A.N/:Ok, this chapter is more Shiemi centered but trust me, it's still good! I don't really know why people don't like her sometimes...Can anyone enlighten me?

I hope you enjoy this chapter and as always thanks to everyone who reads/follows/favorited/reviewed this story! It always makes me look like a Cheshire cat when I smile while reading a review.^^

Chapter 9

Shiemi entered the exorcism classroom on her own the next day. She hadn't told anyone about what had happened two days before with Rin and was rather uncomfortable with Renzo. He had tried to get the truth out of her all afternoon yesterday in class, but she wouldn't say anything. She was still very puzzled with what had happened the other day and didn't know how to act towards Rin. He had been silent since then, never looking up from his textbook, and she hadn't dared talk to him. She had however noticed the sad look on his face when she had passed by him.

She still had no idea why he had tried to kiss her. Was it an impulse? Did he want to scare her? If so, it hadn't worked very well because she could never be scared by Rin. She knew he would never do anything bad to her. She was just so surprised by his actions, she hadn't known how to react since her brain went crazy. Her emotions had completely submerged her. What did scare her on the other hand was the last eventuality. Maybe he had acted like that because…He had feelings for her?

She shook her head back and forth to rid herself of these thoughts. Rin was her best friend, he couldn't think of her that way. It was impossible. But he was always so nice to her…He always watched over her and made her happy…

She sat down at her desk beside Shima. The Kyoto trio was there early as usual. Izumo and Takara too, but Rin was still missing.

"Hey there babe, feeling okay?" Renzo greeted her.

She nodded and gave him the smallest of a smile. Konekomaru and Ryuji turned to acknowledge her presence with a little wave.

"We have demonology first, right?" Renzo asked his childhood friends.

Koneko nodded. "Yes, then magic circles study and lastly pharmacology."

"Magic circles? You think Miss Kirigakure's gonna bring whisky this time?" the pink haired teen joked.

"I think she prefers Sake…" Konekomaru sighed.

"How d'you know!?" Renzo exclaimed, leaning flat on his desk towards his interlocutor.

The conversation went on but Shiemi didn't take part in it. She was still thinking about Rin. 'Why would he fall for me? I'm too weak for him. But what he did…' She blushed at the memory of his face inching closer towards her. Their lips had been barely inches apart, she had felt his warm breath on her skin and her heart beating faster against his…

"Babe, you're alright?"

Shiemi was now blushing crimson red. What was wrong with her? Thinking about it like that…

"Yeah, don't worry!" She tried to suppress the heavy blush on her cheeks and flashed her boyfriend a reassuring smile.

"If you say so…" He said turning back to Konekomaru.

Shiemi turned her head away from the others, engulfed in her thoughts again. Rin still wasn't there even though class was about to start. Did something happen to him? 'Wait a second, why can't I stop thinking about him!?' Strange…Even though he was her best friend she had never found herself thinking about him so much. It was probably because of their situation. 'Rin…' Now that she thought about it he always lowered his eyes whenever she mentioned Renzo after they had gotten together, he avoided the subject as much as he could and kept averting his gaze whenever she added his name in the conversation before quickly changing the subject. 'He seemed so sad…' Maybe he did have feelings for her, but how could she be sure, she was so confused…

The door opened to reveal Rin entering the classroom, as silent as before and with a book under his arm. He didn't even greet the others and sat down at his usual spot in the front row. She watched him open his book and start reading it straight away, without looking at anyone in the room. 'He looks so lonely.' She kept staring at him turning a page every once in a while. 'There's something terribly wrong with him… I want to help him…' She thought but knew she couldn't. He was probably mad at her for telling him all these things last time and she was far too baffled by her thoughts to say anything coherent to him.

The teacher suddenly made his entrance and stood behind the desk in front of his pupils. "Good afternoon Exwires, let's begin today's lesson. Does anyone know what a Metamorph is?"

The classroom was silent for a while. Shiemi hadn't had time to revise these days and was left waiting for either Ryuji or Izumo to tell them since they were always the best pupils. The pigtailed girl didn't offer to answer the question, maybe she wasn't in the mood today. But what surprised all the audience most was that despite that, Ryuji wasn't the only one to raise his hand.

"Yes, ?"

Everyone -the teacher included- had their eyes as wide as saucers. Rin never answered questions in class if he wasn't forced to. He never, ever volunteered and was easily the worst among them when it came to theory classes. But surely enough, he stood up and started reciting:

"Metamorphs are demons that possess water, mud or paint…Basically any semi-solid materials. They create illusions to disorient their victims, using their fears or weaknesses…A bit like Maras, right?"

The whole class stared in awe. Shiemi and Izumo gasped, even the teacher had to readjust his glasses to see if he wasn't dreaming. Rin was seemingly unfazed but smirked innerly.

"That's perfectly right…" The teacher cleared his throat more professionally. "Can you tell me to which Prince of Gehenna they are affiliated?"

"Azazel, king of air."

They all gaped at Rin, completely and utterly bewildered.

"That's correct…" They could tell the teacher was amazed too as he stared at Rin with the widest eyes they had ever seen. He tried pushing his luck a bit further. "Do you know any other of Azazel's servants by any chance?"

"Err…Ghosts?"

Ryuji actually fell off his chair as Rin answered correctly again. "What happened to you!? How do you know all that!?" he shouted.

He gave him an arrogant look before sitting back down and crossing his arms.

The lesson went on and Rin was quiet again, but after a while he got a notebook from his bag and started not only paying attention to what the teacher said but actually taking notes! The others were totally amazed by his behavior and had a hard time concentrating on the lesson. Rin answered a few more questions to everyone's surprise ("It wasn't just a one time thing!?" Ryuji had whispered to Konekomaru, both completely aghast). Rin acted the same way during the next lesson, and the next… This was undeniably a miracle.

The boys had tried to ask him what happened to him in only the span of a day during the break between two lessons, but he would only point a finger at his head and say "It's all in there" as an explanation. Shiemi wasn't fooled by his silly little grin. She knew him well enough to tell this was his façade. When Rin smiled genuinely it was always large, broad grins, smirks or, every once in a while, a small honest smile, but only for her.

She blushed a bit at that. 'Why didn't I realize that before?' She thought. She couldn't help looking over at Rin in the first row. His back was to her and she could only see little of his face since his untidy raven bangs were all over it, as usual. He suddenly turned around, feeling eyes on his back, and she was quite startled by his gaze. His eyes were usually so blue and full of life…Now they looked blank and empty. Shiemi blushed even more and quickly averted her gaze in embarrassment, however she didn't miss him turning back to his book with a sad look and a sigh.

Something was definitely wrong with him. She wanted to do something, anything that could help him but she didn't know what. Even worse, how could she possibly help him without knowing what was wrong with her in the first place? Ever since that day when they had argued she had felt different. She clenched her fist against her heart. Her thoughts were way too hard to sort on her own.

"Good afternoon class," Yukio came into the room and sat at the teacher's desk. "Today we're going to start with a little surprise test."

Whines of dismay and Renzo's "Oh man!" were heard around the classroom. Yukio was worse than a demon when he entered 'teacher mode'. He asked Izumo to give out the papers, which she did and about fifteen minutes later Yukio told them to drop their pens and took the copies back.

Shiemi sighed. Pharmacology was her favorite subject since she liked plants so much but she had a hard time concentrating this time. She thought about her feelings and Rin again as Yukio began explaining today's program. 'I'm so confused…What's going on with me…' She knew she wouldn't find an answer alone. She turned to Renzo in realization. 'Oh no…That's too embarrassing…' Usually she would turn to Rin when she had problems like that, but this time she couldn't, not after all that had happened. If she really wanted to know, she didn't have a choice.

She did her best to tear a page of her notebook as silently as possible and took out a pen to write a message on it. She folded it thrice to reduce it to a small square and waited for Yukio to turn around to the black board to toss it towards Renzo.

He didn't notice it at first so Shiemi had to clear her throat quietly. Only then did he face her and see the paper in front of him when she gestured to it. She blushed in embarrassment as he read it:

*How do you know when you're truly in love?*

He blinked twice, trying to understand why she would ask such a thing but eventually picked up a pen and wrote back:

*Whenever I look at you of course~ ;-)*

She should have known he would answer with something cheesy like that. He always did. But she needed a serious reply, not the wink he gave her when she turned to face him disbelievingly. She gave him her reply:

*Seriously, this is important.*

He looked over at her and saw her determined eyes despite the rosy tint of her cheeks. So he took a little longer to write back:

*I don't really know, I never felt true love for anyone. But it doesn't stop me from liking girls~ I guess –from what I heard- you get all flustered for nothing and your heart starts beating a 100miles/h like they say…You can't stop thinking about that person and you want to be with him/her all the time… Honestly, you should ask Izumo-chan! Apparently she likes shojo mangas!^^*

The first thing she stopped on was his first sentence. "I never felt true love for anyone." In fact, it didn't shock her all that much. She wasn't even angry. True she had liked Renzo at some point, but now that she had got to know him better she considered him more like a friend… Her eyes widened for a split second but she quickly recovered and thought 'At least this works, I can finally sort my thoughts.'

She then read the next part of the message, at least three times, before she started comparing the symptoms Renzo described with what she felt about Rin.

"…you get flustered for nothing" That wasn't much of an indication since Shiemi blushed pretty much all the time, even if only a little. But flustered…Yes she had been flustered when she was with Rin, numerous times even. They just tended to get into weird and embarrassing situations together…If being in the same room and mere meters away from each other was considered a weird situation…

"…your heart starts beating a 100miles/h" She had to admit, that happened a lot… Especially the other day when he had cornered her, her heart had gone completely mad with him being so close to her, and she knew for sure that it wasn't because of fear.

"…You can't stop thinking about that person" That was true too. She was so worried about Rin these days, she couldn't help thinking about him all day. She felt heat coming to her cheeks again, realizing that even before there had been days when she had been bored running the supply shop and spent the afternoon thinking about Rin and what he was doing.

"…you want to be with him/her all the time" She wasn't sure about that one. But to be honest, she really wanted to be with Rin right now. She wished he hadn't gotten mad and run away that day, that they were still friends and happy together. She missed him a lot and wanted him by her side again, for as long as possible, maybe even forever…

'Aaah! Don't start thinking like that!' She shook her head back and forth, trying to get rid of her thoughts. She didn't notice the suspicious look Yukio was giving her though. The young teacher knew perfectly well that she wasn't paying attention today and it was time he did something about it.

"Miss Moriyama," Shiemi got up and out of her reverie at the sound of her name "Could you tell us which kind of plant is the most effective against bacteria?"

"Err…Hum…" She stuttered and even though she searched cautiously in her memories, the answer just slipped out of her mind. "I don't know, I'm sorry…" She lowered her head in embarrassment 'Why can't I remember!?' she scolded herself.

"You'll have to listen more carefully Miss Moriyama, I said it only ten minutes ago." Yukio remarked mercilessly. "Does anyone know the answer to that question?" He looked around the other pupils and was quite surprised to see Rin's hand slowly rise. "Yes ?" He called his brother, wide eyed in shock and disbelief.

"Moss and bracken."

Yukio couldn't believe it. "Wha…What?" he let out weakly, readjusting his glasses.

"The answer's moss and bracken." Rin repeated still unfazed but quite proud that he managed to surprise his brother like that.

Yukio was speechless for a while and such a heavy silence engulfed the room, you could hear Coal-tars flying around.

"Tha…That's correct, Thank you ." Yukio managed to say when he got his voice back. He quickly went on with his lesson, trying to get over such a supernatural event.

Shiemi couldn't get her eyes off Rin for some reason. Even if it was good that he did well in class now she knew it wasn't his normal behavior. She had to talk to him and apologize for what she had said to him. That was the least she could do, even though he probably hated her now… Her heart ached at the thought…

She thought about her earlier realizations and picked up her pen again to write to Renzo:

*I'm sorry, but I think it'd be best if we stayed friends. Thank you. XXX*

She tossed it for him to read but he returned it surprisingly fast after writing his reply:

*No prob. Can I get the kisses for real?~*

A.N/: I really like that ending! XD Renzo doesn't ever know when to stop, does he?...

I've always wanted to write something with a tex message conversation or something of the like, that's why the paper thing happened. And seriously, who never did that in class (don't lie to me)?

If you liked this chapter please review, and I hope you'll stay tuned until the next one!