Finally I could update this (o_o) I'm so sorry for taking so long. I'm just glad the hurricane has passed. Thank you for the reviews, everyone! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Rukawa leaned his back against the cold station wall. He raised his face and saw the clock read 11.17. Approximately, he had been standing there for almost 20 minutes, but he still has not seen Kanade's appearance at all. Ah—he did consider that he missed the sight of her because of the crowd, still, it did not change anything.

Just when he about to consider the second probability, which was to go home and sleep, he heard footsteps coming toward him. "You are late." Rukawa said tonelessly.

The girl who stood in front of him smiled as a response, but she did not say anything. Kanade wore a light blue dress along with a pair of brownish flat shoes. She looked clean and nice with her long black hair carefully braided. Her braided hair rested on her small and white shoulder, together with, strangely, a huge messenger bag.

Rustle, rustle.

Was that just a hint of something moving from inside the bag?

Rukawa raised an eyebrow as he silently took a closer look. He leaned closer. His eyes watched the bag intently with a strange glare, but yet, he still did not say anything.

Kanade looked down at Rukawa, and smirked. "Aren't you going to ask what is inside? I just invented a new, world-shocking invention that will shake even gods above in heaven! You should be proud of me."

Meow.

Rukawa switched his glare to Kanade, whose forehead was drenched in cold sweats.

"…Did you take the cat from the school ground and put it inside that lousy bag?"

"Don't call it a lousy bag!" Kanade snatched the bag and held it tightly. The meowed sound changed into a shriek. Kanade's face turned blue as she hurriedly unzipped her bag. The unzipped bag revealed a black cat, which Kanade named one-sidedly as Shiro, sitting among a stack of snacks. It moved its head a little to lick its bandaged left leg.

"…Why is it hurt?" was Rukawa's first question.

Again, no response. Kanade averted Rukawa's glance and zipped her bag back, not completely since she left enough space for air to come in. She turned and started walking ahead of Rukawa. He followed her with both of his hands tucked inside his pockets.

"Let's go. It is past eleven already."

"You are the one who came late."

"I did not."

"Did you just forget that you came 17 minutes later than the appointed time?"

Kanade stopped walking. Rukawa could not see her expression since her back was facing him as they stood inside the train. Then, she walked briskly and sat on a vacant chair while Rukawa was still standing. "I was already here even before you were… and I was waiting the whole time. I was waiting, waiting, and waiting, then I realized—what is it that I am waiting for?"

Rukawa looked down at Kanade, who was staring at her feet as she spoke. He realized that her voice was not as cheerfully annoying as usual, still, he decided not to say anything. Why would not he say anything? That was the usual him, right, what is so wrong with that? Rukawa Kaede would not bother with other people's business—yet, there was a part of him who made him felt like he was obliged to say something. He brushed that part of slight loneliness off him.

"I was confident you wouldn't come. I was blackmailing you after all, and that was just a lie."

A pause.

"What was what?"

"Ah, the pictures of you, it was just a lie. I don't have any. I don't want to be stamped as a stalker, you know."

Another pause.

Rukawa turned and ready to walk out of the train when suddenly Kanade tightly grabbed his arm. As she lifted her face, Rukawa saw a cunning glint in her eyes. An angelic smile then covered her face when she spoke. "Aiyaa, isn't it just a little too late for you to run away, Rukawa-kun?"

Right after Kanade finished her line, the train's door closed. A sound of a bell ringed from the speaker. The train started moving briskly. "We are now departing. The next stop would be Asakusa station. I repeat, we are now departing. The next stop would be Asakusa station."

"See?" Kanade laughed. She leaned her back against the chair. "Isn't it such a good luck for you to be trapped here with me? You probably squandered your lifetime's fortune just for today."

"Much more like a misfortune."

Kanade tilted her head. With the corner of her eyes, she watched Rukawa. For a slight second, the cunning glint in her eyes changed into a lonesome look. "…You are probably right." She said. "Every one who is associated with me will probably end up with a bad luck. It is such a shame, isn't it?"

She stared back at her feet as she hugged her back tightly. "My mother, my big brother, and Shiro too… You probably as well. It is so pathetic, don't you think? I would be better off alone, after all."

Rukawa watched her without saying anything. He walked closer and took a seat besides her. In contrary of Kanade, who was looking down to her feet, Rukawa lifted his face up, watching the ceiling as the train moving. There were a few posters of the new movie or artists, but nothing really caught his eyes. He was looking up to the ceiling, but he was not seeing anything. It was just the same as the girl besides him.

They were sunk in silence with no one said anything to break the ice, but strangely, it does not feel weird or awkward at all. It was just as if the sound of the moving train transmitted everything they need to say, yet, there was not anything transmitted, and there was not anything they had to say either.

"Is Shiro okay with that injury?" Rukawa asked without throwing a glance at Kanade. Kanade did not either, but she could felt her eyes burning, for whatever reason she does not understand herself.

"I don't know. Shiro is in bad luck," she said. "because Shiro was associated with me."

"I don't really believe in superstitious things."

"Well, you just have to."

"What you believe or what you aren't doesn't really matter, right?"

"How can you say that so easily?" Kanade demanded.

"Because I don't believe you," Rukawa said. He tilted his head to look at her now. "and it doesn't really matter. I don't believe you, but I'm here, sitting right beside you. Do you call it a bad luck too, considering the fact that you are the one who doesn't want me to leave?"

"What, it is so unusual for you to be so talkative today." A sincere smile warped Kanade's face. The lonesome look in her eyes was still there when she met Rukawa in the eye. "Was that bad luck, too?"

He looked at her long, before answered: "I don't know. Was it?"

A silent laugh leaked out of Kanade's lips. "You are unexpectedly funny, you know that?"

After a little while, Kanade's smile stiffened.

"You aren't going to ask?"

"What about?"

"About the reason why Shiro's leg was bandaged."

"I did ask."

"I mean, again. You don't have to drop the subject because you feel bad."

"Do you want me to ask about it?"

"Fifty-fifty," she answered. "because I don't believe you either. I don't believe you, but I wonder why I always run into you? Isn't that just strange? I thought you will be the last person on earth I will run to, but it seems like the universe doesn't recognize me anymore—and you were the only person left to run to.

Is it weird to think that out of all people, it was you, and not anybody else? I still couldn't figure out the answer yet. I said 'yet' but I don't even know whether I want to know the answer or not. All that I could grasp was that, for some reason, I felt relieved whenever I run to you. I discovered many things that I thought I would never even dream about. I feel like a stupid. Do you understand what I'm talking about? I bet you aren't. I doubt you are even listening."

"I don't." Rukawa answered shortly.

"You are one honest fellow, aren't you?" Kanade said. Another sincere smile covered her face, brushing the stiffened smile off.

"But," Rukawa continued. "as long as you feel happy, then it doesn't matter whether you know the answer or not. At least that is what I think you should think."

As if she just discovered something important, Kanade's eyes widened. Her mouth was hanging open, but there is not any sound leaked out from her lips. Not even a chuckle, and she could not believe that herself. She thought she should be laughing, taking everything as a joke, and then laughs as hard as she could as the result—but she just could not. When she came to her senses, she realized that her heart was pulsing like crazy, and her cheeks were flustered heavily.

"Are you implying that whenever I'm with you, then I feel happy?"

"Hah?"

Kanade hurriedly turned her face away from Rukawa. There was just no way she would let anyone realize that she was blushing for whatever reason, again, she does not completely aware. "…You said that was what you want me to think. Then, what about you, yourself?"

"What about me?"

"Are you happy?"

This time, Rukawa stiffened. Was he happy, or not? How was he supposed to know something like that? He never thought about such things. All he ever knew was that he loved basketball. He wanted to be the best player in Japan, but that was all he knew. He knew nothing about the happiness she was talking about.

"I'm annoyed whenever I see you." Rukawa turned his eyes away from Kanade's. Again, he looked down, without really anything to see. "However, I never thought of it as a bad luck, much more a bad thing."

The only sound they could hear after that was the sound of the moving train. It is just as if they were isolated inside their own world. Neither Rukawa nor Kanade made a sound until the train stopped moving, and they heard the woman's voice from the speaker, informed every one inside that the train has arrived in Asakusa station.

"Hey, Rukawa-kun."

Rukawa looked up, and saw Kanade smiling brightly at him.

"Let's elope together."