Chase kept running. She didn't know how long she had been running, but it felt like the streets of Kerning City had been going on forever and ever. She dodged the occasional wanderer every now and then, but still kept running. She didn't even know which direction she was going in; was she going towards the island's center? Towards the swamps? The coast? Perion? Didn't really matter, so she kept running.

Chase immediately slid and stumbled to a halt and bolted left. She dove head-first into nearby phone booth, reached back, and slammed the door tight. She sat there panting for a few minutes, before shifting into a sitting position with her hands in between her knees. The yellow light of the booth illuminated the dirty windows, which were impossible to see clearly through due to years of grime and general fogginess. The floor was caked with dirt and dust, but dry. Chase set her head on her knees and let out a choked-out sob.

It just wasn't fair! She tried doing her best, why didn't it work? It should have worked. It just wasn't fair!

And now she had abandoned someone to the mercy of a crazy thief/bowman duo convinced that someone was attacking them. Not her proudest moment.

"But it should have worked..." She mumbled, quietly.

Chase sat there for a while, she didn't know how long exactly. She felt like she was on the verge of crying, but for some reason the tears just wouldn't flow. Guilt; it felt like a weight in her heart, not sad like saddness, just a really lousy feeling, as if she had swallowed a large stone that wasn't quite solid, and it had gotten lodged somewhere in between her lung and her lower intestine, like a big ball of weighted rubber.

She was interrupted from her thoughts by a loud knock at the door. Outside of the glass door, Chase could make out a gigantic figure. She tried to muscle up the effort to shout "occupied", but found that her voice just didn't work, instead she let out a low-pitched squeak that sounded like a kitten with a sore throat. The figure reached over, and yanked at the door, to reveal a perfectly healthy (if slightly bruised) Yuuki.

Chase gaped and tried to find her voice, but failed. Yuuki stared back for about a second.

"Chase!" He shouted. He knelt down in front of the girl. "Are you alright? We've been looking everywhere for you."

Chase stared blankly.

"I managed to get Olive and Rondo calmed down. We're at the diner over on the far side of the alleyway."

Chase opened her mouth, then closed it again.

"We're at the diner because, well, we were talking and we heard someone coming. See, it turned out to be that new kid, Kinesis, and his girlfriend and they were with those Nova kids also..."

Yuuki continued to butcher a short analysis of how everyone was now off getting burgers.

"...and so now they went to go get a table and I went off to go look for you. Well, first I was going to go to the thieves guild, but then I noticed your ears inside the booth and...well...here we are." Yuuki finished.

There was a short silence.

"Well?" Yuuki held out his hand politely and smiled. "Let's go."

Chase slowly took his hand and tried to say something, but only succeeded in letting out "Wuh?"

A small bell let out a ring as Yuuki and Chase walked through the front door of the diner. Chase didn't so much walk, as she was tugged along by Yuuki.

"There you idiots are!" Olive shouted. The archer girl waved to the warrior and the beast tamer, and pointed down at several chairs surrounding a round table tucked into the corner of the restaurant. Olive sat in the very back, and to her left sat Rondo, who was boredly trying to turn one of his throwing stars into a top. To Rondo's left sat Kinesis, wearing a perpetual smirk as he sipped a glass of water. Next to Kinesis sat Yuna, who sat there wearing an expression that said something along the lines of "I'm in a different world, why is there a house salad on the menu?" Next to Yuna sat Kyle, who must have been talking to Tear as he was the only one who didn't look bored. Tear herself sat to the right of Olive, and wore the same expression as Kyle.

Yuuki walked over to the booth with Chase trudging behind. She felt like dying from guilt and embarrasment right now. Yuuki let go of Chase's hand and took the chair to the right of Tear, leaving Chase the one directly in front. She didn't sit down for a moment.

"You know, if you don't sit, the waitress won't take our order..." Mumbled Rondo. "I'm starved."

"You're always starved." Commented Olive.

"I'm going to get the deluxe bacon burger!" Announced Tear.

"I just treated you to dinner thanks to that stupid bet..." Said Kyle.

"Never turn down free food!" Tear patted her stomach.

"If you eat that much you're going to get fat." Yuna said, conescendingly.

"Maybe you can give her some dieting tips, Yuna." Kinesis commented with a grin.

"W-what?!" Yuna huffed. "Shut up you moron!"

"I have a high metabolism." Tear ventured.

"Yeah, but what good is a chubby suuuu-per girlfriend whom I love very much?" Kyle had managed to catch himself before spilling Tear's secret, but the insult still went through.

"Yuna, please hit him for me." Tear grumbled. The purple-haired human complied by slapping the Nova boy on the back of his head. Olive made a whiplash sound effect, and Rondo snorted out a laugh.

"How vulgar." Yuna made a face. "Shouldn't you two act more ladyli-"

"I'M SORRY!" Chase shouted.

The people sitting at the table simply stared blankly at her. There was a moment of silence.

"Um, eh? S-sorry for what?" Yuna ventured.

"Eh?! Ah! Oh!" Chase caught herself. "N-not you, Yuna...I-I'm sorry for w-what I did to Olive and Rondo."

"Oh, that?" Rondo tossed his throwing star up in the air, catching it expertly. "That was nothing. You should have seen the time Sugar got the hiccups. A goddess with the hiccups...I was pulling maple leaves out of my hair for hours."

"E-eh? W-well, I did mean sorry for knocking you down...I-I was just trying to get you guys together."

"Together?" Olive looked confused. "As in, dating? Together-together?"

"U-um...well...um...y-yes?"

Olive processed that information, then immediately broke out into laughter.

"HAHAHAHA! Him? Me? Dating? SERIOUSLY?!" The archer banged the table with one hand, laughing hysterically.

"Hey now, you're-heh-you're sc-hehe-scaring her." Rondo fought back his own urge to laugh.

"K-hehehe-kid, kid!" Olive finally calmed herself down enough to speak. "I don't like him, he doesn't like me. We're just friends, nothing more."

"E-eh? B-but..."

"If it helps," Rondo said. "you're not the first person who's tried setting us up together. That crazy gypsy lady...whatsherface, Cassandra...she 'read' our 'love lines' and said we were perfect for each other. The look on her face when we started laughing was just priceless!"

"B-but...but..."

"Sometimes people comment on us being a cute couple." Olive continued. "It's like, just because we're together doesn't mean we're together-together."

Chase gaped. Her face turned from simple surprise, to confusion, then anger, followed by defeat.

"Wh...it's...it's...GAH!" Chase slumped into her seat and put her head on the table. "It's not FAIR!" She cried.

"What's not fair?" Asked Yuuki.

"I dunno! This! Them! Everyone!" Chase raised her head in frustration. "I-I can't get a grasp on it!"

"A grasp on what?" Yuuki asked again. "I'm sorry, I'm just confused, what's not fair and what can't you get a grasp on?"

"THIS!" Chase gestured wildly. "T-THIS! This..." She lowered her voice and quietly muttered. "Love."

"What?"

"LOVE! I DON'T GET IT!" Chase exploded. "I-IT'S LIKE...it's like..."

Chase sighed.

"It's like everyone in the world is in on some big secret that I don't get, and they refuse to tell me what it is. I asked my Stellar Detectives to help me, and they refused. I asked Kinesis what love meant, he told me it's different. I asked Tear and Kyle why they weren't doing anything romantic, and they didn't tell me...and when I think I've got the hand of telling if two people are in love they attack me- AND I'm wrong about it."

Chase put her head down on the table.

"I just don't get it. No one can explain it to me. I know it's nice. I know it's fun to be in love. I know love is supposed to be the best ever emotion ever. But I just don't get it. I can't get it..."

The whole table was silent for a long while. Kinesis spoke up first.

"So...in other words..." The grey-eyed ESPer frowned in confusion. "...you want to know what love is. Is that it?"

Chase frowned. "W-well, I...sort of, I guess?"

"I can't answer that, sorry." The ESPer said quickly and rather bluntly.

Chase started to put her head down when Yuuki interrupted.

"What he means is that it's impossible to tell you exactly what love is." The warrior crossed his arms. "It's an emotion, and everyone feels it. But it's impossible to describe. It's...it's..."

"Ineffable." Yuna concluded. "The word you're looking for is 'ineffable'. It means 'incapable of being expressed in words'."

"So there's no solution." Chase said glumly.

"Well, no." Kinesis said. "There is a solution, but whatever that solution is, it's far beyond human- or Nova, or Anima- comprehension. Falling in love feels like falling in love..."

"Rather than sounding cool..." Kyle interrupted. "...Chase, it's okay not to know what something means. It's definitely okay not to know what love means." He gestured mindlessly for a bit. "I mean, hell, I don't even know what love means. And I'm in it. But I know I'm in it, so I know it's real. Does that make sense?"

Chase shook her head.

"Maybe it doesn't have to." Olive took a sip of her drink. "Maybe we're just better off not caring what it means. After all, wouldn't know exactly what love is basically make it pointless?"

The table sat in silence for a bit.

"I-I'm sorry..." Chase mumbled. "I still don't get it."

"You don't have to." Kyle said. "All you have to do is live your life as Chase, the Beast Tamer, and continue being yourself."

Chase glanced at him, and nodded slowly.

"Life is short." Said Tear. "Let's not make everything so dramatic. Now it's 8 PM and I want my triple deluxe bacon burger."

"W-wha...! You said 'deluxe' earlier!" Yuuki cried, as it was his wallet that was buying.

"And I said 'triple deluxe' now. With fries. And a milkshake. Chocolate, please."

"I could go for that." Said Kyle. "I second that order."

"Thirded." Said Olive. "But make that garlic fries."

"You're all crazy." Said Rondo. "This place is famous for its chilli dogs."

"Chilli dogs sound nice." Kinesis smiled.

"...salad for me." Said Yuna.

"We can split a chilli dog if you want, Yuna." Kinesis knit his fingers into hers. "We start from either end and we can meet in the middle."

Yuna flushed crimson. "Wha-y-y-you!"

Olive made smoochy noises and Rondo made a gagging motion. Yuuki simply blanched at what his wallet was going to be like tomorrow.

Chase smiled weakly.

"C-chilli dog for me...n-no, make it the triple deluxe bacon...a-actually, can I get both? Please?"