When Risa arrived at class the next morning she opened her desk and found it completely empty.

Her books were gone. Her pencils were gone. Her notepads were gone. There was nothing left except a small piece of paper sitting in the center of nothing. She picked it up and read it.

Meet us in the girl's locker room at lunch.

It was unsigned.

-------------------------------------

Risa went to the locker room at lunch.

She didn't think much of it. No one would do anything ridiculous during school hours.

When Risa opened the door to the locker room she found ten girls there. Two were in her class, the others she knew from various classes around the school. She didn't much talk to any of them.

They were solemn looking girls and they stood like a wall of glaring eyes in front of her. Risa waited in the doorway, instantly wary of the gathering.

"What's going on?" she asked. The girl in the front and center, with black pigtails that Risa wasn't very familiar with, answered her.

"You've been spending a lot of time with Hiwatari-san," she said. She sounded angry. She sounded hateful.

Risa was immediately afraid. "We were assigned partners for a project in our class. They know that," she said, pointing at her two classmates.

None of them gave a hint of even listening.

"We want you to stop," another girl said. "It isn't fair."

"What are you talking about?"

A different girl answered. "We have loved Hiwatari-san since the moment we laid eyes on him. We joined his fan club. We all devoted ourselves to him. We deserve him more than you do."

Black pigtails spoke again. "I've followed you and you've met him almost every day in the library and I've seen you two walk home together. Just the other day we saw you go to the cherry orchard and then he went there after you." She narrowed her eyes. "Stay away from him."

Risa stared at all ten girls. She was outnumbered and their hatred for her was suffocating. "He doesn't belong to you," she said quietly. "He can make his own decisions." She didn't know what they'd do if they knew the truth. "He's my friend."

All ten pairs of eyes blazed with anger. Risa took a step backward out into the hall.

"He doesn't even read our letters anymore!" One of the girls had lost her nerve and blurted it out and the others glared at her. Maybe she wasn't supposed to have said it.

Risa gripped the doorway. "Can I have my things back?" she asked meagerly. The girls stared at her and then began to file out of the locker room, each one knocking her with their shoulder as they passed.

"Check the showers," Black Pigtails said, and then shoved her back into the locker room and closed the door behind her.

--------------

Risa pulled back the curtain of the shower that was on.

All her notebooks.

All her pencils.

All her textbooks.

Sat there.

Soaked.

---------------

Satoshi didn't see Risa during class.

--------------

Or at lunch.

--------------

Or after school.

------------------

That night he finished his homework, ate his dinner and sat down on his couch intending to finish the novel he had been reading. He set his cell phone down next to himself.

He stared at the same page for over an hour.

And not once did Risa call back.

-------------------

He saw her the next day.

She came into class late and sat down at her desk without even glancing at him. When the lunch bell rang she left the room before he could even stand up and during afternoon classes she kept her eyes down and fixed on her notebook. He would have gone another day without speaking to her if he hadn't surprised her during their cleaning duties.

She was walking down the hall with a stack of books in her hands. She was supposed to return them to the library for the class. Satoshi had already finished cleaning the classroom with Daisuke and he waited for her at the bottom of the stairs.

"Do you need any help?" he asked as she stepped onto the landing.

Risa screamed, surprised, and dropped the books on the floor. Satoshi jumped slightly as well, but he was taken away from his shock by a pair of hands clamping onto his shoulders and pushing him into a nearby classroom.

Risa turned, slammed the door shut, and rounded on him.

"Don't ever do that again," she scolded, breathing hard and glaring at his feet. He was confused.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He looked around. "Why are we in here?"

"Were you waiting for me at the bottom of the staircase?"

"Yes."

She was livid. "You shouldn't have done that."

He frowned. "Why not?"

"Because…you shouldn't have."

"You've been ignoring me all day."

She didn't answer.

"You're not even looking at me."

"I don't want to."

"Where were you yesterday? Were you sick?" He was so concerned for her. He never remembered being concerned about another person as much before in his life.

She nodded. "I was sick."

"Are you all right?"

"No."

He crouched low so that he could see into her eyes. She was close to tears. "What's the matter?" He didn't ask it out of concern, though. He asked it out of curiosity.

"I can't--…" she hesitated. She was hiding something, keeping a secret from him. He could read it plainly on her face. She wanted to tell him the truth but, at the last minute, decided against it and instead would feed him a lie. "Nothing. Nothing's the matter." She tried to smile, swiped quickly at her eyes and stepped forward. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him close. "I'm fine."

--------------

He was leaning against a building and waited around the corner for her. She said she would walk with him, but she told him to wait for her around the corner. So he did. School was out for fifteen minutes and she wasn't showing up yet.

"Satoshi…I'm cold."

He turned towards her voice. Risa stood there in her P.E. uniform. No coat. No scarf. Nothing. Not even a book bag.

------------

She would have smiled if she wasn't so miserable.

Maybe even laughed.

She had barely spoken three words before he ripped off his scarf and coat and had it wrapped around her shoulders. He even dropped his books in the snow. He even held her in an airtight embrace while he called for his driver and they waited. When the black car rolled up to the sidewalk he threw open the door and hurried her in, diving it after her.

He was angry.

He asked her where her clothes were, like her coat and her scarf. He asked her where her books were.

She didn't want to tell him the truth.

She didn't want to tell him that they had also found their way inside the girls' locker room shower.

-------------

The entire ride he tried to ask her what had happened. The entire ride she refused to tell him. It came to the point where they got in a fight.

He pressed her for answers until she got frustrated and she yelled at him to leave her alone until they both sat on opposite sides of the car, staring out the windows at the falling snow.

--------------

Quiet.

"Risa?"

Quiet.

"…yeah?"

"Why are you only in your P.E uniform?"

Quiet.

"I don't want to talk about it."

His voice was low, deep, almost a dead whisper. He was getting angry, and yet his face couldn't have betrayed anything. "You've been acting strangely."

"So?"

"I'm worried."

"Don't be. It's not your concern."

"You knock on my door at one o'clock in the morning and now you're telling me not to be concerned?"

Quiet.

"Yes."

He stared at her. He sighed. "I don't think I've ever met anyone quite so difficult."

She turned to glare at him. "And you're not difficult? Anyone who comes near you has to prepare for difficulties; they trail you like a shadow."

"What's wrong?"

"I said I didn't want to talk about it."

"With a response like that it sounds like you do."

"I said leave me alone!"

He fell silent. She fell silent. Then she turned her head away and didn't look at him the entire ride to her house.

-------------

He was angry because she was lying to him.

She was angry because she was being bullied by a bunch of fan club girls.

They were both angry because they didn't know it would ever get rough.

-------------

"I want you to leave me alone."

Risa was in the all-too-familiar girls' locker room with the same girls she had met there before. They were the ones in the doorway this time. Risa stood with her back to the showers. She had called them.

Pigtails was in the front again. Smiling.

No.

Smirking.

"Not until you leave Hiwatari-san alone."

"No."

The smirk dropped from her face. "What?"

"You can't tell me what to do and you can't choose who Hiwatari-san wants as friends. I want you to leave me alone." The girl all giggled as if she had told a joke. "This is pathetic. You're picking on me because the boy that you like doesn't like you back."

Everyone stopped giggling. Black Pigtails walked right up to her. She was an inch taller.

"Shut up."

Risa grinned. "You're really angry, aren't you? You leave him love letters day after day and he never even reads them. And then you see him actually talking to me during a school project and you can't help but be jealous." She shook her head. "He makes a friend and you're jealous. Pathetic."

The taller girl was livid. "Lie all you want, Harada. You say you're friends but I know better. And I know what's going to happen. You're just a little harlot whose eyes have gone from Dark-san to Hiwatari-san. You'll adore him for a short time and then you'll get bored and move on to someone else and leave Hiwatari-san behind. That's how shallow you are. Why don't you just do everyone a favor and disappear. Go toy with someone else. Hiwatari-san is too good for you."

When they left Risa stayed behind.

The meeting hadn't gone the way she had hoped.

----------

Risa found him in the computer lab.

He was the only one there, sitting at a computer at the back of the room, his back towards her as his fingers hit the keys in rapid succession. She watched him for the longest time.

She couldn't see Dark in him.

Or did she?

She knew Dark wasn't in him. She knew that it had been Krad. Did knowing change her perspective?

He was getting frustrated. He muttered something under his breath and ran a hand through his hair. Risa crept up slowly behind him. Just being near him made her skin tingle.

Had it been the same with Dark? Did she used to look at Dark with so much love…and desire?

Satoshi rested his head in his hand. She could see the fabric of his shirt pull tight across his shoulders.

God, was it even love or lust?!

The thought made her cringe.

She stood right behind him. He must have been very distracted or concentrated; usually he would sense when anyone was within seven yards of his person. Risa took the opportunity to lean in and appreciate their closeness.

She felt horrible about yelling at him the day before. Her heart sank.

He really was too good for her.

She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, resting her head next to his. He didn't jump or was surprised. He had known she was there. He always knew.

She glanced at the computer screen. The title 'Azumano Police Files' flashed at the top. She didn't know he still worked with the police force.

He kept his eyes ahead, unfazed by her sudden weight on his shoulders. He simply pushed his glasses up higher on the bridge of his nose and continued to type rapidly. He wasn't talking to her. Whether it was out of anger or distraction, he didn't talk to her.

It didn't really matter to her. She just liked the feel of him in her arms. She liked the smell of him. He smelled nothing like Dark.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you yesterday," she whispered into his ear. "I'm sorry."

He didn't say anything.

--------------

When the bell rang after class and everyone gathered their things and started to leave Satoshi didn't move. Everyone filtered out of the classroom, but Risa lagged behind. He wasn't writing anything or reading a book. He was just sitting there, staring down at his desk.

She let everyone out the door before herself, chancing quick glances over her shoulder at him but refusing to look at him directly. She didn't want to be obvious.

The girls were always watching.

She peeked over her shoulder at him and saw that he was watching her. She was the only one left in the classroom, but her classmates were still standing outside the door, the two girls watching her through the crowd like a hawk.

She looked back at Satoshi.

He was calling her over with his hand.

She looked back into the hallway.

They were still there.

She looked back at Satoshi.

She mouthed an apology.

She left the room in a hurry.

--------------

"You're different."

Risa looked up. She had been staring at her feet the entire car ride. She hadn't even noticed that her sister had been talking to her.

"What?"

Riku was leaning against the window and smiling at her. "Don't worry; it's in a good way. But you're still different."

Risa frowned. "I am?"

Her sister nodded. "Niwa has noticed it too. He actually mentioned it to me today."

Risa looked away and out the window. "How am I different?"

Riku didn't answer right away. "I never wanted to bring it up, but you were…tense before. You got frustrated easily, and you'd snap at me for the smallest things. You were a little irritable too." Risa turned and made a face at her. Riku smiled. "Okay, you weren't horrible. But you seemed, I don't know, sad."

"I did?"

"You did."

Risa hadn't thought about it, but she had been sad. Dark had just disappeared. "And now I'm back to normal?"

"No."

Risa's brow furrowed.

Riku sighed. "You're not yourself at all, and it's wonderful. You seem so relaxed and content. You still work hard, but now it doesn't seem so much like work as it does pleasure. You seem comfortable." Riku smiled and nudged her sister in the side. Risa faked a smile and looked away.

She knew the reason for her change.

Riku turned and looked out at the falling snow. "You seem--,"

"—happy." Risa felt horrible. "I am."

--------------

She found him in the computer room again.

This time she didn't stay at a distance.

Risa walked over to him and sat down in the chair next to him, waiting. He continued to type rapidly. For a while he didn't even look at her.

Then he glanced in her direction.

"I'm so sorry," she told him. "I am so sorry."

He looked back at the computer screen and continued typing. She continued to wait.

Minutes passed. He looked back at her. She waited.

"Why didn't you tell me those girls were giving you trouble?"

Risa was surprised. She hadn't expected that response. "How did you know about that?"

Then again, how didn't he know about it? He was the Chief Commander of Police.

He looked back at the screen and went on typing. "I don't like secrets." He said it firmly. He said it seriously. She felt terrible.

"I didn't want…I'm sorry--,"

"Don't ever do it again." He was angry. Anyone else wouldn't have known if they looked at him. He looked as normal as ever.

Except for his eyes. They were blazing.

Risa leaned back in her chair and tucked her legs close to her chest. For the rest of the afternoon she just waited next to him as he continued his work, the sound of the keys the only thing filling them silence between them.