Chapter 2 - A Discussion

Starry finally reached the dorms and calmly walked up the stairs to Ulrich's dorm, slightly wet with the new mist falling outside. She didn't know exactly where Ulrich's dorm was, but she just figured she'd know it when she saw it. Just then she heard loud rock-n-roll music coming from down the hall and someone singing, "Big, big, big dance! Big, big, big dance!" over and over again. I'm sure that's it. Although I didn't think Ulrich would sound that bad when he sang! She walked down the hall and pulled the door open, revealing the room within. It was Ulrich's room, all right, but another boy with blonde hair with a purple spot in the middle was dancing around the room, with only his boxers and a t-shirt with a picture of a dog on it on. "Ulrich -" she started.

Ulrich turned around to see Starry standing at the doorway. "Shoot, Odd, put some pants on, Starry's here!" Odd turned as well and, spotting Starry, blushed a bright crimson and ducked in the corner, pulling his pants on. A dog barked at her, and Ulrich hushed it, calling it 'Kiwi'. What an odd name for a dog Starry thought to herself. "So, what did you want?" Ulrich asked. "And how did you know that this was my - uh, our - dormroom?"

"A gut feeling, I guess, and I needed to talk to you about Yumi," she replied in one breath, it seemed.

"Yumi? What about? Is she mad at me?" Ulrich blurted out.

"Well, sort of, it's confusing. Would you mind if we talked, uh, alone?" She gestured towards the boy she now knew as Odd, sitting in the corner with his pants finally on and the dog, Kiwi, in his lap.

"No, I don't mind. Odd, I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay, later Ulrich!" Odd said, turning his music back on and jumping back up to sing. "Yeah! Big, big, big dance! Big, big, big dance!" Kiwi barked like he was singing along, and Starry and Ulrich headed down the hall, away from all of the noise.

"So, what's up? I mean, with Yumi," Ulrich stated once they were far enough away that you could hardly hear the music blaring from the speakers in their room. Odd should really turn that music down. It's too late to be playing music that loud!

"She going through a very hard time right now. She's confused and got very mixed feelings. I understand that you'd talked to her earlier, when you were coming out of her house and I bumped into you?"

"Yeah, I had talked to her. Why?"

"What did you say to her? Or ask her?"

"I asked about Emily and outfits to wear that would impress girls."

"And you like Yumi?"

"Yeah..." he admitted, blushing. That's twice now that I've admitted that, in the same day! Why am I admitting all of this to this new girl?

"So, maybe you were implying that you didn't like her, so..."

"Awe, shoot, I knew it! So that's why she's mad at me. But I don't understand...she doesn't like me..."

"Don't be so quick to assume things you don't know," Starry interrupted.

"So she does like me?"

"I didn't say that..."

"Then I guess I'm assuming again, aren't I?"

"Maybe."

"You're a very mysterious girl, and that's just putting it bluntly," Ulrich said.

"Why, thank you!" Starry replied. Ulrich gave her an odd look.

"What do you think I should do?"

"Hmm..." Starry said, feigning thinking up a solution. "You should apologize, for one thing. She's going through a lot of emotional stress..."

"Of course!" Ulrich exclaimed. "You're a genius! Thank you so much!" He grinned, then added, "Hey, does she really like me?"

"Can't reveal anything until this whole mess has been cleaned up. And it could get cleaned up a whole lot faster if you'd just apologize..."

Ulrich, taking the hint, said, "Thank you so much!" once again, then he ran out into the pouring rain towards the Ishiyama house, hoping that Yumi loved him as much as he loved her, or at least that this would all turn out right at the end.