me: Let's face it...this isn't as good as the first chapter. At least in my opinion.

The Muse: Oh, come on! Have some confidence in yourself! Just hang in there!

me: Hang what?

The Muse: Never mind.

Kaito: Soo...decided to write about me again, huh? I swear, I'm every bit as good as a certain pint-sized detective who wears glasses by the name of Edogawa Conan.

Aoko: Stop bragging, Kaito. You're embarrassing.

Kaito: Oh? I'm embarrassing, huh? How embarrassing is this? *reaches out and flips skirt*

Aoko: *blushes incontrollably* KAITOOO!

oOo

It was a no-good, dirty, rotten, bad, unlucky, horrrible day.

I should have known, after all my mirrors suddenly shattered. As if that wasn't enough, my shoelace broke and three black cats crossed my path on the way to school alone. Not to mention that the sky was overcast, gray, and very un-White-Day-ish.

After walking for a while, I noticed that I had a very uncanny feeling. Something was out of place. At first I thought it was because the birds weren't chirping. Or maybe it was because the sun wasn't shining.

I finally figured it out, after some pondering. Kaito wasn't there.

Oh sure, I shouldn't have been surprised. He barely even eats lunch with me anymore; apparently his male friends are more important, so he says.

Keiko says that Kaito actually just goes up to the roof and eats lunch all alone, and that he doesn't have any male friends. But why would he do that?

This isn't the first time he's missed our unofficial ritual of walking to school together. So why am I disappointed?

And so I was positively, absolutely 100% sure that this was a no-good, dirty, rotten, bad, unlucky, horrible day. But Fate had other tricks up her sleeve...

oOo

There was quite a buzz when I arrived at school alone. All of Kaito's adoring, squealing, not to mention annoying fans were all worried and asking me questions like, "Is Kai-chan sick?" or accusing me: "Where is he? You stole him, didn't you? Give him back!"

Really, it's like Kaito is a celebrity and they're the paparazzi. He isn't, though. A celebrity, I mean.

After assuring them that Kaito was fine and that I did not just kidnap him and hide him in my backpack, they quieted down. It was like that for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd period. All the sensei were used to Kaito's absence by now, so they just marked him absent.

That was all. A single mark on the attendance sheet, and then it was as if Kaito had disappeared. No one talked about him, no one even mentioned his name. It was as if he had never existed.

Kaito showed up at 4th period.

oOo

I began the long walk home the way I began the walk to school: alone. "Wait, Aoko!" Kaito called from somewhere behind me.

I stopped. "Why don't you walk home with your male friends, the way you walked to school with them today? Why don't you ditch class every single day with them? Why don't you-"

"I wasn't ditching anyone or anything." He sounded tired.

I noticed the black circles under his red eyes. "Then...you slept in?"

He nodded miserably.

"Oh."

Before I knew it, the walk was over, and my house was looming over both of us. I didn't bother inviting Kaito in. The guy had a key already.

If you asked me to relate my childhood to you, I can guarantee that most events-no, all events-would include Kaito. They don't call them "childhood friends" for nothing.

To tell you the truth, I think I liked him since I first laid eyes on him, in front of the clock tower. Whenever my father went off to chase Kid, Kaito was always there. He was-and still is-the brother that I never had.

And when other girls in my class teased me about not having a mother, he came to my rescue.

It's strange, though. He's the one who calls me half-male and underdeveloped, but when someone else says the same things to me?

Bam. If it's a boy, their face will be (almost) punched in. If it's a girl, he'll just settle with giving them the Evil Kaito Glare of Doom.

It's one of the mysteries about Kaito. He always seems to be the phantom thief's biggest fan (yes, Kaitou Kid, I'm talking about you), but when I curse and complain that Kid has stolen my father away from me, Kaito just looks at me, with the saddest look in the world on his face.

Eyes are the windows to a person's soul. Kaito's eyes, at that moment, were swirling with pain, hurt, regret, sorrow, and a bunch of other emotions that cannot be expressed by letters and ink.

But now is not the time for memories. Now is the time, the 2nd time in my entire life, that Kaito has put his Poker Face on in front of me.

What's Poker Face? you ask. It's like blinds on a window. One minute you can see all his emotions, one minute they're all blocked out by a wall of stone, forbidden to you until Kaito takes his masks off.

"So..." Kaito shifted from one foot to another uneasily. "See you at school tomorrow?"

"See you." I turned my back on him and began fiddling with the lock.

oOo

Ding dong. Ding dong. Diiiiiiiinngg Dong. I slammed my pencil down in annoyance. There was a particular math problem that I just couldn't solve, and Kaito had to come and ring the doorbell JUST when I was about to get the answer!

How did I know it was Kaito? He's the only one who presses the doorbell like that. I actually appreciate the fact that he knocks and doesn't just let himself in.

"Coming!" I opened the door.

Kaito had changed into a T-shirt and jeans. He didn't meet my eyes, and his cheeks were red. From running here, perhaps?

"Ano ne..." Kaito met my gaze for a split second and immediately looked down again. "Uh..."

This went on for about one minute.

He finally gave up talking and shoved a box of something at me. Oh yeah, it's White Day, I thought to myself, recalling the various boxes of chocolate that I had received in school that day.

For a box of chocolate, it was intricately designed, and it wasn't made out of paper, mind you. It was soft, pink fabric, with a ribbon sewn through it. I recognized the sewing as Kaito's mother's.

"Kaito...your okaa-san made this?"

He nodded.

I opened the box. There were two types of chocolate...the first was haphazardly shaped and obviously made by an inexperienced person. But I could tell that a lot of time had been spent on it.

"You made this?" I asked, gesturing to the chocolate.

"Well, a part of it." He blushed and began studying his shoes again.

The second was beautiful, so perfect that it almost hurt my eyes to look at it. It looked like a professional made it. It looked almost like...almost like...lovers' chocolate?

In a flash, several things occured at the same time. Now that I think about it, they probably didn't last for even 5 seconds. But it was a magical 5 seconds.

First, Kaito looked directly into my eyes.

Second, I found myself tasting chocolate in my mouth. It took me a while to realize that I had eaten something from the box.

Third, I smiled, and he did too.

And fourth, I felt a pair of lips pressing onto mine.

I've given you the clues, now you put them together. All I can say is, that was the very best White Day I ever had.

oOo

AN: Please review! And, yes, I know this isn't as good as the first chapter, so you don't need to tell me that. Thanks for reading!