The rest of that walk felt incredible. Pucca just talked to me like I was her friend. Like she gave a damn about me. It was nice. Until we made it to where the woods met the village.

"Pucca, do you, uh, want me to just leave you here?" I asked her. I was trying to not sound pathetic about it, but I felt like I had failed miserably.

"No, why? Did you… not want to be seen with me?"

I panicked. "OH! NO! I just. I didn't think you'd wanna be seen with ME. I don't have the greatest reputation, you know that."

"Oh! I don't care about that." She shimmied her way down off my back. "But I get it, some of the people here aren't great with accepting that people can change." She grabbed her crutches out of my hand. "But, if it helps, being around you doesn't embarrass me or anything." She smiled.

How did I manage to befriend the sweetest damn person in the world? Part of me couldn't wait to gossip like a bunch of teenagers about all of this with the ninjas next time I saw them. "I'd be happy to walk you the rest of the way, if you'd have me." I smiled back at her a little. This honestly terrified me. But, I could tell that she was not so subtly trying to tell me she wanted me to come.

"Good!" She gleamed.

Each step we got closer to the Gohrong, I felt more and more like I was about to be tackled by a cop. Or her uncles. They could be scary, those three. I wouldn't want to fight any of them one on one, not to mention all three of them. And if they were to see their little girl with ME? No, thank you.

People were starting to come out of their houses to start their days. Every single one double taking at us. Pucca smiled at each one, clearly genuinely not caring at all about the clear judgement. I wish I had her confidence. I don't think a soul on earth could break it.

As we got closer to the doors, they swung open. Dada had rushed out, quietly closing the doors behind him. "Pucca! I've been watching for ya since I got here! Whatever you did, they're MAD." He kind of yell-whispered.

Pucca sighed. "Man, I didn't MEAN to fall asleep at his house…" She said under her breath.

Dada's eyes went wide, and they darted back and forth between me and Pucca for a second. "You slept at TOB-?" He started to ask before Pucca quickly covered his mouth with her hand.

"Shh!" She exclaimed. Not like THAT. I was just tired!"

Dada's eyes returned to me, Pucca's hand still on his mouth. "You think I could manage THAT with HER." I gestured at her vaguely. She smiled a little. Oh, thank god, she took that as a compliment…

That's when I heard the doors opening again. It was them. All three of them. I couldn't tell who they were more mad at, Pucca or Dada.

"What happened to telling us when you saw her, Dada?" The bald one with the hat asked calmly.

Dada stammered a little bit before one of them pointed at the doors, and he quickly ran back inside.

"Pucca! Where did you run off last night!?" The other bald one asked.

"We called everyone we could think of!" The tan one with the black hair added.

I tried desperately not to make eye contact with any of them.

I failed.

Bald goatee uncle made dead eye contact with me. Oh no. Oh god. I wasn't prepared for this.

"Pucca, were you with HIM?" They all turned to look at me. Oh man.

Pucca tried to speak up. "I-" She paused.

"She was bringing me my jacket back." I said, trying my best to not freak out.

They all three took a moment. "Jacket…" I heard one of them mumble. "What jack-" Another one started. They all looked at Pucca, who was wearing said jacket. "Oh." They all three said.

"I, uh, told her to keep it." This was a nightmare.

They all three stared at me. Then to Pucca. Then to me.

"You should go." The littler bald one said to me.

No need to tell me twice. I looked at Pucca, and she looked back at me with eyes that said, "I am so sorry." I turned around and quickly started walking away. I heard them talk a little more, all very even headed, then the doors closed.

Before I even had a chance to turn around, my wrist got hit with…dough? It quickly whipped me back around to face the Gohrong.

How…How did he do that…

The bald uncle with the goatee was standing in front of me, alone now. Not saying anything.

This is it. This is how I die. I always thought it'd be somehow noodle related.

He flicked his weird magic ninja dough off of me. Still weird.

"It was YOU?" He asked. Somewhat mockingly, somewhat genuinely.

"I, uh…" Was about as eloquent of a response as I could create.

"YOU were the one who helped her?"

"I…Yeah. I did what I could, I guess." Would this be an inappropriate time to fear weep?

"She could've died." He said flatly. "But she didn't. Because of…you." Okay, I think he's getting less mad.

"How did she even know it was you? We've been trying to figure it out for weeks!"

"Well, she said it was because I'm awful at covering my tracks." I half laughed, hoping I wouldn't soon be meeting my noodley demise.

"Can I ask ya one more thing?" He asked, looking extremely confused and sort of disappointed. I nodded. "Why'd ya hide it?"

"Just walking her home, I saw so many people side eye us." Was I really about to open up to the noodle man whose name I do not know? "I'm not stupid, I know how people feel about me. I knew people would think I somehow was the one to hurt her. But more than that, I didn't want her to feel indebted to…well. Me, of all people."

He kinda smiled. "That girl knows she doesn't owe anyone anything, we've been tellin' her that since she was a toddler. So, if she went THAT far outta her way? Ya mean somethin' to her, at least, okay?" I kind of half nodded. I wasn't expecting the guy to say something sort of nice to me.

He turned to walk back inside, before saying back at me, "Next bowls on us, kid."