To Manami, it seemed like the night would never end. She couldn't get the events from earlier out of her mind.

'Oh god, what was I thinking? How could I let that happen? How am I going to face him?'

She thought back to when they'd left Toshio's house earlier that evening. Toshio acted like nothing had just occurred between the two of them. However, his dad winked at her and sent a disturbingly familiar grin her way as he was standing at the doorway saying his goodbyes to her mom and aunt. She stood patiently on the walkway with her dad, feeling his eyes watching her suspiciously but subtly avoiding his gaze. Noticing her mom and aunt were finished and now heading their way, she took that as her cue to turn around and started away from the house. Her family had made no remarks about her earlier disappearance with Toshio but she knew that didn't mean that she was off the hook.

'Knowing them, they'll probably wait until I least expect it and then bombard me with so many questions, I won't know what hit me.'

After what seemed to be an eternity of tossing and turning, she looked toward the window and noticed little rays of light starting to peek through the shades.

'I thought morning would never get here.'

She sat up in bed, wondering how things would be when her and Toshio met up this morning at school. She wondered if things would be uncomfortable or if they would be like they always were. Had the kiss last night changed things between the two of them? She lowered her eyes to the clock on the bedside table and cringed. She'd been unable to get to sleep last night and realized that today was going to be a very long day.

"Well, at least we don't have practice today after school", she whispered to herself.

Silently she prayed that the day would go by quickly and dropped back on the bed.

Manami walked through the front gates of her school and was surprised that today Toshio was already there. In fact, he had been waiting for her to arrive so the could walk to class together this morning. She sighed and mentally prepared herself. She walked up to him and was totally unprepared for the soft look that flashed over his features. He reached for her backpack and threw it over his shoulder.

'Why didn't I notice it before? If people see us like this, they're going to think something's going on between us.'

Toshio heard her sigh and looked over to see her deep in thought yet again.

'What's going on with this girl?'

He reached for her hand only to realize that she was avoiding taking hold of it. He lowered his hand back to his side confused about her reaction this morning.

'After last night, I was almost certain that she had feelings for me', he thought to himself in frustration.

They'd made it to their classroom and he watched helplessly as she pulled out her chair, sat, and lowered her head. He pulled out his seat, sat, and watched her quietly from where he was sitting.

'What went wrong between last night and now?'

From under her arm, Manami watched the range of emotions flitting across Toshio's face and felt horrible for the way the way she was acting. She couldn't understand why she was responding this way. She wanted to reach out to him but her body wouldn't cooperate. Noticing the other students arriving for the day, she lifted her head and Toshio turned away from her to talk to some friends of his that were standing just inside the door. For Manami, the day seemed like it would never end. Lunch came and neither of them said a word. For the fist time since meeting Toshio, the silence unnerved Manami. Toshio sat and ate with her out of habit, but his attention was focused on the people around them rather than her. She wanted to apologize and make things right between them again.

'Why can't I get out the words?'

Class ended and they left for the train station together as it had become routine for them. However, he didn't try to grab her book bag and again neither of them made attempt at starting a conversation. They walked their normal route in utter silence and she thought that she'd never felt so alone. Waiting at their usual platform for their trains to arrive, Manami attempted to make eye contact for the first time today.

'He won't even look at me', she despaired.

Her train arrived first, at its usual time, and she pushed through the crowd toward the doors that had just now opened in front of her. She sat in her usual seat and gazing through the window, noticed him standing there in the crowd watching her just as intently as she was watching him. As the train started moving deliberately away from the station, she tilted her head into the window, and felt the wetness building up on her cheeks.

'Is it too late? How can I fix this?'