I was on Ginger's doorstep at ten in the morning. I spent the next two hours crying over the loss of my fangirl delusions. "He doesn't even like me, Ginger," I wailed, leaning on her shoulder. "He's so mean."

"Now Kaylee, just because a boy doesn't like you, that don't mean they're mean."

"But he is mean. The anime got him all wrong, Ginger. He's not a crazy psycho that doesn't know how to express his feelings in a rational manner kind of mean. He's just mean. Cruel, calculating, cold-hearted mean. And I still think he's hot anyways," I bawled. "I mean, his hair is so sexy. And his teeth are so sexy. And his figure is just so-"

"Sexy, I get it," Ginger scowled. "I know that his species is very physically attractive, but that doesn't mean that a relationship between our kinds would be rational. It's probably for the best that you found about it."

"Ginger, he called me disgusting."

"You've been called worse."

"Shut up! I know I have. But it's never been by anyone that mattered!"

"And Kisshu matters… why?"

"Because he's so… he's just so…"

"Kaylee, if you say 'sexy', I swear to Ryou I'll hit you."

"No…" I raised my head. "I was going to say sweet. You know, because of how he died for Ichigo in the last battle and everything. But I just realized… that's not Kisshu. That's some fictional character made up by someone else. I keep expecting the real Kisshu to be exactly like fictional Kisshu. Ginger, Kisshu isn't Kisshu. The alien that I've been fighting and the alien that I've been obsessing over for three years; they're not the same person."

"Kaylee…" Ginger began.

"What?" I asked timidly.

"You are so slow."

"Shut up! I can Ribbon Strawberry Check you if you tick me off too much."

Ginger laughed. "And I can expose you to the Channel 3 News. So, now we're even."

I finally managed to laugh too. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Then I got a text. The name from my contacts lit up on the screen: Joey. Talk about déjà vu. The text said: -"Do over? Meet me Swirlz again n 15. Don't bring Rio." I giggled. He had spelled Ryou's name wrong. I showed the message to Ginger.

"See," she smiled. "Just the thing you need to get your mind off of this Kisshu crap. Go have fun. And don't forget: Offend him first, and then flirt with him. You keep your mystery that way."

I raised an eyebrow. "Ginger, I haven't been trying to win Joey over for a long time."

"I know," she replied. "But sometimes it's just fun to mess with them, don't you think?"

"Yeah," I admitted. "It could help cheer me up too."

Ginger nodded. "Knock him dead!"

I wasn't sure if she meant Joey or Kisshu. But I went anyway.

Twenty minutes later, I sat on a barstool in Swirlz at one of the really tall tables. Joey smiled at me and laughed at some joke that I can't remember. His ice-blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight that was streaming in from the window. We each had a cup of frozen yogurt; his a Peanut Butter Paradise. Mine was a Choco-Lot, as I reasoned that PMS really might have been contributing to these powerful mood swings I'd been having. Oh - Powerful Mood Swings – PMS.

Joey stared at me. "So what's Ryou doing today?"

"Huh?" I snapped out of the daze I had slipped into. "Oh. He's in Brazil or something. I don't know." I put another mouthful of cold chocolate in my mouth.

"Oh," Joey raised his dark brown eyebrows. "So… long-distance dating, huh?"

I almost choked on my froyo. "Oh gosh. Ryou and I are not dating."

"Oh really?" he perked up at this, the loose ringlets of his ear-length hair bouncing a little with the upward motion of his head. I had just scooped another bite into my mouth when he said, "Then would you consider going out with me?"

This time, I spat my yogurt out onto the table. Joey was lucky that I ducked when I did, or it would have been in his face. "I'm that bad?" he asked, wrinkling his nose and staring at my rejected mouthful. I started laughing. I couldn't help myself. "What's so funny?" he asked me.

"Oh, just life and its many ironies," I answered vaguely. I wasn't going to tell him that I had pined for him for half of the past year before finally losing interest, and relished seeing the shoe on the other foot. Nope.

"So, will you?" he asked, looking slightly hurt. And this was the first time I had ever seen Joey look hurt. He's not exactly the type to wear his emotions on his sleeve.

I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could…

"Hello there, cutie," mocked a cold voice. A pair of pale arms snaked around my shoulders and pulled me off of my stool.

"Who the heck are you?" asked a very ticked off Joey. It was now plain to see that he was annoyed by our dates getting crashed by random guys.

"Kisshu!" I growled. "Let go of me!"

But Kisshu merely leaned down and purred into my ear, "Oh, please don't tell me that this loser is the one playing the Aoyama role."

I froze. Two shocking ideas fought for significance in my brain. The first was, "No way is Joey going to be the Aoyama to my Ichigo. I mean, ew!" But the second was more important, and I voiced it. "You watched the anime?" I turned my head sideways to stare – disbelieving – at my alien captor.

"Of course, darling," he cooed. "It was considered the only form of research able to be done until you showed up. It was terrible, so of course I jumped at the chance to meet the first real Mew. I was bored out of my mind!" He chuckled a bit and hovered backwards, taking me with him. Then he sat me down in a chair and ripped one of the ribbons off of his clothing, using it to tie me there. "Now you just stay here. I'm going to kill the tree-hugger and make all of the fangirls happy."

I paled. I forgot to tell him that I'm not dating Joey! I squirmed in my chair as Kisshu made his way to where Joey stood near two discarded cups of frozen yogurt. I turned my head and spotted the frightened store clerk hiding behind the metal door marked "Employees Only", her head peeking through a small window on the side of the door. I locked my eyes with hers and mouthed, "Help me." She stared at me with wide, hazel eyes and shook her head.

I looked back to Joey and saw that Kisshu had him pressed up against the glass window, choking him with one hand. My heart started beating so very fast. I can't let Joey die, no matter how much he's ignored me over the past six months. And Joey isn't even a tree-hugger! I felt the cat appendages pop out. With my improved sense of hearing, I noticed that Masha was screaming, "Alien! Alien!" as loud as he could. A glance at my purse showed a round object trying to force its way through the fabric. Well, that was the last time I shoved Masha in my purse.

Then I heard a gasp. I turned my head, and there was the frightened cashier, still peeking out her window. She left momentarily and then returned with a piece of paper, a message scrawled across it in black Sharpie: "R U A Mew Mew?" I met her eyes and nodded. How could I deny it with animal ears sticking out of my head? She left again and then returned a few moments later. She quietly pushed open the door and tiptoed across the tiles, a pair of scissors in her hand. As she cut the piece of cloth that bound me to the chair, she whispered, "I'm Ellie." She smiled at me. She looked about my age.

"Thanks, Ellie," I replied softly. "But you'd better get out of here now." She nodded and slipped back into the back rooms, and I assumed she'd take the back way out of the restaurant. I grabbed my charm from my pocket and the world around me became a blur when I shouted, "Mew Mew Strawberry, METAMORPHO-SIS!"