Mao grinned widely as she stepped out of the bathroom unrolling the last curler that was laying in her hair and tossed it aside. She paused looking up slowly at Maki and Megumi who were directly in her vision and Erika who was farther behind looking in eagerly as well. She grinned widely at them all and stepped into the main part of the room.

“So how do I look?” She said arrogantly spinning in the yellow dress that Jun had chosen for her. She couldn’t believe how well it fit, seriously she'd just thought Jun would lie around like Erika usually did but she'd actually helped.

The dress itself came up to just below her knees and had a slit that came up to her mid thigh. She’d decided to wear delicate pale yellow summer slippers, simple diamond studs in her ears and the smallest diamond heart around her neck. Of course it was all horribly real and borrowed courtesy of Erika.

So she didn't sit around and do absolutely nothing but...she did just sit around while the other two faced her wrath more so. Erika had always gotten to be in contact with the nicer side of herself. Mao sighed, she really should consider herself lucky.

Maki almost teared up as she suddenly came upto Mao and hugged her tightly as a mother would her daughter. Mao wouldn't lie...she was shocked. “You look gorgeous. Toma...Toma's going to die and go to heaven.” Maki said patting Mao's hair down. Maki felt a little loss deep inside, she almost didn’t want him to die over Mao. Toma had always kind of been her Plan B she found herself hard to admit. What with his good looks? His perfect personality? His caring hugs? Was it any surprise he was Plan B?

She’d always looked to him when she doubted Shun but even now when she wanted Yamapi she realized she looked to him as Plan B and he hadn’t been promoted to Plan A.

He didn't deserve that kind of treatment she reasoned and stepped back from Mao and stared at her eyes were shining with happiness as she stared down shyly at the necklace she was wearing. She was glad that Mao was going to go out with him. She was giving him a real chance, unlike Maki herself. Maki would never give poor Toma a real chance. She gave Mao's hand a soft grip of strength and let go of it with her pride intact.

This news of a new relationship she could handle. She shuddered slightly as she remembered Megumi had come up to her and hugged her stating her recently changed Relationship Status.

“Finally you’ll feel the suffering of a girlfriend.” Maki said remembering Shun...or really the lack of him yesterday as she gave a weak smile. He still hadn't come upto her and tried to apologize for yesterday, not a phone call, or a text message, or even that horrible post it thing he'd tried once.

Megumi looked at Maki oddly and shook her head. Yamapi had warned her that Maki might be on edge today and to try and calm her down if she got out of hand...but so far Maki just looked really really...sorry for herself. She felt the need to brighten the situation before it got too gloomy and immediately stood up and grinned widely jumping and pushing Maki away jokingly.

“Don’t believe her. A girlfriend never suffers, you ask for ice, he gives you ice, be the bossy one in the relationship neh? I mean look at me. Yamapi and I are just like that! I mean I know he hasn’t really kissed me after that time in the club but it’s nothing to be worried about rightttt? Cause I know we're going to make out tonight now that you're keeping Toma-kun all busy. Otherwise he always got in the way.” Megumi said gripping her shoulder and shaking her slightly to shake out the nerves that were starting to be visible on her best friend's face.

“You girlfriends are like junkies aren’t you? Imagining and not imagining things. Erikaaa save me!!!” She said and glomped Erika who accepted the display of affection by looping her arms around Mao and nodding. Mao suddenly remembered Aki at this moment. Aki...what would Aki have done? Aki would have beaten her up and giggled.

"Baka that's completely pathetic. What's to be afraid of? There's you and there's a guy. It's just like us and Hiro. Except we outnumber him. So shut up and it up. It's not like he's going to you. So just get the night done with. And don't forget to call me right after. We have to do that stupid girly all those other girls do." Aki would say probably in her commanding, bossy, manly voice. She was so strong. That was where Mao had learnt to be strong. Mao had always leeched off others. Learnt from their strengths and weaknesses.

She shook herself out of the reverie she'd fallen into.

“HAIII! I’ll be the only one living it single now eh??” She heard Erika say beside her slowly with a hint of loneliness in her voice. Mao suddenly realized that this was true...Erika was the only one left alone wasn't she? New found sympathy for the girl she held on tighter as if to make up for the loss of her single hood.

“EEHH forgot about me did you?” Jun said happily as he entered the room along with a highly awaited pitcher of iced tea and five plastic cups.

“Talk about doing it frat style. What's with those horrible looking blue and red cups you see in American Pie? Then again what can I expect from an American neh?” Maki said mockingly and immediately stepped forward to grab the pitcher of iced tea and cleared Jun’s view of Mao, which had been priorly blocked.

Mao stood up smiling going towards the iced tea as well and Jun found himself slowly gravitating towards her as he stared closely at her.

He'd stopped breathing again. He didn’t know why…he couldn’t figure it out. As he looked at her she seemed to shine like a sunflower now. And this time as she turned around to smile at them all...she was smiling at him. There wasn't even a trace of that scowl he’d previously been privy to when she’d been dressed in silver.

Every single color looked good on her though, he saw as she picked up an orange dress and tossed it aside away from her. That looked like it would fit her too. Wasn’t that impossible? Wasn’t there supposed to be one she looked fat in according to Murphy’s Law or something? He was sure there was! Even Serena Van Der Woodsen a far more perfect woman than MAO looked horrible in anything that was the color cerulean.

With this realization he also found that he could now recognize the color cerulean.

"Condoms can snap." He said suddenly and everyone stopped moving to stare at Jun.

And then they burst out laughing. Maki and Megumi leant on each other for support as they wiped the tears forming in their eyes away. Jun suddenly blushed when he realized what he'd said. Oh god...why was he born such a dumb idiot? It was nothing short of a miracle they couldn't tell right then and there that he was a guy.

“Oh lord...Jun-chan you're too cute. What do you think Jun-chan?” She asked doing a twirl for him and the dress moved perfectly in sync with her body and Jun could hardly believe that scrap of material he’d randomly picked up could look so perfect on her.

Usually he would say that the dress would make the beauty of the woman who wore it but as he stared on at Mao he found his opinion changing. Whatever scrap of cloth Mao put on, be it silk, satin or potato sack, she would make it's beauty.

“I’m jealous,” He said slowly almost not believing himself what was exiting his mouth. She giggled and nodded as if she understood completely.

If only she did.

“I can tell your jaw is almost to the floor. Sorry Jun-chan I’m so hot no guy would ever look at you. Especially not Toma-kun.” She said jokingly patting his back in solace and Jun giggled fakely back. He wished she'd stop that. On top of looking so utterly beautiful she was not allowed to touch him. How disgusting this was.

It was all so pathetic of himself. He wanted to hit himself at what he was feeling. He wished that she wouldn't grip his shoulder like this now...not now when all he wanted to do right now was grab Mao and lift her in his arms and take her away.

Like he was some sort of fairytale prince who'd come to rescue his princess. As if. He wasn't the type of boy to save a damsel in distress. They could save themselves if they got themselves in the mess in the first place couldn't they?

Then again Mao didn't want to be saved from Toma. Toma was her knight in shining armor and even if he wanted to be one she didn't need an extra one hanging around slowing her relationship with Toma down.

But he still wanted to at least bring her close to his body, and...hug her. Hug her like he would Aya.

He was surprised at the feeling of affection coming forth from somewhere inside him.

Was it his heart?

Had it actually beat?

He was almost sure he’d heard it beat from somewhere within?

Yes it was his heart that was speeding up. Now it went faster and faster and he was sure that if he didn’t take Mao into his arms now he would faint or give himself away as a man.

So he did what any logical man would do when he was so fervored with emotion for a girl who a)he was not supposed to have emotions for and b) didn't deserve said emotions at all and c)didn't really want them.

He grabbed her best friend and hugged her immediately.

Erika was shocked as to Jun’s sudden display of affection towards her as well. She didn’t know why everyone was hugging her today. It wasn't like they did it on a normal basis or anything but like any other girl she welcomed the hug and hugged Jun back but his hug was awfully strong...almost like a man's but he let go off her so quickly she couldn't feel it anymore.

Jun sniffed out Mao’s scent on Erika as he let go of her and grinned as he spoke up.

“Listen up couple esss we the ones that be kicking right Erika?” He said suddenly able to find himself to breathe. He was talking like Aya he realized and quickly cracked a smile at the thought. Aya...he'd see her tomorrow after a whole long while. How would she look?

Obviously the same cause it had been barely a week or so but still he couldn't help it. He was too excited to see her.

He looked at Megumi’s face who was looking at him oddly as if she'd just sensed that something was terribly wrong. She was too smart that one. Jun offered her as bright a smile as possible and watched her return it but Jun noticed quickly she wasn’t at all good at hiding her emotions. He put in some stoniness in his gaze to make sure she wouldn't speak a word or even ask him about her suspicions. He hated lying to people only because he at it and they often figured him out.

This time he couldn't afford that leisure though.

“Bakaaa being in a couple is great. I mean you have your boyfriend’s shoulder to cry on, to cuddle with, to kiss whenever you want. Really it’s fabulous Mao trust me,” Maki said but found herself unwilling to actually believe her own words. She'd changed what she'd said just two or three minutes ago to keep Mao happy. Ahh Mao better thank her one day for tucking her own real thoughts away for her sake again. If only she could tell Mao that it was as fabulous as people made it seem she wished as Mao sat down on her bed and Maki decided to plop down beside her as Jun kept his arm looped in Erika’s.

Erika grinned widely and rested her head on Jun’s shoulders surprising him. She surprised him even more by contradicting Maki. “I think being with your friends is the best really. They support you, they let you cry on their shoulders too, their cuddles aren’t as comfortable but…they’re always there. There’s no chance of them ever leaving you neh? They love you...forever.” She said and grinned widely at everyone as they all stared at Erika surprised by the words of wisdom leaving .

“We’ll never leave each other,” Maki said hugging Mao and Megumi quickly came over behind Maki and hugged her and Erika went behind Megumi and hugged her and Mao grinned widely as she looked back to the chain behind her. She really did love her friends a lot.

And then she realized that she felt like someone was left out. Oh yeah that was right! Jun was in the room too. It would feel awkward hugging someone she barely knew but she couldn't make her feel left out now could she? Especially when she'd invited Jun herself.

So she looked at Jun and pointed in front of her.

“Come on Jun!” Mao spoke grinning widely as she opened her arms wide for Jun to settle into.

Jun’s heart, if possible, started beating even faster as he settled down in his designated spot in front of her.

For a second Mao hesitated as she slowly felt her arms wrap around Jun's muscular feeling waist.

Jun gulped slowly thankful for the fact that no one could see the shaky emotions he was displaying on his face as he felt her arms wrap themselves tightly around his waist. The moment her hands clasped around his waist he stopped breathing again.

Mao hesitantly started leaning forward and laid her head on Jun's back...she couldn't help but note how warm and comfy it felt. Almost like a boyfriend's back. So this would be what life with Toma would be like? She wouldn't mind this at all.

Jun lent his head back to try and lay the back of his head on hers but she lay far too low and his head couldn't bend that far back so he settled for just staying still for the rest of the time.

And then suddenly his cell phone vibrated.

Oddly enough the vibrations went throughout all of them and they all broke their circle of ‘friendship’.

“OI! Jun! You are such a moment wrecker. Go answer your phone.” Megumi said shaking her head in dissaproval and Jun muttered an apology and ran out of the room. It was Sawajiri Erika.

About thirty minutes later Toma and Yamapi and Shun were out in the lounge room waiting for Mao but instead the found Jun wandering her way in texting something furiously on her phone.

“Oi Jun where’s Mao?” Toma asked impatiently his mood considerably ruined. One could only guess the reason Yamapi shrugged as he stared at the door. He really felt bad for Mao now. Three hours ago he'd have been willing to bet this date would go off without a hitch, Toma would be a perfect gentleman, Mao would be the perfect lady to be beside him.

But now after Shun's revelation that he'd gotten close to doing it with Maki Toma had been in the worst mood possible. To get him out of the washroom and willing not to cancel the date itself had been a huge accomplishment for Yamapi. One he almost wished he could list on his resume. It had taken that much effort.

Jun looked at Toma an eyebrow raised but shrugged it off. Usually Toma was far nicer to her, coming up and hugging her and kissing her cheek and all this random weirdness he oddly enough had stopped minding.

Toma noticed how red Jun was, what was she doing texting her lover or something? Usually he would have hugged Jun but today all he felt like doing was killing everyone in the room with him. They all just seemed so annoying right now. Yamapi gave him a look of warning, which was out of the ordinary because usually it was the other way around.

“She’s coming Toma, Shanti Om dude.” Jun said and Toma looked at Jun as if he was crazy. Jun sighed; really people in Japan weren’t at all culturally diverse. Did they really not know Om Shanti Om?

“She’s coming out now. I think…yeah Erika just texted me saying so. Oh see you can hear her.” It was true they could all hear Mao’s somewhat shy screams. 'I CAN'T GO LOOKING LIKE THIS...STUPID JUN PICKING THIS DRESS!'

Jun gulped and turned away from seeing her face because he didn’t want to die due to lack of oxygen. Experiencing two attacks in one day would probably be really bad for his lungs.

As Mao entered surrounded by her friends Yamapi himself was shocked at how ladylike and gorgeous she looked in that gorgeous colored dress...but soon after he found his attention slowly sliding to Maki who was dressed plainly in a plaid skirt and white shirt. She looked like nothing special but the look on her face as she grinned at Mao and winked at Toma teasingly caused him to gulp nervously.

He turned to look at Toma and could easily see that Toma wasn’t appreciating Mao at all, the effort she’d put in for him. He was looking back at Maki with the exact same gaze he should have been offering his date. Yamapi found himself wanting to beat up his best friend. Sure his own gaze was attracted to Maki as well but if he was going out on a date with Megumi he would have definetely ignored her presence as if it didn't exist, no matter how magnetic it was. He looked to Maki again and saw that now she was staring back at him and quickly he averted his eyes from hers. She would be another Yui, he was sure of it.

And around a second later a “Let’s go Mao,” was heard from Toma's part as he grabbed her hand and Yamapi saw that almost as quickly as she had come in, she was gone. The rest of them stood there for a while. Questioning everything that would happen from this day forth. Now if anything happened between these couples there would be a huge fight. If Toma and Mao broke up Megumi and Yamapi would fight constantly,. The same went for Toma and Shun. And now they were all officially paired off into couples, sans Erika of course and the newly added Jun.

But hopefully all of those people in the room, sans Jun who didn't care about anything, hoped that the bonds they had with each other now would never break.

Maki stared on at Yamapi as he started towards Megumi who was standing beside her. If she squinted her eyes it looked almost as if he was coming upto her. She could let this feeling wash over her couldn't she? The feeling that he was coming for her. So slowly she shut her eyes and pretended that the man coming towards the girl beside her was coming for her.

She wondered why as she imagined his smiling face in her head. He never smiled, it was Shun's smile that had made her fall in love with him, he never cried, it was Shun's sensitivity to things that had attracted her, his eyes were hidden and inexpressive of his true feelings, it was Shun's open book quality that she adored about him.

So why a guy like him? He'd break her heart for sure. Guys like him broke every girl's heart, at least in most shojo mangas they did. She flicked her eyes open and saw the smile she longed for, it was there just not directed at her. She saw the slight caress he cast on Megumi's arm. There was the sensitivity. It just all wasn't meant for her.

Shun may have been ignoring her for the past couple of days but he wasn't oblivious. He saw as soon as she entered the room her eyes had averted to Yamapi's face and it wasn't long before he'd replied with the same heated gaze. He looked at the arm that Maki was looking at now. The arm he would usually arm wrestle with looked tense and fake. Almost as if it didn't want to touch Megumi just yet.

He let his eyes run over to Maki's face. Her eyes spelled out hurt. Hurt...pain. And as he stared at her face he felt the slight stab at his heart.

As he stared at her hand he saw that it was slowly moving towards Yamapi's own hand. What was she trying to do? In broad daylight? Was she mad? In front of Megumi and himself at that?!

He stared at her face now and saw that it was eagerly reaching for skin to skin contact with Pi. He quickly rushed over unable to help himself as he grabbed her outstretched hand and dragged her away.

"Let's go Maki." He said and Maki tried to struggle against him but she found herself tightly under the grip of his wrist.

Perhaps...perhaps he could do it today. Shun thought weakly. Yeah...there was no point anyways. He'd tried to break down the walls Maki had built up around herself with moving onto the next stage in their relationship. That hadn't worked. He'd tried forgetting about Mao with the next step too. That hadn't worked.

And maybe it was time to stop pretending. They were only hurting themselves, they were only making rumors.

And now he realized as he looked deep inside his heart for his feelings for Maki, for something, for anything.

There was nothing left.

Not for her.

As he looked back to see her while he pulled her towards the courtyard outside, he saw that she was staring intently at Yamapi, who was looking back just as attentively as he could without Megumi noticing. Shun wasn't dumb.

There was nothing left for him either.
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A/N: Oh my lord this chapter ended up being so short. I'm so sorry. I've completely changed the outlook of this chapter now that I've actually posted it. I'm really sorry guys nothing much happened in this chapter because of it. The next one has more action because of that. Cause I realized at the very end that I wanted Shun to break up with Maki now. So I started that plot off.

Thanks as usualll to my lovely lovely reviewers: biniBningPunkista, xxing, makitear-chan, zing, sara, deppfan, discoteque, Ichigokut3, andddd GL!

THANKS AND SUPER GLOMPS TO ALL!!

And without further adoooo THE KATTUNXMAKI CONFERENCE SPECIAL!

Junno: So today we're revisiting Maki-chan actor's conference style! So Maki-chan how are you doin'?

Maki: OMG! WERE YOU TRYING TO REMIND ME OF JOEY FROM FRIENDS.

Kame: He totally was. It's what he does on a regular basis Maki-chan ignore him.

Nakamaru: So Maki-chan last time you said you could fall asleep anywhere right? I challenge you to fall asleep on my shoulder!

Koki: What the hell is that about?

Ueda: Agreed don't be so y with poor Maki-chan. She's a good cook...you don't get y with cooks. It's just wrong. *goes to shield Maki with protective powers*

Nakamaru: I totally wasn't being y was I Maki-chan? And you aren't a good cook either are you?

Maki: Actually no that was kind of y. And if I'm going to get insulted why am I here again?

Jin: CAUSE I WANTED TO HANG OUT WITH YOU BUT THESE STUPID IDIOTS AREN'T LETTING ME. Okay let me make this clear to you guys. *pushes Maki away so he talks to KATTUN privately* Okay so I requested this so I could get some private time with her. You guys are like...background actors you know.

Kame: Since when have I ever let you have the spotlight only on yourself?

Jin: You're right. I'm ed aren't I? You guys aren't going to listen to me are you? And thus I'll never get private time with Maki-chan will I?

Koki: Basically....

Junno: Yeah! Besides with my gorgeous hair *does hair flip* she'd never want you anyways. *starts towards Maki but is pushed away by Kame* Itai! *rubs shoulders in a girly manner*

Kame: So Maki...you're looking a lot prettier everytime I see you. You have to have a boyfriend by now right?

Maki: I'm incredibly career oriented. *smiles at being able to come up with a good answer for this question*

Nakamaru: *pushes Kame away* Which means I have a chance right?

Maki: Nah that questions just always going to be in the back of my head now when I think of you Nakamaru panda-kun!

Nakamaru: Why a panda?

Maki: I actually have no idea. When I think of you a panda comes into head. All cuddly and all.

Nakamaru: Ah soka hahaha I'm cuddly you hear that guys?! I'm cud- *is pushed away by Ueda* What do you think of when you think of me?

Maki: *grins widely cause she knows the answer to this question* PRETTY!

Ueda: *doesn't know how to respond and goes away himself and is replaced by Koki*

Koki: So we should hang out in Shibuya one day neh? You said I'd fit in there perfectly right? Well I think we'd fit in there perfectly.

Maki: Gomen ne...remember. I'm extremely career oriented.

Koki: *tearing up* I WANTED TO BE THE CUDDLY ONE YOU KNOW!

Maki: *EVIL SMILE as she pushes him away*

Toma: ! Let's go Maki-chan! *tries to runaway with Maki from the stage*

Maki: EHH TOMA!? Where'd you come from?

Toma: Please...this conference is not supposed to be about you getting hit on by a bunch of low life guys who totally don't deserve you. Let's go.

Maki and Toma: *leave*

Jin: *cries in a corner* YOU GUYS ! You just wanted to annoy me and that's why you kept bugging Maki-chan so much that in the end Toma came to save her and I was the one who wanted her on the show and I didn't even get to talk to her and YOU GUYS !

Junno: You said that already. *hair flip*

Jin: So what if I'm repetitive huhhhhh? *cries some more*

Kame: BOORING. Wanna go to Ginza then guys?

Jin: CRUEL CRUEL KAME! Won't share the spot light or the really cute girl!

Ueda: *is ignoring Jin* Yeah I need to pick up new shoes anyways. Nakamaru?

Nakamaru: *is also ignoring Jin* Sure man. Got nothing else to do.

Jin: DON'T IGNORE ME!

Koki: *ignores him some more* I wanna go to that really nice host club there. There's some girl called Ayaka who works there right?

Jin: *ears perk up* You mean Rosa?

Kame: You know her Jin?

Jin: *is already out the door* MUAHAAHAA HERE I COME ROSA DARLING HERE I COME!

Kame: *goes and locks the door and turns around* Toma you can come out now!

Toma: *comes out with Maki* You guys man. Hella fun. I love your pranks!

Maki: What was that about?

KTTUN: *evil smile*

A: *thinks he has a head start on getting Rosa to sit with him*

/THE END!

Sorry if it wasn't funny enough T.T Got lazy and sleepy but I knew that I had to put this up for you guys so I rushed it a little towards the end. T.T