Heartbreak

Prologue

Rima Mashiro, at a very young age, always wanted her parents to smile. When they occasionally fought, she would pull a goofy face, asking, "Look! Look!" She remembered her father and mother directing their attention to her, surprised, before bursting into laughter.

"Oh my, Rima," her mother managed to say between laughs.

Her tall, strict father broke down, getting hiccups, "You always cheer us up, Rima-chan."

But that's when, as she grew older, her parent's patience grew thinner and thinner, and Rima herself began to weaken at the sight she woke up to everyday. Her father spat mean insults towards her mother, who slapped his already-red cheek, yelling right back.

"Look! Look! You should laugh," Rima mumbled in a pleading tone, already six years old. All that met her were mean glares, and she almost wished that she never asked them to look at her. To glare at her, like that.

Her father groaned, "This isn't a laughing matter!"

"Stop with those faces, already," her mother snarled, fed up with her own child. "You aren't a baby, anymore."

Rima was only six then. Only six years old, and she cried herself to sleep that night. Knowing that this was the start of the end, because these tears were unstoppable without the love and comfort of her parents. No love was shared.

On Rima's last day, of her last year of middle school, she sat alone on a park bench. She didn't want to face her parents, because she already knew what was coming. Their divorce. It was a shame she had to overhear it, before the word was meant to be heard for her petite, fragile ears.

There was nobody to lean on, ask for advice, or even talk to about her life. She just looked up into the sky, the cloudless sky, and squinted when nearing the sun. Her lips didn't like to say it, 'divorce'. So she didn't.

With tears on her face, Rima vowed with a forced smile, that her new high school would be different. She would be a new person, a completely different life. Even if she was a little bitter, Rima knew she could be social. Soon enough, though, her smile was gone. It took too much strength to act happy all by herself. On a park bench.

Maybe even a new love life.

Chapter One

Rima knew she was a bitter person, but she had just got dressed in her new high school uniform, and felt of wave of happiness overcome her. She was trying her hardest not to be bitter. Her mother was downstairs, attempting a disaster of a breakfast. She could smell burnt food, wafting through the crack of her slightly opened door.

Her long blonde, wavy hair was what she thought of as a struggle. Rima, after about ten minutes, had managed to brush her hair and tie it into a ponytail. She cursed under her breath, before quickly trying to reverse her behaviour with a false grin. It was sickening; the face that stared back at her in the mirror. So, she eventually stopped being so smiley all by herself.

Rima had an urge to grab the closest pair of scissors and just cut off inches of annoying hair. But without her mother's approval, which she would never earn, this was impossible unless she wanted to be grounded.

So, with one last twirl in front of the mirror, she got her make-up bag, and exited her bedroom. The burnt smell didn't help, but the petite blonde ate the food without refusing. As soon as her mother left for work, she spat the rest of her food into the garbage and had cereal. This was normal. In the morning for Rima, her mother would not talk to her, unless there was a reason that involved schoolwork, or cutting her hair.

Rima brushed her teeth, and headed to school. She thought she was prepared for the year to come, but she didn't know how it would turn out yet.

Only five minutes after Rima's introduction, she had made three new friends. Amu Hinamori, a girl who when in front of a lot of people, tries to maintain her cool. But has trouble expressing her real feelings. She's a pinkette, with golden eyes.

Her close friend since elementary school, is Utau Tsukiyomi. Utau is very out-going, with a lot of contacts on her cellphone. She has flowing, blonde hair, usually in two ponytails, and dazzling purple eyes. Her talent since birth is singing. She has a brother, too, Ikuto Tsukiyomi, who is pretty popular as well.

Rima's third new friend is Yaya Yuiki. She is an energetic person, willing to do anything non-sexual for a sugar rush. Apparently, everyone who has ever been in her class before, fears she'll become a druggie just to get high, like she does with sugar. Or eventually diabeties. One or the other. She has playful orange hair, and chesnut-coloured eyes.

Honestly, Rima was happy. Near the back of the classroom, where most of the noise was coming from, sits Ikuto. He usually sleeps on his desk, sometimes awake to talk to his friends. Kukai Souma, the captain of the soccer team, with his exubrant emerald-green eyes, and tousled brown hair, can't stop smiling. Ikuto's other close friend, Nagihiko Fujisaki, who comes from a rich family and has the best grades in the entire school, is even smarter than the class president.

Nagihiko caught Rima's attention from the very beginning. They shared a glance, before Rima lost all confidence, felt herself blushing, and looked away. Back to her friends. Nagihiko has long, purple hair and brown eyes. Something about his success made him seem arrogant to Rima, and it just ticked her off.

Rima made a decision, that out of all three of her new friends, she treasured Utau the most. She gave good advice and shared her supplies without hesitating. Rima even shared a hair colour with her. But, of course, the smiling petite girl kept these little facts to herself. Amu and Yaya would appreciate not hearing that. Nonetheless, she was excited for her new school year.

As the class president, Kairi Sanjou with his fern green hair, finished his speech, the teacher rushed back to his desk before Kairi would continue to ramble on. Everyone took a sigh of relief, except Rima, who was in her own little world. Thinking.

Nagihiko continued to stare at the new girl, having a weird feeling he'd never had before. It was just a mix of interest, he assumed, but probably lust. Setting these strange feelings aside, Nagihiko attempted to focus on the teacher. He wanted to keep his grades high again, for his first year of high school. But he couldn't help but wander his vision to Rima's direction. Why was he captivated?

When math, and science class ended, Kairi went up to the teacher's desk to make another aunnouncement. This time, before it was time for lunch. Their teacher groaned, knowing his willpower was much weaker than Kairi.

"We'll need two people, to clean up that messy bookshelf," the class president declared, pointing towards the back of the room. Most of the books had spilled out onto the floor, causing some pages to rip out or tear. Kairi began to childishly sing a rhyme, using it to pick two names randomly off the list. A few people snickered. "Rima Mashiro~! Nagihiko Fujisaki~!"

The two chosen rolled their eyes, before looking at each other. Nagihiko stared, his brows furrowed. All the blonde did was memorize his chesnut-brown eyes and their gleam. She ended up turning back around in her chair, continuing to eat her lunch of instant noodles, not knowing that he was still watching her. Nagihiko's mind wandered as Kukai started talking about soccer practice.

"I was great!" Kukai exclaimed, pretending to score a goal. "Wasn't I Nagi?"

The purple-head sighed, only nodding. For some reason, he couldn't be bothered about reliving one of Kukai's soccer matches. To him, the school year needed some different excitment. Something new. And at the moment, there wasn't much to chose from. All he could try to focus on was his studies.

"Nagihiko has something on his mind," Ikuto pointed out with a smirk, leaning close to Nagihiko to see what he had been staring at. "Or someone, look."

Kukai went to, but Nagihiko pushed both of his friends away. He gave an exhausted sigh, before slumping back onto his desk, "I just want this year to be different. I'm only looking at her because we're cleaning the book shelf together."

Nagihiko wanted to get rid of that smug look on Ikuto's face. But he just kept his mouth shut, while Ikuto brushed his navy-blue hair out of his face, "You were staring at her before that."

"She might be on my mind, okay?" Nagihiko retorted, before standing up. He tried looked expressionless, although he knew he couldn't have her, and it hurt. "Do you guys want my lunch?"

"No," Kukai and Ikuto declined in unison. Nagihiko then dumped all of his food into the garbage, grabbed his binder, and left the classroom.

Rima watched Nagihiko's back, as he practically stormed out. She couldn't help but notice that he hadn't eaten, and shared confused glances with her friends. Utau yelled to her brother, "What did you do?"

"Not much," he shrugged, "I just happened to guess correctly."

Utau glared at Ikuto, knowing something was up, "About?" She pushed out her chair, got up and went over to him. As she sat in Nagihiko's empty seat, crossed her legs, and began tapping the desk impatiently with her finger. Ikuto stared out the window.

She glared, waiting, as five minutes passed. Finally, he caved, knowing she wasn't going to leave, "Who he likes." He leaned closer, whispering so only his sister could hear, "Caught him staring at Rima through the whole class."

Suddenly, Utau's personality changed, and she pounced on her brother, "Ikuto! You're so smart!" Engulfing him in a suffocating hug. Kukai pried her off, so that Ikuto could breath again. The blue-haired boy coughed a little, pissed. Rima who was watching from her seat, was intrigued.

But Ikuto knew that he loved his sibling, and smiled at his sister's behaviour. All around, people were shocked. Rima asked Amu what the big deal was, but the pinkette could only stutter words, "I-I-Ikuto...never...s-smiles!" It was almost as if he was a god.

"Oh," Rima scoffed, and then went back to eating instant noodles.

All she could wonder was who Nagihiko likes. This was one way she could bond with him, with her new class. She could get new friends if she somehow learned his secret. Sharing rumors and gossip with her fellow classmates would give her new friends, right?

Utau returned to her seat, hungry, "Rima, can I have some food?"

"Sure," she laughed, offering her what was left. Popularity on her mind. "Utau, Amu, Yaya, I think I need your help on something."

They all looked in her direction, listening. Now that Rima had their attention, she mentioned the thought, "I want a fresh start from my old life, okay?"

"That makes sense, but," Yaya giggled, eating candy from her lunch box, "don't lie!" Utau laughed nervously, imagining Yaya as a druggie.

Rima stuck out her pinky finger, hoping to get everyone's approval on this, "I'm also going to have a new love life. I promise, I'll try." She gulped, hoping this wouldn't get her teased.

But Utau just smiled, "I promise, too." Rima interlocked fingers with her, before Yaya struggled to get hers around the two, and leaving Amu with a difficult posture, just so she could promise as well. They shared smiles, all individually realising they were best friends.

Rima burst out into laughter, "What the heck?"

The hallway was almost completely empty. Nagihiko remembered his combination from middle school, and he opened his locker. He found a strange note where he was about to put his binder. As he finished reading, he quietly groaned, before stuffing the note in his pocket.

"Just, stop hiding," Nagihiko begged. "It's getting really lame."

The one who wrote the note came out from behind a cardboard box for recycled paper, with a grin that most people find irresistible, "Let's go, then. You can skip your last class, right?"

He just nodded, knowing he didn't have much of a choice.

Rima lifted her hand at the sound of her name being called, "Here!"

"Okay," her new science teacher started, "tell us something about yourself! Well, more like me...not 'us'. I'm the one who needs to know, with my memory and all." She snorted. A few students laughed, obviously wanting to get on her good side.

"I'm very small," Rima gently smiled, "okay, that was obvious. I enjoy comedy." She blurted out a random fact, hoping it would satisfy the teacher enough so she would move on to somebody else. It did.

The teacher smiled, "I see! I like laughing too!" And the names went on. Rima tried hard not to doze off. Already, Nagihiko had been called, and there was no response. He had ditched class. Probably ditching the afterschool work, too.

Ikuto and Kukai, being good friends, said that he had a 'dentist appointment'. Rima stared at the floor, waiting for class to be over. The bell rang. At first, it seemed like a saviour, but then it meant cleaning a book shelf alone. She nearly pouted, catching her mistake in the nick of time.

In her homeroom class, after school, Rima struggled to reach the top two shelves. She managed to grab a hold of the bottom of one book, pulling, and determined not to let go now. But indeed she lost her footing, and the book came crashing down to the floor. She bent down to pick it up, having repeated this same routine already, many times, and placed it on the shelf with the other science books.

Nagihiko could do this easily, he was tall. But of course, he ditched her. Left her with all this work, when her mother requested she come home a little earlier today. At least she was better than her father, who would personally hunt down Nagihiko. Rima's father was in another continent now, though, so that wouldn't be happening.

She took yet another ripped page, searching for its proper place in the book, and taping it back. It had been thirteen minutes since the bell signaled the end of school. Thirteen. She had counted, getting even more furious after each minute passed. Soon, the digital clock on the wall changed. Fourteen minutes.

Was he really never coming to help?

"Dick." she muttered under her breath.

Rima could barely reach the second highest shelf, let alone the very highest one. It seemed like it was miles away from her reach. Probably was. That's when the door slammed open, catching her attention. Nagihiko was panting, like he had ran all the way here. Right after his sudden appearence...Rima's watch made it fifteen minutes.

She didn't freak out, though, "So you came." Her teeth grinding whenever she didn't have to talk to him.

"Yah," he caught his breath, attempting a smile which was not returned, "I did."

For the next five minutes, they worked together with an awkward tension in the air. Nagihiko took out all the books from the top, taping up all the ripped pages, as if to make up for his loss of work. But Rima wasn't fooled, she was only pissed off. As he took a step back, to flip through the pages of a book from the top shelf, he stared at Rima.

She didn't know, again, of course.

He thought about how slender she was, and how he wanted to pick her up. Place her on his shoulders, so she could feel like she was tall. But he dissmissed those thoughts quickly, knowing his parents would be angry if they knew he thought like this. If she knew.

After the job was done, they exited the classroom and said their goodbyes. Rima watched Nagihiko go one way, just to make sure she could go the opposite. She knew she wanted to trust him, but it wasn't like trust could be just given. At the snap of her fingers, she couldn't just trust all of her secrets with him. Rima wished she had a better first impression of him, but it was gone now. He would have to do something, if she even wanted anything to do with Nagihiko.

At first, he seemed like an okay guy, with a secret she wanted to learn. Who did the guy like? Now, all she wanted to do was curl up in her bed, and forget about cleaning the book shelf. Think about her new best friends. But the image of his face kept appearing in her mind.