A/N: We interrupt this fic to bring you a rant involving the latest GX episode.

HOW DARE THEY? HOW DARE THEY DO THAT TO MISAWA?

For those of you who watch the dub, or just don't want spoilers, I won't say exactly what they did. However, I WILL say that it is degrading, humiliating, and represents everything that this fic is against!

Ahem...thank you...we now return to our regularly scheduled programming. In other words, Chapter Six.

P.S. There will still be unresolved issues for Misawa at the end of this. Emi will not find everything out. This is necessary, due to what happens in canon. However, it's rather likely that I will make an epilogue chapter.

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At first, Emi thought it was a coincidence that Misawa didn't go to the sickroom cafeteria for dinner. She thought Misawa was just tired when she walked in to take his temperature and found him asleep.

By the next morning though, Emi could see the pattern: Misawa was trying his best to avoid Emi.

Perhaps she had pried too far. It wasn't like she hadn't done that before.

But...she couldn't just sit here and do NOTHING!

The school didn't have a certified psychologist, so Emi had to assume those duties.

That, and she actually CARED for Misawa. He was like the little brother that Emi had never had.

Emi knew that it wasn't exactly encouraged to form strong bonds with just one student, but who COULDN'T with a guy like Misawa?

He needed the extra attention, and no one knew that better than Emi.

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In the afternoon, Emi walked in the sickroomunder the pretense of vacuuming.

Misawa was sitting on his bed. He was reading his textbook yet again, and pointedly ignoring Emi.

Emi kept running her vacuum near his bed until the floor surrounding it was spotless, but Misawa didn't even budge.

Emi finally realized that this was pointless after she had vacuumed the area six times.

She switched the vacuum off.

Misawa still did nothing.

Emi tried to take the textbook out of his hands. Misawa's hands might as well have been made out of iron, for all the success Emi was having.

Okay. She'd tried to do this subtly. However, it looked like Emi had to be the one to talk first.

Finally, she sternly ordered Misawa to put the textbook away.

He did so, but still made no eye contact with Emi.

Emi started with, "If I made you uncomfortable yesterday, I apologize. However, we have to talk about this. It will do no good for you to just keep this all bottled up."

Misawa shifted slightly, and was still not making eye contact, but at least he was now facing Emi's general direction.

Emi had nothing more to say, so she waited for Misawa to reply.

At first, nothing. Then he said just one word, in a low voice.

"Stop..."

Emi, confusedly, answered, "Stop what? I'm confused."

More silence. Then, Misawa said something utterly baffling.

"Stop being nice to me."

"Wha...why would I do that? I'm being nice to you because I care about you!"

Misawa was apparently struggling to explain.

"You don't...well, you may think you care, but you can't...not really. You're a teacher, and I'm just a student who apparently doesn't deserve any respect, not after what happened..."

Emi remembered the far-fetched tale she had heard from Junko. Could this be what Misawa was referring to?

She was dying to hear more, but decided that Misawa should only tell what he felt like telling.

Misawa finally looked over at Emi and said, "You must have heard. They all talked about it for weeks. They thought I couldn't hear, but I did. They kept saying I was pathetic, and the girls all started to...well, you've heard that part at least..."

It was obvious that this was very difficult for Misawa to recount. However, by putting this together with what Junko said, Emi thought she knew what was going on.

It was all just ignorance on the part of the other students. Because Misawa was seduced by one woman, all the girls assumed Misawa would act the same way around them. And the boys...they maybe lost respect for Misawa because he lost so badly.

Of course, that could be completely wrong. However, it seemed like the most likely scenario.

That was a lot to just keep locked away. Emi couldn't see how ANYBODY could live with a shunning so sudden and severe.

In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if the stress had actually weakened Misawa's resistance against sickness. He had suffered an unusually pernicious bout of strep throat.

Emi said none of this reasoning aloud. Instead, she simply stated that she hoped saying these things would make Misawa feel better.

He shrugged.

Emi knew that now was the time for her to leave.

She had to say one more thing, though. As she was walking out the door, she said softly, "It's okay for you to cry, you know."

Misawa looked at her and shook his head.

"I'm way past that point," he muttered sadly.

Although Emi desperately wanted to help more, she knew that she had done all that was in her power.

She would definitely ask Chronos about hiring a counselor or psychologist, to prevent things like this from happening again.

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For the rest of the time he was in the infirmary, Misawa said little to Emi. However, he did acheive his goal of doing every problem in the textbook. He seemed to be at least somewhat proud of this.

Judai remained the only student who had visited, and even he only visited that one time.

Naturally, when the time came for Misawa to leave, Emi was more than slightly disappointed.

For six days, Misawa had someone who could be considered a friend to him. However, he was now going back to everyday life, where his and Emi's paths would seldom cross.

Of course, she'd see Misawa during gym and health class. However, she would have no time to talk to him, since there were more than fifty other students in the room.

Well, that couldn't be helped. All Emi could do was hope that the other students would finally come to their senses. And-this was a bit wicked-she actually have hoped that Misawa would get another serious but non-lethal sickness/injury, so he could come back.

Well, for now Misawa was healthy again, so he would have to leave.

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He did say goodbye, though.

Emi was in her office, cursing that horrible, naughty file cabinet, when the door opened.

Misawa was standing nervously in the doorway. All his things had already been packed.

Emi was so surprised that she banged her head on an open drawer of the cabinet.

After giving the cabinet another round of curse words and a good kick, Emi turned her attention to Misawa.

He was actually smiling! Well...as close to smiling as he could get, anyway.

He then shuffled his feet and said, "Thanks for trying. Really."

Before Emi could reply, he ran out.

It wasn't exactly a dramatic exit like the kind in movies, but it was close enough.

Emi really would miss him.

THE END

A/N: Yay! I managed to make this the last chapter!

But now I know that this NEEDS an epilogue chapter. Maybe when Misawa is in the White Association...I dunno.

But this is the first time I've more or less finished a chapter fic!