Chapter 7: Confessions under the tunnel of love.

It was finally the 14th of February, also called Valentines day; the most romantic day of the year. Every person would spent the day with their families, friends or lovers. But not everyone was having a happy smile pasted on their faces, or eating sweet chocolates with their friends. I can name one girl who wasn't feeling anything but regret, sorrow and completely miserable. Her name was Ichigo Momomiya. The redheaded teen was in her room, completely isolated from anyone. She was curled up in a ball and crying soft tears, ignoring the calls that had come from the other girls as well as her boyfriend, Masaya Aoyama.

It was as though the tears wouldn't stop pouring down her cheeks, even though she wanted it to stop. She wasn't the one who should feel sad. Ryou should. After all, she did break his heart, unwanted but still, it was unforgivable. Even though she wanted to forget and be a little social with her girl friends, she couldn't. A horrible pain in the chest would stop her and remind her of her terrible act. She didn't know why the pain was there; she was perfectly healthy and had always been. If she could go back in time, she definitely would but it was too late. She'd done what was she'd done, and Ichigo had to face the fact that she'd lost her best friend, Ryou Shirogane.

A soft knock on the door was heard.

"Ichigo? Honey, are you okay?" her mother's voice called. Ichigo wiped the tears away and began taking breaths slowly through her nose.

"Yeah, mom. I'm here…"

"Darling, what's the matter? You've never locked yourself into your room like this before." Her mother came into the room and sat on the bed next to her daughter. "Oh, you don't look good."

"I don't feel so good either."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I…I don't know, it's kind of complicated…"

Her mother tugged a strand of her daughter's hair behind her ears, soothingly. "You know you can tell me everything, right?"

Ichigo gave her mother a smile. "Yeah, I know. Well, it's just that I sort of hurt one of my best friends' feelings."

"Is it bad?"

"Well, the person doesn't want to see me anymore. Or that's what I think."

A small smile crept onto the mother's face.

"Is this person…a guy?"

Ichigo flushed a soft pink.

"W-why do you want to know?"

"Because, it makes me feel younger to tease you like this," the mother giggled. "I'm right, aren't I?"

"Always, mom."

"Ooh, was it that blond cute guy?"

"Whoa, mom, slow down the excitement."

"Sorry. Is it?"

Ichigo blushed a bright scarlet colour. "Yeah."

"Oh, I knew it! Tell me the whole story and don't be afraid to tell me all the details!" Ichigo shook her head. It didn't feel as though she was talking to her own mother at all, more like with a grown up version of Pudding. But she did tell her the whole story.

"Oh, this really sounds bad, honey."

"I know. But what am I going to do? This is the day where I'm supposed to have a great romantic time and I'm not."

Ichigo's mother smiled suddenly.

"You could…"

"What could I?"

"You could sneak off, get him to be alone with you and then confess!"

"Confess what?"

"Your love, of course!"

"M-mom! I-I don't love Ryou," Ichigo blushed her entire face red. Her mother smirked widely.

"Oh, please. I may be your mom, but that doesn't mean I'm dumb. It's way too obvious, for your information." Ichigo gulped. Everyone knows, except me? Well, that's just depressing.

"This is so weird-"

"Well, I'm just being your mom, aren't I? Right now, I'm just a helpful and listening friend at your service."

"No, I mean. . .you know that my current boyfriend is Aoyama-kun. So why are you helping me to get together with Ryou?"

Her mother smiled wistfully.

"Honey, I can see it in your eyes. This isn't happiness. I know your aren't confident in your current relationship with Aoyama, but I do know that you and Ryou will last because you can't get him out of your mind!"

"H-how did you find out?"

"Just did!"

Ichigo dropped her jaw. Sometimes she was really dumb.

"Mom?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Would you always be my friend like this?"

Ichigo received a one armed hug from her mother.

"Always."

Ichigo suddenly straightened up with a smile on her lips.

"You're right, mom! I should go see Ryou! Heck, I'm going to tell him straight to his face-"

"-that you looove him~" her mother sighed dreamily. Ichigo's face got red faster than ever.

"W-well, that part too."

"Oh, that's right! Hey, Ichigo?"

"What?"

"You look like you've returned from the dead. You might need to clean up a bit before you talk to that boy."


Ichigo walked slowly down the streets of the town. She'd followed her mother's advice, and had put on a very cute, short pink dress, a white jacket on top and a white pair of winter boots. Her hairstyle was simpel yet cute too; two small pigtails held by red ribbons. Her mother had used what seemed like an eternity to find that outfit, even though Ichigo had insisted on finding one herself.

"It has to be beyond the word cute! So perfect that he'll rush to kiss you the instant he sees you!" her mother had said with a burning determination. Ichigo sighed because of two things; her mothers annoyance and the fact that she didn't have any clue where to find Ryou at all! And strangely enough; there weren't one single person at the town either. The silence freaked her out, so she decided that she would find out where everyone was.

She went to the park and instantly heard noise, chat, laughter and joy coming from there as well as pink and red balloons. It was a Valentine's festival! All sorts of activities could be tried, just like at the funfair. And the colors red, white and pink were everywhere as well as hearts being in every sight. Ichigo felt lonely all of a sudden.

"I should've brought someone with me instead of all being by my-"

Ichigo's thought were cut off by a look on only one familiar person.

"-self?"

Ryou walked between all the noisy people, and Ichigo could only stare at him like an idiot with burning cheeks. She hesitated to go follow him.

"What if he… really doesn't want to see me? What do I do then?" she mentally asked herself and felt her courage and self-confidence fade away. And then a voice blasted through her mind.

"Then force him! Give him no other choice than to listen to you!"

Ichigo recognized her mother's voice and mentally sighed. Jeez, who would knew that she could be so persistent? But she was right. If she had to, she would force him.


Ryou sat on a bench in a nearly quiet area. His face showed no emotions at all. He'd only take a walk through the town to get a bit fresh air though he didn't feel like being outside at the moment. Especially not on Valentine's Day. Ryou shook his head. No, he didn't want to think about what happened on Christmas Eve. The winner of the whole bet thing wasn't that big of a surprise; he knew that Ichigo had aways loved Aoyama ever since they were kids. She couldn't possible like him. He was always teasing her, making her angry and even found it amusing to find out how quickly her entire face could turn red. But he'd actually thought that there was something between them. When he looked her in the eyes, those big chocolate brown eyes of hers…it was like his mind stopped thinking. Like everything around them disappeared and only the two of them were visible. He knew what that meant and he knew this very fact ever since he was younger; he'd fallen completely and madly in love with Ichigo. And that's what made him leave the Christmas dinner that evening. He wondered what had happened ever since. Was Ichigo sad? Or did she just shrug it off and spent the Valentines day with her boyfriend; that guy he'd hate the most but had actually won Ichigo's heart?

His thought were interrupted by a person appearing in front of him, wearing a short pink cute dress, white jacket and white boots. The person had sunglasses on and a big brown ponytail. Totally unrecognizable.

"Hey, you big hunk, won't you take a ride on the tunnel of love with me, huh?" she asked with a sort of flirty wink and deep voice. Deep even for a girl.

"Uh, I don't really think that's-"

"Oh, Come on! It's only one ride, come on, it's Valentine's day, silly!" the girl said, dragging Ryou with her to the entrance of the ride. When it was their turn, they sat on the heart-shaped wagon on the water and the wagon began moving. Ichigo immediately took of her glasses and the elastic that held her ponytail. Ryou's eyes widened.

"Ichigo?"

"Fooled ya, didn't I! But anyway, I-"

"Ichigo, in case the others didn't tell you, I will. I heard your conversation with Aoyama."

"I know, but-"

"I think that you made it pretty clear back then about you and I. Don't worry, I know that you love Aoyama and I'm just being a pain in the ass."

The words were like knives that stung in her heart. That wasn't what she really felt about Ryou at all. The truth was that…

"As soon as this ride's over, I'm leaving Tokyo so that you don't have to see me anymore. You can continue having a great time with Aoyama or whoever you may want to be with-" Ryou's hard face expression suddenly disappeared as he saw Ichigo's face. "Aww, Strawberry, please don't cry."

Ichigo wiped the tears away quickly. "I-I can't. I can't make it stop, but it doesn't matter. I-I deserve it anyway".

"Of course you don't deserve to cry, Strawberry," Ryou sighed as he embraced Ichigo and she gladly accepted it. Her cheeks turned scarlet red and her heart was beating like crazy.

"Ryou, I didn't mean what I said back then. I-I actually feel the complete opposite of what I said."

"What?"

Ichigo's chocolate brown eyes locked with Ryou blue ones. The next short sentence was directly from her fast pounding heart and there weren't one single hint of a lie.

"Ryou…I love you."

The blond slowly recovered from his surprised state and smiled so wide his white teeth were visible.

"I love you too, Strawberry. And by the way…"

"What?"

"Your dress is really cute."

Their heads neared each other slowly as the tunnel approached. Their lips finally met when the darkness of the tunnel covered them as they shared their first kiss on Valentine's Day.