A/N: My very first TNKK fanfic. And no, it's not a HaruShizuku, so if you don't like Yamaken, this is probably not for you. So shoo. Away. Away with you Yamaken haters.

Anyway, this is a continuation fic that completely ignores the epilogue Robico-sensei put in the last chapter of the manga. If you haven't read it yet, then there will be spoilers. A lot of spoilers. So you can turn back now if you want to. Those who have just watched the anime and not read the manga, then there are chances you might not know some of the characters that were not given screen time in the measly 13-spisode anime that should have been much, much longer, like for example Yamaken's little sister, Iyo.

That said, read on. Don't say I didn't warn you about the spoilers. XD

I

Yamaguchi Kenji had his whole life planned ahead of him, and he knew that he couldn't be any more content than he already was. After graduating from Kaimei, while everyone else was worrying if they were going to be able to keep up at college, or if they would be able to land themselves a fairly good-paying job after high school, he, on the other hand, knew how his future was going to pan out: get a four-year preclinical education, two-year clinical education, do a bit of 'internship' which he was planning to do in his family's hospital, succeed his father and live the life he knew he deserved.

At twenty, he was already trying to gather as much experience as he could in Internal Medicine while taking up his college education at Yokohama City University. He was already on his second year, and he would spend most of his out-of-school time in their hospital's private library where his father stored almost all of his reference materials back when he was still studying, and Kenji was benefiting quite a lot from his father's diligence at note-taking.

Well, not that he really needed it; Kenji knew that he was very much capable of doing great things even on his own. Because he was just awesome that way.

And that was why he was asking himself why someone as great as he needed to deal with petty little boys like the one standing in front of him right now.

Kenji was sitting behind one of the larger desks inside his father's library, finishing up a report on virology and drinking a coffee when the boy came, escorted by one of their nurses.

"He was looking for you," the nurse had said, and with a flirty wave, she had disappeared out the door, leaving Kenji with none other than…

"Hi. You may not remember me, but I'm Shizuku's younger brother. My name is Mizutani Takaya. Good afternoon," said the boy as he stood rod straight by the book case where Kenji had all his encyclopedias stored.

Ah, of course. Takaya. Even if he hadn't introduced himself, Kenji still would have known him; he was a spitting image of his sister. Those dead-pan eyes. The cool, uncaring gaze. The never-changing placid expression. In fact, the boy looked so much like Mizutani Shizuku that Kenji could not help but take a deep breath and run a hand through his blond hair as an excuse to break eye contact. He pushed back the swivel chair and made an effort to concentrate on the uninteresting lace curtain hanging on his window.

"I remember you. What can I do for you?" Kenji asked, because he knew his manners, and having the younger brother of probably the only woman who had rejected him in his twenty years of living being here in his personal space was not a good enough excuse to forget them.

"I need you to give me a discount on my CT scan bill," said Mizutani Takaya in that bland voice of his.

For a moment, Kenji tried to process what the boy had just said to him. He blinked, looked over his shoulder and frowned. "Excuse me?"

Now that he had finally turned to give the boy a nasty look, it was then did he realize Mizutani Takaya had a very hard-to-miss bandage wrapped around his head. And he was wearing a familiar soccer uniform. Shouyou High. So the boy took after his sister. For some unexplainable reason, Kenji found that really annoying.

"I need a discount. On my CT scan, Yamaken-kun," the boy repeated.

Kenji could only wince at the little nickname he had back in high school, and how the boy used it so familiarly. "Don't call me that. And why on earth did you have a CT scan?" he asked, convincing himself that he was not really worried or anything, but was simply curious. Yeah, that sounded just about right.

Takaya blinked, thought for a moment, then said, "We were fooling around at soccer practice. That's all I can tell you, otherwise Yusuke will get in trouble."

Kenji couldn't give a care who Yusuke was, and whether or not he would get in trouble. He plucked the reading glasses perched on his nose and gently placed it on the book laid in front of him. He rubbed the spot between his eyes tiredly. "Listen, Takaya-kun. This is a hospital. It isn't a supermarket, or a convenience store, or Mister Donut. We don't give discounts for medical services."

Takaya blinked again, the placid expression on his face unchanging. "But… this is your hospital, right?"

As if that made the difference.

Kenji raised his eyes back at the boy. Takaya was watching him back, those dull eyes, so very familiar to Kenji. He couldn't get over the fact how similar this boy was with her. The resemblance of the stern, almost frightening love of cheap things and discounts was uncanny. Genes were definitely a scary thing. "We don't give discounts. Sorry."

This time, Kenji finally extracted a reaction from the boy. He frowned. "That's a shame. I don't have enough money to pay for it." He pulled out a slightly crumpled piece of paper which Kenji recognized as the bill. "I don't have five thousand and fifty yen."

Kenji raised an eyebrow at him. Unbelievable. He reached for his mobile phone in his breast pocket. "I'll call your father. We can arrange for him to pick you up and settle your bill."

"Dad's not home," said Takaya, almost uncaringly.

Kenji found that hard to believe. Back in high school, every time he had called Mizutani Shizuku, it had always been her father who answered the god-forsaken phone. He sighed. "Look, you don't have to pay for everything right now. How much do you have?"

Takaya started fishing inside his pockets for something. Kenji could make out several loose change, a candy wrapper, and a bit of lint. "I have a hundred and fifty on me."

Kenji felt an angry vein throb on his temple. What were parents doing to their children these days? Don't they even give allowances? He took a deep breath, rationalizing with himself that not all parents were rich doctors who owned their own hospitals. He slipped his glasses back on, pushed himself to a standing position and made to walk towards the door. "We can put that as an initial payment, and you can come back tomorrow to pay for the rest. Would that satisfy you?"

Takaya looked like he was thinking things through. After a while, he nodded. "Okay."

Kenji looked down at the boy as he flicked the lint off his palm and stuffed the candy wrapper back in his pocket. What a waste of precious study time for him, having to deal with matters of little consequence. He motioned for Takaya to follow. "Come on then. Let's get this over with." He reached for the knob, opened the door.

And felt the world tilt several degrees to the left when he saw Mizutani Shizuku standing at the other side.

She hadn't changed much over the past two years he had not seen her when she left Yokohama right after graduation to study Pre-Law in Todai, where her mother attended University. Of course, this had been hand-me-down information from his sister, who for some reason seemed to have taken a liking to the Study Bug. He had tried to feign nonchalance after her departure, but it had taken him approximately seven days and five hours before he finally gave up on the idea of calling her to ask how she was doing. Not that he had any ulterior motive or anything creepy like that – they were friends, after all – but still, something about initiating a call made him uneasy.

It wasn't as if she had moved out of the Kanto region, and he had heard from Iyo several times that Mizutani-san came home during weekends, sometimes visiting the old High School to pay her respects to some professor whose name Kenji could not remember. He had pretended not to care, but he had found himself wondering several times if she would open her door to him if he ever decided to drop by and visit her.

Of course, he never did.

He doubted he would have, even if he remembered how to get to her house…

It was strange. He knew for a fact that he had never really thought her to be exceptionally pretty, but for some weird reason, with her standing right in front of him, wearing one of those really unfashionable ensembles she'd always favored back in high school, he could not help but swallow hard and listen to his heartbeat quickening against his ribcage. She seemed to have grown out of her pigtails, her chestnut-brown hair hanging long over her shoulders.

His reaction at seeing her surprised him extremely; he had always taken pride on how he handled himself when it came to women. It was only she who had always had this effect on him ever since.

Which was kind of a hassle, since he knew she belonged to someone else.

"Oh, Yamaken-kun. It's been a while," she said in that neutral voice of hers. She always seemed to sound uninterested every time she talked, and most of her emotion showed verbally only when they talked about Yoshida Haru.

Kenji shook himself. No, he was not going to talk about Yoshida Haru with her. "You look well, Mizutani-san," he said politely. "I'm surprised you're here on a Wednesday. I always assumed you valued your studies too much to miss a school day."

Mizutani-san's big, brown, almost bored gaze met his, and Kenji couldn't help but notice the dark gashes under her eyes. It looked like she hadn't been getting enough sleep lately, and it did not suit her. She was wearing a fairly thick jacket and a muffler was wrapped around her neck although it was only October, but even with those layers on, Kenji could tell from her face that she had lost a bit of weight. And to think she had always been thin.

"Shizuku," Takaya said, walking towards them with the bill in his hand. He handed the paper to his sister. "I didn't think you'd get my text. You always turn your phone off during train rides."

Mizutani-san's eyes left Kenji's face and instead focused on her little brother. They were almost as tall as each other. No, Takaya could be taller. For a second, a frown tugged at her lips when she saw the cast on his head. The frown was gone the moment she snatched the bill from his hand. "You had to pick today, of all days, to get hurt, Takaya."

Kenji could only watch things unfold before him, unsure of what was really going on. So, Takaya had mailed his sister that he was in the hospital? Well, the boy could have said something earlier, saving him the effort.

Mizutani-san skimmed through the bill quickly before she gingerly touched Takaya's cast. "This isn't like you. What were you thinking?"

Takaya could only look away. "I was being 'rebellious'. That's all."

Kenji's eyebrows climbed his forehead. Mizutani-san's eyes narrowed. Rebellious, he said.

Wonderful.

Kenji crossed his arms over his chest, unsure of what to do. Given, Yamaguchi Kenji was always prepared when it came to encounters with girls, but of all the women, dealing with her was probably the last thing he had expected for today.

It looked like this was one of those family things. He really didn't want to get involved, as much as his heart was betraying him for doing the cha-cha at the mere sight of her for a reason he was too proud to admit to himself. He hoped to god Yoshida Haru wasn't with her. He looked over Mizutani-san's shoulder, half-expecting to see the wild boy lurking close by. He wasn't, and the slight disappointment at his absence once again surprised Kenji.

Mizutani-san's eyes swooped back over the bill. "If you're going to do an act of rebellion, at least think of how much it would cost."

Takaya had the decency to look embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Shizuku."

Mizutani-san sighed, and just like how she let everything slide down the surface, she gave Takaya an unreadable stare. "I doubt you thought about this by yourself. Don't let your friends influence you too much again, Takaya."

Takaya's eyes widened in surprise. "I – "

Mizutani-san crossed her arms in front of her. "Don't let your friends influence you again," she repeated. "Or I'll have to talk to Yusuke myself."

Kenji could only shake his head. This was something they could take care of out of his office, surely?

Mizutani-san waved the bill in front of her brother's face. "I'll settle this myself. You go back to school now. And make sure you apologize to your teacher for missing your class."

Takaya looked like he was going to protest, but nodded instead. "All right. I'm really sorry, Shizuku."

Mizutani-san was not moved. "Have you apologized to Yamaken-kun for your trouble?"

Takaya turned to Kenji.

Kenji took an involuntary step back. "No, It was nothing," he said before the boy could say anything. "More importantly, is your head all right?" Given, their hospital wouldn't release him if he weren't, but asking about a patient had become second nature to him.

"His head is as hard as a rock. You don't need to worry," Mizutani-san said flatly, but Kenji did not miss the lingering look she had on her brother's bandaged head. She was obviously worried. "Besides, Yusuke's with you, right? I saw him in the lobby. He was harassing several nurses, asking them to take his blood pressure."

For some weird reason, that made Takaya grin. "I'll go make him stop."

"You do just that," Mizutani-san muttered, and she and Kenji watched as Takaya hurried out the room, leaving the two of them staring after him in silence.

The moment Takaya disappeared around the corner, Mizutani-san took a deep breath and looked up at him. "I'm really sorry about this. I saw Takaya's text when I got off the train, and hurried here as soon as I could."

Kenji could only stare down at her, once again wondering what she was doing here on a weekday. Given, it had been two years since he had last seen her, and two years was enough time for a person to change, but he doubted she had lost her passion when it came to studying. Or maybe it was just him not being able to let go of who she was when he had found out he 'sort of' liked her.

Yoshida Haru had been the main catalyst of their meeting. He had wondered about her, about how such a plain-looking, uncaring girl could make the embodiment of difficult into something… less difficult.

It had been nothing but plain curiosity. How in the world did he end up liking her again?

How many times had he tried to lower himself to her level? He had tried many different approaches to woo her: Treat her to meals, share her hobbies, lend her an ear, give her advice. Most approaches he knew would work on any other girl.

Except for her.

In the end, she had chosen Haru over him. Then again, Haru had always been one step ahead of him at everything. It was frustrating, really. Kenji could never win against him. Haru had left a year ahead of his batch to follow a path he thought would be better for him. He had enough credits, so much so he didn't even need to attend his third year. He came back a year later for graduation.

And everyone went their own separate ways after that.

Kenji had once again lowered himself to settle at being Mizutani-san's friend. This was too new for him, because Yamaguchi Kenji almost always had what he wanted and never settled for anything less.

Again, how could she be such an exception in his life?

And after two years, she'd waltzed back into his hospital, looking so very fine to him in an out-of-fashion pink jacket and acting like little brothers asking for hospital service discounts was a normal thing.

Kenji tried to find something to say. At the back of his mind, there was a lingering question. Actually, several questions.

"How's College?"

"So how's Haru?"

"Have you chosen what Law School you're going to after graduating?"

"How are you and Haru?"

"Any firms you've set your eyes on?"

"Everything going great with your boyfriend, Haru?"

Kenji could easily have clobbered himself had he been sure he wouldn't look like a completely insane person if he did so. He cleared his throat. "How old is Takaya now?"

Mizutani-san blinked, obviously caught off-guard by the question. "Sixteen. He's just started High school."

"He's grown."

"Ah, he's had that growth spurt in his second year of middle school. Puberty hadn't been nice to him then, but he's always played soccer so I guess that helped fill him out," she said, and she began fiddling with a loose thread on her sleeve.

Kenji suddenly realized they were standing right by the open door of the library, and he gestured with a hand inside, hoping to look like it wasn't a big deal. "You look tired. You should sit down. We have coffee."

And typical her, she instantly shot his invitation down. "I'd love to, but I'm in a hurry." She punctuated the sentence with a quick glance at her wrist watch. "I have to drop my things off at home and then go to the public library to borrow a few materials for a paper due."

There was just no helping him. He knew he should just drop it, get back on his own business.

Two years. So maybe two years wasn't enough for a person to change.

"Let me take you home, then," he blurted out without thinking.

Mizutani-san looked up from her watch and straight at him, eyes blank. "Take me home with what?"

She was doubting him. He had a feeling what was causing her doubts.

"I have a car. It's parked right outside."

She narrowed her eyes at him as she lowered her arm to her side. "I plan to get home as quick as I can. Preferably some time today."

Now she was making fun of him. Damn her.

"I have GPS," he said flatly, although he did not understand why he had to justify this to her. His statement did wonders to her, though.

She rubbed her chin between her thumb and forefinger, a gesture she only used when she was deep in thought, then nodded after a while. "Well, I do have a lot of baggage with me, and taking a taxi is expensive…" She nodded again. "I'll take the offer." Then, for a brief second, she looked over to his desk, frowned. "If I'm not bothering you, that is."

Kenji followed her gaze. The book about internal medicine was left forgotten, his notebook and pen marking the page where he had left off. He had his own paper to finish, and it was due tomorrow. "No, it's no bother," he lied.

She believed him, as she was always so openly trusting of him since high school. He had always found this trait of hers flattering and at the same time disturbing; she had never minded his arm around her when he tried to save her from bumping into other people in the streets because she wasn't paying attention. It had never bothered her to sit so close to him in cram school, or be alone with him in between claustrophobic library bookshelves. Now it was either she had always thought him to be a swell guy, or she had never really thought of him as a guy.

He had been sure he'd made it clear to her when he confessed his feelings to her. A part of him was almost positive she would have said yes. They had so many things in common, and he knew that he could take care of her better than the competition. He had been so sure of it. Though he wondered why he was thinking these things all of a sudden when he knew had already lost, and that he had made a compromise with her about staying friends.

He tried to push away the thoughts as he wrestled her traveling bag into the trunk of his Toyota Crown. She had not been kidding when she said she had a lot of baggage. A total of three, actually. A rolling bag that could easily be twenty kilos heavy, a duffel bag that could have been filled with rocks, and –

"Jesus, what the heck is in that?" Kenji couldn't help himself when Mizutani-san hoisted a cardboard box with holes in its side into her arms and something in it started clucking like crazy.

Mizutani-san lowered the box into the back seat, making sure to fasten the seatbelt around it. "Nagoya," she said simply.

Kenji stared at her for a brief moment before asking, "What?"

"You probably don't remember him," she said simply, but did not elaborate.

Kenji did not follow up the conversation, because contrary to what she believed, he did remember who Nagoya was, and if he ever did decide to continue the conversation, they were going to end up venturing into a topic he wanted to avoid as much as possible. He wondered why she had the rooster with her. He knew that she had never been fond of pets, and that Nagoya was Haru's pet to begin with. But then again, Haru and Mizutani-san had always been too odd a couple for normal human beings like Kenji to even being understanding. He was not about to start now.

He opened the passenger door for her. "Your house? Or do you want to stop by the library first?"

Mizutani-san slipped on the passenger seat and Kenji closed the door for her as she was buckling her seatbelt. He took his time in rounding the car and settle behind the wheel, hoping that would be enough for her to decide their destination. The last thing he wanted was have her change her mind after he'd already set his car navigation…

"If you can drop me at my house, I can go to the library by myself," she said as she started pulling a textbook from under her seat she had sat on. It was another of his reference books for his virology paper.

Kenji could only wince at the indifference in her voice, although he already knew that she had always been indifferent about many things. He leaned back on his seat. "We haven't seen each other since we graduated. The least you can do is act like you're interested in how I've been doing."

Mizutani-san raised her eyebrows at him for the briefest of moments before looking back down on the textbook she had in her hand. "I don't need to ask how you've been doing, Yamaken-kun."

Little ice bitch.

"And why is that?"

She smiled one of those reserved smiles of hers, eyes still on the cover of that textbook. "Because you've always done wonderfully well when it came to everything."

And that was probably the first time in two years did Kenji feel his heart once again skip a beat.

Kenji had never been hungry for compliments, because he knew that he didn't need other people to define what he had always thought of himself – completely fantastic – but for some reason, he had always been greatly affected by what she thought of him.

So maybe – which was a big, big, big maybe – he really did still like her.

Maybe.

Kenji ran a hand through his hair. No. This was not something he should be thinking about. He knew better than to go mooning over someone else's girlfriend, especially if that someone is Yoshida Haru's girlfriend.

He revved the engine and pulled out of the hospital parking lot turning a left on the first stoplight.

Mizutani-san flipped through the textbook lightly. "You're exactly the same, aren't you, Yamaken-kun? You know where you're going, though most of the time you get lost along the way. But you know what you have to do, and make sure you get there, no matter how long it takes."

Kenji glanced at her briefly before returning his eyes on the road, unsure if she was complimenting him. "You're being funny. You usually never talk like this. Did Pre-Law do this to you?"

She kept on flipping through the pages of the book. "Pre-Law? Maybe. I don't really know."

Kenji let out a hollow laugh as he stopped at a red light. He watched her at the corner of his eye, wondering what she was trying to look for in that boring textbook. "You not knowing something is strange. You've always struck me as someone who'd know everything because you don't want anyone to beat you academically."

She chose not to respond to his statement, and he welcomed her silence about the topic. He tapped his fingers on the wheel noisily, glanced at the car navigation and watching the little blue dot that represented where they were at the moment. He needed to turn left at the bookstore, then that would take them all the way to the cram school they used to go together. It was funny. He never was gifted with a sense of direction (something he wasn't willing to admit out loud) but it had always been easier to remember places he could link with anything that concerned her. The cram school. The library. The little donut shop downtown. The bus stop right outside Shouyou High.

"Is Takaya going to be all right?" she suddenly asked him.

The light turned green and he moved forward. "What do you mean?"

"His head. He had that nasty cast."

Kenji frowned. "The hospital wouldn't release him if he wouldn't be. I wasn't able to see the results of his CT scan, but I thought everything was all right."

"Hm," she mused as she lowered the textbook onto her lap and looked out the window.

He sighed as he turned at the bookstore. "You could have asked him yourself earlier."

She looked over at him. "Takaya lies to me about those things. He could be sick with a fever and still say he's all right."

"He seems like an honest enough boy to me."

"He doesn't want me to worry."

Kenji stopped at another red. "Are you worried?" he asked her.

She was silent for a few seconds. She nodded. "I'm always worried about him. It takes almost an hour to get here from Tokyo, and he never calls me unless I know it's an emergency." For a moment, she looked like she was thinking and she opened her mouth as if to say something, but she decided against it. She returned her eyes on the textbook on her lap.

Kenji was a bit confused. She was being different. In the span of the three years he had known her from high school, he had seen the transition she had undergone from cold-as-ice to not-so-cold-as-ice, and he couldn't help but wonder why it felt as if she had taken a few steps backward. She felt distant. Well, given they weren't exactly that buddy-buddy to begin with and two years in a different city may have something to do with it, but he still couldn't explain the nagging feeling that there was something bothering her.

He could hear clucking from the backseat, and he glanced at the rearview mirror to see the rooster poking its head out of its box. The light turned green and he moved forward again. "What does he eat?" he asked, annoyed that it was he who had to think about small talk.

"Huh?" she asked.

"The chicken. Nagoya. What does he eat?"

"Cabbages. And there was this one time when Natsume-san thought it funny to feed it chicken wings."

Kenji could not help but grimace. It was very much like the idiot girl to feed a chicken some chicken. "That's all sorts of wrong. In so many different levels."

She nodded in agreement, laughing that very quiet laugh of hers she reserved only on occasions when she genuinely thought it was funny. "It's Natsume-san after all."

Kenji could kick himself for letting the direction of the conversation take a life of its own. "How is she?"

"I met with her last weekend. She's a programmer now at a company making those online games and blogs and whatnot. It's in Kawasaki, so we meet when she gets off work early."

This was unmistakably very hard to believe. He had always thought the girl to be a complete and utter airhead that had no redeeming quality whatsoever except for her more-than-above-average good looks. She should have just been a model. She would have done a great job at it. "Ho, is that right?" he commented, trying to sound uninterested.

Mizutani-san pressed her face against the window suddenly. "It's our cram school."

Kenji felt a very unfamiliar stomach lurch at the way she referred to the cram school as 'our cram school', as if it were something that really belonged to the both of them. This was not a good thing. She always had the talent to make suggestive statements without really meaning anything. Or maybe he had the strange habit of reading too much into her suggestive statements even when he knew perfectly well that she really meant nothing. He cleared his throat. "It had been a long, long winter."

She relaxed back on her seat, then muttered, "This year's winter is going to be long, too."

Kenji knew she hated the cold. Come to think of it, he knew a lot about her too much. Trivial facts about her that he knew he didn't need to know but knew anyway. "So," he started, about to add more trivial facts about her that he didn't need to know anyway. "What brings you back home to Yokohama when I know you're trying to pave your way into being a lawyer?"

Her fingers were once again busy with the pages of the book. "I dropped out of Todai."

Kenji's foot was instantly stomping on the breaks out of reflex. Car horns sounded from behind them and a car with an angry driver passed, shaking a fist at them and saying something rude. Kenji could care any less. He pulled at the curb and put the car on park. He turned to her, eyes wide in disbelief. "You what?"

She was calmly reading a page on the textbooks that had something to do with RNA viruses. "I dropped out of Todai," she repeated calmly.

No. No, no that can't be right. She had tried so hard to get into that University. They had celebrated with friends when they found out she had passed the entrance exams. She had lived her high school life as a study bug just to become a lawyer like her mother. And now this?

"What are you talking about? You're on your second year through Pre-Law. The second semester should have started a week ago," he pointed out, although knowing that she knew that too, only all too well.

She snapped the book shut on her lap, looked out of window to avoid his gaze. "I need to submit a paper to complete the units left on my first semester's Studies on National Security units."

Kenji could not see the connection between Studies on National Security and her dropping out. He cursed under his breath although half unsure of why this sudden news bothered him this much. He leaned an elbow on the wheel and grabbed at a chunk of his hair in frustration. "What happened?"

And suddenly, it was as if the invisible barrier she had around her disappeared and her shoulders shook a bit. For a moment he thought she was about to cry, and he could vaguely remember the time when he had once thought she was crying and embraced her out of instinct. She had not been crying then, of course. She was not about to cry right now.

She chose that moment to meet his gaze. Her eyes were large, glassy and unblinking. "My parents got divorced. Yesterday, actually. Takaya needs me here. My father probably needs me more."

The world was spinning around Kenji. No, it was not the divorce that was making him dizzy; divorces were common in Japan. It was the way she was handling the divorce that was making everything slightly contorted around him. Kenji didn't really know what she was feeling. His family had always been perfect – with a few exceptions of Iyo's crazy antics from time to time – and his mother and father had always been on good terms. But he had the feeling that people shouldn't be taking a separation this calmly. It would have been easier for him to react if she showed at least one sign of emotion. Was she sad that this happened? Was she happy? That was the problem. She was… emotionless.

Dry.

As ice.

Dry Ice?

"Are you okay?" he asked uncertainly, thinking that at least that question was the proper thing to ask.

She shrugged, lowered her gaze down to the dashboard. "I'm actually more surprised it lasted this long. My mother had always complained about my father's work preferences and his…" She frowned. "They had nothing in common to begin with. It was inevitable."

She was scaring him. Really. "What did Takaya say?"

That was when she let out a shaky breath. "He said he's… all right. I told you, he lies to me all the time."

And at that moment, he understood what Takaya meant when he said, 'Rebellion'. Aww, geez… He covered his mouth with a hand, looked away. "I'm sorry."

He heard her shift in her seat. "It's all right, really. I knew it would happen sooner or later."

Kenji wanted to press the issue on why she had to quit University. He wanted to ask her a lot of questions on her decisions and why she was sacrificing her life plan because her parents screwed up. But he didn't ask her. He was bred too well enough to be that tactless. He tried to compose himself, gripped the wheel with clammy hands. "Let me take you home."

"I'd appreciate that."

And they were back on the road. It was a silent ten minute drive to her house with only the chicken's clucking breaking through the tension inside the car. He didn't bother with the small talk, afraid that she might blurt out something even more uncomfortable. She sat with her hands gripping her seatbelt, the textbook forgotten on her lap. Once in a while she would sniff, and Kenji wondered if she was crying but knew that she wasn't, because she was Mizutani Shizuku.

They reached her house and he helped her out of the car, carried her belongings to the front door while she fiddled with the key. Kenji looked down at the box containing the rooster by her feet. Its head was still poking out of the opening on top of it, and it was now looking at him with its beady eyes.

He fought the urge to kick it because he didn't want to make things worse for her.

She finally succeeded in opening the door and she turned to face him. "Thank you for dropping me off. I'll be all right now."

Kenji didn't know why he was hesitating. Normally he would nod, wave at her and say, "See you around then." But he was fidgeting in his place, hands stuffed in his pockets awkwardly.

She watched him with those eyes again, then as if realizing something, she said, "I'm sorry you had to hear about my problems." She blinked, and Kenji noticed her cheeks coloring slightly. "You always give off that aura that makes me want to talk about things I don't normally talk about."

Kenji's knees buckled and he cursed her for being so honest when it came to her feelings. Back in high school, he had always caught himself giving her advice regarding things he didn't know he was capable of knowing, but she had said she was impressed with his advice and many times had pointed out that she had found a friend in him.

Two years. Too long.

Not too long.

He realized he had actually missed her. It was a shame they had to meet like this with issues bothering her. He helped her roll her bags into the house. "Are you back for good then?"

She nodded slightly, stuffing her keys into her purse and heaving the box containing the rooster and propping it against one hip. "Picking up the pieces is always hard to do. Paperwork is harder. The deeds for the house. Health Insurance beneficiaries. My dad's hopeless when it comes to those."

Kenji could only frown. Given her father may be hopeless, but was it enough to quit her dream because of it? He didn't have the heart to ask her. "If you need anything, call me."

Aww, geez…

That made her smile, and he instantly felt better for asking it. "Thank you. Goodbye." She turned to enter her house.

Kenji opened his mouth, reached out a hand as if to stop her. "Er – "

She stopped in her tracks, looked over her shoulder. "Hm?"

Kenji lowered his hand, stuffed it back in his pocket. He looked down at his feet. He should have just left it at the goodbye part. But he was just too stupid to realize it before it was too late. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to look nonchalant as he asked, "So how's Haru?"

Goddammit!

Mizutani-san froze in place, shifted her eyes, then, "I wouldn't know. I haven't seen him for a year."

The statement nearly had Kenji reeling, and questions kept popping up in his head filling him up close to bursting into a series of inquiries he wanted to ask.

But the barrier she had lowered earlier was instantly around her again, settling over her like an unseen aura, pushing him and everything away. The glassy look she had on her eyes was back as she reached for the door. The rooster was looking at him too, as if saying, "You shouldn't have asked, buddy."

"But Yamaken-kun," she said in that dead-pan voice of hers. "I don't see why that's any of your business." And she slowly, quietly, shut the door on his face.

Kenji could only stare at the hardwood. It was unlike her to be this rude, but circumstances made him feel more guilty than angry.

He returned to his car, thoughts of Haru and Mizutani-san swimming in his head. A year? She hadn't seen him for a year? This was new to him. Iyo had always been current with gossip like this, and he couldn't help but feel a bit betrayed.

He pressed in the coordinates for their hospital, thoughts about Mizutani-san and her parents and Haru and the mystery behind their relationship overwhelming him. He spent about ten minutes sitting there, sometimes looking back at Mizutani-san's door, half hoping for her to come out. She didn't, and he had no choice to but to believe what she had said to him that this was none of his concern and he pulled out of her driveway.

Besides, he was just too busy and too awesome to be bothered by someone else's love life.

That was why he wanted to ask himself what it was that made him stop the car again and started looking for a very, very nostalgic contact number in his phone directory. Sasahara-kun had stayed in Yokohama, right? Surely Iyo was up to date with that?