Disclaimer: Not ours

The Mistakes of Others

"Do you think he's going to come today?" Shinobu asked her assembled friends at school the next morning.

The day before had passed quietly, with Shinobu going to bed extra early to account for her exasperation of the day. She had made a simple dinner, whipping it up, and chowing it down faster than all the Hinata residents could register. They could see Shinobu was close to tears, but decided not to press the issue.

Over the course of the day, Shinobu had worked herself into a mess over the issue with Kyo. She knew it wasn't that big and that all she should really have to do is apologize, but Shinobu was Shinobu and she felt incredibly bad for treating her friend as such. After she retreated to her room, she worked on the little homework that had been assigned on the second day of school.

She'd set her bag up for the next day, waiting for her near the door. Then, she attempted calling Kyo again. Again, no one answered. Shinobu briefly wondered if she had the wrong number before remembering that she'd called this number too many times before for it to be wrong. With that disappointment (was he avoiding her?), she went to sleep.

Not exactly the start she'd wanted for the school year.

When she'd awoken, she followed her usual routine (except for a minor hiccup involving Keitaro and Naru), all culminating in her arriving at the fountain at the school, and after a few minutes, questioning her friends if Kyo was indeed going to show up.

"I don't know. His parents are pretty lax compared to others when it comes to the whole attendance thing…but missing a day because of a wet uniform?" Chie said, looking at the saddened Shinobu.

"Do you want us to go find him?" Michimo asked, his worried gaze falling on Shinobu. She shook her head to a negative tune.

"Looks like we don't have to worry about finding him." The group looked up at Isao, whose eyes had landed somewhere far off towards the school building. They followed his gaze and then erupted into a litany of colorful phrases.

"I suppose, if anything," Jun said coldly, "he's the biggest flirt."

Shinobu just watched as Kyo flirted shamelessly with Ume as Toshio watched, displeased. And for some strange reason, Shinobu smiled.

At the bell, she, Yumi, and Chie headed off to their homeroom. They waited nervously (well, at least Shinobu did) for Kyo. When he did enter after Ume, Shinobu could feel the tension in the room become tangible. Though she couldn't see the faces of her two friends, she was pretty sure that if looks could kill, Kyo would be a corpse by now. It wasn't that he was flirting…it was with whom he was flirting. But Shinobu let it be, dropping her gaze and letting it drag out the window. Kaolla was, thankfully, nowhere to be seen.

The dull sound of a body hitting the chair in front of her made her look up. Her cheeks colored slightly in disappointment as Kyo kept his body forward to face Ume who had taken a seat in front of him. He was talking loudly, his voice carrying a little too clearly to Shinobu's ears. But Shinobu said nothing. She just took it as it came. Her guilt had thankfully lessened because of the support of her friend's in this issue.

Yumi and Chie, however, were red like Shinobu but out of anger. Their eyes were flitting back and forth between the flirtatious pair in front and the composed girl who was presently reaching into her school satchel to retrieve a book.

Yumi leaned over, "Doesn't this bother you at all?"

"A little. But you guys told me I was right. You weren't lying, were you?" Doubt flashed in Shinobu's eyes, only to be 'tsk-ed' away by Yumi.

"No! Of course not! But he should apologize to you!"

Chie was nodding heartily in agreement. "He did everything wrong. You did everything right. And now? Ume?!?"

Shinobu shrugged, about to answer but Kyo's next comment cut her off.

"You see, I'm the best at everything. But some people just don't appreciate me. I mean, friendship means accepting faults, even major ones. But you're not like some people, right Ume?"

Shinobu's head snapped up at the comment and a tidal wave of guilt deluged her. She stared at the back of his head, asking herself if she heard correctly. Was that statement aimed at her? Was she a bad friend for not accepting Kyo as he came? But didn't she accept him? She was just trying to make him a better person because, frankly, his bragging was a horrible part of him. But…was she a bad friend? Yumi and Chie both continued to stare at her. Shinobu reacted the only way she knew how.

She ducked her head and cried. She never heard Ume's answer.

Shinobu quickly made her way to her other classes, her face now paler then before. She had gotten over the crying stage but now, a certain gloom had upended her somewhat cheerful mood and settled in her stomach. She felt as if she couldn't smile.

So she didn't make an attempt to.

Her day moved quickly and she gave all her attention to her school-work, not even bothering to note Kyo when he waltzed into her Japanese Literature class. She would've usually watched him, waiting for him to make his way over to her with a simple smile on her lips. But not today.

Today, she focused all her energy into titling the assignment that she had to turn in.

Maybe she did this to avoid looking at him because she would cry. Or maybe she would scorn him. Or perhaps this was her way of scorning him. Really, Shinobu had no clue. She only decided to ignore him. In her mind, the different reasons were swirling in her head. She liked to think that this was all for scorning him.

But then again, she didn't know.

Kyo sat a few seats away from her, occasionally glancing at her. She gave no indication of seeing him. He started conversing with a girl, a nice one, Shinobu noted.

His voice carried…and along with it, his boasts.

Sighing, Shinobu handed her assignment in and joined her group to discuss the novel they were studying at that point, Tsurezuregusa. The same could be said for Kyo, who broke into his group. However, he did so with a perpetual frown and Shinobu could only look away.

She didn't like seeing her friends sad.

"The Buddhist philosophy is obviously part of the deeper theme," a classmate stated. Shinobu looked at him strangely.

"Of course it is. The author was a Buddhist monk. We just need to know which Buddhist philosophies he's pointing at," Shinobu said, a cutting edge in her voice. She was becoming bitter. And mean. Shinobu was not usually bitter and mean.

Shinobu, most of the time, was calm, demure, and simple. But sometimes, and only sometimes, when faced with circumstances that affected her to a point of fear (like losing a friend), she became bitter. And her emotions would thus cycle from bitterness to sadness and back again, until it broke. All the blame was placed on her, she would think, and rightly so. Why did she do the things she did?

What need was there to push Kyo into the fountain? Had he really done something that evil? And what about his boasting? Was it that unbearable? Was he bad person for boasting?

Was she a bad person for trying to change him?

When class was dismissed, Shinobu literally ran out. She had to go to calculus.

Thinking really is a bad thing.

Lunch was quiet. Shinobu had forgotten her lunch again. Strangely, Kaolla had reminded her in the morning to bring her lunch. Shinobu had packed it and everything. But in the last minute rush to clean up Keitaro's face after it had a meeting with Naru's fist, the lunch had been left sitting on the counter-top. As it was, a lump had settled in her throat. She found it hard to swallow past it; it hurt too much.

Shinobu didn't even bother raising her eyes when she heard Isao bring up Kyo.

"Does anybody know where Kyo is?" Isao asked, glancing in Shinobu's direction. Chie rubbed Shinobu's back and shook her head. "We don't know."

"Shinobu--" Jun started tentatively. "Shinobu, you can't let this get to you. He's not exactly the best guy in the world. Anything that you did…it was better for him. We all know that you're the one that's right. If he can't see that…"

She trailed off, watching Shinobu to gauge her reaction.

Shinobu nodded, wiping her eyes then nose. She sat up straight before slumping again and tracing circles with her finger into the bench where the group sat.

"I-I just feel like an idiot sometimes. I mean, what if he is right? What if I do judge too harshly?"

"Your only problem," Isao stated, "is that you take everything to heart. You want to be the nicest person ever, even if it means people walking all over you. And then when those ungrateful idiots question you, you feel as if you've committed a sin."

"I agree," Chie said. "You never raise your voice, get angry, or anything. You only try to help people with major, major faults see what's wrong. Maybe you do it unintentionally but you do try and help. No one likes to hear Kyo brag about himself. It's annoying, stupid and a whole bunch of other things. The only problem is that he doesn't see that you're trying to help him."

The others nodded slowly. Shinobu sat, still slumped. She turned their words over in her head, as if trying to discern if they were saying it just to make her feel better. They were. But that was okay. She looked up at them and smiled an odd sort of smile since her eyes were puffy and her nose runny. They were just trying to make her feel better and that was okay.

Soon, Shinobu was smiling. She decided that even if just for the moment, she would believe her friends. Of course in reality, she didn't. But she went with it. She could deal with her never-ending feelings of guilt later.

The last class of the day was one Shinobu had not looked forward to. The uneasiness was eating away at her nerves. Yumi was going to ditch her class and join Shinobu in a show of solidarity but when the teacher gave her a "look" as she walked in, Yumi scampered away. Shinobu then shifted her focus from Yumi's retreating form to Ume. Ume sat in the far corner of the room, looking bored with life in general.

Shinobu pursued her lips and quietly took to her seat. The teacher began right away, speaking on the civic duty that young people in Japan had to their elders. Shinobu took careful notes, keeping her eyes away from Ume in the back. All the while, Shinobu would occasionally raise her fingers to her eyes for a light touch to see if her eyes were still puffy. Thankfully, the puffiness had receded some.

Anyways, the teacher continued on about civic duty up until he called for them to begin cleaning. Shinobu packed her books and miscellaneous items into her satchel then began to clean up. She helped sweep the floor and wipe the desks. Once she was finished, she left the room, hurrying to meet the group before they headed off for cram school. She met them and they said their good-byes quickly. A few of them had a train to catch and the station wasn't exactly close by.

Shinobu loitered for a few minutes, not really waiting for anything in particular. Suu was going to be attending an engineering meeting and so Shinobu could head back to Hinata. With a sigh, she headed out of the gates.

"Hey Shinobu! Wait up!" Shinobu froze, her stomach erupting into a swirl of butterflies and adrenaline. She knew her face was turning red like a cherry. Slowly, she turned to see Kyo running to catch up with her. He stopped, placing his hands on his knees as he panted from the exertion.

"A-And I tho-thought that I walked fa-fast," He managed with a smile.

Shinobu didn't know how to react. Was everything just going to go back to normal? So she just stood there, as still as a tree.

Kyo caught his breath and gave her a look. "What?" He asked. "No hello or anything?"

Shinobu once again pursued her lips. She then opened her mouth to speak, hoping that her hammering heart wouldn't let itself be known. She didn't want to have a waver in her voice. "You're not…mad?"

Kyo looked confused. Shinobu became confused. "Mad about what?"

"Yesterday! I pushed you into the fountain!" A little bit of something flashed in Kyo's eyes before an easy grin spread across his face.

"I let you push me Shinobu. No worries there. I thought you were mad at me because you ignored me all of today."

Shinobu gawked. "I didn't ignore you. You ignored me. And you know that I have no reason to be mad at you."

Kyo's easy grin became uneasy. "No," he said slowly. "You didn't speak to me all of today. So I figured you were mad about me walking out."

Two pink spots appeared on Shinobu's cheek. "Of course I didn't speak to you! You spent the whole day with Ume, Kyo! You know me! I don't walk up to people and initiate conversation unless I'm comfortable with all the people there!"

"I don't see why you're uncomfortable with Ume." He was trying to change the subject.

"Kyo, please. Don't change the subject." Shinobu felt tears coming up again. He continued, pretending as if he hadn't heard her.

"She's a really nice person. She's a role-model too. And--" Shinobu felt tears spill from her eyes. She looked down so as to avoid them streaking her cheek. "—she's really good at speaking publicly. I'm good too but she…Shinobu?"

Shinobu looked up at him. His face was frozen, staring at her cheeks, where the fast-moving tears were making the new trails. So much for not streaking her cheeks.

"I—uh. Yo-You're crying." He managed. He looked scared.

"Yeah. I am. I'll see you later, okay?" Shinobu kept the tremor out of her voice and then turned away, making her way to the train station. She would've continued, that is, had hands not grabbed her shoulders.

"Please don't cry!"

"What?" Shinobu looked up the harried Kyo, her tears momentarily suspended out of shock.

"I felt bad today, okay? After seeing you cry in homeroom, I felt bad for the whole rest of the day, so I thought I'd make everything better by talking with you." He paused, then continued at a slower pace. "I hate making you cry. I was mad at you, alright? You pushed me into the fountain. I don't get pushed into the fountain! I…I wanted to get back at you. Once I did though…I just…I…"

He trailed off, looking at her hopefully.

Shinobu sighed and wiped away her tears. She even managed a little smile. "I accept your apology," she said jokingly. "And I think things can be normal now."

Kyo smiled. "I'll walk you to the train station…?" Shinobu smiled a genuine one at him. "Yeah. You can walk me to the train station."

AN: So that's that for this chapter! Read and Review, please! We appreciate all feedback, constructive criticism especially!