Wah! I made it way too obvious what was gonna happen in this chapter! Oh well...

Well, I guess you all know what's next then. TT

Chapter 7

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It was true, Masaya was finally home. Too bad Ichigo had to come and see him at the wrong time. Ichigo's eyes filled with tears at what she was watching. Masaya was on the floor, a blonde, most likely an English girl was on top of him with her blouse unbuttonned. She was kissing Ichigo's boyfriend, the one who "loved" Ichigo. Ichigo didn't want to believe what she was seeing. She forcefully pushed the door all the way open startling Masaya and the blonde girl on top of him, "Masaya! What...I mean...Who...?" The words would not leave her mouth. She realized that she was too upset to even talk and ran out of the house.

Masaya pushed the girl off of him and ran to his front door, "Ichigo wait, give me a chance to explain!" He tried to call out to her, but she just ignored him and kept running pretending that she could not hear him. He fell to his knees and hit the ground, "Damn!"

The girl, who went by Laurel, put her arms around Masaya and whispered into his ear, "See now? That takes care of your 'girlfriend problem' right? Now we can express our love to each other without worry." She smiled and bent down to kiss him.

He pushed her away causing her to fall behind him, "Like I said before Laurel, I don't love you! Ichigo is the only girl I love and nothing you do will change that, ever! It was useless for you to fly over here, so why don't you just go back to England and stay out of my life!" He took his coat by the door and ran after Ichigo leaving Laurel behind.

Ichigo ran into the cafe where everyone had already started getting ready to close the shop.

Retasu dropped the broom in her hands and ran to Ichigo's side, "Ichigo, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

Ichigo ignored Retasu's questions and ran up the stairs bursting into Ryou's room. Ryou turned away from his computer and looked at Ichigo. Ichigo took a couple of steps closer to Ryou and then stopped, "Ryou..." She was still not able to complete her sentences.

Ryou stood up, "Ichigo, what happenned? What did he do?!" Ryou's eyes filled with anger as he thought to himself, "Masaya, what have you done so bad to hurt Ichigo! He had better watch out cause I'm gonna...I'm gonna..."

Ichigo closed her eyes and ran into Ryou's arms, "Ryou!" The two fell to the ground. Ichigo buried her face in Ryou's chest and allowed herself to cry even louder than before. She never knew how much she trusted him until now and it comforted her a little to know that he was there for her whenever she needed him. "Ryou! It was horrible! There was another girl!"

Ryou brushed his fingers through her hair. Nothing around him mattered anymore. At that time, Ichigo was the only thing that mattered. He held her closer to him, "It's alright now. I'm here, and I'll never let you go, so just relax and let me comfort you." Ichigo's crying finally ceased and she fell asleep in his arms. Ryou smiled and lifted her up. He brought her down stairs where everyone gathered around to see what was wrong with Ichigo. Ryou smiled, "I guess you all will have to wait 'til tomorrow. Will one of you carry her home? I'll finish closing up." Zakuro nodded and took Ichigo on her back and left the cafe. The other girls finished cleaning and soon left also. Ryou turned the lights off in the kitchen and walked out to lock the front door when he saw Masaya run in out of breath.

Masaya ran up to Ryou, "Is Ichigo still here? I really need to talk to her!"

Ryou couldn't control his temper. He punched Masaya in the face knocking him to the ground. Masaya put his hand over his eye where Ryou had hit him and looked up confused. Ryou rubbed his hand which was now hurting from the hard hit he had just given Masaya, "You stay away from Ichigo! I will not let you hurt her anymore then you already have!"

Masaya lowered his head in shame, "She told you, huh?" Ryou refused to answer his question. Masaya stood up, "Please give me a chance to explain, give me just ten minutes."

Ryou turned his back to him, "You've got five." He then sat down and waited for Masaya's explanation.

Masaya took the seat across from him and began, "Look, the girl I met is Laurel, I met her in England. She was studying with me and then I guess she got kinda attracted to me. I kept trying to tell her that I was in love with someone else, but she just wouldn't listen. I decided to come home early and surprise Ichigo, but Laurel followed me. I let her into my house to use the phone and get a ticket back to England, and then she started kissing me. I know I could have stopped her, but I wasn't thinking straight at the time. It was stupid and I'm sorry."

Ryou wasn't satisfied, "You expect me to believe a story like that? It probably took you the whole run here to come up with that. How do I know you're not lying to me?"

"Because it's true."

The two guys turned around to see Laurel at the front door. Tears were in her eyes. "What Masaya just told you is the truth." She looked over at Masaya, "I'm so sorry Masaya, my boyfriend died in a car accident last year and it felt really lonely not having anyone to love. That's when you came in and I tried to forget that sadness by trying to fall in love with you. I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused for you and your girlfriend. She wiped the tears from her eyes, "I got a plane back to England for tomorrow, until then, I'll wait in a motel." She then left without saying another word.

Ryou sighed, "So it is true." Masaya nodded. Ryou got up from the chair, "Zakuro took Ichigo home, I'll explain to her what happenned tomorrow."

Masaya also got up from his chair and shut his eyes, "No, I'll talk to her. This is my fault to begin with. I just hope she'll allow me to talk to her." He put his coat back on and left the cafe.

Ryou locked the door after Masaya left and went back to his room. He lied in his bed and stared at his ceiling, "Masaya is innocent." He rolled to his side, "I should be happy for Ichigo. She'll once again be happy with Masaya." He closed his eyes, "So why aren't I?" He began to fall asleep, but before that, he whispered to himself, "Ichigo, how I wish you were mine..."

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Poor Ryou! Sorry all you RyouxIchigo fans out there but Masaya is innocent. So I guess that means Ichigo and Masaya are going to be together forever...or are they?

Sorry for the short chapter, I just thought that it was a decent place to end it. I was pretty impressed with this chapter also, but I'm still not satisfied.

Alyssa: Either you're really smart, or I'm just extremely dumb for making things so obvious. I'm really glad you're enjoying the story!

Please come back for the next chapter!