!" She turned and smiled at Ishimaru and Mondo. "I'll eat an extra doughnut for you, Mondo! I'll also make sure not to stay out late, Ishimaru."