Noriko felt tired . More tired than she had ever done since she accepted she had fallen in love with Urufu again .

He didn't protest when Yukio suggested he was her boyfriend, but then he didn't acknowledge that she was neither . That kind of left her in limbo, and now she had to push the issue .

They were seated by a huge wooden table in the house that was indeed strangely j.a.panese inside . Very traditionally j.a.panese at that, except for a couple of rooms one of which she sat in right now .

Wooden flooring . She could see the ground beneath her through gaps she believed were deliberate . The room had to be abysmally cold in winter .

Most of the house, the parts that didn't face the street, could just as well have been from some peculiar Edo era movie . With utility details that must have been modern half a century ago skilfully hidden to preserve the look of an old j.a.panese rural home .

She drank the impressions . Even if Urufu hadn't been born into this world, this was still part of what had formed him . Every detail counted now when she was on the verge of finally hauling him in .

The aunt, the old lady of the house, had given her a searching stare and then looked at Urufu . Then, during a fleeting moment when they changed rooms, she grabbed Noriko's arm .

"If you can heal him, then I approve . If you can't, then break up!"

Advertis.e.m.e.ntAs demands went that one was unfair, but Noriko didn't care . If she merely had to move a mountain or two then that was fine . She had smiled at his aunt and met her eyes in what was probably a very rude way .

"I don't need your approval, but I need him whole," she had answered .

That bought her a wolfish grin and a huge surprise . She never expected Urufu to get that part from his mother's side .

Right now it was make or break . They were alone . Urufu sat facing her across the table .

"I need to know," Noriko said . "Are we going out?"

If only she could close her ears . Her eyes were already shut as she waited for his answer .

"Please, Noriko! Look at me if you want me to answer that question!"

She opened her eyes .

"Noriko, there are a number of constraints . . . "

"Yes or no," she demanded .

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He was silent for a moment . "If you want to, yes, but . . . "

'Yes! He said yes!' "I understand . " 'He finally said yes!' "You can tell me all about the buts later, but you're my boyfriend now? I'm your girlfriend?"

"I give," Urufu grinned . "You want this a.r.s.e of a man you can have him . Yes, you're my girlfriend, or I your boyfriend, or whatever you prefer . "

Then a sudden second of fear . "But you don't really love me, or at least won't tell me if you do?"

Urufu's eyes went soft and his grin thinned into a smile . Two hands reached out across the table . "That's the thing . I think I've been in love with you for a while now . I… I just never noticed . "

And she needed to make once thing absolutely crystal clear . More for herself than for anyone else . "But you still love Kuri?"

Urufu nodded . "A part of me always will I'm afraid . Do you still want me as your boyfriend knowing that?"

And she needed an edge . A something that was hers alone . "Did you ever tell her you loved her?"

He shook his head . "Never so she heard . I was too scared . "

"Do you love me?"

"Yes, I love you Noriko . "

It had to suffice . She had something Kuri never got . She had a confession . "I love you Urufu . "

He didn't spoil the moment by stating the obvious, that he already knew . He just squeezed the hands she had placed in his .

In a way she surprised herself . She'd seen Urufu and Kuri, and she'd seen the awful courts.h.i.+p of Yukio's and Kyoko's . Both couples had been madly in love when their mutual feelings were confirmed . Even for Kuri's part . There was no way the tall beauty hadn't known all along . For her own part Noriko mostly felt relief . Maybe the burning feelings would come later . Or maybe they had already pa.s.sed . After all this was the third time she fell in love with him .

But she did feel love . A deep and profound love . So she squeezed back .

It was a perfect moment of shared silence for them . Too perfect .

"You can come out now," Noriko said .

Two, no three faces popped around the door post . All grinning wildly . Then Kyoko dashed to her side .

"I'm happy for you!" There was a moment's hesitation . "For you as well," she added to Urufu, and Noriko knew her friend hadn't forgiven him yet . At that moment Noriko understood how she in ways was older than her friends . Kuri and Urufu excepted obviously . And she also understood something equally important . Kuri was her friend . Noriko hadn't forgiven her for sleeping with Urufu, and maybe she never would, but Kuri was still a friend .

That thought was the final one in a long chain of thoughts and fears . Tears welled up in Noriko's eyes, but she didn't try to blink them away . Instead she let go of Urufu's hands and rose to hug Kyoko .

"I'm happy . I'm so happy," Noriko mumbled into Kyoko's shoulder . "If that had to happen to end what was already broken, then I can live with it . Maybe they needed an end for us to have a beginning . " There was no maybe, and it wasn't the end, but it was an end, and it definitely was the beginning for her and Urufu .

If worst came to worst a day would come when she would have to let him go, but even if such a day eventually came, what was the alternative? To never have him at all? A life where she never got to share her love with him? That was no alternative at all .

"Are you certain about this?" Kyoko whispered .

"Yes," Noriko answered . And neither her voice nor her mind held any lies . "I love him so very much . "