Hehehehehehehee. I wasn't lying when I said my desire to write was back even though it took me nearly six months to make this update or was it more?? I dunno. I did write a lot of other things besides this story though, most are not online. Truthfully, I think I have just run out of juice for this story. I'm gonna finish no matter what, though. It would be really crappy if I didn't end it. This chapter isn't going to be the final though. I don't know when the final will come depends on how the story goes. Anyway, sorry for lying about saying I would try to update faster. I did try though. I tried writing this chapter many times and finished it a few times. But, I wasn't satisfied with it and I just didn't want to post up garbage. Anyway, enough excuses on to the story.

Chapter 12: Unusual Behavior

Chihiro stepped slowly along the sidewalk, staggering a bit. Her nerves were crying with tension and her head felt filled like it was full of liquid. There was too much on her mind and it was weighing her down into a slump. She could have walked straight if she wanted to, but she didn't care. She didn't want to use her energy perfecting her steps. If there was anything in the world that needed her energy now it was to figure out how to deal with Osaka since she managed to figure out the situation between her, Kaori and Sakaki.

"How does a girl like her figure out what's going on with me?" Chihiro thought to herself. "She hardly even knows me! I rarely see her or any of those girls she hangs out with. I'm friends with them all, but we aren't close enough for them to know any personal details."

Chihiro was baffled, but tried to think more of how to handle her rather than how she figured everything out. It was a hard to focus on anything else but what Osaka told her earlier. It kept replaying in her mind.

"Chihiro, I already know what's goin' on."

"Y-you know?"

"Yup, I know about ya, Kaorin and Sakaki."

"What do you know?" She remembered herself responding with a meek voice.

"I know how Kaorin feels 'bout Sakaki. I also know how much it upsets ya. It's really hard for me not to notice 'specially after t'night."

"So, how does this concern you in any way?"

"I guess ya are right. It really isn't my business, but I feel really bad just watchin' as feelins' get hurt. I can tell your feelins' are really hurt. I can tell ya really um... "like" Kaorin."

"Huh?! Why do you say it like that? W-we're just friends." Chihiro trembled as she spoke.

Osaka just looked at her. Chihiro could tell what Osaka was thinking, but she didn't know what to say to convince her otherwise. All she did was walk away.

"I can't believe Osaka would think that I like Kaorin in that way." She thought as she chuckled unsteadily, "I bet she's the one that like Kaorin and she is trying to push her denial on me. Stupid Osaka, she better not like her, she's mine. Not Sakaki's. Not Osaka and definitely not Tomo's! She is my friend and nobody can take her away from me."

Chihiro's eye began to fell backed up as she held back her tears of anxiety and depression. She practically slowed down to a crawl before stopping in her tracks.

"I shouldn't be thinking this." She muttered, "I should be happy for Kaori. She finally got to spend some time with her crush, and she even has a girlfriend."

Suddenly, a screeching voice shrieked in delight "SHE has a GIRLFRIEND?!"

The troubled girl jumped back in horror, but she quickly regretted her quick spasm backwards as she felt two hands on her arms.

"Well, Hello." The voice greeted, this time in a slightly more normal tone.

Chihiro stumbled out of the loose grasp and whirled around and to her displeasure saw her creepy literature teacher.

"M-Mr. Kimura?!" She shouted in surprise.

"Hi, Chihiro, Isn't it a little dangerous for you to be walking alone at night? You never know what kind of creeps you could run into."

Chihiro was amused by the ironic statement, but didn't give it much thought as she was already preoccupied.

"Uh, yeah...I was just walking home from the movies."

"Wow, I was just on my way TO the movies. Pretty girls always like to hang out at the theater."

Chihiro wanted to run away, but she couldn't do that to her teacher. So she stuck around trying to end the conversation as fast as she could.

"Oh yeah, really pretty girls." She agreed.

Mr. Kimura was silent for a moment. Chihiro was becoming more stressed talking to him and tried even harder to hide her tears. She noticed Kimura's head tilt slightly to the side.

"I'm gonna walk you home." He blurted out.

"Huh, w-what?" Chihiro was really in shock now.

"It's too dangerous for you to walk alone at night. I don't want you getting hurt."

"No, no, don't worry about me." She tried to reject his offer as politely as she could.

"No Chihiro, as a teacher it is my duty to protect my students even outside of class."

Chihiro was surprised to hear something so noble come from Mr. Kimura. She thought he might deserve a chance, but now was not the time to give him one. She just wanted to be alone, but she knew that there was no way out of the situation as it was. She reluctantly accepted the offer.

She and Kimura walked silently on the side walk. It changed from bright to dim and they passed under street lights. It was awkward having her teacher walk her home, but she a bit impressed by his actions. He was on his way to see a movie on his time off and he offered to help a student home. She wanted to strike up a quick conversation to help the time pass, but she didn't know what else to talk to him about except high school girls. Kimura, though, was already set to ask her a question.

"What's wrong Chihiro?" he asked.

Her head perked up a bit, "Huh, oh, nothing. I'm fine."

She knew she wasn't fine, but he was the last person she wanted to tell the situation to. She knew how he would react with his perverted comments.

"Is it about Kaorin?" He continued.

Chihiro clenched her teeth inside her mouth.

"Even my teacher is stealing the name Kaorin away. I started calling her that. Now everybody is using that name." she thought.

Kimura continued talking, "I am sad, also because of her new love interest. I never thought little Kaorin would be so bold as to openly date another girl. She can never belong to either one of us."

He tilted his head downwards and what seemed to be a single tear escaped his eye.

"What is he talking about "belong"? I am already her friend." She asked herself in her mind while wearing a false smile

"I am happy, too. Next class, when I announce my new rule, I can see the hot action in class."

Chihiro inched away from him, but was also curious about the new rule he mentioned. She only didn't run away to hear what she was to expect from the next class. She took a deep breath preparing for what she might hear from him before squeaking out a question.

'What…"

He shot his head in her direction and cut her sentence off.

"It's that girls are aloud to make-out during class time."

"Was he waiting for me to ask?" Chihiro thought to herself as her mouth formed a crooked smile.

"I-I'm sure they'll love it." She forced out.

"Yeah, I think so, but I regret not passing it earlier. Maybe instead of Kaorin on Tomo, it would have been Kaorin on you."

"Excuse me?" Chihiro said politely. She didn't quite hear Kimura correctly, or at least she hoped that she didn't.

"Well, you seem pretty sweet on Kaorin, although when I saw you two together I never suspected any sort of possibilities, but now after what Kaorin and Tomo have done I now know I should never doubt my gut instinct."

Chihiro was deeply enraged by the accusation Kimura. Along with the already swelling rage she had experience earlier from the fight with Kaori; she had trouble holding it in.

"I am just Kaorin's friend. Her best friend." Chihiro snapped.

Kimura was silent for a moment. Chihiro thought that she had set him straight with that comment.

"Well, I guess so, but my gut usually isn't wrong about these things. I mean, always knew that there was something different about Kaorin. That's why I was so interested in her."

The feeling inside Chihiro where boiling into a chaotic fury, but she tried her hardest to keep her cool. Blowing up on Mr. Kimura would not do anything but hurt the situation. She couldn't help but think about how Osaka also believed that she liked Kaori. Where were all the people getting their crazy stories? Is this what everybody though? She didn't know for sure why it was happening, but she wanted to prove to everyone that they were wrong. The thought made her want to cry. It always did make her want to cry. She knew how she really felt about boys and girls, but just the thought of it sometimes made her unsure.

"Well, this time your gut is wrong!" She cried with the tears she had been suppressing finally released in shining stream that ran from her eyes.

Mr. Kimura fell back when Chihiro faced him with her teary face. He did not expect such a reaction and meant no harm when telling his thoughts. He tried to open his mouth to apologize, but was in momentary shock and couldn't make his words come out straight. Before he could untangle his speech Chihiro had already darted out off into the distance. He still could see her, though, and without a second thought made his way after her shouting his apology, but Chihiro was not down. He continued his pursuit.

"BAM!" shouted out Tomo with a devious look on her face.

Yomi walked over to the girl who was sitting on the floor holding a video game controller in her hands. She could see her pushing buttons and flicking control sticks in a frenzy, but she could see nothing on the screen except a mere sitcom.

"Tomo, what the…" Yomi took a second glance at her odd friend, "What are you doing?"

Tomo didn't stop abusing the controller in her hands, but looked up at Yomi as if she was some sort oblivious fool.

"I'm pretending to play an awesome game." She said sarcastically.

Yomi frowned at the tone Tomo used, "Well, why don't you play one of my REAL games."

"You're games are boring." Tomo replied quickly as if she had been meaning to tell Yomi for quite a while.

"No, no, no. I have very fun games full of action and suspense. You just think they are boring because they require a little thought to beat them." She defended.

"I don't believe puzzle games are exciting. They are just like you, boring and out of style."

Yomi knocked Tomo over the head.

"Ow… why?"

"You sure as heck know why." Yomi said feeling a slight bit of accomplishment.

"I was just joking, though." Tomo excused rubbing the sore spot on the head.

"I was just joking, too"

"Your jokes hurt, Yomi."

Yomi made a more compassionate face, "Fine, I'm sorry Tomo."

Tomo smiled a wide tooth-filled grin as she usually does when she gets her way.

"I guess this means you agree with me on your game then."

"Not a chance."

Tomo began to laugh, but was interrupted by a tingling sensation in he pocket. She reached her hand in and pulled out her cell phone.

"It's vibrating." She pointed out.

"And…"

"I set it to do this last week. When Kaorin made plans for this Friday I wanted my phone to go off at this time just in case the date went bad. Then I would have an excuse to go home."

Yomi didn't know what to say to that. She hated the fact that Tomo was even seeing Kaori, but it seemed to her that Tomo was not all that interested. She thought of herself being victorious over Kaori because Tomo canceled on her to sneak over to her house. She didn't want know exactly if it counted, though, after all Tomo was not dating her.

"I should call Kaorin and reschedule the date for next week. I feel a little bad for ditching her like that." Tomo began to dial.

"No…" Yomi began to shout, but trailed off as she realized what she was doing.

She couldn't tell Tomo what to do, and she especially shouldn't discourage Tomo to not reschedule. She knew that, for Tomo, that was a responsible thing to do and Yomi did not want to steer her in the wrong direction. Though, she could not help, but feel that emptiness her heart grows larger as she observed Tomo's actions. A rapid sinking feeling overcame her as she felt Tomo drift out of her grasp. She had Tomo in her room at the very moment, the girl she loved, the girl she only dreamt about being with, but she was standing there feeling helpless as she called another girl right in front of her.

Tomo had now already dialed Kaori's number and the phone was placed gently next to her ear. Yomi could hear the faint ringing and each ring felt like a shot in her chest. She didn't know if someone would answer or not, but she didn't want to wait long enough to find out. Then suddenly the ringing stopped. A slight bit of relief comforted Yomi until she heard a nearly silent voice on the phone. It was Kaori! Yomi grabbed the bottom of her shirt and began to knot it up in her fist. She bit her lip with her teeth, the pain helped her forget about what was happening before her eyes, but it wasn't enough to erase the image. Tomo was casually talking with Kaori at the moment. She thought she heard Kaori mention something about a movie, but now she was too panicked to make the soft whispers out clearly. Just then, Yomi heard Tomo say the begging of the dread question.

"So, Kaorin I'm really sorry…"

Yomi knew what was to be expected next. She couldn't take the torture any longer and out of pure instinct swiped her hand directly in front of Tomo's face.

"No!" She shouted in a desperate voice.

She did not touch Tomo's face in the slightest bit, but directly with full force knocked the small square phone out of Tomo's relaxed grasp. The phone glided neatly to the floor and slid across the ground. Kaori's voice echoed.

"Hello? What was that noise?"

Tomo stunned at Yomi's act looked at the phone and glanced at Yomi with a face distorted with the confusion unheard of.

"Yomi, what the heck did you…"

Tomo knew what she was going to finish her sentence with she was going to say "do that for?", but the words could not escape her mouth for it was being blocked. Yomi had her lips firmly pressed against the unsuspecting girl. Her hand was holding the head on Tomo, up against hers with a gentle yet powerful grip. Tomo didn't fight against the hold, but she didn't give in either, she just stood letting Yomi control her. She was not even sure if what was happening was reality. She didn't know what to do, but she didn't care what to do either. All of her emotion were at a stand still, but she could a faint sense of comfort, the same comfort she always felt around Yomi, begin to radiate in her body. Tomo watched in front of her two tears roll down Yomi's cheeks. One tear was filled with all the pain and heart ache she felt up to this point and the other was the first of tears of filled with a joy that Yomi never thought she would experience.