Ayumi watched the snow fall outside her window, musing about the dance again. It was December by now, a well month and a half since the incident, and she had done nothing in regards to Kyoya.

How could she? Since returning to classes, she found him gone, taken away on business with his father. If it wasn't business, it was host club outings, and as much as she wished, Ayumi just didn't have the courage to infiltrate the third music room. Since coming to Ouran, she had been considerably shaken- but suddenly finding yourself engaged and emotionally involved with someone who you had almost forgotten about would do that to anyone, she consoled herself.

She also just couldn't get the jealous eyes of the other girls out her head.

Ayumi understood that she had compromised a very popular host- she didn't need to be reminded. But the girls of Ouran did not take kindly to Ayumi, no matter how meek and mild she was now. If it wasn't for Haruhi and Renge, her school life would be comprised of her eating her lunch in the bathroom. She hadn't been this submissive since her fifth birthday, when she began to accomplish things to spite the Ootoris.

She groaned, slumping and resting her head on the desk. She cautiously glanced over at the stack of medical texts Haruhi had been smuggling to her. She hadn't dared open them, almost afraid that if she cracked a book, that the dream would fly out and tattle on her to her aunt. Ayumi was sure that she was already lucky enough that Mr. Ootori had offered to take her older brother under his wing, and that Akihiko was no fool to turn down the chance to become a doctor. She wondered if her future father-in-law would extend the same kindness to her later on.

So lost in her thoughts, Ayumi didn't notice Akihiko knock and poke his head into her room.

"Ayumi? Are you busy?" She turned to her older brother, curious. "No. Why do you ask?"

"I just was curious if I could look at the medical ethics manual."

He watched his sister nod thoughtfully as she stood. He was the only one in the family who knew about her real ambition, and so had been filling her in on the various ins and outs of med school thus far. Ultimately, he was worried about his future relatives and their motives, especially when Ayumi had confessed that she had not heard from, let alone seen, her fiance in weeks. Aki knew that if his sister was impatient or sullen, then their aunt's reaction was that, but vastly magnified, and that she didn't care if Ayumi was emotionally compromised at this point- she would break the engagement if there was any degree of uncertainty in the match.

Ayumi offered the book, still musing sullenly as her brother took it. She wondered if she should just give up now—both on her dream and on Kyoya. Since his disappearance from her life, she couldn't get a straight answer from the host club. She had called his phone, sent emails- silence. Without the support of the man she felt would keep her together, she was doubting her strength. She had heard whispers throughout the house of her aunt's disapproval with the match now that Ayumi hadn't secured Kyoya around her little finger.

She sighed, thinking of what to do when she heard Aki harrumph. Her head snapped up at his confused murmur: "Ayumi, who gave this to you?" "Haruhi, of course."

She felt her heart seize up as Aki handed the open book back, and she saw the clean handwriting of Kyoya. She bit her lip as a finger traced the page, trying not to presume too much, but her pulse was racing. He was thinking of her. Wherever he was, he was thinking of her.

Ayumi was caught off-guard by her brother's laughter, as he had moved on to look through her other books. "You dunce. He's written in every one of these books. Every one. And you didn't know because you didn't look." He was nearly doubled up with laughter as she attempted to shush him: "You'll wake Auntie up."

"Don't we want her to know?" "Yes- and no. She doesn't want me attached, let alone a doctor. We keep this between ourselves." She went silent for a moment.

"Do you come into contact with any of his family, besides his father?"

"I'm being introduced to Fuyumi, but more as a polite gesture..."

"I need you to give her a message for me."

"What's that?"

Ayumi clutched the book to her chest, smiling to herself as she turned away. "Tell that bastard to call me."

Hello! I am so sorry for my surprise hiatus- I so wanted to keep updating, but college has happened, and I was too wrapped up in furthering my poetry career to remembering the writing that I loved and left. I'm back now, and hopefully will be updating more regularly. Please be patient with me- I have to get back into the swing of the story again.

Please, by all means, let me know what you want to see in the story. Thanks so much!