The two of them were locked in silence for some time. For awhile, it was as if Yugi could barely feel Atem in his head at all.

When class was over and they had a short break, most of the students cleared out of the room, including Kaiba and Anzu.

But not all of them.

"Hey, Yuge," came a familiar voice. Yugi cast his eyes in the direction of the sound to see Jonouchi grinning down at him.

"Hi, Jonouchi," replied somberly.

The pocky stick in Jonouchi's mouth switched sides. "Yuge, come on, snap out of it and tell us what happened."

Honda budged in. "Yeah; we've never seen you two so mad at each other. It's really got us all stuffed up with worry."

"Me? I'm not mad!" Yugi insisted. "She's mad at me!"

"Oh. Okay," Honda said, exchanging confused glances with Jonouchi. "But why?"

Yugi's expression returned to being dismal. "Well…"

"It has somethin' to do with yesterday, doesn't it?"

The tricolor-haired boy relented. "Yeah…probably…"

"Then what happened?" Jonouchi pressured, Honda nodding vigorously at his side.

"I took her…on a date," he admitted.

"A date?!" the blonde teen shouted.

"S-shhhh-shhh-shhh!" Yugi stammered, casting a glance quickly around the room and rushing to plug his friend's mouth with another pocky stick. Jonouchi insubordinately bit it in half.

"A date?" Honda repeated, quieter this time. "I knew it! That's exactly what it looked like you two were doing, sneaking out of class all secretive-like! Where did you go?"

"That new American restaurant, about half an hour's walk from here."

"The American restaurant?! The new one over by the movie theater?"

"Yeah."

Both of his friends looked perplexed. Then, Jonouchi butted in. "Wait a sec, Yuge. You're telling me you managed to ask Anzu to go with ya on a date to one of the fanciest new places in town…when she's dating Kaiba?" When Honda comprehended what the rambunctious blonde said, his eyes shone with pride. He nearly high-fived Jonouchi before catching a glimpse of the look on Yugi's face.

"…Oh. I get it now. That's why she's mad."

"I think so," the boy said, deflated even more now that his friends knew what a shameful thing he had done. He wanted to bury his face in his hands and disappear from the world for a long time.

"But she went, right? So why's she mad at you f'r that?"

"To be honest…I never told her I meant for it to be a date…and she didn't know where we were going. She probably just assumed I was going to take her to Burger World for some innocent chit-chat."

Jonouchi grinned and gigged. "Instead of bein' taken to a fancy restaurant by our one and only lionhearted Yugi to– What did you guys end up doin' anyway?" the teen interrupted himself, realizing he had no idea what happened after they got there.

Yugi blushed slightly, but it wasn't even near the shade his cheeks held with Anzu the day before. "I might have flirted with her a little, and told her that I would pay for her…and told her the truth, that she was really important to me."

"Yugi, wow," Jonouchi said, using his friend's full name properly in his surprise. "That does seem heavy. But…I gotta admit, I still don't see why she'd get mad."

Yugi nodded in understanding, continuing: "Well…she may have felt flattered enough to kiss me. Granted, it was only on the cheek, but…"

"Anzu kissed you?!" Honda nearly shouted, then obediently placed a hand over his mouth when Yugi panicked and chastised him with his large, sad eyes.

Seeing that look in his eye made both of his friends feel really sorry about the whole situation.

"Yugi, that sounds like a great date. I don't get it. Why would she be angry now?"

"Because she's dating Kaiba! And though she seemed to have a really good time, that's all the more reason she probably feels guilty," Yugi almost got caught up in his own fervor and yelled himself, but somehow managed to rein himself in at the last second.

Yugi's explosion rendered the two boys silent for a long time.

"Sorry," Yugi whispered sadly when he noted their shock.

But instead of being discouraged from talking by the duelist's shouting them into silence, Jonouchi felt rejuvenated. "Yuge, everyone can see how much this means to you. I know Anzu's had your eye for a long time, ever since you two was kids."

Yugi looked up, unsure what he was trying to say.

"And everything seemed to go just right except for how she felt about Kaiba when it happened, right?"

Yugi nodded, but his eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Well then, that can only mean one thing!" he said as he clenched his fist in the air.

The tricolored-haired boy felt a bit timid in the face of Jonouchi's sudden vehemence. What was he saying?

"Yugi, you gotta get Kaiba out of the picture."

Yugi's eyes widened. "Jonouchi, you're not saying…"

"Get her to stop dating that stuck-up Scrooge."

At this outrageous suggestion, Yugi stood up, splaying his hands flat on his desk. "Jonouchi, I can't do that! That's Anzu's boyfriend!" He gritted his teeth, thinking back to the nice things Anzu said about Kaiba during their date. "She even seems to be happy with him!"

Thinking of what could have happened made him feel ten times worse than he already did. He looked down at his hands, wanting to cry. "And I almost took that away from her. What if Kaiba had found out? He'd be so mad at her," he said hopelessly as a droplet fell onto his hand, "all because of me," he finished in disgust. He felt his voice break and had to stop talking.

Embarrassed, Yugi brought his hand up to his face. "I feel so rotten," he said, closing one eye as he wiped it on his hand. "What have I done?" He gave up on getting rid of his tears and buried his face in his hands.

Jonouchi and Honda looked devastated for him. "Yugi…"

They watched in guilty silence as their friend cried his eyes out, his shoulders being overtaken by almost violent tremors.

Jonouchi couldn't take it anymore. He looked desperately at Honda, urging him to say something.

"We didn't mean to disrespect him, Yugi, we just know you're…" But they didn't think Yugi was even listening to them, so powerful was his trembling.

Jonouchi finally spoke up. "Come on, Yuge. Let's get you out of here." They both took an arm and pulled a little to start him walking, then surrounded him on both sides, getting in the way when anyone tried to look at poor Yugi in the hall.

When they got outside, the two let go of his arms and took the chance of looking into his face again. He was a mess, tears and all streaming down his face. Jonouchi took out some leftover bandages he had never used for wrapping his finger in a recent injury and held them out to Yugi.

"Here, Yuge."

"T-Thank you, Jonouchi."

"No problem. They might be a little bit rough, but they're better than nothin'."

"I really appreciate it. You too, Honda. Thank you for covering me." Yugi wiped the bandages softly against his face. "You two don't know how much something like that means to me right now, when it feels like my world is crashing down."

"Yugi, this is your ball game, and we respect that. But please, just hear us out on this one thing. You love Anzu."

At those words, Yugi's eyes struck wide and he looked up at Honda. "I-I…"

"Don't even bother denyin' it, Yugi. We both know you do. It ain't somethin' you can hide." Jonouchi's face was sly, but his voice was calm, and serious.

"So just remember what you can offer her, that no one else can, okay? She's been your shinin' star for a long time."

Yugi gasped.

"You now know your worth going into this, aibou. You are not the lesser choice. Not by a long shot. But you are also not necessarily better than Kaiba. You are both simply different people…but only one of you knows Anzu like a dearly beloved friend."

Atem…

"I think you know what you wanna do next already, because you're you; you can feel it in your heart. I don't know what you're gonna do. But…just don't forget what we said, alright?" Jonouchi said in a rare, commanding tone. "We're behind ya on this."

Yugi sniffled one last time, determined to first stop crying before anything else. "I won't. Thanks, you guys." He managed a smile at his two friends, who were obviously doing whatever they could to help him feel better.

"Anytime, Yuge. We'll catch ya later, alright?"

Yugi nodded. "Bye!"

With that, Jonouchi and Honda left to go home. Yugi looked after them for a while before feeling magnetically drawn to the dance studio.

In that moment, he wondered what Atem was up to. He hadn't heard, or felt, anything from him since earlier in the day.

But he wouldn't be distracted. The encounter with his friends had taught him one thing: he had to at least have the guts to find out if he was still allowed to watch her dance. He wouldn't miss that for the world if she'd still let him go. Even though he wasn't confident at all that she'd want to even see him, he had to know for sure.

Yugi began making his way to the dance studio, trying to prepare himself mentally for either outcome. He was used to Atem offering his say when it came to Anzu over the past few days, and the unusual silence in his mind both worried and scared him. But he was determined to have this conversation with Anzu, pharaoh or not.

He pushed on, ideally hoping to find Anzu before she entered the dance studio. He wouldn't feel very welcome to go inside if he hadn't asked her first, especially not in front of her friends. If she cast him out after that point, he'd be really embarrassed to have everyone in the dance class see it happen.

Almost there… he thought, his heart pounding.