Author's note: This is the second part of Shindou's chase. Hopefully he will catch up to his broken-hearted rival… before it's too late. Muahahaha... ahem.

The Chase Ends!

Shindou was thinking of taking a cab since walking there would take him half a day. Just when he reached into his pocket, however, he found out miserably that he had no money. Well, home is just a few stops away. With that, he continued his marathon of the day.

"Hikaru? What are you doing home again?" his mother greeted him by the door.

"Oh, I need to get some change for a taxi." Shindou said as he scrambled up the stairs.

"Oh, don't waste time and money getting a cab." Shindou-san pulled her son down from the flight of stairs.

"Mom! It's important!" Shindou struggled.

"Come on then! I will drive you!"

The passenger was quiet as Shindou-san sped to this certain Weekly-go department in the west. He was wringing his hands nervously and checking his watch every few seconds. Shindou-san felt sorry for her son, but she was also somewhat touched by his action. It's been some time now since Hikaru last cared about anything.

In about twenty minutes, she stopped the car right in front of the door of a big building, earning herself a sour look from the security guard.

"Thanks mom!" Shindou climbed out.

"Go get him, my boy!" Shindou-san said excitingly.

Shindou froze… what did she just say?

"Mom…How did you…" Shindou panicked. Now what? "You…"

"Of course we already know!" …We? Shindou felt dread rising up from his heart… "Now, are you going to stay here and chat... I will go buy some popcorn. Or are you going to go in there and…"

"I'm gone, Mom!" Shindou felt like he could do anything! Everyone was counting on him; everyone was there to help him. Everything would be alright! If only Touya would gave me time to fix things.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

I have to do this. Don't back down now! Come on, you know you can do it! Everything will be fine…I hope.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please. Today, we have the pleasure to interview one of the rising stars of the professional Go world. Taking after his father, Touya Akira has shown an amazing talent no other teenager of his age would even dream of. And now, everyone is free to ask any questions they want and our Touya-kun will try his best to answer."

"Excuse me, would you tell us a little bit about your latest win against the 7-Dan?" A young reporter in a blue dress started off.

"I'm sorry; but if it's all the same to you, I will take questions later. Right now, I would like to just speak." Touya smiled shyly at the puzzled television and newspaper reporters.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Oh, phew. I made it! Shindou looked up at the empty stage with a lone mike stand in the center. Touya was standing behind the stand and was smiling like an angel. But Shindou knew that wasn't his real smile. He looked prettier when he truly smiles. My Akira. He is here. So normal, so polite... Did I miss anything? I will talk to him after this. He won't have the time to run away!

"I don't really know how to begin so…please be patient with me. I always thought Go was my life. I always thought that was all I needed in this lifetime. So I followed my dream and practiced Go days and nights. I gave up all the other things a male teenager my age enjoys to do: playing sports and video games, making friends, going to festivals and circuses, dating pretty girls." Touya started in his deep, smooth voice. He was relieved to see everyone writing instead of staring at him.

"I believed that Go was what I needed. I believed that fact until I was fifteen. Everyone here can agree with me when I say I love Go more than anything in this world, yet, someone showed me that Go isn't enough. That isn't half of what I needed. He revealed a side of me I never knew I had; the side that nobody else took the time to notice." He got nervous now because quite a few people looked up from their paper. Well, no turning back now.

"He taught me how to sincerely smile, and even laugh. He lets me know that I was capable of opening my heart to other people. He convinced me that I do in fact have feelings and I'm not all cold and emotionless. Which some people likes to call calm and composed. He stirred me to be angry like a mad man. Can any of you imagine the always calm and nonchalance Touya waving his hands around, hair flying everywhere, and yelling impolite things at his opponent? Well, I did." There was a fit of laughter among the audience.

Shindou smiled a little but he was confused. What is Touya doing?

"And then…over time, I fell in love with that person. I couldn't help it. I knew it was wrong; I knew my parents would be angry and ashamed, but… love is a very strange thing, and I never was a strong person. I surrendered to it. I accepted that person." Akira's voice started to waver. Some of the audience chattered or gasped.

"Even though I loved him with all my heart, even though I meant all the things I said about how I loved him, it wasn't enough. I planned to keep our relationship in the dark, persuading myself that it was the only right thing to do. My pride won't let me tell anyone. The arrogance that everyone led me to believe I have won't let me make it public. And then one day, he left me." Akira hung his head. His hand was gripping the stand and he was almost crying.

"Who on earth would do such a thing? Is he even human?" One of the emotional reporters yelled after minutes of silence.

Shindou widen his eyes.He felt like someone had slapped his cheek hard. Is that what Touya was planning, to steal the sympathy of all the people? So everyone would hate me for being a cold blooded person? I guess I deserved it. Let him do what he wanted.

Shindou smiled painfully and stood. He was all too ready to walk out when he heard a desperate cry.

"No! It wasn't his fault! I said something terrible. He was trying so hard to make everything so unnoticeable. I know he hated the fact that all those girls stared at me during teaching sessions. I know that he wanted to put his arms around me and be proud when I win a game. But he couldn't do any of that, because of my despicable pride! And then… when he asked me what was I afraid of… you know what I said?" He looked at the mass of people before him. His face streaming with tears.

"You said it would ruin you!" Shindou stood up and everyone turned to him.

What is going on? What is it now? Everyone thought. "You said that! Didn't you?" Shindou forgot that he was there to persuade Touya to come back to him. He forgot everything when those heart-stabbing words were mentioned again.

"…Yes…. But what he didn't know was, all these days without him already started to ruin me. I didn't mean what I said! I swear! I was afraid because if no one approved our relationship, he could get hurt and he might not have the strength to follow through. What I was afraid of was losing him. Would he follow through with it if no one approves. Shindou, would he?"

"…No…" Shindou felt his face dampening too. "Not then… but now, he would. Thank you for that… I didn't realize…" Shindou started to walk to the front. Everyone was confused; they didn't know where to look. Is this the 'lucky' young man Touya was talking about? Now that would make a lot of sense...

"I was always the one with problems…Akari made me realize that earlier today. You know what she said? She said 'you were busy thinking how Touya-kun doesn't want to tell anyone! But why do you want to tell everyone? It's for the same reason! You want to feel accepted!' I'm sorry, Akira. I just want you to forgive me. That's all…"

"I guess I made another mistake… I was so busy thinking that I must get you back, but can you truly be happy back with me? What did I do to deserve you? I just want you to say 'I forgive you'. That's all I need." Shindou stopped at the middle of the room. The people, the chatter seemed to fad away as he focused on Touya.

"Well, what makes you think I would say that?! Isn't that letting you off too easily?" Touya snapped. His words startled everyone and shattered Shindou. "You better spend the rest of your life paying back what you owed me! You think I would just let you get off the hook like that?"

"You mean…"

"And I will try to pay back what I can too... Shindou, we are going to be together for a long time!" with that Touya jumped off the stage and started to run towards Shindou.

Shindou understood and was waiting for him, waiting for Touya to finally come back to him. Their body crashed together, squeezing the air out of them. Touya rested his head on Shindou's neck curve and whispered, "You didn't think I would break that promise. Did you?"

"Of course not…" Shindou breathed in relief and didn't even care that he started their new life with a small white lie. "Touya, why are you doing this? I thought…"

"Well, I figured that if I want to live with you forever, I have to tell people sooner or later. And if I have to explain every time someone asks, why not just tell them all at once?"

"Why didn't I think of that? And I was repeating or hinting it over and over." Shindou kissed Touya on his head.

"What? Who did you tell? What do you mean… over and over?"

"Does it matter? Compare to you?" Shindou glanced at the still frozen reporters.

"Who did you tell? You know… some of them, I would like to keep this secret for as long as possible."

"Well, remember our stupid fight? You said 'that is why we can't tell anyone! Neither your parents nor mine! Not Isumi and definitely not Waya!' remember? Well, freaky coincidence, I pretty much told all of the above." Shindou confessed sheepishly. Then he remembered Akari and slowly added, "...and then some."

Touya's face darkened, "you are so irresponsible! I can't trust you to do anything!"

"Hey! I'm not the one broadcasting it! And surprisingly, it isn't Waya either!"

"Well, if you care to pay attention with that attention span of yours, I just told you why I did it!"

"What about the 'I was afraid because if no one approved our relationship, he could get hurt' huh? If I could get hurt, why did you do it now?"

"I…screw you! Who cares about you?"

"Oh yeah? Well, you would be ruined without me!"

"Shindou, you idiot!"

"Touya, you baka!"

"Obnoxious pest!"

"Stubborn bastard!"

"Wow! Classic! Write it down… tomorrow's headline shall be: Lovers in Disguise!" one of the reporters exclaimed through the bickering.

"But I don't think they are faking it!" the assistant comment worriedly.

"Oh! Learn!"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

By midnight, two outstanding versions of the story were written and printed off the press. Headline #1: Lovers in Disguise. Two huge black and white pictures on the front page contrasted greatly. The Touya that leaned lovingly into Shindou in the first picture proceeded to rip his head off in the second one... Headline #2: Love vs. Friendship was accompanied by a single picture of Shindou struggling with Waya at the Go institute.

Oh yes, when the words got out... that little reporter? He did, in fact, get a 'reasonable' raise on his next pay check...

Author's note: Well, that's that. They had finally made up! Cheesy and Cliche, yes, but it hit home. I couldn't help but notice that I have made Shindou into the 'King of Quotes" here since he practically read off my previous chapters. Haha, oops? Anyway, don't get too sad, there is still another short snippet to go! I originally wanted to put the ending and this together. Heck, I originally thought this can very well be the ending…but instinct told me that something was not right. So coming up next, the epilogue.

Also, please do review! I noticed that I haven't gotten much response for this story. I guess I didn't really stress it but I do love comments from the readers. Even now, when it's about to end, I don't even know what most people thought of it. Don't like it? Why? I would like to know. So please be generous and donate a little time to write me a little something. Thank you in advance! Anyway, on we go!