AN: For those of you who have patiently been waiting to read the next chapter, I apologize for taking so long. As many of you may know, writer's block is a painful experience, so I've been holed away trying to come up with ideas when BAM! It hit me! Now let's just hope I don't mess this up. ;3

R+R Please!

Things happened too quickly for me to properly process. At first Shizuru cried and hugged me all through the night, sobbing out incoherent words that I could never possibly understand. I stayed there all night, just trying to get her to calm down.

But something must have happened. I must have fallen asleep, for when I woke late the next afternoon she was gone. What clothes she had left behind were strewn about the floor and all the pictures that used to hang on the walls were now thrown into a large pile in a chair. Yet out of all the chaos, there was a single bit of order on the small table next to the door. The pendant I had given Shizuru for her birthday sat atop a note etched out in her delicate handwriting, dried tears still staining the paper. But rather than being a long letter explaining what the hell was going on there were only five words writing on that note.

I'm sorry.

Please forget me.

I looked everywhere I could think of. At one point I was in the middle of filling out a missing persons' report when Shizuru's father came to my door, himself. I was practically begging him to tell me what had happened, but he only told me that Shizuru didn't want to see me anymore. He wouldn't tell me what had happened that night, but when I brought it up he flinched. He just said that it was too painful for her to be with me now. And without another word, he left.

A year passed.

I still never got to tell her how I felt.

"Happy birthday, Shizuru-chan~!" I flinched as I was bombarded with confetti and streamers. Looking up, I found that my attacker was none other than the lively brunette I had met my first day here in Setagaya District of Tokyo. Since our crash meeting at the train station, she had been stuck to me like glue. It was a nice change of pace after the slow events following that night.

"Thank you, Mato-chan." I said with a forced smile. I had not truly smiled in an entire year now. As I thought about that, the realization that this was not going to get any better weighed down on me like an anvil. It was constricting, almost suffocating, in fact.

"Hey, how is your final paper going? What are you writing about, Miss Criminologist?" Mato-chan inquired with a grin.

My gaze moved to the window. "I'm researching how traumatic experiences change one's personality within extremely short periods of time."

Mato looked up in alarm. "Th-that's kinda creepy…"

I shrugged, grabbing my bag and patting the shorter girl on the head. "How about I make it up to you with some coffee?"

Instantly the lively girl regained her previous vigor – a skill I envied. "Can we go try this new café? They're having a reading of the latest book by my favorite poet."

"Oh? I didn't know you liked poetry, Mato-chan." I mused. She nodded, energetically. We were just about to step onto the subway when my phone rang. "Hello?" I answered.

"How's it going over there?" a sullen voice inquired. Again a wave of despair fell over me. It disturbed me how easily I could hide it now, though. This was, after all, one of the signs we were taught to spot psychopaths. I believe it was called a lack of empathy.

"Fine," I said in a tone equally void of emotion.

My father sighed. "It's been a year, huh?" he mumbled.

"It wasn't your fault-"

"I know that. Someone else needs a bit more convincing, though…" I cringed, but remained silent as he continued. "Mai keeps her in check, but the girl just isn't the same."

"Father-"

Again he interrupted. "I know you don't want to hear this, but even if you can't be near her anymore, you should still keep track of her. You owe her that much, don't you?" he said in a voice lacking anger. "I'm sorry, sweetie. You didn't deserve any of this. You haven't been the same since then, I know, but… You two were so close and yet you asked me not to tell her anything… Is that not a bit cruel?"

I sighed. "It is…"

Knowing he would get nothing more out of me, my father bid me farewell and left me to try and regain a bit of my composure. However, when I turned to Mato to apologize, I found that she was the one with teary eyes and heavy breathing.

"Mato-chan, what's wrong?" I asked.

She shook her head, wiping her eyes. "Sorry. It's just… My friend sent me this." She handed me her phone. "It's from that poet I mentions earlier. I don't know… There was just too much feeling in it."

I read it.

"Natsuki-sempai, um… Well you see, I-…"

I watched as the girl standing before me with flushed cheeks stared down at her feet. In the past few months I had become disturbingly good at seeing through emotions. What was worse is that I had also become very good at manipulating them to fit my own needs.

"I'm sorry, but I already have feelings for someone else." I mumbled, looking directly into the girl's eyes as she stared up at me. "Besides, you would not want someone like me, anyway." When tears filled her eyes I gave her a weak smile. "You see, I'm too broken. I'd probably only end up hurting you, so…"

The girl shook her head. "No. Sempai isn't broken. You're really kind." she bowed and smiled, but ran off before I could see her break down into tears.

"I see you've managed to break another heart." I glanced back at the fiery red-head stalking up behind me. "You managed to graduate a year early and soon you'll be moving to Tokyo, yet you're still catching the eye of every student at Fuuka, aren't you?"

I shrugged. "I suppose it can't be helped since I'm there all the time." I replied, "My literature teacher asks me to help him out all the time."

"I honestly can't understand why." Mai huffed. "Kurosaki-sensei never uses your ideas anyway. He's fallen in love with some poet full of emotion and compassion. That's something you can't possibly recognize anymore, am I right?"

I shrugged again.

"See?" Mai snapped. "Saying something like that used to get me an ear full of screaming and a blow to the head, but now you won't do anything! What's happened to you, Natsuki? Is all this really because of her?"

My phone rang. "Hello?" I answered.

"How'd you do it?" the familiar voice on the other end demanded.

"Do what, Mato?" I asked, waving goodbye to Mai and walking towards my motorcycle.

"How did you manage to get that poem? I checked and it's not in any of the current books. It's from her new one, right?" Mato said, quickly. "I mean I know you're good. That's how we became friends. But no one is good enough to get a poem from Rosuto Suki before the freaking book comes out!"

"I told you I know her, didn't I?" I sighed, "She sends them to me all the time to get my opinion."

"Ah! You're so lucky!" Mato screeched. "Did you know it actually made a friend of mine cry? I mean she burst into tears right in the middle of a train!"

"I thought I told you to keep it a secret?" I stated.

"Yeah, sorry." Mato laughed, uncomfortably. "You see, Shizu-chan has been kinda down lately and I thought it might cheer her up. It looks like I was wrong, though."

I sighed. "Well at least you're making new friends. It somewhat worries me that you so easily hate people."

"Shizuru is different, though!" Mato objected. "The first time we met she reminded me so much of you that I thought you two might be related. She had that same look you always get. It was like she was thinking about someone really precious to her."

"Please try to branch out and find different types of people to befriend, Mato. Get into sports or something." I said, leaning back on my bike.

"But Shizuru-chan is so cool!" Mato argued. "She's really smart and really pretty too. You wouldn't believe how red her eyes are!"

My eyes widened. "Wait…"

"Yes?"

"Mato, do you know this girl's last name?" I asked, my voice sounding too far away.

"Ah. Fujino," she replied, confused. "Fujino Shizuru…"

AN: Please note that Rosuto Suki literally translates as "Lost Love"

Just thought you should know.