A/N: Now presenting…. (Drumroll) chapter 8! *Claps* Posting two days early? What sorcery is this?! Just a note to let you guys know that I will be moving to university very soon. Don't worry, chapter 9 will be up next week, maybe on Tuesday or Wednesday, not entirely sure yet. Thank you all so much again for the amazing reviews. I've made this chapter longer for you guys, so…um…yeah. I hope you like it! I'm having so much fun writing this story and I think this is my favourite chapter so far. Also, be sure to add this story to your favourite or alert list because we still have a long way to go. As always, a review is much appreciated.
Chapter 8: Rain
Beep! Beep! Morning already. Yugi wasn't particular interested in getting up in the slightest. As he awoke, he realised that he'd fallen onto the floor. No surprise there. His brain decided to remind him, during the night, of his events at the bowling centre. Beep! Beep! His alarm continued to pester him. He reached up to turn off his alarm, and then he crawled back into bed.
Knock! Knock! Now what? "Yugi! Are you up yet? You're going to be late if you don't hurry up," it was his grandpa. "Yugi?! I'm coming in." Sugoroku enters, seeing that his grandson was hiding under the covers. Sugoroku places his hands on his hips, annoyingly. "I know you're awake." He goes over to Yugi and drags the covers off him.
"Hey! Grandpa!" Yugi protests.
"For goodness sake Yugi. What's gotten into you?" Yugi sulks and places his arms across his chest. Sugoroku's face softens. "Is there something you want to tell me?" Yugi just shakes his head. His grandpa sighs. "How about I quickly whip you up some pancakes? It's been a while since you've had any."
"Okay," Yugi simply states.
Seriously, school is the last place he wants to be right now. To make matters worse for Yugi, today was dark and cloudy, just like his mood. He was walking fairly hunched over, like his bag was too heavy for him. He was not looking forward to seeing his friends' reactions. Most likely, Honda was going to present a big welcoming party for him.
Yugi, miserably, enters into the classroom. And what do you know, Honda was right there at the classroom's doorway, already waiting for him. "Yugi, my man!" Honda enthusiastically greets him, and then gives him an almost aggressive pat on the back. Yugi just sighs at his friend.
"Hey Piggy! Let Yugi get through the door already," Katsuya yells at him.
"Huh!?" Honda allows Yugi access and Honda turns to look at Katsuya, his fist clenched. "You could've asked nicely!" Ignoring Honda's outburst, Yugi slowly makes his way to his desk.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Katsuya says sarcastically, "Should I have said: Please Mr. Piggy. Do let Yugi come in." Katsuya begins laughing hysterically.
"You know what Katsuya!" Honda points a finger at him. "You are one annoying son of a!"
"Guys!" Bakura interrupts Honda's profanity. "Maybe you could put aside your argument for later?"
"Good point. You two are already giving me a headache," Ryuji explains, whilst rubbing his temples.
"Oh shut up Otogi," Katsuya moans at him.
"Make me."
Bakura just sweat drops. Honda notices that Yugi was ignoring them, as he was sitting at his desk, focusing his attention outside. Honda sneakily makes his way over to Yugi, and then puts his elbows on the opposite end of Yugi's desk. He smiles childishly. "So, how did your date go?" He asks Yugi.
Yugi didn't answer. Instead, Honda's question made his stomach hurt. He decides to keep quiet and that hopefully Honda will get the hint that it didn't go well. The other three boys join them two. "Annoying him already Piggy?" Katsuya teases.
"No!" Honda raises to his feet. "I was merely asking him about his date yesterday, with Anzu."
"Oh. I forgot about that," Bakura says, causing Katsuya and Honda to drop animatedly. Ryuji places a hand on his shoulder.
"You forgot a lot of things Bakura," Ryuji points out to him.
Once Katsuya regained his composure, he asked Yugi, "So, how did it go?" Yugi turns his head to the front of his desk, but still doesn't answer. Katsuya's eyes narrowed. "Did something happen, Yugi?" Yugi nods in response. Katsuya softens his tone. "Yugi, you know you can tell us anything, right?"
Yugi lets out a small sigh, before speaking. "I made…Anzu cry."
"Cry?" Honda questions. "Whoa, Yugi. I didn't know you were the rough type." At that moment, Ryuji whacks Honda on the head. "Ow! What'd you do that for?!"
"You must be an idiot Honda. This isn't the time for jokes. Yugi's serious." Ryuji tells him harshly.
Honda's face dropped, feeling guilty. He then looks at Yugi. "Hey, Yugi. I didn't mean it man. I was just trying to lighten the mood, that's all." Seriously, we've just helped Yugi and Jonouchi to make up. Now, Yugi's made Anzu cry?
"Putting that aside," Katsuya states, "How did you upset her?" Before Yugi could answer him, Anzu had walked into the classroom. The boys look up to her direction. Being Honda, he tried to remain 'normal'.
"So, Bakura! How's your assignment going?" He suddenly exclaims.
Katsuya thinks, this is what you went for? At that point, Yugi turns his head back, facing out of the window again.
Bakura, trying to follow in Honda's footsteps, replies. "Pretty good so far. Me and Otogi have done around half of the work."
"Nice one," Honda praises them, but then he begins panicking, "Oh man! Me and Jonouchi haven't even started!"
Ryuji face palms at his stupidity. "You're kidding, right?"
Unknown to them, talking about the assignment was probably not the best course of action. Since, now they only have about 2 weeks left, and the current situation between Yugi and Anzu was not looking great. Well, they are paired up for the assignment after all. Anzu was currently sitting at her desk, with her legs crossed. She had a poker face, which could indicate that she was ignoring the boys, or she was trying not to make an obvious expression.
Trying to change the conversation, Katsuya goes and speaks with Anzu. "Morning Anzu."
She turns to him, with her usual expression. "Morning Jonouchi. Is something wrong?"
"What? No. Everything's okay here."
"Hey Anzu!" Honda pulls in behind Katsuya, and then puts his arm around his shoulder, causing Katsuya's eyebrows to twitch in annoyance. "I have a question." Bakura and Ryuji also join them.
"What is it Honda?"
"Are you currently ovulating?" If there was a word for making the whole class go silent, then Honda has said that exact word. Katsuya face palmed, as well as Ryuji, whilst Bakura walked away, trying to hide the fact that he'd actually heard what Honda said. Also, the others couldn't see but, Yugi had also face palmed.
"You idiot!" She then punched him in the face. The whole class then laughed at Honda, as he was sent flying back onto the floor.
First period. Maths. Of course, Katsuya's favourite… He was so into it, that he was secretly passing notes to Ryuji and Honda. The messages usually consisted of the inappropriate sorts. So much so, that Ryuji and Honda were trying to suppress their giggles, as was Katsuya. In the meantime, Yugi wasn't paying attention. He was avoiding the teacher's eye contact, by pretending he was engaging with the text in his maths booklet. He would occasionally glance a look at Anzu, who was actually paying attention in class. He thinks to himself, it's best if I avoid her for the time being.
"Mr. Jonouchi!" The teacher yells unexpectedly, causing the whole class to wake up, if they weren't already awake.
Katsuya awkwardly sweat drops. "Yes sir?"
"Can you read out what's written on your note? The one that Mr. Honda just passed to you."
Honda and Ryuji being sniggering quietly. Katsuya, who had no idea what was written on the new note, gulped hard and then said something different to what actually was written down. "Our maths teacher is the best in the whole world!"
Feeling irritated, the teacher replies. "You'll stay behind for 20 minutes at lunchtime, Mr. Jonouchi."
Katsuya curses under his breath and slumps back in his seat. Bakura leans over to Ryuji and asks, "What did the note actually say?"
Ryuji whispers back. "I'll tell you some other time."
"Food glorious food! Oh yeah!" Honda happily makes his way towards Ryuji and Bakura, who were already in the cafeteria. The two of them had settled on ramen, whilst Honda decided to go with on oversized Bento box.
"Seems like your appetite is the same as ever," Ryuji says. "I'm surprised you have space for all that food."
"Strong guys like me need a lot of food," he explains, and then he strikes a self-assured pose.
"Sure…"
The three eat without speaking for a bit, until Honda decides to tell them what's been bugging him. "Do you two think that Jonouchi is still hiding something from us?"
Bakura momentarily stops eating. "No. Not that I've noticed."
"Maybe," Ryuji simply states, but then adds, "What do you think he's hiding?"
Once Honda had finished the last pieces of his…'lunch', he explains his concern. "I think Jonouchi knows why Yugi won't confess to Anzu."
"What makes you say that?"
"Just a hunch. But, I think that's why they had an argument."
"You have a point. But, we don't know for sure," Bakura explains.
"I think he might be right," Ryuji agrees with Honda, "Something similar happened when we went to that theme park. You weren't there with me and Bakura, because Anzu was too busy chasing you, but Yugi was saying that he was convinced that Anzu didn't like him. Then…Jonouchi said something about it, but I can't really remember."
"Okay then!" Honda begins, "We'll confront Jonouchi at the end of last period."
"Why?"
"Because we need to find out what's going on. We can't have our group falling apart, since now Anzu and Yugi won't speak to each other."
Ryuji narrows his eyes at him. "You do realise that you and Jonouchi always fight."
"Yes, but we're supposed to."
"You two might want to change the conversation now," Bakura hushes to them, and gestures towards the entrance, as Katsuya has just entered. Katsuya sees them and sluggishly makes his way over to them.
"So, how was your time with the best teacher in the world?" Honda teases.
"Shut up," Katsuya spats.
Meanwhile, Anzu was alone on the rooftop. She was sitting down, whilst leaning back against the grid fence. Thoughts of all sorts were flowing around in her mind. She was annoyed and confused by Yugi's words yesterday. Maybe she ought to have heard what he had to say. But, now she believes that he doesn't want her around him. What do I do now? She decides to give Mai a call. Almost immediately, Mai answers. "Anzu! Hi! How are you? How was yesterday? Did you have fun?"
At that point, Anzu couldn't hold back her tears any longer and struggled to reply. "O-oh Mai, I…"
"Anzu? What's wrong!? What happened?"
"Mai, I-I'm so sorry. I-It seems we were wrong about him…"
Mai pauses for a moment. "Did Yugi reject you?"
"No. But, he said some things."
"What did he say?"
"He said something, about me forcing myself to be around him or something. I was confused and ran out crying. I thought he meant that I was an annoyance to him."
"Oh, Anzu. I'm so sorry. But, why would Yugi say something like that?"
"I don't know."
Mai sighs to herself. "I wish I could give you a hug right now. All I could suggest at this point is talking to him. It may just be a misunderstanding."
Anzu eventually stops tearing. "I hope so. I have to go now Mai."
"Okay. Do text me if you settle matters."
"I will. See you Mai."
"Bye-bye Anzu." Mai then hangs up the call. Anzu slowly rises to her feet and makes her way back to the classroom.
She returns to class. Seeing that she was nearly late, she quickly hides her phone under her desk.
The classroom bell signalled the end of the day. The teacher reminds the students of their assignment deadline, and then leaves the classroom. Yugi was rapidly putting away his things, since today he had gym. The weather didn't look too promising for his walk there. Once he was ready, he swiftly leaves the classroom, without saying goodbye to his friends.
Anzu watches him leave, wondering why he seems to be rushing on Wednesdays recently. She slowly gathers her things, says goodbye to the other boys and leaves. Once she'd left, Honda, Ryuji and Bakura surround Katsuya at his desk. He looks at them, confused. "You guys need something?"
"We want to talk to you about something," Bakura explains.
Honda quickly and aggressively slams his hands down on Katsuya's desk. Though, Katsuya didn't flinch at his action. "We want to know what's going on."
"About what?"
"About why Yugi won't confess to Anzu," Ryuji clarifies.
Katsuya breaths out and tries to act dumb. "Why would I know why?"
"Don't play dumb Jonouchi. You might as well tell us!" Honda says. He then removes his hands from Katsuya's desk. Katsuya dips his head a little.
"You know we won't tell anyone right? We're Yugi's friends and we wouldn't want to make it any more difficult for him." Bakura says kindly.
"Okay. I'll tell you guys. But, let's wait until the last remaining students go." Once Katsuya deemed the room was clear, he stands up and leans next to the classroom door. He begins, "Well, basically…"
Seriously Anzu. How could you forget your phone, ugh! Anzu was making her way back to the classroom, to reclaim her phone. Once she'd arrived outside the classroom, she was about to open it, but stopped when she heard voices on the other side. How come some students are still here? Ignoring the voices, she nearly opens the door, but then pauses abruptly when she hears one of the students talking about Yugi.
"So, that's why Yugi won't try and make a move on Anzu…" Ryuji trailed off.
Huh? Was that Otogi's voice? What is he talking about?
Honda let's out a guilty sigh and begins scratching his head. "Man, I wish I knew before. I didn't realise that Yugi thought that Anzu liked 'him' more."
"Yeah…" Katsuya begins, "Sorry I didn't say anything before. Yugi kind of said it out of the blue, once we'd returned to school after our trip to Egypt."
Bakura shakes his head. "Don't be sorry Jonouchi. You're just looking out for Yugi."
"But, the issue is now, is that those two aren't speaking," Ryuji points out, "I wonder what happened yesterday…"
On the other side of the door, Anzu had continued to eavesdrop. She was covering her mouth with her hand, in order to try and suppress any noise that she might make. Realising she still needs her phone, she forcefully tries to make a poker face, and then opens the classroom door, causing the four boys to panic almost. "Oh? You guys are still here?"
Katsuya inwardly sighs. Thank goodness she didn't hear us. "Yeah, we're just talking about maybe going to burger world or the arcade. What did you come back for?"
"My phone. I forgot I left it in the desk drawer." She casually goes to retrieve her phone. "By the way, Jonouchi and Honda, you might want to hurry and start your assignment already."
Honda sweat drops hopelessly. "But we don't want to!"
"You seriously are hopeless." Before she goes to leave, she calmly asks the boys, "Where's Yugi? He's not with you guys?"
"Nope. He seems to dashing off on Wednesdays now," Ryuji responds.
"I see. Well, see you guys tomorrow."
She softly closes the door and begins walking normally down the hallway. Once she was sure that she was far away enough from the classroom, she starts running. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! This is why Yugi was avoiding me. What did Honda mean by 'him'? Was he possibly referring to Atem?! Oh, Yugi… She quickly dashes to the shoe locker room. She notices that it's started to rain. Great, I didn't bring an umbrella today. No, the rain isn't important right now. I've got to find Yugi. She changes her shoes, slams her locker door shut and then hurries out of the school building.
Yugi reaches his hand out, to catch the raindrops. He was wondering if there was any point of actually working out today. He wasn't really in the right mind to, but then again, it may take his mind off things. The rain began to get heavier, but despite that, Yugi's pace remained the same. What was the point of running? Perhaps he deserves to be drenched, then he would end up getting a cold after. Karma maybe? He didn't know.
I don't remember the gym being this far away. Actually, not apprehending at first, he'd stopped walking any further. He just stood there, still as a statue. It was like, his body was telling him not to move on anymore. He covers his face with his hands. He was so confused and disgusted with himself. He didn't even try to apologise to her, but for what? Making her cry? He thought he was speaking the truth. He believed that, he knew what she was thinking.
"Yugi!" Now his mind was playing tricks on him. Must be some sort of disorientated echo in the rain. He begins walking again, ignoring the somewhat sound. "Yugi!" There it was again. Now he was getting annoyed with himself. Seems his brain wants to torment him. "Yugi! Please wait!" Now he knew that someone was actually calling him. He stops and turns around to see who was calling him. He was shocked to find that Anzu was about 5 meters away from him. She had her hands on her knees and she was panting heavily, like she'd just run a marathon. "I-It took me a while, but I found you," she gasps out to him.
Yugi was beyond confused, as to why Anzu was trying to find him. She's probably here to yell at him, for having ruining her day yesterday. He stands there silently, not wanting to respond. Anzu removes her hands from her knees and stands up straight. She begins speaking again, this time her tone more agitated and loud, since the rain wouldn't be stopping any time soon. "I'm so angry and frustrated right now!"
Yugi slumps his head slightly, feeling guilty. "Anzu I…"
She quickly interrupts him. "Let me say what I want to say! Please…" Her tone dropping a little. He avoids her eyes but nods in understanding. "I'm sorry," she begins, causing Yugi to be even more confused, "I never realised that I was hurting you. I mean…I was…well happy when you told us that you were going to get stronger and all. But…you then started to distance yourself from me. I wasn't sure why. I thought you didn't want to spend time with me anymore…" She pauses for a moment. She begins again, only this time her voice much more nervous. "Y-you shouldn't compare yourself to 'him' Yugi. I…um…" She starts fidgeting. Say it Anzu! Say it! "I-I just…wanted t-to say that…" Ugh! Why is this so hard?!
Suddenly, Anzu lashes out the words she wanted to say. "I've always liked you!"
Yugi's head springs up to look at her. Did I hear her correctly? Anzu starts blushing and turns her body around to avoid Yugi. Yugi also has a slight blush on his cheeks. She liked him? The rain was so loud, that Yugi could hardly hear his now racing heartbeat. He wants to reply, but unsure on where to start from. Instead, he walks up, so that he was standing behind her. "Anzu."
Anzu nearly jumps out of her skin, unaware that Yugi had moved so close to her. "Do you want to come back to mine? You know, to dry off." She audibly lets out a noise in response, that wasn't quite a word. Yugi, taking her reply as a yes, starts power walking his route back to the game shop.
The two are now currently on Yugi's sofa, covered in a mass of towels. The weather wasn't clearing up anytime soon, meaning Anzu was stuck at Yugi's for a while, not that she minded. Though, you could say she minded in a sense, since she had positioned herself quite far away from him, the towel acting as somewhat of a shield. Yugi, on the other hand, was sitting with his legs crossed, on the sofa, his hands in his lap, like a first grader, and his head titled a tad away from viewing Anzu.
Anzu was very nervous, especially since Yugi wasn't saying anything. She was scared also. Scared to know what his answer was going to be. "Anzu," Yugi addressed her, "Um…" Yugi was nervous as well.
"Y-yes?" Anzu asked quietly, keeping her current position.
"I want to apologise for making you cry yesterday. I said some things that confused you. For that, I'm sorry."
"I-I forgive you. I shouldn't have stormed off like that." The two fall silent again. It was never this hard to speak to him before.
Yugi awkwardly rubs the back of his head. "Anzu…I…Um…" No, I want her to look at me. "Anzu, please look at me."
Embarrassed at first, but she does as he says. She removes one of the towels covering her head, and then she slowly turns to look at him. He looks at her softly, he sees that she's struggling to maintain eye contact. He swallows hard before speaking. "Anzu…I! I like you!" There he'd said it. Words he wanted to express to her for a long time. He quickly turns his gaze away from her, blushing madly.
Anzu was speechless. She couldn't believe that Yugi, one of her closest friends, actually liked her. She continued to look at him, seeing how anxious he was. It made her smile a little. "You really like me?"
Yugi nods in agreement.
"Oh Yugi," she says happily, her eyes starting to tear up.
Yugi looks at her and begins to worry. "Why are crying? Did I say something wrong?"
She shakes her head. "No you silly. I'm crying because I'm happy," she gives him a big smile, to reassure him. "I didn't think you liked me."
"O-of course I do! I have for a while now…I always thought that you didn't like me," he explains.
"Well, I do."
"Anzu. I have to ask. Why do you like me?"
"Why?" She thinks for a moment. "I think it's because you have so many great qualities."
"I do?"
"Yes."
"Like what?"
"Well, apart from you being the king of games, you're kind, caring, courageous, and you're always looking out for others, especially those closet to you." And you're very attractive.
Yugi blinks several times, amazed by how much Anzu had complimented him. It made him blush a little. "I have all those qualities?" He asks uncertain.
"Yes you do. Now…let me ask you something. Why did you think that I liked 'your other self'?"
That caught Yugi off guard. "How did you know that?"
"I overheard the others today, after school."
"Oh…" he trails off. "Well…you seemed to want him more than me. I mean, I know you wanted to speak with him one last time, when I was organising my new deck. And…you were so upset to see him go. I mean, we all were. But, you really didn't want him to move on to the afterlife…so I thought that you preferred him over me."
"Do you want to know something? He was never you Yugi. I've always liked you, not 'your other self.'"
"But I thought."
She interrupts him. "I will admit that I had quite some attraction to him. But, it wasn't the same kind of attraction I had with you. It was more of wanting to understand him better as a friend. I didn't want him to leave because I cared a lot about him, because he helped you and you helped him."
"Is that really how you felt?"
"Yes, honestly. I like you."
Yugi sighs inwardly to himself, relieved that he now knows. I suppose he worried over nothing. He was happy though, to know that Anzu actually liked him, even before he completed the millennium puzzle. He begins to blush again. "S-so does that mean you'll be with me?"
Anzu looked at him weirdly, as if Yugi was slow to comprehend the situation. "Yes of course, silly. I don't want us to just be friends."
"Sorry," he says timidly, "Just making sure."
"Can we keep this a secret?" Anzu asks.
"Huh?"
"I mean just for a little bit, maybe a week or so. And it's not that I'm embarrassed by you or anything! I just don't want to tell everyone straight away, you know."
"Not even Jonouchi or the others?"
Anzu shakes her head. "Please?"
Yugi thinks about it, but understands where she's coming from. "Okay. But, we need to tell the others that we've made up. I told them that I'd upset you."
"Hmmm…" Anzu ponders, "I'll come up with something." She then places her hands on her hips. "Besides! They shouldn't get to know. I mean that jerk Honda! He doesn't understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate."
Yugi awkwardly sweat drops at that. "That's true. He constantly teases me about you."
"He does? Well, I can believe that."
"Say Anzu. Was yesterday meant to be a date?"
"Ah," she begins blushing heavily, and her speech stutters, "W-what would m-make you s-say that?"
"You did say just the two of us."
"I-I suppose it was."
Yugi awkwardly laughs. "Sorry for ruining it."
She waves her arms up in front of him. "N-No! It's fine! It doesn't matter now. Besides…we have lots of time to spend together now."
Yugi's eyes widen slightly, at that. "Y-Yes we do," he stutters, now that a lot of naughty images have popped up in his head. No brain! Anzu wouldn't do anything like that!
"Hey, it's stopped raining," she states, knocking Yugi out of his senses. He turns and looks out of the window.
"Finally. It's been awful all day."
"I guess I shouldn't uphold my stay any longer," Anzu rises to her feet, "What did you want me to do with these towels?"
"Give them to me. I'll just pop them into the kitchen." He goes and does so. He returns and finds her putting on her bag pack. He goes and walks her to the door. They try and act normally, since Yugi's grandpa was running the shop. He opens the door for her and she steps out onto the steps. "I'll see you tomorrow Anzu."
"Yeah. See you," she continues down the steps. Before she makes her leave, she tells him, "Let's work on the assignment tomorrow lunch. I promise I'll be there."
"Okay."
"Bye-bye," she waves him goodbye and heads home.
Yugi watches her go, until she is out of sight. He thinks to himself how lucky he his. I won her heart!
"Yugi!" His happy train of thoughts are disturbed by his grandpa. "Close that door already. I know it's stopped raining, but it's still cold."
Anzu was happily humming to herself. She'd finally confessed, and now she had a boyfriend. Squee! I'm so happy! Mai was right in the end. Oh, speaking of Mai. She looks at her previous text messages with Mai, and also remembers that she called her today. Sorry Mai. I can't tell you just yet. But, I'd better tell her that we've made up.
