A/N: It has only been five weeks since I updated, hooray! Again, I can't thank you enough for the faves, follows and reviews. Btw, I suck at naming chapters so from now on, they'll just be called chapter something. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Do I still have to do this?

Chapter 5

"A little to the left, Ryu. No that was too much. More to the right. Maybe a little to the left. Wait, to the right again. Oh, I give up! Just let it be." Shouta threw up his arms in frustration. His old friend chuckled and moved away from the couch they had been trying to position. Yes, you guessed it. They were furnishing Shouta and Sawako's new house.

"I think you moved it too far to the right." Chizu piped up from her place near the door.

"No way Chizu, it's way too far on the left side." Shouta countered.

"I think it's perfect right there." Sawako came from behind with a glass of juice for each of the males. Ryu nodded, agreeing with Sawako. She was always the most sensible one in their group.

"Where's Ayane?" Shouta looked around. He hadn't seen much of her lately.

"In the kitchen, sorting through all of the boxes." Sawako answered, still observing the position of the couch. Shouta walked up to her and wrapped an arm around her waist as Ryu and Chizu started bickering.

"Is she… Is Ayane all right?" He looked at his wife with concern, "I mean, she's been so distant since we came back." Over the years, Shouta and Ayane had formed a bond that no one besides them understood. They were more like siblings than friends and always sensed when the other was troubled.

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Sawako murmured and averted her eyes. Her behavior confirmed what Shouta had been suspecting, but he didn't ask anything further. He already knew it was a lost cause. Sawako was fiercely protective of her friends and loyal to no end. She would never betray their trust.

"You know Ayane. She'll deny that anything is wrong until I force it out of her." Shouta sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.

"She'll tell you, when she's ready. Ayane-chan has a lot on her mind at the moment." Sawako leaned up and kissed his cheek. Nodding, Shouta let go of his wife and returned to unpacking boxes. Sawako stood for a few moments, watching him. He had matured a lot in the past few years. No longer was he the goofy boy everyone had thought him to be. Instead, he was a considerate, young man, looking for his place in the world. Sawako's train of thought was broken when she noticed Ayane, from the corner of her eye, enter the room and then turn on her heels and retreat back into the kitchen. Sawako frowned slightly, following her friend and found her leaning on the kitchen island, deep in thought.

"I should tell him." Ayane softly spoke, not even bothering to look in Sawako's direction.

"He's worried about you." Sawako joined Ayane at the island.

"He worries too much."

"True." The black-haired woman chuckled.

"I guess I have no choice. Ryu already knows, I might as well tell Shouta."

"Ayane-chan. You shouldn't tell him, because you feel obligated to." Sawako gently scolded the other woman.

"He has a right to know, Sawako. Kento was his friend." Ayane shook her head dejectedly. Sawako quietly mulled it over for a few seconds, deciding to give Ayane time to figure the situation out and maybe a little push in the right direction.

"You are his friend too." Sawako told her and turned around, leaving Ayane to her thoughts. Back in the dining room, everything seemed lively. The three young adults were discussing the rest of the furniture and where to place it. Sawako silently approached them, hoping Ayane would know out what to do.

It wasn't until she saw her friend join them a few minutes later, telling her husband to come with her for a while that Sawako breathed a sigh of relief. If anyone knew how to console Ayane, it would be Shouta. As the two of them went outside, Sawako busied herself with putting decorations in place, while Chizu and Ryu set up the dining table.

"Sawako." Chizu padded over and poked her arm. "Will they be okay?" Worry lines were etched into her face. And suddenly, Chizu seemed grown up, despite her otherwise bubbly demeanor.

"They know each other like no one else. I'm sure it will be fine. We'll just have to trust them." Chizu nodded, reassured, and returned to her task. Sawako willed herself to believe her own words. Still, she couldn't help the nagging feeling in her stomach.

"So he left you." Shouta asked with a weary sigh and leaned back on the stairs, they were currently perched on. He was still trying to wrap his brain around everything he had just learned.

"Yeah." Ayane had told Shouta the truth – even the parts the others didn't know about – and it exhausted her to no end. She knew that being honest with everyone, would have been the best way to go about it, but sometimes, it seemed so much easier to keep everything to herself. "I didn't know what to do." She muttered quietly, placing her elbows on her knees and holding her chin in her hands.

"I don't think you could have done anything in that situation." Shouta offered with a reassuring pat on her back. Ayane slowly shook her head, replaying the demise of her longest relationship so far.

"I think I could have handled it better, you know? Kept my head cool." A small part of her regretted her fight with Kento that lead to their break up, but her pride didn't allow her to feel guilty for long. She had been the bigger person during the whole fight, and it made her angry that Kento had behaved like a child, instead of thinking rationally.

"If I were you, I would have bashed his head in a long time ago." Shouta glanced sideways, hoping he could comfort his distraught friend. "He acted like a complete jerk."

"Maybe he was scared of the outcome." Ayane pondered and leaned back to look at the sky that rapidly turned darker. She hadn't realized they had been outside for such a long time. It was getting a little cold, but she didn't mind. It felt oddly refreshing.

"You give him too much credit." Shouta argued and kicked a pebble by his foot. For the first time, he didn't know how to help Ayane. It was obvious, she still felt something for the idiot with the way she kept defending him, but he could also see how conflicted she was about the whole situation. A part of her clearly wanted to fix things up between them, but the other part of her wanted to move forward. This was a battle she had to fight herself. Shouta could merely give her advice or lend her a shoulder to lean on, when she needed it.

Sawako would have been better at handling this situation, but Ayane had clearly expressed that she wanted to tell her and Chizu herself. So there he was, at a loss at what to say. Thankfully, he didn't have to say anything as Chizu poked her head out of a window to tell them that dinner was ready. Stretching, Shouta got to his feet and offered Ayane a hand.

"Just don't think about it too much. You did the right thing." He assured her, pulling her to her feet and into a hug. She gripped his shirt tight and nodded, hiding her face from view. Her breathing became a bit ragged as she mustered up all of her self-control. He felt more than saw the single tear roll down Ayane's cheek and onto his shirt. Once she let go of Shouta, she rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand and offered him a weak smile. "Let's go inside."

Sawako had once again outdone herself with her cooking. Chizu and Ryu had helped her out, and it looked more like a banquet than a simple dinner between friends. Shouta sat down at the head of the table and Sawako joined him on his right. She made sure Ayane was next to her, while the other couple in the room sat in front of them. As dinner started, conversation flowed about Sawako and Shouta's housewarming party, where a few friends and family would come over. It wasn't long before Ryu remembered something he had been wanting to tell Shouta all day.

"Shouta, have you heard that Pin is back in town?" He asked cautiously, swirling the water in his glass around before raising it to his lips. Shouta stiffened slightly and turned his gaze towards the other male in the room. "Really?"

Ryu gauged Shouta's reaction of surprise, guilt and a hint of discomfort and nodded. Shouta felt a sudden tightness in his chest for a few seconds, before Sawako discreetly gripped his hand under the table and gave it a reassuring squeeze. It only took him a second to relax his tense shoulders and smile.

"Ayane, Chizuru and I ran into him yesterday. He's here for good, he said." Ryu told him after secretly breathing a sigh of relief. He hadn't been too eager to bring Pin up, but figured he'd have to do it sooner or later. He chose the former.

"That's wonderful." Sawako replied with excitement. It had been more than two years, since she had last seen Pin-sensei. It wasn't that she and Shouta hadn't tried to stay in touch, but after he moved to Okinawa a year and a half ago, they seldom heard from him.

"What is it with everyone moving from town and coming back all of a sudden?" Shouta joked, trying to relieve the slightly tense atmosphere. He had missed Pin. He really had, but he wasn't about to admit it to anyone.

"I think you started a new trend when you moved." Ayane suggested with a smirk. She had caught on and kept the ball rolling. Chizu had been awfully quiet, observing her friends and boyfriend, but started recalling all of the embarrassing moments they had had with Pin. Naturally, she couldn't keep them to herself and soon sent everyone on a trip down memory lane. Dinner continued like that and it wasn't long before Ayane, Chizu and Ryu were getting ready to leave. As they were saying their goodbyes, Shouta kept an eye on Ayane. She had a rather pensive look on her face, no doubt thinking about how and when to tell Sawako and Chizu the real reason for her breakup.

Chizu was the first one to step out of the door, closely followed by Ryu, who grabbed her hand. Ayane hugged Sawako first and wished her a good night's sleep, and turned to Shouta who was looking expectantly at her. She raised a brow, but didn't ask him why, just stepped forward to hug him. He took her into his arms and leaned down towards her ear. "Tell them soon." He murmured quietly, even though Sawako was heading inside and was out of earshot.

Ayane rolled her eyes at him, not that he could see it. Instead she opted for a slightly scathing remark, but changed her mind at the last second. "Go see Pin soon." She offered him instead and stepped outside to catch up with the lovebirds. She looked over her shoulder to see Shouta's baffled expression and turned around, waving a hand at him.

Plotbunnies. You gotta love them. Ayane has a secret and so far only Shouta knows. The others will find out soon enough. Muhahaha. Bye! (=w=)/