Hallo! Compared to the former two chapters, this is long because it's more dialogue and action! I'm terribly sorry for the long wait, you guys. Two years! Oh gosh, really? This is the last chapter of Thirteen, I think. Hihi. Thank you for staying with me and being patient and everything because I truly appreciate each one of you who bothers to read, even if you don't leave a review or any sort of message. Ugh, am I ranting? I'm sorry! ~get on with the story~

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This Friday morning at Seiso Gakuen was quite interesting. It wasn't the fact that it was sunnier and windier than usual, and it wasn't the fact that it was the second time in years that the school bells rang.

No, there definitely was something far better that made the supposedly normal and usual morning actually interesting.

It was Nami Amou's plan to bring together two aloof violinists, whom she had helped to realize what they truly felt for one another. Just yesterday, she used only the same thirteen phrases to make the two both somehow aware of their already mutual love. But she knew that it would take more than that for them to take some action—after all, both were still in denial, not ready to accept the fact that he or she fell for his or her exact opposite.

Because of that, Nami stayed up late with her accomplices, Mio, Nao, and (a reluctant) Fuyuumi, to think of their plan to bring those two together.

They thought of quite a number of plans and they agreed that tomorrow, if the first plan doesn't work out, they'd use the rest of their backup plans. And if all of them don't work? They would give up and let the two work it out for themselves.

Nami's phone suddenly rang. "Hello! We're with Kaho-chan right now! Well, she went to the bathroom, but she'll be back soon. Any sign of Tsukimori-kun?" The voice of the perky brunette came out of her phone's speakers.

"Not quite. I don't think he's man enough to come." Nami chuckled.

"Oh, is that so?" Mio asked. "When we picked up Kaho-chan a while ago, she was having some dream and she was saying his name again and again."

"It was sickening." Nao's irritated voice suddenly entered. Nami couldn't help but laugh again at her friend's remark. Her somehow quiet yet boisterous laughter hushed down when she saw the (discomforted) Tsukimori walking like some ghost.

"Okay. Update me again later; I can see Tsukimori walking…Tsukimori-kun!"

"You're a sick and vile woman."

Whoa, whoa. Language, Tsukimori-kun, Nami thought. "Me? What did I do? I just gave you a list."

"Exactly. Now, if you excuse me," Len tried to sidestep her, but Nami reached out to stop him.

"Rude, Tsukimori! Rude!"

He sighed. "Mind your own business, will you?"

"Hmph! Then you'll upset Kaho-chan!" Nami hissed. Seeing some reaction from him, she grinned smugly. "You don't want that, do you, Tsukimori-kun?"

"How? She's not involved in this."

Yeah, she's not. Nami took out a muffin wrapped in a blue plastic with a thin ribbon wrapped around it. "But she baked you Blueberry Muffins!"

He cringed. "No thank you."

"But—!"

"I said no, Amou-san."

"Please? For Kaho?"

"No—"

"Aha!" Nami stepped back, pleased with what she's done—which is just stuffing the muffin into Len's mouth, but that was already a great feat considering how adamant he apparently is when he says no.

But when he started to turn red and…choke and just…he just ran from her without his violin case…

"Uh-oh," she whispered. "Oh god, I'm so sorry, Tsukimori-kun!"

Now, Nami was afraid for her life. It was one thing to try and bring together two people by lying, but when you accidentally give an anaphylactic shock to one of them…well, it just kind of sucks. She opened her phone, dialed Fuyuumi and said, "Step one, failed. I think Tsukimori-kun's headed to the infirmary. Probably is. Any chance you could get Kaho-chan there?"

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Fuyuumi gulped nervously because one, she was in an unfamiliar territory, and two, she was going to purposely hurt Kaho-senpai.

She didn't want to, but she was admittedly tired of the two of them dancing around one another. It was frustrating everyone, really.

Fuyuumi spotted her walking alone. Alone! It was a perfect opportunity to…something. She didn't really know what she was going to do to get her to the infirmary. "Kaho-senpai!"

Kaho turned around and waved to Fuyuumi. "Fuyuumi-chan! Hi! What brings you here?"

Fuyuumi gulped again. I'm so sorry, Kaho-senpai.

She started running to her and then tripped herself so that her clarinet case (Oh gosh, it's my clarinet case!) flew into Kaho's direction.

Fuyuumi closed her eyes as she landed with a soft thud. A second later, another thud followed and she opened her eyes to see Kahoko on the floor, too, with her clarinet case in both hands.

Fuyuumi stumbled as she tried to get on her feet. Once up properly, she scurried to Kahoko's side. "I'm so sorry, Kaho-senpai, are you okay?"

"Ne, Fuyuumi-chan, why is your case so light?" She asked, sitting up. "Ouch…I didn't know that the clarinet was so light."

Fuyuumi frowned slightly. She was feeling guilty all over! "Kaho-senpai, my clarinet is at the music department…"

"Oh."

They both looked down to her swelling ankle. "…That looks terrible, doesn't it, Fuyuumi-chan?"

And now Fuyuumi was crying because Kaho wouldn't stop smiling even though she was obviously hurt. It just made her really, really guilty. "I'll take you to the infirmary, Kaho-senpai. I'm so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so—"

"I get it, Fuyuumi-chan."

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Thirty minutes later, Fuyuumi was on the phone with Nami again. "Nami-senpai, ah, yes, I just came back from the infirmary—yes, he was there—err, I don't think so, you see—no, he was actually—oh, sorry, I forgot, wait, yes—will you please let me finish?"

"Ah. You see, Tsukimori-senpai was there, too, and when he saw us he was cursing, I think, I couldn't understand him, but he was so angry! It was really scary. I've never known him to lose his temper like that. And then Kaho-senpai was all confused and she tried to push herself off of me to answer back to Tsukimori-senpai, I think, but when she did, she just fell down, so I panicked! I helped her get back up and then the nurse came in from the storage room with a syringe. She was glaring at Tsukimori-senpai and he was kind of glaring at her back…I wasn't sure. His face was kind of messed up. But when she injected the thing into his arm, he started to look better. Red, but definitely still as handsome—oops, sorry! At that point Kaho-senpai and I were standing, so you could definitely see the worry in Tsukimori-senpai's eyes! The nurse took Kaho-senpai from me and made her sit down on the chair opposite Tsukimori-senpai and I genuinely thought that they would start fussing over each other, but Tsukimori-senpai instead started criticizing her about how it'll affect her posture now. I really don't understand those two, Nami-senpai! Step two failed as well."

"…I'm sorry, you didn't hear me? Sorry, let me repeat that…"

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Nao and Mio knocked on the door of the clinic room before they entered. The nurse looked at them and asked, "You here to take them both?"

Mio smiled. "Yep!"

Nao grimaced. "Not really. But no one else is taking him, so we'll just do it for his sake."

Mio elbowed her best friend softly. "Don't be so mean, Nao-chan!"

Kahoko wobbled to them and scratched the back of her head. "Thanks, you guys." She turned around and glared at Len. "And you, I don't like you."

Mio piped in immediately. "No! That's not true, Tsukimori-kun, she likes you a lot! She's just mad at you right now because you're being a mean person. No one likes mean people! Like Nao-chan here, she's so mean, you know?"

Nao looked at Mio plainly. "You don't make any sense."

"Yeah," she whispered. "But you don't want Kaho-chan to say something she'll regret, do you?" She looked back at the redhead and the bluehead. "So, you two, what's up? Why is there tension here? Did something terrible happen?"

"It's none of your business, Mio," Nao replied for the both of them. "Ignore her. Kaho-chan, let's go?"

"Oh, sure! I'll just get my bag over—"

Thud.

"You should really watch where you're going, Hino-san. You might crash into something or someone else soon."

"And you should really watch what you let into your mouth, Tsukimori-kun, because apparently you just allow anyone to put anything into it."

"…are you accusing me of something?"

"I'm just telling you to be careful, Tsukimori-kun! Why can't I be concerned?"

"I don't think you should be when you can't even take care of yourself, Hino-san! Look at you, you keep getting yourself into situations—one day, no one will be there to help you, I swear."

"…yeah, I think we've heard enough from the both of them."

"Step three only slightly successful then, yeah?"

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"So that row you had back in there. Err. Kaho-chan, we're your best friends, right?" Nao asked, helping Kaho up the steps. "We're your best friends, and do you remember when we were younger? When we promised that we would never keep secrets from each other? Well, Mio and I think that you're keeping something from us—"

"—particularly about your possible feelings for a certain blue-haired violinist?"

Kahoko blinked. Once, twice, and then took another step up. "Feelings for…Tsukimori-kun?"

"Yes, you can't possibly be oblivious to your own feelings, now can you?" Nao asked; to which Kahoko replied by dazedly blinking again. "Oh dear, you can't possibly be!"

"She is though!" Mio laughed along. "She is, she is, she is! How can that be, Kaho-chan?"

"Oh, but you're realizing it now, aren't you?"

"Nao-chan, stop it, I think she's confused."

"You remember one of the plans!" Nao hissed quietly at Mio. "So, Kaho-chan, you see, you have always liked Tsukimori-kun. From the moment you first saw him…somewhere. Yes, you've always liked him, you see, and he kinda likes you back!"

"Nao-chan, you're spoiling everything!"

"Does he really?" Kahoko asked, squinting her eyes. "Tsukimori-kun's always cold and distant. I don't think he likes anyone, really. Except maybe his violin. Do you know what he calls his violin? He calls her—"

"No, Kaho-chan! That's your secret. Something that's between the two of you. Special. And you know what else is? There's something between the two of you that is special, can you guess what it is?"

"Is it that I like him and he likes me, too?"

"Yes, what do you call it?"

"A mutual understanding of our feelings?"

"Yes!" Mio and Nao squealed together in delight. There, Kahoko was acknowledging it—even if it was brought out in a state of confusion, sure, it didn't matter. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"I will—" And then she dropped to the floor.

"Mio-chan, do you know what this means?" Nao asked with her black eyes lit up. "We're successful with her confessing!"

"Step four…?"

"Yep!"

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"So you bring her there? Okay!" Nami bit her lip as she dialed Len's number. Oh, this is just absolutely fantastic! "Tsukimori-kun, yes, it's me, Amou—no, don't hand up on me! The rules of chivalry, remember?"

"What do you mean you're not a gentleman? Don't be silly! Anyways, you dropped your violin case a while ago—don't start swearing now! Language, Tsukimori-kun! Don't be so crude. So, where were we? Ah, yes, your violin case. You see, I couldn't really drag it around the whole campus because it would be suspicious of me, really. I left it in a room—don't worry! It's totally unused…I think. You'd want to be running there now, don't you? It's here at our department, on the third floor, the corridor where the home economics room is, and…well, actually, it's the home economics room. Yeah, sorry. It's unused. Yeah, sure. Run. Whatever. Bye, Tsukimori-kun!"

Nami sighed in relief. There should be nothing else that could go wrong with their matchmaking now.

"Mio, is Kaho-chan there? Are you sure? Unconscious, how—okay, no, never mind that just as long as she's in the room. She is? Oh, wonderful! Step five, done."

This was really, really wonderful.

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Amou-san was definitely getting on his nerves. It was one thing to leave his violin in just some room, but it was another to matchmake for him. He wasn't stupid, obviously. Unlike Kahoko, he was in no means oblivious to what those three—no, four—girls were doing.

The first thing he saw when he entered the room was Kahoko sleeping on the corner. A few seconds later, he saw his violin case on the other side of the room.

My violin or Kahoko? That was the eternal question, wasn't it?

He sighed, knowing how this was all going to turn out.

And just…damn Amou-san for everything. Particularly ruining his life, but she probably meant well in doing so.

He walked to his violin case first and opened it, making sure that Amou didn't do anything to his violin. Okay, there's nothing wrong. He turned to look at Kahoko still sleeping on the floor. Now there's something wrong with that. Why is she here anyway?

...she is wearing shorts, right?

This was all too difficult.

But if this is what Amou wanted, then he'll at least give it to her. God knows the extremities that woman went through just to get him to confess or something.

And so everything else started with: "Hino-san. Hino-san, wake up…"

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…yeah, that's kind of the ending. You guys prolly don't like it, but that's what I've always planned. Err. I may or may not write an epilogue for this, depending on how busy I'll be this year. I'm writing a few chapters for TULTG, though, and I'll post it all once I'm done writing and editing them. :D

Goodbye and thank you~