"Good afternoon Hino."

"Oh! Good afternoon Fuuyumi. Have a seat!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's just me. Besides, I've made a bento for us."

Shoko's eyes widened. "T-that's very nice of you. You didn't have to…."

Kahoko laughed and Shoko tensed. She relaxed after a moment, acknowledging that she was not the brunt of a joke, that the situation was friendly enough. "It's okay. To be honest, my mom did most of the work. I just put it together."

"Well," Shoko smiled, "in that case, thank you for the meal!"

They ate in an amiable silence. Occasionally someone would offer a comment on the deliciousness of the food or the weather, but such observations were a conversational dead-end. Shoko wasn't one to gossip, and Kahoko wasn't one to bear her soul without any prompting. They both knew what topic they felt pressured to discuss, but neither wanted to make the first move.

After the food was gone, they lay back on the grass, waiting for lunch period to be over.

Shoko took a deep breath and decided to use a little boldness. "Hino?" she asked.

"Yes Fuuyumi?"

"Is it…is he…always like that?"

Kahoko paused, twirling her hair around her fingers. "Like last night? No, he's not always like that."

"Okay." Shoko blushed, not knowing what to ask next. "So sometimes, he…" she trailed off, not knowing how to phrase it tactfully.

"Sometimes it's good. Most of the time, actually. He just has moods, I suppose. He gets rather stressed out, especially concerning his grandmother. I guess he takes it out on me."

"That's abuse, isn't it?"

"I-no."

"But he hurt you?"

Kahoko blushed. "It wasn't like you think. It was….he's just a little too rough sometimes, and…"

Shoko looked away, embarrassed. "Sorry, I shouldn't have…"

"No, it's okay. You have the right to know, Fuuyumi. And I trust you."

"Thank you."

"So yes, you can ask me anything." Kahoko shrugged and smiled. "It's actually kind of refreshing, being able to talk about it with somebody."

Shoko raised her eyebrows. "Anything?"

"Well, there's only ten minutes of lunch left, but sure."

They fell silent again as Shoko sifted through her thoughts. "That question you asked him last night…"

"Yes?"

"Do you…do you love him, Hino?"

Kahoko closed her eyes. "I don't know, Fuuyumi."

"How could—"

"It's complicated. I mean, he's the only one I've ever…and well, that's special, I suppose. But he doesn't love me, and even if he did, would it make me happy? It's just confusing."

"But you do care about him, right?"

"I…I suppose so. It's difficult. He's such a private person, it's hard to get any emotion out of him."

"Hm."

Shoko opened her mouth for another question, but the bell sounded and she decided that it would be best to continue the conversation later. She stood and gave a quick bow. "Thank you for lunch, Hino."

"Oh. You're welcome. And you should call me Kahoko."

"Really?"

"Well, I think we're friends now, right?""

"Yes. Okay. Thank you for lunch, Kahoko. Call me Shoko."

"Okay. You're welcome, Shoko.

Friends, Shoko mused. She liked that idea. She liked that Kahoko was able to tell her things. She liked that she was trusted.

Maybe she would be able to help after all.

Author's Note: Just wanted to give you a heads-up, I WILL be finishing this story, but I will be going back and reworking the first few chapters. Instead of removing this one (which so many of you seem to enjoy), I'll just be posting a second version. You can find it from my page, it'll be called Entertainment reboot. (Lame, I know, but it won't let me use punctuation in the title :( )

Direct link is here: http:/ / www. fanfiction. net/s/ 7320889/1/ (remove spaces)