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        I was dreading this second when the tire screeched to a stop, meaning that we had arrived at the Kidou resident. Batora came out and opened the door for me. "Now go. And good luck!" Natsumi called after me as she pushed me out. Then as soon as I was out the car, she pulled it back close with a slam  and Batora, who had gotten back int othe driver's seat, started the engine.

        "Hey, wait-," I was cut off as they drove away. What was Natsumi thinking? Now I would have no way to get home but to walk, which was very far since I lived in the city while his house was in the suburbs, or to....suddenly, the realization dawned on me. Natsumi had planned all this to ensure I wouldn't chicken out. I would be forced to ask Kidou for a ride home, which meant that first I had to get on good terms with him again. I expected nothing less of the chairman's daughter, but this masterplan was truly admirable. If I wasn't the one that had to do it, that is.

        But I had no other choice, since now I really needed to get home before the sun sets. I shudder at the thought of running into Tobi the Kicker and his gang again. I would have no soccer ball for self defense this time, and who knows what they will do to me after what I did to them. I shut the grotesque image of them lying in unnatural angles on the ground out of my head and walked up to the gate of the Kidou resident.

        "Yes?" a girl's voice greeted me after she answered my knock. She was a girl about an year or two older than me with wavy hair tied in pigtails Hatsune Miku style which reached her waist. She wore a crisp white blouse with a black tie,a pleated high waisted salmon skirt, and black pantyhose. Since I knew that the Kidou family was rich, this was probably one of their maids. The poor girl, I feel sorry for her.

        "Um..." she said nervously, eyeing me up and down. I realized that I didn't answer her first question. "Uh..." I replied, trying to stall so that I could come up with an excuse. Looking at me for one more second, she squinted her eyes. "You aren't trying to sell us something, right? If yes, then we aren't interested." She started closing the door. "Wait!" I cried, "I'm here to...uh...give Kidou his science book! He left it at school." The girl opened the door again, and I knew she was trying to figure out whether I was lying or not. Finally, she told me, "You can give me the book, and I will take it to young master Yuuto."

        No! That would wreck the whole plan! I needed to talk to Kidou face to face. "Um, it would be better if I take it to him myself?" I asked, realizing that my sentence sounded too much like a question, making me seem more suspiscious than I already was. I thought she was going to slam the door in my face, but she said, "Fine, follow me. You have exactly five minutes to get out of this house though. Master Kidou doesn't like people he doesn't know to be in this house when he isn't home." Then she turned snootily on her heels and marched down the hall. Stunned, I stood there like an idiot, then finally realized that I had been allowed in. "Arigatou gozaimasu!" I exclaimed, then rushed to catch up to the girl.

        "Yuuto-chama! One of your classmates brought your science book! She said she's here to see you!" she knocked on his closed door and shouted in a cutesy high pitch voice that was obviously faked. I silently rolled my eyes at how two faced she was.

        "Leave it on the counter," came Kidou's voice from inside. He sounded sad and depressed, totally unlike his usual appearance. The girl turned to me. "Give me the book and leave," she whispered quietly enough so that Kidou couldn't hear us from inside the room, but that I could still hear the firmness of her voice. "I need to talk to him," I said, trying to make my voice sound smooth despite being slightly scared of her pushy attitude. "He hadn't came out of his room since he came home today. Now I'm going to tell you one last time. You're leaving. This house. Now," she hissed, drawing out every word, reminding me of a snake. I shivered. But I had to do this, even if I was faced with a snake.

        "Tell him Sakurai Shizumi is here to see him. He'll open the door, trust me," I said, my voice oozing with fake confidence that I had forced. She narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out what I was thinking. Then finally when she thought there was no harm in it, she shrugged and gave me a I'm-telling-you-this-ain't-gonna-work look then shouted in the same annoying perky voice as before, "She says her name is Sakurai Shizumi!" There was a pause, then Kidou said, "Let her in." I couldn't help but give the shocked and glaring maid a smirk before slipping in the door.

        The room was the same room I woke up in after I fainted during our match with Senbayama. On the same couch I was lying before was Kidou sitting curled up hugging his knees. His goggles were lying on the table. That meant that for the first time I would see his eyes. I was curious, yet I also felt a little guilty, as if I was invading his personal space or seeing something I wasn't supposed to see.

        For a while none of us spoke. Then he broke the silence. "You can sit down if you want," he mumbled. I sat down stiffly on the other couch, knowing that he probably wanted his space right now. There was another awkward silence. It's now or never. I took a breath, then blurted out the question I had been holding in. "Do you hate me?"

        There was no reply. Finally, Kidou said something that was too quiet for me to hear. "Can you repeat that?" I asked gently, afraid that I was going to scare him. He seemed so fragile right now, not broken like after our match with Zeus, but fragile as in easy to crack.

        "No," he repeated, louder this time. "Then why are you angry at me?" I asked. "It's not you, it's me," he mumbled.

        "Care to explain why?"

        "No."

        I found no words to say after his flat reply. We sat there in silence. But something was nagging at the back of my head. It was the last piece to complete this puzzle I didn't know how to solve. Something Gouenji said earlier.... I remember now. Those words echoed in my head like the click of a key opening a door that had beein locked for over a century. At least I wasn't the one who broke his heart. Did he mean that, could it be, that Kidou liked me? As in more than a friend? I always thought he did all of that just for pure entertainment. But there were times it didn't seem like that too.

        My mind flashed to the time he took me by surprise and stole my first kiss. Then it flitted over to when he ran over to me during our match with Senbayama. Finally, my brain flashed to his frantic expression that had been burned in my mind, both after the match with Zeus and just before I fainted.

        Another thing was pulling at my mind, but I couldn't pinpoint what. No, it wasn't exactly a what. More like a memory of a feeling. It was....jealousy. I remember now. That day, when Gouenji led me and Kidou to the riverbank. Kidou had told his sister to be safe, and I had felt a pang of jealousy. That gave me an idea.

        "Ne, Kidou-san?" I asked. "Mm?" he replied without turning my way, though I could have sworn I saw his eyes flicker this way. "Do you like Otonashi-san? As in more than a sister?" He looked surprised, and seemed to think over the question for a few seconds. "Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know," he finally replied. "See? That's the same response I gave when you asked whether I like Hinata back," I told him. He was a little surprised, then thought it over, then frowned again. "That's different. She's my sister," he muttered. "So?" I asked, "You lost contact with her for half of your life, then met up later when you were both old enough to have those feelings."

        Kidou looked up at me, and for the first time, I saw his eyes for real. They were like two drops of blood on snow, two rubies in a pile of gold, and just like mine. Our pomegranate eyes met, and at that second, I realized just how much Kidou meant to me. Like that saying goes "You only miss the sun when it starts to snow, you only miss him when you let him go".

        I could almost see the click going on in Kidou's brain as a dark shadow grew over his eyes and his mouth curved into that devious grin I knew all too well. He leaned over to grab his goggles off the table, then snapped  them on, reminding me of a mafia boss slipping on his elegant white silk gloves."Say, Shizumi-chan?" he looked into my eyes and asked innocently, but I could detect the edge of myschief in his voice, "Will you make a deal with me?"

        I'm sorry, this chapter was so lame and sappy and cliche, but I especially liked the title. But I had no idea on what to write for an apology scene without going OOC, so I guess that's that. (Gouenji's might be even lamer, but bear with me please!) Next chapter may be short because it was supposed to be part of this chapter, but it got too long.

I was thinking of going to an anime convention dressed up as Shizumi, what do you think? I'll have to make the Teikoku uniform shirt, then buy a pleated skirt and red contact lenses.