Horohoro entered his bedroom and flung himself onto his bed. What had he just done? What had just happened? The enormity of it all sunk into his mind. Hao's terrible words played through his mind, over and over again, like a broken record.

"He used you."

"He planned to kill you."

"He never really loved you."

He clenched his fists, punching his pillow hard. He glanced over to the table at the side of his bed. There was a small framed photograph in it. In the picture, he had a silly grin on his face and he had his arm around Ren's shoulders. Ren was smiling, too, and he looked truly happy.

Disgusted, Horohoro shoved the picture of the table. It landed on the floor with a crash. The frame cracked, and the glass inside the frame shattered. The photograph drifted away and settled somewhere underneath his bed.

He didn't care. He never wanted to see it again.

In fact, he never wanted to see anything to do with Ren ever again.

In a crazed fury, he charged through the apartment. He ran to his closet, digging out a photo album. He flipped it open. So many pictures of himself and Ren in different places. They were smiling in every one. He ripped the album in half and threw it across the room. Ripped photos flew everywhere.

He ripped the photos taped on his bedroom wall off, throwing them to the floor and stomping on them. All the other photos in the apartment went crashing to the ground, one by one.

Panting, he finally stopped when the last picture had been destroyed. He stepped back to survey his work.

The apartment was a total mess, like a hurricane had ripped through it. The floor was littered with ripped and tattered photos. Pages from various books and albums drifted around noiselessly. Shattered glass was everywhere.

He had stepped on so many pieces of glass , and his feet were cut and bleeding in many places. He was so absorbed with emotional pain that he didn't even feel the physical pain of the fresh wounds.

Now bloody footprints joined the mess.

It was then that Horohoro did something he hadn't done in a long time.

He started crying.

He had been so angry at Ren for betraying him, for lying to him, for using him. And now the anger was replaced with sadness for the fact that Ren had never really loved him.

Ren was feeling no better than him, in fact, he could have been a little bit worse off.

In short, Horohoro had abandoned him on the streets. He had nowhere to go, no money, nothing. The only things he had with him were the clothes on his back and the ikupasuy Horohoro had meant to give him as a Christmas and birthday present.

It was dreadfully cold, and Ren had huddled in a corner at an alley's edge. He was just another homeless with nowhere to go, no one to love him, and no one to care.

Shivering, he tried to warm himself by rubbing his arms. It helped, but he still felt chilled to his bones. Was he going to freeze to death? Or starve? It didn't matter, either way Ren was sure he was doomed to die on the streets with stray dogs picking at his corpse.

He fingered the ikupasuy, wondering why Horohoro had done this to him.

"You're trash. No, you're worse than trash."

"Dirty witch."

"Don't think I'll ever forgive you."

What had he meant when he had said "witch?" Was he accusing him of something?

Whatever it was, he didn't know, and it was too late to do anything about it.

"Oh, well..." he said to himself, looking up at the sky. "If I really did something to hurt him...then I deserve to die anyways."

He shivered again, pulling his knees up to his chest. It was snowing.

Horohoro loved the snow. He had a special place for the icy whiteness in his heart.

And Ren knew he'd never get his place in Horohoro's heart back.