I give everyone one of you lovely readers my full permission to gut and skin me, though I really do hope you choose to refrain from doing so.

And I know it's no excuse, as I know I said no more than two weeks, but our internet has been down, so anything to really do with using the net has been kind of hard. But here it is.

Follow Your God Damned Heart!

Ryou turned the folded note over and over in his hands. It had one word written on it, but the word had given him an immeasurable amount of joy. Keiichiro had knocked on Ryou's door half an hour after the Strawberry had stormed out of his room. For two days following Friday he'd barely done anything but turn the note over in his hands, and reread the red writing.

When Ryou woke up on Monday morning, he rolled over but instead of finding a glass of water on his bedside table, he found the note.

That was when he decided it had gone far enough. He was going crazy over something that was really nothing to everyone else but him.

He almost threw the note in the bin – almost. But just as Ryou went to scrunch it up into a ball, he felt a small stab in his stomach.

Even if I think it's gone far enough with my obsession over the note… that doesn't mean I have to throw it out, right. He wondered to himself.

And on that basis, with a smug kind of feeling that he'd come up with the best option, he turned the note over one last time in his hands before opening his bedside drawer, and tucking it safely away under a few other bit and pieces.

"Is it true that Masaya asked you back out!"

Ichigo turned to look at the girl asking the question and couldn't help but wonder – did she even know her?

"Yes, he did."

"And? What did you say!"

Smugly, Ichigo raised her chin and said "how about you go ask him?"

"He isn't here today!" The girl said the words in such a whining tone of voice that Ichigo knew she'd used a lot. But she was going to change. She would become more responsible, and mature.

Well, after today.

"Ohhhh, poor diddums! Can't get your gossip today? Might have to wait one more day!" Ichigo gasped in mock horror and put her hands to her cheeks. "Oh no!"

"Oh no!" The girl agreed.

"Oh, no!"

"Oh, no!" The girl said again, her face showing that she thought Ichigo was being deadly serious.

"Oh, well." Ichigo turned and walked away, leaving the other girl standing speechlessly heartbroken.

But just as Ichigo thought she'd had the last word, she heard someone else.

"Haven't you heard? Ichigo said no to Aoyama-kun. She's having a thing with her boss."

There were gasps from everyone, and when Ichigo turned around, everyone was staring at her and she had no idea who had spoken.

Words came out of Ichigo's mouth before she knew she was even speaking.

"I am not having a thing with my boss! And, I didn't say no to Masaya. I-" Somewhere in the sentence, Ichigo had told herself to stop talking, but the message only reached her brain now.

"Really, Ichigo-san?" She turned around to see the one, the only, Aoyama-kun standing in the hallway.

"Um…" Oh, no…

"Does this mean we're together again?" The hope on his face was clear and plain as day.

Why can't you ever stop talking Ichigo?

Ichigo heart stopped, and her brain decided to leave and let her make the decision on her own.

"I…" She decided that to humour him wouldn't be so bad for awhile, at least; right?

She planted a smile on her face. "Sure."

Her boyfriend proceeded to limp up to her and give her a massive bear hug.

Ichigo's heart started to beat again, and her brain returned… but neither of them seemed pleased with what she'd done.

Her brain disapproved intensely, informing her that she should've made the right decision by "FOLLOWING YOUR GOD DAMNED HEART, IDIOT", a message which she didn't understand the real meaning of at the time.

Her heart, unexpectedly, gave none of the signs she'd previously felt around Masaya to tell her she'd made the right decision.

Instead, it sat silently in her stomach barely beating enough to keep her alive.

"Strawberry."

Ichigo didn't want to meet Ryou's gaze. She felt as if she'd betrayed him, and the heavy feeling she'd felt ever since she'd taken Masaya back had refused to go away.

Her shift was over now, and she didn't want to cave in when she had almost made it through the whole night without talking to him.

"Yes, Ryou?" She looked up at him, feigning curiosity and sleep deprivation. "What's up? I'd just really like to go back home. My mum found out I threw her phone out the window, so I've been running on low, with all the extra chores at home now too; plus, homework."

"Oh…" Ryou seemed put off, but he soldiered on anyway. "Well, I, um… I was just wondering… did you, you know, follow your heart?"

They were the only two left in the café.

Ichigo didn't know what to say. Her heart felt heavier and lower in her body than it should be able to go. Her throat felt condensed.

She gave a light, forced laugh. "Well, I did at first, but then I took him back."

Before Ryou could get a word in edgewise, she turned and pranced out of the café.

Unbeknownst to Ryou, she was in tears.

'I did at first'. Ryou mused sickly to himself. 'But then I took him back'?

"What is that even supposed to mean!" He shouted.

A glass smashed and Keiichiro quickly went into the café area, where Ryou sat on the only chair not put up, staring at the ground.

"Ryou?"
"Huh?" He looked up. "Oh, sorry Keiichiro. I couldn't sleep, so I was drinking a coffee but then I knocked it off with my elbow, or something."

There was, indeed, a large puddle of coffee on the ground amongst the broken bits of the mug.

"I'll clean it up." Keiichiro offered, but Ryou stood.

"No, it's okay, I'll get it."

So Ryou picked up the broken pieces of his heart scattered around his bloo- uh, I mean, mug. Bits of his mug, scattered around the coffee puddle.

Yeah, that's it.

Ryou: That was an awfully sick attempt at comedy.

SS: Hahahah, I know.

Mint: Don't you mean that was an awfully sick attempt at a chapter?

SS: YES, YOU HEARD RIGHT! The other mews will, hopefully, be appearing more in future chapters!

Mint: HEY! What do you mean by hopefully!

SS: I mean that this sick, twisted love story needs my attention more than you mere simpletons, and that the only thing keeping this sick, twisted love story going is:

REVIEWS

So review.

Yeah you.

Review.