Tittle: As Time Goes By

Universe: Semi-AU

Rating: T

Genre: Semi-Highschool Romance

Summary: They were going out in high school but it didn't work. They meet again two years later. Something's changed, some not.

1.

There had been things I wished I could say. There had been things I wish I had done. I realized I had been too naïve and too stupid to realize it until now, but I'd been changed. If only I had a chance to come back to that time… I'd been changed and now I wouldn't do the same mistake. If now, I thought I would be able to say it properly.

Maybe it hadn't been love, but if it had been given a chance it would be love.

No, it must have been love.

It was just an old story, but still I wished it hadn't ended like that.

"Inoue?"

My jaw dropped when I saw her there. She looked at me, looked just as surprised as I did. We looked at each other disbelievingly. She sat there with our other former classmates in high school, while I stood there next to the table—still couldn't believe at what I saw.

"Kurosaki-kun."

Okay, she looked a little different but it didn't matter, she still looked good just like the last time I saw her. I could hear some of my friends snickering at my reaction. Okay, maybe I looked like an idiot right now but no one could blame me, I didn't expect her to be there! Nobody had told me that they would invite her.

Wait, Ishida did tell me that Tatsuki would come. I should have known that it automatically meant that she would be there as well.

"Ichigo, you're late." Tatsuki who sat next to Inoue rolled her eyes. I could see that she tried to hide her grin. She must think it was interesting to see my reaction right now.

"C'mon, sit here!" Keigo patted an empty space on his left side.

Inoue smiled at me and nodded her head to greet me. I nodded back as I walked to Keigo side. She hadn't changed much. The way she smiled, her big eyes… they still had the same effect to me just like before.

It had been two years since our high school graduation.

Back then, Inoue and I were going out. That was the first time for both of us. We both had been inexperienced. We hadn't known what to do. It had been awkward and embarrassing, just by walking side by side with her on our way home after school had been enough to give me heart attack. We had walked side by side but I never touched her hand. There had been always some empty air between us.

"Let's go to Semegawa river bank!"

It was the stupid Keigo's idea. We all walked to the river while caught up with each other. It had been quite some time since the last time we met each other and talked properly. For me, I hadn't talked to her at all since that day…

Somebody must have planned this.

Just when we arrived at the river's bank somehow everybody had been busy with each other but me and Inoue. She sat alone facing the river and I sat right beside her with some space between us. This was my safe zone. I had never been closed than this with her. Somehow, I felt safer this way—not to get too close.

"It has been so long since the last time we see each other, right Kurosaki-kun?"

I was startled when I heard her voice. I didn't expect her to talk to me. I thought she hated me or something like that. I looked at her but she smiled at me, she didn't look like he had some grudge to me. It was still the same smile I used to know.

"Ah, yeah…" I rubbed the back of my neck, "It had been two years right?"

She nodded.

"You've become more beautiful now."

I didn't know what had made me said that but her reaction surprised me.

She laughed.

"Eh, w-why?" I knew it might sound so lame but I didn't think she had to laugh at me.

Inoue grinned ear to ear, "Are you really Kurosaki-kun?" She laughed a little, "The old Kurosaki-kun wouldn't say something like that. It sounds so flirty…"

I laughed nervously. I didn't expect this kind of reaction from her. Had Inoue I knew used to laugh like this? She laughed so hard and looked at me with a mocking face.

"I'm sorry, I'm just surprised." She smiled teasingly at me, "Kurosaki-kun I knew was just so serious with deep scowl and eyes like this." She used her index finger to pull the corner of her eyes and made a face imitating me, "You were never good with words."

I scowled, I had been changed a lot in these past two years, but I never realized she had that kind of image of me. It was true that I had never been good with word but she should have known, one of the reasons of why I had never been good with word was…

"But you've been changed too." I said mockingly, "You used to be so pure."

She reddened, "Ah, w-what?"

I sighed, pretending to be disappointed, "Time could change someone so drastically…"

"That's not true!" she pouted.

I laughed.

Had it always been like this before?

Now, it was easier to talk to her. I wondered was it me or her who had been changed a lot or maybe we both just had been changed. She laughed so loudly and she looked so happy. Before this, I hardly could see her laugh. Whenever she'd been with me, she looked so troubled and often she would look like she had something to say but she couldn't say it. I thought, she hadn't enjoyed her time with me. Now, it had been different. She looked so cheerful and I just realized how beautiful the sound of her laughter was.

"Oi, Ichigo! Orihime is waiting for you in the shoe locker!"

I turned to see Tatsuki stood by the classroom door. She was ready for her karate practice after school. I sighed before nodding my head as I continued to put my books into my bag. Me and everyone had to be in different classes in our third year. We hadn't hanged around as much as we used to. I didn't know since when and how it had been started but once a week I would go home with Inoue.

Whenever Tatsuki couldn't walk her home, when Inoue didn't have to work, that day we would go home together. It had been a habit, she would wait for me in front of the shoe lockers and we would go home together.

"S-so, today I met Ishida-kun in front of his classroom, and…"

Inoue had always looked shy when she walked beside me. She would talk about many things, sometime it would be about our friends but on the other time it would be about something unthinkable. Her voice was small and sometime trembling. Her cheeks had always been a little red whenever she laughed at her own story. I hadn't known how to talk or how to response so I would just walk and listen to her.

"Hey, Ichigo! You're going home with Orihime? How lucky!"

Keigo and Mizuiro grinned at us as the jogged toward me and Inoue. Mizuiro as usual had his cellphone in his hand. They greeted Inoue before then turned and grinned at me, oh well Keigo was grinning and Mizuiro just gave me a knowing smile.

"I saw you two always walking home together lately." Keigo grinned, "Are you two dating?"

"Ah… that's…" Inoue's cheeks turned redder than before.

I growled, I tried not to blush in front of Inoue, "Shut up, idiot!"

Mizuiro knew it already but he decided to tease me anyway, "You must be glad to be able to walk such a lovely girl home, right?"

I glared at the shorter boy, "Not you too…"

"But you like Orihime right?"

"E-eh!" Inoue looked surprised at the idiot's question.

"It's none of your business!"

"Alright, alright…" Keigo smirked annoyingly, "Let's go, Mizuiro, let's leave the lovebirds alone."

I hadn't said anything when we continued walking that day. She also hadn't talked about anything anymore. We had been walking awkwardly. I tried so hard not to look at her. I didn't want her to know that I had been shy. I liked her. Keigo and Mizuiro—and everyone else—had known it but still I hadn't had the courage to tell her directly. I'd been so nervous whenever someone else brought out the topic. I hadn't been ready for that.

Now if I thought about it, Inoue had actually also felt nervous just like me but she tried so hard to keep talking. She tried to make it less awkward between us. I knew I supposed to do better. I had done my best to talk and to smile, but no matter how hard I'd tried it I could only manage to scowl.

I'd been trying to tell her that I love her.

I tried and I tried.

I had been watching her secretly.

When I'd seen her in the corridor during our lunch break, I could never took my eyes on her. The way she smiled when she was with Tatsuki and her other girl friends, the way she pouted, I loved everything about her. If only I could tell her properly.

I loved her and she loved me, we knew that already, but why had it been so difficult for us—for me—to say it?

When she looked at me I looked away quickly—didn't want her to know that I'd been watching her. Now, if I remembered about that time… I had been so stupid.

I'd been changed now, if only I could turn back time…

But what'd done, done.

I'd been changed and so had she.

Author's Note:

Another mini-series inspired by one of the shoujo mangas I bought few weeks ago. This will be 6-7 chapters long. Probably 3 chapters from Ichigo's POV and 3 from Orihime's.

I knew I shouldn't write a new series when I still have few multi-chapters unfinished, but don't blame me, blame the plot bunnies!

Forgive few mistakes here and there, I'm sleepy when I wrote this.

Review?

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Recchinon