Knock, knock.

"Hai1?" Nokoru called out from behind his desk in the boardroom.

"Ohayo gozaimasu, Kaichou2," Suoh greeted amiably, shutting the double doors behind him.

"Ohayo, Suoh," answered Nokoru, quickly turning to his paperwork.

Suoh quirked his eyebrow at the offlandish behavior but said nothing. Giving the president one last glance, he made for his desk and began typing out documents.

"Suoh," Nokoru suddenly called out.

The blue-haired ninja turned to him with a questioning look. The kaichou seemed dead serious. "Nani3?"

"Ano…would you mind if I take a ten minute break? I've been working hard since an hour ago and I've finished those," he rushed on as he saw Suoh open his mouth to protest, pointing to three neat stacks of signed papers.

His guardian smiled slightly, despite himself. Sighing, he relented, remembering a similar incident three years ago. "Alright. But just for ten minutes, okay?"

The look on Nokoru's face as it lit up with happiness was enough to quell whatever doubt Suoh had in his decision to cut the president some slack. His heart skipping a beat as he watched Nokoru lean by the open window, bathed in early morning sunlight, Suoh wondered why he was reacting that way. No one mentioned when they had been filling him in on his three months' memories that he had something more than friendship with Nokoru. So why did he feel otherwise?

Shaking his head to clear the unwelcome thoughts, he turned back to his work, waiting for kaichou to finish his break.

The next day found Suoh typing furiously away at one of the school's mainframe computers. He was determined to find out if Nokoru and Namiko were the same person. He still had yet to stop and think if he'd be happy to prove himself right or otherwise.

Hours of poring over security camera logs and database searches for an Iimitzu Namiko proved fruitless and Suoh tanned, slender fingers over his face in frustration. He needed a break. He was already behind with his secretarial duties, opting to put them off so he could slave away on proving or disproving his theory, but he desperately needed a break. And he was going to take one.

Suoh opted to sit by the same sakura tree he and Namiko sat under just the other day. Leaning back on the tree trunk, he looked for all the world as if he could die at peace in that very moment, watching the blossoms flirt with the breeze before landing softly on the grass. He was almost sad that the blossoms had to land eventually; their dance left him mesmerized, their grace reminiscent of someone who walked as if their feet never touched the ground, as if they would shatter the moment they touched down.

Polished black loafers and navy blue trousers came into view.

"Suoh? What are you doing here?"

The ninja looked up and gold met blue.

"Kaichou. I thought you were in a meeting with Ohkawa-Kaichou," he said, mildly startled out of his reverie.

"I was but it just ended," the blonde smiled before plopping delicately on the ground beside Suoh. "I always loved sakura blossoms."

"Kaichou. You were in a meeting with Ohkawa-Kaichou the other day as well, ne4?" Suoh inquired, cocking his head to the side in time to see Nokoru tucking his legs underneath him and leaning against the tree.

"Hai. Why do you ask?"

"Well," Suoh started, leaning closer to his blonde charge to sniff around him, mentally nothing that a faint flush was making its way across Nokoru's cheeks and his blue eyes had widened a fraction, "I met this girl the other day and she said she had just modeled for Ohkawa-san. Funny. Ohkawa-san must be really admirable to multitask like that, ne, Kaichou?"

"Um…well, she is an admirable lady, Utako-san," Nokoru smiled weakly, giving a little nervous laugh.

"Hmm. Also, I just remembered…that girl I met. She smelled kind of like you. Did you happen to hook up with someone you neglected to tell me about, kaichou?" Suoh asked slyly, hoping to bait the now slightly pink elfin boy.

"Ano…er…well, you must be talking about Namiko-san, ne? Well, I accidentally bumped into her while I was walking out of Utako-san's office-she was on her way in-and she asked what perfume I used. I showed it to her because, you know, I always keep a small bottle in my pocket because a man should never subject a lady to his less than savory odor, and I told her she could keep it, if she wanted to," Nokoru rambled on, laughing sheepishly at the end, hand coming to scratch at the back of his head.

"Yeah, Namiko," Suoh whispered. "She made me feel like I know I'm supposed to feel whenever Nagisa-san is around. Like a thousand butterflies are fluttering madly in and around my heart and my stomach. Like I'm gonna be sick if I don't get to touch her. I feel hot and cold at the same time, just looking at her."

Nokoru listened on with wide eyes and slightly parted pink lips.

"And it's eating at me because everyone said I was in love with Nagisa-san but up to the day we said goodbye at the airport, I didn't feel any of those with her and this bothers me to no end because I know it's tearing Nagisa-san apart. But every time I try to move on, I see flashes of what I think might have happened in those three months, and the harder I try to grasp and hold on to those memories long enough to find out what they mean, the stronger the headaches that follow. I don't know how long I could go on like this, kaichou. Not knowing for sure if I should move on or if these flashes of memory mean that I should go back to Nagisa-san and try to pick up where we left off. In limbo. In an agonizing limbo, that's where I am right now."

Nokoru had looked away at the mention of Nagisa but looked back at his golden-gazed guardian when he finished.

He reached down to pat Suoh's leg. "Don't force yourself, Suoh. It'll only worsen things," he said softly.

"I know. But that doesn't mean I can help it," Suoh sighed.

A/N: Gomen! Originally, I'd intended for this story to be a long one-shot but things turned out differently so I ended up making it a full story, unfortunately, I had the BIGGEST writer's block and I really planned on discontinuing. That was before I saw that I actually got AWESOME reviews on the first chapter.

This chapter may have been short, but hey, it's been a loooong time since I last wrote and I'm still trying to smooth things out.

I'm still kind of unclear on where this is going, but I do have certain ideas of what should happen along the way, so any suggestions would be awesome.

Many thanks to:

blue-phoenix5 >>who's my seme? Er…well, it's getting kind of obvious in this chapter, ne?

HikariManganji >>thanks so much!

Yumehime Yana Hossuru >>I cut back on the Japanese terms to make it easier to read through, but I still put some in just to give a sense of realism that they're Japanese. Hope it helped.

FiendisHserapH >>Lol. Thanks, you flatter me!

Car-car >>Thanks!

zharmleanzon27 >>blush Thanks so much! You're so sweet! huggles

sodesne >>I guess you're right. Hehe…seriously, your review got me pushing forward to write again. Thanks!

1 Yes

2 Good morning, President.

3 What

4 something like, "right"