Chapter 1

Akiro walked inside and dropped her luggage near the couch. With an excited grin he faced her "Welcome to your new house Misaki."

She gave him an apprehensive smile, still unaccustomed with Akiro's surprisingly happy-go-lucky personality. Despite being close to Akiro's son, she never got the chance to be close to him. He was always traveling and managing their businesses abroad and Misaki only met him a couple times, the last time was at their family reunion almost 10 years ago. He became a full time dad and stayed in the city when his wife died from cancer 5 years ago and that's also when she stopped seeing her cousin, they still kept in touch despite living a hundred miles away from each other. Basing from her memory her Uncle Akiro hasn't aged a lot; with his tall built, brown eyes and stylish hair nobody would think that he's almost in his 50s.

"Thank you Uncle Akiro," she said with utmost sincerity, she will be forever in debt to him for taking her in. When her dad abandoned them when Misaki was born, her mom raised her by herself with the help of her grandfather. But as early as her dad left them, Misaki's mom followed suit when she died from a car accident when she was five. She can barely remember what her mom looked like. And just early in the summer her grandfather lost his battle with his brain tumor and she was left with nobody. All her other relatives passed around the responsibility to take care of her until Akiro found out and without any second thought took her under his wings.

"Stop thanking me. We are family," Noticing that she stood frozen at the door way, he ushered her inside. "Don't be shy. Come in, I will show you to your room."

Misaki looked around as they made their way to her new room, they have a 3-bedroom house with 2 baths. A pretty common house for a small family. Despite not having a female figure in their household they were able to keep the house tidy and clean and that gave her satisfaction. As they reached the second floor of the house, he showed her to her bedroom. It was a lot bigger than her old room. The colour theme of the room was kept neutral which she was very thankful for.

"I will let you get settled in while I prepare our dinner. Are you going to be fine here?"

"Tha-," Misaki stopped midsentence and gave him a genuine smile for the first time since they met again "I will be fine. I will start unpacking my stuff," Akiro gave her a warm smile.

Misaki took off her baseball cap and placed it on the night table. She unzipped her luggage and started placing her clothes in her closet.

"Well look who it is," Misaki turned around and her eyes widened in disbelief. She eyed him from head toe, her cousin has certainly changed a lot since the last time they saw each other. Who would have thought that her once girly cousin would become masculine? His shrilly voice has developed into a deep and husky voice and the once girly clothes he used to wear all the time was replaced with jeans and preppy shirts. "Aoi. What happened to you?"

Aoi glared at her, obviously catching on her teasing. "Wow, you still look the same," he retorted back. Misaki stood up and lightly punched him on the arm then pulled him in for a hug.

"I missed you."

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She looked herself in the mirror and nodded in approval. After grabbing her bag and putting her cap on she headed to the door.

"We will see you later Uncle Akiro," she waved goodbye and got into Aoi's car.

Ten minutes later and they pulled into the parking lot of her new school. They got off the car and Aoi waved to the other students passing by. After getting her schedule at the administration office Aoi dropped her off to her first class.

"Eat lunch with us later so I can introduce you to my friends," with that he disappeared with the crowd of students rushing to their classes.

With the room almost filled with students, she spotted an empty spot a few seats from the front. The two girls occupying the seats nearby stopped from their conversation and took notice of her.

"I haven't seen you before. Are you a new student?" The red head asked enthusiastically as soon as Misaki took her seat next to them.

Misaki looked back at them and answered hesitantly "Yeah I am a new student."

She took a good look at them as she noticed their eyes observing her intently. She slightly became conscious of herself as she already knows what they are thinking. All her life she has never really connected with other girls. Misaki grew up playing with boys, making friends with the same sex became a bit of a hassle to her since she didn't want to play the same game as them. Instead of playing house and Barbie's or drink tea with their stuffed toys. She wanted to play in the mud, climb trees, chase others around, scare the girls with worms.

The short haired girl fixed her glasses and extended her hands to Misaki "I am Shizuko and this is Sakura," she pointed at the redhead with two pigtails excitedly waving her hands at Misaki.

"Misaki," she shook Shizuko's hands and looked straight ahead to mind her own business. The two exchanged looks and shrugged.

A middle age man entered after the room after the bell rung. Everyone took their seats.

"I heard that we have a new student today," he looked around and spotted the unfamiliar face. He looked at Misaki and added "Can you introduce yourself?"

Everyone looked at her direction and started whispering. Public speaking has never been an issue to her, she knows how to handle herself.

"I am Misaki Ayuzawa, its nice to meet you all," She bowed and took her seat. A small chuckle erupted from the back of the room. Misaki didn't bother to look back to see the sources, she focused her attention to the class.

As soon as the lecture was over Misaki sauntered to the door when she felt an arm linking to hers "Have lunch with us," a familiar voice eagerly said.

"I cant my cous-" Misaki tried to escape she knows Aoi will be waiting for her.

"Please, please, please," Sakura pouted her lips. Misaki exhaled and nodded her head. The last thing she wanted to do in her first day is to offend her classmates. They sat under a big tree located on the side of the building. Once they began eating Kagome removed her cap and fanned herself, the temperature in the city was much warmer than in the province. Sakura watched her carefully.

"Why did you cut your hair so short?" she asked as she took a bite from her sandwich

Misaki gave her a tensed laugh, she reached for her hair and fixed it quickly before putting her hat back on.

"I just don't like having long hair. Its just too much work so I cut it short when I was seven and maintained it like this ever since then."

She still remembers running around with her long hair when she was a kid, it would fly to her face, stick to her sweaty back. It was such a hassle combing out the tangles in her hair and making sure its in place. One time she was playing around and her messy hair got stuck on the fence as she was trying to climb over it. After an hour of untangling it, she fumingly ran back to their house looked for a pair of scissors and chopped her hair off. Grandpa Kenny wasn't very pleased at the sight he walked into after just leaving her quickly to buy groceries. But he was very accepting, he loved her for who she was.

"It is such a shame; your hair looks very healthy and your eyes are very pretty, I bet you would look very beautiful with long hair and a dress. We need a make over. Shizuko we need to go shopping with Misaki and-" Shizuko stuffed Sakura's mouth with a strawberry.

"Excuse my friend, she can be a handful sometimes," Shizuko gave Misaki a smile and then glared at her friend, "and can be very ignorant too."

"Don't worry about it," She looked down and munched on her food, it has always been like that, hanging out with girls. Misaki knows she's different from the other girls, she has always been an outcast. They disapprove and criticize how she dresses and how she acts. But she became accustomed to it, that's the real her and nothing can change that.

"Have you dated anyone? If you don't mind me asking," Sakura continued her interrogation.

"Ask away. No I have no experience in dating yet"

"So are you attracted to girls?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Yeah," Misaki said nonchalantly. She is very particular about her likes and dislikes and has always been open about herself. Being surrounded with boys all her life she never felt attracted to any of them.

"How long have you known that you're only attracted to girls?" Shizuko joined in.

"All my life, I guess. I find boys disgusting and rude," she shook her head in repulse as she thought of her earlier memories with the other boys. "unlike girls who are very clean, pretty and refined and I find those qualities very attractive."

Sakura tilted her head in one side and thought for a moment "Interesting," she gave her a big smile.

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Since the juniors have a free period after their fourth class Misaki decided to stroll around to familiarize herself with the school. As she approached the corner of the second floor, she overheard two figures talking by the staircase.

"Please accept my gift," Misaki stopped in her tracks. A confession was being made.

"Takumi I put so much effort into making this cake. Please accept it," the girl's voice quivered

"No," he responded coldly

The girl pushed the cake towards him as he was about to walk past her and it fell on the floor. The cake splattered on the white tile, the girl looked at her smashed cake and ran away. Takumi stared it for a second and continued walking. Misaki gritted her teeth in annoyance. One thing she can never stand are bullies and arrogant guys. How dare they make fun of these poor, innocent girls?

"Hey, you!"

Takumi looked back and saw her walking quickly towards his direction.

"Well this is new. Are you confessing to me too?" Misaki scoffed in disbelief 'Who does this guy think he is'.

"Did your parents ever teach you how to treat girls properly?" she retorted.

He eyed her for a second and turned his back from her. He continued walking while Misaki was left stunned in her spot. As he disappears from her sight Aoi found her and asked her to come with him "Where were you at lunch?"

"These girls in my class asked me to have lunch with them." She replied still disturbed by her encounter with the narcissistic guy.
They turned on to the next corner "About time you start making friends with the same gender," before Misaki can react he continued "Come on, I will introduce you to my friends." They went inside an empty classroom.

"Hey guys this is my cousin, Misaki," Aoi introduced her

"These are my friends, Hinata," Aoi pointed at the guy stuffing his face with bread. "Nice to meet you," he babbled.

"Kouga," the guy playing his guitar quickly waved at Misaki.

"Tora," Aoi pointed at the guy sitting next to Kouga. Tora grinned at her.

"And that is Takumi Usui," he pointed at the guy sitting by the window. She moved her head to his direction and her eyebrows scrunched in disgust. Takumi walked towards them, he took the empty seat beside Hinata and stared at her with a bored look.

It was the first time Misaki had the chance to take a good look of the conceited bastard. Chiseled jaw, blonde hair, nice lips, high nose line and smouldering emerald-green eyes. She immediately retreated her look as soon as her thoughts began to wander and instead focused on Hinata who was talking about a new restaurant. She can barely make sense of what he was saying as she can still feel the emerald-eyed guy staring intensely at her. For the first time she wasn't able to control herself, her body failed her objections and inquisitively glanced back at him. A small smile was playing on his lips as his left eyebrow raised suspiciously. Her face reddened and she immediately looked away. 'Who does this guy think he is?'