Disclaimer : I don't own Hikaru no Go.

Chapter 15 : Whose side are you on?

That night, The Shindous' house, Hikaru's room

" What?" Hikaru was sitting at a dressing table, she turned around as soon as her teacher finished the line, " What did you just say?" she demanded her ghost menacingly.

" Err, I just..Whaaa," Sai cried as she threw a wet towel right to his pretty face.

" You are taking his side?" she said complainingly, " You are my mentor and my best friend but you are taking his side?"

" I'm not taking anyone's side," the wise man denied and tried to be reasonable with his hot-blooded sister, " I simply say that you two wouldn't have had that big fight, if you had listened to him in the first place,"

Searching for her hair-dryer in the drawer, the green-eyed girl retorted, " Well, it's not my fault that he chose the wrong place and the wrong time," she stood up for her thought, " He can talk to me any time, there're 24 hours a day! But did he do that? No, he had to choose when I was busy," she found the dryer at last, " And he chose to show up at the insei class! Sai! At the insei class where everybody was watching us! Doesn't the rumor go out widely enough?" Though Shindou Hikaru was rather slow when it came to romance, she wasn't that slow. Many insei girls kept asking her if she really was the Meijin's future daughter-in-law, many of them looked at her in a strange way when they saw her passing by , even Nase had deliberately called her just to ask her about their relationship. She would have been blind and really thick, if she hadn't noticed what was going on.

" But…." Sai's protest was lost when Hikaru switched on the dryer, the buzzing sound from the dryer interrupted their conversation. Watching his little sister drying her long black hair, he finally gave up. Fine, tomorrow she will probably forget about it anyway.

2 Days later, The Touyas' manor, in the living room

" So, do you think it's my fault then? Mother," Akira spoke discontentedly. Two days ago, on the day he had visited the insei class, instead of greeting him as usual, his mother had questioned him about the blonde at the moment he put his first step into the house. He had politely rejected to talk about it due to the fact that he was too tired. Yet, he had underestimated his own mother, Akiko could be persistent sometimes. She didn't give in easily, she asked him the very same question again tonight while his father was taking a bath. She specifically chose this moment when they were alone, Akira could tell that she wouldn't ever let him live in peace unless he told her the story. So he decided to tell her about his 2nd memorable encounter with Hikaru, after all, he couldn't avoid her for the rest of his life, plus, he did need some advice, " Where else can I find her but at the association?" he spoke defensively, " I don't know where she lives, I don't know which school she studies at,"

" Yes, that's correct, but that's not I'm talking about," Akiko noted, " You accused that poor girl of playing hard to get, that was cruel, Akira-san,"

"………." That was true, he couldn't deny it, still… That poor girl? Akira glanced at his sweet mother, he got an unexplained feeling that she was really happy lecturing him… one way or another.

The smart boy was right as always. Mrs. Touya did enjoy about this whole Shindou thing. A part of her wanted to hit her slow son at the head for being rude towards the girl, while another part was very excited that finally he had someone to fight with. It was such a contrasting thought, even she herself didn't know how to put this pleasing exciting feeling into words. All Akira has is Go but now he has a friend, not to mention it is a girl! " I can't believe you can be this mean," Though she hadn't met the said girl yet, she took the side of her expected future-daughter-in-law.

I am her son but she takes Shindou's side, and she's a complete stranger, " I wish you to meet her once," Akira muttered. So you can see how immature she is!

Smiling delightfully, Akiko uttered slowly, " So do I, dear, so do I," He wants me to meet her! This is it! This is the one!

Since that day, Akira and Hikaru didn't meet each other again. Akira was a very busy man since he was a 2-Dans now, he didn't have time to drop by the insei class every week just to say sorry to the girl who didn't even care about it. Hikaru herself didn't bother to visit his Go salon either.

Everybody moved on and lived their own life. Pros played their official games trying to win as much as possible in hopes of getting the promotion. The insei students studied hard for the coming Pro exam. The amateur players were busy preparing for the Summer Junoir High School Tournament. According to Akari, it seemed that they got enough members to enter the tournament at last. Everyone focused on his own business only, day passed by peacefully as August was coming.

A/N : Quite a short chapter. At first I gonna put this chapter into the previous chapter but I want it to end with Akira saying "...Girls,". That's why it's here.

thuyhy-thuyhy: " Like cat and dog..." That's exactly how I wanna describe them.

Ookami Fuu: " I think Akira just dug himself an even deeper hole" Yes, he did, stupid boy ! I like torturing him :)

Chibura : " Akira is so dense ne?" Yes, byebyeAkira the wise, here, we have Akira the dense instead.

Aya-Mikage2002 : " I think I should pity Akira the more since he'es the one who is hopeless with the opposite sex" Does that mean that he knows to deal with thepeople in thesame sex? ( Smirking evilly)

Mira-hime : This story will end before the Hokuto Cup starts, but I've already decided that there would be Yongha and Suyong in the continuation of this fic :)

Lady Adako : " Aren't the girlfriends of other guys off-limits or something?" I read in a Manga once, there was a guy, a real Play boy, he said, " Love is fighting ( for the girl), Pure love is giving,". Maybe, it's true.

ady : " the fight between Akira and Hikaru is so typical of them, just like in the manga/anime" Thank you! I wanted you to feel that way! That means I succeed! " Are you going to skip ahead to the insei exam after this?" You mean the Pro Exam, right?

Kinlin : "I like the Ogata-san here! You really are a big fan of him?" Yes, and I'm proud of it!

Kathy : Ogata-san is the right man for the job, who else can teach Akira about girl? Kouyo? Yeah, right.

xiar : " Akira getting "love" advices from Ogata... oh god saved Akira soul!" Hey! That hurts!

C.M Aerie Queen of insanity :" BOW BEFORE YOUR MISTRESS!" Haha, now you turn my Hikaru to a sadist girl!

zeynel : " it was fun to have the opinions of the nature on boys and girls, specially in the same chapter!" Thank you! At first, I wrote only the girl's part, then I thought that I should add Akira-Ogata's part too! For the balance :) We shouldn't let the girl one-sidegossiping about the boy, right? It's not fair.

Giftfrombelow :" wasn't he ever stalked by Weekly Go's reporters?" Hmm, probably not. This is the Go reporter, we're talking about, they're far from the Paparazzi.

Lilac-Blossom-Neko: Yeah, but I think this Akira'd rather die than doing it.

Karin1004 : Thank you, I update everyday.

UKK : Hikaru is a girl.

BlackWingedGabriel: "Hikaru can be quite the hothead" Of course, she is! She is still Shindou Hikaru!

Kireshai-chan837 : "I never, ever, ever want to see you having a mother address herson as -san" I know that too! I myself have never heard a mother calling her son as -San before. But somehow Akiko did! I sware! Here, look at the page 11 in chapter 169, While the Touyas was having dinner, Akiko did call Akira as " Akira-san".