Rima sat next to Nagihiko on the couch fluffy couch. She was secretly watching him from the corner of her eye than actually paying attention to the TV. Hitomi waltzed back into the room and slumped over the couch, fitting her position between the two. Rima opened her mouth to yell at her but thought about the consequences and held back her hanging words that were on the edge of slipping out. She hated how she was so weak to that spoiled brat and let her do whatever she pleased.

She observed Hitomi whispering words to Nagihiko and how she'd over use her laugh and playfully smack him in the arm. Rima reframed herself from erupting and took steady deep breaths. She just wanted Tadase to hurry up and get there to save her from this madness for awhile.
"Why so anxious?" Hitomi noticed Rima's legs kicking back and forth off the couch.
"Oh, like you'd want to know." Rima stopped kicking her feet and bored her eyes into Hitomi's starting up the rage.
"We are friends. Friends tell each other everything."
Rima glanced over at Nagihiko, who was watching the conversation.
Rima looked back down at her phone and Hitomi looked over the blonde's shoulder. "Ah, now who's Tadase?"
Rima flipped her phone shut and glared, "No one you'd be interested in." She got up from the couch and exited the room without another word. Silence followed after her.
"Tadase...huh." Hitomi said to herself grinning widely.
"Who's that?" Nagihiko asked and Hitomi looked up at him while thinking of a marvelous plan, "I'll tell you later."

"The last time I went to the zoo was when we were kids." Rima frowned, grabbing a brochure and opening it up checking out the map.
"Then why did you pick to come here?" Tadase asked.
"First thing that came to mind." Rima focused on the map trying to figure out where they even were.
Tadase shoved his hands in his pockets and followed Rima up the stone path.
"Giraffes!" Rima dropped her pouty act and ran to the giraffes leaving the map behind. She got up on the railing and leaned in against it to get a closer look. An old giraffe stumbled over to her.
Tadase smiled, he knew she still had the same hidden characteristics from when she was a younger.
"Gross." He watched as the giraffe's slimy purple tongue stuck out. Rima turned around to see Tadase behind her.
"I dare you to feed it." Rima pointed at a vending machine filled with graham crackers.
"No thanks."
Rima walked over and inserted a few change into the machine and grabbed a few crackers and put them in Tadase's hand.
"You were always chicken like this when we were little!" Rima accused. Tadase lightly shrugged, "Was not!"
They gave each other smug looks, until Tadase agreed upon it, "Fine I'll do it."
He held up the cracker. The giraffes tongue aimed for the cracker as Tadase teased it and moved it in a direction. Both, watched as the giraffes tongue helplessly chased after the food. Rima growing bored of this teasing, grabbed Tadase's wrist and forced him to feed the giraffe. The purple tongue wrapped around his pale hand. Rima and people watching around them began laughing at Tadase's reaction.

Tadase ripped his hand away and wiped the remaining saliva on Rima's arm. She squeaked and wiped it off with her hand, "Not cool." It was Tadase's turn to laugh at her. She rolled her eyes, "Let's keep going."
They continued walking and visiting the different animals.
They walked into a section of arctic animals and Rima ran to the penguins. She pointed "Look a baby!" Tadase thought of a memory and let a laugh slip out,
"Remember when we were little and you cried because you couldn't take a penguin home?"
Rima embarrassed, exchanged an embarrassing moment,
"Well remember you cried because I lied and told you there were dinosaurs at the zoo." Rima smiled. Tadase nodded remembering that like it was yesterday.
Tadase added,
"Then we were both crying when we got lost." Rima nodded laughing, "We were only 5 feet away from your mom's car!"
"Good times." Tadase smiled. They both watched as they saw polar bears swimming through the glass.

A question remained in Rima's mind, so she asked.
"Have you dated anyone for the last…well several years?" Tadase thought about for a second gave a stern nod.
"Yes, it never works out."
Rima thought about which answer to give and followed the paw footprints plastered on the ground.
"You'll find her. Your cute and funny, and have a gentle personality. What girl would pass that up?" Rima encouraged. "But if you're still a crybaby like in the past then it may be awhile." Rima joked.
Tadase tossed a light laugh,

"How'd you and Nagihiko get together?" The question ran through his mind for awhile.

"Well..." Tadase noticed Rima getting shy on the subject and turn away, "I told you how I hated him. Well I guess us teasing each other was really love slowly developing behind it. He admitted he liked me in the middle of class first year of high school." Tadase saw Rima glow when she talked about Nagihiko. "The teacher asked him what he was doing over the weekend. He said he was spending the weekend with this girl he likes. It took me about the whole class period for me to realize it was me he was talking about."
Tadase chuckled in amusement. "Nice one."
"But then in the end I worked up the guts and raised my hand and told the teacher I was also spending the weekend with someone I like. It felt like I had to complete the moment."
Rima ended the story, "The only embarrassing part was the class getting all worked up and howling about the situation." Tadase smiled, and Rima returned it.
"Now you tell me something." Rima grinned; Tadase scratched his head, "Like what?"
"Something I missed."
"At my job, this girl keeps sending me love notes."
"Wow. That's cute."
Tadase shook his head shyly, "I'm trying to find a way to turn her down." Rima switched to a frown face, "Why not give her a chance?"
Tadase leaned against a fence, "She's obsessive." Rima groaned, "I know how that is."
"Does this have to do with what you're upset about?" Tadase questioned, watching Rima's emotions changing.

Rima nodded and prepared herself taking a breath,

"So there's this evil creature out there that wears this shield that makes them seem pretty. What people don't know is, under the disguise its pure ugly."
"Sounds like an alien." Tadase joked. Rima blew up pacing around in circles,
"She is! This Hitomi chick! She's tried to ruin Nagihiko and my relationship awhile ago. And now she found out Nagihiko lost his memory and is all over him! She's using it as an advantage."
"Did you try telling Nagihiko?" Tadase asked.
"No I'm afraid he won't believe me. Besides, I can never be alone with him."
Tadase raised an eyebrow, "Why don't you just ask him to go some place with you alone?"
Rima shrugged, "I could do that. But the thing is, every time he's with her I get angry at him. Which I shouldn't, I should be mad at her."
Tadase understood what Rima was trying to get at. "That's understandable. You're thinking he's flirting with her. But you need to remember he doesn't know what he's doing. He's like a new person with new feelings. He just needs your help."
Rima sighed, "You make a good point but..."
"You can do it, your tough." Tadase tried to cheer her up. She slightly laughed at the tough remark, but still felt uneasy.
"I don't know. What would you do if the one you loved lost their memory?" Rima asked seriously.
Tadase thought about it for a few moments watching a few little ones chasing a poor peacock around trying to pluck out one of the luminous colored feathers. Instead, Rima was watching the breeze ruffle through Tadase's bleach blonde hair.

Then he found an answer and said, "I'd be there for them all the time. And I'd take them somewhere memorable. Like a place of our first date or kiss."
"That's a really good idea." Rima said. "Thank you for hearing me out."
"If you ever need me I'm only a call away. No need to hesitate. I want to see you happy, not with fake smiles."
"I'll try talking to him later tonight." Rima tried to smile.
"Tell me what happens." Tadase and Rima started walking toward the birds section of the zoo. Rima finished the conversation, "I will."

After passing through the exotic birds, the clouds rolled in and hid the hot sun. They decided to take a break and stopped by a gift shop to order some food.

"How are your parents treating you?" Tadase asked, hoping it's improved. Tadase could tell it still annoyed Rima when her parents were brought up.
"It's the same as it's always been."
"Still?" Tadase had worried eyes.
"I had to run and hide at Nagihiko's house all the time." Rima took a lick of ice cream. "Least I'm out of there."
"I wish I stayed behind. Maybe things would have been different." Rima nodded, "Yeah maybe."

"I still feel really guilty." Tadase's had a letdown expression. Rima was the one, that was now feeling bad, and she spoke, "It's not your fault, family comes first."
Tadase took a lick of his ice cream as a blotch if ice cream got on his nose. Rima began laughing and pointing at his face.
"What?" Tadase was clueless. Rima's laughing died down and admitted to the case of ice cream on his nose. Tadase rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, and poked the tip of his ice cream at Rima's face; she gasped as he missed and she swung her ice cream back at him to get revenge. They were both interrupted by an older lady who wore the green zoo t-shirt and tan pants. They guessed she worked there. She held up a camera and grinned. Rima and Tadase slowly moved away from each other and the lady spoke excitedly, "Well don't you two make a cute couple?"
Rima waved her hands in the air from embarrassment, "No I-"
The lady continued, "We are taking pictures of couples and adding the photos to the love bird section of our zoo. Is there any way I can take your guy's picture?" Rima and Tadase just stared at on another, not knowing how to respond.

"You are obviously together." The lady beamed.
Rima's face was the only one whose was red. Tadase held up a hand and politely said, "I'm sorry we aren't dating. She's happily getting married soon."
"Oh that's too bad." The lady frowned from disappointment, and walked off. Rima avoided eye contact and felt awkward, "That was..."
"Strange." Tadase finished the thought. They put what just happened aside and began talking more, about everything and anything that was itching their mind. After the ice cream was disposed of, they finished walking and cracking up jokes at the different animals, and decided to call it day, once they noticed the time.

"I had so much fun! Can we do this again please?" Rima begged. Tadase gave a classic smile, "As long as it's not the zoo." He jeered and Rima hugged him tightly, "I'm glad we are still friends. Thank you so much." Tadase wanted to tell her something that's he been wanting to say since they last met at the coffee shop. He decided he'd ask at a different time. Rima pulled away from the hug before Tadase had time to return it. She looked at him, "By the way this smile is real."

After a few knocks at the apartment and no answer, Rima jamme her key into the lock and creaked open the door. She entered lazily kicking off her shoes and taking a quick look around the room. Hitomi and Nagihiko were nowhere in sight. She called, "Hello?" But only heard her echo in response.
"Where are they?" She thought to herself.
A long beep rung in her ears and she waddled from her feet being sore over to the table stand and realized the answering machine's screen blinking red. She fixed her eyes on it for awhile, before stretching out her fingers to the playback button.
"One new voicemail from..." The robotic voice read off an unknown phone number as Rima braced herself for the incoming message.
When the left message was playing all Rima heard was breathing and began thinking it was just some prank call. But she heard a voice that made her head pound in pain.
"Hey Rima, I warned you back at the hospital that this was going to be a competition. Now, I'm going to have it my way. You're one boring opponent. So no need to worry, Nagihiko is in good hands right now. Goodbye."
Rima slammed her hand on the delete button. "Stupid Hitomi."She stood there hopelessly in the dark room.

Nagihiko and Hitomi sat underneath the wishing fountain at the jam packed mall.
"I think you should know something about Rima..." Hitomi shook around the remaining slush chunks in her smoothie and took a long sip while Nagihiko responded,
"What is it?"
Nagihiko took one last drink of his smoothie and winced at the taste and tossed it in the trash behind him. He let Hitomi pick the lousy flavor and regretted it.
Hitomi felt the water from the fountain trickle on her arm and scooted closer to Nagihiko.
"Do you trust me?"
Nagihiko shrugged. Sure she's been nice to him and been a good friend since he woke from the hospital but he wouldn't go that far to trust her quite yet.

He answered honestly, "I don't really know who to trust. But ever since two nights ago I had this flash in my head. It went by too quick for me to realize what happened. But from that, it feels like I can trust Rima."
"Well don't." Hitomi snapped. Nagihiko raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
Hitomi grimaced, and carefully placed a hand on Nagihiko's leg while moving her lips closer to his ear, "Truth is,"
Nagihiko focused his eyes on his hands, as he witnessed Hitomi's free hand's fingers intertwining with his.

"We use to date in the past. As time passed we never got over each other. This Rima had to appear and you felt bad for her because she liked you, so you dated her. After awhile she just begged for you to propose to her, so you did out of pity. But you were really going to call off the engagement before you got in the accident."
"What, really…?" Nagihiko didn't know what to say or how to react. To him that even sounded cruel. He couldn't picture himself dating Rima if he never even liked her in the first place. Even he knew he had more respect than that.
"And," Hitomi squeezed Nagihiko's hand tighter. She just wanted to laugh at these lies she was telling. They were becoming even believable to her. A perfect lie played out in her head and she flowed with it, "You know that guy Rima hung out with today?"
"Yes..." Nagihiko listened carefully.
Hitomi leaned her head against Nagihiko's shoulder. "Well one reason why you wanted to call off the engagement was because Rima is seeing that guy behind your back. She's in love with him."
Nagihiko shook his head, "Are you sure?" It was impossible. Rima wouldn't do that. Especially after she's been so nice to him. He would definitely confront Rima about this when the time was right.
Hitomi smiled to herself, "Positive."

A/N: My hands feel so dirty! I'm ashamed. What the heck is going on? There was like no Rimahiko in this chapter! That's POO! Lol. Even I question myself at a time like this…

Repsonses to last chapter's reviews:

Peachygotit-Kica: Thank you! :) And no, I'm not following the actually series plot. So only Rima and Tadase know each other from the past.

chocolate covered charas: Haha woohoo! Thank you so much that makes me really happy! :DD Yes, that would be a sight to see if Hitomi get hit! Lol.

arkee: Thanks! :) And I'm not a Tadase fan either. My friends and I make fun of him all the time. But I just wanted to bring him in the story because I think he fits the future parts.

Hope everyone enjoyed! Thank you all so much! :D Anyway review if you wish to do so! It inspires me to write faster. ;) You guys are the best!