So this was what it was like to have a girlfriend on Valentine's Day.

It wasn't really anything. He'd had worse Valentine's Days, the ones where girls had chased him around, and he'd had better too. Like the ones where mom made them red velvet cake. Those had been good Valentine's Days. This was….normal. This just felt like a normal day…aside from the fact that he had a present for a girl who was not his sister and a girl who was not his sister had a present for him. He had gotten his chocolates from big sis and he had given her a hug and normally that would have been the extent of his Valentine's Day. But now he had another girl in his life with a gift for him…and he had one for her too because that was how they did it in England.

"This feels heavy? What is it? A rock?" asked Emmy as she held her gift in her hands. Sho had used the paper from big sis's gift from dad and a box that used to have shoes in it for her gift. He would not have gone through the trouble of doing all of that if he was just going to give her a rock.

"No. Why would I give you a rock? You're my girlfriend. I'm supposed to get you nice things." Said Sho. He may not have ever had a girlfriend before but he knew that girls liked nice gifts. Why would she want a rock….unless she meant like fancy jewelry or something…but he hadn't gotten her anything like that in case she got the idea that he was asking her to marry him. They were ten. That wasn't allowed. Also he didn't want that…and it was not weird to not want to get married at ten.

He was not weird.

"Hey, rocks can be nice gifts. Last Christmas my dad got me this rock with a bunch of crystals inside. I like rocks…but I didn't get you one…but I know that…that you'll like it." Said Emmy. She was looking down at her shoes, now, and kicking up dirt from the ground. She had a paper bag in her hands. She had drawn a heart and written 'show' in the middle with glitter.

"I don't know what you got me but I know that I'll like it. I mean it's a gift from you." Said Sho. He knew how to accept a gift. When someone gave you a gift then you were grateful and accepted it. That was basic manners. He may not have been the most mannerly guy but he at least knew how to accept a gift.

"Thanks….um….thank you. Arigato." Said Emmy. She laughed when she said that and got all red again. Were all girls this giggly? He didn't know. He didn't mind, not really. That meant that he was doing this right. He was doing what he was supposed to be doing and he was doing it right. Dad had been wrong. Sho was capable of doing things right.

"You're welcome. Do you want to trade gifts now? It's getting late and I know that you have to be home for dinner and stuff." Said Sho. He wondered what that as like, people expecting you home for dinner, having to be at a certain place at a certain time every single day. Having to be at the same place at the same time every single day. It must have sucked. Nobody told him what to do…most of the time. He wasn't supposed to have been outside the house without someone protecting him. Also dad bossed him around all the time…and stuff…but at least he didn't have to be home at the same time every single day.

"Um…I'd like that. You're going to love your gift. It's brilliant. Well I think that it's brilliant. I don't have a lot of money…and I just spent twenty quid on sweets…but I know that you'll like it so…so open it already." Said Emmy. She shoved his present into his chest. He handed her gift to her and then peeled the bag apart to find….

Oh.

"You got me binoculars?" asked Sho. Well he knew what they were but he had no idea why he had gotten these for Valentine's Day. He had been expected chocolate or something…but then again he hadn't gotten her chocolate either….

"Yes. I just know that you like birds and watching them so I got you these so you wouldn't have to climb trees. I mean I know that you like climbing trees and stuff but not in the winter, you said, because there are no leaves so…here. My old binoculars. They're real from the army, not toys, so….so here." Said Emmy. Sho…this was a good present and he had no idea what he was supposed to do. She'd given him a really good gift and…and he was supposed to do something…

He bowed.

Which may have not been the thing to do with a girlfriend but it was the first thing that had come to mind. He usually just told people what to get him. This was a good gift, something that he hadn't even known that he'd needed, and he was grateful. As he came up from bowing to her he thought that maybe kissing her would have been better…but he didn't want to kiss her and…and stuff. She was his girlfriend and he was supposed to kiss her and…and stuff.

That was what he was supposed to do.

He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, too, as he came up. There. She liked that. This wasn't so hard. Girls were easy. Maybe that was why he boyfriend thing was so boring. Al he had to do to get her to smile and laugh was kiss her. Maybe this was why Shimazaki said that the boyfriend and girlfriend thing sucked. It was just so…he wasn't even trying and she was all happy and…and he wasn't but…but that was ok because he had made her happy. Making another person happy was what mattered the most. Big sis said that all the time and maybe it was time he listened to her and stuff.

"What're you kissing me for?" asked Emmy still all red and smiley and stuff.

"Because you're my girlfriend and you like it. It makes you happy and I like to make you happy." Said Sho. Emmy laughed again and pulled her hat down over her face.

"Just enjoy your bloody gift." Said Emmy. Sho put them around his neck and looked through. He could see….he was way too close…but he could see her freckles. She had freckles the same as him. Maybe that was just a redhead thing. Dad had freckles too but his were mostly on his arms and stuff. Big sis had seen them. He hadn't. Sho had freckles on his face, arms, back, and neck. He wondered if Emmy had freckles there too. Not in a wanting to see her naked sort of way….but maybe it should have been a wanting to see her naked sort of way. Why didn't he think about her like that? You were supposed to think about girls like that.

Maybe he was just weird.

Or ten. That might have been it too. Maybe he was just slow. Fukuda had said that big sis was fast because she liked Hatori and stuff. So if she was fast then maybe he was slow….or normal? He didn't know. All he knew was that he did not have any desire at all to see his girlfriend naked...and wanting to see people naked made you fast…not that big sis had ever said that she wanted to see Hatori naked….and if she ever had then Sho would have been obligated as her little brother to beat him up…but that was what boyfriends and girlfriends did. If you didn't want to have a baby but you still wanted to do adult stuff then you took off all of your clothes and looked at each other naked. Also you touched her boobs and stuff, too, but Sho didn't want to do that either. Maybe because she didn't really have any. Maybe it was normal for Sho not to want to do that sort of stuff since wanting to do that sort of stuff made you fast and being fast was not good.

He didn't know. He'd think about this later.

She pulled her hat just up over her eyes. They made eye contact and she pulled it back down again. He didn't get her. He thought that she liked being kissed. She had asked him to kiss, before, and she had said that she liked it. He didn't get this one bit. The boyfriend thing. Maybe he should have just been single for life. Shimazaki was single and Shibata was single and so was Fukuda and they were all really happy. Also Hatori was single but that was different. Shimazaki said that Hatori had singlehood thrust upon him because he didn't know how to take care of himself and stuff and girls liked guys who took care of themselves. That was why it was important to bathe regularly, wear a lot of good cologne, dress nice, and also be good at stuff that Shibata had interrupted Shimazaki to tell Sho that he was too young to know about. Then he gave him an apron and told him that he needed someone to taste test some desserts.

Sho, really, Sho hadn't had a choice in the matter.

He wondered what Shibata was going to make tonight. Last night he had tried to make beef wellington. It hadn't gone well. He needed to stick to desserts. Maybe he'd be making something red for Valentine's Day. Or maybe he would be making chocolate. That way he would have some that weren't obligation chocolates from big sis. She was the only girl they knew. Well there was Minegishi but they were a 'they' which meant that they didn't give chocolate on either Valentine's Day or White Day and they never got chocolate either, because they said that sugar was poison, which was a good thing. That meant that Shimazaki hadn't given them chocolate….not that Sho knew why he would even care.

Shimazaki could give whoever he wanted all the chocolate in the world.

Sho needed to stop thinking about his best friend. He was with his girlfriend now and he only had so much time with her. Dad had come home that morning while he and big sis had been eating breakfast, said that his work in this country was finished, and then passed out. Shimazaki had been passed out, in his own bed thankfully, and he had told Sho that some crazy stuff had happened and that he would need to sleep for the next hundred years. Sho hoped that he would be awake when he finished up with Emmy…and there he went, again, thinking about his best friend instead of his girlfriend who he would have to leave behind. This was supposed to be sad, like in a war movie how the girls were always sad when their boyfriends went off to war, but he didn't feel sad at all.

He felt sort of relieved.

He felt relieved and he had no idea why. She was his girlfriend and he knew that he was supposed to feel something but he had no idea what. She was playing peekaboo with her hat like he was a baby…and she was smiling….and he had seen enough to big sis' anime and read enough of her stupid girl manga to know that this was the part where his heart was supposed to go doki doki and he was supposed to get a nosebleed or whatever but…but he didn't feel much of anything. A little cold. Sort of hungry. But nothing about her.

What was the matter with him?

"Alright. I'm better now. Since it doesn't look like you're going to kiss me again then I'll open my present." Said Emmy. Sho wondered if she did or did not want to be kissed. Girls were so confusing. He wished that she had been a boy so they could have just been friends. He knew how to be friends. He wished that girls could be friends, but they couldn't be, they were girlfriends…and he had a girlfriend, not a friend, and now…now he was starting to regret getting her what he had gotten her…

"Binoculars?! Sho, you're brilliant! How did you know I needed new ones? Oh! Did you have me followed? Are you really a family of spies or-" said Emmy. She was starting to go off into her own head again. He was going to stop her before it started. He did not need her digging into this part of his life. The less she knew the better…for both of them.

"This way you can see birds without climbing trees. I mean you're a good climber but you had to have me help you…and I don't want you to fall if you try to climb a tree after I'm gone." Said Sho. She had been putting her binoculars up to her eyes when he had started talking and by the time he was done she had let them fall and hit her on the chest. That must have hurt, he had gotten her real metal ones from the army surplus place, but she didn't notice…or maybe she did….because her eyes were getting glassy. He wished that she'd had an aura he could read. Then he could know what was wrong. He knew that she was about to cry…but why?

What had he done this time?

"You…what do you mean by that? Are you….are you moving already?" asked Emmy. Right. She was sad to see him go. His feelings were not hers and her feelings were not his…and they had separate and unequal feelings. She was crying and he…he was happy to go….and something was most certainly wrong with him. Deeply wrong.

"My dad said that his work in this country is finished so…yeah. He just told me today so I didn't have time to tell you since you've been in school all day but…but I guess that I'll be moving soon." Said Sho. She didn't start crying, thankfully, she just wiped her eyes on her sleeve a bunch of times. Sho felt bad so he pulled his sleeve down over his hand and helped her with the other eyes. They were close, their binoculars clattered together, but he didn't mind. She was more important. He hated it when girls cried.

"So…so you're breaking up with me? On Valentine's Day? Right after you kissed me? That's….that's bloody cold you booger! You groty booger! You daft groty booger!" said Emmy. Sho didn't know why groty meant but he knew what a booger was….and she was mad at him…and he had to fix this. He hated it when girls were sad or mad…and it was the worst when girls were sad or mad at him. He had intended to give her a gift and then tell her he was going and then be her boyfriend for as many days as he had left in England but….but now that he saw her sad face and he heard her voice….he didn't want to hurt her like that….

He never wanted to hurt anyone ever again.

"I'm not leaving right away. We can still be boyfriend and girlfriend and…and…um…after I go we can still be together? I mean…not like we are now but I can still be your boyfriend. I can email you and stuff." Said Sho. She stopped wiping her eyes and looked at him. They were close enough to kiss. Should he kiss her again? That might put her in a better mood…but then she might have hidden in her hat again.

"Like…a long distance relationship? But I heard that those never work out. My aunt tried that with her boyfriend when he had to move to Sussex for work…and you're going back to Japan." Said Emmy

"I think that we're going to Moscow now." Said Sho

"That's still across the bloody water." Said Emmy

"I know but…..but I might come back to England and….and I can still email you and call you when you get a phone and….and I can send you presents and stuff from the places I go. So then that way you won't be upset because we won't be broken up." Said Sho. That was a good compromise. Then they would still be together and…and stuff. Then she wouldn't cry anymore. He hated it when girls cried. When he became the ruler of the world he was going to make sure that no girl ever cried ever again. He would assign them boyfriends or something who would treat them nice and get them presents and kiss them but never try to touch their boobs because girls hated that. Then they would all be happy and he would never have to see another girl crying in his life.

"That's…ok. If you're going to come back then…then that's ok. I just…don't want us to break up. I mean I barely know you and I wish that we could have spent more time together but…but I can try to do that." Said Emmy. She leaned in like she was going to kiss him but then she stopped halfway. Sho had no idea what he was supposed to do.

"What are you doing?" asked Sho

"If you want to kiss me you can." Said Emmy

"Ok….but you could have just kissed me…and stuff." Said Sho

"I know but I thought that this would be better. That way I know you want to kiss me so…so can we kiss again? Because it's Valentine's Day and also…also I don't know how many more chances I'm going to get to kiss you." Said Emmy

"Um….sure." said Sho. He leaned in and kissed her. Still nothing. The goldfish in his stomach was still asleep. It stayed asleep for the whole time that they were together. It stayed asleep for the third time they kissed and also the part where they held hands until they got to Emmy's neighborhood. She wasn't allowed to have a boyfriend, she had said, because she was ten and stuff so he couldn't walk her home. That was fine, she lived sort of far anyway. He just kissed her goodbye and then walked home.

That had been something.

That had been Valentine's Day with a girlfriend…a girlfriend who he still had. Whatever. He could be her boyfriend from far away. He could send her emails and presents and maybe write her letters, too, even though he had never written a real letter in his life. He could do that. He could still see her. Now that he had binoculars she would be easy to see….heh. If Shimazaki had been around he would have laughed. He laughed at everything but not in that way that girls laughed at everything. He laughed at everything in his own way…that way that made Sho laugh at everything….that way that woke up the goldfish in his stomach…

There is was.

Where was this stupid thing while he was kissing his girlfriend? He didn't know. Maybe it was stupid. Maybe he had been poisoning it with sugar. Maybe Minegishi had been right and sugar was poison. Maybe that was why they were so mean all the time, they had poisoned all of the good feelings out of their stomach with sugar, and now they were just this sour purple haired person who Shimazaki was friends with, not best friend, but was friends with.

Maybe more than friends with.

Sho didn't know. He tried not to think about it as he walked home with his binoculars over his eyes. He didn't want to think about what he had seen. He didn't want to think about what Shimazaki had said. How he had said that he didn't know how he felt about Minegishi. How he had said that he didn't even know if he could be in love. Sho didn't want to think about that, or about how he had broken into Minegishi's room and seen stuff that he shouldn't have, or how he felt…he didn't want to think about that so he looked at the world and walked and….and didn't think about that.

He watched the world as he walked.

He watched the sky and the birds and the people too. He watched them walk down the street and drive by in their cars and also in their houses. A lot of them were watching TV. A lot of them were cuddled up. A lot of them were eating dinner. Some people were eating dinner in front of the TV. Some people were cuddled up and watching TV. Some people were cuddled up naked in bed together eating and watching TV-

He decided to stop looking in people's windows.

He had seen things that he never wanted to see. Nope. People needed to close their curtains if they wanted to do gross stuff like that. Honestly. The nerve of some people. He didn't get it. He didn't get why people did that and why they did that where people could catch them. People needed to close their curtains and blinds and also lock their doors in more serious ways so that people knew to stay out. With big heavy locks or…or maybe they should just nail their doors shut if they didn't want people to see what was happening. Yeah. People needed to just…lock their doors and close their blinds and wear clothes when they hung out with his best friend.

Simple.

Sho knew not to give Minegishi a piece of his mind about that. Shimazaki had sworn him to secrecy and he took a promise to his best friend very seriously. He really wanted to though. As soon as his feet found the neighborhood that he was staying at his brain started planning out what he was going to say. The closer he got to Shimazaki's house the more words came to his brain. Curse words, mean words, words in Japanese and English and Mandarin and Korean and also words that weren't even words. He wanted to tell them all to Minegishi the minute that he walked through Shimazaki's door!

But he didn't.

The first thing he did when he came through the front door, if he wasn't meant to be there then it should have been locked in a more serious way, was cover his ears. Shibata was watching British people baking things again but he had the volume up as high as it would go. Maybe he was competing with Hatori's videogame….big sis should have gotten him headphones instead of obligation chocolates….and also with whoever was banging on the wall. Sho didn't blame whoever that was. It was loud as heel in here!

"Little Suzuki! Maybe you should come back later!" shouted Shibata. Sho didn't even have one shoe off when Shibata came running over to the makeshift genkan from the kitchen. He had on an apron with a lot of flour on it….dessert! There was a dessert in there and Sho would gladly go deaf in exchange for slightly burnt desserts! Shimazaki could be the ears and he could be the eyes and together they would have all six senses.

"I'm hungry!" shouted Sho. Shibata pointed to his ear and shook his head. Sho rose up from the ground with his powers until they were eye to eye.

"Feed me desserts!" shouted Sho

"Not today! It's a bad time! Come back tomorrow!" shouted Shibata. A bad time? What could be bad about this time? They were having a loudness war! And also there were desserts! Sho was getting a headache, a bad one, but if there was a loudness war going on then he and Shimazaki could totally-

"Ryou! Fuck!"

-could totally win….on a team…because they were best friends….

"Ok, out you go!" shouted Shibata. He picked Sho up out of the air and carried him out the door. He closed the door behind him but Sho could still hear….well he could hear the TV but he could also hear…that had been Minegishi and….and their aura had been all tangled up in Shimazaki's…and they called him Ryou all the time for some reason and….

And they had never sounded like that before.

"Listen, this is a bad time. We're…um….all celebrating the holiday in different ways. That's it. Some of us are celebrating alone, some together, but um….it's an adult's only thing in there so…so…um….how about this? I'll make you a pancake cake tomorrow for breakfast with frosting and cookies and gummy words and homemade Pepsi and all of your favorites. Tomorrow. In the morning. Not tonight at night. Do you understand, Little Suzuki?" asked Shibata. Sho nodded. He understood. He understood just fine.

He couldn't compete with boobs.

"Yeah…I'd like that…but not the homemade Pepsi because that stuff is gross." Said Sho

"What's wrong with my homemade Pepsi?" asked Shibata

"It's too thick and it loses it's bubbles too fast." Said Sho

"Everyone's a critic…" muttered Shibata

"I'll come by tomorrow though, not tonight, I don't want to be in your boring adults only loudness war, later." Said Sho as he walked off

"Be careful getting home! And don't look in any windows with those binoculars! It's a crime….I'm pretty sure!" said Shibata. Sho waved as he walked off. He didn't go home, though, because home shared a wall with their house so he would just hear the loudness war…that Shimazaki was winning…and he knew how he was winning. Sho was not stupid. He watched TV. He knew that when you did gross stuff with a girl she screamed your name and stuff. He had seen enough TV to know what sick, twisted, vile, wrong, gross things adults did together!

And he could not compete with boobs.

Sho was Shimazaki's best friend but he could not compete with Minegishi because they had boobs and Shimazaki was a guy and guys touched girls' boobs and that was what you were supposed to do on Valentine's Day and….and Sho could not compete with that and he didn't want to hear that and now he felt like the goldish in his stomach was swimming straight down and taking all of his organs with it and…and he just wanted to feel better.

So he went to see Fukuda.

Fukuda hadn't locked his door in any serious way either. Sho let himself right in and took off both of his shoes. The TV was on but it wasn't loud. The loudest sound was Fukuda's laptop keys clicking…and that was nice. He hadn't replaced Sho with someone who had boobs. Sho was still his favorite person in the whole world…which was good even though Fukuda treated him like a baby sometimes, only had vanilla ice cream in the house, and also was sort of not nice to big sis….

Fukuda always made him feel better.

"Sho? What brings you here?" asked Fukuda. He closed his laptop really fast and put it off to the side. Sho let himself fall down onto the couch. Fukuda was watching a show that Sho didn't know. At least it was British people baking stuff at the highest volume setting. His head still hurt from that…and so did his stomach and heart…

Everything hurt.

"I feel bad." Said Sho. He put his binoculars up to his eyes and tried to watch TV. Too close. He could see the pixels on the TV screen. They were cool. They didn't do anything at all for the all over ache he had, though. Maybe Fukuda could fix it.

"You don't feel injured….so I take it you didn't stare up at the sun with those?" asked Fukuda

"No. It's dark out and I'm not an idiot. I just…feel bad. I don't know. I just…feel bad. I don't like this feeling so…so fix it." Said Sho. This feeling felt like a million and one feelings all at once. He felt all of his feelings at once and he could feel them all trying to come out of his body through his chest and bellybutton. Sort of like in the movie about the aliens who laid eggs in people's stomachs and stuff.

Sho felt the energy around him shift.

Fukuda was closer now and his aura was all around. Sho rested his head on his arm. He felt…tired. Tired and just…not good. He didn't even know why. He knew that he couldn't compete with boobs. He didn't even know what he had been planning on doing with Shimazaki…well winning the loudness war but…but then he didn't know what they would do after that. It wasn't like they could share his binoculars. Heh. No, that was mean. They could have done a lot. They could have stolen food from other people's plates or gone down into the sewers or chased nighttime birds like…owls…or bats…well bats weren't birds but still. They could have had a good time and…and stuff but…but he was too busy with Minegishi and…and Sho wanted to beat them up so badly! But then Shimazaki would have been mad at him because he cared about Minegishi…cared about them enough to call them Toshi and to let them call him Ryou….

Valentine's Day sucked.

"Well I can't fix it until you tell me what's wrong." Said Fukuda. Sho didn't know what was even wrong. He knew that he couldn't compete with Minegishi and…and stuff. He knew and he felt terrible and…and he knew why and…and he knew that he needed to feel better….

"…this day sucks.." said Sho. That was the best he could come up with. That was the best that he could say about all the feelings that made his heart want to burst out of his chest.

"Language." Said Fukuda. Sho started counting in his head. That was just a thing that Fukuda said. He didn't mean to be a mother fucking cock sucking bastard. He just didn't like Sho cursing for some reason…even though he hadn't cursed.

"Sucks is not a curse word." Said Sho

"Well it's not appropriate." Said Fukuda

"Why not? This whole bloody day sucks!" said Sho. He said that part in English like Emmy would. He had been listening to her talk too much. Bloody was a good word. It was like fuck. It could be good or bad. It could fit anywhere. Here it was bad. Fukuda had better not have said that Sho was still cursing or he would show him some real curse words.

"Bloody? Where'd you pick that up?" asked Fukuda with a laugh. Sho had no idea why the laughing was worse than the telling him not to curse…he had no idea about any of his feelings anymore.

"From my girlfriend…a girl I know." Said Sho

"Oh. A…girlfriend?" asked Fukuda. Sho wanted to run and hide. To run out and never return. Fukuda knew and….and then dad would know and…and he had no idea how dad would react. Dad had said that he needed to find a girl but he had said that the girl he had to pick should have been an esper…but he had said that he would be happy with any girl…but the thought of Emmy meeting dad…..that would….would have been the worst!

"Don't tell dad." Said Sho in his most serious voice. Fukuda knew how dad was. Fukuda had known dad since they had been kids and…and he knew dad. He knew how dad could be.

"No. I won't. Your secret is safe with me. All of your secrets are safe with me, you know?" asked Fukuda. He even did the 'cross my heart' thing…and that made Sho feel better.

"I know." Said Sho. He did the cross my heart thing back. Fukuda may have been sort of a jerk to big sis, and also sort of boring, but Sho knew that he could be trusted….with a lot. Not everything. Not the feelings that Sho had…or didn't have…or should have had…because then Fukuda would know how weird he was…and he didn't want anyone to know how weird he was.

"So, you know, if you ever feel confused about how you feel you can talk to me." Said Fukuda. Sho wanted to take him up on that offer right then. He wanted to ask Fukuda why he was feeling the way he felt. Why he got the goldfish in his stomach whenever Shimazaki was around but not when he was around Emmy. Why the goldfish in his stomach was trying to come out of his chest now. Why he had ever thought that being best friends with Shimazaki would have been ranked than whatever Minegishi was ranked to Shimazaki.

"I'm talking to you right now, aren't I?" asked Sho crossing his arms and throwing himself against the couch. He

"So….you're having a lot of feelings right now?" asked Fukuda

"Yeah, I just said so." Said Sho

"Well then let's talk about them. This girl…you like her?" asked Fukuda

"She's nice and fun and stuff. She got me binoculars and I got her binoculars. We both like to look at bird and stuff…that's why we have binoculars." Said Sho

"Well don't go looking at any birds with those." Laughed Fukuda. Sho frowned. He had no idea what was so funny or why he wasn't supposed to look at birds with these. Fukuda should have been happy. He was the one who had told him not to climb trees with Shimazaki to see birds. He was the one who had told him that it was dangerous. He had no clue if he would ever even be able to climb trees with Shimazaki again…since he had someone even better than a best friend….and he just….hated all of these bad feelings inside of himself.

"….the point is to look at birds." Said Sho

"I know, I was just trying to be funny. You know because in England 'bird' is slang for girl?" asked Fukuda. Sho shook his head. What kind of a joke was that? Did he look like the kind of person who could cheat? Who was capable of cheating on someone who cared about him? On someone who he had agreed to be with? Did he think that Sho was seriously the sort of person who could take someone who liked him and then just…hurting them like that? Putting this terrible, organs trying to climb out of your chest, feeling? Was THAT what Fukuda thought about him?!

"Don't joke about that. Of course I'm not going to look at any other girls. That's cheating and cheating is wrong. I am not a cheater because cheating is wrong." Said Sho

"Well yes…in most circumstances…" said Fukuda tugging at his collar. Sho wondered why he didn't just turn the heat down if he was so hot.

"No, in all circumstances. There are no circumstances when it's ok to cheat on the person that you care about and who cares about you. There will never be an ok time to cheat. I am not that kind of person and…and I can't believe that you would say something like that. If I wanted to look at a bunch of girls when I would just stay single. I only want to look at her so I'll only look at her….I mean it don't want to…but that's fine because I'm ten and…and maybe I don't want to look at my girlfriend naked! Is that a crime!?" asked Sho. He was reminded, again, about how weird he was….and he didn't need to add those feelings to the feelings that were already inside of him. Too many feelings. All the worst feelings.

"Well….not at all. Sho, you just turned ten in December, so it's normal at your age not to want to see a girl naked…not now or…or even ever. If you never want to see this girl naked then that's fine and if she's pushing you-" said Fukuda. He was all red and pulling at his collar and stuff. What, was he embarrassed because he had said 'naked girl'? Because there were much worse things that he could have said.

"Emmy isn't like that. She doesn't even make me kiss her." said Sho. He loved that about her. She never chased him and kissed him or made him kiss her. He had never known that a girl could be nice like that. He had never known that a girl could be a friend like that. He wished that boys and girls could be friends like that but…but they couldn't and that was why they were boyfriend and girlfriend and not just friends.

"So her name is Emmy and you've kissed her." said Fukuda in a tone that made Sho think that he had done something wrong….but he hadn't. He had kissed a girl and that was what you were supposed to do.

"Yeah, I've kissed a million girls before…well they've kissed me…but she asks first and I like that…and she's nice and…and I don't really feel like kissing her but I still want her to be happy….but she's not what's upsetting me." Said Sho

"If she was what was upsetting you then you can talk to me. You don't need to have a girlfriend just because a lot of other people your age do…and if you do want to have her for your girlfriend I know how hard leaving her behind must be-" said Fukuda

"We're not breaking up. We're in a long distance relationship now but I just said that she isn't what's upsetting me. Can't you listen?" asked Sho

"Sho….you know that I will always listen to you no matter what the problem is…so please just tell me what's wrong." Said Fukuda

"….I can't compete with boobs…" said Sho quietly. How could he have been so stupid to think that he could compete with the person that Minegishi was to Shimazaki. Everything had ranks, even families, and friendships too, apparently, and whatever Minegishi was to Shimazaki it ranked above best friend.

"What?" asked Fukuda

"I can't compete with boobs!" shouted Sho as loudly as he could. He shouted so loudly that if he had stayed for the loudness war he could have won.

"I…am lost." Said Fukuda scratching his head. He had no idea what Fukuda had no idea about. He had been speaking plain Japanese. What was hard to understand?

"I don't have boobs and I never will because I'm a boy and I don't want them anyway because then I would be a girl and have to have long hair and wear dresses and….and I want to be Sho, not Shoko!" said Sho

"Is your sister trying to put you in a dress again? Because if she is then you have every right to say-" asked Fukuda. He was getting all mad, now, his aura was getting all pointy and his tone was all low and Sho was not in the mood to hear him talk mean about big sis.

"No, not lately, but that's not what I'm talking about." Said Sho. If he started up about big sis then…then he would have had to say something…and he didn't want to say anything because then he would have had even more of these bad feelings and…and he did not want to have any more bad feelings inside of his stomach. Maybe if he had one more bad feeling he would end up with an actual chest buster…or something.

"What's all this about, then?" asked Fukuda pinching the bridge of his nose and breathing out for a really long time.

"I….I wanted to hang out with Shimazaki but I think that he and Minegishi are doing gross adult stuff together because it's Valentine's Day and also they have boobs and that's the kind of stuff you're supposed to do with someone with boobs and…and I can't compete with that." Said Sho. Fukuda put an arm around him and patted his back like he was a baby who needed to burp.

"Sho…that's ok. You know that they're adults and….and this is what adults do…" said Fukuda

"I know what adults do, I'm not stupid, I just…feel all hurt. It's worse than when I broke into Minegishi's room because Shimazaki was there and then I didn't know that they had been doing gross stuff but they had been and Shimazaki made me close my eyes but I opened them and saw Minegishi's boobs and then I felt like I do now but…but even worse and…and I don't know how to make this feeling stop. I just…the only reason he likes them better is because they have boobs! He said that he wasn't in love with them so it must be because-" said Sho

"Sho, calm down. You're hurt, I know that you're hurt, but…but this is why maybe you shouldn't be friends with him. Ok? You have a lot of feelings and you…you've gotten very attached to him but he's not as attached to you as you are to him and…and that's why things like this happen. Why you're feeling like this. This is why adults and kids shouldn't be friends like that." Said Fukuda

"But you and I are friends." Said Sho. They were friends. Not as good of friends as he and Shimazaki were but they were still friends. At least nobody would ever outrank him when it came to Fukuda.

"Well….this is different. I take care of you. I held you when you were a baby, you know, I'm a different part of your life. The way you feel about me is different than the way you feel about him, I'd imagine, and maybe….maybe it's time to just let him be with another adult and-" said Fukuda

"So you agree? I can't compete with boobs and Shimazaki's always going to put Minegishi ahead of me in the best friend rankings and I'll always just be second best, or not even second best, just like I have been my whole life. Only this time I'm not second best to big sis, I'm second best to Minegishi, and that's even worse because the only thing that they had going on for them is boobs. They aren't nice, they don't do fun stuff, and they'd rather watch Frozen with big sis than play in the sewers-" said Sho

"You…were in the sewers….?" Asked Fukuda wrinkling his nose up.

"Yeah, it was really fun and stuff….but now I feel like I mean nothing to him and our friendship means nothing and I feel like nothing and it feels like my organs and my heart are trying to pop out through my chest and…and I just feel bad and I want you to make me feel better but I'll never feel better because now I'm second to Minegishi of all people and-" said Sho

"Sho. No. Just….you are not second best and….God I can't believe I'm saying this…um…you're his friend in ways that Minegishi can never be and they're…well they're in their own category that you will never be in…God willing….and those catagories will never intersect so…so your friendship with Shimazaki is safe…." Said Fukuda

"But they have boobs and-" said Sho

"So? They're nothing to write home about anyway. Just…don't think that you're competing with them or with anyone. You're Sho and when someone tries to compete with you they'll always lose. You're a great kid…and you're not competing with them anyway because there is no competition." Said Fukuda. Sho nodded. He knew that Fukuda would make him feel better. Yeah…he was awesome…and Shimazaki had said so. So what if he did gross stuff with Minegishi. Sho was the one he had fun with. Sho was the one who he was best friends with.

"Yeah…I'm awesome….and stuff. Thanks, Fukuda. I…I feel better." Said Sho. He felt…less bad. Better. He was still Shimazaki's best friend and…and there was no competition because if there was he would win…because he was ten times the friend that Minegishi could ever be. Yeah. Even if he didn't have boobs he was still the most awesome friend that Shimazaki had and…and he felt good about that…and he was Shimazaki's best friend and….

And this was what it felt like to have a best friend on Valentine's Day. It was awesome.