CHAPTER FIVE – RUNNING FORTH (YuKi)

"Hey, Naoki, if you're not gonna eat that dumpling, can I have it?" asked Kenta.

"Hmm? Oh, sure, whatever, go ahead," said Naoki absentmindedly as he flipped through another page.

The cafeteria was noisy as usual, but Naoki found that reading through The Portrait of Markov somehow drowned out any noise in his hearing. The more he read, the more he became enraptured with the story in a whole new level. It had been almost a week since he'd bought the book alongside Yuri downtown, and though the two of them have been to other bookstores a number of times looking for other novels to buy, they focused extensively on Markov. Indeed, even Yuri slowed down her usual pace of quick but intensive reading to digest every little detail in the book, details that the two of them would then debate over before lunchtime ends, as always.

So far, they had only finished one-fourth of the novel—which was relatively shorter than most of the novels Naoki had read—though the plot was as ominous as the eye symbol embossed on the hardbound cover. So far, it relayed the story of Libitina, a teenaged girl who is reunited with her long-lost younger sister only to become targeted later on by a group of sinister individuals. Naoki was starting to become engrossed in the plot, which reminded him of the other horror novels he had read and loved before, but his interest was nothing compared to Yuri's, who was all but mystified by the story even as the conflict for Libitina was just starting.

"Seriously, is the trio starting to fall apart?" Kenta interrupted as he chewed his food. "I mean, we have Daisuke, who's basically running off earlier than usual to go reading with . . . Natsuki, is that her name? Anyway, yeah, we have Daisuke gone, and now we have you sitting here, reading and pretending one of your best buddies isn't even in front of you!"

"Yes, yes," mumbled Naoki.

Kenta frowned. "You're not even listening, are you?"

"Yes, yes."

". . . NaokiFourEyesSaysWhat?"

Naoki looked up. "What?"

Kenta chuckled as he finished his lunch. "Never fails. Anyway, just a time check for you, we still have twenty minutes before class. Your girlfriend Yuri might be back at the classroom already, y'know?"

"She's not my girlfriend, Kenta," said Naoki earnestly, looking back down at Markov.

"There's my best friend!" said Kenta gleefully. "And here I thought you were already on some other planet or something. Anyway, I think it'd be better if you two relaxed a bit more before classes instead of talking about that book again. We still have P.E. to take care of later, remember?"

Naoki paused in the middle of flipping a page. "P.E. is today?" he asked.

Kenta grimaced as he pushed his lunch tray aside, jabbing a finger at The Portrait of Markov. "That book's starting to mess with the world as we know it. I mean, really, come on, you're the one who usually reminds us about our schedules, right? Is it opposite day? It's not, because it's Wednesday! P.E. day!"

". . . You're absolutely right," said Naoki after a moment's silence. Absorbed as he was in reading The Portrait of Markov for the past two days, he had somehow forgotten. "Oh, dear."

Physical Education took up the last two hours of their school day during Wednesdays. Naoki wasn't bothered by it because he had forgotten his P.E. uniform at home or anything—they usually stored their P.E. uniforms and things in their lockers at the start of each week, ready to be used when P.E. classes are held. Instead, Naoki was bothered about Physical Education for Yuri.

They had started the academic year with track and field as their first sport, and while the class had gotten off to a relatively simple start by practicing sprints, Yuri was already lagging behind the rest of them. Naoki knew how terrible Physical Education was for introverts, and even he felt conscious at times when their teacher had asked them to do fifty-meter sprints individually as practice. Yuri, however, had it worse than any of them in class did even during practice sessions because of her timid demeanor and her physical build. Though Naoki tended to avoid dwelling on the latter, it was still part of the truth; Yuri's delicately tall and more refined build was better suited for more graceful activities and not something as vigorous as sports. It was no wonder that she looked rather pale again during their earlier class hours before lunchtime.

When Naoki and Kenta had gone back to their classroom, Yuri still looked very anxious in her seat. Her hands were placed firmly atop her own copy of The Portrait of Markov, though they were trembling slightly as well. Her eyes were staring dead ahead, and her lips were moving slightly, as if she was whispering something over and over under her breath. Immediately, Naoki knew that this was not about their upcoming discussion about The Portrait of Markov. He looked at Kenta, who nodded with a knowing grin; it was a signal for him to give the two of them some privacy, so he walked off to talk to their other classmates for a while.

Naoki turned back to Yuri. "Um, Yuri?"

Yuri snapped out of her trance and looked at him. "H-Hello!" she said with a small smile.

"Are you okay?" he asked her kindly as he sat down.

"I'm . . . fine," said Yuri. Naoki noted how hard she was trying to steady her voice. "Just a little a-agitated, that's all."

Naoki decided to reassure her by smiling and avoiding talking about their later P.E. class for now. "So, which chapter did you stop at in Markov?" he asked.

Yuri glanced downwards at the book, thinking. "The part where June is killed in her house and Libitina finds her corpse," she replied.

"Oh, that would've been a pretty big spoiler if I wasn't at that part yet," said Naoki convivially.

"Ah, I'm sorry!" said Yuri as she glanced up at him, flustered. "I hope I d-didn't spoil anything for you!"

"No, no, it's fine," Naoki assured her. "I'm at that part as well, so no harm done!"

With that, the two of them began sharing what they have picked up so far about The Portrait of Markov. Because the two of them were basically neck and neck in terms of how far they have read into the novel, and because the details were fresher in their minds, the discussion was even more profound than their previous ones, particularly in the case of Libitina, with whom Yuri was incredibly fascinated with. Once more, she slipped back into her confident and eloquent self, talking about Libitina with wonder bordering on reverence. Naoki was thankful that their talk was at least causing her anxiety about P.E. to wane. He soon found himself engrossed in wonder once again as well with the way Yuri was speaking so articulately and gracefully, her choice of words belying her demeanor.

This did not last long, however; her fears returned in full force once the first after-lunch bell rang. Knowing that he couldn't let Yuri endure the torment of waiting for their P.E. class alone, he decided to at least begin addressing it.

"Are you, um . . . gonna be okay for P.E. later?" he asked.

Yuri let out a resigned sigh. "Y-Yes," she mumbled.

"I see." Naoki rifled through his mind for proper things to say. "I'm a bit nervous as well."

She looked at him. "You are? B-But . . . you do well in P.E., you and your best f-friend!"

Naoki grinned. "Well, if we're talking about Kenta, then yes, he can beat me and Daisuke at the same time when it comes to anything about sports or athletics. Even Daisuke knows sports better than I do, because I'm not used to it all. One time in middle school, Kenta hit me in the face with a basketball pass because I was too busy thinking about a project while out on the court."

Yuri clapped her hand to her mouth. "How awful!"

"No, no, that was an accident, nothing intentional or anything!" Naoki quickly added. "I mean, well, I'm still best friends with Kenta, right? Anyway, that just goes to show that I do have my less-than-fine moments in P.E. like everyone else. I am doing better, but it's only a matter of time before another klutzy moment happens. Regarding track and field, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up tripping on my own two feet in the near future because I got distracted again."

He laughed, though Yuri didn't—she still looked a bit perturbed. "Anyway, I know you'll do just fine, Yuri," he went on. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

"Are you s-sure?" asked Yuri timidly.

"I'm sure," said Naoki reassuringly. "After all, think about it. You've passed all of your P.E. subjects from elementary school to the present, even when you felt nervous every time a P.E. class was held, right? It's alright to feel jittery. Before you know it, the class is over, and you'll suddenly realize that you were worrying about something that wasn't that difficult to begin with."

"I see," said Yuri. "Maybe I am just m-making things bigger than they actually are. I'm . . . I'm sorry for worrying t-too much, then. . ."

"Ah, no, it's okay, Yuri!" Naoki cried out hastily. "I didn't mean to tell you that being worried or nervous is bad or anything. It's like what I've told you before. If you feel nervous, you don't have to feel alone, because I'm right here being nervous with you, even if it may not be that obvious."

He smiled at her again, another gesture of encouragement that he knew she needed. To his slight surprise, Yuri smiled back a little this time.

The school's field was stirred by a light afternoon breeze, providing relief as Naoki warmed up with stretches and jumping jacks along with the rest of his classmates. Other year levels that were holding their own P.E. classes for the afternoon were doing so in the school gymnasium, leaving 3-C to occupy the open field alone.

Beside him, Kenta stretched his toned arms with relish, pawing the ground with his feet like a gritty bull set to gore down a hapless matador. Physical Education classes were one of the few times that he shone the brightest, being one of the most sports-inclined among their entire year even if he belonged to no official sports team in the school. There was a gleam of focus and competitiveness in his opal-colored eyes that Naoki knew all too well, a gleam that shone whenever Kenta was in his element.

In stark contrast, Yuri looked diminished from where she was standing, which was a few feet away from Naoki. Clad in the standard P.E. attire of a white shirt and blue shorts, with white sneakers for footwear and navy blue arm sleeves as add-ons, her developed figure seemed to radiate a different aura, almost less elegant compared to how she looked in her school uniform. She stretched her graceful arms rather halfheartedly, and Naoki could see her brilliant amethyst-like eyes tinged with a renewed surge of anxiety. Though she was not alone in disliking their P.E. classes, Naoki could practically feel how much she wanted to be anywhere except on the open field right now.

Once the warm-up routines were done, 3-C stood at attention as their P.E. teacher began specifying their activities for the day: individual fifty-meter sprints for each member of the class, all graded depending on a student's running form and speed. Expectantly, a few from 3-C began limbering up more where they stood, including Kenta. Some, like Naoki, merely nodded as they listened to the instructions, while some were looking rather nervous at the prospect of being graded based on how fast they can run, with Yuri among them. Thankfully, their teacher assured them that the lowest grade given to the slowest runners will be a C, eliciting sighs of relief from some. As they listened to additional notes about proper running form and guidelines for the sprint, Naoki spared another glance at Yuri. She appeared to turn paler with every word their teacher was uttering as she clasped her hands together.

With that, their teacher called out. "First five people that want to go first, speak up. After them, it'll be the rest of you lot in random order. After you run, just walk towards me, and I'll tell you what grade you got. Like I said, the lowest grade anyone will get today is a C since we're not looking for qualifiers for the track team, but that doesn't mean you're gonna just walk those fifty meters by, understood? In thirty minutes, I'll be leaving for a meeting, so the class officers will be in charge of timing the rest who haven't run yet to keep things going. I'll be back before class ends so that these people will see their grades. So, who's gonna go first?"

As expected, Kenta was among the first five to volunteer. Once they had stepped forth and were listed accordingly, the class made its way to one end of the open field. A red field marker was set down on one spot to pinpoint the finish line for the would-be runners. After final instructions were given, the first five runners lined up at the starting point. Some distance away from the starting line, so as to get a better view of both sides of fifty meters, their teacher stood by with a stopwatch and clipboard at the ready.

Naoki stood back and watched with the rest of the class as the first five raced off towards the marker one at a time, each waiting their turn as their teacher finished jotting down their time and grade onto his clipboard. Despite not being the fastest, Kenta managed to earn an A for himself, a feat which he acknowledged by puffing out his chest proudly and grinning at his classmates as he rejoined them. Once the first five were all done, their teacher started calling out the rest of 3-C to continue everything.

It wasn't long before it was Naoki's turn. Diligently, he jogged over to the starting point as soon as his name was called. Kenta clapped him hard on the shoulder as a gesture of good luck. Once there, he limbered up and breathed readily, rubbing the soles of his white-and-blue sneakers against the open field's grassy dirt. He looked over to their teacher, who had his arm raised in the air, waiting for him to finish getting ready.

As soon as the arm went down, Naoki bolted forward, his eyes fixed on the marker that served as the finish line. Soon, most of the class's noise behind him receded, and his sneakers kicked up both dirt and dust as he ran. His glasses bounced up and down on the bridge of his nose, but they had to stay there—his poorer eyesight won't do any good against a wayward rock or lump of dirt on the field. Despite the overall simplicity of a fifty-yard sprint, the effort soon had him digging deeper and deeper for breath every time his feet landed on the ground, breathing through his nostrils and not through his mouth so as to avoid tiring out more easily. It was soon over before he knew it, though, as the red marker flitted past him from the corner of his eye. Naoki bolted forward for a few more paces before slowing down, taking in nourishing breaths of air as he placed his hands on his hips and kicked his legs to shake off much of the strain.

After a few seconds of rest, he jogged lightly back towards the class, slowing down as he passed by their P.E. teacher, who gave him an approving nod as he finished writing on his clipboard. "Just shy of eight seconds, that's a B for you. Nice work, Nakajima."

"Thank you, sir," replied Naoki, pleased with the result of his efforts.

Half of the class had finished their graded sprints when their teacher left for the meeting. In his place, as he had instructed before, the 3-C class officers were charged with timing the rest of the sprinters, with the class president writing down their time on their teacher's clipboard. Those who were finished soon started chatting as they sat down on some of the benches near the field, while the more playful ones began monkeying around. Naoki decided to stand by and watch the rest of the runners along with Kenta, who had taken his place next to the class officers and was barking orders like a drill sergeant.

"Keep those elbows at right angles! Short strides, not long ones! Keep that speed up, this ain't jogging, people! Now drop and give me twenty!"

"Kenta, come on, man, let us do our job in peace!" said their class president as the other officers sniggered.

"I will not have backtalk in my squadron, maggot! You may outrank me in the classroom, but I got an A earlier, so I outrank you out here for today!"

Naoki chuckled with the rest of them as Kenta continued this verbal duel with glee, putting a slight delay into the class proceedings. It was only when Yuri's name was called that they became relatively silent. Naoki sensed that it was because of Yuri's introvert aura that made others keep quiet whenever she was involved, whether out of curiosity or simple respect. She stepped forth onto the starting point, her hands clasped against her chest. She was looking at the ground, her long flowing hair forming a curtain around her anxious face. After a few seconds of staring at the length of the open field, she looked nervously at the class officers.

Their class president mumbled, "Do you think she'll be able to handle this? She didn't look too good last week."

"I'm sure," said Naoki with a smile.

"Should I get you some pompoms so that you can cheer her on, Naoki?" asked Kenta jokingly.

Naoki ignored him. "Are you gonna be okay, Yuri?" he called out to her.

Yuri glanced towards him upon hearing his voice. She shifted nervously in her place, giving a small nod. "Ready when you are, Yuri!" their class president cried out.

Timidly but diligently, Yuri nodded again as she knelt down to assume the takeoff stance that was taught to them. Unlike most of their female classmates with long hair, Yuri never tied up her hair in a ponytail even for P.E., causing her face to become shrouded as she prepared to take off. Naoki saw her look up a little to signal that she was ready, though her face looked anything but sure about all this—she was still pale.

As a last-second attempt to inspire her, Naoki cried out, "You've got this, Yuri!"

Yuri took one more look at him, and Naoki could sense that she smiled a little.

Like their teacher had done, their class president brought his arm up, held it in the air for a second, and swung it back down.

Yuri took off. For a moment, her starting speed appeared relatively slower compared to most of their classmates', but her running form was good in Naoki's eyes. Her arms were bent at right angles and her long legs took short but strong strides, following the guidelines their teacher had been giving for the past two weeks in preparation for today. Unlike what he had done with the rest of the class thus far, Kenta chose to remain silent instead of shouting as they watched Yuri sprint, presumably to not cause her any embarrassment at Naoki's unspoken behest. As she passed by, Yuri's hair was swept backwards by her momentum, and Naoki was rather surprised to see how determined she suddenly looked—and how quickly she was picking up speed. There was a fierce gleam in her purple eyes, and her worried look was now combated by an aura of concentration. It lent her elegance and mystery a whole new appearance, and Naoki's smile only grew as Yuri came closer to the marker within seconds. With a bit of relief, he knew that Yuri had successfully made it past another day of P.E.

All that was disturbed, however, when Yuri suddenly tripped from a misstep just as she passed by the red marker, her momentum causing her to stumble and fall almost face down onto the ground. Naoki's smile vanished, replaced by a look of mild shock. Kenta and their others groaned a little at the sight. Behind them, the others also noticed Yuri stumble, and though some of them fell silent, a few began muttering and buzzing excitedly.

Yuri lay unmoving where she had fallen for a few seconds, her hair obscuring her face. "Yuri!" Naoki called out to her.

With an obvious effort, Yuri stood up, not looking back at Naoki or the rest of 3-C as she did so. She was panting raggedly, her shoulders trembling a little. Without warning, she ducked her head and ran again—this time towards the school gymnasium—before anyone else could say or do anything. Naoki watched her go, his concern growing.

"I hope she's alright," said their class president as they watched her dart behind the gymnasium and out of sight. "Someone should go check on her."

"I'll do it," said Naoki firmly.

Though there were no people around when she darted past the walls of the gymnasium and the shower rooms next to it, Yuri could feel a million pairs of eyes boring into her as she ran, and a million invisible mouths laughing and whispering earlier at the sight of her stumbling into the dirt of the open field. At that point, she no longer cared if she was given an F for her performance. She only desperately wanted to get home, cover herself with her blankets in her bed, and will the day to end. There were moments like this before in her life, and this one was no different—it made her feel helpless and small, a laughingstock, someone to be mocked and disdained. She sat down on the covered walkway behind the gymnasium, leaning against the walls as soon as she knew that she was out of sight and hearing.

The fall hurt rather badly; she landed on her stomach and chest, and the pain was only starting to go away as she sat there to rest and recover. Dirt had stained her shirt, shorts and legs, and she could feel how gritty her face was from the mixture of dust and sweat on her brow and cheeks. Yuri miserably began patting herself clean with her hands, fearing that if she went out to wash herself in the shower room, someone would walk by and laugh at the sight of her dirtied countenance.

It took her a few more moments to realize that she had hurt her right knee. A small but bloody scratch was there, peppered with a bit of dirt from the field. Though she knew that she needed to wash it immediately, Yuri stared at the sight of her blood intently, the crimson color pulling her into a sort of trance. Gingerly, she touched the wound and gasped a little as it stung, but the pain felt rather . . . stirring, as if she had been suddenly doused with cold water to the face. When she pulled her hand back, she stared at the blood that had gotten onto her fingertips.

What am I doing? Not now. Please. Not now.

And yet, in spite of these thoughts, Yuri extended her fingers again towards her wound. A soft gasp escaped her lips as the pain surfaced once again. More blood got onto her fingers, glistening wetly in the afternoon light when she looked at her hand once more. As she stared, her heart began beating faster—not from anxiety, but from a desire to be relieved of the embarrassment she had experienced earlier.

The pain. It helps.

It always helps.

Slightly ashamed, Yuri tried to touch the wound on her knee for a third time, but she found herself balking at the thought. Instead, she gripped her left forearm very tightly. This time, a sharper pain coursed through her being, and it was all Yuri could do not to gasp loudly as she did so, the stinging sensation purging her mind for a moment. It felt like she was plunged into a blank but tranquil world, vastly different from the universes she had visited in her books. It was a world that she sporadically visited, and yet it was almost as comforting as the ones where her fictional friends lived in. She closed her eyes for a moment, breathing more calmly now as the pain on her forearm synced with her thoughts and slowly spirited her away to this world.

Not for long. "Yuri?"

Startled, Yuri released her grip on her forearm. She looked around to see Naoki standing a few feet away from her, evidently concerned, a bottle of water in his hand. How long was he standing there? Yuri surreptitiously wiped her fingers against her arm sleeves, her heart beating faster than ever.

"Are you okay?" asked Naoki.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine. I just hurt my k-knee." Guilt and shame crept into Yuri's heart, as if she had been caught doing something vile or obscene. Naoki, however, did not seem to have noticed anything as he smiled. Perhaps from his perspective, it may have just looked like she was caressing her forearm once again.

Naoki's eyes shifted towards the wound on her knee. "Have you washed that yet? That needs cleaning up pronto."

"Not yet," Yuri admitted. "I was g-going to go and do so in a moment."

"That's good," said Naoki. "Anyway, I got you a bottle of water. You can rest here for a while, and I'll keep you company while we wait for everyone else to finish. Good thing you're done with your sprint."

"B-But I stumbled!"

"As soon as you finished running, not before. Besides, you got a B based from what I heard. I knew you could do it!"

Yuri stared as Naoki smiled comfortingly, holding out the water bottle towards her. She felt startled again, both from the fact that she had managed to earn a B instead of an expected C, and from Naoki's compliment. Slowly, she took the water bottle with a word of thanks and drank quietly. When she felt that she had drunk enough, she poured the remaining water onto her wound to clean it a little, careful not to hiss out loud as the wound stung. As she was doing so, Naoki sat down opposite her, leaning against a metal pillar that supported the walkway's roof. As the silence stretched, Yuri's thoughts went back towards her little accident.

"That was truly humiliating," she murmured dejectedly.

"No, Yuri, it's okay," said Naoki, sitting up straighter. "It was an accident, and accidents happen to the best of us."

"I know, but . . ." Yuri gripped the water bottle so tightly that the plastic crackled. She sighed. "I guess the universe decided that I'm to be the one who will trip on her own two feet today. . ."

Naoki sighed along with her. "Yuri," he began, but she cut him off.

"I could hear them . . . laughing at me. . ." The voices. The eyes.

"Yuri, no one was laughing at you!" Naoki cried out. "Not even Kenta. We were all just . . . caught off guard because we didn't expect it to happen."

Yuri shook her head, forlorn. "I'm s-sorry."

"Don't be. It was an accident," Naoki repeated. "We're just glad that you're alright. I'm glad that you're alright."

She looked up at him once again, staring deep into his grey eyes. Naoki looked firm in what he had said, the familiar crease in his brows giving him his handsome aura of scholarly bearing in spite of the P.E. uniform he was wearing. Yuri wondered what exactly it was that drove Naoki to sympathize with her all the time. His kind words, his understanding, his patience, all these were rather alien aspects to her. Only her books seemed to empathize with her the same way that Naoki was, and it touched her greatly.

"You know, I never got to say this earlier, and it might be a bit silly, but . . ." Naoki smiled a little. "You remind me a little of Libitina."

Yuri felt struck. "W-What made you s-say that?" she stammered.

Naoki shrugged. "Well, the way she second-guesses what she says or does, like she's afraid of doing something wrong . . . that's rather reminiscent of you and your mannerisms."

Yuri was silent for a few moments before answering. It felt as if Naoki had finally spoken the truth about what he really thought of her, the truth that he should have spoken since the first time they met haphazardly in the school corridor. She felt crestfallen. "B-But . . . Naoki, that's actually a t-terrible thing to have in common with her! It's . . . It's rather embarrassing for me if you think of it t-that way. . ."

"Ah, no, Yuri, I didn't mean it like that, of course!" said Naoki quickly. "I'm sorry. I just meant that . . . I know we're not that far into the novel yet, and it's not like I can read into your head or anything, but . . . well, Libitina's flaws make her intriguing as much as her strengths do, and that's what makes her a fascinating character. She's not one-sided, and she's definitely not horrible just because she has moments of weakness like the rest of us. The same goes for you."

Yuri was dumbstruck. Naoki had told her something similar before, she knew, but to actually compare her to a fictional character as interesting and captivating in her eyes as Libitina . . . it was a form of praise that Yuri did not expect from anyone. True enough, Libitina did have her lapses and failures, but like Natasha before her in Laughing at the Shadows, she was a character that Yuri felt really drawn to in spite of this. Trapped in a crisis stemming from a conflict that she can only vaguely remember, Libitina struggles to fight in a world where she initially thinks she belongs in, discovering aspects about herself that she didn't know she had while holding off her own personal demons. To hear someone like Naoki compare her objectively to Libitina was . . .

A cough startled the two of them out of their discussion. Yuri and Naoki looked around to see Kenta standing several feet away from them.

"Uh, I hope I wasn't interrupting anything, but everyone else is done. Class should be over in a few minutes, we just gotta wait for our dear old educator to return." He nodded at her. "You alright there, Yuri?"

"O-Oh, yes, I'm fine!" said Yuri politely. "Thank you for asking."

Kenta grinned. "Hope my buddy Naoki there helped you out a lot. Anyway, I'll be going back now. You two should be going as well."

With a last nod, he turned around and left. Naoki stood up now, prompting Yuri to stand up as well. "You can go clean up that wound in the comfort room before we get back. I'll help you go to the school clinic after class," he stated amiably.

"Ah, no need!" Yuri cried out quickly as she dumped the empty water bottle she was holding in a nearby trash can. "I'll m-manage everything after class. I'm feeling okay now."

"Are you sure?"

Yuri looked straight again into Naoki's eyes. In spite of everything that had happened earlier, she really did felt better. Her rising heartbeat, however, was causing her to instinctively move her hand towards her left forearm for another tight grip. She stopped just as her fingertips touched her arm sleeve, wondering if she should do it.

"Yes. Y-You've helped me a lot already, and I truly appreciate that."

Naoki smiled. "I'm just glad that I could help."

Yuri paused, lost in Naoki's grey eyes. After considering for a moment, she smiled back as she eased her hand away from her forearm. "Thank you."