"Pang!" Matsumoto slammed her fist on the table. The shopkeeper cringed and blanched.

Matsumoto held up the crystal ball. "What is the meaning of this? You charged me so high for this crystal ball, and yet the information it gave was fake!"

"I…I don't know what you mean…" The shopkeeper stammered.

Matsumoto grabbed the shopkeeper by the collar. "It's because of your fake crystal ball that made my captain so angry at me and I was almost frozen to death because of that!"

"But…it's not fake…" The shopkeeper said sadly. His lifetime's work of invention could never be fake!

"Then how do you explain this?" Matsumoto grabbed Ichigo from nearby. "He said the crystal ball told him that he was in love with my captain, when they did not even meet until last year!"

The shopkeeper tidied up his collar. "Well, it's supposed to tell you your forgotten memories. Can you remember something before you were born? No, right? So, it seemed that you were really in love with her captain, whoever it was, in your previous life, which you would not remember."

Matsumoto and Ichigo stared at the shopkeeper and raised their eyebrows. "You…don't make sense."

"Oh yes I do." said the shopkeeper confidently. "If you were once in love with her captain, your previous life should match with her captain's previous life."

"But it doesn't, that's the problem."

"Sure it does. You must not have seen your life completely then. Both your life and her captain's life should match."

Ichigo and Matsumoto exchanged looks. Matsumoto took the crystal ball, and ordered it to continue seeing Hitsugaya's life.

- - -

Hitsugaya was carrying a spade and clearing the snow off the road. It's the best job that provided him the most amount of salary. Hitsugaya dug at the snow as his classmates were out in the playground playing. He longed to play with them, even though he always said that those games were too childish to play with.

Anyway, even if he did like to play those games, he would rather spend those times to work. Ever since father died, yes the house became a much safer place to live in, but the main income of the family were gone, and they had to rely on mother and only mother. Not like father contributed much to the family anyway…

Hitsugaya's heart would twinge every time mother trudged back with a tired look and every time his mother saw the amount of their school fees and tears came out from her swollen eyes.

He actually wanted to quit school, but mother did not allow. So he had no choice but to help his family earned some extra money.

Finding a job was not easy, especially due to his limited height and age. He was lucky he met such a nice guy that was willing to take him and gave him such a high salary for clearing the snow.

"Ooh! Nice job, Hitsugaya!" said a black hair guy. "I'm so glad I hired you! You cleared away all snow perfectly! Not like some of my other employees…"

"T…thank you, Kurosaki-san." Hitsugaya said. He was slightly afraid of his boss, who had this weird personality that loved to jump at people. Oh, well, the only flip side to this job.

Sure enough, Isshin Kurosaki jumped onto Hitsugaya and hugged him. "Since you cleared the road so well, want to come to my house for dinner?"

"N…no it's okay, thank you." Said Hitsugaya, his voice muffled. However, his breath was wasted. Kurosaki marched home carrying Hitsugaya.

Being dragged into the Kurosaki's was something that had happened almost everyday from the day Hitsugaya was hired. Hitsugaya dreaded it as he would have to face the weird and suspiciously gay Isshin, but his family seemed to like that. (Of course, you have one less meal to make!) The next good thing was, Isshin's son, Ichigo, was a really nice guy to talk to.

"Hey, Toushiro!" Ichigo's face lit up when he saw who came into his house. "You came again!"

"Hey." Replied Hitsugaya simply.

Other than Hinamori, Ichigo seemed to be the only person whom he could talk to freely, and not be afraid of what Ichigo thought about him. With Ichigo, Hitsugaya told him of all his troubles and worries, all his thoughts about stuff people do, what he really wanted to do. It's very relieving to be able to tell all your secrets to someone and not keep it to yourself.

Today, Hitsugaya was in a very good mood. "Kurosaki, I have good news." He said, smiling vaguely.

Ichigo stared. It's very rare for Hitsugaya to smile like that. "What good news?"

"Matsumoto, she's coming back tomorrow, for her summer holidays." Hitsugaya said as he took out a letter. There's a photo attached to it. It showed Matsumoto carrying a cat. "She's doing well, isn't she?" Hitsugaya stared at the picture and said, more of to himself.

Ichigo immediately felt a sudden twist in his heart and sourness filled his whole body. He knew Hitsugaya loved Matsumoto, and had talked about her for quite a lot, but he never knew that Matsumoto was going to come back! If Matsumoto came back, she would take Hitsugaya away from him!

As Ichigo looked at Hitsugaya gazing at the photo, he made up his mind that he's going to stop Hitsugaya from meeting with Matsumoto.

"But, Toushiro, I actually wanted you to come with me to meet Aizen-sensei on our project tomorrow…"

Hitsugaya looked up. "Oh, really?" He scratched his jet black hair. "Hmm… What should I do…?"

Ichigo stared imploringly at Hitsugaya. Finally, Hitsugaya said, "Okay, then. I'll go with you to meet Aizen-sensei and then we go back to my house to meet with Matsumoto."

Hitsugaya stood up. "See you tomorrow, then." He walked off into the snow, and his hair turned snowy white.

The next day…

"Toushiro!" Ichigo ran toward a waiting Hitsugaya. "Sorry, I was late."

"Let's go."

They walked toward the school. They walked in the direction of Aizen-sensei's office. Then Ichigo tripped, purposely.

"Are you alright?" asked Hitsugaya.

"I…I'm alright. Let's rest at the staircase…"

So, Hitsugaya assisted Ichigo to the stairways. Ichigo normally would not feel anything over a tiny trip like this, and his acting skills were extremely unrealistic too, but Hitsugaya did not notice one bit of wrong at all.

Hitsugaya, who surprisingly believed that Ichigo was in pain, said, "Since you are hurt, I shall go see Aizen-sensei alone, then." He turned to leave, but got pulled by Ichigo.

"Don't go, Toushiro…"

"Huh? Kurosaki, what are you…?"

Ichigo pulled Hitsugaya closer and forcefully smacked his lips onto Hitsugaya's.

"Mm…Kurosaki…stop…" Hitsugaya was held on tightly by Ichigo, who had a vice-like grip that would never let go no matter how hard Hitsugaya resisted.

Finally, Ichigo let loose, and Hitsugaya pulled away, gasping, only to find Matsumoto standing on the door of the stairways, mouth agape.

"M…Matsumoto…" Hitsugaya stammered, appalled.

"I was told by Hinamori that you came here to find Aizen-sensei, so I came to find you. But it seems that you were doing something else unspeakable of…" Matsumoto said, her voice filled with hurt, and ran off.

"W…wait, Matsumoto!" Hitsugaya ran after Matsumoto. Ichigo pulled Hitsugaya back. "Wait, Toushiro, I…I'm really sorry, I didn't…"

Hitsugaya shook Ichigo off angrily, and immediately ran out to chase Matsumoto.

But Matsumoto was no where to be seen.

He had been waiting all these while for Matsumoto to come back, and yet when the time finally came, he blew it up and now Matsumoto, what would she be thinking of him now? Hitsugaya cursed under his breath.

And what was Kurosaki thinking? He should have known that Ichigo had liked him all these while; Ichigo's friendly, protective stare, Ichigo's warm hand patting him… But Hitsugaya had insisted that Ichigo was just being a nice friend, and look what happened now!

As Hitsugaya walked sadly randomly, Hinamori ran and bumped into him.

"Oh, Onii-chan, you are here! Rangiku-chan arrived at our house, but she was crying very badly, and I hear your name said in the midst of her sobs! You better come quickly!"

Matsumoto is crying badly? Hitsugaya's felt a twinge of pain in his heart. He followed Hinamori back to his house.

Matsumoto was crying harder than what Hitsugaya had imagined. "She's been like this all these time." Hitsugaya's mother whispered to his ear as she passed by. "Comfort her, ne?" She and Hinamori left Hitsugaya alone with Matsumoto.

"…Matsumoto…"

Matsumoto's crying ceased. "Go away." She said weakly.

Hitsugaya did not know what to say. Looking at Matsumoto like this simply tore his heart.

"…I'm sorry…"

- - -

"Eh!" Matsumoto grinned suspiciously at Ichigo. "That explains everything."

"I told you my crystal ball works!" The shopkeeper said indignantly.

"W…wait!" Ichigo stared at Matsumoto and the shopkeeper. "It's fake, of course! There's no way I'd be gay and like Toushiro…"

Matsumoto shook her head in a concerned way. "Ichigo, Ichigo, Ichigo, you have to face the truth in your heart sometimes you know. Sometimes, you just have to look deep into your heart to find the truth…"

"Shut up! It's fake! It's obviously not real!" Ichigo waved his hand frantically.

"But, you took away my captain's second kiss, you're so cruel, Ichigo-kun." Matsumoto took the crystal ball. "I'm going to tell captain the whole thing. Then he'll know that it's really his past life, no mistake! And he got no reason to freeze me again!"

Matsumoto left, with Ichigo and the shopkeeper alone.

"You…" Ichigo glared at the shopkeeper.

"Y…yes?" The poor shopkeeper blanched.

You imagine what the livid Ichigo would do to the shopkeeper.