"Miyu?" Kanata called as he knocked on her bedroom door. "They're gone. Can we talk?"
There was no reply, so he said, "I'm coming in."
He slid the door open and saw Miyu lying facedown on her bed, shaking with what he knew to be sobs.
He sat beside her and started stroking her soft blonde hair. "Everything's going to be all right. They won't post that picture anymore. Everything's back to normal."
To his surprise, she sat up and threw off his hand. "Back to normal," she repeated in a clipped tone. "Yeah. I'm going to take a bath." She marched off, rubbing her red-rimmed eyes.
Slowly, Kanata stood up, baffled. He decided to let her be. Maybe she was just tired.
During the following days, however, it became clear to Kanata that Miyu was not 'just tired'.
She was acting like her cheerful, normal self when Aya and the others were around. But when she and Kanata were alone together, she acted aloof and cold. She didn't kiss, hug, or otherwise touch him anymore, and she stopped him from doing the same. Worse still, she was being even more pigheaded than usual, and their fights increased.
One day after school, they went grocery shopping again. Kanata dumped a pumpkin in their basket and asked, "What do you want for dinner?"
"Anything," she replied in the chilly tone she had taken to using on him lately.
Repressing the urge to yell, he asked, "How about pumpkin pie?"
"If you like."
"Okay, pumpkin pie it is." He swooped down and tried to kiss her cheek, but she pushed his face away, muttering, "Stop it, Kanata!"
Red in the face, Kanata turned away, hurt, angry and confused. Why is she acting like this?
Wanting to get her back to normal, he asked her timidly after dinner, "Hey, want to watch a DVD with me?"
Her reply was indifferent and simple. "No."
He tried again. "Maybe a chick flick?"
"No."
"How about a gory horror movie with lots of blood?"
"No."
He finally lost his temper. "Well, what do you like?"
"Nothing. I already told you I didn't want to watch a movie."
"Well, I want you to watch a movie with me." He gripped her wrist and dragged her into the living room, where he pushed her onto the couch. "Stay right there," he ordered.
Scowling, Miyu rubbed her wrist and waited. A few moments later, Kanata was back with The Sixth Sense.
She felt a thrill of horror. "Don't you have other DVDs?"
"I do. But," he inserted the DVD into the player, "I want to watch this."
Kanata gave a satisfied smirk. He deliberately chose The Sixth Sense because he knew scaredy-cat Miyu couldn't resist burying her face in his shoulders or chest during the scary parts.
To his disappointment, Miyu chose to bury her face in the pillow instead.
He hit pause on the remote. "I'm right here, you know. You can lean on me."
"No, I can't," she said, her voice muffled by the pillow.
Utterly disgruntled, he suddenly grabbed her shoulders and made her face him. Then he kissed her full on the mouth, muffling her protests.
Her lips were so soft and delicious, he didn't want to let go. He deepened the kiss, stroking her hair.
Miyu abruptly pulled away, a horrified look on her face. "Kanata —"
"I'm sorry," he said, immediately regretting his rash action. "Miyu, I just —"
But she was backing away from him as though he was a deadly virus. Still wearing an appalled expression, she turned on her heel and sped outside.
"Miyu!" he shouted, running after her. He lunged forward and grabbed her arm. "Miyu, listen —"
"What?" she gasped, tears running down her face.
"Please listen." He looked intently into her streaming eyes. "I'm sorry I kissed you. It's just that, I wanted you to be back to normal. You've been acting so distant and awkward with me ever since Santa and the others came 'round with that picture."
She swiped the tears from her face and stammered, "Of c-course I'd be awk-awk-awkward! Didn't you see that ph-photo? To everyone else, it looks like we're m-m-more than friends!"
"So what?" he said fiercely, very tightly gripping her shoulders again. "You shouldn't care what everyone thinks. At least our friends know that you and I are just friends, and nothing more."
Miyu cried even harder at the last sentence. "That's it? Just friends?" She wrenched her arm from his grip. "You don't understand!"
"Then help me understand!" he bellowed, confused beyond endurance.
His shout seemed to calm her down a bit. At least, her words were slightly more comprehensible. "Kanata… I don't want us to be hugging or kissing if we're just friends."
"Why not? We've been doing it for weeks now."
"I know… But I realize now that if we keep it up," her voice became so soft that he had to strain to hear it, "I'll fall even harder for you."
Kanata wasn't sure he heard correctly. "What do you mean?"
"What if you get a girlfriend?" she said, hopelessly flapping her arms. "I'm sure she won't appreciate this. You see, this kind of treatment is for girlfriends only."
"You're not making any sense!" he snarled.
"I'm getting there!" she snapped back. "I want this to stop because I don't want to fall harder for you. I don't, I really don't.
I don't want anyone to assume we're dating because it hurts, really, really hurts, to think that you could never see me as anything more than a friend."
She took a deep, steadying breath and continued. "Kissing you now will only make me hurt more when you leave me, because I'll know what I'm missing.
I know you'll never love me in the same way," she whispered, "That's why this has to stop now. Before I get hurt any more."
They stood in the cool night breeze.
"Look, we can still be best friends," Miyu said tentatively. "But the sweet gestures have to stop. We can't — mmph!"
Her last words were muffled because Kanata pulled her to his side, and placed his mouth over hers.
When he finally let go of her, Miyu, gasping for breath, spluttered, "W-What the —?" There was a fierce sort of spark in his eyes which she never saw before.
"You idiot!" he shouted.
"What now?" she yelled back, her hands curling into fists.
"What did you do that for?"
"What the hell — " She was almost speechless with indignation. "You — you damn idiot! You were the one who kissed me, and you're asking that question?"
"I didn't mean that!"
"Well, what did you mean?" she said, tired of this guessing game.
"I meant," he glared at her, "You put me through all your cold and distant crap because you love me? Dammit!"
"I — I never said I loved you!" she said, reddening.
"'You'll never love me in the same way,'" mimicked Kanata in a high-pitched, girly voice.
She folded her arms. "Well, it's true!"
"How can you be so sure?" he growled, pulling her by the waist. "And if I ever get a girlfriend," he added, "I'm quite sure she'll love me treating you like this."
"Why?" Miyu asked huffily.
"Because," he lowered his face to hers, their lips less than an inch away, "I want my girlfriend to be you, Miyu."
