Author's Note: Next chapter will be the last one!

Disclaimer: What is this Bleach you're speaking of? Oh. It's a manga? Silly, do I look like a mangaka to you? Of course I don't.

Chapter 3

The young man looked up from his covers and saw Hinamori staring ahead with dreamy eyes. Her hands rested on her lap together with the book she was supposed to be reading instead of spacing out like a weirdo. At this rate she's never going to finish that chapter so he did something any other normal person would do when their loved one showed undesirable behaviour. He kicked her.

"Gah!", she yelped and glared at him immediately after. And she was getting to the nice parts of her childhood too just now. "Why did you do that?!"

He rolled around and faced her. He lifted his arm and pointed at the book that was lying on her lap. "You have 15 minutes left to read that book of yours. Use it wisely."

Before she could say anything he rolled to the other side again and she sighed. He was right though, she has to spend her time the right way. So she picked the book up and searched for the paragraph where she left off. Let's see, the daughter's friend was a high schooler who was in her senior year and- Wait, high school? Was it around that time when things got strange between her and her white-haired friend? Was it? Her eyes were on the book, but her focus wandered off somewhere else.

Things did change a little when they entered high school. Well, in the beginning everything went as she expected how life as a high schooler would be, but over the course of the first few months, Hinamori noticed more and more couples popped up out of nowhere. Half of her classmates were already in a relationship, not that she cared since she was satisfied with her current situation being a single. Most couples broke up after a certain amount of weeks anyway, leaving some people with broken hearts. This made her actually happy that nobody took a romantic interest in her. Or so she thought...

"H-Hinamori-san, I have something I would like to share with you." He glanced to the windows just in time to see a bird fly by, probably searching for a place to hide from the rain. "That is, if you could spare a few minutes..."

She raised an eyebrow. This person who was talking to her was a young male named Saito Ichirou, a classmate of hers whose existence she had almost forgotten. Almost.

"...Sure." She smiled, albeit not genuinily, but hey, it's not as if he noticed that. Nobody does. "What is it?"

He took a deep breath and then looked her straight in her eyes. "I want to confess my love to you." He bowed his head 10 degrees. "Please go out with me!"

'...What?' She stared at him. Hinamori may not know much about him, but she wasn't completey ignorant about him. The times when she did happen to see him he always had that moony look when he was talking to Honda Mizuki, a pretty girl with curly brown hair. 'Now that I think about it, Honda-san recently got herself a boyfriend, didn't she?' She eyed him suspiciously, "Why me?"

He raised his head and he appeared to be thinking how to answer her question. He tried to smile too, but she saw through it. Being with someone who barely showed any emotion like Hitsugaya all the time made it easier for her to figure someone out. "Because you're very kind, funny, beautiful and caring. I couldn't help myself but fall in love with you."

'Liar.' She saw it on his expression, he wasn't remotely interested in her. Oh how she wanted to say 'no' flat out in his face, but that would be very... unhinamori-ish? Not very Hinamori? It would be out of her character, yeah that could work for now.

Hitsugaya wasn't the only one who had a reputation to hold high. So she made an apologetic face, if she was going to reject him, she would do it nicely and retain her Hinamori-ishness... she really needed a better word. "I am flattered, I really am.", she lied through her teeth. "But I'm afraid I don't want to go out with you. We can try to be frien-"

"Why?!", he yelled, shocking the girl a tiny bit. Hinamori did not expect him to raise his voice.

'Because you're trying to settle with me. I'm not that easy, you jerk.' She sighed, well she could tell him the truth, but that would probably hurt his manly pride or whatever what was left of it. She didn't think there was much left to be honest, and since there's no one around but them in this room... The plan to strip off his last bit of pride did sound very appealling, even more now he's being so annoying. Her mouth twitched when she smiled and she began to speak, "Oh, I'll tell you why right here, right now. It's because-"

"She's already dating someone!" That voice sounded way too familiar. The two teenagers stared at the figure who stood next to the door with her arms crossed.

"Rangiku-san?" How long has she been standing there? 'And I was just about to... Wait that's not important right now, don't tell me she heard this stupid confession of his.'

Behind her another person showed up. A very short person. "Don't be so loud, my head hurts enough as it is."

"Hitsugaya-kun too? What are you two doing here?", she asked. Were there more people going to pop up behind them or what?

The white-haired boy stepped closer to her and began his explaination."I was going to pick you up." He pointed at the window, her eyes following him. "It's raining outside and I suspected you didn't bring an umbrella with you, so I thought we could share mine." He then pointed at Matsumoto. "We happend to pass each other by and she wanted to tag along."

The girl nodded with a smile and then frowned. He was right, she indeed forgot to bring an umbrella with her. She grabbed her bag and hurried to her friends, "Sorry. Did I made you two wait long?"

"Not at all.", the blonde and the white-haired teenager said in unision. They paused to glance at each other and Hinamori giggled, the two of them seemed to be getting along very well.

"Hitsugaya-san. Is it true?" The voice came from Saito who still didn't move from his spot. It was almost as if he was glued there or something.

The white-haired boy merely shrugged his shoulders. "Apparently."

Weeks after that, gossip started to spread about them. I mean, people already had their suspicions about Hitsugaya and Hinamori, but now it just intensified. Who knew Saito was such a blabbermouth? The two friends didn't pay any attention to it though, neither confirmed nor denied anything. They thought the rumors would eventually die someday... In the future... Sometime soon... It never really died down.

In fact, three years later when they were in their senior year, people were still insisting they were an item. Were people that bored with their own love life (or the lack thereof) that they stuck their noses into somebody else's business? Gosh, how nosy could you get, I mean, really?... Frankly speaking, it was really fun gushing how cute they looked together, but that's not really the point here. What was, is the fact Hitsugaya and Hinamori never confirmed anything! It's almost like they wanted those people to suffer with their unanswered questions, which couldn't possibly be an option. Those two obviously weren't sadistic like that... Heh.

Matsumoto and her classmates already went off to university by then. While this meant that they were three hours away from their other friends who were still in high school she still managed to make some time and hang out with them. Hinamori in particular, because no matter what happens, the blonde couldn't let go of the prospect of the younger girl being in love with the white-haired boy. Who knows? Perhaps this could lead to a chain of confessions! Hinamori confesses to Hitsugaya, Abarai sees how the two childhood friends are in love and confesses his feelings to his childhood friend, which should lead to Ichimaru confessing his love to Matsu- Err... Nevermind. The girls went shopping at the mall together one day and decided to take a small break at the cafetaria nearby.

"So... anything interesting going on with Hitsugaya-kun?", the blonde asked, happily munching on a sandwich.

"Not really. Why?" She knew why, but she honestly couldn't care less.

"Oh, nothing." Matsumoto wiped her mouth clean with her napkin before taking another bite of her food. "So how is his love life doing?"

There she goes. Hinamori knew this topic would come up one way or another. Ah, well since it's inevitable anyway she might as well have a little fun too. "Lucky you, he isn't involved with anyone at the moment. You may have a chance to get with him if you do your best.", she answered with a full smirk.

This made the blonde choke in surprise. After drinking her soda to stop her coughing she spoke while shaking her head in disagreement. "No way! Unless there's a ladder involved we can't even hug normally. Let alone getting lovey-dovey!" That and she already had her eyes set on someone else. Someone with silver hair.

Hinamori sighed and moved her arms on the table with her head resting on them. "Somehow I can't picture him getting all lovey-dovey with anyone. Him being romantic would be so... weird."

"That's because you're used to him not expressing his feelings." She finished her sandwich and then smiled. "He needs someone who can look inside of him. Someone who knows how he really feels!"

'Someone like that, huh? Someone like... me?' Hinamori grinned back at her busty friend. "That's so cheesy."

Few weeks later, Hinamori waited for Hitsugaya when school was over and entered the classroom. He was busy packing his books in his schoolbag and she slowly sneaked up on him, not caring his classmates were watching her. She saw her target and raised her hand aiming it for his head. The same moment she pet his head, he stood up from his chair and that's when she noticed something disturbing. He... grew taller. They were both standing, neither saying a word as they watched each other. Her hand still rested on his head, he had his pokerface on and she was petrified. They were at the same height now. Petting him looked akward now.

They were standing akwardly in the middle of a classroom with bystanders right now.

She retreated her hand and muttered an apology. Her gaze went to the door, her mind still numb with the realization that her 'Shiro-chan' wasn't really a 'Shiro-chan' anymore. She sighed when she continued to walk down the hallway, she should start stop calling him that pet name. But... but Shiro-chan just sounds so cute! And he's a pretty cute guy, right? I mean, if she had to categorize him as cute or handsome, she would totally choose cute. So the name still suits him, right? He's still her not-so-little 'Shiro-chan', right?!

Meanwhile, Hitsugaya walked after her. He too was a bit confused of what just happened. Did she just apologize? Apologize for petting his head? Maybe she wasn't feeling well, her skin did look a bit paler than usual now he thought about it. Oh darn, what if she really was ill? She shouldn't be walking home on her own if that's the case! What if she faints or something? He walked faster and catched up to her, grabbing onto her arm which made her turn her head to him.

How couldn't she have noticed that he grew taller? They were always together, you'd think she would notice not having to look down at him anymore to make proper eye-contact. But she didn't notice, because they were always together. He grew slowly over the course of the years and she unconsciously adjusted to the changes. She must have looked like a ghost to him as she mulled over her thoughts since his eyes widened, filled with worry. He took her hand, determined to walk her home as fast as possible.

Why did it bother her so much that she's no longer the taller one? She stopped moving which also made Hitsugaya stop since he's still holding her hand. She gave him a scrutinizing look when he turned around. How much did he actually change? She used her free hand to ruffle his soft hair. This made him rather uncomfortable to be frank. Not because she was touching his hair, but because she was wearing her serious expression instead of her usual cheerful one.

"Your hair... It's less spiky.", she remarked with a sigh. It's true. His hair resembled the style he had when they were in elementary school. But she never noticed until now and this bothered her a lot.

This time he gave her the scrutinizing look. Why was she being so strange right now? "What does it matter if-"

He couldn't finish his sentence, distracted by her hands which were suddenly cupping his face. She inspected his face with the need to know if she missed out on more details about him, but when she inched closer to get a better look she felt the warmth radiating from his cheeks. Was he... blushing? Hinamori started to laugh and shook her head when she let go of his face. "You're so cute right now!"

He scowled at her, his rosy cheeks fading away slightly. "S-shut up! You're being so weird today."

But why was he blushing?

He watched her laughing and sighed. It must be the weather or something. Meanwhile, Hinamori decided she shouldn't be worried about her friend growing up without her noticing it, as long as she was there with him when he grows up.

My Thanks To:

AznVKai: Yeah, I still have some problems with grammar and spelling... But I'm trying my best to improve my English! Thank you for letting me know and for your nice review. :D

hitsuhinafan: I hope you didn't wait too long and I also hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! :D

lahtrevaskis: Thank you for your nice review! Next chapter will be the last though. :D