• “I took it your visit went well.” Kaoru commented as I waved goodbye one last time before we drove off.
    “Yeah, it went very well.” I smiled. Kaoru didn’t smile though. Maybe he was mad about something else? Should I bring up what happened at dinner tonight? I looked over at Kaoru, he had one hand on the wheel and one to his temple. Maybe I’ll wait until later to tell him.

    “Yuki!!!” Hina bumped into me with a hug.
    “Hina, that’s dangerous.” I said.
    “Ha-ha sorry.” She let me go. She always greeted me like that in the morning at school.
    “Morning.” Reika and Momo greeted as they caught up to us.
    “Morning ladies.” Sousuke came walking over with Nishiki.
    “Morning Yuki.” Nishiki greeted me. I smiled and said morning back.
    “Morning Nishiki!” Momo ran in front of him. He jumped back startled, but smiled shyly and greeted her back.
    “Hey Nishiki, what’s this sticking out of your bag?” Sousuke grabbed an envelope from Nishiki’s book bag.
    “Hey! Give that back!” He shouted as he chased Sousuke. We all laughed as we walked to class together as usual. “Quiet down, class will be starting now.” The teacher announced after we all took our seats.
    As the day went on by, I kept thinking about what my mother had asked me.
    “Would you like to live with us?” Her smile was so reassuring that everything would be get a lot better. And I know in my heart, that she never meant to do what she did. She wasn’t stable after the divorce with my father. And another thing, in all of this mess, it feels like he is to blame. Where is my father? I don’t really want to ask. I don’t even care where he is. He left first, and because of him…I am who I am today?
    “Yuki?” I looked up from my seat. My friends were standing, waiting.
    “Class is already over Yuki.” Momo said.
    “Were you daydreaming the whole time?” Hina giggled.
    “Ooh, what were you daydreaming about?” Reika pried.
    “Mm, nothing. You guys go on ahead, I need to do something before I go.”
    “Are you sure?” Hina asked. I nodded. They shrugged and said goodbye.
    Truthfully, I just wanted to take a good look around the school. If I left all this, would anybody notice? I sighed and walked out of the room. I headed up to the roof, the one place that was always good to clear your head.
    As soon as I entered the roof top, I could feel the cool breeze blow through my hair. I smiled as I walked farther in. Suddenly, I could hear a slight noise. I rounded the corner wall, and saw Nishiki asleep. Did he skip last period to sleep here?
    “Nishiki.” I shook his shoulder gently. His eyes began to open slowly.
    “Yuki?!” He jumped up after he saw me. I fell over, startled.
    “Ah, sorry…” He helped me up immediately. “What are you doing here?” He asked while I dusted myself off.
    “I was going to ask you the same question.” I smiled.
    “I uh…I came up here to think.” he scratched his head embarrassed. I noticed he always did that, ever since we met he’s done that.
    “Substitute teacher?” I asked.
    “Yeah, how did you know?”
    “I’ve known you for a long time. Of course the only time you skip class, is if you’re upset about something or you don’t like the substitute.” He blushed and I giggled to myself. The breeze blew through, I closed my eyes taking it all in. Suddenly I felt Nishiki hug me.
    “Nishiki? What are you doing?” I asked hugging him a little.
    “I love you.” Nishiki replied, not letting me go. I dropped my hold.
    “Nishiki…” He noticed the pain in my voice and the lag in my hug, so he stepped back.
    “Did you hear me? I’m in love with you.” He said once more.
    “Nishiki…I like you.” I said slowly, “But only as a friend.”
    His head turned down away from me.
    “Oh…”
    “I’m sorry Nishiki.” I said.
    “Can you give me a reason?” He looked back into my eyes. I smiled sweetly.
    “For a long time now, I’ve held someone dear to me; close to my heart.” I looked up at the bright sky, “And…”
    “Please don’t continue, I already know who it is.” He chuckled. “Here.” He gave me a letter.
    “It’s a love letter I was going to give you later on.”
    “Nishiki…” I said hesitantly.
    “I just want you to have it, even though I was already rejected.” I took the letter and nodded politely. Just then I was reminded of something.
    “Hey Nishiki…” I smiled mysteriously. Once he saw my expression, he looked a little puzzled. I reached up to his ear and whispered something to him.
    “Really? I never really noticed. And you don’t mind it?” Nishiki asked after I whispered to him.
    “Not at all.” I giggled. He smiled shyly and nodded.
    “I’ll walk you out then.”

    “Wish me luck with.” Nishiki said as he ran down the sidewalk. Good luck, i thought.
    “Miss Yuki, young master wishes to see you right away.” Tamaki said as he climbed in the driver’s seat. I nodded.
    Not more than thirty minutes later, we were parked outside of the Yumachi building. Which only meant, Kaoru was still working? Was it so important to have me come down while he was working? I’ve never done that before, because I’ve never wanted to bother him.
    “Thank you Tamaki, you may leave.” I said. He nodded and went on his way. I walked into the tall building, it was so busy. People were all over the place, walking in and out of the building. All dressed in suites. I didn’t get distracted from it all, instead; I looked for the floor number and caught the elevator. I got off at the last level, and walked up to the front desk; where I slender woman was talking on the phone. After she hung up the phone, she smiled at me.
    “How may I help you?” She asked.
    “My name is Sakurada Yuki.” I replied. Suddenly, her eyes became wide.
    “Yes, the chairman has been expecting you.” She stood up and ushered me to his office. I was a little excited, this was the first time I was seeing Kaoru at work.
    “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to wait for him in his office. He’s in an important meeting.” The woman said as we passed the meeting she was talking about. The glass was see through, so I could see all the business men sitting around a huge table. They were all smiling at Kaoru, who was standing in front of a projector, speaking and directing the whole operation I was unaware of. I smiled and hurried towards his office to wait.
    “The meeting should be over soon.” The woman said before closing the door. I twirled around in the office, it was bigger than my mother’s kitchen at her house. It was filled with two couches, a coffee table, a huge work desk by the far window, and office supplies. There was a picture frame on the work desk. I went over and picked it up. This picture…it was Kaoru and I together on my thirteenth birthday two years ago. It was a great party. I smiled and put the picture down.
    “Yuki.” I looked up and saw Kaoru standing by the door. When did he come in? I didn’t hear the door open and shut.
    “Kaoru, how was your meeting?” I asked. He was looking at the floor. Was the meeting that bad? I walked over to him and touched his face.
    “What’s wrong Kaoru?” Kaoru slowly turned his head up.
    “What’s wrong?” He gripped my arm that was touching his face.
    “I’ll tell you exactly what’s wrong! Do you want to tell me what happened at that dinner you had with your mother?” He almost yelled.
    “How did you find out?”
    “Your mother called me. She told me everything.” Now I was the one looking at the floor.
    “She told me to give you back.” Kaoru let go of my arm and walked to the window.
    “I was going to tell you…”
    “When were you going to tell me? Wait, don’t even answer that, It doesn’t even matter anymore.”
    “Why are you so angry?” I asked.
    “The first time I saw you, it was a month before Christmas. I had escaped my driver after school, and ran all the way to the park. That was the first time I saw you, you were playing on the swings by yourself. All you did was smile, and whatever I was irritated about from earlier, had all gone away. I watched you the whole time. From then on, I watched you. And everyday, you would smile and laugh. That was all it took to keep me satisfied for the rest of the day. Just your smile and happiness. Two weeks later, I had to be somewhere in town. That’s when I saw you running through the streets. I wondered, why you were alone without a parent during that time of night. So I followed you, and it led me to finding you crying alone, in an alley. I don’t like it when you cry by yourself Yuki. And I love when you smile luminously.” With a sharp turn of his head, Kaoru came walking towards me slowly. My eyes were widened.
    “So you ask me why I’m angry. I think I’ve just explained it clearly.” He corned me all the way to his desk. He leaned on the edges, as his face came closer. I closed my eyes.
    “It’ll be more convenient for you to live with your mother.” I opened my eyes and saw Kaoru turned the other way. Was he serious?
    “What are you saying?” I asked.
    “I said you should live with your mother.” He said it so easily. After all these years, did I really mean only so much to him? Then what was that whole story about? He didn’t like when others made me cry, but it was okay for him?
    “Fine, I can see you don’t want me anymore. Then this will be the last time I will be seeing you!” I cried out and ran out of the office.
    “Yuki!” He shouted.
    I couldn’t believe he would say that to me. The first time he gave me his hand…I had already fallen in love. And yet…and yet…he didn’t even care that we won’t see each other again?!
    I cried even more when I reached the elevator.
    “Yuki wait!” Kaoru entered before the doors closed. I can’t believe he’s in here with me, I don’t want him to be here right now!
    Suddenly the elevator stopped. What is going on here? Is today just not my lucky day?
    “I stopped the elevator.”
    “Why did you do that? Can’t you just let me go? Just pretend I’m some piece of your work and push me aside already. I don’t want to be here anymore!”
    Kaoru hugged me before I could say anymore.
    “Why are you crying this time?” What a question to ask, I thought.
    “After all these years, and you still don’t know the reason?”
    “I want to hear it from your lips.”
    “Truthfully I don’t want to move in with my mother. I love her, but I don’t want to live with her. I want to live with you. I can’t keep myself from looking at you, I get anxious just when Tamaki says you’ve arrived home. And even though Christmas eve was when my parents abandoned me, I don’t hate it. Because that’s also the time that you found me, and in that time I had found you. I love you Kaoru!” I hugged him tighter.
    “You finally said it. I’ve been holding back all my feelings towards you, treating you more like my friend than what I want you to be. All this time, I couldn’t believe you hadn’t noticed my feelings.” Kaoru kissed the top of my head. I removed myself from his embrace.
    “I want you to say it back.” I said. He chuckled, caressed my cheek and gave me a breathtaking kiss. It wasn’t as long as I hoped it would be, but it hit the spot. My heart kept fluttering, and my head was in a daze.
    “I love you Yuki.” He whispered to me after the kiss. This was what my dreams have always dreamt.

    “I’m really sorry, but I won’t be moving in with you.” I told my mother. We were at a park, I asked her if she could come over to this part of town.
    “I understand…” My mother gave me a half-hearted smile.
    “But, just because I won’t be living with you; doesn’t mean we still can’t keep in touch with each other. I still would like to come back for dinner.” I smiled. That lifted her spirits.
    “Oh, I’m so happy Yuki.” My mother hugged me. Her hugs always felt warm to me.
    “Yuki!” I turned my head and saw my friends waving to me. I waved back to them.
    “Well, I better get going.” My mother and I hugged once more before she left.
    “Yuki, who was that?” Hina asked.
    “My mother.” I smiled. They all gasped.
    “Things really are changing, I mean look at Nishiki and Momo.” We turned around and they were walking hand in hand. They stopped once they saw us watching them. They both blushed as we all laughed.
    “I guess it’s only me and Yuki who need a boyfriend now.” Hina pouted.
    “Yuki” Kaoru came walking over. I was surprised, he was normal looking. He wasn’t even wearing a suit this time.
    “Or maybe it’s just you Hina.” Reika said as I ran up to Kaoru and hugged him dearly with a smile on my face.
    “I won’t be holding my feelings back anymore.” He said.
    “Good, because I only have you to love me.” I replied. No other guy could replace you in my heart. I smiled and hugged him tighter. I could already feel his love for me pouring out like a beautiful waterfall.

    ~FINAL END~