Advent '08

December 17th - Everybody shout! 8!

That morning Yashiro breathed a sigh of relief.

According to the timetable that he had had Sawara send him at the beginning of the month, Kyoko was in school all day today and wouldn't be back in to L.M.E. until tomorrow afternoon.

This was a relief as he wasn't sure that he could keep up the pace of yesterday.

Ren was still looking at him weirdly.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was getting too old for all of this.

The ringing of his phone distracted him and he quickly pulled on his gloves before flipping it open and answering.

He was a little startled to hear Kanae's voice on the other end.

"Yashiro-san?"

"Ka-kanae-chan? What did you..? How did you get my number?"

"I asked?"

"O-oh…what is it that you wanted?"

"I wanted to apologise for yesterday. I let Kyoko-chan out of my sight and she disappeared."

"That's ok. It all turned out ok in the end."

There was a pause and Yashiro looked at his phone in confusion.

"Kanae-san? Are you still there?"

"It is my fault! You asked me to make sure that she was away from Tsuruga-san all day and I failed."

Yashiro was stunned.

"Kanae-chan, please don't think that. It really wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was."

"Okay…why did you leave her?"

Kanae seemed a little stunned.

"I…I had to deliver a message on the other side of the building."

Yashiro smiled.

"And could you have turned down the errand?"

"Well…no…"

"So what's the problem? You had no choice in the matter and nothing happened."

There was a silence.

"…Really?"

"Yes. So don't worry about it."

"Okay then. Thank you Yashiro! I'm so happy I could talk to you!"

Yashiro stared at his phone long after Kanae had hung up.

Did she just…call him Yashiro?

He blinked in shock for a moment before a flush quickly spread across his cheeks. Urgh, this was messed up. He was being blackmailed by this girl.

He was so caught up in his thinking that he nearly jumped out of his skin when a hand gripped his shoulder. Clutching his heart, he whirled around.

"Startled?"

Yashiro narrowed his eyes at Ren's smirking face.

"You grabbed me from behind!"

"I don't think that's your main problem Yashiro-san."

"What?"

"You're blushing."

Yashiro flushed a deeper shade of red and Ren's grin.

"No I'm not!"

"Yes, you are!"

"No I…I was just startled. This is a startled flush."

Ren raised his eyebrows in disbelief, his grin growing wider. Yashiro ground his teeth together in annoyance.

"Let's just go shall we?"

Ren stepped aside and waved him on.

"After you Yashiro-san."

Yashiro stalked past him. Ren was happy today. You could tell because he was being playful.

Of course, that mean that he was going to be on the receiving end of this the entire day and for however long this good mood lasted.

He sighed silently. He was going to die from stress before the awards even took place.

-/-

At school, Kyoko was having a rough time. The rumours had spread like wildfire from yesterday and she was having a tough time staying on top of all of it.

All she could do at the moment was to keep her head down and hope that something would happen to distract the female population from wanting to skin her alive.

She sat down on the toilet that she had accommodated and sighed, dropping her head into her hands.

This was not how she had thought this would all turn out.

Hiding in the toilets during break times so that she wouldn't be victimized by the entire student body.

She hadn't thought that being chosen to be in Sho's video would have had this much negative effect for her.

She should have known though.

She sighed once more and reached for her bag, rummaging around she pulled out a book and settled back to read the rest of the break away.

-/-

That lunch Kyoko wished that she could just disappear.

Nanokura had managed to turn the entire female population against her even further in the few hours she had been away yesterday afternoon.

She had known that that outburst was going to come back to haunt her.

She had to make this right.

She had to admit that she wasn't going to be going to the awards. Maybe then she could have some peace from Nanokura and her cronies. After all, she wouldn't be going…she just hadn't told Ren that fact yet.

She was once again sitting in front of the group of girls. They were once again laughing and throwing things at her.

She was just building up her courage to tell the group that she wasn't going but they weren't really helping her.

She was just waiting for a sufficient lull in the taunting for her chance.

It came only five minutes later when they started talking about her behind her back.

"She's lying."

"She must be lying. There's no way that she's going."

"We could just ask her. Hey! You!"

Kyoko turned around slowly, with dread as Nanokura called out to her.

"Yes?"

"You lied didn't you. There's no way that you are going, right?"

Kyoko opened her mouth angrily but then paused. This was her chance.

This was the perfect opportunity but it was going to hurt.

She took a deep breath to steady herself.

"Actually, I'm not."

Nanokura raised her eyebrow in delight.

"I knew it! Ha ha, you're such a liar." she turned back to her friends. "I told you. A liar."

"We knew it too Nano-chan."

Nanokura turned back to Kyoko and sneered at her.

"The whole school is going to know what a liar you are."

Kyoko sighed and turned around, leaving the girls to sneer at her behind her back.

"I knew it. I was right all along. I'm always right."

"We know you are Nano-chan!"

"There was no way that she was going."

"We know that too."

Kyoko tensed her shoulders and hunched over slightly, trying to curl in on herself. This was a slow torture.

"There was no way that anyone could have asked her. There's no way that anyone would like her enough to do that. I don't know how she thought that she could get away with it."

Kyoko winced as pain bloomed in her chest. What Nanokura had said was true but it still hurt to hear.

Who would like her enough to ask her out anyway? Ren had only done so because he had felt sorry for her and thought that she had wanted him to take her and felt sorry for her.

Her throat tightened as she thought about it.

The girls laughter echoed around her. She tried to just brush it off but the pain in her chest got to much and she just grabbed her bag and ran out of the room.

She just wanted to get away from the laughter and the pain.

She just wanted it all to stop.

Rushing to the bike shed she grabbed her bike and cycled home.

She needed to talk to someone, anyone.

Once she got home she found her mobile that she had left in her room and flipped it open, hoping to call Kanae to talk to her about everything. She really needed to talk to a friend right now.

She cursed and threw her phone on the bed when it wouldn't switch on.

Damn! She had forgotten that she needed to get a charger for her battery.

She would just have to wait until tomorrow and hope that everything would just wait for one more day.

Everything would be sorted tomorrow.

Short and late.

DS