~No one's P.O.V.~

"Yukino!" Sting called out for her. He had looked all around the school, and this was the last area of the school. Finally, around the kitchen rooms, he heard soft crying and hiccups. He looked into the room known as Kitchen 1 and saw Yukino mixing dough in a bowl with tears at the corner of her slightly red and puffy eyes. "Yukino!" Sting sighed with relief. He was worried that she had gone home or something. He didn't want to face her tomorrow nor go to her apartment, since both situations would be very awkward. Yukino jumped at the sound of her name and realized that Sting was in the room with her. She looked down and started turning the whisk faster.

"W-what do you want?" she mumbled quietly, trying her best to hold back more tears.

"Oi, can't you speak up?" Sting scoffed.

"S-sumimasen," Yukino quietly apologized, stirring the cookie batter even faster.

"You don't have to apologize for everything," Sting said, a bit pissed. Yukino tilted her head down, her bangs now covering her eyes. She didn't say anything, knowing that she would just make him more mad, however her silence just pissed the blond off more. "Why can't you just stand up for yourself?" he asked with irritation in his voice. "If you really want something, you have to be confident for it." Yukino slowed down for a couple seconds, but re-gripped the whisk and continued, not answering him. She knew that she should, and she did try, but no one did anything about it.  "Oi teme say something!" Sting said, pounding his fist on the table.  Yukino flinched, but didn't do anything.  

Sting sighed and ran a hand through his blond locks.  "Look, you better not telling anyone, but I thought you were admirable to be the first girl to ask Coach Jiemma to join the team," he admitted.  "You sounded so confident at that time.  What happened to that confidence?"  Yukino abruptly stopped stirring, and Sting noticed.  A couple seconds of silence passed until a small tear trickled down Yukino's cheek.

"E-eh?!" Sting said in shock.  Yukino broke down to her knees, tears freely flowing down her face and dripping down her chin.  

"I-I wanted to stay in the soccer team," Yukino sobbed.  "But C-Coach Jiemma bribed me with pictures he had taken when I was ch-changing..."  Sting's eyes widened in shock.  He knew that his coach was stubborn and sometimes too strict, but that was taking it too far.

"W-why haven't you gone to the principal about this??" he asked.  Yukino shook her head as she cried.

"I d-did, but they thought I was lying because I was let out from the team," Yukino explained shakily.  Sting clenched his fists.  How could a person do such a thing? Sting wasn't the best at comforting people, especially a girl, so he awkwardly went closer to Yukino and slowly put his arms around her in an attempt of comfort.  Yukino, not caring about how embarrassing it would be, buried her face into his chest, making his school shirt damp with tears.  At first Sting tensed up in surprise, but soon softened and buried slowly rested his head on Yukino's shoulder.  

"He won't get away with this," Sting said softly.  "I promise."  Yukino slightly nodded as Sting helped her off the ground.  He used his thumb to wipe away her tears and grinned playfully.  "Now then, you need some helping baking some cookies?  I have a fee of me getting two cookies though."  Yukino softly giggled, but nodded.

"Sure."

~❦Timeskip: a week later❦~

"Oi Yukino!" Said girl jumped in surprise and turned around.

"Ohayo Sorano-nee," Yukino greeted with a smile.

"You seem in a good mood," Sorano cocked her eyebrow.  "I'm hoping it's because you passes your baking test right?"

"I guess that's not the main reason, but hai! I did," Yukino nodded.  Sorano narrowed her eyes at her little sister in suspicion.

"Well, I guess as long as it doesn't have to do with a certain someone, I'll be fine," Sorano said.  Yukino nervously smiled as she knew who her big sister was talking about.

"Ehehe, I have to get going now, ja ne Sorano-nee!" Yukino picked up her backpack and dashed out of their apartment.  

When she arrived at the school, she was greeted with cheers.   

"It's one of Sabertooth's most athletic students!" one student cheered.

"She's so cool!" a girl said with envy

"I heard she was dating someone."

"I heard it was someone from the soccer team!"

Yukino smiled and waved at all the students.  

"Yo Yukino!" Yukino turned around to see Sting and his gang of friends.  

"Hi Sting-kun," Yukino greeted back.  Sting wrapped his arm around her waist and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.  Yukino blushed, but her smile grew wider.

"Nice job on that game yesterday," he congratulated her.

"A-arigato, same to you," Yukino smiled.

"Get a room you two!" Orga said out loud, making the both of them blush, but Sting soon laughed.

"And to think, this all started over some cookies," Sting said softly to Yukino and winked.  Yukino's face heated up more, but she nodded and giggled.

"But, you took more than two," she pointed out.

"So what?" Sting pouted, bring her closer to him.  "We could just bake some more."  Yukino smiled.

"I'd like that."