Disclaimer: Do not own PoT.
Warning: Slight OOCness and non-yaoi
A/N: Yay! My favorite chapter! I had to go through and edit the other chapters because I kinda rushed through them. They were depressing me, and I was trying to get out of my depression by rushing them, but I improved them, so yay!

Thanks to the reviewers, once again. I really grateful you pointed out that my main character was turning into a Mary Sue (EWWW). So, I'm trying to change her attitude in this chapter to make her less Mary Sue-ish.

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Ch. 9 The passing of the storm

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Sairi stood outside the park at 3 p.m. checking her watch. She frowned. Miho was 1 minute late. It wasn't that Sairi couldn't stand tardiness, but as a band student, 1 minute late meant death by wrath of band director, or in her case, Sakaki-sensei.

"I'm sorry for being late, Li-san!" Miho ran up to her. The girl, despite the smile on her face, seemed a less energetic.

Sairi stared at her, "What is it that you want?"

Miho was trying to catch her breath. When she finally regained composure she looked up into Sairi's eyes. The black-haired girl was taken aback to see those piercing brown eyes filled with a guilt of some sort.

"Murakami-san?" she asked again.

"Let me start with I'm so sorry for everything." Miho's voice was lower. Her composure calmer.

"Everything?"

"That I did to Choutarou…and you."

"Huh?" Sairi raised an eyebrow, confused.

"You know about Kirihara-kun, right?"

Sairi remembered all too well, "Yes."

"Well, when he first saw you, he would stop at nothing to get you to be his. And so, he decided to approach you when you felt your weakest. That would be if Choutarou hurt you in any way."

Sairi remembered the words Kirihara had spoken all too well. They now made perfect sense.

"In order to do so, Kirihara-kun asked me to help it." Miho saw Sairi's eyes gaze at her, surprised. She stammered out the next sentences, "All I had to do was become Choutarou's fiancée. K-Kirihara-kun promised to be my boyfriend if I did. But…it didn't feel right. I mean…you're a great person Li-san…and so is Choutarou. That's one reason why I came to tell you all this. The second is because—"

"Kirihara-kun went back on his promise." Sairi answered for her.

Miho nodded, slightly surprised. "Yes." She then paused before continuing, "I broke off the engagement and told Choutarou everything. His parents are okay with you two seeing each other again. I really am sorry." Miho stopped and expected the worst from Sairi.

Sairi stared at the blond-haired girl before looking away. Her voice came out rather coldly, "Well that certainly was selfish of you."

Miho's stared at the ground, eyes downcast.

"So basically, you came in and could have possibly ruined the friendship Choutarou and I had. And this was all just to fulfill your Kirihara fangirl dream. What kind of a egotistic, blinded mindset do you have?" Sairi's blue eyes shot up to glare at her. Miho shrunk back before noticing the smirk that was spreading over Sairi's face, "I mean I know fangirls are stupid, but what kind of a dumbass actually believes whatever Kirihara-kun says?"

Miho was astounded. Why was Sairi joking about this? Was there anything remotely funny about the situation? The giggles erupting from Sairi said otherwise.

Sairi was doubling over in hysterics and had managed to get out through the laughs, "I mean you seriously believed what Kirihara-kun said!?"

"I did!" Miho defended, "There's nothing funny about that, Li-san!"

"It's Sairi." Sairi straightened up, the laughter gone, but the smile still on her face, "But I guess if Choutarou made a promise like that, I would believe him. Then again, Choutarou is much more trustworthy than Kirihara-kun. Oh, by the way, apology accepted."

Miho had to say she did not except this turn of event. But seeing the black-haired girl give her a genuine smile made her happy. So this is the real Li Sairi. The one Choutarou fell in love with.

"Murakami-san? Sairi?" Both girls turned to see Ootori standing not far off from them.

"Choutarou? What are you doing here?" Miho asked.

Ootori simply smiled at the blond girl, "I figured you were going to talk to Sairi today. I was right." Ootori then directed his smile at the black-haired girl. The latter blushed.

Miho watched as the two made amends and then began talking. As she walked away, she smiled herself. She never imagined that both of them would accept her apology so easily, but she had never expected Sairi to accept her apology in such a satirical way. Her overall impression of Sairi over the past week was a nice girl who never wanted to hurt anyone. I guess I was wrong about more than one person. she thought as she walked off.

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"Choutarou…" Sairi began.

Ootori interrupted her, "That was the biggest mess ever."

Sairi laughed before noticing the distance between her and Ootori's face. He slowly leaned in allowing his lips to lightly brush hers before slipping his tongue into her mouth. But, Sairi had believed her first kiss would definitely be with Ootori and it would be gentle and sweet. Now she sensed something different in this first kiss.

Aggression.

The same words echoed through her mind once more. Whoever said Ootori was a sweet, nice boy clearly did not know him well enough.

When he withdrew he seemed to want more, slowly breathing into her face, waiting for her reaction.

"Choutarou." She laughed, "Slow down."

"How can I? After all that." Ootori whispered.

Sairi's voice came out in a very matter-of-fact tone, with a hint of playfulness, "Because we're in a public park. Now if I were some innocent bystander, I would not appreciate it if I suddenly saw a couple kissing in front of me."

Ootori stared at her for a second before pulling her towards the nearest clump of trees. The shade and close proximity of the trees helped hide them from any curious eyes. "How about over here?" he then asked.

"Choutarou…that's not what I—"

His arms came around her and he pulled her closer to him. Sairi felt the heat rushing to her cheeks. Ootori gently nuzzled her as he said, "You're so picky. I guess that's one of the reasons why I love you."

"Choutarou…" Sairi was taken aback by the sudden confession, "I…I love you too…"

Ootori then pulled her into an embrace. "I guess we can save another kiss for later, Sairi. Maybe at Tokyo Disneyland? After nationals?"

Sairi nodded before relaxing into his arms.

That left three regulars still single. But Sairi was certain the next regular to be taken would be Kotone, and she would be taken by Hiyoshi.

That was, before she moved.

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A/N: NO THIS IS NOT THE LAST CHAPTER! And no, I am not dragging out this fanfic. There's still one more chapter and then the fanfic will end. I'm sorry for those who were looking forward to another Kirihara/Kotone confrontation later on because that was not originally written in, and with school about to start in 3 weeks, I'm super busy with club activities (MUN, Voice Acting, etc), so I could not find time to write it in. Needless to say here's some advice: If you want to have a social life in high school, only be an officer in one club, not two or more. Especially if you go to an super academically driven school that's 90 asian.

Aww..this one was short too. What is up with me and short chapters? Maybe I just like to state things in a short and simple way. After all, this fanfic turned into an abridged Korean drama…almost.

Well, read, review, and have fun!

W-B Chaos.