The Wedding (Dress)
Part III of The Wedding series.
The day Natsume Hyuuga and Mikan Sakura had been confirmed to be more or less a couple (they assumed it was when the former blatantly planted a kiss on the latter's lips in public), it meant that their relationship would then be a public property. In a nutshell, it gave everyone the excuse to talk about their relationship, whether the ones concerned are around or they aren't. Naturally, it infuriated both of them—at first.
"They gossip about the same damned thing every single day," Natsume had grumbled.
Mikan had just pulled him out of making a scene in Central Town. They were out on a date, one that supposedly only be spent alone together in a café. Since their relationship was never neither boring nor normal, they had ended up sitting right next to a group of loud preppy middle school students raucously discussing Mikan's pitiful love life prior to going steady with Natsume.
"Not really," Mikan giggled, finding humor in her boyfriend's distress, "Last time I heard them, they were talking about my hair."
"Bottom line is, it's still about us."
Mikan rolled her eyes. "Stop overreacting. Better yet, we should just feed the rumor mill instead."
With his raised eyebrows, he seemed skeptical when he asked her, "Are you serious?"
But that was exactly what they did.
After that, they just both went along with what everybody says about them. Sometimes it'd even confuse their friends.
"Did you really sleep in Natsume's room last night?" Koko had whispered over breakfast, his eyes narrowed. Everyone else in the table—Sumire, Hotaru, Yuu, and Mochu at that time– were focused on their food, but their ears obviously perked when Koko had gotten the sudden bravado to ask.
Mikan's face remained blank. "Whatever do you mean?"
"What are they saying now?" Natsume snickered.
Koko leaned back and gulped. "I'd rather not say."
Sumire was first to break from the silence, but her eyes remained fixated on her bowl of cereal. "They said Mikan was half naked in Natsume's room last night."
Mikan laughed out loud, and Natsume scowled.
"Maybe we should tell everyone the truth then…" Mikan's voice trailed off, all the while controlling her laughter.
Hotaru had set down her cup of coffee. "What truth?"
Mikan held Natsume's hand with a cheery smile. "We're having a baby."
Of course, there were instances when they were close to being beaten up by Hotaru Imai and Yuu Tobita (although Yuu's could be merely translated to verbal warning), but at the end of the day, it was all pure fun. After all, it kept them entertained for the next three years.
Fourteen years later, their relationship still remains an interesting affair to the public as it had been then. In fact, ever since Natsume proposed to Mikan seven months ago, bets have been passed on how the wedding would turn up.
Natsume sat on his couch, his legs crossed. He eyed the beer cases beside the coffee table that had, for the night, became their beer pong table. Kitsuneme was carefully arranging ten plastic cups, his brows scrunched in concentration.
"You don't even know what beer pong is," he heard Mochu accuse Kitsuneme.
"I told you, man, I played this in my cousin's wedding," Kitsuneme said. Two weeks prior today, Kitsuneme had gone to Los Angeles to attend his family's marriage to an indie film director.
Ruka and Yuu were arguing on one side about when Natsume and Mikan's relationship began. The prize was merely the title of who's a better friend.
"He was already a hormonal kid at ten," Ruka argued.
Yuu shook his head adamantly. "Hormonal, Ruka, doesn't constitute as liking someone enough to be in a relationship with him."
"You know, for a ten-year-old, it was a pretty big achievement."
"Also very stupid! I've been with Mikan much longer, and she would always complain about his being a pervert."
"Yes, when we were kids, Yuu, because after that, she stopped minding since she liked him anyway."
"That's a pretty tactless thing to say," Natsume commented, "You're supposed to be the better friend showing off my romantic side, not making me look like a porn star who wants to get married."
Yuu gave Ruka a triumphant smile, as if it meant he won.
"Natsume, it doesn't change the fact that you liked her since we were ten."
"You didn't see them in a relationship at ten," Yuu said.
There was a knock on the door, and Natsume stood up to answer it. It was the doorman, handing over a big white box. When Natsume had gone back to the sitting room, Koko had already attacked him and snagged the box.
"Is this food?"
"I don't know," Natsume threw him an annoyed glance, "You barely let me look at it."
But Koko, in his half-drunken stupor, had completely ignored Natsume and tore the box open. His smile fell when he peeked inside.
"What's that?" Ruka asked, amused by Koko's obvious dismay.
Koko, with a glum look on his face that mirrored a child, pulled out the white, flowing dress from the box. "It's just a wedding dress."
"Hide it from Natsume then!" Yuu said, fixing his askew glasses. Yuu barely wore them now, but on most laidback events (that simply meant boys' night out) where he expects himself to be drunk at the end, he ditches the lens.
Mochu frowned. "How come?"
"Because he's not supposed to see the wedding dress before the wedding," Yuu explained exasperatedly.
Kitsuneme thought for a moment. "I'm pretty sure he's not allowed to see her wearing itbefore the wedding."
"You guys trust in the most pathetic beliefs," Natsume muttered.
Koko was silent for a while, and then broke into a big, eerie smile. "Natsume, you should totally put that on."
"What? No, Koko, I'm not on your level of stupidity."
"Oh, come on, it's just a dress, you'll probably wear worse things when you get a kid. Like Santa, clowns, cartoon characters... drunkards..."
"Are you high?"
"No, dude, seriously, I worked for a photographer before and trust me, drunkards aren't even the last of it."
"Why would someone dress up as a drunkard?" Natsume turned to Ruka.
His friend raised his hands. "Don't ask me, I'm not even allowed to get drunk."
"Oh, that explains why you're forcing me to finish off six beers in thirty minutes."
"Hotaru said, and I quote, 'If Hyuuga doesn't turn up for the wedding in one piece, I am going to castrate each and every one of you.'"
"Why are you afraid of your girlfriend?" Kitsuneme wondered aloud after a moment.
Ruka threw him a dirty look. "I'm not afraid of my girlfriend, Kitsu."
"Yeah, considering he proposed to her and everything," Koko chortled.
Mochu spurted out the beer on his mouth, and Kitsuneme quickly flew to protect the wedding dress on Koko's arms. Yuu's timid and hysterical 'Watch out!' was vaguely heard in the background. "You what?!"
Ruka frowned. "Is it that much of a surprise to propose to your girlfriend these days?"
"When the hell did this happen?" Mochu asked, wiping the beer on his mouth. "When do you even plan to tell us?"
"I know because I'm not a talkative drunk," Natsume boasted.
Mochu waved him off. "You know because you're the best friend."
"Nah, if I was the one in charge, I wouldn't have let him married Imai. It's suicide."
"Yeah, but you're the one who let fourteen years pass before proposing to the girl you like."
"Touché." Natsume raised his glass to toast on that, and the rim almost touched his lips when he saw Koko holding out the dress in front of him. "You still won't give up buddy?"
Koko shook his head.
"I'd have done this if you were my kid."
"It's training," Koko shrugged, then held the dress in front of him. "It'll fit well if we don't zip it." He was about to put his foot inside the dress when Natsume stopped him.
"Koko, what are you doing?" Natsume asked, his expression a mixture of confusion and amusement.
Koko looked at him weirdly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, which was, but it was still a crazy thought. "Well, you don't want to wear the dress, so I'm putting it on instead."
"Why would you wear my girlfriend's wedding dress?"
"Because you don't want to."
"No one's wearing the wedding dress except Mikan," Yuu piped, "No man is good in a dress."
"Who knows, you might wear the wedding dress," Mochu snickered from his couch, "Might enjoy a little role playing…"
Natsume threw an empty cup towards Mochu.
"Come on," Koko demanded, holding out the dress, "If you're not wearing it, I'm doing this!"
Natsume rolled his eyes, got on his feet and grabbed the dress. "I'm putting this on because there's no way I'm letting you wear my wife's wedding dress."
Ruka eyed Natsume, doubting. "You sure about this? There's a reason why dresses don't come in men sizes, you know."
"It's just a dress," Natsume pointed out the obvious, "How bad is this going to be?"
"But it's bad luck!" Yuu whined from behind.
Yep, totally drunk.
"I bet grooms do this all the time," Kitsuneme said, shrugging. "You can't pass up the opportunity."
"I'm only doing this because I'm not letting Koko's skin touch this dress," Natsume said. He was going to put his socked foot over the dress, but then stopped, and proceeded to unbuckle his belt and unzip his jeans first.
"Wait, no, dude, are you stripping?!" Mochu yelled, putting his hands over his eyes, "Don't let your manly parts touch the dress!"
"I'm not letting my manly parts touch the dress," Natsume said, amused, as he stood in his boxers, "My pants are going to ruin the fabric."
"Now we say fabric?" Kitsuneme asked to no one in particular, "Don't we just call them clothes?"
Natsume cleared his throat, and everyone finally focused on him. It was a couple of seconds before everyone erupted into loud guffaws. He looked absolutely ridiculous in Mikan's wedding dress. The skirt was thick with layers of cloth Natsume didn't even know existed or could even be used on a dress (why was there a net?), and it was heavy, even for him. What is it with women and fashion?
"I am so posting this!" Koko laughed, taking out his phone to snap a photo, but Natsume, who had realized this, attempted to stop Koko by tackling him. His foot got stuck on the hem of the dress, and he tripped, falling over Koko than tackling him, all the while a loud riiiiiip! echoed on their ears.
"Shit."
"Crap, crap, crap," Ruka was on his feet, his eyes wide and his hands trembling. Natsume was slowly getting off the dress to reduce further damage, but half of the top's stitching had come off, there was no way anything could be much worse. "Crap, man, we are getting killed!"
"But we can sew it, right?" Mochu said in a timid voice that could only be comparable of that of a shy girl.
"Buddy, there's a reason why we never passed home economics in third grade," Kitsuneme muttered darkly.
"Hide the dress!" Koko suddenly blurted out, grabbing the dress and wildly looking around, "We say it never came and—"
"We can't say that," Ruka argued, "Hotaru knows it's getting delivered tonight."
"Yeah, but it's not her wedding," Koko pointed out, "So we can still go for… well… okay, fine, we're screwed." He plopped down on the couch, still hugging the dress. "I'm planning our funerals in my head. We can all get buried together, that'd be a really nice touch..."
"What time is it?" Ruka turned to Natsume, who had gone quiet in the last few exchanges. "Nastsume, snap out of it."
"It's eleven o'clock in the evening, Ruka," Natsume sighed. "Do you really think there's a 24-hour tailor hanging around the street?"
"Well, there are dry-cleaners…" Mochu trailed off.
"Why would we need a dry-cleaner?" Ruka asked, bemused.
Mochu wordlessly pointed towards the dress, still in Koko's hands, but that was when they all noticed the drying beer stain on the fabric.
"I told you it was bad luck!" Yuu said from behind. Nobody took mind of him. He was more or less thrashed.
There was a moment of silence, which Natsume broke. "I hate to say this, but there's only one person who can help us."
They all looked at Ruka.
"Why are you all looking at me?"
"You," a fuming Hotaru Imai pointed at a cowering Yuu, "are the last person who I thought would consent to this."
"It was Koko's idea," Yuu mumbled, nursing his hangover with a cup of black coffee.
Hotaru next pointed a finger at Natsume, "I can't even fathom what must've run through your head when you felt the need to put on your wife's wedding dress over your head!"
Natsume remained silent. They all knew Hotaru was right. It wasn't the stupidest thing they've done, but it was still incredibly idiotic.
"And you," Hotaru around to face Ruka, "You I have absolutely nothing for."
"Hotaru," Ruka sighed, and attempted to reach for her arm, "Don't be so..."
"So what, Nogi? I had alternative plans for every damned thing in this wedding except the wedding dress because I had it sent the night before to assure that nothing, and absolutely nothing goes wrong! I hadn't expected my idiot of a boyfriend, and his equally moronic friends, pounce on the groom to wear the bridal dress!"
"But the reception dress is still—"
"A reception dress! It's every bit a far cry from the modest cut a wedding dress has! You bloody hope I get something done to mend this mistake of yours or none of you are ever going to see your own weddings."
"Sorry," Ruka mumbled.
"Why didn't you call me last night?"
Ruka automatically turned to Natsume with an evil glare.
"I didn't want to ruin Mikan's hen night," Natsume replied.
"Oh, perfect, you didn't want to ruin her bachelorette but you just ruined her wedding day. Really smart, Hyuuga."
"Can you fix it?"
"I can, but I'm not doing it with a smile on my face." She turned, carrying the dress with her, Ruka lugging behind. She slammed the door behind her, and Ruka, who got left fumbling for his keys, had to follow her with a faint, "Hotaru…"
Natsume sunk to his seat. Koko let out a breath. Mochu took a gulp of soda. Kitsuneme let himself float. Yuu slammed an icepack to his head. They all voiced the same thing:
"Remind me never to wear a girl's wedding dress."