Yes or No

Chapter 8: Gumi's Parents

Rin

The next few days Gumi acted normal with Yuma and I, but she wouldn't talk to Len. She avoided him all the time and wouldn't sit with him in class or at lunch. He tried to talk to her a few times, but she'd ignore him and a couple times she started crying as she ran away. I've tried to ask her why she's treating him this way, but she refuses to tell me.

I saw her by her locker after school and went to talk to her.

"Hey, Gumi! What's up?" I said.

"Nothing really," she smiled, but it seemed forced.

"I was wondering...do you wanna hang out?"

"Sure. Today or tomorrow?"

"Oh, tomorrow. I can't today."

"Alright, I have to go then. My mom is waiting."

She turned to leave, looking upset, but then she faked a smile and left. She walked quicker than seemed necessary. I didn't have much time to think about it before Yuma appeared and hugged me.

"How's Gumi?" He asked.

"She's acting like everything's fine, but it doesn't look like it. I'm really worried. She said I can come over tomorrow, so I'm going to try and get it out of her."

"I hope it works out."

"Yes, definitely. Right now I need to find Len. He wasn't by his locker."

"I'll help you."

Yuma released me from his hug, but held my hand as he lead me around the halls. It was about fifteen minutes before we found Len in the library. He was on his phone looking at a Wikipedia article titled: Reasons Girls Get Mad/Dump you. I took his phone away. Yuma felt bad for him, but I could tell he thought the article was funny.

"Why are you reading this, Len?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Why do you think? I'm sure I did something wrong. If I can just fix it everything will be okay...."

"You're wrong. You didn't do anything wrong. She's wrong, and I'm going to find out what's going on. She said I can go to her house after school tomorrow. I'll get it out of her. And, you know, even if it doesn't work out... I know you're upset and so am I, but you have to remember you're fourteen, Len. You'll be able to move on and you'll find someone else."

"But I don't want someone else, Rin. I want her."

"I know. I'll talk to her, Len. We'll at least figure out what's going on."

"Yeah... thanks."

Len obviously didn't feel any better. We said goodbye to Yuma and went home. All night I tried to cheer Len up, but nothing worked. He just stayed in bed reading articles that were making him more and more depressed. Our parents were getting really worried.

The next day after school, after hugging Len goodbye and Yuma hugging me goodbye, I went home with Gumi. We had a snack and did our homework right away. We talked as if nothing was wrong. I could tell Gumi was tense, like she knew I'd say something about Len and was waiting for it, but she tried to hide it. About twenty minutes after we'd finished working I decided to ask her.

"Gumi, please tell me what's wrong. Len's very upset. I can tell you're upset. I'm your friend; I want to help."

"I don't want to talk about it."

She replied immediately. There were tears in her eyes already. It was clear that, as it got later, she started hoping I wouldn't bring this up.

"Tell me, Gumi. Why won't you? I can see you're hurting. What's wrong?"