1 new message from Kaneki. Ryoko blinked at it a few times before she could actually process that he texted her. What could he possibly need? She already told him that she would meet him tomorrow. She slowly unlocked her phone, and clicked on the message.

Kaneki: 'To make it in this world alone, just sitting here like some kind of stone. No one to love me, or me to love, just all alone, like a Lonesome Dove.'

My thoughts on this excerpt are that I can't possibly understand how you could feel this way? You have some explaining to do tomorrow.

The thought of him telling Ryoko she was the one who had explaining to do was hysterical, between the two of them he had the most explaining to do.

Ryoko: "I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them." - Edward Verrall Lucas

I have also found an excerpt (not from the book of course), but I feel as though if you think you've found a quote that relates to me, I should find one that suits you as well. Kaneki, you my sir, are the one who has some explaining to do. So, as one would say, you first.

She smiled triumphantly at her response, when had texting gotten so fun? She never texted anybody. The only person she really talked to on the phone was Ayato, and he had always called Ryoko because 'I can barely figure out how to fucking call you, Ryo, how the fuck am I supposed to type sentences?'

Kaneki: 'I'm really sorry, I truly care. Hope you forgive me over time, I feel awful about my crime. There's something wrong with my psychology, from the bottom of my heart I give you this apology.' - Kaneki Ken

I'm sorry! I promise everything will make sense, I hope this original that I just came up with on the spot heals your wounds.

Ryoko: You're too much. I'll see you tomorrow, Kaneki. All is forgiven.

She smiled as she reread the previous text. Kaneki was, creative. But he had made her laugh, and smile. That itself was a challenge not very many people could overcome.

"Kaneki Ken, huh.." She spoke softly to herself, a smile still worn on her face.

"Ah, so that's his name." Ayato pinched her cheek, "Your cheeks are so cute when you smile! All I ever get from you is a pout, this Kaneki guy doesn't even know how lucky he is."

She rolls my eyes, Ayato was definitely being a little dramatic. She always laughed when she was around him. "Whatever, Ayato. I always laugh when we're together. Like today, which brings me to my next point. It's about that time." Ayato sighs, and runs his fingers through the front of his hair, holding his bangs back for a moment. "I don't want to go but we have something to do in the 11th ward tomorrow. Meaning we have to leave some time tonight."

"I figured as much, well, I guess I'll see you whenever I see you." She frowns. She never wanted Ayato to leave, but there was also never anything that she could do to make him stay. At first she would beg him to stay, but quickly learned that she was fighting a losing battle so Ryoko quit doing that a long, long time ago.

"You sure you don't want to-"

"Ayato, I'm still not joining. You know my reasons."

"Alright, alright." Ayato places a kiss on the top of her head, and wraps his arms around her. "I promise it won't be 4 months this time. Have fun on your date tomorrow,"

She shoves Ayato away, him laughing at his attempt of embarrassing her. It did work, she knew she was blushing. Any mention of a date always brought redness to her cheeks because Ryoko hadn't ever dated anyone, sure she had flings but nothing serious. To be honest, it was mainly because Ryoko always had strong feelings towards her best friend, although it wasn't very smart on her part, she couldn't deny it.

"Oh shut up. It better not be 4 months, I'll see you soon, Ayato." Ryoko chews on her bottom lip contemplating closing the distance between them again, but Ayato does it first as always.

"Bye Ryoko." He pulls away from her, and smiles. Although there's a hint of sadness in it. She watches as her best friend walked away from her, like he had done so many times before.

But this time, she doesn't feel as sad.

It was 2:07 PM. She found herself sprinting down the street that contained her destination. Anteiku. She ran as fast as she could, but knew she was going to get so much shit from Kaneki for being late. She had given him hell for taking me a month to call her, but the 7 minutes past time she was, were going to be far worse. Ryoko finally saw the sign for it and ran inside as fast as possible. It wasn't her fault that she was late! She got home after seeing Ayato last night and started reading, time just got away from her so she ended up staying up until 5 AM reading. She woke up a little later than she had originally intended to, so here she was rushing to not be any later than she already was. Okay so maybe it was her fault, but that was besides the point!

She bust through the door, and immediately all eyes in the entire coffee shop were on her. She probably shouldn't have made such an entrance, but the only thing Ryoko was thinking about was getting to Kaneki. She saw him sitting in the corner, and he had a weird look on his face. It looked like he was about to burst out laughing, she pushed my bangs back and slowly walked over to Kaneki pretending like she didn't just bust through the door and make a complete fool of herself. She sits across from him, and he had a dumb smile spread across his face. She knew exactly what was coming.

"Wow, 2:11 PM. I thought I said 2," Kaneki taps the bottom of his chin. "Just kidding. I won't bother you about it."

She let out a sigh, "I was up late reading. I lost track of time. Honestly, it's amazing I even got here this fast."

"Ah, I see." Kaneki shifts in his seat, and rests his arms on top of the table while clasping his hands together. "So, to explain why it's taken me a month to do this.. Well I got in an accident. I almost died, so I've been in the hospital. It took me awhile to recover and muster up the courage to actually call you, because I knew you were probably going to be upset since it's been a whole month. But I read the book very thoroughly to prepare myself for this, so what questions do you have?"

"Kaneki," She put one of her hands on top of both of his and squeezes them, a blush forming on his face almost instantly. "You don't have to answer any questions on the book. I was merely threatening you because I thought you would enjoy the read and it would have been tragic if you didn't actually read it. I'm sorry that I was so, well, I'm sorry that I was such a bitch to you about not calling. I didn't know you were in the hospital I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it! You didn't know and honestly any guy that doesn't call a nice girl for a whole month seems pretty lame, Hide even yelled at me.." He looks off in the distance as if he is remembering his friends harsh words, it's kind of funny. She observes his face for a moment, thinking that he is really cute. However, Kaneki has an eyepatch over one of his eyes, and that definitely wasn't there when she saw him last time. She's suddenly reminded of Uta saying that Kaneki was a ghoul. Well, she guessed they could just always try to prove that theory.

She takes her hand off of his, and stands up. "Let me make it up to you! I know this great restaurant nearby, my treat?"

"Oh well uh," Kaneki scratches the back of his head for a moment and proceeds to stand up with her. "Yeah, sure let's go."

Kaneki and her walk out of the coffee shop, and start down the street towards a restaurant called Absalom, if all food didn't taste disgusting to her she had imagine it would actually be good food. She had learned to manage and keep her food down for awhile though. It was something all ghouls had to learn to do because it helped the entirety of the race blend in with the humans. Kaneki was quiet as they walked towards it, and he had a troubled look on his face that made her wonder just what he was thinking about. She didn't ask though, either he had something else to worry about or he was actually a ghoul who couldn't keep his food down. He probably didn't know she herself was a ghoul, so she doubted he would openly admit it if he was, therefore this was the best option that Ryoko could think of.

He said he was in an accident, maybe that was part of the reason that he was a ghoul now. But was it really possible to make that change in such a short amount of time? Come to think of it, she did hear of a recent accident. Something about a beam crushing a girl, and there was a boy involved as well. She forgot if he survived or not though, there was no way of knowing if it was Kaneki who was the other party involved. When they got to the restaurant they seated us immediately, Kaneki sitting across from her, still with that worried look on his face. Maybe he really was a ghoul.

"Do you eat here a lot?" Kaneki asks, fiddling with his fingers on the table staring down at the off-white cloth.

"No," She rests her head in her hand. "I come here sometimes though. Not often, but sometimes you see, my tastes are very singular."

Kaneki starts chuckling, as he leans over and tries his best to use a seductive voice. "Enlighten me, then."

The two of them fall into a fit of laughter before either of them can finish the dialogue. Ryoko hated that book, and she thought pretty much every part of it was absolutely ridiculous, the entertaining part of this was that Kaneki read it as well. She didn't peg him as the dirty sex type, but then again the book wasn't really that dirty and she's read a lot better- well, point being it could have been a lot better than it was.

"50 shades of grey, quite possibly the worst piece of literature I have read in my entire life." Kaneki lets out a sigh as the waitress sets down two waters in front of them.

"What can I get for you two?" She says happily, which is probably an act but Ryoko will play along.

"I'll just have the chicken alfredo," She closes her menu.

"I'll have the same," Kaneki hands her the menu and she walks away from our table.

She directs her attention back to Kaneki, who has a smile on his face. What's he so happy about? Not that it was a bad thing, but she just hadn't seen someone who smiled as much as he did. Maybe it was a nervous tick or something? She was pretty sure he's been smiling the whole time they had been together at this point. "So Kaneki, you said I had some explaining to do?"

"Yes," Kaneki re-situates himself, and leans over the table closer to her. "Did you tell me to read that one specifically because you really thought I would enjoy it or were you trying to tell me something?"

"The second one,"

His smile fades almost instantly, "It makes me sad that you feel like that. But, I can relate to you. My parents weren't really involved with my life either, so I get it. I have Hide though, he's my best friend and I'm very lucky to have him. Other than that, I feel exactly the same way you do. Alone."

"I have a best friend too," She looks at the perspiration on the glass of water in front of her as she speaks, slowly running the tip of her thumb on it to remove the clouded once clear glass. She was trying to distract herself because she didn't think she could make eye contact with Kaneki right now. "But, he's not around much anymore. So I guess I feel more like that than ever, but I'm fine. I'm sorry about your parents being MIA."

"No it's okay. Well, enough depressing stuff," Kaneki's adorable smile returns on his face and she grabs her glass of water to take a drink, "Did you hear about that bowling alley? They said the whole ceiling caved in! They never found out who did it though, they said that they ran out and nobody really caught a good glimpse over their faces. The bowling alley has to shut down for like a whole month!"

She immediately starts choking on her water, and pushes herself out of her seat. Jesus christ, she was a ghoul, she couldn't die by something as stupid as choking on fucking water! Kaneki was behind her in seconds, his hands grip her chest. He begins doing the heimlich, and she eventually coughs up the water all over the floor while all the stupid humans in this place start clapping. Her face is probably bright red right now, because as soon as she can breathe again all of her senses return and the most prominent thing she can feel is Kaneki's hands groping her boobs. Has he been groping her this whole time!

"K-Kaneki-" She stutters, it coming out a little more seductive than she had wanted. Feeling more flushed than she ever had in her entire life, she pleaded, "Can you please-"

"Huh?" Kaneki is confused momentarily, but his hands are off of her chest in seconds. She turns to look at him and his face is just as red as she presumed her own is. "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize-"

She pulls Kaneki to her, and hugs him close to her. "Shut up. Thank you for making sure I didn't die."

"Not a problem," Kaneki laughs nervously, hugging her back.

Both of them sit back down, and the waitress sets their bowls of food down at that exact moment. The problem with human food is that it all really does look delicious, but nothing tastes like it looks. She never had the luxury of knowing what human food tastes like, the only thing she's ever tasted was humans and coffee. They could drink water too, but that was really bland even to the humans. Being a ghoul really sucked sometimes, but there wasn't anything she could do about it. She watches as Kaneki takes a bite of his food, he looks like he's having a hard time swallowing it.

After attempting to swallow the food, Kaneki isn't in his seat anymore. Wow, he's fast! Ryoko watche as Kaneki makes a V line to the bathroom.

Huh, so he is a ghoul.

Ryoko sat there contemplating how she was going to approach this. It wasn't really a dilemma so much as she just had to let him know it was nothing to hide, and she really wanted to know how the hell he had turned into a ghoul. She had heard previously that there was a supposed mad scientist who did transplants turning regular humans into ghouls, but dismissed it as nothing more than a story.

Kaneki comes back a few moments later, his face is pale and he looks a lot more sickly than he did a second ago. "Sorry about that, I guess I'm not that hungry."

To be honest, she didn't really want to scarf this food down either. It would make her feel like shit, and if she needed to fight for some unusual reason she wouldn't be able to use her kagune (that she still hasn't ever used anyways) as well. Ghouls digesting human food is really dampening on their energy, it often makes them sick if they eat it too often as well. Leaving right now sounds like a lot better option than her having to regurgitate this shit later. Plus, it doesn't even taste good.

"Neither am I, let's go." She throws a wad of cash on the table, Ayato had given it to her. He always sent her money back home. She pulls Kaneki out of the restaurant, heading in no particular direction. She was an impatient person, and didn't very much feel like waiting to talk about this. She believed it would be a lot easier for Kaneki and herself now that they were both ghouls. Human and ghoul relationships never ended well, not to mention their offspring often died. Not that Ryoko wanted satan's spawn anyways.

Kaneki has confusion written all over his face, but he doesn't question her as she quickly directs them towards a park that she knew was near here. This was a generally small area, so you could pretty much walk anywhere within 5 to 10 minutes, that's why Ryoko never really invested in getting a car. If she ever went anywhere she just walked, it helped that her apartment was almost exactly in the middle of everything. The pair make it to the park pretty quickly, so she sits Kaneki and herself down on the bench that's under the shade of a large tree. There's a few other people here, but nobody is within earshot.

Most people don't take it very well hearing about ghouls, meaning she had to make sure she was careful about how loud she spoke about the matter.

"What exactly do you have an eyepatch on for?" She narrows her eyes at him, she didn't want to outright ask him about being a ghoul. She'll just hound him for answers until he finally gives in and tells her for himself.

Kaneki reaches across his torso, and rubs his shoulder. He must be thinking about some excuse other than the fact that he's a ghoul. Kaneki places his hand on his chin, and rubs it with his thumb momentarily, "Ah, a piece of debris flew and hit me in the eye. It look's pretty gross so I figured I'd cover up. That way people don't have to look at it. I think, um, it might freak some people out."

Well that was a lie.

"Oh yeah?" She reaches out and shoves her hand against his forehead, "Hm, I thought you weren't feeling well, Kaneki? You feel fine to me."

"Ryoko-"

She sighs and folds her arms across my chest, looking off into the distance at a couple of kids throwing a frisbee, "Kaneki I am not going to talk to you if you're going to continue to lie to me."

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're-" Kaneki starts to apologize, but she turns back to face him and rips the eyepatch off of his eye.

She stares at him for a moment, and is actually really surprised. She was confused as to why Kaneki had one eyepatch on, but she just assumed it was because he could control the one eye better than the other. But she was wrong. Kaneki's eye that he had covered was a ghoul eye, but it was only that one eye. He was a one eyed ghoul! Those were very rare, it took her a few minutes to process what she had seen and in that time Kaneki scrambled to get the eyepatch she had torn off of his face.

He put it back in its proper place, and wouldn't make eye contact with Ryoko. He probably thought that she was going to hate him now, but his senses must have been off because normally ghouls can tell whenever someone else is a ghoul. Ghouls and humans had very distinct smells. Kaneki looked really ashamed right now, and she almost felt bad for taking the eyepatch off. Clearly he was not used to or okay with being a ghoul yet.

"You can leave if you want. I would understand if you hate me now." Kaneki puffs, is he pouting? She starts giggling, and finally his eyes meet her own. She can't stop the fits of laughter, she's laughing so hard that she has to hold onto her stomach. "What the heck is so funny!"

She tries to stifle her giggles so she can answer him, "I'm sorry Kaneki, that's just too good."

"This isn't funny Ryoko!" Kaneki full on starts pouting, crossing his arms and all.

"Kaneki, I'm sorry." She let out a few more giggles, and places her hand on his shoulder. "I don't hate you, that would be very hypocritical of me."

"What?" Kaneki says, he's absolutely dumbfounded. She thought he was supposed to be smart? Has he really not figured it out yet.

She rolls her eyes, sticking her tongue out at him shortly after. His face is priceless, no wonder Ayato got such a laugh out of taunting Ryoko. "I'm a ghoul too."

"What!" Kaneki smacks himself in the forehead. "God, I'm so- I probably seem like a complete idiot right now! I should've known. Apparently I have a thing for ghouls, that's how I got myself into this situation in the first place."

"What do you mean? The accident?" She raises her eyebrows together in amusement. "How the hell did this even happen, I know you weren't a ghoul a month ago."

Kaneki nods his head, and slumps back into the bench. "I didn't completely lie to you. Do you know Rize Kamishiro? Well, I went on a date with her. She tried to-" He faltered for a moment, as if he didn't really like admitting to the whole eating people thing. "You know. Anyways, there was some construction going on above and apparently a beam fell and crushed her. I don't really remember it, but this is what I've heard from the news and other people. But the doctor put her organs in me, and-"

She gasps and ends up grabbing his other shoulder making sure he looked her in the eyes, or well, eye. "It made you half ghoul? I didn't even know that was possible. I also didn't know Rize was dead. Man, I've had such a crazy past couple of days, why can't I just go back to my life being completely boring and uneventful."

"Past couple of days? Try a month. I suck at being a ghoul." Kaneki frowns, "I can barely keep food down, as you've witnessed. I can't fight to save my life, and it seems like everytime I try do something to help it only gets worse."

"I understand how you feel. I was born this way and you could say I still suck at it, the only thing I'm good at is surviving. Honestly, if it weren't for my best friend I probably wouldn't even be alive. I'm weak," Ryoko admits, it's something she thinks about often but she doesn't really let anyone know that it's the way that she feels. She was not good with being honest with her feelings, so most of the time she just tried to avoid the subject. But it was true, she was a worthless monster who probably didn't deserve to live. She let go of Kaneki's shoulders, clasping her hands together while giving him the best fake smile she had. "Don't worry though, it always gets better."

Kaneki shakes his head, and puts both of his hands over her own. They were soft, and very comforting. Really, Ayato was the only person she ever made close contact with so it was a bit weird for her to feel comfortable with someone else's touch, but Kaneki was so gentle. She gets goosebumps on her arms, and feels the blush forming on her face. What the hell was she blushing for? It's not like he was touching her inappropriately (again) or as if he tried something stupid like kissing her. "I don't think you're weak at all. But as for the sucking at being a ghoul thing, maybe we can just suck at being ghouls together?"

"Thank you. I'd like that," She turns away from his gaze mostly because she's embarrassed at how much he's affecting her, instead she tried to formulate what they should actually go do. They didn't stay at the coffee shop or the restaurant all that long, but honestly that kind of stuff was boring to Ryoko anyways. She wanted to go do something fun, and there was only one thing that she could think of. Not only would it be fun for both of them, but it would give Kaneki a chance to loosen up. He was really uptight, and stiff from what she had observed over time they've spent together. It was about 5:30 PM so it was the perfect time to go. "Say Kaneki, have you ever been drunk before?"

"Um, no." Kaneki lets go of her hands to nervously mess with his fingers. Again.

"Alright then," She smirks, and stands up stretching. "We're going to the bar."

"But I'm only 19,"

"Don't worry! I'll handle it." She rubs her palms together. "I mean, do you honestly think I'm 21?" Ryoko cocked an eyebrow towards Kaneki waiting for a response. He held up his hands in surrender, looking like he might faint from stress.

Kaneki and her start walking, the nearest bar is called Club Pluto there was another one near but she was pretty sure it was a gay bar, which would be awkward. Kaneki speaks up, "Ryoko, I don't even know how old you are. And I don't know your last name! Are you sure we should be going to a bar? I don't want to get into any trouble."

"Kaneki, it'll be fine. I have a plan, and I'm 20. My last name is Oshiro. My blood type is O negative, I like long walks on the beach and-"

"Okay! I get it. Fine, I trust you." Kaneki pouts again. She thinks should start doing it on purpose, his face is really adorable whenever he's pouting. God Ryoko, you think everything he does is cute pull yourself together!

After that, Kaneki and her walk in silence the rest of the way to the bar. He seems to get really quiet when he's nervous thinking about something. He does seem like the type to over think things though, which is one of the reasons she wanted to him to loosen up. Ryoko wanted to see what the Kaneki who didn't over think things, and didn't feel like he had to be so discreet or nervous with things. As soon as they got to the club, she walked straight to the opening where the security guard who regulated who was allowed in and who wasn't stood. When he saw Ryoko a huge smile spread across his face, and he threw his arms open for her to hug him.

"Ryoko! How ya been? It's good to see you again!" He bellows happily as she hug him.

"Good! You haven't changed a bit Akio, it's good to see you as well."

He lets go of her and searches around her, spotting Kaneki. "Huh? Ayato isn't with you?"

"Er, no. Not this time," She scratches the back of my head at the mention of her best friend. It was always awkward when people asked her about him. "This is Kaneki, he might be a few months shy of 20, but I really like him so I was hoping you could just let it slide this once?"

Akio observed Kaneki for a few moments before his hard exterior softened and he pulls up the rope that kept people from outright sprinting inside. "Of course, anything for you or Ayato you guys know that. A friend of you guys is a friend of mine. Especially a boyfriend! I always thought you were going to be with Ayato, oh well. Anyways, tell that asshat to come see me sometime. Have fun Ryoko." He waves us inside, and she grabs Kaneki's hand pulling him inside with her.

"That was your plan?" Kaneki hisses.

She shrugs her shoulders as she directs us down the stairs and into the secret part of the bar where ghouls met. She got them to that part of the bar, ordering two shots of vodka while they sat down on the stools. "Okay so maybe I just made it up as I went. But it worked didn't it? What are you so mad for? You don't wanna be my boyfriend?"

"I- well, um." Kaneki starts stuttering like crazy, making her laugh. "That's not- I- didn't mean that- I just-"

"You're incredibly cute when you're flustered. Please drink this before you hurt yourself." She hands him his shot of vodka, and downs her own quickly. She watches his face distort into something just short of absolute disgust. He coughs while sitting down his drink back to the bar.

"That shits horrible, why do people drink that for fun?"

"We don't drink it for fun, we drink it to have fun!"

Kaneki shakes his head, and she orders two more shots. At this rate he should be relaxed in no time. "Did you call me cute?"

She taps on her chin, "I think I might have."

She hands Kaneki the next shot, and his face doesn't twist as much as it did the first time. By the fourth one, Kaneki is downing them like a champ. She figured he was a lightweight from not drinking before, so she made him slow down and start drinking beer. She herself hated beer, but after a few shots of hard liquor you can't really taste it so she wasn't too worried about it. Kaneki didn't seem to mind either, she could tell he was already tipsy, on the verge of going into full out drunkenness.

She realized she was absolutely totally off about her assumptions as soon as Kaneki spoke. He was completely wasted. He had to have been. He reached over and placed his hand on her cheek, rubbing his thumb across it slowly. "You are really beautiful, you know that? I've been thinking about you ever since I saw you. Well, except for those few minutes I died. But definitely all the other times!"

"Is that right?" She smiles at him. His words were definitely only spoken because he was drunk, but she was pretty sure that were for the most part true.

"Extremely. I should've just read that book and called you, maybe I wouldn't have ended up like this." Kaneki sighs staring at the bottle of beer in front of him as if it's going to whisper the secrets of the world to him. "Hey how come you're not even the least bit drunk?"

"Because I'm not half human. Alcohol doesn't work on me like it does with you. I would be drunk if I was part human, but I would have to drink blood wine in order for that to happen."

Kaneki looks at his bottle, probably realizing that pretty much every alcoholic beverage in here is laced with fermented blood. "Oh."

"It's okay." She claps him on the back and orders the blood wine she was just talking about. "If you want me to be drunk with you then I will, but I'll have you know I'm very affectionate in that state."

"Fantastic!" Kaneki chugs down the rest of his bottle, "Then I'll just drink until I'm brave enough to deal with that."

She takes a drink of the wine, and smiles at Kaneki. He was so strange. Somehow he was aware of the state he was in, but he wanted to get more drunk? Normally people would stop before they did something stupid, but not him. He was totally prepared to do something idiotic, she liked that about him. He orders another drink, she's not even sure what he was trying to get because he wasn't pronouncing it properly at all but somehow the bartender understood what he was saying and ended up setting some weird purple colored drink in front of him.

After a few glasses of blood wine, the room wasn't so clear anymore and if she moved her head too fast everything spun around quite a bit. She had no idea how long they'd been here, but it wasn't like she had anything to do tomorrow. Kaneki stood up, wobbling quite a bit, and held out his hand to her. She took it, and he pulled her out to where everyone else was dancing. She figured Kaneki would try to bust out some crazy move, but he just pulled her close to his chest, and they slow danced to a not so slow song.

"I'm really glad I went out with you today Ry," Kaneki murmurs in my ear.

She grinned at the nickname he had given her, "Me too."

"I was kind of skeptical after the Rize thing, but now I'm just happy."

"Oh yeah? Now be honest with me, which date was better?" Kaneki chuckles and rests his chin on the top of her head, "Definitely this one. You didn't even try to kill me!"

"Well, it's rude to eat someone on the first date." She retorts solemnly.

Kaneki and her both laughed at my lame attempt at a joke that was only funny because they were so drunk.

"Can I tell you something?" Kaneki asks. She just nods her head, and he proceeds with whatever it was. "I think I really like you."

She spoke absolutely delighted, "I think I really like you too."