Tohru had finished chopping up the onions for that night's dinner when Kyo walked into the kitchen. He had an odd look on his face, what one might call curiosity.
"What's wrong with you today, Honda-san?"
Tohru gasped and dropped the knife. The tip cut her little finger when she did this. "Oh." She looked at the blood dripping onto the floor. "I'm just clumsy today."
Kyo pulled out a stool from under the table and let her sit down. "Come on. Tell me. I want to know the whole story." Recently Kyo had become a lot calmer, because he'd been having frequent lessons from his teacher. "I can't help you if you don't tell me."
Tohru was used to Kyo shouting at her. He could become angry over the slightest little thing that didn't seem to matter to anybody else. But today there was something different about him, and Tohru felt obliged to tell him what the problem was.
"Well… um… I don't know where to start," Tohru muttered, sucking her little finger. She wiped the blood onto her apron and looked down at the ground. She couldn't look into Kyo's face. She'd been having a lot of trouble with that lately.
"Start from the beginning," Kyo suggested.
Tohru wanted to tell him about going to the Sohma main house to give a present to Momiji. She wanted to tell him about what happened next… Momiji declaring his love to her, running away in tears, feeling guilty because she'd broken a heart… but she couldn't. Kyo wouldn't really understand.
But… then again, something told her he would…
"Well… Momiji loves me," she burst out, biting her lip. Her brown eyes sparkled. "Do you think I should love him back?" She looked at the clock, which was ticking slowly above Kyo's head on the wall. Yuki and Shigure would be back soon.
"I really have to get on with dinner," Tohru yelled suddenly, shocking Kyo so he fell down off the table. Tohru's hand throbbed painfully, and she smiled weakly. She'd almost forgotten about the cut, which she had given herself when she wasn't looking because of thinking about Momiji and what he'd said.
Did she really deserve to have him as a boyfriend?
She thought of all the hardships she'd come through in her life – her dad leaving her and her mother, her mother dying, having to live with her grandfather, her grandfather's house being renovated and being reduced to life in a tent – and realised that she, Tohru Honda, really did deserve a little happiness in her life.