Yugi looked down at his desk. He was fumbling with his hands, trying to muster up the courage to ask Anzu to the next meeting he and Atem had planned. He badly wanted to do it without the pharaoh's help this time, but did he have the fortitude?

But Yugi wouldn't give up. If he'd learned anything yesterday, it's that he was still Anzu's best friend, and he could still make her smile. That gave him hope. He steeled himself and spent the few minutes before the class filtered in talking himself into doing it. He'd be prepared to ask her when she came in.

As if he had called her, Yugi spotted a girl with shoulder-length brown hair bobbing her head up and down in what looked like an emphatic nod. He watched with interest as she turned around and walked into the classroom, but his smile upon seeing her enter was quickly stomped upon by her company who now obscured her from Yugi's vision.

Kaiba.

The gusto Yugi had been fostering since the time he woke up almost immediately deflated upon his entrance. He knew he'd see Kaiba today, but he wasn't prepared to see his face just before he was aiming to ask the teenaged CEO's girlfriend to hang out after school. Suddenly, the pit of his stomach felt nauseatingly hollow.

Yugi purposefully looked away as Kaiba passed his desk to get to his seat, avoiding the brown-haired man's eyes like the plague. When he had sat down and directed his gaze toward the window, Yugi chanced a look at Anzu. He was surprised to find her standing right in front of him, and he...

He…

Yugi's mind drew a blank.

Anzu was wearing the most beautiful, elegant dress he'd ever seen her don. It wasn't quite the likes of which you'd find in a ballroom, but it was close: it was modest and a bit sporty, but brightly colored, which suited Anzu's personality rather well. He found himself eyeing her from head to toe, and with a start, he realized she watched him do it.

"H-h-h-hi, Anzu," he stammered sheepishly, incredibly embarrassed at having been caught looking at her like that.

But Anzu only seemed amused. She giggled, "Hey, Yugi."

As if repeating the pharaoh's near-mishap the day before, Yugi couldn't help himself. "You look…"

Anzu's face changed to one of surprise, and she looked into his face as if she were anxiously awaiting his next words.

But he was too shell-shocked by her appearance to notice her waiting with bated breath. Because of this, he was able to come up with a curveball that surprised even Atem.

"…beautiful," he finished breathily.

Atem's eyes shot wide in Yugi's mind. "Aibou…" he said, amazed.

To Yugi's words, Anzu inhaled sharply, and her whole face lit on fire. She couldn't believe she had just heard such a stalwart declaration come from her normally incredibly timid best friend's mouth.

"I-I-I-I mean!" Yugi started, now aware of what he had just said. To his relief, in the bustle before class, hardly anyone else but Anzu had been listening, but nevertheless, witnessing her stare at him as if he were an entirely different person from the one she knew made him nervous, not to mention knowing what he had just said to her. Suddenly he felt hot all over, and he felt himself begin to sweat.

"Thank you, Yugi," Anzu said in earnest, beaming. "I'm really happy you think so." But there was something else in her eyes. Was it…guilt?

As the bell rang, she walked slowly, like a floating spirit, over to her seat, as if she were under mind control. She sat down and bit her lip once before the teacher came in.

Yugi stared over at her, incredibly embarrassed but incredibly emboldened by their encounter. He had actually said what was on his mind to her. And, better yet, he had done so in front of Kaiba! Well, he hadn't heard, but regardless, he had been in the same room. For the whole class period, he could do nothing but look over at Anzu and admire her.

But as he did so, a revelation dawned upon him. With a deep pang in his gut, he realized how she must have gotten her hands on a gown so lavish.

Kaiba…

Realizing that Kaiba had bought her such an expensive item of clothing reminded Yugi of the harsh reality that he couldn't afford to provide for her the same way the CEO did. It took only this thought to reinstate the inferiority and terror he previously felt pulsating through his mind about wanting to ask her to hang out, especially while someone as impressive and accomplished as her boyfriend Kaiba was in the same country, let alone the same classroom.

He spent the rest of class beating himself up over his lack of resolve, cursing himself as a coward. It's not like he didn't know about Kaiba's fortune or expect him to be here; he should have readied himself mentally for handling that, and what it would make him feel. Not having done so was an amateur oversight.

"Do not go home without asking her," Atem warned. He had been quiet in Yugi's mind for most of the morning, letting the boy work himself up to become his own cheerleader, but when he felt his aibou's determination falter at the prospect of crossing his successful rival, he had to say something. After all, he knew Yugi would be much more upset with himself if he didn't ask Anzu before school ended – and therefore dodge the risk of the CEO's wrath – than he would if he got into a confrontation with Kaiba by not playing it safe.

"I just…"

"Yugi. Listen to me. She has known you for years. She has not changed because of her new…company. You simply must talk to her as you used to. He cannot fault you for continuing to be her friend." Yugi listened, intent on letting the pharaoh encourage him. "Perhaps if she were another girl, then to her, that would be okay. But you know her. She's Anzu. Anzu won't let Kaiba come between her and her friends." The boy nodded in response, gulping.

"After all, how many times have you heard her state that friendship is above all? She herself would keep the confrontation you are so worried about from carrying on too far."

Yugi felt his spirits begin to lift. "You're right, Pharaoh," he stated, hardened again, at least somewhat.

"Just try to add onto that fire you held in your soul mere hours ago."

With that, the bell rang. Class was over.

Yugi instantly slammed his fist on his desk. "All right, let's do this." He stood up and started walking over to Anzu. But, before he got too close, his lip began to tremble as he saw Kaiba approach her instead.

"I'm going now. I'll see you later on."

Anzu nodded. "See you after the meeting, Seto!"

Yugi breathed out. "'Seto'…?" They were on a first-name basis already? Just yesterday, she had called him Kaiba.

Atem flared up. "Yugi," he nearly shouted in his mind, frustrated now. "If you don't do it now, you're damning yourself to be sullen for the rest of the day. You will simply have to try again tomorrow, and perhaps this time, Kaiba won't conveniently have a meeting to attend at the end of school."

Yugi shook his head, breaking himself out of it. The last thing he wanted was to waste his day on regret because of not growing a backbone when he wanted – no, needed – it the most. The day hadn't gone too badly so far, after all.

The second he felt Kaiba was sufficiently out of hearing range, he called, "Anzu!"

Anzu turned to face him. "What's up, Yugi?" At the sudden commotion, Jonouchi turned his head, too.

Still feeling the pharaoh's scolding fresh on his mind, he immediately blurt out, "Will you…"

Hearing those starting words, Jonouchi elbowed Honda in the ribs. "Hey, Honda, check it out," he whispered, pointing at the two of them and instantly donning a deviously mischievous expression.

Anzu was gazing intently at her shorter best friend.

"Will you…come and…?"

He could hear the snickers of Jonouchi and Honda to his side. It irritated him, but rather than scare him off, for some reason he felt invigorated, as if he were propelled by his earlier success to show them once and for all that he wasn't a timid little child anymore.

"Will you come and hang with me after school?" he said in a long string, clenching his fists in front of him so hard that his nails dug into the palms of both of his hands. When his sentence was finished, he had to catch his breath, but tried to do it without being too obviously winded. That had taken a lot out of him. He was curious to see how his two friends reacted, but more than that, he cared about receiving Anzu's answer first.

Though it was exceedingly difficult, he was adamant to keep eye contact with Anzu until he heard a reply.

"You mean…you and me together?"

Yugi nodded silently, but the pounding in his own ears was almost deafening to him.

"Oh." Her face looked slightly worried, and a little bit suspicious at the suddenness of his request. "Um… Where would we go?"

"To find someplace to eat lunch!" Remembering what time it was, he backtracked. "Ahh-hah, I mean dinner!" Then, realizing how dinner sounded, he began blushing furiously, getting redder and redder the more his sentences dragged on. "I mean, whatever meal you want to have, really!" He felt his fortress of adrenaline begin to crack, but still, he was determined.

"I –" she started with uncertainty clouding her features, but then looked around the room. Seto was no longer there. But even if he had been, why would it have mattered? He was just asking her to hang out.

"Okay, Yugi. That sounds good!" she finished with a smile. She wanted to ask him more about his sudden offer, but it was getting harder to ignore the increasingly obscure and outlandish faces the two mentally challenged monkeys to her right were making at them. This wasn't the place to ask for more details while they were still around.

Yugi couldn't believe it. He had done it. His fists lowered a little in his astonishment, and he stared blankly at her for a second. "G-great!" In his rush of amazement, he didn't meet his other friends' eyes. But finally, when it dawned on him that she had actually accepted and it all had actually just happened the way he wanted it to, his surge of confidence was so great that he at last dared to look to his left to see his friends' reactions.

He was immediately met with two gloating and hooting faces the likes of which he had never seen from the two teens standing there. Jonouchi was waggling his eyebrows unbearably at Yugi and Honda was grinning at them from ear to ear.

As their target was finally looking at them, Jonouchi spoke up. "Well, well, Yuge. What have we here?" His sentence was nearly cut off by his own maddening giggles.

"Yeah," Honda added. "It seems we've just witnessed something truly magical," he teased emphatically, clapping his hands together and swooning.

"Oh, shut up, Jonouchi. You too, Honda. You both look like buffoons," Anzu bit out curtly, her fists balling at her sides. "Come on, Yugi, let's go outside." Yugi nodded.

The two of them left, but as they made their way out of the classroom, Yugi couldn't help but look back and catch a more serious-faced pair of friends staring at him before getting rid of their stupid faces and giving him a smiling, dual thumbs-up. Behind his back, Yugi did the same, smiling back with excitement.