Chapter 3:

I came into the chorus room and immediately started to shiver. Sometimes, you could swear that you saw your breath.

"Hey Selena." I said putting my bag down and going over to her.

She had short raven hair and two side bangs on either side of her face with a slight wave to them. Selena smiled when she saw me and met me in the middle and gave me a hug.

"Hey Yuriko," she said, "How's it going?"

"Not too bad. I saw him all ready, and I nearly cried." I told her.

"Do you still like him?" she asked looking me dead in the eye.

That had caught me by surprise! I looked down at the floor and thought hard.

"I don't know, Selena…" I said taking my seat.

That question bounced around in my head as we did stretches and warm-ups.

"Come little children! I have pearls of wisdom to give to you!" my teacher said dramatically.

Pearls… Hiei had gotten me a pearl once. I reached up to my neck to adjust my necklace, but it wasn't there. That's right, it was the pearl necklace he had given me, I'd taken it off last night, through tears and shaking, I had managed to get that thing off.

He had given them to me when he had gotten back form a vacation that he'd taken during the year, somewhere in Japan, and had brought back this ugly shell for me. I'd opened it, and inside was a yellow pearl, which meant love or harmony. He got a jeweler to make a fitting for it and then I wore it everyday. I loved how his face used to light up when he'd see me in the hallway, or how if I looked at him he'd give me a smile.

Oh God, there it was! There was the answer! I still liked him!

"Selena," I said as the bell rang, "I think that I still like him."

"What do yo want me to do!" she asked.

"I don't know, just tell him to wait or something!" I told her as the halls around us started to fill up.

"How long?" she asked, "You know pretty well that he's not going to wait forever, Yuriko."

"I know that, but maybe three days? Is that too much?"

"Look why don't you just tell him that you want him back?"

"Because, I don't think that he'll listen." I replied, getting upset with myself.

"Look, Yuriko, if you like him still, what's so bad about saying it?"

"Because…" I said, "I don't know how."

"What do you mean 'you don't know how'? That's bull! You and him were going out for over seven months and you still haven't figured out how to say 'I love you' to him?" she exclaimed.

"It's not that, it's just that when I see him, I choke up. I almost start to cry, Selena! I wouldn't be able to do it." I said hating myself now because deep down I knew that he probably wouldn't want me anymore.

"So? If I know you as well as I think I do, Yuriko, you'll find a way around this. You always have." She told me and then disappeared to go up a stairwell.

I pressed forward, trying to get his voice out of my head. I couldn't though. I just couldn't get his picture out of my mind. It was really hard, and it hurt too when I sat in my next period class, because there was Kitana, sitting there waiting for me.

"Hi." I said, trying to disguise the pain in my voice.

No luck.

"What's wrong?"

"God, I'm not feeling too well today."

"What happened?" she asked ignoring our language teacher completely.

"I dumped Hiei." I said quietly.

"Really?" she didn't sound surprised, or hurt, or really anything. Just herself, and I really appreciated that.

"Yeah." I said.

"It was bound to happen," she told me.

"True, but I just figured something out last period."

"Oh? What?" she asked truly interested. I loved her right now.

"I figured out that I still like him." I told her.

"Wow." She said surprised, then asked, "So what're you gonna do to get him back?"

"I don't know yet." I answered, "Selena made me realize that. She's going to talk to him for me, about waiting a couple days. In the meantime… I don't know what I'm gonna do."

"Well, you could both start the work that your teacher assigned." Kurama said from next to me.

There was no anger in his voice, in fact, it seemed like he was being nice to her (not that he ever wasn't, just more so today than usual).

"Don't you hate me?"

"What do you mean?" he asked cocking an eyebrow.

"For dumping Hiei. Don't you hate me?"

"No." he said, and turned back to his bookwork.

I stared at him. He didn't hate me? I thought that they were best friends… what was he doing not hating me! I needed to be hated!

"Are you okay?" Kitana asked; disrupting the concentration I had on the foul words I was shouting in my brain.

"Hm? I'm fine.'' I said opening the book and doing the work on the board. "Wait! I know what I'm gonna do!"

"What's that?"

"I'm gonna write him a note!"

"Are you sure? What if he doesn't want to talk to you?" she asked.

"Then I have no idea what I'll do, but in the meantime," I replied pulling out a piece of paper and scribbling in the upper corner to make sure that my pen was working.

'Dear Hiei,'

"Hey Kitana?"

"Hm?"

"What should I write?"

"I don't know, what comes to mind?"

" 'You probably hate me,' is all." I told her.

"The go with that.

"Okay."

'Dear Hiei,

You probably hate me. I deserve to be hated. I am truly sorry for what I did to you. Please forgive me.'

"Okay, What should I write next?"

"Say that you take back what you said."

"Yeah! That's a good idea!"

This is how it went for the majority of the period, until I came up with this:

'Dear Hiei,

You probably hate me. I deserve to be hated. I am truly sorry for what I did to you. Please forgive me. I do stupid stuff when I'm angry, and I wish that I hadn't. I really think that I still like you, so if we can't get back together, do you think that we could at least be friends or acknowledge each other in the hallway? I hate not being able to talk to you, and I'm sorry for what I put you through. Is there anyway that you could find it your heart to forgive me?

Yuriko'

I just hoped that Hiei would get this note and take me back.