8.2.03 - It's 12:01 AM. MWAHAHAHAHA!!!
New storyline now. Hooray!
I love the law of sines. It's so fun, but the law of cosines is more fun to say.

Short, short, short chapter. Next chapter might be even shorter, unless I decide to combine it with the chapter that comes after it, which I might very well do.

Cinnamon Eyes

"Since we now know the measurements of angle B and leg ß, we can find the lengths of…"

Hitomi balanced her pen above her upper lip, bored. Gah, it's so hot… She laid her head on the cool desktop, hearing the teacher but not listening.

"Psst! Hitomi-chan!"

Feeling Otogi kick her chair, she reached behind her and took the note he passed up.

'Isn't the law of sines fascinating?
Yuugi-kun's birthday is this Sunday, and we're all going to the beach. How about it?'

She turned around to face him. "The beach?!" she whispered fiercely.

"I'll get you a beach umbrella if you want, " he replied.

Hitomi turned back to her notes and scribbled down the solution to the triangle. Then she faced him again. "All right, I'll come. But I might not-"

"Kawara! Otogi!"

Turning forwards again she saw their teacher throw a stick of chalk towards them. Before it could hit, Otogi reached forward and caught it.

Their teacher turned back to the board. "Pay attention, you two."

"Sorry, Sensei," they chorused as several of their classmates giggled.

***

"You could have waited to tell me you know," Hitomi groaned as they walked home from school.

Otogi chuckled. "Well, that wouldn't have been as much fin."

"It wasn't very fun bringing attention to ourselves like that."

"I guess you're right." He looked up at the sun, squinting. "How long until summer vacation?"

"Eight weeks."

"That long?"

"We only just took our midterms."

He sighed. "Well, tomorrow's a half-day. Want to go out after school?"

"I can't." She turned to look up at him. "My parents are getting off work early tomorrow, so I'm going to spend some time with them."

"That's nice." Otogi smiled, waving her off as they reached her apartment building. "I'll see you at school, then."

***

"…mi… Hitomi?"

Hitomi blinked, coming out of her daze, and saw Yuugi's worried face in front of her own.

"Oh, hey, Yuugi-kun," she smiled. "Happy birthday, by the way. You're 17, right?"

Yuugi blinked. "That's the fifth time you've said that…"

"Oh, is it?"

"You've been really out of it, Hitomi," Honda said, walking over.

Jounouchi snickered. "Yeah, you totally missed Otogi pushing Kaiba in the sand for sitting too close to you."

"Oh?" Looking around, she spotted Seto standing a ways away, covered in sand, watching Mokuba play and making sure not the make eye contact with anyone else. Otogi was nowhere to be seen. She gave a small half-smile. "That's nice. Why did he come, anyway? I didn't think he liked Yuugi-kun that much…"

The others looked at each other, grinning.

"Well, whatever." Hitomi yawned, then curled up under the umbrella again. "Wake me up if something interesting happens."

The three boys shrugged and walked off, somewhat confused.

***

Yuugi scratched his head. "What do you think's wrong with her?"

"No idea," Jounouchi replied. Then he called out, "Hey, Bakura, Anzu! You know what's going on with Hitomi?"

The two looked up from the sandcastle they were building with Mokuba.

"Why would I know?" Bakura half-snorted.

Mokuba bit his lip, thinking. "I don't think Nii-sama knows, either. He tried to find out a while ago, but he was thrown into the sand."

"I think asking Otogi is your best bet," Anzu sighed.

"Yeah, well…" Honda looked around. "He seems to have disappeared."

"He ran away after attacking Nii-sama." Mokuba jabbed his thumb towards his brother behind him, who was still standing with his arms crossed. He, however, didn't look as threatening as he usually would, because he was wearing a T-shirt and swim trunks.

"There's Otogi-kun," Bakura announced, pointing towards where Hitomi was situated. Sure enough, Otogi was casually wandering up to her.

***

Otogi looked down at the girl curled underneath her umbrella. "Hey, Hitomi-chan. You can't sleep right now, you're being rude."

Hitomi stirred a bit. "Leave me alone, Otogi."

He blinked, taken aback, then knelt down next to her. "What happened to 'Otogi-kun'?"

Sitting up, she bushed him away. "I said, leave me alone."

Genuinely hurt, he stared at her, but she wouldn't make eye contact. Finally, he grabbed her wrist and forced her to look at him.

"Hitomi-chan, something's wrong, and I want to know what."

She glared at him, then answered, "We can't go out anymore."

"Why?! Did your parents say something? Tell me!"

Hitomi didn't answer.

"Tell me!!"

She pulled her wrist away and looked right into his eyes. "Miai."

***

Nope, not telling you what "miai" means. I'll tell you next chapter. Or you can look it up for yourself.
No notes, as I am being overly productive and I updated yesterday. (And it's bad that I'm updating this NOW, because my chapter bank is going empty… I'll have to start writing again…)

Next Chapter

Chapter 9: Sonna! (No way!)