Chapter Four
Now I Know

"I'm fine, really."

"No, you're going to lay here until I say so."

"Yui's punishment is tiring~"

"Stay still! Hinata!"

She raised her voice, so he obediently laid back and watched her carefully with trusting eyes, even though there was such a sharp and scornful look upon her brow. He said nothing with his lips pinched together, eyes unsure of what she was planning. He couldn't read her like he could everyone else. She was the only one that was a mystery all day every day.

Even though she tried so hard he could tell she wasn't as angry as she was relieved. And it all seemed so normal for him to lie before her like that, as still as she'd commanded. But there was something missing. A small feeling no one looked for. But in this silence, as if in an epiphany, their thoughts turned.

Her face became red between the pink waves of hair which he'd grown to love. Even though she became further from him, he had a relaxed smile on his face. Because he knew. She didn't.

She clutched her chest with her hands and squeezed the fabric of clothing between trembling fingers.

"O-okay, you can go now," she declared, her heart racing. He stood up but towered over her, looking down upon her and holding onto the gaze with her eyes. Her whole body shook.

"What's wrong?" He asked, tilting his head to the side.

"I started thinking about…" she paused, "something. And I don't feel good."

"What were you thinking about?" I leaned over and kissed the top of her head and her hands clung harder, as if she were trying to stop the wild pounding of her heart.

"S-stop!" She stepped back and glared at him. "You read my mind, didn't you? Now you're teasing me!"

"What are you talking about?" He looked so comfortable before her, as if all the hostility from before had completely disappeared with the knowledge he just accepted.

She looked at her feet and her voice sounded like it was struggling to hold back sadness. "You're my only friend Hinata," her body jerked suddenly and she didn't stop grasping her chest for dear life.

"Yeah," his content face remained as he silently urged her to continue to the point.

"A-and you're a guy…" she paused and looked up to him.

"Seriously?" He looked confused. "You're acting strange because of that? I've been a guy and you're only friend for so many years now."

"Yeah but…" she swallowed hard, "suddenly it's different."

"How?"

"Just now I remembered what I thought about at the hospital." She watched him and continued with as much confidence as she could muster. "And… it makes sense. My only friend, always by my side, always making me happy. So I guess it should be like this, right?"

"You're really slow, Yui," he laughed and grabbed her hand. Leaning over so he could be face-to-face with her, he tightened his grip on her small and fragile hand as he closed his eyes and meet lips with her. Her face had never been so red, eyes wide in his subtle embrace. When he pulled away she speechlessly searched his eyes for the feelings she never felt.

"Y-you read my mind again?" She stood there, motionless, and he didn't let go of her hand.

"No, I only guessed what you were going to say," he shrugged his shoulders and didn't break the gaze between them. "But I want to hear you say it with your cute voice, okay?"

"Y-you're so weird," her knees trembled but she held his hand firmly. "Hinata, I like you. I've liked you a lot for awhile now. I didn't get why my heart would pump quickly every time you touched me, and I didn't understand why my face would get red whenever you'd get close. But after I was so worried about you I had time to think and my heart burst and explained everything to me in one instant."

Silence.

"I like you Hinata."

Just like before he leaned into her, except this time she closed her eyes and kissed him back. He tasted sweet with a smile against her lips and warm tears streamed down her pink cheeks.

"I like you too, Yui."

"I'm glad," she smiled whole-heartedly.

"Me, too," he kissed her hand. "Because I've been hiding it since the first day I saw you."

His lips against her fingers, she watched him with a sadder face. "You've… suffered a lot?"

"Not really, because I have Yui," he sat down on the bed she was forcing him to lay on only a few minutes before. "I've always had Yui." Without their hands slipping away from each other, she sat next to him and nudged her body close.

"I'm sorry," she smiled again, tears continuing to fall from her eyes.

"Like I said," he wiped her tears with his free hand, "you're really slow."

"Idiot," she grinned.

He smiled and kissed her again.

"Hey isn't that girl over there cute?" The delinquent slurped some of his soda with a straw.

"Shut up, Eiji," the blue-haired boy glared at his friend.

"Huh, how come you're never digging girls?" He slipped a look at the girl again.

"Because that girl there is mine," he smiled at the words that had come from his own mouth.

"Wh-what?" His friend jumped from the table he was sitting on. "Since when did you get a girlfriend?"

"Don't you recognize her?"

"Oh, wait, that's the girl you're always with," his friend relaxed and again sipped his soda.

"She finally learned her feelings," his face looked pleasant as he watched her water her plants.

"So are you a man yet?"

The sound of a powerful slap caused the pink-haired girl to lift her head and look across the street, into the park where the disruptive noise had come from.

"Don't say such things!" His face was redder than a fresh apple as he stood over his friend who sat on the ground. "S-she's too innocent for stupid things!"

"Family," Eiji got back onto his feet and rubbed his cheek. "That's all you'd ever talk about before you started dating. You'd go on and on about a family with that girl you loved. You know how to make a family, don't you?"

"Sh-shut up, idiot!"

"Hey, you're kind of cute when you're flustered," he sipped the soda which sounded almost empty, "don't make such a face any more."

"I really hate you," he growled.

"I'm just kidding, man," he tossed the empty soda into a nearby garbage can and sat back on the bench table. "Really, I'm proud of you for finally confessing, even though she did it first."

"Yui is…" He watched her as she walked back inside of her quaint house full of memories. "Yui is the most precious treasure in the world to me."

His friend smiled knowingly. "Oh yeah, I have a date," he lied and jumped up from the bench table and started wandering away. "Go to your girl, I'll catch you later Hinata."

He watched his friend leave with a confused look on his face, but he turned away and headed to the small and familiar house he loved with his special person safe inside.

Because this is how things are supposed to be.