The weeks passed and it was about three days before the Halloween party. The girls, my friends except for Yumi, talked a lot about costumes but the guys were dreading it. The shopping part.

Ever since I stopped talking to Hikaru, I felt more at ease. I always snuck glances at him though, out of curiosity. We pretended as if that day never happened, which was a good thing.

Everyone at the school seemed to be excited about it. Looks like Yumi invited practically all of them, I'm guessing plus more. She knows a lot of people…

We were all planning on going together except Yumi would already be at the party, of course. Suke would be the driver. After all, he had the most control and was actually able to drive. Minori, Kai, and I did not know how to drive at all.

"We should go shopping tomorrow!" Minori exclaimed.

Kai groaned. "Can I just go as a hobo? I have the outfit for it anyways."

"Noo," Minori whined. "We need you guys."

"Probably to just carry the bags," Daichi muttered.

"At least it builds muscle!" Minori said cheerfully, as if that made any of a difference. "Come on! Pleeeaaassseeee... It'll be fun."

"Yeah, shopping would be so totally fun to them," I threw in sarcastically, smiling.

Kai swayed slightly. "You know, I think I'm a little sick. Cough, cough."

"I think I am too…" Daichi murmured weakly. Then Kai added in, "Suke… Have fun." And pretended to faint. Minori pouted and crossed her arms.

"It'll be just as fun without them," I reassured her, then winced because of Daichi. "We don't need them anyways. We'll have Suke, right?"

Renee looked up at Suke and smiled and he looked back at her. Gah. I looked away.

"Yeah!" Minori recovered. "We're gonna go find some hot guys, and then we're gonna buy some ultra cool stuff and then… WE SHOULD MAKE THIS INTO A COMPETITION!"

"What?" Kai asked.

"Okay," Minori then leaned over the table as if this was some secret group meeting. I laughed at that.

"It'll be girls vs. guys. Except Renee and Suke don't count, of course. So it'll be me and Akemi against Daichi and Kai. Whoever has the best costume wins."

"What do we win?" Kai asked, determined. Those two loved challenges and winning.

"Hmm…" Minori looked up, thinking. "Whoever wins…"

"Whoever wins..." Daichi pressed.

"Actually, whoever loses has to pretend to be interested in Hikaru and follow him around!" She concluded.

"That's not fair!" Kai protested. "He's gonna think we're… gay."

"Well, you sure act gay," I told him. Kai hit me playfully.

Renee interrupted. "But aren't their two on each side? How would the losers both follow him around?"

"Oh," Minori thought this through. "Then he'll have two lovers." And she grinned. I shook my head but smiled at her simple ways.

"Deal," Kai extended his hand to her. Then they shook on it.

Honestly, I didn't look forward to pretending to act all interested in Hikaru when I told him I didn't like him. It's true, I didn't like him. I've learned that popular people are able to lie and manipulate. I didn't trust any of them. Not even Yumi, really.

The next day we all went shopping. Suke drove us to the mall; I can't believe he'd go this far for Renee, while the other two went with each other. It was fun shopping and acting like complete girls. Suke just laughed every now and then at our reactions. We left Renee and Suke to buy the food. Renee had bought this Queen of Darkness costume thing. It actually fit her. It was a dark purple with black and was the kind of dress that poofed out a bit. And Suke was the King, of course… Sigh.

I stood next to Minori as she looked through the maid costumes.

"Hmm," she had a thoughtful, determined expression on her face. She'd been at this for more than 20 minutes. I was holding the bag that had my costume in it. I was being something common; a witch.

"Just pick one!" I told her, exasperated. I was hungry and the costumes didn't matter much as long as the point was clear. Renee and Suke chose one in less than 10 minutes. Probably to get some more alone time.

"SHHH!" she told me defensively. I hit my head against the rack. After 10 more minutes, she FINALLY chose one. We were walking out of the store now.

"Do you think we're going to win?" she asked me thoughtfully. I shrugged.

"We better. I don't want to go around pretending I'm interested in Hikaru."

Minori walked beside me with a sort of cheerful steps. I wondered what she was thinking of.

"Akemiiii, do you think she invited him?"

I rolled my eyes. "Probably. She seems to have invited the whole school."

"Oh, she did," Minori told me. I sighed, completely expected of Yumi. We spotted Suke and Renee sitting at the table in the food court, prepared with lots of food. I laughed; Renee could easily read my moods.

We ate and talked.

"I'm curious as to what the other two have chosen as costumes…" Suke then told us.

"Maybe something stupid," Minori laughed. Renee said, "Well, you know Kai and Daichi. Put both of them together and they can become very creative."

"Well, I think we're going to win," Minori exclaimed.

I nodded. "It'll be fun to watch them act like they like Hikaru."

"It'll be fun to watch who like Hikaru?"

Unwillingly, I looked up behind me at the person who spoke. Kai grinned and put his hand on my head. Daichi was standing right next to him with the bags.

Kai made himself welcome by pulling out a chair and sitting next to me. Daichi sat on his other side.

"It's pretty obvious who's going to win," Kai said. Minori scoffed.

"Yeah, right. We will." I told him. "No offense, but you guys aren't exactly the right people to pick which costumes are awesome and which aren't. Who's going to be the judge anyways?"

"I'm guessing Yumi should?" Renee suggested. Everyone shuddered. Renee shrugged.

"How about we find someone at the party? A stranger, though. That way the judge won't favor one more than the other," said Daichi. Everyone murmured an agreement.

We were done eating and decided to drop off the bags in our car. I raced against Minori and Kai, back to the mall and Kai won, unfortunately. I felt this light happiness flowing through me. I guess it was because it was the lightness of running around and laughing a lot. We spent time hanging out in the mall.

I saw Kai posing in one of those display windows, winking at every guy who stared. Renee was laughing so hard. As was I. Daichi had been somewhere else, was walking towards the store, and passed by Kai. At first he hadn't noticed, then he did a double take and his expression was hilarious. A "What the -?" expression. "Idiots," Suke muttered jokingly.

Us girls took some pictures with hats and accessories on, messing around. The guys also tried on some except for Suke; he was standing there, laughing/smiling.

Then Kai and Daichi were trying on dresses and Minori managed to capture some pictures. Daichi raced after her, planning on deleting the photos and then they kicked us out. I was light the whole way, running out and laughing. We were so stupid. Suke apologized though, for our "foolishness" and he followed after us.

A while later, everyone was sprawled all over my living room. "You kids hungry?" my mom asked as she was leaving with my little sister to buy her costume.

"Not really," Renee answered.

"If you guys do get hungry, feel free to find something to eat in the kitchen," my mom told us with a smile. Then she left. Kai sighed, out of happiness.

It was quiet. We left the TV on though, with some music playing quietly in the background. The light streamed in softly through the window, making a soft glow on everyone. It showed more of our features and made us look… prettier, I have to admit. I sneaked a glance at Daichi. I noticed the bags under his eyes, hinting at his exhaustion. His eyes were closed and he was resting, breathing evenly. The atmosphere made me tired too. I was sitting on the floor and Minori was lying down right next to me; her eyes closed. Renee and Suke sat together on the loveseat with Kai at their feet. He was snoring lightly already.

I watched Daichi for a bit. I could tell he wasn't getting enough sleep, busy with other work to do. He had an older brother and a younger sister. His mom, like mine, had gotten into a divorce and took care of the three of them. He helped his mom a lot…

He had a lot of stress and seemed so busy when he was away from us. In a way, of course I wanted to help him. I wanted him to be less stressed. I couldn't though…

A few minutes later, I felt someone shaking me. I groaned.

"Dude, wake up."

I opened my eyes and looked back at Kai's humored brown ones. I jumped up, immediately aware that I fell asleep. Daichi, Minori, Suke, and Renee were gone. Eh?

"What are you still doing here?" I asked him, confused. Shouldn't this guy be gone by now? Kai laughed. "Your mom invited me to stay long enough for a late dinner."

I could hear and smell the cooking from the kitchen as she prepared it for us. Kira, my little sister, ran down from upstairs and straight towards Kai. She hugged his leg.

"Ooh," Kai began. "Disowned by your sister." I rolled my eyes. Ever since I brought Kai to my house to work on a project, it was like love at first sight for her.

"Whatever. Come on." I pried Kira off of him and then we were now in my room. He was messing with the turtle I won at the amusement park. When I was with Hikaru. My face heated up with embarrassment at remembering his hug. I turned, pretended to be interested in the necklace.

"Where'd you get this?" Kai asked me.

"I won it. At the amusement park," I admitted honestly.

"What?" The tone of his voice made me look at him. "With who?"

"Uhh, Hikaru…"

"Wow." Is all Kai said, obviously thinking of something.

"I'm not interested in him," I explained, defending myself. "I just needed something from him and I owed him I guess and then he asked and I followed."

It was quiet.

"Dinner's ready!" My mom called suddenly from downstairs. "Coming!" I called back.

We walked downstairs and ate. She asked how he was and he responded with humor. We laughed a lot that dinner. Kira was sad to see him go and then he made a call to Daichi to pick him up. I guess Daichi forgot that he came with Kai because he had left. I found that a bit funny. I stood on the porch, watching Kai attempt to open the door with the wind pushing it back down. I laughed and he waved bye. Then the car drove away and I went back inside, and fell asleep.