Whassup everybody? Wow… I can't believe it! Term 3 is almost over! Wow! Just one more week! Wait… if I'm starting this on the Wednesday of week 10 and I won't update it till Saturday after week 10… that means it will be the holidays! YAAAAAAAYYYY! YAAAYYY! YAAAYYY! YAAYYY! Oh and I don't own Angelic Layer.

Chapter 7: Confusing events

Misaki knew that she'd been slacking. Slacking was an understatement. Whatever you called it, she knew she hadn't practiced or trained in so long. And hard as it was to believe, she knew that time had gone so quickly.

She had promised Ohjiro to verse him again, exactly on the same day, the very next month. It had been, about, maybe two and a half weeks ago. It was already the next month. Misaki forced herself to think about exactly what she had done in all that time.

Uh… hang out with Tamayo, go out with Kotaro and um… go out with Ohjiro…

But was it really okay? Was it okay to go out with two very different boys?

And both of them. They were both important to her, they were her friends, and she needed them to cheer her on. And Ohjiro, he was the one that also taught her how to train. Out of both of them, Misaki felt that Ohjiro understood her the most.

It was all so confusing. She was scared to lose Ohjiro. What if she beat him? Would he still want to be her friend? Would he be able to act like nothing was different between them?

But then, what if she lost to him? Would he suddenly become all high and mighty? Maybe he would lose all his respect for her.

Misaki didn't know anymore. She didn't want to battle him anymore. There were so many questions bugging her. What hurt her most was how he was so determined to beat her. Did he hate her or dislike her?

And there were things about herself she didn't understand. Her head was so full right now, it didn't have enough space. And Ohjiro was in her head all the time now. Could she really fight against this boy, with whom she was in love with?

Next day:

She dragged herself out of the house to train. But while she was training, her heart wasn't in it. She wasn't even trying.

Hikaru gave her a questioning look.

Misaki looked at Hikaru. Hikaru was forlornly sitting on the edge of the Layer.

"I'm sorry, Hikaru," she said softly.

She really was a pathetic excuse for winner of the Angelic Layer Tournament. "This is stupid…" she said, "stupid, stupid…"

"Excuse me, Misaki?"

"Huh?" Misaki looked up. "Ah! Ohjiro!"

Ohjiro smiled. He was standing next to her table, with Wizard sitting on his arm.

Misaki suddenly remembered. "Oh no! I'm so sorry, Ohjiro! I- I was meant to-"

I was meant to meet you because we had a date today.

She wanted to say it, but she couldn't. It was hard to say it out loud, that she was going out with Ohjiro Mihara.

Ohjiro said, "Oh no, no, that's not it! It's not time yet!"

"Oh…" Now she felt stupid. How come she always acted like such an idiot in front of him?

Well, then, what are you doing standing here making me feel so stupid?

"Well…" she started.

He quickly said, "That's right… I was wondering we have a few more minutes before our date, would you like to train with me?"

Me? Train with you? But how am I supposed to train with you, when we're going to be fighting against each other soon?

"Uh, yeah, thankyou very much, that'd be great!" she said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

Tamayo really enjoyed Minoru's company. She visited his place that morning to see the persocoms he'd built. He really was smart, and fun to be with.

She'd only known him for a while, but already he had become one of her best friends.

Tamayo dragged Minoru over to the swings.

"Do you still like playing on these things?" Minoru laughed, "They're really childish!"

"That's why I like them!" she called back.

She was standing up on her swing, going at a huge height. Minoru sat on his swing, moving backwards and forwards slowly, and laughing at her antics.

"I've always dreamed of trying to circle around the top bar," she told him.

"It's possible." said Minoru. "The chain attached to the top bar is fully capable of such actions; it would just require harder force and faster speed."

Tamayo laughed. "You're so weird!"

It was nice to have a friend again.

It was so weird. Before she had been completely tired of training. But now that Ohjiro was there, sitting across from her, her spirits had gone up and she was working hard, and having fun at the same time too.

Ohjiro… he really is mysterious.

When Misaki got home later that day after training and after her date with Ohjiro, she was in good spirits.

Shoko was suspicious. "Where have you been, Misaki?"

Misaki just nodded absently and headed to her room.

Kotaro was walking along the street because he had to get some groceries for his mum. He was on his way back when he passed park, where he and Tamayo always raced each other to the swings.

But when he looked over there, what he saw surprised him.

Tamayo was laughing; standing on the swing, swinging to a ridiculous height and talking to another boy who was sitting on the other swing.

Kotaro's eyes widened. Isn't that Minoru?

But it was weird. He knew he wasn't in love with Tamayo and he knew that he had always had a crush on Misaki but seeing Tamayo with someone else stirred up weird feelings within himself.

Kotaro caught Minoru's eye. Minoru glared at him with ferocity.

"Eh? Minoru, what are you looking at?" Tamayo wondered.

"What?" Minoru turned to Tamayo and smiled. "Nothing."

Still, Tamayo followed Minoru's gaze and found herself staring straight at Kotaro. Her heart missed a beat.

Kotaro…

YAYYY! That was chapter 7! Thankyou for reading! And don't forget to review!