It was the day after the festival. Everyone around was hard at work taking cleaning and packing up. Mion was hurriedly walking along the street that was so crowded last night. She was carrying Takashi's shirt, neatly folded in a bag.

As Mion approached the booth, she saw Takashi outside, working on disassembling the booth. With him, there was a woman with long, black hair.

"Hey," Mion said when she reached the booth. Takashi and the woman turned towards Mion. She could now see that the woman had the same light blue eyes as Takashi.

"So this is one of the kids from yesterday?" the woman asked Takashi.

"Yeah, mom. This is Mion. Mion ..." Takashi paused and remembered. "I didn't get your family name."

"Oh, right," Mion said. "It's Sonozaki."

"Sonozaki?" the woman repeated curiously. "It's nice to meet you Miss Sonozaki," she said. "I'm Takashi's mother."

"It's nice to meet you too." Mion greeted. Just then, Takashi's mother noticed what was in the bag Mion was carrying.

"Isn't that your shirt, Takashi?" She said as she looked back at her son, then back at Mion. Her facial expression changed and gave the unmistakable impression that she thought that her son and Mion were involved. "It's not like that, mom." Takashi quickly said in his defense. The expression on his mother's face turned back to normal. "Oh." she said.

"Well, I have to get these to the car," Takashi's mother said as she pickup a box on the ground. "I'll be back in a few minutes." When Takashi's mother was away, Mion handed Takashi his shirt back. "Thank you for the shirt," Mion began. "and for what happened in that alley."

"Also," Mion continued, somewhat hesitantly. "I want to thank you again for not mentioning what happened then to my friends."

"You don't need to thank me for that," Takashi replied. "It was obvious that you hadn't told them." There was a brief pause in the conversation after that. It was ended when Mion suddenly spoke up.

"I work at the at the toy store near that alley. I get off around 18:00, if you ever want to hang out."

"Yeah, that would be great." Takashi answered.

"I wonder what they are saying?" Satoko asked. She, Keiichi, Rika, Shion, Satoshi, and Rena were hiding in the stairway up to the shrine. They thought something was up with Mion when they ran into Takashi during the festival. And when Shion saw Mion leaving the house with a boy's shirt, she figured it out. So she called the others and they followed her to here.

"Rena knew she recognized him," Rena said as she continued to watch. "He was the kid who caught those thugs who attacked that lady in the town." Just then, Takashi leaned in closer to Mion. "What's he doing?" Satoko asked quietly.

"Probably something romantic." Shion speculated.

"We are being watched by your friends." Takashi whispered to Mion.

"Those…" Mion began angrily, but before she could get worked up Takashi interrupted her. "I think I know a way to get back at them." Takashi said with a mischievous smile. "Just follow me."

Back with the others, they saw Takashi straighten up and signal for Mion to follow him.

"Where are they going?" Rika asked.

"I guess they went somewhere a little more…private." Keiichi said. "I didn't know Mion was that kind of girl."

"What was that?" an angry voice demanded from behind them. They all jumped. Behind them, Mion and Takashi were standing there. "When did you… How did you do that?"

"We walked." Takashi answered calmly.

"You guys…" Mion growled angrily as she moved towards them. Afraid of what Mion would do to them, they all took off running. "Get back here!" Mion shouted as she chased after Keiichi and the others.

A few days later...

The sun was beginning to set in the sky. Shion and Satoshi were walking along the dirt road to the village. They were heading home after a meeting of the game club at the school.

"I'm surprised that Satoko let you go somewhere without her." For the past few days, Satoko and Satoshi had been inseparable. It was difficult enough to get her to leave him alone so he can use the bathroom. "Did I tell you that she even set up alarms to the door and window of my room?"

"She said that she wanted to make a special surprise for dinner tonight." Satoshi continued. "I'll tell you about it tomorrow."

"Actually, you might not be able to," Shion said nervously. "You have to go back to that private school?" Satoshi asked. Shion nodded. "Yeah. I can't stay away from there much longer."

"But don't worry, I'll be back soon to visit." she quickly followed up with.

Suddenly, Satoshi stopped. "Shion…", he began. Shion stopped and turned around. The look on Satoshi's face was an uncertain one.

"Thank you for visiting me while I was in the clinic."

"How did you..." Shion began.

"Dr. Irie told me you came to visit me frequently while I was asleep," Satoshi explained.

"And I also heard your voice."

"Y-you heard me?" Shion asked.

"Well, I couldn't tell who it was or what they were saying. At first, it felt dangerous." Satoshi continued.

"But eventually I began to make some sense out of what the voice was saying. And I realized that it was you. Your voice started to pull me back to my sanity." There was a long pause after Satoshi said. Then, as if to muster up all of his courage, he gulped and began to finish what he was saying.

"It also showed me your feelings for me." he said as be moved closer to Shion. Shion was so nervous over what was going on that she almost stepped back away from Satoshi.

"It's ok, Shion." Satoshi assured her as he drew near. "I love you too." When Shion heard those words, her face turned red and her heart started beating like crazy. The two slowly drew closer. Their lips pressed together. Shion could feel Satoshi's warm breath against her face. She closed her eyes and enjoyed this moment. A moment she dreamed of ever since she meet him.

The two continued to kiss as the sun set behind the forest.

End of Story 0

Message from Author: I'm really sorry for taking so long in doing this story and for any quality problems in it. I hope you enjoyed this story and the happy ending. I have more stories in the works. The next one will be on something that I think they should have officially done. After that, I have already under work a continuation that takes place about twenty years later.

I would like to thank everyone for their feedback and favoriting of this story.