Please know that this doesn't take place anywhere specific in Japan. Thank you!
At exactly 7:20 every morning she would arrive and immediately see him. He would be waiting for the train just like she would; except instead of dreading the school day that is to come from the train ride, he would be looking around constantly. And she knew exactly what she would be looking for. Or rather, who. And every evening at 5:45 he would arrive at the station with said who.
Mikan didn't understand though. She didn't understand to the point of frustration, but she wasn't going to go up to them and give those two a piece of her mind and tell them what she thought was right. It wasn't her business in the first place. The volume of their drama, however, made it feel like she is part of their business.
Even now, at 7:30 in the morning their disagreement was loud enough for her nosy ears to pick up. Then again, it could be because she was practically inches away from them.
Around five months ago, she first noticed him. Who wouldn't? His striking features made it very hard to ignore his presence. His raven color hair was pretty common, but how he had it style made it seem like it was style especially for him, and him only. And his scarlet eyes were hard to miss. She was very convinced that they were colored contact lenses, but when she saw him wear glasses when it was obvious that he was running late made her erase that thought. To think that red can be a color that babies can inherit…! It was because of his rare eyes that he was unofficially named 'Red.'
But it wasn't just him that stood out. The girl that he was always with easily stood out just like him. It was as if they were both a couple from a magazine that she loves to read. Her strawberry blonde hair was just one-of-a-kind while her blue eyes (whom Mikan labeled her as Blue) could easily mesmerize anyone by just one glance. The word 'beautiful' didn't do her justice.
"Do they go to our school?"
The sudden question made Mikan jump a little. She had told her friend, Anna, about the couple. A friendly sleepover at Mikan's house provided more time for the two girls to gossip. Throughout the stories, Anna would make small side comments about how she wishes she could take the same train just so she could see them. Her fascination on two complete strangers was very odd, but then again, Mikan was just the same.
"I doubt it. They both have complete different uniforms from us," Mikan replied, setting down her most recent 'Y Not?' magazine on her bed. "Besides, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't using Red as a name for someone we would both see day in and day out at school."
"I guess you're right..." Anna sunk down onto the bed, taking a hold of an extra pillow Mikan had for her. "So what's different now? I mean, from the stories you've been telling me, they seem like a perfect couple."
Mikan looked down at her own pillow beside her, taking in the wrinkles of the fabric. She looked at Anna, seeing curiosity spill from her. "Well, lately they've been… odd."
It started three months ago. One morning, Mikan did her usual routine: she would immediately check her phone to see if there are any messages she has missed, swing her bag in front of her to protect it from any purse snatcher that decided to be risky, and patiently wait for the train. From the corner of her eye, she instantly spotted them. The sight of them that morning, however, almost made her drop her phone.
The uneasy look of Red was clearly shown. His brows were furrowed as if he had something troubling in his mind while Blue was walking towards the station without a care in the world. This time, though, she looked a lot happier. That just seemed odd. But once Red easily gave his companion a smile when she turned to him gave Mikan an indication that whatever he had in his mind, he didn't want Blue to know.
"Maybe he wants to confess to her," Anna simply said, rolling onto her pillow. "It seems likely. Maybe instead of being the lovers that they are, they are just friends and he was to tell her that he really likes her." She reached over the edge of the bed, hoping to grasp a hairband from her bag.
"First of all, I never said that they were lovers," Mikan said, smacking her magazine on Anna's bottom.
Finally reaching one, Anna sat up. "I know, but it's much more interesting if they are lovers. Oh! I know!" Her eyes practically glistened with fascination as they widened. "What if he's losing interest in her and he doesn't know how to tell her! That sounds a little better!"
"How is that better? Red will be obviously miserable!"
For the rest of the night, Anna kept thinking of various ideas to explain Red's sudden 'shyness', as she kept calling it. Yet, by morning, it's as if she had completely forgotten the conversation they had the previous night. It was their day to spend the day together and Mikan couldn't complain when it came to being with Anna.
Monday came once again, and Mikan found it hard to be discreet. The train was already running late as it is and an announcement informed everyone that it was going to be take at least an hour for the train to arrive at the station. Being late for school didn't bother her though. The conversation that she was hearing was what was bothering her.
The moment she heard the announcement, she decided to sit down on a bench. Red and Blue had unfortunately decided to sit down on the bench beside hers, and their conversation was very hard to ignore.
"I can't believe it! You are my friend, Natsume! How can you not be at least happy for a friend?!"
So his name was Natsume.
"I'm just not, okay, Luna?" Natsume said, obviously very frustrated, but still trying to keep calm. "He's not right for you, and you need to understand that."
"No, you understand. I know that you feel that you are entitled as my big brother, or whatever, but I know what I am doing and who I'm seeing!"
So this explains a whole lot. Why he was upset in the first place. To be honest, Mikan hadn't heard anyone be so frustrated to the point that they had to keep themselves so collected.
"I am not your big brother!"
Mikan felt her own arms tighten around her bag. The tone that suddenly came out from Natsume sounded almost inhuman. She could have sworn he actually roared that out.
"I know, but you-"
"No, you don't know!" Natsume was beyond his breaking point. Mikan didn't know the guy personally, but she could tell just by hearing him. She slightly turned her head to get a better look at them, then quickly turned back. Hell, even she knew that she wasn't the only one wanting to take a peek at them.
She heard a feminine inhale.
"Natsume, what's the matter with you?" Luna's voice sounded low at first, but it rose with every word she said. "Why the hell are you acting like this? If you take the time to talk to Kuonji, you'll know why I fell in love with hi-"
"You aren't in love with him, Luna!"
Mikan heard his feet stomp the ground as he stood up in rage, slightly pushing the bench he was sitting on back. She couldn't help but widen her eyes. This… this wasn't something she expected to even hear from two random strangers, in a train station, while waiting for a late train.
"Yes I am!" she countered back. "Why are you all of a sudden like this? You're my best friend, Natsume! How can you act like this towards your own best friend?"
"Because I know what's best for you! And trust me, I know this a whole lot more than you."
Almost as equally as Natsume's, she suddenly heard Luna's stomp.
"Oh? I have been fine with all my choices so far, what makes this any different?"
"Because he's not right for you! He's a conniving bastard that will easily take advantage of you! He won't take care of you, Luna!"
"Don't you call him a bastard! And if you know oh so much more, them tell me who? Who the hell would you approve of me dating?"
Mikan didn't hear Natsume reply. This couldn't be-
"…No way… Natsume, don't tell me you…" She heard Luna's voice die out.
Mikan turned back to them a bit. She could see Natsume's brows furrowed with so much frustration and… something else she couldn't describe, while Luna had a look of horror and confusion. Mikan couldn't deny that if her best guy friend suddenly said that he's in love with her, she knew that she's be equally surprised and confused.
"…Yeah. So what if I am?" Natsume's voice rung out in a husky tone. "I've known you long enough to know that I am in love with you. I joined the soccer team to impress you because I know you love the sport; kept my grades up to be number one in the school for you. I hate to cook, but I know you enjoy eating a home cooked meal. Hell, I've set up an appointment to get my hair cut and styled because you wanted me to. Dammit, Luna, I've been in love with you all this time."
Mikan felt her own cheeks heat up. Though this confession wasn't meant for her, Mikan could hear the emotions behind every word he said. His voice started out low and husky, but it was if he was gaining more courage to confess to her as he kept talking. She felt her heart pound within her, making her blush even more.
"I…" Luna's voice was meek. "I'm sorry… Natsume…" Mikan could tell that she was having a hard time processing everything he just said. "I just… I can't-" She suddenly heard her footsteps along with the busy train station.
It ended. Well, Mikan knew that it didn't actually end. After a confession like that, she knew that seeing each other would be awkward for them both.
She heard a large weight drop on the bench and, without discretion, she turned to her side only to see that it was Natsume. It really hurt her to see the smiling and laughing (though he seemed to only do that when Luna was around) Natsume so down. With his head leaned forward, he sat at the edge of the bench, his hands keeping his upper body up as they hid his face from the public.
He wasn't crying. Mikan could tell. The only though that popped in her head was that he was frustrated.
"What?"
His voice, low and husky, rung out, startling Mikan. It threw her off.
"U-uh… um…" She tried to say something but she couldn't. I'm sorry or It will get better were not the right words for him to hear from a stranger. If anything, he would only get even more mad.
"You heard everything…" He suddenly turned to her. She could see complete fury in his eyes as he gazed at her in complete rage. "Hell, you witness everything and you have nothing to say? That a load of bullshit!"
Mikan couldn't think of anything to say. What could she say? She didn't know him.
For the next few minutes, they sat in silence together. She looked ahead of her, hoping that the silence between them would be what he would need for the time being. Mikan had been rejected before, so she can kind of sympathize with him, but not to the extent of a close friend rejecting her. Normally, it would have been a guy she was kind of knew so once the rejection came, it wasn't as awkward. She shoved her phone into her bag and looked away from Natsume. Getting up and walking to another bench would make things worse for the both of them, him especially. So she could only stay where she was.
The sudden sound of a bench being pounded startled her out of her thoughts. Her head snapped towards Natsume again and saw him, punching the bench with full force. She could see his knuckles starting to bleed from the strong force and for a moment she thought he was going to stop, but he didn't. His punches became stronger and stranger with every swing, making the bench move along with him.
"Stop!" Mikan yelled, pushing her bag to her bench and stepping to him quickly. As his arm sung back, she took that moment to grab him arm. "Please stop! You're hurting yourself!" she pleading him while trying to hold his arm back with the little strength she had compared to him.
"I don't care! Just let me go!" he yelled back without looking at her. "I hurt Luna! I deserve this!" She could feel himself pulling his arm away from her grip, but that only made her grasp is stronger.
"No you don't!" she yelled. "You can't hurt yourself because of this…" Mikan didn't know why, but her own voice cracked when she said that.
"Yes I can…!" Natsume answered back in a harsh whisper. She felt his body shake as his arm lost the strength it had. "…Dammit… I know how she is…" His voice cracked as he said that. "She's going to ignore me…"
"Y-You… can't actually think that," she answered while keeping a hold on his arm.
Whipping his head to her, he looked at her with an ominous glare that made Mikan wonder if what she said was the right thing.
"You don't fucking know her!" he growled out at her. "Because I was so fucking stupid, I know she's not going to even want to look at me!" He pulled out his arm from her grip without a problem. The hasty motion almost knocked Mikan from her feet, but what surprised her more was the bento that he pulled out his bag that looked like it already suffered from his rage.
Without a second thought, she quickly grabbed the box before he swung his arm towards the bench.
"What the hell!" Natsume yelled out as he scowled at her.
"I-It's a waste of food." Mikan wanted to just slap herself for blurting that out. She didn't know why she snatched the box away from him, so explaining it to him would have been hard as it is.
Natsume let out a frustrated sigh as he dropped back down onto the bench. "Whatever," he said. "You can just keep it."
"But isn't this your lunch?" she asked, her voice still a little low. His lack of answering said it all. He had created this with Luna in mind. They went to the same school, so it was possible that they shared lunches or maybe exchanged them.
'Train line number 112 to Grand Field will pull up in five minutes. I repeated: train line number 112 to Grand Field will pull up in five minutes. For your safety, wait behind the yellow line until the train comes to a full stop and all of the passengers on the train are off.'
Mikan looked back to see that a line a people were all starting to form the moment that announcement was made. She didn't even think that an hour could pass by so quick. Her hold on Natsume's lunch box tightened. It wasn't right to just take someone else' lunch and her conscience was telling her to give it back to him to her could do whatever he wants with it. Why did she stop him in the first place.
Thinking quick, Mikan grabbed her bag and placed the box inside but also took out another box instead.
"Here you go," Mikan said with a smile, extending her own lunch box towards him, slightly startling Natsume. "Then it's only right that you keep mine."
He looked at the box then back at her, shaking his head. "Look, I don't need your pity or anything," he sighed out with a slight irritation. "Keep the damn box and just leave."
Mikan shook her head and pushed her box onto his lap. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not pitying you because of what happened earlier. I'm pitying you because you won't have anything to eat."
Three months.
For three months, Mikan had kept Natsume's lunch box. It wasn't because she didn't want to give it back; it was because she couldn't. Since that day, Natsume wasn't appearing in the station anymore. She'd seen Luna every morning and evening, but never Natsume. She had to admit, though, as much as Natsume said that he hated to cook, he had a talent for cooking.
The day she took it to school, Anna and another friend of hers questioned what had happened to her old box. She couldn't tell them that she had "traded" lunches with Red right after him and Blue had a huge fight. So instead, Mikan lied to them, saying that her dad had bought her a new box. They didn't think twice that and easily believed that answer. But it was after that day she knew she couldn't keep using his box. It would have been weird for her.
So everyday, she looked around in the station, hoping to see him and return the box. At first, she assumed that it was because of that argument that he didn't show up. She understood that completely. But after two weeks of not appearing in the station, she began to worry. He couldn't have thought about doing something extreme, had he?
"So he hasn't come here since?" She had heard a female voice ask from a nearby bench.
"No. As far as I know, he goes to another station now," Luna answered her friend.
"No wonder he's always been late to class!"
That made a lot of sense. But to go to a different station every weekday morning just to not see her seemed incredible.
So for three months she had kept the box. After hearing that, she knew that he was never going to show up again but she couldn't help but to take the box in her bag every morning. What if he shows up one day to see Luna one last time? She could return the box then.
It was odd not seeing him, though. She had gotten used to seeing him in the station, even if it was only for a few months. She couldn't deny that she had developed a slight crush on him. Hearing the other girls in the station during that time also told her that she wasn't the only one to find him attractive. So at the time that he had talked to her had caught her off guard. But having the chance to talk to him after a fight like that wasn't truly fair. He was hurt then and to see that side of him had scared her for a bit; but just as the fear came, it left.
'Train line number 112 to Grand Field will pull up in five minutes. I repeated: train line number 112 to Grand Field will pull up in five minutes. For your safety, wait behind the yellow line until the train comes to a full stop an-'
The rest of the announcement was gone after something hard hit her head. Her hand immediately went to her heard as she turned her head to see what hit her.
"Sorry."
Her eyes widened. There standing right behind her was Natsume. And wearing the male uniform for her school, no less! She was immediately confused. The spat he had with Luna couldn't have made him want to beg his parents to move schools. That was just too extreme. He didn't look distressed nor did he look towards where he would normally be waiting with Luna.
"I didn't mean to keep your box. I just hadn't had time to come by before you left," Natsume said, looking like he was a little embarrassed about that. He extended his arm to her that held her box towards her, "But here…"
"Did you like it?" she blurted out as she grabbed her box. God, just strike me and my rebel mouth! She hadn't meant to say that. She just wanted to grab her box, telling him that it wasn't necessary for him to apologize, and thank him. But she would be lying if she said that the sudden curiosity of knowing if he had liked her lunch or not. She always prepares her own food.
Natsume looked at her a little confused, but gave her a small nod. "Uh, yeah… I was about to throw it away but remembered that it wasn't mine. I did enjoy it."
She gave him a bright smile. It wasn't a full compliment, but she was still happy that she had liked her cooking. "Yours too! It would have been a shame if you had thrown it away. You might not like cooking, but you really do have a talent for it. Your hair too. It would have been a shame if you had gotten it cut, but it really suits you." She pulled out his box and handed it to him. As much as it saddened her, she had to give it back. Though that was the only item that connected her to him, she knew that she had to give it back.
She couldn't read him. He looked a little surprised by her statement, but it was as if he wanted to hide it. Within the second it slipped, he hid it. "Thank you," he said in a low voice as he grabbed his box and packed it in his bag.
"By the way, how come you transferred?" Mikan couldn't help but ask. She was basically going to see him for the majority of the school days, which she had to admit it made her very happy. "It couldn't be because-"
"No," he cut in quickly. "It's not because of that. My parents were already planning to get me transferred for a while now. The process took longer than they had expected it to, so I ended up being late to school for the past three months since I had to go to the office early each morning. But that day…"
"You were annoyed that you couldn't confess to her sooner?" Mikan finished for him.
Natsume nodded and let out a sigh. "Basically. I was done with that conversation since before we arrived at the station but she kept egging me on that whole morning and… well, you know what happened." Mikan nodded at him. "I'm sorry I took out my frustration on you as well," he added, making it obvious that he wasn't used to apologizing.
"Don't worry about it," Mikan answered. "Just don't go ruining lunches just because you are mad," she teased him along with a smile, but was happy to see that she received a reaction from that. As much as she was convinced that it was her head playing tricks on her, she could have sworn he gave her tiny smile.
"Then how about we trade again," Natsume said in a low voice as the train arrived.
"What do you mean?"
"So I won't go ruining my lunch and I don't go hungry, let's trade lunches again."
Taken back a bit, she answered him by giving him a large smile and a nod. "Okay!"
Something short for you all!