Sometimes life takes on weird turns, and when I say weird, I mean it. Sometimes I end up betraying myself, like I did when Kaito looked into the classroom at lunchtime that day and said hello to me.

My friends weren't really angry or anything; that was all just in my head. They were more excited than anything, really. As soon as he left, they squealed and hugged me.

"Yes!" Teto pumped a fist in the air, "One of our kin has communicated with the foreign species!"

"Uh, what? You mean gender, right?" I yelped as Neru and Miku grabbed me and lifted me over their heads. Those girls sure were strong, "You guys! It's not like that!"

Miku and Teto exchanged glances and put me down. I brushed myself off and stared at them.

"Friendzone," they both mumbled, "No, that couldn't be it!"

"What, what, what?" I walked back over to my carrots and started chomping them furiously.

"Come on, Gumi, he never talks to us girls," Neru flipped her long blond ponytail back and crossed her arms, "You know he has a bunch of guy friends, but he never casually hangs out around girls..."

"I think he likes you, Gumi!" Teto grabbed my shoulders and started jumping up and down. My carrot slipped from my hands.

"No, it's not like that!" I shook my head, "I just...saw him yesterday and my book got ruined and I dunno why, but he bought me a new one and gave it to me this morning and he knew my name and it wasn't even his fault that it got ruined in the first place and I..."

"She's rambling!" Miku sang, "She's in L-O-V-E, love!"

"Shut up, I am not in love!" I balled my fists and watched as Miku and Teto giggled and started prancing around the classroom like flower girls or something.

"How do you know you're not in love if you've never been in love?" Neru challenged. I huffed, honestly surprised that the girls didn't appear to be the least bit jealous.

"I just do," I answered lamely.

"Hey, Gumi," we all turned to look at the door again. It was Len this time.

"Hmph!" Neru stuck her tongue out at him, "For a sec, I thought Kaito actually came back!"

Len laughed and walked over to me, suddenly smacking my back really hard.

"Ow!" I groaned.

"How was the test?" He smirked. I hung my head in shame. His eyes fell to the book beside my carrots, "How'd this book get so new?"

"W-What do you mean?" I thought about telling Len and decided against it. We had both decided that Kaito was too much trouble. It was only yesterday that we had talked about him.

But I knew him now, at least, more than the other girls. I blinked a couple of times and told myself to stop thinking like that. I didn't like him, of course not!

"Are you okay?" Len smacked my head with the book and I stared up at him, "You look kind of out of it..."

I glanced at Miku, Teto and Neru. They were all giggling. I took a deep breath and nodded.

"I'm fine," I said, closing my box of baby carrots and popping it into my bag. Suddenly, Len took my hand and pulled me away, "Uh...Len?"

"Let's go for a walk," he smiled. I nodded and walked out, leaving my backpack by the desk.

I could hear the girls still laughing and talking about Kaito. I did my best to ignore it.

We walked down one hall, across the floor, our shoes making scraping sounds as we did, the windows dripping with sunlight that splashed over me as we passed. I had to squint. I realized that Len was still holding my hand, and he was holding it tight, so I couldn't exactly slip it out.

"Where are we going?" I asked, looking up at him.

"I want to show you something," Len said. He was looking forward, a small smile on his face.

My hand was sweaty in his, but he didn't let go. It made me really awkward, even though we were just friends.

Suddenly, we turned a corner and I saw Kaito, his back to us as he talked to some of his guy friends.

"W-Why are we going this way?" I asked. Len frowned.

"You don't want to?"

"No, it's not that...," I sighed and my cheeks flushed, "I'm just wondering."

Kaito turned at the sound of my voice and I froze up, my feet practically glued to the floor.

"Uh...Gumi?" Len let go of my hand and roughly tugged at my arm, "Hello?"

"Sorry!" I tore away from Kaito's beautiful blue eyes and shook my head. He waved to me, his expression still neutral, but Len didn't notice.

He always keeps such a straight face...

"You really aren't feeling well, huh?" Len pressed a hand to my forehead and I pushed it away.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" I grinned, "T-Tell me, Len, how's your sister?"

Len raised an eyebrow. We continued walking. He led me out of the school, onto the field.

"She's fine," he said, "Still at that school..."

"R-Right," I nodded furiously, recalling which school she went to, though the name escaped me, "That arts school, right?"

"Yeah."

"What does Rin want to be, anyway?" I couldn't believe it. I was trying to make my mind stop thinking about Kaito. That wasn't love, right? If I keep thinking about something doesn't mean I like it...

"She wants to be a singer," Len explained with a shrug, "Honestly speaking, I think she's doing it just to keep her mind off of our parents' fighting."

"Right...," I nodded, thinking about how Len's parents had apparently been arguing a lot lately, "Sorry I made you bring that up."

"Hey, don't apologize," Len tousled my hair and stuck his tongue out at me, "It's not your fault, you know."

"Hmph," I looked down at the grass between my feet, "When someone says sorry..."

"It means they care about you," Len smiled, interrupting me, "Right?"

"That's not what I was going to say," I said. He laughed.

"Sure, sure," he put his hands in his pockets and led me towards a tree, "Come here."

"Is this where that thing is?" I asked, following him, "The thing you wanted to show me?"

Len nodded. We were standing under the shade of the tree. He took a few steps around the tree's trunk and called me over. I followed and he got down crouched down. I follows, sitting beside him.

"A cat?" I frowned, looking at the small, black and white kitty curled up in the grass before looking at Len quizzically, "You wanted to show me a cat?"

"It's the one I fed yesterday," Len said softly, reaching forward and gently stroking its fur, "You should've seen it, Gumi. The way he looked, I thought he was going to die..."

"Oh..."

"You saved him," Len smiled.

"No I didn't, you did."

"It was your lunch," Len countered, "Anyway, I brought my own lunch and some of it was fish. I gave it to this little guy..."

"You saved a life," I smiled.

"No, you did," he chuckled.

"So this is what you wanted to show me?" I asked, "A cat?"

"Yeah. Why?"

I shrugged. "I just thought...I thought it'd be something else. You know, the way you pulled me away and all that."

He looked down at the grass and picked at it absentmindedly. "I just thought that you might want a change of scenery."

"Hmm."

He grinned at me. "Come on, it's nice out here. You're always sitting with those girls, holed up in that classroom, even when it's so beautiful outside."

"They would never come out," I shook my head.

"Kaito," Len frowned, "Right?"

I nodded, hoping that my face wasn't flushed again.

This isn't right...

After school, we all headed our separate ways, as usual. I stood at the bus stop, waiting for the bus, when I suddenly realized something.

Yesterday, I had seen Kaito already in the bus, and when I thought about it, that seemed strange, because the bus hasn't even passed the stop by our school, the stop where I stood, at that point. I bit my lip and grimaced as the bus rolled down the road and came to a halt in front of the stop. The doors hissed open.

My mind flashed back to Kaito's beautiful eyes and I started to feel a little short of breath. I sighed and shook my head. Why did I keep thinking about him? Did it mean that I was in love or something?

"You coming in?" I heard the bus driver call. I blinked and looked up at the open doors, realizing that I was just standing there dumbly.

"Er, yeah," I nodded and took a step forward when I heard a voice in the distance.

"Gumi!" I turned to my left to see Kaito, far off in the distance, sprinting towards the bus, his backpack slung over one shoulder, "P-Please, tell him to wait!"

I opened my mouth the say something but ended up just nodding. I took slow steps into the bus and rummaged through my pockets for my fare, wondering if I'd actually have to tell the driver to wait. That was what Kaito had asked me to do, right? I was supposed to do it...

Before I could, I heard footsteps and heavy breathing behind me. I realized immediately who it was and it made my hair stand on end.

"Thanks," Kaito said from behind me in between gulps of air. I dropped my money into the fare collection box.

"Y-Yeah," I said quickly, nodding to the driver and walking down the aisle.

The bus was actually moderately empty this time. I stumbled and found a seat near the window, my gaze set down at my lap as I did my best not to look up at Kaito as he found a seat in front of me, about three seats away.

The doors hissed to a close and I watched Kaito as he tugged a the collar of his shirt and pushed his hair out of his eyes. He pulled his backpack off and unzipped it, rummaging and suddenly unearthing a water bottle that turned out to be empty. He crammed it back in and closed his bag, a frown on his face, lips slightly parted, chest heaving.

He wasn't even looking at me or talking to me, but I felt concern, for some reason.

"Are you alright?" I asked, my voice low and soft. He turned to look at me.

"Yeah," he said, "Sorry."

"P-Please don't apologize," I tried to smile, "Do you...do you want some water?"

He shook his head. "It's fine."

"No, no, it's okay...," I pulled my bag open and pulled my water bottle out, "I haven't used it today, actually, if that's what you're worried about."

I slowly got up from my seat and extended my arm, offering him the water. He glanced at me and took it, gently unscrewing the silver cap and raising it high over his mouth so that it wouldn't make contact with his lips. He was doing a waterfall, even though I had told him that I hadn't drank from it.

Maybe he's thinking about me wanting to drink later..., I thought.

He drank a sip and then the bus jerked forward suddenly, passing over a bump. I yelped and watched as the water splashed all over Kaito, drenching him.

"Oh my God!" I gasped as he held the bottle upright and screwed the cap back on. He raised a hand and pushed his soaked bangs out of his eyes. His shirt was wet and it clung to his figure.

"Here," he offered the bottle back and I took it, mortified.

"I'm so, so sorry!" I apologized, shaking my head, "Because of me, you got soaked..."

"It's not your fault, Gumi," Kaito said plainly, looking me in the eye. I blinked again and again, trying to break away from his gaze, "You were just trying to help."

I didn't know what to say. Silently, I sat back down and put my bottle away, glancing up at Kaito every couple of seconds, watching as water dropped down his figure and onto the floor of the bus.

The bus stopped at the station and people began piling out. I got up from my seat and tried to get ahead of Kaito so that it wouldn't look like I was following him or anything. However, when I was in front of him, I got really tense because I knew he was behind me and I was worried that I'd walk too slow or something.

I stumbled into the station, down the stairs and onto the platform. I scampered over towards a wall and pressed my back against it, looking straight ahead at the ads that were plastered onto the wrought iron pillars separating the two subway tracks.

Can't look at Kaito, can't look at Kaito...dammit!

He walked right past me and found a spot to my left, leaning against the wall and tugging at the hem of his shirt, shaking off a few droplets of water. His wet hair kept falling into his eyes and he'd wordlessly push it back, giving himself a completely new look.

"You're not still feeling guilty, are you?" He asked suddenly, jolting me.

"N-No!" I stammered before realizing that my response sounded a bit insensitive, "I mean...I can't help it!"

He sighed and leaned against the wall. An awkward silence hung over us like a wet blanket. I swallowed slowly and tried to make small talk.

"S-So, I was...erm, wondering," I began, "You were on the bus earlier yesterday, like, before the stop at our school..."

Great. I sound like a stalker...

"Yeah, the tennis team had our last game yesterday and it was during school hours," he replied cooly. I froze. He was on the tennis team? Even the girls didn't know that, and I thought they knew everything about him!

"You're on the tennis team?" I was such an idiot, asking that question.

He nodded. I put my hands in my pockets and turned to face the floor, feeling mortified. He was dealing with my stupidity so nicely. Anyone else would've insulted me for asking such questions.

"Gakupo's on the tennis team," I said.

Stupid Gumi, why can't you shut your mouth already?!

"Yeah, he is," Kaito said, "Pretty good player."

"Uh-huh," I nodded. This was so awkward.

Thankfully, the train came soon after that. I hurried towards the closest doors and yelped a little when Kaito walked up to the same ones, which made perfect sense in retrospect because everyone goes for the closest doors, but I quickly scurried towards the next doors, getting a quizzical look from him.

"Uh...," I looked at him and then at the crowd I was walking into, deciding to pretend that I saw a friend, "Hey, Juliet!"

A few women looked at me and slumped a little, quickly squeezing in between the crowds and grabbing a handlebar. I peered into the car that I would've ended up in, spotting Kaito. He was putting headphones on and we made eye contact for a brief moment. My face flushed and I turned away instantaneously.

It felt like forever before my stop came. Kaito's eyes weren't on me, but still, I felt weak and a little feverish. Some part of me craved for more of that, the way our gazes crashed, my greens against his beautiful blues. The colours melded like a bright blue sky and blades of freshly cut grass. My stomach churned as I thought these things. I pulled a book out of my bag and started to read.

When my stop finally came, I held on to the handlebar tightly, waiting for the train to make its final lurch forward before braking. The doors hissed and people got to their feet. My eyes fell into the car with Kaito one more time.

He was looking at me. It was just another passing glance, but there it was, and it made my heart race.