The end of the day found Kokona with a pensive expression, the ringing of the bell over the intercom making her realize the time to take action had come.

She immediately rose to her feet, turning and walking down the aisle of the seats to the person she needed to talk to.

"Hey, Yamada?"

At that moment, Taro Yamada gazed out at the world beyond the window to his side, him looking towards her as her voice returned him to reality, him lowering the hand his head had propped him up by.

"Yes? Is everything okay Haruka?" He asked, him curious as he saw Kokona fold her hands behind her waist.

She managed a small smile, feeling herself flushing faintly, before nodding.

"Yeah," she said, "I'm... sorry to spring this on you, but is your handwriting good?"

"I... guess." Taro said with a shrug, eyebrows furrowed as he became slightly confuddled at the strange question. "Why?"

"It's just... A friend of mine's had a crush on someone, and he really wants to confess. But he's a really nervous wreck." Kokona explained. "So I tried thinking of ways to help, and I thought a love letter might be a good way. But... Our handwriting isn't that good."

"Are you sure?" Taro asked, her words and body language telling him where this was going before he heard it.

"Yeah... Would you mind helping him?" Kokona asked him.

Taro crossed his arms as he thought about it.

"My handwriting isn't exactly the best either," he admitted upfront, "but... I'll try."

"You're not too busy?" Kokona brightened up, smiling broadly at him, Taro reaching up and scratching his cheek sheepishly.

"No, I'm really not." He assured her.

It wasn't like he planned on doing anything but browse through clubs until they ended, he thought.

If he was going to waste his time with walking around, he might as well do something productive while he was doing it.

This was Taro Yamada's line of thinking as he agreed to spend his afternoon writing a love letter.

When Kokona would lead him to the library, he quickly spotted the young man sitting at a table, him perking up when Kokona entered with Taro in tow.

"Hey there Kokona." He said, looking to Taro, a sort of accent Taro couldn't place in his voice as he took in his tan colored skin. "You must be Yamada-senpai?"

Before Taro could respond, Kokona grasped her hip whilst cocking her head at him.

"He gets a "senpai", but I can't get one Nasir?" Kokona asked him.

"But don't friends get to call each other by first name?" Nasir asked with a look of innocence that Taro almost didn't realize was feigned at first.

"Maybe when they've known each other for a long time."

"Awww, but I feel like I've known you a long enough time." Nasir pouted.

"It's barely been four days." Kokona replied to him, raising her voice, but her smile betraying how she found it somewhat amusing despite herself.

"We should probably keep our voices down." Taro mused to her, Kokona flushing as she realized what she'd done.

"... Darn it Nasir." Kokona muttered, the young man chuckling to himself when he saw her smile remaining despite her blush of embarrassment that were aimed at her from the other people of the library.

"Sorry about that." Nasir said to her, and he aimed his gaze to Taro then. "I take it you're Yamada, Taro?"

Taro nodded to Nasir's question.

"I am. Could you tell me your name?" Taro asked him curiously.

"Nasir, Kai." He said, Kai Nasir giving a warm, welcoming smile to Taro. "It's nice to meet you."

"Same here." Taro said, him looking to the table Kai sat in front of. "Are you the friend Kokona told me about?"

"I'd say so." Kai glanced to Kokona, then back to the Taro. "I guess you're willing to help me?"

Taro nodded, and seeing this, Kai rose to his feet, him pulling chairs out for both of them, him careful to keep them from scraping against the tiled floor beneath them.

"Thanks a lot for the help." Kai said to him. "Sorry if I'm getting in the way of anything you planned for today."

"I didn't plan anything." Taro replied with a shake of his head as he took the seat Kai pulled out for him. "It's no problem."

"I'm glad to hear that." Kai said.

As Kokona took her seat gratefully, Kai sat down, and the three began talking about the contents of the love letter.

The process was so filled with playful joking on Kai's part, with the ensuing conversations so wacky, that Kokona briefly forgot the purpose behind the letter.

After they finally finished the letter, but left the signature blank ("I'll sign it later." Kai told Taro), Kokona looked over the envelope and letter, and she sighed to herself, the smile she only had to give half effort to keeping up dropping.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Kokona asked Kai as he walked beside her, guiding her home. "I mean... How do you even know she'll take the bait?"

"I mean, I don't know. It's still a gamble, but this is really the best way I could think of." Kai admitted. "I understand you don't like the idea of me being in danger. But we're at risk no matter what we do."

She frowned.

"You mean I'M at risk." Kokona corrected, letting the letter dangle between her fingers as she kept walking, looking forward.

"Alright, you're in danger no matter what we do." He corrected himself with a sigh. "I figured we might as well take advantage of it to do this."

"I guess that makes sense," Kokona said, her tone making her reluctance in admitting so blatant, "I hate the idea of just leaving you by yourself for this is all. I should be there with you when it happens, shouldn't I?" She then shook her head. "Never mind, I guess that's a dumb question."

"No, go ahead," Kai said with a glance to her, "it's okay to be honest when you don't like something."

She glanced to him, then looked down.

"Well, don't get me wrong," she started awkwardly, "I appreciate all the times you've been there for me, stuck up for me. But at this point, I just feel like I'm... taking advantage of that fact. And I hate that THAT's how things are right now. I don't like how this feels. Feeling... Helpless."

Kai listened quietly as Kokona lightly crossed her arms.

"Again, nothing wrong with you," she repeated, "but I just wish I didn't have to do that. I wish you didn't have to worry about keeping me safe."

Kai looked down in thought, then looked back to her.

"There's nothing wrong with that." He told her simply. "I completely understand. I even know how you feel, frankly."

"Really?" Kokona asked him, and Kai nodded. "How?"

"It's..." Kai looked forward again, his gaze becoming a faraway stare. "It was... A really hard time in my life. My parents had just died, but while I was grieving, I was taken in by a man who took in a lot of orphans. During that time though, he..." He closed his eyes. "He'd do so many terrible things to us. And we couldn't do anything about it."

As Kokona listened to the quiet pain and sadness within his voice, she slowly reached up before patting his back in a gesture of comfort.

"I'm sorry that happened." Kokona said softly. "Where are they now? Do you know?"

Kai closed his eyes.

"I do. One day, I met a pastor who had a church, just outside of the town. I told him about our... situation." Kai said, raising his hand up and grasping his forearm. "And... Everyone broke out and left."

"What happened to the guy who did everything to you?" Kokona asked.

"He was... Arrested for some of the things he'd had us do." Kai told her.

"I see..."

Noting how he was being rather vague about the nature of what he and the other orphaned children had done, Kokona didn't press the issue.

"Is that why you believe in God now? Because that pastor helped you?" Kokona asked.

Kai shook his head.

"I still believed in God even after that. Some people might stop believing in God after bad things happen, but... It was really the only thing I could cling to in those times."

Kai paused, and his conscious needled at him for not being completely honest.

Realizing this, he sighed softly before adding, "Well, one of two things honestly."

"Two things?" Kokona asked.

"Yes. One was God, and the other was... Revenge." Kai said softly. "During those times, I... I did a lot of things that made sense to me then, but I really regret now."

"Really?" Kokona asked him.

He nodded.

"My parents had been killed right in front of me. Our house had been set on fire while they were sick, and when they crawled their way out, everyone who'd set it in on fire in the first place dragged them off. After that, they were..."

Kai reached up, fingers touching his neck.

Noting how hard it was for him, Kokona grasped his shoulder to get his attention.

"You don't have to tell me, if it's hard for you." Kokona said to him softly.

Kai looked down, before shaking his head.

"I... Want to tell you." Kai said. "I mean... It's only fair, right? All this time I've been hearing about you. I should at least tell you about this."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

He nodded, closing his eyes.

"My parents were hanged." He told her. "And the whole time, I was in the crowd, screaming for them to stop. They never did." He reopened his eyes. "In that moment, I was... Helpless. I couldn't do anything to help them. So I can understand how you feel. Being helpless... It's really a bad feeling."

Kokona looked down.

"I'm... Sorry that happened to you."

"It's not your fault." He shook his head. "I just said that to say... I understand how it feels."

She nodded.

After a few more moments of walking, she looked to him.

"I'll... Put my faith in you." Kokona told him. "In this idea of yours."

"Thank you." Kai said, before gaining the same wry smile as was usual for him. "I'm surprised you weren't on board from the beginning though. Why would you go through the trouble of getting that letter if you weren't?"

"It seemed like it COULD work, and I was desperate." Kokona said, tone miffed as she spoke defensively whilst crossing her arms.

"I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I just thought you'd tell me before now if you agreed with the idea or not." Kai said.

"I'm sorry, it's just... This is really mean, what we're doing to her." Kokona said. "And... I'm nervous."

"Nothing wrong with that." Kai told her, and Kokona sighed while uncrossing her arms.

"You know the way to the police station, right?" Kai asked her.

Kokona told him she did, and after they refined parts of the plan, they tested out the things they needed before they left, Kai saying his goodbyes upon reaching her house, Kokona doing the same as the man prayed for their success.

As Kokona laid down on her bed several hours later, as nightfall began to start, she perked up when she realized her phone was rumbling, her having forgotten to turn the ringer back on after leaving school.

Looking to the caller ID however, her expression soured, and she promptly ignored it while letting it ring.

It rang over and over again, and in time, she found that he began texting her, that man from before.

Despite this, she didn't care in the slightest, her having made the decision that she would never again let the appeal of money coax her into defiling herself further.

Therefore, when the calls from him finally stopped, Kokona smiled to herself happily, letting herself rest for the night.

A/N: I apologize for the very long hiatus this story went through, as well as the lack of meat these chapters are getting.

Truth be told, I HAVE tried to write this chapter out several times, and what would normally happen is that either my computer would run into problems, causing me to lose my work, or something would render all the time and effort I put into it moot because it all would get erased and I'd have no way of recovering it.

As with many things, when such things happen, the motivation I feel to even write this chapter just goes out the window when I end up losing hours of my life due to slip-ups or carelessness.

Combine that with me working on a separate story project and college, and I eventually just chose to put this on the backburner after a while.

We're approaching the end of the story however, and it can be seen through the chapter sizes.

These past few chapters rarely number in over 4,000 words after taking out the Author's Notes I leave.

In some ways it's probably a good thing, since it could probably be seen as padding, but the ending should come in a few more chapters.