The first time he got scared – by preety-lady-serenity
Disclaimer: The protagonists of Lovely Complex do not belong to me but to Aya Nakahara. We all thank her for this.
This fic is dedicated to valkyriesailor for her challenge. I hope you like it my friend!
It was shortly after their graduation. Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Otani were spending a few hours of relaxation together. But that day something was unusually different. Guys kept looking at Koizumi. Not that they did not, at other times, but that day was different. They stared at her intensely. Some girls did so too. It was so strange!
"Scary!" Risa said to him uncomfortably, "Do I have something strange on me? Why is everybody staring me?"
"You're too tall. Maybe they stare at you in disbelief," he commented in mock-seriousness.
"Oh shut up you speck of dust!" she huffed and took a slurp from her Caribbean Dancer.
"Koizumi-senpai!" a female bounced in the room as a blond girl hurried towards them, "It is so cool, Koizumi-senpai!"
The female voice came from a cute, short, blond girl – or as it must be better explained a blond cross-dressed boy. Seichirou was born a boy but all his life he regarded himself as a female. So Seichirou stomped his foot down and demanded that "she was called Seiko". And that how friends regarded her to be.
Seiko skipped into the small IKEBE café and protruded a girls' magazine.
"Koizumi-senpai, it is so cool! Why didn't you tell me? Was it fun?"
"Huh?" Risa said in puzzlement, "Seiko-chan, what are you talking about?"
"This!" the blond said pointing dramatically at the magazine.
Seiko opened the magazine quickly and went through its pages before slamming it down. Risa Koizumi gawped as a blush spread on her cheeks. Atsushi Otani blushed to his roots. In the open page before them there was a standing image of Risa, looking sideways with a faint smile. Her hair was curled and she had a nice make-up. She also wore a short, frilly white dress with white high-heeled sandals and her nails were painted pink. It was from that photo-shoot with Mimi!
"OH MY GOD!" Risa screamed, making some of the customers in the café turn, "They managed to take a good photo of me! Impossible! I was too nervous!"
"Koizumi-senpai, you look so cute! You should wear short dresses more often!" Seiko exclaimed happily, "Don't you think so Otani-senpai?"
"Ummm… Errr" Otani responded nervously, looking at his girlfriend. They both blushed furiously. He shot up, "I have to use the restroom," he mumbled and hurried away, leaving both girls dumbfounded.
-)-)-)
In the next three days Koizumi had to answer the phone to friends and relatives that wanted to congratulate her. It seemed that lots of girls bought that magazine because she had to spend a lot of time receiving text messages and answering phone-calls. Another magazine had also called her for a photo-shoot, a proposal that she declined but her answer was easily accepted. Koizumi had to refuse politely and with much worry, because for a strange reason, Atsushi Otani had started to behave strangely.
Otani had become quiet and glum. There were days she found him stare angrily at space, murmuring to himself, clutching her hand as they walked. He seemed so uncontrollably moody. One moment he would joke with her and the next he would leave her declaring he was tired. Risa felt puzzled. Puzzled and scared. Because she could not understand what she had done wrong.
The answer to Otani's behaviour was given one Friday afternoon, ten days after the magazine incident. Koizumi and Otani were walking in the city centre when Risa stopped in front of a shop and awed. From the shop's window she saw a pink one-sleeved dress with a small bow on it. She never realised on how quick she dragged Otani inside the shop, grabbed the dress and left him alone. Otani stared around, uncomfortably.
Koizumi soon stepped outside the changing rooms and he blushed. The dress made her appear womanly, toning her breasts and thighs with a more feminine appeal. Her slender, long feet tiptoed as she swirled around herself.
"How do I look?"
He felt himself blushing even more. How could Risa be so cute and not realise it? He gulped down and then moved his head in silent approval. She smiled and turned back to the dressing room.
"Wow!" Otani heard someone whispering and he looked sideways to see two men staring at Koizumi's direction. "This girl is gorgeous. Do you think I should talk to her?"
"No way! Don't you see she's escorted?"
"Dammit, how can such a cute girl be with such a short thing like him? I bet I could make her change her mind."
"Seriously man, even if she was single you wouldn't stand a chance. She's a model. I saw her in my girlfriend's magazine last week."
"What? She's a model and dating that Imp? No way! I bet he's her younger brother. No way would a guy like him date such a girl. She deserves better!"
Otani sighed. Ever since that magazine advertisement Koizumi's popularity had dramatically increased. At first it made him really angry to see guys goggle over his girlfriend but the last few days he had been thinking about it. And it made him really self-conscious. What if Koizumi would awaken from this love trance of hers one day? She would realise how weird they looked together and how many guys desired her, and then she would surely dump him. What if, one day when they would become more physical, she would realise ho ridiculously short he was. What if?
"Hey, I am going to buy this," Koizumi exclaimed happily as she stepped out of the change rooms, "I need proper shoes for it though… Otani, is something wrong?"
"No, no," he answered faking a smile, "I need some rest I guess. I think I'll go home."
"But-but- we just met!" Koizumi pouted in protest.
"I'm sorry Koizumi. I just feel tired for a strange reason," Otani whispered.
"What the hell is your problem?" she shouted, "I know the photos in the magazine made you angry but it is not like I knew they were going to get published!"
"I'm not angry!" he protested, "Stop making a scene!"
"Then what did I do wrong? You have been avoiding me for the last ten days and I'm so sick of it!"
He grabbed her wrist, making her stop rumbling and dragged her to the nearest full-length mirror.
"Look at us! Just look at us! You are tall and gorgeous and I'm just a short Imp. I don't look like I could be your boyfriend! I'm scared! I'm scared that one day I won't be able to be a man enough to stay by your side because I AM SO DAMN SHORT!"
He was about to rumble some more when Koizumi slapped him so hard across the face he saw stars.
"Hey that hurt you Amazon!"
"Oh shut up! I told you years ago. Short or tall as long as you have a dick you are a guy!" she shouted making some female customers gasp in shock.
She knelt and grasped his shoulders and shook him, "Size does not have to do with anything when it comes to love."
"I'm not feeling any better when you tower over me," he mumbled looking down.
"You brainless twit! When are you going to realise you're so tall to my eyes I can't see anyone but you!" she cried out in frustration, shoving a stray tear away from her cheek. She then let out a snort and stood up and walked to the cashier's desk.
-)-)-)
She walked outside the shop, feeling she would start crying from her anger. Someone caught her hand.
"I'm sorry for being an idiot. I love you but I do forget, sometimes, that you worked so hard for me. But really Koizumi, you have a lover like Haruka, an affair with a teacher, a chibi-pet at work and you still chose the shortie teacher-to-be to love?
"Hmm, now that you mention it I am really starting to think about reconsidering," she teased.
Otani grasped her and hugger her tightly.
"Don't you say that even for a joke!" he stated looking into her eyes.
"Ah... Ok" she whispered blushing.
She leaned down to kiss him when she stopped and awed in amazement.
"Woah look at those shoes!" she pointed and run leaving him alone.
"Koizumi! KOIZUMI! Don't you DARE buy that high-heeled one! KOIZUMI!"
And that is how he got scared.