Sorry I didn't update, guys – I was on vacation. But anyways, thanks for the reviews and, remember, don't leave me here with hits and no reviews, because the story will slow down! I am encouraged when I see reviews! This chapter is not as exciting, but the title finally makes sense! I also revised chapter seven. Just saying. So thanks to AsianPride101, Spidery, Lord Spectre, kimikopedrosa29, xiaoashwind, Asian Chick XD, spinningisfun, HEARTaGRAM528, animeang37, and i93. So here's chapter ten. PLEASE R&R it makes me delighted!

Chapter Ten

Kimiko's Point of View

I was in my room, my eyes closed, but wide awake and mind racing. I did not know what to do, as I was in the worst predicament of my life – having Raimundo despise the heck out of me. I wasn't crying anymore, but my heart was still broken. 'We got in a huge fight, and now he'll never smile toward me like he always does again,' I said in my introspection. My door opened as I sat up immediately, and I saw Clay tip his hat.

"Howdy, li'l lady."

I smiled weakly, "Hey, Clay."

He sat down and said, "Kim, Omi and I were listening by the door when you had a fight that was lower than a snake's bellybutton."

I grimaced, pulling my legs close to my chest and wrapped my arms tightly around them. Then I looked up and, under-confidently, implied, "But, you can tell that it was all Raimundo's fault! Right?"

He scratched his head, and said with a sheepish smile, "All we heard was yellin'. You mind tellin' me what really happened in there?"

I, once again, started to steam and, in a verbal salvo, I overwhelmed Clay. "It was entirely his fault! All I did was saying I was sorry, and he just completely loses it? I mean, I was in true influential danger of his screaming at me!"

Clay stared at her with a look that said, "Girl, your bias is getting exaggerated."

I knew I was pretty much lying as I started to stumble over my tears of lamentation that I tried my best to hold back. "I-I'm j-just s-s-so-so –"

"Disappointed?" Clay interrupted.

I stared at him in disbelief, even though I knew he was right."

"No way!" I lied. "Why would I be disappointed?"

"Because a guy that you'd always thought was a heck of some perfect?"

With surprise and fake resentment, I gawked at him. "Are you suggesting that I like Raimundo?"

Clay shook his head quietly with a sigh. I felt my heartbeat getting faster, and my face becoming a light shade of pink. "Kimiko, girl, whenever he smiles at you, you smile back wildly, and after he stops smilin' and turns away, you eye him like a starved snake eyes a rodent in the middle of the desert."

Sitting down in my desk chair, I looked down and almost inaudibly asked, "How long have you known, Clay?"

After sighing once again, he explained, "I always thought that the two of y'all looked mighty fine together, and you're always flirtin' with him."

I raised an eyebrow. "How in the world do I flirt with him?" Raising an eyebrow back at me, he took out a little book that I sometimes see him holding. I wondered what it was, and I guess now I knew what it was."

He recited, "Tuesday, January 10th: Kim punches Rai in the arm because he teased her. Friday, April 14th: Kim starts to tell Rai she hates him, though she kept on talking to him." As I covered my discomfited hand with a cupped hand, I sunk lower and lower in my chair.

After about ten more memos, my cheeks were a deep pink, and I was almost about to fall on the ground considering how low I had sunk in my chair.

"Kimiko, you can't hide it from him forever, and I reckon you oughta apologize to Rai before the two of you become so separated that you might not even see him again."

"Thanks, Clay," I smiled slightly. "You really helped a lot."

"That's why I'm here, Kim." He tipped his hat, grinning, and left the room.

I already felt somber on the inside, and when Clay departed, my graveness expanded outward into my facial expression. I turned the chair toward the desk and buried my face in my arms. 'What am I going to do?'

Raimundo's Point of View

I was pondering deeply about how long I was going to pretend to shun Kimiko. What was I supposed to do? I really wanted to apologize, but, sure that Kimiko would start flaming – literally – I was certain that I needed to stay away from her…right? I sighed. 'Girls are so complicated.'

I threw myself on my bed and took off my Shoku robe. From this day, exactly a year ago did Kimiko jump into my arms and kiss me once I was ranked. Under my Shoku robe was a white robe that you can find in Tae Kwon Do facilities, except this one was short-sleeved and thinner. Someone knocked at my door, and it was Omi, with a look of quiet sincerity.

"Raimundo, my friend, Clay and I listened to your conversation with Kimiko, and I can tell that you are downstairs in the garbage." "That's down in the dumps, Omi." That little guy never failed to bring a small smirk on my face, but the poignant, cheerless sentimentality of this day was just too hard to bear.

"That too!" Omi broke the split second of silence. After a longer silence, looking up with desperation in my eyes I pleaded, "Please just tell me that it's all Kimiko's fault."

Omi closed his eyes, slowly clasped his hands together, and preached, "I am surely not to be agreeing with you on this one, Raimundo."

Sighing, I grimaced. "Why not?"

"When it comes to a fight," said he with a short pause, "it is never only one person's fault."

"Why?" I repeated.

Staring at me, slightly annoyed, Omi replied, "Even though Kimiko slipped first, you, in the end, also received the ants in your pants. That counts as a tie."

Cringing, I knew he was right.

Continuing, Omi explained, "The next tie is that you cold-heartedly reprimanded her. This is compensated with her physical abnormality toward you."

'Two for Omi, zip for Raimundo – that's the score now.'

"And finally, the tiebreaker," he announced in sober, silent triumph. In this sudden change of mood, I looked up at the little boy with the incredibly large head. I noticed a small smudge of white on his left ear – the Recreation Room had been newly painted. After what seemed like forever, Omi finally stated, "The point is given to Kimiko."

Sort of spiraling, I said in misfit anger, "B-b-b-b-bu-but, why? She totally started it! She started to hit me, and she expected me to catch her? What did she do for me? Nothing, nothing at all. I-I – it's her fault!" I stumbled myself dead because I was coming up with it all.

Omi slowly came up to me and scrutinized me. He turned away with a tinge of disappointment, preferably toward me. "You're lying your heart out, Raimundo."

Before I could say something stupid like "No I'm not!" I almost imperceptibly uttered, "How…did you know?"

After the second longest silence of my life, he at last answered, "A true friend is someone who can look at you with the biggest smile on your face and still know that something is wrong."

Smiling solemnly, I looked up at the youngest, wisest monk in the Xiaolin temple. He carried on: "You lose this fight because you are the Shoku Warrior." I immediately darkened. "The Shoku Warrior is the leader of all, has the highest maintenance and flexibility and, yet, the lowest negative criticism to others."

"But – "

"No but's!" I flinched slightly at his uncharacteristic forcefulness. "Being the Shoku Warrior, you are not supposed to emotionally give up to someone so easily. You are our guide, our idol. You do not act foolishly at any time!"

For the first time understanding that someone else besides me was absolutely right, I sniffed slightly to take back the tears that were forming in my eyes. I forced them back angrily as I hit my head against a wall on accident. I groaned in pain as Omi gave me a sympathetic smile.

"Raimundo…" he started. "I would eternally be on your side, but on these conditions, my best advice to you is not to fight fire with wind."

I opened my mouth to say, "That's 'fight fire with fire, Omi." But then I thought about it, and I should've come up to her with a different approach. If I did, I wouldn't be forced to live in this mess I've made. So Omi had, in his slang misinterpreting way, a point.

"You're right, Omi."

Looking confused, Omi replied, "I am?"

"Yeah, you are." I smiled thankfully.

"Who are you and what have you done with Raimundo?" asked Omi in surprised alarm.

I stared at him, slightly frightened. His expression softened. "Oh, Raimundo. I am just yanking at your arm!" I laughed for the first time since the end of Kimiko's showdown and didn't bother correcting my friend.

"Thanks Omi; I'm going to go apologize very soon."

"Any time, my friend."

We grinned for a few seconds before I heard an explosion and a scream. Clay burst into the room with an urgent look on his face, exclaiming, "Stop standing around, ya guys – we're under attack!"

Ruwot: Since everyone is either attacking or being attacked, I am going to force someone to be here, so here's AsianPride101!

AsianPride101: Why am I here?

Ruwot: So you can tell the people to R&R!

AsianPride101: Oh. Fine. R&R people, it makes Ruwot happy!

Ruwot: Oh, and school starts very soon, so I will be updating very rarely, so keep me on story alerts or favorites instead of checking for me and checking for me…that's if you like me. WHY DOESN'T ANYONE LIKE ME!

AsianPride101: (Slaps Ruwot) Get a hold of yourself!

Ruwot: Oh…okay. R&R please!