Time ticked on and on, second after second in silence as the two women stared at one another. How much time had passed was difficult to ascertain as brain function seemed to cease all together. At last Akari blinked, her lips trembling.

Meanwhile trapped underneath the weight of Nase's body lay a completely petrified Hikaru, suffering from a shock that was completely different from the shock currently being experienced by the two girls. His lower lip twitching slightly as he lay there unaware of his surroundings wearing an expression that suggested that he had just been hit upside the head by a heavy mallet, Hikaru's mind was a complete blank. Slowly though it was beginning to come back, and the world before his eyes began to take focus. Staring up dully at the ceiling as his head had fallen back on the bed upon Nase's releasing of his cheeks, the murky fog that covered his mind suddenly parted as sound filled the air, snapping him back into reality.

Tears burst out and slid down Akari's cheeks as she began to whimper silently, unable to put sound to the feeling rising in her gut. Hikaru had heard Nase, he knew. He knew that after all these years, their friendship and everything that secretly she…

It was too much now, too sudden. This had not been what she'd wanted, for him to find out like this. The rate of her tears increasing in their flow, Akari's body twisted in the doorway as she spun around and bolted out of sight, her footsteps loud upon the stairway.

###

Kneeling down before the goban as he began to clear off the few black stones and the one white one from his interrupted game against Akari, Hikaru placed the stones in their respective bowls before putting the lids on both. The night had certainly been eventful, although not exactly what he'd had in mind.

All throughout dinner his mother had been inquiring about what exactly had transpired earlier between the three, but Hikaru had simply blown her off. Honestly he wasn't completely sure what exactly happened either, let alone ready to tell his mother about it. After all, Nase had… kissed him.

It was all too much to take in. Hikaru shook his head, trying to clear the memory out. Why had she done that though, why had she kissed him? Sure Waya and Isumi joked with him about him and Nase being an item, but he had always thought that they had done it as a means of annoying him. Could it be that they had seen something that he hadn't? Could Nase really want him to be her… boyfriend?

Then there was Akari. Rubbing his brow as he undressed while getting ready for bed, Hikaru let out another sigh. Could Akari really be in love with him? It was something he'd never really even given that much thought to, love and marriage, starting a family and everything that came with it.

He'd known Akari forever, and for a long time they'd been inseparable. It wasn't until he'd taken up Go that their time together had begun to slip away. Of course back then he'd never given it much thought. Akari was his friend and she'd always be his friend even if he yelled and teased her or didn't really see her that much at all. In that time apart they'd both grown and matured, but he'd never really thought of life without her in it. Had she thought the same, that he'd always be in her life as well? If that was true then had her plans involved them being more than friends? It was hard to say, girls were so strange, especially in the way they thought.

But how did he feel about her? Sure he cared about her, his heart had seemed to sink down into his stomach at the sight of her in tears like that. Yet was that anything more than concern for a close friend?

Then there was Nase. That was actually more confusing than Akari. She was his student and friend, that had been how he'd thought of her. Smacking his face upon the bed before he climbed into it, Hikaru held back a scream. It was all so confusing, and he had no idea how to handle it, what he should do about both girls. Besides, he couldn't afford to let his thoughts dwell on such things, he had a match to win, a game he had to win.