"Hey," Kagami said, sitting unceremoniously with her three friends in their classroom. "Sorry I missed you guys this morning, I had to see my counselor about classes next term."

"Oh," Konata said, looking up with a smile, "that's right; we didn't see you, huh?"

"Don't act as if you don't care," Kagami retorted, pulling out her lunch. "If you didn't, you wouldn't call me so much."

"But you seemed to be so annoyed by it," Konata responded with a look of false emotion, "I thought you wanted me to stop. So you really do enjoy me bothering you?" She went on with her teasing, eyes tearing up as though she took affect at Kagami's opinion. Kagami rolled her eyes, having seen the act so many times before, whenever Konata was making fun of her sensitive side or asking for something.

"Please," Kagami retorted, smiling despite herself. On the conversing and joking went through lunch, nothing out of the ordinary. As the other three went on like normal, Kagami added her comments every so often and responded with the usual verbal prodding.

She didn't mean anything by what she said, especially not right then. She and Konata were pretty close, she would've liked to think, so it wasn't bad for them to argue and bicker. Besides, if she acted too nice to her, Konata would get riled up and never let her live it down.

And right then, she mostly sat smiling quietly; just happy she could actually talk with her again. It was a great weight off her shoulders.

"You're unusually quiet today, Kagami-san," Miyuki commented after a while, noticing her placid attitude. Kagami looked up from her food.

"That's probably just her concentration on filling that void we lovingly refer to as an appetite," Konata commented flippantly with a wave of her hand, feigning innocence. "Or maybe," Konata said, leaning in with a devious look, ignoring Kagami's radiant temper, "something more interesting happened, and now she's mulling over the memories?"

"Well firstly," Kagami began pointedly, "thanks for the nice confidence damper, friend – no need to point out that I'm obviously off my diet – and secondly, nothing's happened."

"Kagamin declaring nothing's happened means something has definitely happened!"

Konata proceeded to berate Kagami with questions, which she carelessly swept aside verbally, till lunch ended, and on the day went.

Tsukasa didn't seem to notice her sister's strange attitude, but Kagami didn't blame her. She wasn't the most attentive person around. They walked home in silence, and all through dinner, a generally rowdy time for the Hiiragi family, Kagami's silence persisted.

As she quietly ate her meal and the conversations went on around her, another odd feeling overcame Kagami. When she had been talking to Naomi-sensei, she had asked her something that seemed like a strange question, or at least an obvious one.

She'd asked if Kagami had feelings for Konata. But Naomi-sensei knew Kagami and Konata were great friends, so how could they not have feelings for each other? All friends did, or else they wouldn't be friends. This struck her as strange because, just maybe, she was implying something else.

And then that idea, of two girls having 'feelings' for each other, was backed up by some of the jokes Konata made, that had always made Kagami feel weird and that she never really got but made it a point to argue about regardless.

So, after dinner, having really no other option and a lot of curiosity, Kagami went to her father.

"Hey dad, can I ask you a question?" Mr. Hiiragi, still somewhat young looking but with a touch of fatherly wisdom about him, turned with an open smile.

"Of course. What's up?" Kagami stopped for a second, wondering if this was a good question for her dad. Despite how much she knew her dad knew, and how knowing he was, he was really old fashioned, and sometimes it got awkward with him.

"It's kind of an odd one," she said.

"Don't worry; I've heard some pretty strange questions before. I'm all ears."

"Okay," Kagami started, taking a breath, "is it possible for two girls to have feelings for each other? Like, more than friends?" Mr. Hiiragi put on a contemplative look, and then sat back, motioning for her to sit adjacent.

"Well, I was hoping to forestall this conversation till you got into a relationship, but I suppose now's as good a time as ever," he said, pausing for a second, gathering his thoughts, as though the speech were prepared. "Yes, two girls, or even two boys can have feelings for each other, and more then that get into intimate relationships and sometimes even form sexual relationships. In some places, they can even get married."

Kagami suppressed her surprise at that. If all that were true, why didn't she know?

"But what I hope you'll come to learn, is that though society is okay with it, it's really not a good thing to do."

"Why?"

"Because it's unnatural, for one. Only people of the opposite sex are meant to have such relationships. It's both immoral and wrong."

Kagami was quiet for a second, processing the information. "Yeah. That makes sense. It seems really weird, anyways, for two girls to date… But why would anyone do that?" Mr. Hiiragi seemed pleased that they were in agreement, and shrugged with a smile.

"I don't know. I can only speculate. But it's a decision some people make, and some people make the wrong one," he concluded. "I hope you'd make the right one?"

Kagami nodded, taken aback. "Of course! I could never… be with a girl. That's just… kind of gross." Mr. Hiiragi smiled and patted her on the back.

"Good girl. I'm glad you understand." Kagami smiled too, then, standing and hugging him.

"Thanks for clearing that up, dad."

So, question answered, Kagami went off to bed. She lay in bed with her books and work, studying as usual. As she did, happy to have everything in life cleared up, she smiled, at peace.

And, to top it all off, Konata didn't even wake her with a call that morning.