MCD: Almost finished, guys! One more chapter to go before everything is revealed!
Year 14, Age 16 (Eleventh Grade):
The fourteenth year was the hardest of them all.
Not one single letter.
Not one.
The letters she had from her Secret Admirer had become so crumpled, delicate and worn from her reading them and rereading them and rereading them again...
Kagome had pleaded to be released from rehab, but the doctors (not Arthur and her friends from the hospital, but the ones who worked at the rehab unit) had refused her time and time again, under the claim that she was still suffering from memory loss and therefore should be kept in rehab until she regained them... which possibly would be never... and after she found out that her needs were no longer covered by the insurance company, that her mother had to pay out of pocket... she knew that they were just sucking her family's money dry...
Sesshoumaru had gone away on a long business trip to a foreign country, somewhere across the ocean, and wouldn't be back for a while...
Inuyasha had dropped out of high school in favor of learning from a 杜'master sword smith' named Totosai...
Inuyasha...
Kagome shivered.
Two months before~*
"Kagome, you know that the bastard's never gonna come back! He's used the medical school shit as an excuse to ignore you!" Inuyasha yelled at her, causing her to flinch back.
"I don't care!" she screeched, regaining her confidence. Sitting to her knees and throwing her alarm clock violently at Inuyasha, she screamed again, a few silvery tears cascading down her cheeks.
"I don't care! I don't care..." she hiccuped, grabbing her pillow to throw at him. "I的f he says he'll come back then I trust him! Gods, why can't you just be supportive for once!? You know that I'm suffering without those letters!" she cried, hugging the pillow instead of throwing it. "T典hose little letters kept me alive a few years back..." This only seemed to make Inuyasha angrier.
"Kagome, those dumb little letters didn't keep you alive! The people that you know and love did!" he emphasized to two words. Sighing, he rubbed his temples, then moved and sat on the bed. Kagome tried to scoot back, but he captured on of her soft hands in his calloused ones.
"Kagome, listen to me..." he looked at her sadly, slouching, 的"I love you. I love you, and I can see that this obsession with whoever your 'Secret Admirer' is... it's not healthy!" he insisted gently, but Kagome was too shocked by his sudden confession to really take notice. His hands tightened around hers, and he leaned forward, trying to convince her with his honest stare.
"Please, Kagome... just give it up. I know that you're hurting- hell, I probably know the best. But even you said that you were confused about loving this guy. Like there's something missing... I can show you what you're missing! The constant love, companionship... actually physically being there for you..." he rubbed soft circles on the top of her hand. Kagome wasn't sure what to do when he leaned in and hugged her. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him. Inuyasha never, ever, ever showed this softer, kinder, tender side of him. Not even once. He was the tsundere-iest tsundere of them all, beating out even their begrudging friend Lovino by miles.
But...
Pushing away from his embrace gently, Kagome looked him dead straight in the eyes, but with the softest, most heartbroken depth to the dark blue. It would put sad puppies to shame.
"Inuyasha... I... I don't love you back... not that way," she said gently, barely daring to breathe. 添"You're the best friend that I've ever had... and, while I still am confused... I know that my heart belongs to him."
Inuyasha's expression became unreadable for a few moments until he let go of her hands, shoving them back to her.
Scowling, he stood from the bed, straightened his shirt and walked to the door.
"I see how it is. Fine," he snapped, turning to her before he closed the door completely, "fine. Love somebody that you never knew! I'll always lose to him, whether it was back then or now, I can never win in a fight against the stupid bastard!" he snapped, slamming the door so hard that a picture frame fell from the wall and behind her dresser.
Flinching, Kagome was left sitting in sorrow and confusion...
...Inuyasha knew who her Secret Admirer was this whole time?
...present time~*
Kagome had planned to ask him about it when he came back to visit her after he cooled down, but he never did. She learned from Sesshoumaru that he had packed his bags and followed Totosai out of town the next day.
It hurt. It hurt a lot. Not only knowing that she had come this close to figuring out who had sent her letters, but knowing that she had been able to do nothing but apologize for hurting a friend so devastatingly. She didn't know if she'd ever be able to talk to him again...or if he would ever give her the chance to.
Curling up once more, she ignored the sound of rain pounding on the windows and floated into a fitful sleep.
Out of every letter littering the floor, out of every love letter she's sent and received, covering every square inch and even passing the bottom of the bed frame, one letter from months, probably even years before -seeing as she hadn't bothered to check-, was crumpled in her hand.
I still love you.
Your Secret Admirer.