I'm Supposed to Love You?

The taste of his mouth, the feel of his lips, his scent; it
was almost as if Nozomi was still kissing him. She was furious that Leto did
that to her. She was not going to even give Leto the chance to marry, or mate,
or what ever Leto wanted to do with him!

She would not stand for it.

“What the HELL were you doing?” Nozomi screamed, making a
scene in front of the entire school. A few students near the group stopped
talking to watch the interchange between her and Shuichi.

“I was merely kissing you, what do you think I was doing?”

“You were trying to play tonsil hockey with me, I’m sorry to
say, I don’t, didn’t, nor will I ever wish to play that game again!”

“I’m sorry, but Leto was my mate and I wish to mate her
again. There is no stopping the bond that we already possess, and when that
bond is formed again...” Shuichi began to whisper.

“-I already told you, I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!” Nozomi was
quickly losing control of her temper. “I do not and WILL NOT love
you. I have never had the intention of being one of your little fucked up fan
girls, following your every move and praying that one day you will want to bed
me.”

“...but I would like to bed you. You have always been
someone that I have admired from afar. I kept trying to improve my knowledge to
impress you. What do I have to do to gain your respect?”

“Leave me alone.”

“But...how can I when every fiber
of my being is yearning to be with you. To be near you.
To love you.”

“You will need to learn to deal with it,
once you can do that then I might reconsider your request to be with me. Until
then, learn to be alone. Without your fan club and without
your pompous attitude.”

Hands clenched to strike if he attempted to make a move on
her, Nozomi picked herself off the floor and began her march away from him.

“Attention students and faculty,” the announcing voice
declared over the loudspeaker. “Seeing as what ever problem our facility was
having has been resolved, it would be very much appreciated if I could ask all
current participants in the tournament to meet at the questioner’s desk. We
will be taking a vote on whether or not the professors and participants would
like to progress to the next stage of questioning or if they would prefer to go
home.”

Nozomi was hoping to be able to get home as quickly as
possible, but something inside her wanted to finish the tournament. The next
stage was supposed to be sudden death so she voted ‘HAI’ hoping that the rest
of the participants would do the same.

As the votes were being tallied up, Nozomi noticed Shuichi
standing on the side with bloodshot eyes. She wasn’t able to make out if he had
been crying or if it was just allergies.

Slowly moving herself through the crowd she was able to make
out his words to the rest of his friends.

“I don’t know why she wouldn’t give me a chance; I want to
make things work. I want her to realize that I think highly of her and respect
her for everything that she’s done. She’s such an amazing girl. No, she’s not a
girl; she’s still that amazing youkai that I mated so
many years ago. She’s got the same spark to her that she’s always had,” and
with that Shuichi lost his front and broke down crying again.

Nozomi could believe it, Shuichi was crying. And not crying
over just anything, but he was crying over her. It took her some time to
realize that she was spacing out.

By the amount of commotion and the direction of the crowd,
Nozomi was able to assume that the tournament was going to continue. Quickly
returning to her seat, Nozomi readied herself for the next round.

“I would like to remind everyone that this is going to be a
sudden death round, so instead of using your buzzers we will be playing this
more like an American ‘Bee’,” the quiz master stated. “Now to begin...”