Kyoko and Shizuku lock gazes.

What was I thinking? She was waiting for me! How could I have forgotten that? What's wrong with me?

Under the withering heat of Kyoko's narrow-eyed glare, Shizuku's eyes turn cold, dark and hard. I watch the mysterious, vulnerable girl she had once been sink into that darkness with a twinge of regret.

Kyoko's voice trembles. "Have you finished clinging to my boyfriend, or do you still need him for something?"

Shizuku holds my hand up and lets it drop. Her voice snaps like the frosty crack of splintering ice. "What makes you think I need to cling to anyone?"

Kyoko stiffens with a jerk. Her arms shake at her sides, the skin over her knuckles whiten and tendons I've never before seen stand out in her wrists. She looks mad enough to use those fists but on whom, I dare not even guess.

"Well, if you have no use for him..." Kyoko lunges forward and snatches my hand. "Let's go."

"I'll be leaving—" I start to apologize, but Kyoko's grip is like a steel handcuff around my wrist. I'm yanked from the room and nearly jerked off of my feet.

She leads me away from the nurse's office, her slippers fiercely slapping the hallway floor with each long stride. I stumble as I try to keep up, feeling like a child startled to learn he had been breaking the most serious of school rules all year without knowing it.

Man, I really screwed up. I ran off and left her by the track. She missed the race she had wanted us to run together. It must have been embarrassing, standing around awkwardly, alone, wondering when I would return as the race started without us. Then, even though I said I'd be right back, she had to come find me...

I groan as the image of me sitting beside Shizuku's bed while she clutches my hand, flashes through my memory. I know how it must have looked. How can I explain without sounding like I'm making excuses?

I pull back on my arm. "Slow down..."

Kyoko drops my hand but continues walking, leaving me behind. I would have to run to keep up with her. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Kyoko freezes just outside the genkan where a handful of students are changing their shoes. She whirls about and fixes me with one blazing eye. "How could you let yourself be caught by her again?"

"Eh?"

"This is the second time she has lured you away to rescue her."

"She didn't...the first time it was Ito-senpai."

"But you still ran to her."

"It's not like she intended to be attacked or trapped. You can't blame her for that."

Kyoko squeezes her eyes shut as she shouts. "Do you have any idea what it's like for everyone to see your boyfriend chase after another girl?'

Everyone in the genkan freezes and looks back at us in surprise. For someone who cares so much about what others think, I can't believe she is shouting these personal things in public.

"Not so loud."

"And yet you keep running after her!"

"What was I supposed to do?" I shout back. "Should I have left her to be raped or die trapped in a wooden box? Is that what you'd want someone to do to you?"

Barely even a blur, Kyoko's slap leaves the side of my face burning. For a moment, we stare at each other in wide-eyed surprise. Her bottom lip starts to quiver and her eyes redden, tearing up as if she were the one who had been struck. The students in the genkan snatch up their things and scurry away.

Kyoko's slap seems to have knocked the foundation of the world loose. Everything shifts beneath me. I feel weightless and detached. This isn't happening. It can't be happening. How could I let this happen?

Barely above a whisper, I ask, "You said...but...do you not trust me anymore?"

Kyoko lowers her head. Her fringe of hair hides her face. "I said I would, didn't I?"

"Then why...?"

"That doesn't mean I have to like it."

She waits in silence as if wanting me to say something, but what can I say? I look up and down the empty hallway. Now, we're finally alone.

I wasn't trying to hurt her, though obviously, I did... "I was just trying to help," I mutter aloud. "I thought that was one of the things that you like about me..."

Kyoko nods. She starts to say something then stops herself. The silence stretches on uncomfortably.

Our whole relationship teeters on the edge of collapse and I can't think of anything to keep it from tipping over. A memory fragment flashes before me...the accident...the bus tipping...Kyoko flopping limply against me while I slide to the edge of my seat...the sick weightless feeling as the bus passes the balance point...the point of no return... The exact moment is burned into my memory--when any hope of recovery was lost and the downward plunge began to accelerate.

"Do you have any idea of how I feel?"

I may not know much about girls, but I know enough to understand how dangerous that question is. If I say yes, she might think I am being presumptuous. If I say no, I'm admitting I don't care enough about her feelings to even consider them. "Er, I think I can imagine..."

She looks up at me sharply, then turns away. "They say couples who are truly in love are so in sync that they don't even have to use words. They can share each other's thoughts with just a look."

She turns back and stares into my eyes. I don't know if I've ever really gazed into them before. I am stunned at just how beautiful they are. Even the pleading look as she silent begs me to understand what she's thinking makes her look cute. Unfortunately, that is all I can see.

"Sometimes...even when they are apart...when they are desperately needed...their feelings will call out to each other." Her eyes, looking up searchingly into mine, start to fade and lower. "So..."

She pauses and takes a deep breath.

"How did you know she needed you?"