Chapter Three:

In which Akira realizes

I can look back on it with some sense of irony that females were so pivotal in my realizing how I felt about Shindou. Or maybe it's only ironic to me. Either way, running into Fujisaki Akari in the park was also one of those "deciding moments" of a lifetime.

"Touya-kun!" I didn't recognize the female voice at first. It took me a few moments to register the cheerful girl in front of me as the one who I'd seen with Shindou at a couple of times.

"It's nice to see you here."

"Yes." I said politely. "It is nice to see you as well."

She giggled. "It's almost strange that we don't talk to each other much. But then, I don't really talk to any of Hikaru's professional go friends."

I looked at her in surprise. For one, I wasn't expecting to be referred to as Shindou's friend. We were rivals. She should get the difference right. And furthermore, I just realized she was the first person I'd ever heard refer to Shindou by his first name. Even those friends he had from back when they were Inseis together referred to him as Shindou.

"You… know Shindou very well, then?"

"Hikaru? Of course! We've known each other since we were really little. I probably know him better then anyone."
Oh she so did not just say that…

"What?!" I exclaimed angrily. Her eyes widened in shock as the increased volume but that didn't stop me. "You know him better then anyone? You? Do you know his Go? Do you know when his matches are? Who he's going to play? Do you know how he's going to play? When you play do you know what kind of moves he would make? Do you know his strength? Do you know the secret behind his strength? Do you the two different sides to his Go?" At this point I became painfully aware of a) the fact that I was yelling at a girl that I barely knew and b) I was starting to get people staring at us.

And as scared as Fujisaki must have been to have some guy she barely knew yelling at her, that didn't stop her from yelling back. Which really, wasn't a smart move at all.

"What. Is. Your. Problem? For God's sake, Touya, he has a life outside of Go!" "Go is his life!!" I yelled back. This stupid, absolutely ignorant girl claims to know Shindou better then anyone and she didn't even understand that? How dare she make that presumption? How dare she… what was I thinking?

"I'm sorry." I muttered tightly. "I have to leave now."
"Good!" She yelled angrily.
I turned and walked away as fast as I could without making it seem overly obvious that I was trying to get away as fast as possible.

"Shindou." I muttered to myself. Hikaru. No. Not Hikaru. Definitely Shindou. He could never be anything but Shindou. That what I refer to him as a Go player, as a rival, and that is the most important thing to either of us.

What on earth had I been doing? Yelling at a girl like that. I never yell. Never. It wasn't proper or polite. Well, Ok, I yelled at Shindou all the time. But that was different. And, yes, admittedly, I have a habit of yelling at people when it comes to Shindou. Like, not to underestimate him and things like that. But all in all, yelling at people wasn't in my nature.

And that's when it hit me. I mean, really hit me.

That I was in love with Shindou Hikaru.

It wasn't just yelling at people, Shindou made me do a lot of things that were out of character for me. Things that I was raised to be the correct thing to do.

There wasn't anyone else that could summon such, well, passionate emotions from me. Things like anger and fear and…

….love…

Shindou…

This was most certainly going to change things.

Authors Note: Yup, another short one. But an important one. And a short update is better then no update at all. I think. Or maybe it's worse. What do I know.

To reviewers:

(Since I did it with the first chapter, and otherwise it just wouldn't be fair)

Storm- I'm glad you're liking it. That makes me happy

Kaori-Chan- So I guess a sucky review is better then nothing at all. But I should still fix this one. It is pretty bad.

Infinitylight- Hi! Here's the next chapter. Hee.. Obviously. I'll try to update faster.

GreenEyes7- Wee, I love Ashiwara! I want to torture him some more. I think I shall do so… And yeah… dates should be as simple as Hikaru makes it sound. But then, Hikaru hasn't technically been on a date, so what does he know?

Okita- Here is the more. I'm glad I was going through Hikaru no Go withdrawals, otherwise it wouldn't have come

Cookie krumble - Akira is a very calculative person. At least, he seems that way to me. I mean, he plays Go. It makes sense he'd apply that way of thinking to everything.

Eikou- I actually have everything all planned out. I just get lazy, and busy. … if that's possible to exist at the same time. But that I means I hope to keep on posting.

Thanks for all the reviews! It makes me very happy. Plus, it guilts me into writing more. Which is always a plus when dealing with the lazy.