What's A Fujoshi To Do...In A Boy's Body???

7

Khao walked to school, wary of why Kaede was keeping such a close eye on him. He'd had a legitimate cold the past couple days, keeping him from school, but now he was feeling fine and able to go back. This whole mess with Nin had made him physically ill. After thinking about it, he decided they'd both overreacted, and both needed to apologize. He still cringed at the memory of the look on Nin's face when Khao had said they were nothing. Well, Khao had wanted Nin to hurt as much as he'd been hurt, so he'd said the one thing he knew would make Nin back off at the moment.

Then like the coward Khao was, he'd ran all the way home.

He glanced over at Kaede. The night prior had been so surreal...he was tempted to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't actually dreaming. Kaede had willingly come into his room to bring him some soup and cold medicine. She even took his temperature and sat with him until he'd fallen asleep.

"Hika-, I mean, Khao-chan?"

Khao blinked, not used to her calling him by his boy name. "Yes, Kaede-chan?"

Kaede seemed to relax at the use of Japanese. "I just wanted to apologize for my cruel behavior the past few weeks. I realize now it wasn't fair to you, and I'm sorry. I never thought about what you were going through, being transformed like that against your will. All I could think about was how my life had changed, and I no longer had my confidant or best friend, and..." she trailed off, lower lip quivering.

Khao pulled her into a tight hug. "Don't worry about it, Kaede-chan. You'll always be my sister, and I'll always love you no matter what. Even if you do act like a brat sometimes."

Kaede hiccup-laughed, swatted Khao on the shoulder as she hugged him back. "I love you, too. Even if it didn't seem like it. I even tried to find a way for you to change back."

"Really???" Khao pulled back excitedly. "Did you find anything??"

The sorrowful look on Kaede's face brought the depression crashing down again. "No. I wasn't even sure what I was looking for."

"It's okay, Kaede-chan. What counts is you tried, and for that I'm really grateful," Khao smiled reassuringly, hugging his sister again.

"I'm sorry I haven't been a better sister. But don't worry! I raked that awful senior over the coals."

Khao snorted. "Oh, I would've paid to see that."

"He's such a jerk, demanding so much from you when you two weren't even official. He deserves a kick in the pants," Kaede grumbled.

"I already kinda smacked him with my words," Khao admitted.

Kaede beamed up at him. "Good! I'm glad. He deserved it, the big ape."

Khao let out a peal of laughter.

XXX

There was no practice that day, so Khao kept trying to think up a way to go see Nin without looking desperate. Maew was against the idea, saying Nin deserved to stew in his jealousy and regret for a while longer. Moji said they'd both been wrong, but Nin was the senior and should've realized that Khao was having a bad day and shouldn't have said such hurtful things.

Khao agreed. He walked away from the classroom after the last class to look for Nin, eager to put the last time they'd been together behind them. That, and he wanted to tell him about 'Hikaru'.

"Nin, do you even like that kid?"

"What kid."

Khao ducked around a corner without thinking. He peeked back around, watching as Nin, Tee and another friend came walking down the hallway. Is P'Tee talking abut me?