A/N: Thanks: RatedRSuperStar87.


~ It seemed that she had made up her mind. "I guess you would hear about it from someone sooner or later, anyway. So there's no use hiding it from you-" ~


The rest of the day went by pretty fast and smoothly. Nothing really exciting had happened and no, Squall didn't get caught into a blizzard on his way back from the library. Thank Hyne. That had honestly been the last thing he needed today.

Surprisingly enough, it had become dark pretty soon. Dark enough for everyone to turn on the lights in their house, a source of warmth, along with the hearth to chase away the lurid, biting cold that seemed to be hiding behind every corner inside their homes. The snow that still lay on the lanes outside had barely disappeared when another thick pack of the magical white powder had fallen right above the old one, not allowing it to melt. All in all, Squall was more than glad that he didn't have to go outside anymore, because by now, it seemed to be cold enough to make his fingers freeze off, even with his thick, leather gloves on as a protection.

This morning, when he had gone to the library to get new books and bring back the old ones, it had been cold enough already, but thanks to Rinoa's white scarf around his neck, he had been blissfully warm all the way. He had thanked her from the bottom of his heart for being nice enough to let him borrow her stuff when he got back again, but he hadn't seen her that much for the rest of the day. For some reason or another, she had locked herself up into her own room, doing Hyne knew what. To say that he wasn't curious as to what she was planning was a big understatement, but he guessed that time would show him... eventually. Perhaps it was one of those icky 'girl-things' that he'd rather know nothing about. Not that he would get it if he did know. Besides, he had no time to become nosy, because unfortunately, he had his own business to deal with.

As of now, a frowning Squall was typing something on his laptop at top speed. His chocolate-like brown bangs came in front of his piercing blue eyes for the umpteenth time again, but he didn't bother to brush it out of his face this time (it would fall back, anyway), neither did he have time for that, since the dreaded deadline was coming closer and closer. His fingers didn't stay on the same button for more than half a second (which was the time he needed to press down a letter on the keyboard). It was almost as if his life (and that of many others) depended on it. If he was honest, his beloved weekend certainly did, because if he didn't finish this big project for History class this evening, then he would have to work on it tomorrow, too. It was pretty needless to say that he wasn't too happy with that prospect.

Unfortunately for him, he was assigned with a partner that was too lazy to even tie his own shoes (which was probably why he didn't wear shoes with laces at all). Even though he considered Irvine Kinneas, the popular "chick magnet" of their school, one of his friends, he wasn't too thrilled to be working together with him, since Squall himself had to do most of the work, - which he did without complaining, for the sake of getting good grades. After all, his future depended on it - while his partner was off, flirting with any girl he could find. It was maddening, really.

Sometimes, the flirtatious male teen made Squall want to rip his own hair off (closely followed by Irvine's ponytail) because of his behavior, but he guessed that this was always better than having to work together with a scarily hyper girl like Yuffie Kisaragi, who wouldn't be able to shut up for at least three seconds, or worse: the scum of society that was called Seifer Almasy. Not only did he happen to be Squall's greatest enemy at the moment, but he was even lazier than Irvine and impossible to work with, too. At least Irvine did what Squall said... eventually and only if he intensified his glare and threatened to strangle him with his bare hands (and at this moment, that thought was very appealing). Squall knew that if Seifer would become his partner, they would end up fighting each other and trying to kill one another, rather than finishing the project that was a part of their exam for 15 percent.

He was about to decide to take another short break at a quarter to seven (his head was starting to pound rabidly from all that staring at the laptop screen), when the sweet serenity in his room was disrupted abruptly by none other than Rinoa, who barged into his room without as much as a warning, like she owned the place. The brunet could tell she that she was about to act like a drama queen. But then again, Rinoa was the drama queen of this house (and Squall's favorite one, even though she didn't know that), so he was used to it and didn't mind it that much.

"Squall, I seriously need your help with this!" she cried, as she opened the door with a fierce sweep and closed it behind her again.

The brunet male sighed lightly, rolling his eyes.

He didn't even bother to remind her to knock before walking in, just in case he was changing his clothes, or something. She had never caught him in his boxers before (how that was possible, he didn't know) but he knew that she probably didn't care about that and would probably dismiss it by saying something like, "Oh, don't act as if I've never seen you shirtless before... unless you have something to hide now."

He looked up when she entered his room in all her glory. When their eyes met, though, his mouth dropped open in utmost surprise. In front of him stood a stunning young woman, dressed in a short sleeved, sapphire blue blouse with a matching glistening bracelet and black skinny jeans that made her legs look longer. Both pieces hugged her form quite nicely and were fashionable... As far as he knew, that is. The black heels she was wearing - thank Hyne they weren't that high, otherwise she would have looked ridiculous - only made her look more... well, more what, actually? Was noticeable the right word? Or perhaps 'complete'? Those words did fit her, he had to admit that, and yet not entirely. It was more than that. He couldn't find the right word to describe her, even though he racked his brains for it.

His frown grew slightly deeper, as he kept watching her, silently, finding more and more details that made her look prettier. Things that he had somehow never noticed before. She had let her hair down this time. Her caramel-colored streaks on the side of her hair looked more notable this way. However, what was even more remarkable, was the fact that she was wearing a soft pink lip-gloss that gave her lips an irresistible shine and the mascara and eyeliner gave her eyes a mysterious, rather smoky look. Squall had never known that her eyelashes were this long, but he was fairly sure that Rinoa hardly ever put on make-up, unless there was something really special going on. He wondered what had moved her to do so this time. Was it a huge party that he didn't know about and wasn't invited to? Probably. He knew that Rinoa had lots of friends and unlike him, she was one to make friends quickly. That wasn't so surprising for Squall. After all, she had managed to make him care for her deeply, too...

That was when another thought suddenly crossed his mind. Where was the Rinoa he had practically grown up with? The one that used to laugh at dorky, cheesy pick-up lines and didn't care for make-up? It was as if she had become a whole different person in one year. And why was it that he had never noticed this beauty of hers before? Could the reason really be because he had spent so much time with her that he didn't notice anything special about her anymore?

"What is it?" he finally managed to bring out, after blinking a few times.

He coughed, trying to mask his surprise this way.

Fortunately for him, Rinoa didn't seem to notice that he had been gaping at her for this long, seeing that her smile never faltered. "I have only one question for you..." she started, her tone more serious than ever.

At once, Squall straightened more, facing her fully now.

By the way she was saying it, he could tell that it was about something that was really bothering her. "What is it?" he repeated once again, his stormy blue eyes never leaving her chocolate brown ones.

"Well..." She took a deep breath, before she continued, "Which earrings do you like more; this one," she held up her left hand up to him, in which she held light blue earrings in the shape of teardrops. He didn't miss the fact that her gleaming nail varnish was blue, too. "...Or this one?" This time, she held up her right hand, showing him another blue pair of bigger, round rings.

The silent teen resisted the urge to roll his eyes once again. He should have known that it would be about something like this. Meanwhile, Rinoa took Squall's hands in hers and dropped the four objects in his gloved hands, so he could take a better look at them. The first thing he noticed was how light both of the earrings were, despite their size, which was a good thing, because this way, she wouldn't hurt her own ears. He had seen enough girls at school who had such hideous and enormous things hanging in their ears, that it almost terrified him and made him want to stay far away from them. Honestly, what was the purpose of such big things in ones ear? Luckily, Rinoa wasn't one of those types, or else life would probably have been more hell to him. She liked smaller earrings, because she thought they were "cute." But then again, she thought that everything was cute. She had even called his behavior cute when he was being protective the other day...

Squall then lifted a thin brow, looking up at her. She was asking him this because...?

"Wait. Why are you asking me to help you?" he demanded, rather suspiciously, as he narrowed his stormy blue eyes at her. "Couldn't find someone else to do it out of all your friends?"

He had no sense at all for these flat-out weird, girly things and he knew for sure that she knew that very well. If this was one of her new tricks to make him feel embarrassed about himself again...

"Because I need a man's advise this time and you're just perfect for it. Well, what do you say?"

A man's advice? Why would she need that? Was it just him or did that really sound bizarre? He doubted that such advise was better than a girl's advise, especially when it involved earrings and other stuff. Unless she wanted to impress a guy with her earrings, but that was stupid. Guys liked sports and gaming. Earrings were definitely not on their "Like-list."

Seeing that Rinoa was still waiting for his answer, he decided to please her and give her an honest opinion. "Uh..." He put both pair of earrings in one hand and looked from the right pair to the left one and back again, scratching the back of his head with his free hand as he tried to come up with a decision. He was sure of one thing here; coming up with an answer was easier said than done. "I don't really know. They're both beautiful, I guess," he eventually admitted, slowly.

He noticed that a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, lighting up her whole face and wondered what was so funny about his reply.

She was obviously humored at his honest, yet clueless answer. "Believe me, I already figured that much out by myself, but which ones match more?"

He gave her a confused look in return, tilting his head slightly, before brushing his dark bangs out of his eyes. "With what?" he wondered.

She sighed wearily, while rolling her chocolate-like eyes in a way that he couldn't have possibly overtopped.

Trying not to laugh at her best friend acting so uncharacteristically slow, she replied, "With my outfit, Squall. What else?"

Oh, of course. But honestly, who cared? It wasn't like anyone actually looked that closely at her to notice such trivial matters... save for Selphie, of course. That girl really had eye for detail, it was almost scary. Even Squall couldn't escape from her preying eyes sometimes... unfortunately.

"Does it matter? Your hair will be in front of it all the time, covering most of it, anyway," Squall noted, his dark eyebrows raised slightly.

Rinoa gave him a rather peeved look. It was more than obvious. He was in one of those impossible moods again; incorporative as hell. Fine. She would show him that he couldn't just ignore her like that.

"Then why in Hyne's name do you have an earring, too, if I may ask? Your hair isn't that short, either and it's always in front of your earring, too, in case you haven't noticed yet."

Squall took a moment to reply this time. "That's because it's for myself, not for attracting girls..."

How typical of him, she thought with a shake of her head, but that answer didn't satisfy her yet. "Oh yeah? And how exactly does that make any sense, huh? You can't even see it yourself," she retorted, giving him a sharp look.

So what was really the point to it? Really, Squall was so weird sometimes that even she couldn't get his motives, but she was too stubborn to give up just like that. She put her weight on her other foot, while giving him a defiant look, almost daring him to say something back.

Squall lifted his other brow as well, not impressed by her argumentation at all. "...So?"

Rinoa sighed once again. Apparently, talking some sense into this guy was even harder than getting straight A's for all of her school subjects, that much was obvious.

She crossed her arms and tried not to smile as she told him, "Okay, I give up. You are impossible, you know that?"

Squall was tempted to reply with a sarcastic, "Thank you," but he decided against it, not wanting to aggravate her. Her reactions were really unpredictable sometimes (not to mention weird, even for a girl like her...).

Instead, he completely ignored her comment and decided to talk about something that he had noticed as soon as she had entered his bedroom. "You're looking... chic."

He didn't even think about telling her how beautiful he actually thought she was looking right now. Knowing her (which he did), she would only tease him with it for a long while, or do something else that he wasn't really waiting for. She always liked doing that, especially when it involved him and making him feel uneasy, but he normally didn't mind that.

At his comment, her face visibly brightened again and she gave him a sweet smile. "Really? Thanks!"

Squall hesitated slightly (and he honestly didn't even know that her dark eyes could sparkle like this from happiness), before he finally dared to ask, "Is there some special occasion going on that I don't know about yet? A birthday party, or something that I somehow completely forgot about?"

Rinoa's eyes widened in shock and her mouth dropped open in an 'Oh!'-shape. Her reaction to that question not only managed to surprise him, but it made him quite suspicious, too, because she honestly looked like she was hiding something from him. Especially since she gave him her famous "Deer-Caught-In-The-Headlight Look."

"Well..." The raven-haired girl bit her lower lip, making it look redder and glossier than ever. She swiftly bent forward to take the earrings out of his hands again, her moves erratic, almost as if she was afraid that he would start to throw them at her if he didn't like the answer she would give him to that question. She put both of her pair of earrings in one of her manicured hands and started fidgeting with the hem of her blouse, choosing not to look at him as she spoke. "That pretty much depends on what exactly you call special here..."

Squall frowned, wondering what exactly she meant with that. Why oh why didn't a simple 'yes' or 'no' ever suffice for her? Instead, she started speaking in riddles, while the anticipations were slowly killing him (okay, maybe that was a little overreacted).

He kept looking at her with his razor sharp eyes, waiting for her to continue. When it didn't look like she would, he tried again, by softly calling out her name, "Rinoa?"

That seemed to startle her, because she jumped slightly. She sure was jumpy as of lately. He wondered why...

It seemed that she had made up her mind. "I guess you would hear about it from someone sooner or later, anyway. So there's no use hiding it from you-"

"Hiding what?" Squall almost-snarled, getting more than just a little impatient by her weird behavior. In a much calmer voice he continued, "What are you talking about?"

It was silent between them for a moment, again. An unnatural, rather unnerving and palpable silence, as thick as smoke, with the sound of the clock on his wall being the only thing that they could hear. It was ticking away the time, but to be honest, it felt like time had frozen in that room.

"...I uhm... I have a date, actually," she admitted then, finally looking him straight in the eyes, just in time to see Squall's stormy blue eyes widen in pure astonishment.

"What?" Squall uttered after a few seconds, when he felt how his mouth dropped open in surprise.

He stiffened visibly, narrowing his eyes in suspicion at her.

Rinoa, who immediately seemed to notice this sudden and peculiar mood swing, asked worriedly, "What's wrong, Squall?"

"Please don't tell me it's with Seifer again."

The brunet male spat out his name like he was utterly disgusted of him, as if it was dirt on his new shoes that had chosen the wrong moment to bother him. Sometimes it sure felt like Seifer fitted those descriptions. He had a way of pissing Squall off, and he wasn't ashamed to use that talent of his to make his blood boil. Rinoa, however, gave him a funny look, wondering why in the world he had suddenly mentioned him again. She had really thought that Squall knew better than anyone that she had closed that chapter a long time ago. Apparently, he didn't.

"No, of course not. It doesn't really work between us, remember?" she replied.

How could he not remember that? She had been broken when she had heard that the blond rebel was seeing someone else. It had left a great impact on her. Even her eat patern had changed drastically. Squall had never seen Rinoa that broken and bruised again.

"Besides," she continued, "He is already dating someone else and by the looks of it, they're both trying to make it work between them."

This sure came as a surprise to Squall. Who could be stupid enough to do that? After all, one had to be completely out of his mind to go on a date with Seifer. He had probably threatened the poor girl, whoever it may be, so she hadn't dared to say 'no' to him. And if that wasn't the case, then she was either too blind to see with whom she was dealing, or she was an idiot, or just sadistic as Seifer. Maybe a combination of all three the things.

But since it was of no importance now, Squall decided not to linger on it. "…Then who?" he demanded, his eyes still not leaving hers.

The intensity of his steely eyes made her gulp. At this point, it almost felt as if he would snarl at her if she dared to give him the wrong answer, but... there was no wrong answer this time, since she was sure that Squall didn't know this person. Still, she didn't feel too sure if she should tell him. Something inside the raven-haired teen told her that Squall would not be too happy with any reply she would give him, no matter who it was this time. He was unpredictable like that sometimes. But that couldn't be true. It was more likely that Squall was happy that she had found someone again.

She hesitated visibly, knowing very well that there would be no way back from now on if she told him who it was, before she finally replied in a soft, barely audibly whisper, "Riku."

"Riku?" he repeated after a short while, wondering if he had heard it right.

Rinoa nodded, somewhat nervously. Squall said nothing. He thought that he vaguely recognized that rather unusual name. The back of his mind told him that he had heard it somewhere before, several times even, he was more than sure of that. However, it confused him that he couldn't think of a face that belonged to that name, no matter how much he racked his brains for it. It was almost as if his brains didn't want him to remember what this Riku looked like. Perhaps he'd had a few classes with him in the past, or something, before he went to Balamb Garden for a year. Something, however, told him that it was one of those cocky, popular guys who kept a list of all the 'hot' girls they wanted to date. Well, whoever the guy was, it changed everything. The feeling that he got from that name couldn't exactly be called positive. That had to mean something, right?

"Then don't bother," he replied, his voice much colder than his eyes.

Rinoa blinked. She couldn't possibly have sounded more dumbfounded when she cried, "Huh?"

"The earrings?" he reminded her, calmly from the outside, and yet feeling a little impatient at her being so slow, as he pointed with his head at the small objects in her hands.

Squall didn't know what exactly he was feeling at the moment, or even why in the first place, but some dark, unknown emotion slowly started spreading through his veins like poison, feeling every inch of his insides until his body was full of it. It was eating away at his insides, telling him that this so far unknown Riku was double bad news. Sure, Rinoa was a very sweet and beautiful girl, but she was also incredibly naive at some times. She had proved that many times already. Many people knew that and he wouldn't be too surprised if her date for tonight would want to try something inappropriate. It was his job to protect her against anyone that meant to harm her, even if she didn't want to.

"You make it sound like this is a lost case, anyway! Something that sounds a lot like, 'Oh, please do us all a favor and don't even try to look any better than this, because it won't help you a thing, anyway!'" she said angrily, putting her hands on her hips as she glared madly at him.

If Squall really had the guts to call her ugly now, too...

"Wha-? No, I meant that as far as I know, most guys of our age usually don't pay any attention to almost invisible details like earrings matching with someone's outfit, and guys like Riku probably not at all," he swiftly said, trying to calm her down before she would start throwing things at him (it wouldn't be the first time). "Trust me on this one, Rin."

Because he'd seen enough guys like Riku and they always only wanted one thing...

If Squall had thought that using her nickname would have a calming effect on her, and that she would finally drop the subject and become her old happy self again, he was very wrong. It was exactly the opposite; Rinoa didn't bother to listen to him this time and stuck her tongue out at him as she cried, while furiously throwing her hands up in the air, "Oh, please! Just because you take me for granted all the time and never pay any attention to me, Squall, doesn't mean that no other guy ever does. Not everyone is cold and uncaring like you! Besides, you don't even know Riku that well, so don't you dare to say something about this!"

Squall sighed, not bothering to tell her this time that he didn't mean it that way at all, that she was seeing things completely wrong and that it was all a small misunderstanding between them. He knew that she wouldn't listen to him, anyway, and if she didn't want to listen to him, then he was done trying and wasting his precious time and energy all for nothing. He had better things to do, like a stupid project that still needed to be finished by the end of this week. Oh, the joy.

"Whatever. Suit yourself," he muttered, his dark voice seeming to be even cooler than his steely eyes.

As soon as he had said that, he returned his attention back to his laptop again and started typing something angrily, ignoring completely the teenage girl that was still standing in his room, unable to decide what she should do next. He guessed that she could take the hint any time now and leave him be, just like he wanted. How great was that; he would sit here all night, doing his boring homework like a good boy, while she was off having fun with some jerk called Riku, which, by the way, couldn't even be considered a normal name. Seriously, Riku? What the heck did that even mean? It obviously couldn't get any worse, now could it?

Meanwhile, Rinoa bit her lower lip, making fists of her hands. She felt guiltier than ever and could practically hit herself for being so idiotically obvious! The words had just slipped out of her mouth before she could stop herself. And now, Squall was probably very cross with her... She had never meant to offend him in any way, and to call him cold and uncaring wasn't exactly the best thing to do. And knowing Squall, he wouldn't forgive her that soon this time. She just hoped that he hadn't noticed that other part that referred to one year ago, and how he had rejected her...

Congratulations, you did it once again... Stupid, stupid, stupid Rinoa! she cried in her head. Look at what damage you've just caused with that one comment.

She seriously hated how she seemed to be pissing him off so easily with everything she did as of lately. She never had that intention, but it still happened... and Squall didn't say anything about it most of the time. He would just ignore her. If there was one thing that she really couldn't stand about her best friend, it was the fact that she never knew for sure what he was thinking, what was going on in his mind. It was hard enough to understand any average guy, but Squall was at least ten times worse. He was so incredibly complicated that it left her clueless sometimes. The raven-haired teen also tended to get nervous because of how much he held back with his emotions and thoughts. That way, she never knew what to expect from him, or how he was feeling about something, or anything for that matter. Sometimes, he even gave her the feeling that he thought that it was a crime to show emotions. He always over-analyzed everything at least three times, before he decided to do or say something.

Even when she looked at him now, with that slight frown on his face and his body half turned away from her, as if he was disgusted by her very presence in this room, she knew that something was bothering him immensely and that she had managed to annoy the heck out of him once again. Rinoa was sure that it had something to do with the way she had acted around him. He wouldn't be the first person who thought that she was being too childish. Perhaps she had gone a little bit too far this time...

Deciding that this was a great opportunity to change the subject in hopes to make him talk and forgive her, she asked him, "What are you doing, anyway?"

"..."

"Squa-"

"...I'm typing something, on my laptop," he replied, in an annoyed 'Jeez-Rinoa,-Can't-You-See-That-Yourself?' kind of voice.

The raven-haired girl winced at that. Trying to talk things okay was harder than she had thought. But she shouldn't be surprised about that. After all, this was Squall they were talking about.

"Yes, I can see that, but what exactly is that 'something'? It seems to be pretty important..."

Especially now that you're completely ignoring me, she finished the thought in her head.

"Homework," he replied, automatically, without any emotion evident in his voice.

"Oh. Really?"

Squall could smell her intoxicatingly overwhelming perfume as she stepped closer to him and carefully took place on the edge of his bed to read along with him over his shoulder. The brunet found that suddenly, it had become a little too warm in the room. His cheeks were even coloring from it. He held his breath so he wouldn't smell her anymore, because it made his head spin, but he knew that he couldn't hold this very long. Especially not when she kept asking him questions that he had to answer, which he knew that she would.

After a while she admitted, "Well, I'll be completely honest here, I don't get any of it. I really hope you do, because otherwise you have a great problem…"

Squall automatically rolled his striking blue eyes. "...Thanks for pointing out the obvious, for I hadn't figured that one out yet."

Rinoa chose to ignore his sarcastic reply, saying, "Oh, and I should watch out for cigarettes if I were you."

This time, Squall, did face her, before brushing his chestnut tresses out of his face. From this close, he could easily distinguish each of her long eyelashes individually... They really were long.

"And why is that?" he asked.

"Because it's proven that brunets get addicted to nicotine much faster than blondes or redheads. The reason behind that is because they have more pigment. And pigment's structure looks a lot like that of nicotine. And you're a brunet, so... that's pretty much it."

He gave her a baffled look. "…Right."

It was obvious now, someone had been reading too many magazines lately. If those were her new sources, that is. Where did she get all this random stuff from, anyway? Last time, she had surprised him even more by telling him that each time you bang your head against the wall, you would lose 150 calories. It honestly sounded far too painful to be true.

Rinoa then got up from the bed and headed towards the door. Squall gave her a questioning look, to which she answered, "Anyway, I've got to go now. I wouldn't want to be late on my first date with him."

Right, her date was probably waiting for her now...

"Have fun," he said, boredly, exceeding himself into sounding even less enthusiastic than normally.

Either Rinoa did not notice that, or she chose to ignore it, because the next thing she said was a simple, "Thank you."

After those last words, she walked out of his bedroom and softly closed the door behind her. Thanks to the high heels that she was wearing, Squall could hear her walk down the stairs. The brunet teen finally let out the breath he was holding all this time when she was finally gone. He couldn't help but notice that even when she had left, her sweet scent was still lingering in the air. It reminded him of a certain type flowers, or maybe some kind of fruit, but he couldn't think of anything that had that same aroma. Deciding to do something about this immediately, he got up from his bed and headed to the bedroom windows. After opening one of them, he leaned against the window frame, putting his hands on either sides of it and breathed in the cold air, which was more than a welcome change to him. It was starting to get freezing cold outside. He started to shiver from it, but that didn't make him close the window and go back to his bed. At least, not yet. First, his room needed to be aired, before her perfume would make him slowly lose his mind...

As he continued watching the scene outside (not that there was so much to see, since it was pretty dark; the lampposts were the only things that provided enough light for him to be able to distinguish big objects like cars and dustbins), he noticed that a lone figure was walking quickly towards the bus station by now, hidden deeply in a long white coat to stay out of the wind as much as was possible. He frowned, once again, because he recognized that person; it was Rinoa. Now which guy in his right mind would let the girl walk to his house in this cold? Did he want her to die of frostbite before she would even reach him, or something? Hyne, even he knew that that was just too wrong for words and he didn't even date! The least that the guy could do in this case, was to pick up the girl from her house, especially when it was snowing. This fact alone proved that Riku was definitely not the right guy for Rinoa. She deserved much better. But perhaps it was a good thing that Riku didn't do all of this. At least now, he wouldn't meet Rinoa's parents, which according to him would have made things a little bit more serious between them than now.

He knew that it was wrong and very low of him, but he fervently hoped that her date would be such a disaster that she would want to sue Riku. He didn't know exactly why, but the fact that she was dating someone he didn't know, someone that didn't sound like a trustful person, too, made him feel a little bit anxious. Besides, Rinoa hadn't even told him how much she knew this Riku. How could she be sure that he wasn't like all the other popular guys she had dated so far?

It was then that Rinoa turned around, as if she could feel how someone was looking at her. Her eyes fell on his bedroom window and then, she saw him. She stopped, hesitating slightly, before she started waving at him. Squall blinked, then waved back at her. The brunet watched her turn around again, content, and continue walking.

At that moment, he got a brilliant idea. One that would at least take away half of his worries... Or not, if the results were exactly as he was expecting.