Hello everyone, I hope you all have remembered to have a beautiful day. As always, I'm AlwaysTheTruth and this is Chapter 12! Crazy, right? Hope you all enjoy.

I feel like it's my responsibility as her friend to make sure she doesn't end up hurt. As silly as that sounds.

Youhei though about what Akiko said, she really was a great friend. Honestly, it made him wonder again about his responsibilities as her fiancé. They would obviously support each other through thick and thin, but he often wondered if he'd be able to hold up his end of the bargain.

"Sunohara, are you still with us? Class is starting!" It was the teacher, "I need to tell the whole class something..."

"Sorry, teach." Youhei responded, now fully conscious.

"It's okay... anyways, as you should all know by now finals are in two weeks, and luckily for you guys, today I got the rest of the study material, I'll be handing it out now."

"Hey, Sunohara," Youhei's direction was turned to Tomoya, "how much do you think you're going to end up studying?"

"I don't know," Youhei responded, "enough to pass at the least."

"My god, you really have changed haven't you?"

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

Tomoya just smirked, "Oh nothing... anyways, it's nice to see you actually taking your test seriously, let's both pass this thing and get out of here, alright?"

"Alright, let's do it." Youhei took the materials handed to him and put it in his pack.

In short time it was the end of the school day, Youhei walked across the classroom to meet Ryou, who was talking to Akiko.

"Well have a great day, Ryou. I wish you luck," Akiko said.

"Thank you, Aki Aki." Ryou responded.

Akiko ran off somewhere, probably to home or a club activity.

"Well, hello Ryou."

Ryou nearly shrieked, "Geez Youhei, why did you startle me like that?"

Youhei laughed, "I wasn't trying to! You need to be more aware of your surroundings."

"Alright, I'll forgive you. Anyways let's go somewhere private, I need to tell you something important..."

"Alright, take me there."

They walked down to the drama club room, which was empty beforehand.

"Well lay it on me Ryou, what do you want to tell me?"

"Well, Youhei... after thinking about it with my parents, my sister, Akiko and my teachers... I've... decided that I will apply for a medical degree at a University,"

Youhei took a moment to process the news, "Well, I think that's very good news. Do you have any idea where you'll go?"

"I don't know yet, but I do want it to be as close to hear as possible," Ryou smiled, she felt elated at the thought of becoming either a nurse or a doctor.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but why do you want to go to medical school?" Youhei asked.

Ryou smiled again, though it looked a lot sadder than before... "Well, back in my last year of middle school, I bumped into somebody after school one day... I forget his name, but I remember he was in high school, and we came to be close friends. Unfortunately, he developed a severe cancer in his legs, an operation which would have stopped the spreading was available, but he refused to have it, as it would cost him his legs..." tears started rolling down her eyes, "by the time he did, it was too late and he ended up dying before I started high school, for awhile after that, I became very unsocial, until I met Akiko... so I want to go to medical school for his sake, to help other people with his condition."

Youhei was shocked by the story, "I can't believe you never told anyone, that's terrible..."

"Well, I prefer not to talk about it," Ryou responded.

"That makes sense, I won't ask again."

"Alright... thank you. Well, let me ask you something."

"What is it?" Youhei said.

"Well... um... I was wondering, do you want to go to that arcade we went to forever ago? I want to play Tetris again..."

Youhei was perplexed for a moment, then resppnded, "Of course. I mean, I'd it's only for an hour or two, that's fine!"

Ryou brightened up, "Well, that's great! Let's go."

They quickly made their way to the arcade, when they got there however, Ryou realized she didn't have any change on her, "Oh no... Youhei, I hate to ask, but can I borrow some change off you?"

"Of course!" Youhei answered. "Let me check... here you go, 8 quarters."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, now go, my precious Ryou. For I wish to find the greatest game in the house."

"Well, um, alright then... good luck I guess."

Ryou made her way to the Tetris machine and played, played, played some more, she played until she could play no more, and while she wasn't as good as last time, she was still something to behold.

Youhei appeared, waited for her to finally finish the game and told her, "Gee Ryou, are you sure you don't want to become a surgeon?"

"Um, yes? Why do you ask?"

"Because in that last game you played you were definitely... SURGICAL!" Youhei proceeded to collapse on the ground laughing.

"Youhei, are you okay?"

"Ha! No..." he answered.

"Well then, I think it's time we head home, thanks for taking me out Youhei," she bent down and pecked his cheek before offering him a hand.

He accepted it and finally got up, "You're welcome, and thank you too, Ryou. I was afraid my 2 feet would never feel the ground again for a second there."

Ryou laughed, "That makes two of us then. Before we go, my dad wanted to give you this, he says he wants to talk to you," it was his phone number. "Please try to make a call later tonight."

"Thanks Ryou, of course I will."

With that they parted ways and Youhei went back to his dorm.

Youhei had been doing nothing but work for hours and it was starting to wear him down.

I guess that's enough for today. He closed his textbooks and laid down. He decided to try and call Ryou's dad.

After a moment, it connected, "Hello, who is this?" The phone asked.

"It's Youhei."

"Oh, hello Youhei, I need to apologize for being a little standoffish when we met." Adachi said.

"Oh, it's okay Mr. Fujibayashi. I hope I wasn't a nuisance."

"You weren't, don't worry about that. I just worry about my daughter... I assume she's already told you about what she plans to do after this year?"

"Yes, she plans to attend a medical university, right?"

"That's right. Anyways, I wanted to know how you feel about it," Adachi began, "she loves you, after all."

Youhei paused for a moment, "...I think it's good for her, college is important and a medical career will make a lot of money one day."

Adachi let out a sigh, "That's a relief, I was worried that you'd feel resent towards her. I sure would've when I was your age..."

"I just want what's best for her, Mr. Fujibayashi. I appreciate you took the time to talk to me about it."

"Alright, make sure to save my number in your phone, I'd like to talk to you again sometime."

"Of course, thank you and goodnight."

With that Youhei turned off his phone and decided to focus on getting some rest.

CHAPTER END.

Hope you guys all enjoyed this chapter. I had a surprisingly easy time with this one and I really didn't feel the usual writer's block once I got going, which is satisfying to say the least! Anyways, I hope you all leave a review (PLEASE) and have a beautiful day!