Author's note at the bottom of this chapter.
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What Happened To Us?
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"Yuka! You're both finally here! I thought you wouldn't show up." A woman with jet-black hair that brushed her shoulders greeted us at the door. She had beautiful crimson eyes that lit up when she saw mom. She looked just a bit older than mom too.
"Kaoru-senpai! That's mean of you to think so. We weren't that late you know." Mom joked around with 'Kaoru-senpai'.
'Kaoru-senpai' giggled. "I know." She winked at mom. Then, her eyes landed on me.
"Oh? Who's this little lady you have with you?" She crouched down to my level and smiled at me. I held mom's hand a bit tighter and leaned back a bit, suddenly a bit intimidated by this stranger. "I'm Kaoru, you can call me Aunt Kaoru." She smiled warmly at me. "And you are?"
"Ah! My name's Mikan Sakura." A stood up straighter and bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you Aunt Kaoru!"
"What a polite little girl you raised here Yuka!" Aunt Kaoru giggled. "You can raise your head now Mikan. It's nice to meet you too." She then stood up.
"Come in come in!" She held the door wider and stepped to the side to make way for us. We took off our shoes at the genkan.
"Natsume, dear, come down. We have guests." Aunt Kaoru called up the stairs. A boy around my age came down. He had the same black hair and red eyes as Aunt Kaoru.
"Natsume, this is Aunt Yuka. She's a good friend of mine. And this young lady beside her is her daughter, Mikan Sakura. Isn't she cute?" I heard Aunt Kaoru tell the small boy beside her. His stare was then directed towards me. I felt like I wanted to just shrink behind my mom. He looked scary.
"Hn." I heard him say. Was that even a word? I scrunched up my face and thought about it.
"Mikan, this is my son, Natsume." Now that he was standing before me I can finally look at his profile better. "From what I've heard from Yuka you're 4 years old now right? The same age as Natsume here." From the moment this guy's met me (which is like, 5 seconds or something) he's been glaring at me. I tilted my head at this and wondered why.
"Come now, let's head to the living room it's much more comfortable there than standing here in the hallway." As mom and Aunt Kaoru turned towards the living room, Natsume whispered, "Oi baka, what the hell are you staring at?"
My eyes widened at what he said. "You shouldn't say that! That's a bad word!" I pointed my finger at him to get across. "And don't call me a baka! I have a name you know!"
He raised one eyebrow and regarded me coolly. "What, hell?"
"Ah! You did it again!"
I woke up with a start. I dreamt of that time again, back when I was still a 4 year-old.
I turned on my bedside lamp and stared at the clock. 4:30 am. Great, class doesn't start for another 3 hours and 30 minutes. I groaned and furiously rubbed at my face. Well, might as well get out of bed, seeing as to how, once I wake up, I won't be able to go back to sleep, no matter how much I toss and turn. With a sigh, I tossed back the comfy comforter and got out of bed. I started thinking about what I could do so early in the morning.
After some serious thinking I decided on jogging around campus, I've been out of shape recently anyways.
Having thought of what to do, I went to the kitchen to get some breakfast. I cooked myself some scrambled egg and bacon with a cup of hot chocolate.
I took a quick shower, brushed my teeth, got myself some clothes suited for jogging and put my hair up into a messy ponytail. Then grabbed my keys, IPod, and cell phone, and then went outside.
I started some basic stretches then started jogging.
After an hour or so, I sat down and leaned my back on a Sakura tree. It was spring time, so it was in full bloom. A breeze blew by and caused all the pink petals to swirl around me. I was too entranced by this that I didn't even notice someone coming towards me.
"Oi, little girl, what are you doing here? So early in the morning too." A deep, husky voice asked from my left side. And before I knew it, I felt someone plop down on the space beside me.
"I can't go back to sleep." I answered him. "What about you? What are you doing here?" I asked in return and received… No reply. I turned my head to the left and I saw the school's heartthrob, every girl's dream guy, the smartest guy in our batch, and my best friend.
I looked at his face, the same face I've seen mature over the ages, and noticed that faint black circles were under his eyes. I took a deep breath and let it all out in one big sigh. I gazed out on the row of Sakura trees lined up right in front of me. There's only one thing –or, to be more precise, person, that could do this to him. But, who are we kidding; the term thing suits that sorry excuse of a person better.
"I swear Natsume, you should break up with her. She isn't worth deteriorating your health for." I started my usual speech. We've been at this for months and I know I'm starting to sound like some nagging mother but I can't help it. My best friend is hurting and he's too prideful to realize it. "She's hurting you! That isn't right!"
"No she's not." He said, just above a whisper.
"Yes she is. Stop turning a blind eye already. She isn't even worth this."
I sighed. As usual, he wouldn't reply after that. We resumed to staring out in front of us. I know that my nagging is hurting him because that means that I don't support him in his decision but seriously? Who would?
Time passed with nothing being said between us. We just sat there feeling the wind brushing our skin, watching the sakura petals dance in the wind.
Finally, I broke that silence. "Ne, Natsume, talk to me. Can't you see how hard I'm trying to have you open up to me? You're so hard to understand. Why can't you just talk to me about this?" I turned to him and stared at him imploringly.
For a while he just stared straight ahead, not even batting an eye at me. But after a while, his eyes softened a bit and his shoulders slumped. He turned to me and we stared into each other's eyes. I searched for the reason in his eyes.
"You wouldn't understand Mikan-"
"Then make me."
His eyes grew wide a bit at my bold statement. He stared at me, shock evident in his eyes. Then he closed them and chuckled. "You'll never change huh?" He softly shaked his head.
"All right, I'll tell you." I perked up at that and he saw it. His famous smirk spread across his face. "But not now." I huffed at him and turned to face away from him. He grinned wide and slung his right arm on my shoulders and pulled me close. I fought hard to hide my blush from him. Not that this isn't usual for us but what he doesn't know is that…
I like him. Very much.
Ever since Aunt Kaoru and mom introduced us back when we were 4 years old.
Up until now that we're 16.
I've liked him all this time.
I've liked him even though he liked a bunch of other girls, I liked him.
But, he never, not once, saw me the same way.
Okay, so... I have no excuses for my 2 year absence. None at all. I am so sorry.
but hey, I am rewriting this because, well, I reread this and... Needless to say I am so sorry I even posted such a story. It was HORRIBLE. VERY VERY HORRIBLE. i'm trashing that one.
In other words, I'm remaking this whole story. I'll try to make it waaay better than before. That should be easy cause. Wow. It was just horrible.
I seriously can't get over it.
THE HORRIBLENESS!
Anyways, I'm currently writing the other chapters now. I'm trying to make them super long but meh.
Okay so yeah. PLEASE KEEP ON READING THIS STORY AND I'M SO SORRY!
Updates will be irregular. I'm a perfectionist. I stared at this for a week before I actually thought of posting it.
