Yuya eyed a frilly green blouse with discontent, this was clearly not her thing. Unlike most girls, Yuya never seemed to get a real kick out of going to the mall. After all, constantly saying no to the outrageous, gaudy outfits her mother picked out was exhausting. Luckily, Akari dropped her off this time. She went to examine a pair of khaki shorts with potential, when she spotted a familiar head of black hair not too far away. Yuya might of said hi, but she noticed that Kyo was with his two friends from school, so she hesitated. Benitora was rather questionable, and Yuya didn't trust Kyoshiro's plastic smile as far as she could throw a horse. She couldn't figure out why Kyo associated with them...

"Yo, Kyo, you seem to hang out with this Yuya chick all the time. What's so great about her? Is she like your girlfriend or something?" Benitora piped up.

Yuya quicky dashed behind a rack of clothes so she couldn't be seen.

She heard Kyo laugh. "There's nothing great about that dog-face. I just hang around her cause I get bored."

Kyoshiro sniggered. "So I take it not your girlfriend."

"Hell no, I don't know why anyone would date that dog-face; she's a total pain in the ass. That chick's been dragging me down since we were kids..."

They walked off out of sight.

Yuya hugged her knees to keep herself from trembling. She wasn't sure if she'd ever felt this hurt in her entire life. Cold drops of liquid fell from her eyes and landed on her arms. Her stomach twisted into a sickly knot. Perhaps her greatest fear of all was for Kyo to look down upon her. Perhaps she wanted to believe that underneath all of his taunts and slights, Kyo actually respected her. Perhaps his acknowledgement was what she'd been secretly fighting for all these years. You stupid, stupid girl, thought Yuya, tears hitting her skin like rain. She stared at her hands, and for some reason, she had a strange urge to hurt them. Never had she felt so dumb. She felt like a sad, pathetic piece of flesh.

A joke.

Slowly, her pain and humiliation boiled into hatred. By the time Yuya got in the car, she was void of emotion. This was the kind of anger that made her numb and listless.

"So I think I saw Kyo--" Akari began.

"Don't ever say that name again." Yuya said fiercely. She could feel her mother staring at her, but Yuya didn't turn her head. She wasn't going to give an inch. The rest of the car ride was silent. Yuya ached to be in her room. When the car finally pulled to a stop, Yuya went straight to her refuge and curled on top of her bed. For a while she lay there, soaking in sorrow.

"Yuya come down stairs! Dinner is ready!"

Yuya said she wasn't hungry.

She heard a knock at the door. She knew it was her brother, she knew he was coming. Whenever she had a problem, her mother always asked Nozomu to deal with it, as if Akari didn't know how to herself. She'd already decided how to handle this. Nozomu stepped into her room, and she felt the weight shift as he sat on the edge of her bed.

"Yuya, are you mad a Kyo?"

Yuya said nothing.

"Yuya, I know you're mad at him and Kyo probably did something "mean" again, but what you need to understand is, he's probably acting this way because--"

"Because he doesn't have his mother." she finished for him. Yuya gritted her teeth. Not this explanation again. Nozomu always brought it up, and she always let it work.

"You're right, I am mad at Kyo. He really hurt me." Yuya swallowed an invisible lump in her throat. "I'm tired of it. I've had to deal with him ever since I was five. I don't want to do it anymore. I don't need this. I see no reason to be with people who make me sad. Now, if I ever decide to forgive him, it'll be on my own time, not yours. This isn't your problem. Me and Kyo aren't your problem. I'm 14 years old, I can deal with this on my own, in my own way. I'll be fine soon, so can you please let me be alone for a bit?" She attempted to say that last part more cheerily.

Nozomu stayed there for a while in silence. Then he finally gave up and left. Yuya knew he was disappointed, but she didn't care. This time it was different.

Yuya said she'd be fine, but she merely had a few bites of toast for breakfast the next day, and only an apple for lunch.

She avoided Kyo like the plague. When she heard tapping at her window, she ignored it. Kyo finally stopped going near her room after a few days. Whenever Yuya accidently caught sight of him, she glared at the boy like he was sin itself. Once, Kyo even came to the front door and rang the door bell. Why he came, Yuya wasn't sure, she just pretended to be asleep. He must have gotten the hint, because after about two weeks, Kyo stopped coming around all together.

Whether it was to make a point, or because she didn't feel like it, Yuya continued to eat little.

One day, Yuya heard an interesting piece information from a classmate. Apparently, Kyo was going to boarding school. This surprised her greatly but she pretended not to care. She still managed to extract some more details out of the kid. He said something about Kyo getting into trouble for fighting and that his dad decided to put him in boarding school. To what, straighten him out? pondered Yuya. The whole thing sounded odd to her.

It was odd, but also, she realized later, quite true.

Yuya was attempting to study, which was difficult because she always felt uncomfortably hungry these days, when she heard the door bell ring. She could only faintly hear his voice, but she knew it was Kyo. She flung herself on her bed and began to feign sleep. Yuya wasn't really sure why she even bothered to shut her eyes, when nobody could even see her, but she did it anyway.

After the sound of muffled voices, which she guessed were both Nozomu's and Akari's, it was still...

"Knock knock knock!"

Yuya stiffened. She knew who it was--it was that innate instinct again. She braced herself, she knew she had to answer. If she didn't, she wasn't sure what would happen next...

She didn't touch the door knob till her back was straight and she'd composed herself completely. Yuya was still startled when she opened the door. She was met by a Kyo quite foreign to her. He looked fiercer; more grim. How long has it been? wondered Yuya, a couple of months? She began to get more and more concerned with him when she mentally kicked herself. He thinks your a joke Yuya, she said to herself, he thinks your'e a pain. Ever since that day, the girl had been chanting those words in her head like they were a holy mantra. She stared at the boy responsible for her shattered confidence. She noted he might also be angry judging by the look in his eye and the set of his jaw, but she wasn't scared. She just didn't care.

After a while, Kyo finally spoke.

"Yuya." he began, in a low voice.

This took her off guard. She couldn't remember when it last was he'd said her actual name, but she wasn't going to let that sway her; no way. She was determined this time.

"What. Your'e leaving to go to boarding school right? Then just go already. I have no idea why you could possibly be standing here. I need to study right now, I have a huge test in Geography. You have something to say right? What, is it goodbye? Well, then, good-bye." Yuya said these words so coldly she even shocked herself, but what surprised her most, was Kyo's reaction. She saw in his eyes something she wasn't quite ready to believe; he looked like he was in pain, despondent. She might have thought to take back what she'd said, but before she could even make the effort, he had already walked away.

Yuya didn't go after him.

Her feet were glued to the floor.

Just like she said, she was 14 years old.

...and she was turning 15 the next day.

~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~'O'~

I know, I know, Yuya's kind of lame/weak in this chapter, but everyone goes through a bit of an "emo" period yeah? I know I did...

She'll probably get better, otherwise she wouldn't be Yuya, right?

It's coming you guys,

high school's coming...I can feel it...