The moment Ichigo saw his eyes narrow as the two teens ran past him with arms interlocked was when she realized one thing for sure. She and Hanabusa wouldn't be getting to make sweets together.

And unlike Miya, Hanabusa is a guy. So naturally he is bound to jump to some sort of conclusions that she has a crush on him. And to be honest, she was really annoyed that he felt obligated to know about her non-existent romantic life. It felt like a breach of privacy.

But Hanabusa was too naïve to recognize the cold glare Henri cast their way and continued to tug her towards the kitchen. It was Henri's cold voice that made him freeze in his tracks, almost like a child who was caught sneaking cookies out of a jar in the middle of the night.

"And where do you think you two are going?" Henri inquired.

"To go make sweets, sensei," Ichigo said, not bothering to sugar-coat her reply anymore.

"And why would you be doing that on a Saturday?" Henri asked.

"To practice? What's wrong with that? Kashino gets to use the kitchen but not us? For simply practicing?" Ichigo asked, feeling angry all of a sudden.

Hanabusa was cautious and still, looking between the student and teacher. He didn't dare utter a word for the fear that he could get in trouble simply for speaking up. When Henri couldn't refute her question with a comment of his own, Ichigo took it as a silent victory on her behalf. She then tugged on Hanabusa's arm and led him to the kitchen.

They closed the door, but Ichigo knew full well that she couldn't ensure total privacy. The windows had no blinds.

"Ne, Ichigo?" Hanabusa asked cautiously, as Ichigo started to take ingredients and tools out of cabinets and drawers.

"Yes?" Ichigo replied.

"Are you sure we should make sweets? After sensei saw us? I think we did something to make him angry," Hanabusa paled when he saw their teacher spying on them.

Ichigo spot him out the corner of her eye and shook her head in exasperation, "I don't know what is wrong with him, but we aren't doing anything wrong. He should understand that. Kashino-kun can use this room for his tempering practices but we can't make simple sweets in here? Absurd. Now. What would you like to make?"

"How about candy roses? They are my specialty," Hanabusa suggested.

Ichigo smiled and said, "Perfect."

The two set out to work on making candy roses. And for Ichigo, it took a couple of attempts to get the rose to be presentable in appearance, looking just like any other rose Hanabusa himself would make. Now while she is a fast learner when it comes to skills, she was afraid he would criticize her to the point of insulting like Kashino would. But he never lost his patience and though he was hesitant to tell his true opinion of her first attempt, he didn't believe insults would help someone improve. Ichigo admired his quality at seeing the best in other people.

"You know," Ichigo said, as the two packaged the sweets, "You make a better teacher than Kashino."

"Really?" Hanabusa's eyes lit up at the compliment.

"I think so. Kashino is honest, yes, but when he gives criticism, he laces it with insults. Although I do value honesty, he goes a little too far in his critique. Almost goes to the point of crushing someone's ambitions," Ichigo said, "He might have had a rough past. I am not one to judge someone I barely know. But this is all I can gather."

"Well, you would be correct," Hanabusa nodded, "He did have a rough childhood."

"Really?" Ichigo asked in interest.

Hanabusa nodded again and said, "Well let's say his parents aren't supportive of his dream to be a patissier."

"Like mine are," Ichigo interjected, "My parents have been pressuring me to be a painter or musician."

"Exactly, like that. He comes from a line of doctors, and his parents own a hospital. Because he didn't want to become a doctor or overtake the business and instead study here, his parents basically disowned him. He was allowed to come here under the conditions that he makes the highest grades in his class," Hanabusa explained.

"That's rough. I'm sorry," Ichigo apologized, feeling bad that she harshly judged someone she didn't know without knowing their backstory.

"It isn't your fault, how were you supposed to know? You can't just go up to somebody and demand their life story," Hanabusa shrugged, "And besides, you aren't wrong. He does need to tone down his attitude a bit. If he wants to have more friends and maybe a shot at having a girlfriend."

"I think I took care of the girlfriend part," Ichigo laughed.

Hanabusa's eyes bulged out and he whispered in shock, "You two are dating…?"

"What? NO! Ew! I meant I set him up on a date with Miya!" Ichigo exclaimed, puking mentally at the thought of having any sliver of feelings for Kashino.

"Wait…he's on a date with the Heiress?" Hanabusa asked.

"Yeah, but she's a totally different person when you get to know her," Ichigo shrugged.

"I'm not questioning anymore," Hanabusa said, "But let's split up the candies. Maybe we can make one of your recipes next time?"

"For sure!" Ichigo nodded in excitement; she couldn't wait to practice again with him.

They split the candies they made and bid farewell. Ichigo saw that Henri had left from where he was spying from outside the classroom. Possibly he thought she wasn't up to anything and decided to go somewhere else do accomplish some more pressing matters.

Glad she wasn't in trouble she walked down the hallway that led to the edge of the building. But she passed Henri's office, she felt a little bad about what she said to him (although she felt like it wasn't her fault). Taking one of her candies, and using one of his sticky notes he had on his desk she wrote a simple message with a sharpie marker:

Sensei,

Although I will not apologize for practicing making sweets with Hanabusa, I hope you like this candy rose I made. It was the best rose I made, and even Hanabusa-kun said it was better than any other rose he made.

From,

Amano Ichigo

She pressed the sticky side of the note on his desk and laid the sweet next to the note. And left his office as well as the building.

Ichigo entered her dorm and put her sweets in the mini-fridge she and Rumi shared. Then she decided to watch a movie on Netflix as a way to pass time while she waited for Miya to finish her date. Halfway through her movie, her phone dinged. Ichigo shut her laptop the moment she saw Miya's name flash on the notification.

She unlocked her phone and opened the text. It read:

Strawberry!

Ichigo immediately called Miya, and not even two seconds later, she answered in a seemingly nonchalant voice, "Hey Ichigo, what's up? What's wrong?"

"Miya! I don't feel too good! Ugh, I think I ate something weird!" Ichigo groaned to add a special effect.

"Calm down, Ichigo, do you think you caught the stomach flu?" Miya played along, going all 'doctor mode' on her.

"I think so, but I need help getting to the nurse's office," Ichigo said, "I checked the hours, they are open today."

"Alright just hang tight, I am coming," Miya said quickly. Faintly, Ichigo could hear Miya relay Ichigo's fake emergency to Kashino as an excuse to leave the date.

Not even fifteen minutes went by before she heard rapid knocking on her bedroom door. Ichigo bolted up from her bed and let Miya in her room. The girl sat on Ichigo's bed as well and buried her face in her hands. Ichigo could only make out some of her grumbling.

"Miya, I can't understand what you're saying," Ichigo said, confused.

"He's insufferable!" Miya exclaimed.

"What? What do you mean?" Ichigo asked, astonished.

"I mean what I mean! He was critiquing everything about the ice-cream we were eating to the point I felt stupid for even suggesting that we had a date there! Look, I know his honesty is quite admirable. But it ruined the atmosphere for our date!" Miya exclaimed, "I don't know if he did that to get rid of me or that was him doing it unconsciously. But his rambling got too annoying that I had to text you."

"Well, isn't he just charming?" Ichigo said sarcastically, "Sometimes I wonder if it was his first date, too."

"Well it was my first date but at least I didn't criticize the ice-cream we ate!" Miya exclaimed in annoyance.

Ichigo sighed and realized, playing cupid wasn't as easy as it looked. She rubbed Miya's back and said, "I guess I will have to have a 'chat' with him."

Miya nodded, and sniffled. She reached for the tissue box and blew her nose on a tissue. After wiping her nose until it looked like a clown's nose or Rudolph's nose, she asked in a tiny voice, "Should I give up on him?"

Ichigo held her friend at arm's length and asked, astonished, "What would make you say that?"

"I tried and tried for years to get his attention, and the moment I do, he just has to screw up our first date!" Miya wailed, "Maybe we're not meant to be. Maybe this is a sign I should just move on and try to look elsewhere."

Ichigo planted both of her hands onto Miya's shoulders and said, "Don't ever think like that. You need to know that love is more difficult than any other human emotion. It may be the most euphoric feeling but also it can be the root cause of heartbreak. Learning to navigate it takes a lot of time and efforts, as well as failed attempts."

Miya, astonished, nodded. For once she didn't retort to Ichigo's rare moment of positivity.

"Now, I will have a talk with him. But, don't ever think like that ever again," Ichigo threatened Miya.

Once again, Miya nodded. Ichigo smiled, glad her point went across. Opening and unlocking her laptop, she pulled up Netflix and went to the search bar.

"What movie makes you feel happy when you are down? We can see if Netflix has it," Ichigo prompted Miya.

After contemplating for a minute or two, Miya took the computer and typed in 'Mean Girls' into the search bar. When the movie popped up, she selected it. The two girls huddled on the bed and watched the movie for the next couple of hours.

-x-

Henri sighed in annoyance. His day was obviously not going well. First, he angered Ichigo for no apparent reason. It was once that after he left the corridor that he realized his jealousy was irrational.

Doubt she will forgive me after my little stunt now.

Second, Mari became way clingier. He had to blame it on her confrontation. He supposed that his response wasn't one that she was expecting of him. It seemed she bugged him for his answer not for honesty but for closure and assurance that she's better than Ichigo. And when she didn't get the desired answer, she went nuts.

Lemon, an underclassman, happened to be walking the corridors when she witnessed Mari force Ichigo to follow her. Out of concern and because of her dislike for Mari, Lemon followed the two. She witnessed Mari arrogantly display all of her trophies as a way to make Ichigo feel inferior. And after Ichigo shot down her ego and left, she heard Mari's plans for revenge to make Henri her boyfriend.

She snitched on Mari that same day to Henri and he confronted it about that incident to Mari when she annoyed him some hours after he stopped spying on Ichigo. After a long interrogation, she burst down and cried. Mari admitted to being a snob and attempting to put forth into action her plans for revenge.

After coldly rejecting Mari, she latched onto his arm and pleaded him to rethink his decision and not consider an ugly brat like Ichigo. Obviously, anyone who has half of a brain would think better than to insult Ichigo. He snapped and called for security to drag her away under the threat that he would expel her if she ever tried another stunt again.

He tried to relax after the string of stressful events by going out for coffee, taking a quick nap, listening to calm music. But none of them did anything to lessen the pounding in his head.

Opening the door, he thought he could get some work done in his office. But when he sat down on his desk he saw a sweet and a note. From Ichigo.

Suddenly, he felt warm. Reading the note, he was happy to receive the best rose she made that day. He decided to take a closer inspection at the rose.

It was, indeed, very much resembling a real rose. Like one someone would buy as part of a beautiful bouquet from a florist shop. Plucking off a petal and popping it in his mouth, he was hit with a flurry of flavors.

Childishness, joy, happiness. All feelings a 'pure' child would feel.

Maybe it would be Ichigo's way of explaining of how she wished her childhood was like – filled of good memories instead of painful ones.

From the tip of his tongue he could taste a tinge of bitterness – a feeling of regret and sorrow. How her childhood actually was.

TBC…