Wednesday was the worst school day Kurama could remember having in a long, long time. Not only did his friend breakup with Hiei make him miserable, but because he had stayed up all night crying, he was exhausted as well. His head was starting to hurt and his skin was breaking out, presumably because of the stress.

Unfortunately, they were having a test in Algebra, his first class of the day, and he couldn't bring himself to concentrate. The numbers on the page swam in front of his eyes, and he realized he was reading the same problem over and over again without understanding it at all. It was really ridiculous, how badly he was reacting to this, but then, the tear gem he had found showed that Hiei had shed tears over this, too. At least one tear, anyway.

Kurama put his face in his hands. How could he suddenly not remember what the hell a logarithm was? Subtraction was the opposite of addition, and division was the opposite of multiplication…Why did the alphabet have to get involved with math, anyway?

"Time!" called the teacher, and Kurama stared down at his paper. He had only answered one of the questions, and he wasn't at all sure about the answer. But it was too late; the teacher was going around collecting everyone's papers. She finally got to Kurama's desk, and when she saw that his test was almost blank, she asked, "Is this your idea of a joke, Miss Minamino?"

"N-No," said Kurama, in a high, squeaky sort of voice. Several of his classmates laughed, and he figured if he didn't die of heartbreak, he would die of humiliation.

"Teacher, I think she's sick," someone was heard saying, and when Kurama looked, he saw that it was Aratani. Her math and science abilities were fairly within his range, so she had been placed in those classes with him.

"What do you mean, Miss Fujisaki?" the teacher demanded.

"Well, she was out sick on Monday, so maybe she's relapsing or something." Before the teacher could protest, Aratani was hoisting Kurama up by his red uniform jacket. He stood up, his legs like jelly. "Come on, Sakura, let's go see the nurse."

But instead of taking Kurama to the nurse, Aratani gently guided him into the nearest girls' bathroom, where he sunk onto the floor and burst into tears yet again. It was unbelievable. Aratani sat down next to him and wrapped her arms around him.

"Oh, Sakura, I'm so sorry." Aratani sounded like she was about to cry, too. "I didn't mean to come between you and that Hiei boy. I feel terrible."

"It wasn't you," Kurama gulped, wiping his eyes with his hand. "I'm the one who was a bad friend."

"Friend?" said Aratani, raising one eyebrow. "I thought he was your boyfriend."

"No," Kurama told her. "We're just friends. But friend breakups are tough, too. I still hurt the feelings of someone I care about."

And there he was, crying again. No longer was he like a leaky faucet; now he was like a faucet that had been left on for days and had flooded the whole kitchen.

"Trust me, Sakura, I know all about friend breakups," Aratani said softly, patting his back. "Of course they can hurt. But I'm here for you, no matter what, okay?"

"Thank you, Aratani," Kurama said, leaning his head on her shoulder and sniffing. "You're such a good friend."

"Listen, maybe you can sleep over at my house tonight," she suggested. "We could order pizza and eat ice cream, and maybe watch some movies and stuff. I was going to hang out with Kaito today, but it's sisters before misters."

Kurama wanted to talk about something other than Hiei, so he asked, "How's it going between the two of you, anyway? Any better?"

"It's worse," she said sadly. "I don't want to sound dramatic, but I'm pretty sure I've fallen out of love with him. I don't know if I ever even loved him to begin with. I just want out, but I can't stand to hurt his feelings."

"But maybe it's time, Aratani," Kurama told her. "Are you happy with him?"

"No," she admitted, "not truly."

"Well, maybe he'd prefer to be with someone he can make happy," Kurama said. "It might hurt him now, but in time, he'll be thankful that you were honest with him. In my opinion, letting him go is the kindest thing you could possibly do for him."

"Should we find someone else for him, then?" Aratani asked.

"It's not like having a job, where you look for a new one before you quit your old one," Kurama replied, shaking his head. "And so, I'm afraid, he'll have to find a girl who likes him on his own. This is your decision, Aratani, but I think it's time for both of you to seek greener pastures."

"You're right, Sakura." Aratani sighed. "But I just wish I knew where I could find those greener pastures."

"They're out there, Aratani," Kurama said quietly. "Even if you can't see them."

…

All day long, Yusuke had been worried about his friends. Kurama had been the calmest of them all on Monday morning, but he seemed to be slowly unraveling, and when your "mom friend" was the one falling apart, you knew you had problems. As for Hiei…well, Yusuke hadn't seen him since Kurama broke up with him, so to speak, but he didn't seem to have taken it well.

In fact, at this moment, Yusuke thought he had the smallest amount of problems. Kurama was drawing in the male gaze more than ever before, and now he was in a fight with Hiei, who was having "girl problems," which was bad enough, but he also probably felt very rejected because of all this. And now Kuwabara was squirming around in his seat like he had a nest of red ants in his pants.

"What's wrong with you?" Yusuke whispered.

"Urgh—nothing," Kuwabara grunted.

"Well, then could you sit still?" Yusuke demanded. "You're being very distracting."

"Miss Urameshi!" shouted the teacher, banging her ruler on his desk. "Pay attention!"

"Augh!" said Yusuke. "I am!"

"One wrong move, missy," the teacher warned, giving him the evil eye, and then Yusuke was even more pissed off, because he didn't want to be called missy. Far worse than that, though, he felt the weirdest longing for Keiko to yell at him for not paying attention. It didn't make any sense, but when she didn't even glance at him, he felt disappointed. Could it be that Keiko cared more about Yusuke than she cared about Yuki? How dumb did he have to be to not see that?

Well, it was too late now. No matter what "Yuki" did, in the end, Keiko's affection for her would never be enough.

…

Kurama was in a funk all day. Aratani sat with him at lunch and told him that she'd broken her plans with Kaito so that she could comfort Kurama. Kaito was disappointed, she said, but he understood. Kurama wasn't so sure about that, because Aratani tended to give people the benefit of the doubt, but he still didn't really care what Kaito thought, so he let it go at that.

Gym class was right after lunch, and that made Kurama feel even worse. How was he supposed to play dodgeball like this? Not only was he unpleasantly bloated and sluggish due to not having digested his food yet, but his sadness from the friend breakup took away any energy he had left. Aratani seemed to notice that he wasn't looking so good as they walked into the girls' locker room, because she suggested that the nurse could sign a note to get him out of gym.

"She's going to ask what's wrong with me, though," said Kurama, "and I don't think 'heartbroken' is going to convince her."

"You'll just have to get creative," said Chizuko, slamming her gym locker shut and falling into step with them. "Ooh! I know! Fake your period."

"That doesn't get you out of gym," said Aratani.

"It does if you have a male teacher," Chizuko argued. "I do it all the time. It just gets too uncomfortable for them to ask any questions. You can do it multiple times a month and they're too dumb to notice. One time in first year I think a teacher got suspicious, so I just told him I was having 'ovulation pain' instead. What a racket," she added, laughing.

"Well, it doesn't matter, because we have a female teacher," said Aratani.

"No, we're doing coed dodgeball today."

"So what?"

"The boys' gym teacher is going to be in charge." Chizuko grinned. "It's worth a try, Sakura."

"No, I think I'm just going to honest, and not use that suggestion," said Kurama. "Thank you anyway, Chizuko."

"You're welcome," she said cheerfully. "I get a free pass out of gym, anyway, because of my injury."

"Maybe you should try slipping in some mud next time, Sakura," Aratani joked.

"Speaking of my injury, are you still going out for the cheerleading squad, Aratani?" Chizuko asked. "Because, y'know, volunteering to take my place really meant a lot to me. I don't mean to sound cheesy or anything, but I'm glad we're friends again."

"I am, too!" Aratani beamed. "Of course I'm going to try out."

"And you're going to attempt the Meiou Monster?" Kurama added, trying not to sound too faithless.

"Chizuko was going to do it," said Aratani. "Why can't I?"

"You haven't seen the video," Chizuko told her. "Even I was going to do a watered-down sort of version. The real version is crazy. You have to dodge these pile driver things and do tricks with the ribbon and catch your pom-poms in midair and flip yourself every which way and man, that girl could leap like a cat."

"So you're saying that no cheerleader has ever successfully replicated this routine?" Kurama asked.

"That's right," said Chizuko. "There have been some serious injuries, too. Ichika says she attempted it in first year, and she broke her arm."

"Well, I'm not going to let your rival win," said Aratani. "You can count on me."

"I really appreciate it, girlfriend." Chizuko grinned, but then she surprised Kurama by asking out of the blue, "Are you having guy problems, Sakura?"

"Guy problems?"

"You know I have a talent for reading people," Chizuko explained. "I can spot a breakup a mile away."

"You're good, I must admit," said Kurama. "But I don't really want to talk about it."

"All men are assholes," Chizuko declared. "Whoever this guy is, you're better off without him."

"You shouldn't say things like that if you don't have all the information first, Chizuko," Aratani told her. "For one thing, it was a friend breakup. It was never anything romantic. And second, Sakura still really likes this guy. I met him, and he's a little…uh…"

"Different?" Kurama supplied.

"Right." Aratani seemed relieved. "Different."

"Whatever," said Chizuko.

"I'm hanging out with Sakura after school for some girl time," Aratani continued. "You're welcome to join us, Chizuko."

"I thought you usually met up with Yu Kaito after school."

"Yes, but Sakura needs me today," said Aratani.

"True," said Chizuko. "It's chicks before dicks, after all."

"I thought it was 'sisters before misters,'" Kurama said, feeling a grin spread across his face in spite of himself.

"Yeah, that sounds like something Aratani would say," Chizuko replied airily. "And maybe Sakura does need you, Aratani, but you're thinking of dumping Kaito anyway, aren't you?"

"Yeah." Aratani didn't even blink; apparently, she was quite used to Chizuko's uncanny people-reading abilities. "I don't want to be his girlfriend anymore, but I also don't want to hurt his feelings. It's eating me up inside."

"Oh, he'll be fine." Chizuko dismissed this with a wave of her hand. "Besides, now he doesn't have to feel guilty about having a crush on you, Sakura."

"W-What?" Aratani gasped. Chizuko looked sheepish.

"You…you didn't know?" she squeaked.

"No!" Aratani said tearfully. "Was he cheating on me or something? Sakura, you wouldn't do that to me, would you? Did he make a move on you? What happened?"

"Oh, no, nothing like that!" Kurama said hurriedly. "It's just body language. I think Chizuko has this one right. He's faithful, but there was something about the way he looked at me and acted around me, not anything he said or did. Kaito would never cheat on you, Aratani. Besides, I'm kind of used to guys hitting on me."

"Well…it's good news, though, isn't it?" said Chizuko awkwardly. "Now you can dump him a lot easier."

"I guess so," said Aratani. "Maybe I should stick with my best girlfriends for now. Boys make things too complicated."

"They sure do." Chizuko nodded.

Kurama was surprised to find that he felt a little better after talking to Aratani and Chizuko. Maybe this was why girls often talked so much, he figured. After telling them about his feelings and problems, and listening to theirs, he felt so much closer to them, even though it had only been a few minutes. Unfortunately, the good feelings didn't last long.

They didn't have gym class on Tuesdays, and Kurama had been absent on Monday, so this was the first time he would have gym class as "Sakura." Changing before gym had never been a lot of fun, but now the girls were changing into their gym uniforms around him, and it felt horribly invasive. It was only going to get worse after gym class was over, since they were required to take showers, and the showers at Kurama's school didn't have any curtains or even stall dividers. Which would be worse—having to reveal his naked self to all these girls, or trying to avoid the discomfort of them undressing around him? Only time would tell.

Chizuko left to go to Study Hall, since she couldn't play dodgeball on her injured ankle, but Kurama and Aratani headed out to the gymnasium with the other girls. The boys were already waiting…

And so, Kurama realized with a shock, was Hiei.