Huzzah! The next chapter is done, and it's a bit longer than the others have been thus far; I really like this one . To the reviews!
SukiLovesAnime14- -grins- I have you in my clutches now. Enjoy the next chapter!
Samurai Angel- Wow, more and more people are finding this believable –gawks- I really thought I was one of the few people who thought like this around my crush. I'm happy you've started reading!
Sakura Trees- I shall! Read on, man!
twilight eyes 8120- More proof! Alriiiiiight –punches the air- I am normal! I'm glad this is reaching so many people. You'll find out what the note said, and you think you hate the mean girls now—whoa boy, you're in for a lot more later on in the story –grins evilly-.
SladesDaughter- Steph, Kumiko does not mean braid. Good guess, though! Har har; sorry I haven't been emailing you; I've gotten out of the habit recently –smacks self- I'll get around to it. I hope you like the next chapter!
kikoken- Naah, she didn't throw up –shrugs- 'twas a weird way of phrasing it, I know. Enjoy reading!
AllisonWalker- -patpat- There, there. Boys are butt heads, and they're mean. And confusing. And guess what? They think the same thing about us, and say we're harder to understand. But they're wrong –smirks-.
Sorceress Vanessa- Another reader! –glomps- welcome! And like I said to kikoken, she didn't throw up; I just meant that to express how much her stomach "plummeted" when she realized who it was.
Shibichicken- you'll just have to read to find out, Jon. When have I ever told you how my stories are going to turn out? Never. And I'll be sure to email you the next time you don't review Hacker's World; I didn't know you were that into it –smiles- and congrats on your girlfriend! I'm happy for ya –wink-.
Arabella Silverbell- Hee hee, the psychicness… -wiggles fingers- Yet another can easily put herself into Kumiko's shoes. Muah! Enjoy!
Whew! I am on Winter Break! Woot! I'll be writing hopefully a lot more. Now I should go to bed. It's 1:30 in the morning. Oh! One more thing; the picture of Kumiko and Shinobu is posted on my profile page, so those of you who want to see what they look like.... yeah, go there.
Chapter 3
I tried to calmly look up, but it felt like it took forever because he's so tall, and I was sitting down. When I did finally meet his eyes, I didn't know what to think. He was just looking down at me. I didn't know how long he'd been there, as I tend to lose track of time when I have a lot of things going through my head at once, but I was hoping it wasn't too long; I didn't want to seem like a slow, dim-witted girl eating her pitiful lunch by herself.
"You wrote this," he said, holding out the little slip of paper. I'm sure it was a sort of question, but he said it like he knew, and wanted an explanation rather than a meek yes or no.
"Yeah." Oh God, that sounded so stupid. I elaborated, making an attempt at shrugging my shoulders. "They were—annoying me, too." No need to tell him the true sappy reason for the note. "…and you made them go away, and…" Why was I bumbling like an idiot? Why did I suddenly forget how to speak like a civilized human being?
"You never seemed to care when they were doing that before."
"I try my best to ignore them." Wow, that actually came out pretty well—wait. What?
"Next time, don't ignore them. It was twice as annoying telling them off for you." With that, he left.
I vaguely nodded my head in the general direction of his retreating form, still thinking about what he had just said. You never seemed to care when they were doing that before. He noticed something about me? No, he probably just figured that out because… oh heck, I'll take it as the best-case scenario. He noticed me.
My heart pounded at the very thought, even though I knew it was a far-fetched assumption. He had noticed something about me, like I've always wanted him to. Does this mean that I can talk to him? No, of course not. I could try, though. He talked to me, so it was only fair.
Just then Shinobu came bounding up out of nowhere. "Kumiko! Did I just see you talking to Kaiba?" he nearly yelled.
I grabbed his wrist and yanked him down to my level, shushing him. "Yeah, that was Seto," I murmured.
"How'd you do it this time?" he asked. I'd heard that question a hundred times before, but this time was different. He and I had actually spoken to each other. I gave him a long, detailed explanation that took a long time considering that almost nothing had happened.
"What did you write on the note?" he asked when I was done.
"Just… thank you."
He blinked. "That's it?"
Boy, did my heart jump into my throat. "What do you mean, 'that's it'?" I asked apprehensively.
"Well, not in a bad way—I mean—" He was obviously trying to catch himself, as he knew how fast my confidence could be shattered, but he knew it was already too late. "Alright, I didn't mean that it was dumb or anything, I just thought you could have maybe written something like 'you're hot'; you know, something to really make him ponder why you gave him the note," he finished, grinning.
I still felt shocked for some reason. What he had said really made me freak out. Why did I write that stupid note? Oh my God, what did I just do? Oh my god, oh my God, oh my God—
"Kumi-chan?" I was jerked back into reality when I blinked and saw that Shinobu was right in front of my face, peering intently at me. "What's wrong?"
"I—I have to go," I rushed. I had to go and tell Seto to forget about the note—no, even better, I had to tell him that it was a joke or something, tell him something to make him think that it really didn't matter that much to me.
"Where?" His hand came out of nowhere and grabbed my arm; somehow I had stood up and started to walk without even realizing it.
"Class." I really didn't have time for him holding me like that, so I tried to get away from him, but he pulled me back and looked me dead on.
"Kumiko," he said sternly. "You have nothing to worry about; you're freaking out over something really small. Think about it; if he had thought it was dumb or something he wouldn't have talked to you about it, would he?"
"I—I—well… he did have the note when he came to talk to me…" I murmured. A small beacon of hope! No, I must crush it with another pessimistic view to make him let me go talk to Seto. "But that doesn't mean he didn't throw it away when he left! Come on, Shinobu!"
He finally let me go, and said something so soft I barely heard it as I rushed off to find Seto. "You're obsession with him is really making you more stressed than you need to be, Kumiko."
I rushed down the halls, knowing exactly where he had gone; I knew that he sat in the classroom to eat his lunch because all the hubbub of the lunch area annoyed him. Right as I reached the door, I had my hand reaching out to it before I started to think again.
Wait, what am I doing? I need to tell him not to take the note too seriously. How? Won't that make it more obvious that I care what he thinks about me? What if he makes fun of me? Does my hair look ok? What if he's not even in there and I'm sitting here panicking about nothing?
Do I even need to talk to him? Yes, I sternly told myself. I do. That's all there is to it. But I can't! I can't! Ok, just take a deep breath and do it; it'll all be over before you know it.
My hand made it the rest of the way to the doorknob and got a hold on it. Wait, wait! I can't do it! Go back! No, come on, don't be such a chicken! The doorknob was turned. NO! I'm not ready yet! The door swung open.
No, no, no! Oh God, now I have no choice! Ok, just walk in like you do this every day…
I took in a deep breath and walked inside, knowing very well that Seto was the only one in there, and his eyes were on me because of how jerkily the door had been wrenched open. I did my best to look calm and composed again, and I sat down in a desk across the row from him. He looked at me, puzzled, the chopsticks he was using still partially in his mouth. I sort of looked at my hands, knowing that it was all I could do to keep myself from running from the place like there was no tomorrow. That's when I saw that he had a piece of paper in his hand—my piece of paper.
My mind went blank.
I think my mouth opened slightly as I stared at his hand and thought about how untidy my writing looked all of a sudden. "What's wrong with you?" he demanded, still partially chewing on his last bite.
"Uhm—" I almost winced. Oh man, I should have never come here, now look, I'm embarrassing myself beyond reason. It wasn't that big of a deal, anyway! I am so dumb sometimes! I think he noticed what I was looking at, because his next phrase hit me quite hard.
"Do you want this back so that you can write something else on it to me?" he sneered, lightly holding it out with two fingers and taking a sip of his drink, keeping his eye trained on me the whole time.
"No," I said hurriedly, grabbing the note from him and crumpling it up—finally, I did something. "Erm… I just wanted to…to let you know that…" It suddenly struck me that I had no idea how the heck I was going to tell him. Why didn't I think of anything on the way over?
"Take your time," he said coolly, turning back to his meal and starting to eat again, as if I had suddenly become invisible. God, that was one thing I was hoping wouldn't happen. He really thinks I'm stupid and slow now. I should just leave—wait, why am I thinking about that? Shouldn't I be trying to come up with something to tell him?
"Well, that is to say," I began. "I just didn't want you to think that…" Hey, maybe if I say something that he would say in my place… "…that I actually meant this or anything." Oh yeah, I got it.
"Didn't look that way when we were talking earlier." He still wasn't looking at me, moving to start lightly scraping the sides of his bowl to get the last of the rice.
"Yeah, well that's because I was –" No, it was too hard. I didn't want to act like him to him anymore. "It just doesn't mean that I need your help or anything, but I did appreciate what you did, you know?" You know. I guess that meant that I was getting a little more comfortable.
"What do you care how I took it?" His eyes turned to me right then. It was like a Medusa stare; I froze.
What the heck was I supposed to say to that? He gave me close to no time to think about it—well, maybe he did, but it seemed like a really short time to me. Snickering, he closed his eyes as he took a short sip from his cup. "I get it now. You like me."
How the hell did he do that? Oh God! "I—I do not!" I nearly yelled. Oh man, I could feel the heat rushing to my face.
Starting to laugh a bit, he fully shifted in his seat to face me. "You're a rotten liar, you know that? I could even tell when you were trying to tell me that thing didn't matter," he said, gesturing to my hand—yet more embarrassment, my hand was still clamped around it.
And what was I supposed to say to that? I must have looked like such an idiot, just sitting there, beet red, half-grimacing. So I decided to do something about it.
I grabbed my bag and ran out.