We run inside my house and throw everything on the couch. I tell her on the way to that room, not to say anything until I've finished explaining. I open the door and turn on the lights. There she is, she hasn't moved so much as an inch since my previous visit.

"Oh my."

"This is the former "person," if you could even call her a person, that was biologically, and only biologically, my mother. I have never, and will never, accept her as my mother. To say so would be a complete and utter disgrace to mothers around the world. She would lock me in a cage, starve, then beat me ever since I was two until three years ago. Around when I was seven or eight, my father finally had enough. He was a coward though, and I don't blame him, so instead of confronting his wife, he cheated on her. My "mother" found out about a month later so she waited out late until they both came back, drunk, and she stabbed and killed both of them. Their bodies remain in in the closet of my "parent's" old room. Then fast-forward many years to three years ago. I couldn't do it anymore—I was on the verge of death. So at my "mother's" most vulnerable point, I grabbed the bat from her and turned the tables. I ripped the key from her neck and threw her into the cage as I got out, barely. I locked it as quickly as I possibly could. She put up a fight that's for sure, but I won in the end. I claimed the freedom I never once had before. Just yesterday was the first time I saw her since that fateful day. This is all why I just don't, or didn't, care about about anyone or anything. Life became tasteless and bland. I couldn't find any interest in living but kept going for the hope that one day I could over come this. All along I thought that you hadn't made so much as a chip in the shell around my head and my heart, when in reality you cracked all the way through, and today, you shattered it. So I have to thank you, because you gave my life a newfound meaning for its existence. Thank you, so much Kyouka Asano, for being the one thing that gave me everything."

By now Kyouka is sobbing uncontrollably. "Yu-ri?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know why I have always been with you and trying to be with you and everything?"

"Why?"

"At first I found you really cool and mysterious. You were always so calm and quippy, I was honestly jealous, but I also sensed something off about you. Like something wasn't right with you, and I was very curious as to what it was. So I tried connecting with you, trying desperately to be friends with you. Over time as I got to know you better, though it was a very, very slow process, I, I, I uh, I umm. I had fallen in love with you, and to hear you say how much I've done for you, and how much I mean to you you, how I basically saved your life and gave it meaning, made me so overwhelmingly happy. I don't care if you killed your "Mom," I won't and don't let something that happened to you against your will destroy something that I've lived for every day. Look at me, I got so caught up I forgot where we were for a second. I didn't want to ruin what we have now by confessing, but I think this was the best time to tell you." To be honest, I forgot where we were as well.

"I, I, I think, I think I love you too. Over time, I've tried to figure out what love truly is, it was the emotion I mostly longed for, and I think that this is it. Wanting to be with someone and make every little desire of theirs a reality. To want to protect them, and not to die for them, but to live for them. To want to be so close to them and never let them go. That's how I feel about you, and I think that's love." A tear runs down my face and a blush ever present as I say this, finally realizing my true feelings after so long. Not only did that ice shell keep me away from everyone and everything, it blinded me and forced me to see what she would want me to see. I know she truly loves me because for almost anyone else, murder and an abusive past would be a dealbreaker. It would usually scare people away but not her.

"You dummy! That is love!"

"Hahahahaha!"

"Hahahahaha!" We can't stop laughing and we can't stop crying. We're too overjoyed. We left the room after a while and into my room. She called her parents to say she was spending the night here. I gave her some pajamas and we just talked for the next few hours, and then we fell asleep side by side. I know she loves me, and I know now that I love her, and that's all that matters. It will always be all that matters.