Here it is: the much anticipated chapter five! Oooh. I was planning to put this off, and submit it around Christmas, but I thought that was too mean, so I just decided to get this chapter over with. Anyway, since everyone was been so good to me with the reviews, I thought that I'd treat you guys with a new chapter, so here you go. Oh yeah, I should take the time to say it now, that the school isn't a major setting, and that Rikku, Lulu, Wakka, and Dona have very limited roles in this story when you compare it to your conventional "high school story." The last chapter was probably the only time they'll ever come up. I thought I should have told you, because some people were wondering.

-----

"Mmm…" I groaned, half-asleep.

I then shot out of bed, breaking into a sweat. I rubbed my eyes and looked around my room. My homework was on my desk, sprawled throughout the table, making a complete and total mess.

I got out of bed and made my way to my desk. I cleaned up all the eraser shavings I made, stacked the lined paper into a corner, and put my workbooks back on the shelf. Once my work space was clean, I took a seat in my swivel chair, spinning around clockwise slowly.

'I had the most perfect dream last night,' I thought to myself.

"Perfect" was an understatement, I'll tell you. Actually, it's been a recurring dream and fantasy of mine for the past three years. And it never fails to make me happy, as far as dreams go, anyway.

But this one was different. In this dream, everything felt so real.

You wanna know what it was about?

You really want to know?

You really, really want to know?

Fine, I'll tell you. Just quit blurting out bad words at me, jeez.

You see, I'm sleeping on my bed right? And then Tidus walks into my room.

He kneels at my bedside, and he watches me sleep for a while.

"Hey, Yunie-chan," he speaks sweetly.

I don't wake up, though. He continues to talk to me while I slumber.

"I love you, Yunie-chan," he gushes. "With all my heart. I just thought you should know, because you were the only person that really cared for me."

He poured out all his feelings at that moment. It was so wonderful, I tell you!

I could hear him begin to cry.

"You made me feel special; I'm forever indebted to you for doing so. This may be pointless, saying this to you in your sleep… but I just had to tell you, whether you were awake or asleep…"

Then it happens.

He kisses me.

Hey girls aren't you green with envy?

"I love you, Yuna Kuriyama."

And then the dream ends.

What I wouldn't give for that dream to become reality! It felt like reality. I could almost feel his breath on me, and his voice begin to tremble.

I sighed dreamily and stopped spinning in my chair, partly because I was starting to feel kind of dizzy.

I stood up straight, and I adjusted my nightgown.

I walked over to my door, and opened it. I stepped out of my room, and closed the door.

I tip-toed over to Tidus' door stopped in front of it.

I knocked on it gently.

"Tidus-kun?"

Silence.

He must be oversleeping. But what else is new?

"Time for school," I beckoned.

Still no answer.

I slowly turned the doorknob, and pushed the door open.

I expected him to be sound asleep on his bed, like yesterday morning, but he wasn't.

I raised an eyebrow and stepped into the room.

"Tidus-kun!" I called.

There was still no answer.

I began to worry. I scanned the room carefully, and there was absolutely no sign of Tidus anywhere.

I ran over the bathroom and knocked on the door.

"Tidus-kun, are you in there?"

No one answered.

I shut my eyes and flung the door open.

I cautiously opened an eye and saw nothing.

I walked over to the bed and lay on it, utterly confused.

'Where is he?' I thought to myself.

I sighed loudly, and I fell back onto the pillows.

I felt something wet on the back of my head, and I shot up quickly in response to the sensation.

I looked back to see what it was, and it was a pretty large wet mark. I ran my palm over my hair, patting it dry. I turned around to get on all fours and ran my hand over the wet spot on the pillow, feeling the dampness of it.

I slowly raised my hand under my nostrils, and slowly sniffed it in curiosity.

'Tears,' I thought.

Was he crying last night? If he was, what was it about? Why didn't he come to me and tell me what was bothering him?

But maybe he wasn't crying. It did seem unlikely; Tidus hasn't cried in years!

What if that stain was left by something else?

I looked at my hand in horror.

I shook my head rapidly.

"Ewwwwwww!"I wiped my hand on the covers and the bed sheets.

"I'm getting off this bed before I get pregnant or something! Who knows how many of those stains are on this bed?"

I jumped off the mattress and dusted my upper legs off.

"I don't do that, Yuna."

His voice rang out to me, recalling our mishap the other night.

'Fat chance!' I scoffed in my mind.

Tidus is your quintessential horny teenage kid. He feels me up every damn chance he gets, and has groped every one of my body parts at least once. Hell, he even scopes out the mannequins in lingerie store windows! I bet he has porn hidden all over this room.

Something caught my eye.

I turned slowly to his closet, which he left a complete and total mess. Clothes were tiredly gangling off the hangers, dirty laundry was scattered everywhere, but something was missing.

The Louis Vuitton luggage set I gave him on his sixteenth birthday.

He said that it was the most unusual present anyone's ever given him. "Are you trying to send me away?" he joked then. He should have been grateful I spent two million, two hundred eighty-nine thousand yen on him! I told him that sooner or later, he'll find use for it. Oh well. Take note, girls: never give a guy luggage as a present.

Since then, he has never touched it, so why would he start now? Most importantly, where did it go? The only logical explanation was that…

No. There's no way.

I was really beginning to worry. Tidus is missing, half of his clothes are gone, and his toiletries and all his personal possessions have disappeared. You do the math.

I took a step back and bumped into his desk. I whirled around and his laptop was missing as well. But something caught my eye. It was a piece of paper.

I picked it up and looked at it. I read it slowly in my mind, and again out loud, not being able to comprehend what was going on.

KITCHEN

Auron was pouring himself a cup of coffee when I barged in.

"TIDUS RAN AWAY!" I screamed.

Auron, in surprise, yelped in shock that I frightened him. He almost dropped his mug, but caught it before coffee spilled everywhere. He turned to me, clutching his heart.

"Yuna-chan" he began. "You scared me…"

I ran over to him and pushed the note in his hand.

"Read it!" I yelled in a tizzy.

He eyed me suspiciously and took the paper. He put on his eyeglasses and read it aloud, while I turned away and ran my hands through my hair in dismay, my chest rising and falling heavily.

I heard Auron begin reading.

"Dear Yuna-chan and Auron-sama.

I'm very sorry for doing this, and I can't begin to tell you how much I hate to do this, but I felt I had no choice.

I'm going away. I'll be gone for some time. I don't know when I'll be back. I just need to think and sort out what's going on in my life.

Don't worry about me. I'm more than capable to take care of myself. Just please, let me be.

I love you guys,

Tidus Sasaki.

I didn't turn back to face him, but I had a feeling what was coming next.

3…

2…

1...

Smash!

The coffee mug he was holding fell out of his grasp, and fell to the floor in shambles, and the black liquid in it splashed all over the floor; some of it wet the back of my legs.

I turned around, and I watched him punch his fist into the counter.

He then began to spew out every expletive and curse word known to man, all in under thirty seconds.

He buried his head in his arms on the counter, and I could hear him breathing rapidly.

I walked over to him, avoiding the shards of broken glass and laid a hand on his shoulder.

I could feel a tear come to my eye, and I let it slide down my face.

He looked up at me, and for the first time in my life, I saw him cry.

FIVE MONTHS LATER

Emptiness.

That's the only emotion I felt since the day he left.

It was heartbreaking. It was the most horrible and emptying feeling imaginable.

Ever since that day, life began going downhill.

I couldn't concentrate on my studies, and because of that, my grades suffered the consequences. I lost my reign as one of the top five students at Zen Arukando High School, and everyone looked at me differently because of it. Everyone knew how close Tidus and I were. Everyday, they would try to comfort me. "I'm sorry about Tidus," they would say. "I know how you feel." I know they had their best interest for me at heart, but I really didn't give a damn. Sometimes, I just wanted to go up to them, and say "Don't ever talk as if you know how I feel." But I hate to be mean like that, so whenever they try to sympathize with me, I try to smile and put on my happiest face.

Also, because of my "available" status, guys came up to me and tried to pick me up. First, they were subtle advances, and then soon, as time went on, they became more sick and sadistic. They'd grab body parts, they'd try to take advantage of me, and they'd try to take me to get into my pants. I've never felt so violated in my life. It was so demoralizing. It's happened before, but the only difference was that Tidus was there to stop them. But now that he was gone, I was left alone to defend myself. But I was too weak do anything. Only one person could ever grope me and get away with it, albeit with a red slap mark across their face, and that was Tidus.

Slowly but gradually, I lost my will to live. I hate to admit it, but I thought of suicide a handful of times. It was always such a scary thought, and how could you blame me for thinking so? I had so many opportunities to do it, and a few times, I couldn't begin to tell you how close I got to actually doing so. But before I could dig the knife into my wrist, before I could let go of the rope and let it strangle me, I always stopped myself. In the letter, he implied that he'd come back. And if he did, and I wasn't alive to be there, well, now you know why I just couldn't bring myself to end my life.

Now, I'm nothing but an empty shell. I'm forced to smile through a thousand tears. What I wouldn't give to have him back in my arms, holding me closely to him.

But you know what ate away at me the most? It hurt more than the emptiness I felt inside of me.

I never told him how much I loved him.

I felt miserable. I had every opportunity to tell him, but I chickened out and stayed quiet, keeping everything under glass. Now, I can't begin to tell you how much I regret doing so. I should have just puffed out my chest, take e deep breath, and say, "Tidus, I love you." But noooo, I had to be a wuss and keep my damn mouth shut. Now, every damn minute, of every damn hour, of every single damn day, for the past five months, I've mentally kicked myself for keeping quiet.

Remember when I told you that on my twelfth birthday, he showed me his secret garden in Yoyogi Park? Well, I left out a few stuff that I didn't remember until the day he left.

He told me that while he's under any condition in which he can't visit the garden, like if he's sick, then he trusts me to look after it, and that no uninvited visitors intrude. So every other day, for the past five months, I've been visiting the garden for about an hour, sitting by the pond, throwing rocks, and just relaxing.

Also, he told me one more thing.

We made this pact that day at the garden.

"Yuna-chan, if you ever feel lonely," he said, cupping my face in his hand. "Just whistle and I'll come running."

He then showed me how whistle. He stuck his index finger and his thumb in his mouth, and blew. It made this loud, ear piercing sound.

I tired it the first time, but it failed. He laughed at me.

"You almost got it, Yuna-chan. Just practice and you'll get it in no time."

So I practiced. I practiced and practiced. Until one day, when I was thirteen, I got it right. I was so excited, that I had to showed him. When I did it, it came out more sharp and shrill than any whistle he's ever done. He laughed and congratulated me. "That was really good, Yuna-chan!" he gushed.

Ever since then, the whistle never failed me. Even if I was at home, and he was at the garden, and I whistled out from my balcony, sooner or later, he came running.

So for the last five months, I've been whistling. And no one would whisle back. Sometimes, I'd even go out to the observatory deck of Tokyo Tower, the highest point in all of Tokyo, and whistle. But to no avail.

I sighed. I got off my bed, and stripped myself of my school uniform. I just finished my homework at the garden this afternoon, and I spend most of my after school time with Rikku, Lulu and Wakka, so I was pretty beat. Being a Friday night, you'd expect more excitement, right? But since Tidus' left, I've lost the will to splurge.

Anyway, I dressed myself in a pair of denim short-shorts and a white camisole, and I grabbed a hairclip to hold my hair up. I walked out of my room, and into Tidus'.

I turned on the lights, and I walked into the room, closing the door behind me. I made my way over to his closet, and knelt down. I then began folding and hanging all of his clothes. Hey, if he should come back, he'd want a nice, clean closet to come home to right?

Once everything was in order, I stood up and dusted off my chest. Something then caught my eye. I found the same jacket Tidus let me wear that night at Omotesando Hills. I took it off its hanger, and felt the cotton fabric on my fingers. I held it up to my nose and inhaled the lingering scent.

It smelled of him.

I slowly slipped it on my body, and felt the warmth of it.

I closed the closet door, and I looked over to the French doors leading to the balcony. I strolled over to the door, and I opened them, letting the cool autumn breeze come in. It was nighttime, so it was colder than usual. I stepped out onto the balcony, and I slipped the light switch for the balcony lights to come on.

I pulled up the zipper and rubbed my hands together for more warmth. I leaned on the iron railing and looked out to the view.

It was beautiful. Tokyo's skyline never changes. The glistening waters of Tokyo Bay, with the incandescent lights of the Rainbow Bridge reflecting off the bay, international orange illuminating Tokyo Tower, the bright lights of the surrounding skyscrapers, and the sound of the wind, slowly blowing through my hair. It was breathtaking, and I never get tired of this view.

I then thought of something. It was pretty farfetched, but, for the past five months, it never stopped me before.

I took my index finger and my thumb, held them to my mouth, and blew.

The whistling sound echoed through the night, piercing through the hustling and bustling noise of city life.

I waited. I waited for Tidus' whistle to come back to me.

But, once again, nothing came.

I laughed at my own naiveté.

Look at me. Yuna Kuriyama, holding onto false hope, and waiting for something that may never come. Don't I look pathetic? I thought as much.

But that false hope is all I have. No one ever believed that Tidus would ever come home. Even Auron, believe it or not. Three months ago, he just gave up on the thought of Tidus coming to his senses and coming back from who knows where. No one believed, except for me. And as far as I'm concerned, one person believing is all that it takes to make a miracle happen.

I began to cry.

I let my tears fall like rain. They fell everywhere. On the railing, on my hands, on the floor, and some fell off the balcony, crashing down into the streets at the bottom level.

I took in a deep breath, and reared back. I then leaned forward, and yelled at the top of my lungs:

"I LOVE YOU, TIDUS SASAKI!"

My voiced echoed, slowly fading into the distance.

I hung my head in silence.

I slowly let go of the railing, and I walked back inside the house.

I closed the doors behind me, and I took a seat at Tidus desk.

"Why did you have to leave?" I asked weakly, breaking down into tears. I crossed my arms on the table and buried my head in my arms.

I looked up, and wiped my tears on Tidus' jacket's sleeve. His desk was in disarray as well, so I decided to tidy it up. I put away a phone book that was left open on his desk. I took a stationery pad and a permanent marker, and I was about to put it in the drawer, when I noticed something about it.

There was something written on the piece of paper that was on the top of the pad. It wasn't exactly written on it directly, but it was as if someone wrote with permanent parker on the piece of paper that went before it, and the ink had seeped through onto this one.

I ripped the paper off the pad and tried to make out what it said.

It was pretty vague, but I tried to make sense of it.

The first line was some sort of date.

"May… Sixteenth… 2006…" I read the first line. It seemed to look like that's what it read.

"May sixteenth… That's the day before we found out Tidus was missing!" I exclaimed in shock. Maybe I could use this as a clue to find him!

The second like look like there were three words. I focused on the first line.

"N… N…" It started with an "N," but I couldn't read the rest.

"Nara? Nagano? Natsukashigaru?" I threw out all the words I knew that began with "n."

I focused on the second word, figuring that the first one would come to me later.

The second word was pretty long. It looked as if it began with an "I."

"In… In…ter… Inter… International!" I finally got it.

The third word began with an "A."

"A… Ai… Air... Airspace? Airplane? Air…" I scratched my head. I got the "airp" right; I just couldn't make out the last three letters.

"Air… Damn, this is hard! Air… Airport!"

I smiled at my own intelligence.

"The second line is 'Something-that-begins-with-an-"n" International Airport!"

I thought of all the airports I knew that began with a word that starts with "n."

"Naha International Airport? No, 'Naha" is too short. Niigata International Airport? I don't think so… This is so frustrating! …Narita! Narita International Airport!"

So, Tidus got on a plane? Where did he find the money? On second thought, Auron did say that he was missing a lot of yen from his wallet following Tidus' disappearance.

The third line was the easiest to make out. Like the second line, it had "International Airport" at the end. The first word was "San," and the second one started with a "D."

"San D…" I thought aloud. "What city starts with San D? I don't think it's an airport in Japan…"

I repeated that in my mind.

"I don't think it's an airport in Japan…"

You mean to tell me that Tidus isn't even in the country?

Whatever his reason to run away- and it better be damn well worth my time to listen to when I find his sorry ass- it must have been pretty bad to leave the country.

Anyway, I continued to think of a city with "San D…"

"San Dimas? San… Diego? San Diego! San Diego International Airport!"

There was one last line: three words, the first beginning with an "M."

"M… Man… Mandarin? Man… Manchest… Manchester."

Time for the second word.

"G… Gra… Granite… Grand… Okay, okay. Manchester Grand."

The last word started with an "H," and it was pretty short. It looks like the last two letters were the same, so it couldn't have been too hard to figure it out.

"H…Hy… Hyatt… Manchester Grand Hyatt!"

'So that's Tidus' hotel in San Diego? Sounds luxurious.'

I completed the note. It read:

"May 16, 2006.

Narita International Airport

San Diego International Airport

Manchester Grand Hyatt."

I took a piece of paper and dug for a pencil in the drawer. I wrote down what I figured out, and I took the note with me to my room.

I turned on my light, and pulled out my backpack. I emptied it of all my school supplies and filled it with a weekend's full of clothes. You may think that I should use a suitcase, and that I'm under packed, but trust me. This trip won't take long.

I grabbed my toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, shampoo, soap, and a few pads for my "lady problems" from the bathroom and the cabinets under the sink.

I grabbed my small stuffed bear from my bed. It was a teddy bear Tidus bought for me when I was fifteen because I was sick with a fever. I felt so ill that he bought me the bear to make me feel better.

I slipped on a pair of light blue low-top canvas shoes, and I grabbed my wallet and my cell phone.

I ran back to Tidus' room for the phone book and searched for the airport's phone number.

"Moshi-moshiNarita Kokusai Kūkō, hajimemashite?"

"I need tickets for the next plane to San Diego!"

SAN DIEGO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Sixteen hours. Sixteen long hours.

I've never been on a plane, so sitting in a chair, sleeping, and doing absolutely nothing is not what I'm accustomed to.

And the food.

Seriously; what is up with that stuff?

Anyway, I didn't need to bother with baggage claim, since I only brought my backpack, so I didn't spend a whole lot of time in the airport. I walked out of the terminal, and boarded a bus that took commuters to and from downtown and the airport.

Me being a tourist, I got out my digital camera, and took pictures of the high-rises and skyscrapers. They were a lot, but not to the same extent as Tokyo. The sun was shining brightly, and we passed by beautiful and sandy beaches. We stopped in front of two white buildings with roofs shaped like slotted tip screwdrivers.

"Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel," the bus driver announced over the intercom.

The bus doors opened, and a few people, along with me, exited the bus.

I put on my sunglasses, and stepped onto the sidewalk. There were hundreds of people on the sidewalks, but this was tame compared to Shibuya. Anyway, I walked across the long sidewalk and entered the hotel.

I was greeted by doormen, and I approached the reception desk, resting my glasses on my head.

"Hello, welcome to the Manchester," the receptionist spoke in a welcoming tone, and smiled at me. "Will you be checking in this morning?"

I shook my head. "No, but I was wondering if you could give me the room number for Tidus Sasaki? I believe he's been staying here for sometime."

The receptionist nodded.

"Okay, then." She started typing rapidly on the keyboard in front of her.

"Sasaki… Sasaki…" she mumbled, searching for his name on the computer.

"Here he is," she finally spoke to me. "Tidus Sasaki is staying at our Regency Suite. Here is his room number," she took a small card from her desk and wrote something on it. "And the floor he's on," she continued.

She smiled at me and handed me the card.

"What is your name?" she asked.

"Yuna Kuriyama," I replied.

"Well Miss Kuriyama, welcome to the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego," she welcomed me.

"Thank you so much," I replied.

I left the reception desk and headed for the elevators.

"Miss!" she called from her desk to me. "Should I call his room saying that you came?"

I stopped in my tracks. If she did that, then it would spoil the surprise.

"No, thank you" I finally said. "He knows I'm here," I lied.

I pressed on the elevator button, and a few seconds later, it opened for me.

I stepped in, and the doors closed behind me. I looked at the card and pressed on the appropriate floor button.

A few moments later, the elevator doors opened. I walked down the hall, looking for the Regency Suite Tidus was in.

'Regency Suite, eh? Sounds expensive.'

After a few minutes looking, I finally found it.

I stopped at in front of his door.

'This is it,' I thought.

I swallowed hard.

I turned my hand into a fist, and I raised it, ready to knock on the door.

My breath caught in my throat.

After a few seconds of building anticipation, my fist made contact with the door.

'Knock, knock…'

The sound echoed through the empty halls.

A knocking sound on a door really isn't loud, but when you consider the circumstances, and how quiet the halls were at the time, a simple knock was hell.

Then, the door opened.

And sure enough, the person who opened the door and the person who was staring back at me was none other than Tidus Sasaki.

-----

DUN, DUN, DUNNNNNN. What happens? I don't know, and neither do you. Hahah. Anyway, here's some definition stuff.

-"He should have been grateful I spent two million, two hundred eighty-nine thousand yen on him!": That is the Japanese Yen equivalent to twenty-thousand US dollars.

-Natsukashigaru: To yearn for.
-Narita Kokusai Kuko: "Narita International Airport"
-Hajimemashite: "How do you do?"

-Nara: The capital of the Nara prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan, and was the former capital of Japan, even before Kyoto.
-Kansai: A metropolitan area on the southern part of the Honshu, the main island of Japan. Kansai is made of seven Japanese Prefectures: Nara, Wakayama, Mie, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, and Shiga. Kansai is usually compared and contrasted with the Kanto region, in the northern part of Honshu, and one would even say that they rival each other. Kansai is comprised of Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, and many other small cities and towns in the surrounding area. Kansai is usually considered the counter cultre hub of Japan. The two major airports serving this area are Osaka-Kansai International Airport in Osaka, which handles mainly international traffic, and Osaka-Itami international Airport, which serves mainly domestic flights, and the main seaport lies on Osaka Bay.
-Kanto: A metropolitan area on the northern part of Honshu. Kanto is usually compared and contrasted with the Kansai region, and one would even say that they rival each other. The region encompasses seven Japanese Prefectures, just like the Kansai region: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Kanto is mainly comprised of the two largest metropolitan areas: the Tokyo metropolis and Yokohama, the largest incorporated city in Japan, along with many other large cities and small towns surrounding Tokyo and Yokohama. Kanto is the most urbanized and industrialized area in Japan. The two major airports serving this area are Tokyo-Narita International Airport in the city of Narita, Chiba, which serves mainly international traffic, and Tokyo-Haneda International Airport, in the city of Ota, Tokyo, with handles mainly domestic flights, and the main seaport lies on Tokyo Bay.
-Nagano: The capital city of the Nagano Prefecture, and was the hosting city of the Winter Olympics in 1998.
-Manchester Grand Hyatt: A Grand Hyatt Hotel located in Downtown San Diego, just seconds from San Diego Bay. The Manchester owns the largest waterfront property of any hotel on the west coast. The Manchester has two towers parallel to each other: one is thirty-three stories, and the other is forty stories. The taller building is the highest building in San Diego. The Manchester boasts 1,625 rooms.

-----

Okay. I should tell you that the final chapter is already written and ready to be put up. BUT HERE'S THE CATCH: Until I reach a certain number of reviews- and I'm not saying what that number is- that chapter isn't going up. Hahah. It's part of my dry humor. So go, go, go and review, review, review! Review every chapter! Okay? Okay.

-----