(A/N: Ok, I promised you guys some drama, so here's some drama. As you probably guessed, it involves the love triangle between Ponyo, Sosuke, and Kumiko.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 4: Just Friends

"Hey, Sosuke, wait up!"

Ponyo groaned as Kumiko ran up to the two of them. "Hi, Kumiko, how are you?" she asked in a false friendly tone while wearing an equally phony smile on her face.

Kumiko returned the fake smile. "Fine, thanks for asking," she replied, her sweet words holding just as much hostility, before turning back to her long time love interest. "Sosuke, want to eat lunch together again?"

Ponyo tightened her grip on Sosuke's arm. "You mean like when you stormed off last time in the middle of it? Forget it. That's our time."

Kumiko glared at her. "He's your brother. You spend all your time together anyway. Go spend some time with your own friends and leave Sosuke to his. Unless, of course, you don't have any friends."

"I have a lots of friends. And Sosuke and I may spend a lot of time together, but rooftop lunch time is our special private time."

"You live together! You get plenty of private time! Let me spend some time with him. He needs some friendship time!" She looked at Sosuke hopefully. "We are friends, aren't we?"

Sosuke looked uncomfortable. "Of course we are." He glanced at the redhead hanging on his arm. "Come on, Ponyo. There's no need for us to fight. We can all have lunch together."

Sadness and anger flashed across her face. "Sosuke, you're an idiot!"

Much to his surprise, she took off running before he could say anything. "Ponyo!"

Well, that hadn't gone well. Perhaps she was cranky from not sleeping well last night, then he'd gone and said the wrong thing. He'd only wanted to keep the peace, but instead he'd gone and upset her. He should have known better; Ponyo was very possessive of him, always had been.

Kumiko took Sosuke's other arm. "Don't worry about her, she can take care of herself. The two of you can clear things up later."

Sosuke looked at Ponyo's retreating figure once more. "Yeah, I guess."

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Ponyo stormed angrily through the school after having left Sosuke and Kumiko on the roof. She was fuming irritably, silently swearing at the two of them as her mind shifted the blame back and forth between the two.

'Stupid Sosuke, getting all lovey-dovey with Kumiko! No, it's her fault for hanging all over him like that. Actually, it's his fault for not making it clear to her where they stand. Oh, but he's just trying to be nice since they're childhood friends, and he doesn't want to hurt her. But that's no excuse! If they really are such good friends, he'd do the right thing and let her down gently. Wait, she knows he's with me, but she wants him anyway. She's trying to steal him from me! Then again, she's a girl in love, just like me, and she still thinks she stands a chance since Sosuke hasn't actually turned her down yet. But she's such a meanie about it, and is deliberately getting in our way.'

As the blame kept switching from one to the other, it became too much for her to keep it all bottled up inside. "Ah, they're both idiots!" she shouted, punching a locker. "Stupid Kumiko! Stupid Sosuke!"

Several people heard her angry rampage. Everyone knew to stay clear of her when she was in a bad mood. True, she was almost always cheerful and carefree, but when she did get irritable, watch out!

Of course, some people couldn't take a hint. They were either brave enough or foolish enough to approach her while she was in one of her moods. One of her many admires was close by, and rather than seeing this as a threat, they saw it as an opportunity.

Casually walking up to her, the student strategically planned how to deal with her while she was upset like this. "Is everything all right?"

Ponyo turned around, eyeing him suspiciously. She recognized him right away. His name was Shin Yamaguchi, and he was well known as the school playboy. "I'm fine. I just want to be alone right now."

He got closer, entering her comfort zone. "Care to talk about it?"

"No."

"Talking helps."

Ponyo's eyebrow twitched irritably. "Yamaguchi, I don't want to talk. Just go away."

He ignored her. "It sounds like you had a fight with your brother."

She glared at him. "He's not my brother! There's no blood relation whatsoever. And it's none of your business anyway. Please, just leave me alone for now."

He got closer instead, resting his hands on her shoulders in what seemed to be a comforting gesture if it hadn't had been for that lecherous look in his eye. "Come on, I'll make you feel better."

Ponyo's fist clenched. She was debating on whether she should hit him or not when the window suddenly burst open. A powerful gust of wind rushed in and Shin was pushed away from her.

"Hey, what's going on?" he cried. "Someone close the window!"

The wind kept pushing him down the hall and away from Ponyo, even blowing him around the corner and into an open janitor's closet. Once he was inside, the wind blew the door shut behind him, and finally died down. A few seconds later, Shin began knocking on the door, which had locked on him, demanding to be let out.

Ponyo blinked and looked at the open window. "Ok…"

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Kumiko was chatting away happily, but Sosuke barely heard her. His thoughts were on Ponyo. He didn't like having her angry with him. And it was his fault. He knew that she was jealous and upset with his decision to let Kumiko join them for lunch. But Kumiko was his friend. He wanted her and Ponyo to get along, so he reluctantly plaid the role of peacekeeper. The way he saw it, he'd simply been letting a friend join them for lunch.

But that wasn't how Ponyo saw it. No matter what he told her, in her eyes, she saw her love rival coming between them, and he was allowing it. She had nothing against his friends, not even his female friends, but Kumiko was different. She had feelings for Sosuke, he knew this, and Ponyo felt like she was trying to steal him from her.

He sighed in resignation. Deep down, he knew that this was coming. He would have to make things clear to Kumiko, even if it meant losing his childhood friend.

"I love octopus shaped hotdogs, don't you?" she was saying. "I think they're just adorable!"

Sosuke heard her talking and saw her lips moving, but he was so lost in thought that nothing she was saying registered. Ponyo was right; it was way past time for him to make things clear between them.

"Here, Sosuke," said Kumiko, holding up one of the hotdogs cut into the shape of an octopus. "Say 'aah'."

She was trying that tactic again, but instead of taking it, Sosuke's hand came up and gently grabbed her wrist, lowering it back down to her lap. "Kumiko, we have to stop this."

She blinked at him. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. We're friends, Kumiko, but that's all we are, and that's all we'll ever be. You can't keep doing this; it's hurting Ponyo."

"We're just having lunch together."

"Stop it!" he snapped, talking harsher now. "Don't play innocent. You know what you're doing, and I want you to stop. We've been friends for a long time, Kumiko, I'd hate to see that come to an end."

Kumiko angrily threw down her chopsticks. "Why her? Why always her? If she never came around, you'd be mine!"

"Kumiko-"

"And she's your sister! It's weird! How can you even consider being with your sister in that way?

"She's not really my sister," Sosuke told her. "There's no blood relation between us at all."

Kumiko shook her head. "It's still weird. This isn't some shoujo manga. You may not be blood related, but you've still been living as brother and sister for years."

"Actually, we haven't. We may have been living together, yes, but we've never thought of or saw each other as brother and sister. Technically, my parents are only Ponyo's guardians. When we refer to each other as brother and sister, it's really just a technicality for public display."

Kumiko was quiet for a while. She looked down with a blank expression on her face. "So… you really feel… that way about her?"

Sosuke nodded. "Yes."

A few more seconds of silence passed. "And you really only see me as a friend?"

He looked away. "I'm sorry. You're an important friend to me, Kumiko, but that's it."

She fell silent again. Long seconds passed before she sighed. "I guess I always knew that it would come to this, but I still held out hope for… something. I don't know." She shook her head. "But it seems I can't compete with her. She really is something."

Sosuke couldn't help but smile. "Yes, she is."

Returning the smile, Kumiko shooed him away. "Better go make up with her. Tell her I'm sorry. Tell her I won't get in the way anymore." She gave him a hopeful look. "But we can still be friends, right?"

He winked at her. "We'll always be friends. Thanks a lot, Kumiko."

He stood up and ran after Ponyo. Kumiko waved him off with a smile on her face. Once he was out of sight, she broke down and cried.

(A/N: I think she took it rather well. I mean, I feel bad, sure, but in a love triangle, someone is going to get hurt. Unrequited love is really painful. And as Kumiko pointed out, I feel like I got a little shoujo manga there, but it couldn't be helped. I hope you guys weren't expecting too much from the love triangle that is just a minor part of the story. The real plot deals with Kazehime and her plans. As you can see, she's kind of possessive of Ponyo. But so is Sosuke. Wait until you see what happens with him.)