Hello~ Here with another update~~

Reviews:

Magica Ring: I think you (and a lot of other people) might love this chapter... Or not.

usuixmisaki: LOL I knew people are going to say that.

Guest: I am sorry, but I'll just be dragging the whole story if my chapters were much longer than how they are now.

PinkutoMomo: (Love your pen name, by the way) Thank you for reading this! I hope I can continue to maintain the story's part of that 'love' (does that even make sense? XD) And... God, I shouldn't tell spoilers.

ENJOY~


When it arrived, I was still silently bawling my eyes out.

It came like a speeding bullet, tearing past air so quickly that it made a loud collision with my wooden cupboard. It just stayed there, unmoving, staring at me with nonexistent eyes. I stared back at it, unmoving.

After a while, I dragged myself close to the edge of my bed and stretched my hands to pick it up. It was a round pebble, about the size of my thumb, and around it was a piece of paper bounded with a piece of white string. Straightening myself, I loosened the string and read the paper.

"I'm sorry," it read. Crunching the piece of paper, I threw it away.

I threw it away, not because I thought that what he'd done was unforgivable and that an 'I'm sorry' just wouldn't cut it. I threw it away because he didn't do anything that he should be sorry for. If anything, I should be the one apologizing for eavesdropping, which, for reasons unknown, I hadn't.

"Misaki, I'm sorry. He didn't know what he was talking about," Kazuma said. "He's only 10."

"H-he's right, isn't he?" I asked. "Anyway, I'm sorry…"

And with that, I closed the window and wept once more.

xXx

Suzuna came home just before dinner, bringing with her a bag and change.

"Suzuna, where have you been? You missed lunch!" Mom queried. "Hurry up and clean yourself! Dinner is ready."

Mom, who'd helped me walk down the stairs for lunch and dinner, quickly rushed my sister away.

"Don't get me wrong or anything, Suzuna, but what took you so long?" I asked while stuffing my mouth with rabbit meat.

"There was a throng blocking the whole road, so I had to go the long way," she answered in monotone. "Oh, by the way, I placed the bag on your bed," she said to me.

"Thanks," I muttered.

"A throng? Are they giving out things again?" Mom voiced in.

"A throng of Class people," Suzuna explained.

This revelation caught my attention the way an arrow shoots past the air: as quickly as light.

"Class people? What are they doing here?" I asked, dead curious.

Suzuna shrugged. "Though, I kept on hearing something about wedding that's happening tomorrow," she added, before scooping up more meat from her plate.

"A wedding?" I asked, nervousness starting to seep in my words. I had an odd feeling growing inside me. "D-don't tell me the king's getting married again." I added a nervous chuckle.

Without even a look at me, my sister, who couldn't care less of anything other than the things in her own little world, commented, "I don't think it's the king. Heard something about the prince, though."

I gulped, feeling as though the whole world was shattering into pieces.

"My, so that's what they've been talking about," Mom sang. "The farmers have been restless these days, harvesting for the Class…"

"Mom," I deadpanned. "How many princes are there in the Class?"

"Only one," she answered, still happy that she had finally discovered what the farmers had been talking about.

While she was content that she'd learned the news, I wasn't quite as thrilled.

"Do you know that the marriage was actually arranged by the king? The prince has only met his wife-to-be once –" Mom was saying when I interjected.

"Sorry, I-I need to use the bathroom," I murmured, pushing myself up with my hands. Suzuna stood up with me and helped me up the stairs.

Once we were on the second floor, I told her that I could walk to the bathroom myself, and she went down. The second I heard her drag her chair, I, excruciatingly hopping on one foot, headed to my room.

I took Usui's letter from under the arrow on my bed and read it again. There was this particular line that I lingered my eyes on, wishing that I could hear Usui's voice saying it to me, whispering it so quietly that nobody in the world but us could hear it.

All you need to know is that I love you, Ayuzawa.

All I needed to know, eh? Well, I'd known it for what seemed to be an eternity now, and guess what happened? Oh, my lover was getting married to another woman. Yeah, I saw how the knowledge had helped me.

Damn it…

Tears started to pile in the corners of my eyes, and I clutched the letter hard against my chest as the first of them trickled down my cheeks.

Maybe it was selfish of me to want to keep Usui for myself when we were clearly not fated to be with one another. Perhaps it would be easier and less painful for everyone if I just let go, just forgot everything that had happened, just pretended that there was no 'us'. And there was one moment where I was a good enough person to forget him – forget us – forever. But then the naivety inside me surfaced, and the thought of ever letting go of the precious memories I had with him vanished into thin air.

I wanted him.

I needed him.

Life just seemed impossible without the possibility of him being mine, even if reality said so otherwise. But with him being married… Well, even the most naïve person in the whole sea of naïve people couldn't possibly stand against that.

As I cried, I slowly became aware of thud, thud, thud on my window. Tossing out every thought in my head, I wiped my eyes and looked out the window, only to find Kazuma sitting on his window sill, dangerously unbounded to anything stationary.

"Hey," he said when I opened my window, letting in a gush of wind. "How are you doing?"

"Fine," I said stiffly.

"I want an answer, not a façade."

"Were you throwing pebbles at my window?"

"I'll answer that if you answer me first." His voice amazingly sounded like he was suppressing laughter.

"I did. I said I was fine, didn't I?" I replied incredulously.

"That's your façade, and I'm not one to fall for that." He coughed.

I chewed on my bottom lip for a while, not knowing what I should say after all the drama that took place just this afternoon. I felt like closing the window again, but especially after the drama that took place, I, at the very least, owed him the talking.

"Um, are you – are you feeling any better?" I broke the silence, hoping to change the topic of the conversation.

"Still not answering my question."

"Answer mine first then I'll answer yours."

He looked at me, cocked one of his eyebrows up, and, in a speed quite impossible for a human tongue, answered, "Yes, I threw pebbles at your window and I'm… feeling better. Your turn."

I stared at him, dazed. "That took you less than a second."

The corner of his lips crept up. "Your turn," he repeated.

"Well…" I breathed in deeply. "I am certainly not fine, as you can already tell…" I trailed off, letting silence in.

Moments of silence passed before it was broken by Kazuma when he said, "Look, I'm sorry. I'm sure Daichi –"

"– didn't know what he was talking about," I interjected. "Yes, I heard you."

"I'm sorry. Please… just forget what you heard, because that is all a lie, okay?" he said, and was just about to open his mouth to say more when I interrupted him.

"Even the part where he said you wished I was your lover?"

He paused, and in the moonlight he seemed to be utterly surprised.

"Is that a lie, too?" I asked.

His face turning to a shade of red, he stuttered, "W-well… I mean… Err… Haha…"

I broke to laughter then.

"I was just joking with you," I chuckled. "I didn't know you'd take it so seriously!"

He joined me laughing, though his sounded more like a nervous titter.

I didn't know what exactly happened then, but I was suddenly overcome by this warmth that enveloped me the way my leg was wrapped in the tattered cloth.

"Oh right!" I snapped, grabbing the new game bag from my bed. "Catch!" I threw it to him.

He almost fell catching it.

"Hmm, I guess you want to kill me more than I think you do," he commented, stabilizing himself on the sill.

"Well, I am a hunter," I joked.

Kazuma inspected the object he'd almost died catching, and the faint smiled on his face diminished.

"Misaki," he started. "You didn't have to get me a new bag."

"Hey, you tore yours for my leg. Of course I needed to get you a new one." When I saw him open his mouth again, I said, "Whatever you're going to say, keep it to yourself. I'm not going to change my mind."

He sighed. "Why are you not fine?" he asked.

I cocked my head to the side, silent.

"When I asked you how you were doing, you said that you're certainly not fine," he explained. "Why is that?"

I stayed silent. I just didn't know how I should explain something that was perplexing even to me.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to pry," he said after a while.

"No, don't apologize," I replied. "I just don't know how to explain the crap feelings I have right now."

"Hold on," he said, before disappearing behind a curtain of darkness.

"Where are you going?" I called out. Receiving no answer, I sat quietly and still, awaiting his return.

Five minutes passed before he reappeared – only not in his room. He walked silently as mice that I didn't even acknowledge his presence before he pulled my hand and shouted a loud 'Boo!' in my ear. To say that my heart almost stopped would be a massive understatement.

"God… You want to kill me more than I think you do," I muttered, panting.

"Well, I am a hunter," he laughed.

I shoved away any things that were on my bed and made room for him. He sat down beside me and rested his back on the wall.

"So, now you can attempt to explain those crap feelings that you're having right now," he said, grinning at me.

"Well…" I started, swinging my good leg back in.

"Well?"

"How did you get here, anyway?"

"God, you just love changing the topic of the conversation, don't you?"

"At least I tried," I whispered to myself. To him I said, "Fine. I'm feeling horrible…"

Silence filled the room.

"Look, I really can't explain it right now," I said after some time. "It's just that my life, right now, is falling apart. Like, really falling apart. And I don't know how to explain it. It's just… falling apart."

Kazuma turned to face me then. Not because I wasn't making any sense – although that could easily be a reason – but because I was crying.

"Misaki…"

I realized the tears that were falling from my eyes, and apologized. I apologized for everything. I apologized for making him sick. I apologized for ruining his bag. I apologized for wasting his time. I apologized for the fact that he had to put up with me. Everything.

He placed his arm around me and pulled me against his chest, where I clenched handfuls of his shirt and cried and apologized even more.

"Shh…" he whispered while hugging me closer to him. "It's alright… Everything's alright…"

It was after a while of crying that I felt exhausted. All I wanted to do was sleep. Sleep. Sleep…

All I wanted to do was to fall asleep in the security and aegis of his arms.

"Kazuma…" Somehow, his name slipped out my mouth. "Kazuma…"

"I'm here," he whispered, hugging me as tight as he could without making me feel uncomfortable. "I'm here…"

Unconsciousness dawned, and I soon fell into deep, peaceful slumber.


/dies

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