Noises soon filled the halls and school grounds as most of the university's students were dismissed from all of their classes. Most teens that were going out of school were chatting while rushing to and fore to their destination. The once filled parking lot was now empty as cars were now starting to zip by on both directions of the road.

Everything seemed to be lost at an unsteady pace of constant movement and flow, except for the guy whose back is leaned against the school gate's pillar.

Everything seemed to be moving around him in a constant blur as he stood there patiently, waiting for her. He pulled his phone out to check on the time and frowned upon realizing that he had been waiting for almost thirty minutes.

"Kyouko, where are you?" He murmured to himself as he lifted his gaze from his phone to look at entrance of the main building, hoping that he'd see her stepping out of there.

He closed his eyes as he leaned his head gently against the pillar, heaving a sigh.

She probably went home now. He thought to himself as he slowly opened his eyes and looked at the Sunkist-yellow sky. He didn't notify her that he'd be waiting for her to walk her home before going to his shift. He wanted to surprise her and to spend a little more time with her – especially after hearing everything that she had said earlier. Despite of having a thought that Kyouko might get mad at him for waiting for her (since it has been their deal that they won't act too close around school because of Sayaka) his desire to follow what his heart says is greater than the fear of having such thoughts.

"Naegi-kun?"

Makoto immediately snapped out of his trance as soon as he heard a familiar calm and soft voice called for his name. A soft smile of relief played on his lips as he lifted his back from the pillar and turned his head to the side.

It was Kyouko, however…

"Makkun~ Good Afternoon!"

She was with none other than Sayaka Maizono, who's giving her usual cheerful smile.

"A-ah… Good Afternoon." He stuttered, confused of the whole situation that's in front of him.

Why is Kyouko with her? I thought she isn't comfortable around her because of . . . us?

"Who are you waiting for, Makkun?" The blue-haired girl queried.

Crap.

"A-Ah… I… I just wanted to give Ky-Kirigiri-san the list of the possible formulation for our doping potion project in our Biology class. I thought it would be wise if she'd go over them tonight so that we'd start doing some test on Wednesday."

Come on, Makoto. You can do this.

Wanting his act to be more believable, despite of the skeptical look that Kyouko was giving him – he opened his bag and rummaged through it.

"Shit." He cursed and sighed before turning his gaze back to the girls.

"I think I forgot it in the library, I'm sorry. Kirigiri-san." He said as he closed his bag and clasped his hands together as if he's begging for forgiveness to Kyouko.

He could feel the weight of Kyouko's stare at him as if it was telling him that he was ridiculous and a bad liar. I'm dead. Just go along with it. Please.

"It's fine," she heard her say, which lifted off the weight off his shoulders. It was a relief. "You can just mail it to me tomorrow."

"Hm?" Sayaka looked at them back and forth with a confused look on her face. "Makoto-kun told me that Kimura-senpai is going to help the two of you in the project what's the formulation for?"

Shit.

Kyouko looked at him briefly and sighed before turning her gaze to Sayaka.

"Seiko…" She addressed casually in a calm demeanor, making Sayaka's eyes wide in surprise. "Wants us to find out the formulation ourselves. She told us it wouldn't be 'our' project if she intervene in that part."

"I see." Sayaka said. Makoto let a small sigh of relief escape from his lips before averting his gaze to Kyouko, giving her a small smile of 'thank you'.

Kyouko sighed and turned her serious gaze to Makoto. "Anyway, let's go. You guys will be late for your shifts. It's already 4:30PM."

"Ah! You're right." Sayaka said as she took a quick glance at her wristwatch. "Kirigiri-san, why won't you come with us for a quick afternoon snack in the café?"

"I'll pass. I have a lot of things to do at home."

Despite of how calm and collected Kyouko seemed to appear in front of Sayaka, Makoto could tell that she was nervous – that she's probably feeling awkward being in front of Sayaka after what they have done.

"I see," Sayaka sighed.

"Anyway, let's get going. We've been hanging out in this place for a while," Makoto said. "Why won't you walk with us on your way home, Kirigiri-san? You're going this way right?"

Makoto smiled as he pointed his thumb at the road to his left side.

From the corner of her eye, Kyouko swore she momentarily saw Sayaka's face fell in disappointment. "Did Sayaka wanted to walk with Makoto alone?" She wondered.

"That's a good idea!" Sayaka chirped, keeping her smile in place to hide her true emotions. "I'd be able to talk more to Kirigiri-chan."

Kyouko wanted to refuse Makoto's offer, but before she could do so, Sayaka grabbed her gloved hand tightly and pulled Kyouko with her as she started walking, leaving Makoto tailing behind them.

"M-Maizono w-wait." Kyouko stuttered.

As soon as their pace were in sync, Sayaka let Kyouko's hand go and hooked an arm around Kyouko's, causing the lavender haired girl to find the situation embarrassingly awkward. She had never encountered a person as clingy as the girl. To Kirigiri Kyouko, Maizono Sayaka is the girl that everyone would envy. She has a certain beauty and charm that would captivate every young man's heart and, a bubbly and cheerful personality that makes her appear approachable and friendly to everyone's eyes. Kyouko was certain that Sayaka Maizono is that kind of girl that you'd either resent or love.

Whenever she's in their class, she could hear most of the students there talk about her. Some talking ill and some praising the way she exudes an air of elegance and friendliness.

It's impossible.

It's impossible to hate someone like her.

It's impossible to want the girl to hurt.

To be in pain.

Kyouko… was certain… she doesn't want to see the girl in pain. She doesn't want the girl to have her heart clenching in hurt.

"Kirigiri-chan?" Maizono's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Kyouko slapped her cheek lightly as she blinked her eyes before turning her head to the blue-haired girl.

"I'm sorry. Were you saying something?"

Maizono smiled as she tightened her arm's embrace around Kyouko's.

"I really want you to come along with us in the café," Sayaka said softly. "I really want to hang out with Kirigiri-chan after class. I want to be Kirigiri-chan's friend."

Why?

Kyouko tensed a bit upon hearing those words. It was comical, she thought. At that very moment, she felt as though that the world's going to play with her again. That this time, it would be deciding whether she'd take friendship or romance as her priority.

"Sayaka, you're scaring her." Makoto commented as he caught up a bit to them. "Stop forcing her to tag along if she doesn't want to." He sighed.

"But!—" Sayaka turned her face to Makoto and pouted. "I really want to hang out with Kirigiri-chan."

Seriously, she's like a 5 year old.

"I want to be friends with Kirigiri-chan." Kyouko heard the girl whisper in a barely audible voice as Sayaka turned her head away from Makoto. For some reason, she felt that the girl intentionally said that in a way that she's the only one who could hear her. For some reason, Kyouko's rational mind was telling her that the girl was probably suspecting that something's going on between her and Makoto and thus wanting to be friends with her so that she could prevent any of those feelings to develop further. But… something was also telling her that Sayaka was sincere, as she remembered having a conversation with Sayaka in their class.

"You should express your feelings a bit more, Kirigiri-chan." The blue-haired spoke as she tapped her mechanical pencil lightly against her notebook, eyes were focused at the professor and her hand was cupping her cheek.

"Hm?" Kyouko hummed as she continued jotting down some notes from their lecture.

"I just thought that if you open yourself up a bit people would certainly be falling in line to be friends with a cool girl like you."

Kyouko sighed. "People are more interested to be friends with someone like you, Maizono-san."

Sayaka paused for a bit and heaved a sigh.

"I don't think so." Maizono whispered, her voice – laced with loneliness.

Kyouko remained mute as she looked at the girl from the corner of her eye. Letting her silence to urge the girl to speak her mind.

"Has Makoto mentioned why I work in my father's café, Kirigiri-san?"

"No, we don't talk about other people nor talk to each other about ourselves. We're not as close as you think we are." She said bluntly.

Sayaka chuckled. "I see."

"But would you mind if I tell you why?"

Kyouko shook her head. "No. If you want to talk about it, I'll listen."

"thank you." Sayaka said as she smiled.

The girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she started telling Kyouko the reason behind why she was working in her father's café.

"I wanted to be more independent. I really hate it when they say that I only rely on my parent's wealth," She started. "Most people would see me as someone who's useless. A spoiled girl who could have everything that she wanted in a blink of an eye."

"When I was in middle school… Most of my classmates hated me."

"Why?"

"Despite of trying so hard to make friends and trying so hard to be cheerful and friendly around everyone, most of them always tell me that I am fake and that the grades that I didn't deserve all of the grades that I have in most of my subjects because they were just 'bought'."

Kyouko could see Sayaka's eyes glisten against the light. 'to be alone. . . and to feel that everything's against you is painful. Too painful.' Kyouko thought as she knew the feeling all too well.

"but I try so hard. I try so hard to meet everyone's expectations. My parents, the people around me and to myself… I want… to make my parents proud of me. I want to make friends who doesn't think ill of me behind my back…"

"You can't meet everyone's expectation, Maizono-san. If you do that, you're going to lose who you are. You should just live your life the way you want it to be. And I'm pretty sure there are people out there who are friends with you and doesn't think ill of you behind your back," Kyouko responded calmly. "I know that what you've been through is painful. But… You can't think of everyone as people who talks behind your back. I'm pretty sure Naegi-kun isn't like that."

"I'm pretty sure that everyone who talks ill to you when you're not around are those who envies you. You have a lot of outstanding qualities to be envied for anyway."

Kyouko could tell that Maizono's eyes widened upon hearing such words from her. It was obvious that Maizono never expected to hear those from her, let alone to have her spout lengthy and encouraging words. Kyouko was quite surprise herself that she was able to tell Sayaka what she had in mind upon hearing her story.

The conversation ended with a genuine smile from the blue-haired girl as she whispered a soft and sincere, "thank you." Kyouko returned the smile and since then, Kyouko felt as though that she needed to be by this girl's side – she felt connected to her in some way.

Even though their circumstances were completely different.

The feeling of being alone.

Of being hurt.

And being in pain.

Kyouko knows those feelings all too well.

"If you need someone. I'll always be here to listen." were the words she spoke that started their friendship.

A friendship that could possibly crumble as soon as the time would come that Kyouko would have to face her and tell her that she shares the same feelings towards the person she loves most.

"Kirigiri-chan, please?" Maizono begged childishly as she looked at her with puppy eyes.

Kyouko sighed in defeat as she forced herself to smile.

"Okay but only for a while."

Maizono hugged her from her side. "Thank you, Kirigiri-san!" She squealed cheerfully as if she had won a lottery.

Kyouko patted her head gently and took a quick glance at Makoto.

And she swore she saw the boy wearing a displeased and anxious look on his face.

A/N : Hello guys, sorry if I haven't updated this fan fic for a week or so. I have been very busy with some things in my life and I couldn't fit writing into my messed up schedules.

Anyway, I haven't proof read this one so if there are any corrections or any questions please feel free to comment it down below.

The flashback where Kyouko was talking to Sayaka happened before Sayaka told Kyouko about her feelings towards Makoto.

I really hope you guys like this fic. :D

Anyway, with Christmas Vacation right around the corner. I'll have more time to write! Yey!

I'm still going to continue my other fic but I might write another one soon and if i get too into it, i might put the other one(when the snow falls) on hold and focus on the new one. (It's still Naegiri.)

Anyway that's all anddd

Love you guys!