"Come on Kao-chan, its just for today" whined Misao, Kaoru's best friend, who has been trying to force her to go with her to a bar. Kaoru was watching some movie and was barely paying attention to her. "Please Kaoru, I promised them I'd bring you with me" said Misao pleadingly looking at Kaoru with big eyes.
Kaoru sighed then looked at her dejectedly. "You know Enishi will flip if he knew I'd hang out with some guys Misao" she said looking at her, but upon looking at her face, Kaoru's resolved faltered. Damn it.
"But Kao. It'll be just the usual gang. Me, Aoshi, Yahiko, Tsubame, Sano and Megumi" she said half lying. Some of the guys eyeing Kaoru for a while would go also, but she dared not tell because for sure Kaoru would not go.
Then Kaoru looked at her, she looked sincere enough. She sighed. "Okay. Fine. I'll go. Wait for me to prepare" she then got up and went out. Misao obeyed and followed Kaoru with her eyes as she went to her room to change. She then grinned widely, unknown to Kaoru. Few minutes later, Kaoru came out wearing a baggy jacket and jeans, her hair is tied up in a high ponytail.
"What the hell are you wearing Kaoru!" shrieked Misao running towards her. "You can't look like that! You look like a boy!" she exclaimed taking in her looks.
"What? I'm more comfortably wearing this. Besides, I'll just go there so I can see the group. It's not like I'd go there to catch someone's attention" Kaoru defended as they went out of her house.
Misao sighed in defeat. Kaoru is really stubborn and once she made her decision nobody can change it. "Fine." Misao muttered under her breath as they stepped inside Misao's car.
On their way to the bar, Kaoru called someone with her phone and told the person where they were going. And after hanging up, her mood somewhat became darker, but Misao chose to remain silent. She knew it was Enishi and that damn boyfriend of her prohibits Kaoru to hang out with her friends. Damn possessive boyfriend her friends always say when Enishi fetch Kaoru after school. Enishi is a college student in Jinchuu University while they're seniors in Meiji High School. And everyday he would fetch his girlfriend and fend off whoever is with Kaoru.
They arrived at the Ishin bar couple of minutes later in an uncomfortable silence. For Misao because she doesn't want to irritate Kaoru. And for Kaoru's part, she's just not fond of it now. She just called Enishi to tell him where she's going and who she's going with and that lead to a fight, or more of an enraged Enishi to which she calmly talked to a while ago, avoiding shouting out in frustration because Misao was there.
Few more minutes later Misao found their table and pulled Kaoru toward them. Kaoru immediately spotted them because of the usual bickering of Sano and Yahiko. She also some people other than the usual group. I should have known. She knew that some of their classmates would go as well, after all it was Megumi's birthday and she's friends with almost all of their classmates. "Tomoe?" wondered Kaoru as she saw a beautiful woman with long black hair beside their red-headed classmate. What was his name again? Kaoru tends to forget some of her classmates name save for her friends or those who always bothers her.
"Kaoru?" Tomoe's eyes widened upon seeing her so she got up and went near Kaoru for a hug. "What are you doing here? Does my brother knows you're here?" she asked as they sat.
She stiffened, she doesn't really want to talk about him right now. Though, the woman or in fact all in the group were oblivious to her uncomfortableness with the topic. "Yeah. I called him a while ago" she answered calmly.
"Alright! Jou-chan's finally free of that monster's grasp!" exclaimed Sano as he flung an arm onto her shoulder.
"Hey! It's my brother who you're calling a monster there!" defended Tomoe looking at Sano incredulously.
"Yeah whatever" Sano said dismissively. And pulled Kaoru beside him, after all they're cousins.
"Happy birthday Meg. Sorry I don't have a gift" said Kaoru looking at her cousin's girlfriend.
"It's ok Kao. As long as you're here" she said smiling at her.
"She's beautiful even if she look like a boy" murmured the boys that she doesn't know that was in their table. "Yeah" and so they continued whispering about how beautiful she was, until there was a twack.
"Stop gawking at her for godsake" said Misao hitting the boys' heads. Kaoru smiled and mouthed a thank for her, as she was starting to get annoyed at them. Misao then turned to look at her Aoshi-sama who was sipping in his beer. "Come on Aoshi let's dance!" she said as she pulled him onto the dance floor without waiting for his reply.
"Alright. Let's also dance Meg" said Sano and pulled the birthday girl to the dance floor. Followed by Yahiko who shyly asked Tsubame. Some of the boys in their table asked Kaoru to dance but she refused their offers saying that she's not dancing.
"Come on Kenshin let's go dance. Even the brat is dancing why won't you dance" whined Tomoe who was sitting beside the red head a few sits away from Kaoru in their table. Oh yeah he's Himura Kenshin recalled Kaoru looking at the couple curiously. When she looked at the couple, however, she saw Kenshin was looking directly in her direction. She looked around her looking if there's anybody else that he's looking, but there was none so maybe he was looking at her. I must admit he has pretty eyes Kaoru thought looking at his golden eyes. Then she looked back at the dance floor. What exactly am I doing here? I should be enjoying! Damn that Enishi, I politely told him where I was going and he shouted at me! Damn him! She thought angrily. Then she heard Tomoe again pleading the red head to dance with her.
"Tomoe stop. I already told you I don't like you so stop bothering me" she heard Kenshin said and being the curious that she was, she looked at the couple. Then she saw the redhead stood and went towards her direction. She raised and inquiring brow looking at him who was grining like an idiot. "Hey" he said as he sat next to her. Tomoe fumed and went out of the bar. Uh-oh I bet she's gonna tell Enishi. Who cares, I didn't do anything wrong! She thought defending herself. "You enjoying yourself miss Kaoru?" he asked politely. She raised a brow at his incredulously polite way of speaking.
"Uhm. Yeah" she said as politely as she could, although she felt like laughing her ass off.
"You look rather..uhm..how do I say this, out of place?" he said carefully thinking the words, although they came out an insult rather than a compliment.
Kaoru's eye widened. Did he just insulted her? But she's not mad about that. Not at all. In fact she rather prefer it than complimenting how beautiful she was even if she looks like a boy. So she giggled a little. Kenshin looked at her questioningly although his eyes were amused. "Yeah?" she said smiling at him with a mischivous look.
"Uhm. I mean, uhm." He stammered trying to find the right words but couldn't.
Kaoru laughed, lucky the music was kind of loud so it was not heard by the others. "No don't worry I'm not in the least bit felt insulted. Anyway, why don't you go dance with Tomoe? You're dumping a really gorgeous one you know" she said amused.
"Well, she's not exactly my type" he answered also quite amused. Not only is Kaoru talking to him, which he always wished would happen but he's quite busy with all the tournament he was going, but she's showing him quite an interest, or so he would like to believe. "You see, there's this girl I really like, but I think she doesn't even know I exist" he said as if thinking by rubbing his chin.
"Well, that explains why you dumped Tomoe" she said oblivious to the fact that Kenshin was hinting her that she was that girl. "And since this girl doesn't know you exist, you won't dance in this party?" she asked curiously.
He shook his head. "How about you? Why won't you dance? I'm pretty sure some really handsome men asked you to dance with them a while ago" he said looking at her smirking.
"I don't really dance actually. I don't even dance with my boyfriend" she said shooking her head. Then she shuddered as she remembered Enishi and her aura became dark again. Damn it Enishi. She kept thinking about him, she doesn't want him to stay mad at her. She loves him. She sighed dejectedly. Maybe I should just go home? She thought as she stood. "Can you tell Meg that I went home? I'm kind of tired and I hear my bed calling me back" she said as she yawned a little. The redhead stood and grabbed her wrist as she was about to go.
"How are you going home?" Kenshin asked, he knew Misao brought her here.
"I'll walk?" she said as if it was a question
"Iie. I won't let that happen. I'll drive you home. I won't accept a 'no' and Sano's gonna kill for letting you walk home" he said not letting go of her. Before she could protest that she doesn't want him to miss Megumi's party also, "Don't worry, I'll drop you off and then I'll come back here" he said. Sighing in defeat, she nodded. She can feel his stubbornness and she's kind of tired arguing back so she just let him take her home.