Yay! Another chapter! Hope you enjoy. :) All of it is from Yumiko's POV

The weirdest thing happened after the tournament ended for the day! I mean, other than the fact that Niou-san looked like me when I turned around. What could be weirder than that, right? No, the weir thing is that Kirihara-kun approached me and asked if I wanted to hang out! Actually, it seemed more like he demanded we hang out. This must mean he's not mad at me… or that he's willing to give our supposed friendship another chance…

"Yumiko-chan…"

I turned around to see Kirihara-kun facing me. Oh no, what is it now? Is it the problem Yukimura-san was telling me about? He said something about the bet being a mental battle and having to do with me… So if I'm the reason he seemed to royally screw up the first part of the match is he mad at me?

"Congratulations Kirihara-kun," I said with a smile on my face.

"Thanks…" He replies, looking away. "Um, Yumiko-chan, I'm… I'm sorry."

"For what?" I ask, shocked.

"For that," Kirihara-kun says while gesturing towards the court. "The way I appeared."

Oh… that. Well, it is kind of freaky how he changed color when he's angry. But it's not a big deal since I saw him like that last year. So with a smile on my face I reply. "You do realize I saw you play tennis last year, right?"

His eyes widened. "What?"

"Yeah, I followed Seigaku's tennis team everywhere! I've always been an avid follower of my school's tennis team."

"So, you weren't scared or anything…?" Again he gestured towards the courts.

"Kirihara-kun, you're such a dimwit! Why do you think I call you Devil Boy? No, I'm not scared!" By now I was laughing! Honestly! I seriously wonder what goes on in his brain.

"Stop laughing at me! I've already been laughed at enough today!" The look on his face told me he was getting annoyed, so I stopped laughing but the amusement still showed on my face.

"Other than you apologizing for scaring me, or so you thought, is there something else?"

"Uh, yeah…" Kirihara-kun muttered something.

"I couldn't hear you, what was that?"

"I said do you want to hang out?" He said a little bit louder this time.

"Really? You actually want to hang out with me? When and where?" No matter how hard I tried I couldn't hide the happiness from my voice. I may finally have my first official friend… that is, if this works out. Whatever funk Kirihara-kun was in, and whatever made him so mad at me when he had no right to be, may come back and get in the way.

"I figured since you came here… then maybe we should try to be friends… again."

Was it just me or did Kirihara-kun seem embarrassed? "Again, when and where?"

"I mean if you don't wa-"

"Kirihara-kun! I asked when and where!"

For a minute, I could tell what I said hadn't registered in his brain. Then realization dawned in his eyes. "Oh! Um, how about Sunday… at the ice cream shop!"

You could tell he hadn't thought about this too much. "Alright. Just… call me to tell me when to be there and which one to meet at…" I say as I write my number on his hand.

And Sunday is today! All I have to do now is get ready since I'm sure he'll call in the afternoon. The time now… as I look at the clock, is… 12:30! I really slept in late! Oh no, this isn't good! Kirihara-kun could call me at any moment and I'm not ready!

Hurriedly, I throw on the first shirt and skirt I grab and to my surprise they don't look that bad together being purple and green. Then I began fixing my horrible bed-head, and as I was almost done my cell phone began ringing. The caller id indicated the number was unknown and since I didn't have Kirihara-kun's number it was safe to assume that it was him.

"Hello?"

"Yumiko-chan?"

"Kirihara-kun?"

"Good, it's you! I was worried I would accidentally call the wrong number!" There was an exhalation of breath on his end of the phone. Probably from relief.

"Well, you didn't. I'm positive I'm the right person."

Kirihara-kun gave a slight chuckle. "So, the place is near the park and it has a fake cone out front. You shouldn't need any more information on where it is, do you?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I'll find it," The park… great. Where we had that annoying hiccup in what could've been a great friendship by now. "When?"

"In an hour?"

"Sure, see you there." I say and hang up.

That's definitely plenty of time.

When I walked through the door, Kirihara-kun was sitting near the back. His hair looked as if he'd just woken up and walked out. The shirt he was wearing was a teal color that hugged him pretty tightly. I wonder if it was uncomfortable. And his jeans were the faded denim kind along with a pair of worn out sneakers.

Upon seeing me, Kirihara-kun stood and walked over to me.

"Have you ordered yet?" I asked him.

"Not yet, I was waiting for you to arrive. Way to be late." Kirihara-kun mocked.

"I wasn't late! You said in an hour, and was only an hour when I walked through the door!"

"Alright, jeez," Kirihara-kun puts his hands up in defeat. "I was just joking!"

"Well, it wasn't funny…" I glare at him.

"Or you just have no sense of humor," He retorts back while quickly stepping back to avoid a slap. "Anyways, lets order! What do you want?"

As I looked at Kirihara-kun I saw his eyes light up at his mentioning of ordering. He looked just like a little kid. "I'll have green tea and sweet potato ice cream, but don't even think about paying."

"But I was the one that told you to come here! So I should pay for you as well!" He starts.

"Boys only pay for the girl when they are on a date," I say while giggling. "Last time I checked we're barely friends."

It was hard to keep from laughing more as I watched Kirihara-kun's face turn a deep shade of red.

"How can I help you?" The person behind the cash register asked.

"I would like a green tea and sweet potato two scoop cone, please."

After paying, the person asked Kirihara-kun what he wanted.

"Raspberry chocolate two scoop cone… please." He seemed a little grumpy right now. It was probably my fault which only caused me to laugh even more. What a great start to our supposed newfound friendship!

"So, Kirihara-kun, since we're here to restart and become friends… we should probably talk about what we like."

There was no response from Kirihara-kun. He just focused all his attention on his ice cream.

"So, uh… what's your favorite subject?"

Once again, no response. Jeez, this guy was hard to get through to!

"Kirihara-kun!"

"Huh? What?" It's a good thing Kirihara-kun had a good grip on his ice cream because he jumped about a foot in the air.

"I asked you what your favorite subject was since, you know, the whole point of this was to get to know each other better and not sit here in silence!"

My attitude received an angry glare from him. "No need to be mean about it! And I don't have just one favorite, I have two. Japanese and physical education."

"Really? A language you already know and a class you probably excel at. Are those the only classes that you can pass?" I ask mockingly.

"No! Just the classes that interest me most," Kirihara-kun defends himself. "And the ones I do best in. I can't stand English!"

"But English is so easy!" I exclaim.

"To you it is!"

"If you applied yourself I'm sure you could ace the class. You were the junior ace in tennis last year so why can't you be an ace in something else?"

We were almost done with our ice cream and seemed to have accomplished nothing in becoming closer friends. Either this is just how we act towards each other as friends, which would mean we've been friends since the moment we've met, or we're just not meant to be friends.

"So you asked me a question, now I should ask you a question. What's one of your favorite things to do?"

Okay, so maybe there's a chance we've been friends from the start… "I would say that my favorite thing to do would have to be play games of any kind."

Kirihara-kun's eyes widened. "Games… as in video games? Arcades?"

"Um, yeah!" I say, glad we finally had something that we both liked.

"Wanna go to an arcade? There's one right near here! I used to go there all the time when I had time!"

Well this was unexpected, but at least our friendship can grow even more now. "Um, sure!"

"Great," Kirihara-kun jumped in the air completely forgetting about the rest of his ice cream.

"Uh, Kirihara-kun you-" He began walking out the door. "Hey! Wait up!"

I take a look at his forgotten ice cream and sigh, pick it up, and throw it away on my way out. Seriously, what goes on in his head? Does he even have a brain?

Good or bad, let me know in a review! I can take the criticism! :)