On the night Niou's father gets married his best friend/the guy he's had a crush on for years gets engaged, heart broken, it puts Niou off all the drunk and desperate brides maids and the other female guests...or so he thought. When the night ends Niou finds himself longing her but manages to move on, isolating his heart in a wall of ice, yet when he sees her again on the streets a year later he is devastated to discover she doesn't remember him or anyone for that matter...

Chapter 1

"Will the bride and groom please take the floor?" announced the best man from the stage, Niou rolled his eyes as he watched his father step to the dance floor hand in hand with his new bride and Niou's new step-mother, she was a pretty woman, nice enough, he had no complaints but after how his father treated his mother when he was younger to the point of divorce, he was willing to make bets on how long this marriage would last.

Marui had taken the hand of one of the brides maids and was dancing with her, Kuwahara was chatting another while Yagyuu stood hand in hand with his long time girlfriend Hyuuga Alicia; half French half Japanese; in the corner. The knot in Niou's chest tightened as he looked away, he saw it, on her finger, the promise ring. Yagyuu had practiced for hours with Niou posing as Hyuuga to perfect the right way to ask for her hand in marriage. He took another sip of his beer, they were still in middle school, why rush?

No, he was just jealous, since the time Niou had asked Yagyuu to join the tennis club in their second year, he had been in love, he slept around enough to hide it but it still hurt, Yagyuu would never look at him that way, never.

"I'm not impressed with the turn out," remarked Niou as he walked towards Marui who had stopped for refreshments. "And the more I drink the less attractive they get…" He knew full well it was just his bitterness speaking.

"Ha!" replied Marui. "Look at that crowd of girls," he nudged to a group of bridesmaids sitting together.

"The cheerleader effect, look at them as individuals my good man," said Niou. The cheerleader effect was when a group of woman looked attractive only when they were in a group, look at them individually and they weren't so, unlike his fellow tennis club members, he had his father's wisdom to thank.

Marui took a closer look at them, this time one at the time. "Yeah…your right." He scanned the room, to see a black haired female dressed in a sapphire blue corset top gathered dress that matched her eyes. The dress revealed her the bare back of her pale skin, Marui wolf whistled. "You can not say it's the cheerleader effect for that one."

Niou just shook his head as he watched his friend strut towards the girl, her hair was half up with Yagyuu's side fringe arranged in a elegant sophisticated manner revealing she was a good student virgin type, her eyebrows may have looked plucked but they weren't saying she wasn't into appearances, un-pierced ears; self explanatory, she wasn't wearing any cosmetics saying she was the type of girl who wasn't into the one night fling, Marui was doomed for failure.

He watched as she brushed him off coldly and took a bite cake, she stabbed the cake with her fork and took a sip from her glass; it looked like champagne, how'd she manage to get a glass? She looked no older than Niou. Marui walked back with disappointment on his face.

"You knew that would happen, didn't you? That's why you didn't even try," he accused Niou, his face red like his hair and maroon suit.

"Yep," replied Niou popping the 'p'. "Although a wise man said the best place to pick up chicks is at a wedding, some women heard him saying that as well."

"Pity," said Marui as he glanced back at her. "I wouldn't mind a bite of that apple." Niou just shook his head; walking up to a pretty in her own right bridesmaid he tapped her on the shoulder.

"Yes?"

"Hi, my friend has been staring at you for so long it's pitiful, and as his friend I can't bear to watch it any long. So-" he pulled Marui over. "Your name?" he asked her. She grinned.

"Dana."

"Dana, pretty name… Dana, haaave you met Marui?" With that he left the two alone, his friends were sure fortunate they had a wing man like himself.

And once more he was alone, his eyes somehow kept looking back at the black haired female, she just sat by the marble pillars watching them dance, Niou could help smile as he watched her face light up as the bride and groom performed their unpractised dance. She smiled and laughed yet she looked as if she had no intention of joining them, he shrugged and walked up to her.

"Hi," he greeted. "The poor red hair fellow you rejected not too long ago was a friend of mine." He said as he sat down beside her.

"Hmm, doesn't look very upset does he?" she remarked spotting Marui and the bridesmaid kissing. "Cake?" she held up a silver tray of individually cut and decorated cakes.

"Yes actually, thanks," he replied taking one. "How'd you get the entire tray to yourself?"

"I sweet talked one of the waiters," she replied. "If you're going to ask me to dance, I know better than to go any where with a guy I met at a wedding."

"I know you know, I saw you reject Marui and although he's kind of an idiot, he is quite the charmer," said Niou. "I won't ask you anything just let me sit and wallow in my self guilt." Niou ate the cake.

"Aww, here have another one," she held up the tray for him.

"No thanks, but I wouldn't mind a sip of your champagne," said Niou, she handed him her glass and he took a gulp. "How'd you get one?" he asked honestly curious, he was the son of the groom and he didn't get a glass because he was underage.

"Amazing what men do when they think your going to sleep with them," she replied. Niou snorted. "And when a girl had alcohol in her system who knows what they'll do."

"True, my gender is a simple minded and foolish kind but that's what makes us lovable," said Niou, she giggled and took back her glass, draining the last of its content. They two continued their pointless chattered about the wedding and picking at its flaws such as that the bride forgetting to shave her armpits.

"I just heard the funniest phrase from one of the bridesmaids," she said. Niou leaned forward, both high on sugar and slightly drunk. "The only reason to have sex is for love," she whispered, there was a momentary pause before both of them busted into laughter.

"I can name ten reasons right here and now," he replied.

"I can name twenty."

"Do it."

"Now?" Niou nodded. "Okay, umm…there's break-up sex, make-up sex, can't get to sleep sex, nothing on TV sex…"

"There's also revenge, rebound, curiosity," continued Niou.

"Curiosity?"

"Like there's this really really tall girl, not a big girl, just a tall girl. A tall girl with super long legs wearing a supper short mini skirt… I'd have to know what that's like." Niou expected her to pour something on him in disgust but she laughed.

"True, very true."

"Oh! So when you do, can I watch?" she laughed lightly and just shook her head.

Forty reasons later

"Wow… this is getting hard," she admitted frowning.

"Forty-eight." She smiled. "The condoms are about to expire," said Niou.

"Forty-nine…Oh! You failed a subject so you argued with a teacher to change your score," she said.

"How is that…oh…I see. Wow, that's fifty, I'm glade I wrote them down," remarked Niou looking at the list they had began compiling on a fabric napkin when they reached the twenties.

"We should publish this," she said, Niou nodded, they smiled at each other when at that moment they both noticed something, the smiles faded. "We're getting swept up in the romantic setting of the wedding and the dazzling moon aren't we?" she asked.

"I think so," agreed Niou. "Okay, what do we do?" They paused in thought. "Just leave now and pretend nothing happened?" he suggested, he didn't like the sugestion, not at all.

"…Oh! I know! You know how it's always the tomorrow when you wake up in their bed that breaks the magic right?" she asked.

"Yeah, where you getting at?" questioned Niou grinning.

"How about no tomorrow, we have our fun but when the night is over we go our separate ways and never see each other again, no calling each other, no searching for each other," she suggested.

"But what if-"

"No! No 'what if's if it turned out to be really bad for one of us than we're safe from the other. All we have are the untarnished memories of this magical night, and when we're old and grey and we look back to tonight, it'd be perfect, magical..." Niou was wrong, he made a mental note to rethink how he saw woman, she wasn't the good student virgin type, maybe a good student but most likely not a virgin judging from their conversation.

"Okay, we need code names then," he said, she frowned slightly as she thought. Niou eyes caught sight of the tiny wrinkles that appeared on her forehead, he had the urge to just smother them with his finger. "I'll be…Trickster then." He kicked himself at the unimaginative code name but she smiled and seemed to like it.

"Then you may call me…Myeongwol," she replied.

"Myeongwol? Sounds Korean," Niou pointed out, he kicked himself mentally again, she came up with such a cool code name within seconds and yet he went by his nick name.

"It is," she shrugged. Niou stood up and left his beer on the marble base he held out his hand for her, she grinned as she abandoned her wine glass and tray of cakes as she took his hand. They began to sneak out of the ballroom when she stood. "Hey, since there's no tomorrow, how about we steal the flower bouquet?" Niou's eyes travelled along her line of sight to the flower bouquet on the one of the dinner tables.

"No tomorrow, right, I'm sure we're doing all the single females a huge favour by taking it," he said.

"It's a terrible tradition," she agreed as Niou slowly walked towards the table and grabbed the bouquet, the moment his hand touched it they ran.

"Where are we going?" she asked, Niou took her hand and led her to one of the music rooms upstairs above the ballroom, when they entered they locked the door behind them. "Now what?"

"Do something spontaneous."

"Umm…"

"No! Don't think about it, just do it, no tomorrow remember?" said Niou. Myeongwol took off her black Chanel stiletto heel plumps and handed them to Niou. "Okay?" She smiled as she did a back flip and then a ballerina twirl.

"Spontaneous enough for you?" she asked putting back on her shoes.

"Milady," said Niou bowing and offering her the bouquet.

"Aww, thank you," she took the bouquet and sniffed the white roses, she smiled as she did, but as she lowered her arms the smile vanished and she sneezed. Niou laughed and she soon joined in. "Urgh, it smells horrible," she declared handing it back to him. Still laughing Niou took the bouquet and opened one of the windows. "What do you intend to do with it?" Niou pointed at a gathering of bridesmaids sitting around the fountain with the best man and the rest of them.

"I'm going to throw it at them then sit back and watch them fight over it," he explained, she snatched the bouquet from him.

"I wanna do it, I'm the girl," she pointed out. Aiming carefully she threw the bouquet at the gathering before they both ducked from view as they laughed. "As I said before, it's a horrible tradition."

"So you're not going to have the bouquet at your wedding?" asked Niou.

"Of course, at that time I'll be the one throwing the bouquet and looking at the single girls thinking 'Fight! Fight! Fight!'" she replied innocently, Niou chuckled.

"I'd want to be there to see that," he said honestly. They leaned against the wall as they sat on the carpet staring into each others eyes; hers was such a beautiful shade of blue, the same as her dress. She looked into his, they were a rich gold with a small tint of green, just staring into them would make any girl's heart melt.

"Is your hair naturally that colour?" she asked as she began to fiddle with his ponytail between her sapphire blue painted nails.

"Nope, but it suits me better than brown though, doesn't it?"

"True," she agreed twirling it around her fingers. Niou reached for her hair and fiddled with a few stray strands of hair that had escaped from the numerous white crystal snowflake decorated pins.

"I've always wanted to dye my hair black but my skin has a pink tone to it."

"So?"

"Have you ever seen a European with natural black hair?" Myeongwol frowned in thought once more.

"True," she said again. "Black looks horrible with pink under tone, how do you think I'd look with silver hair?" she asked. Niou pictured her hair silver.

"Horrible," he said honestly, she laughed lightly.

"You're very truthful…"

"Ask the many girls I've lied to, seduced, dined, wined, bedded then abandoned, not necessarily in that order," he said.

"Then have you lied to me tonight?"

"No, because I know you're smart enough to see through them," replied Niou honestly.

"So in my memory of tonight, you will be one of the few guys who don't lie to sleep with a girl," she declared. Niou opened his mouth to rebut but she covered her ears and began singing "La, la, la' off tune, he chuckled and pulled her hands from her ears.

"Fine, Myeongwol-san, what brings you here to this dreaded wedding?"

"Free champagne and cake," she replied with a serious face, Niou chuckled.

"Okay, a girl who eats with no guilt, I like that." He said as he leaned in closer and looked into her eyes.

"What about you? Why is a handsome fellow like you doing alone on a night like this with a roomful of desperate girls?" she asked.

"I'm bi," he confessed, she didn't laugh or break eye contact; she just stared unjudging into his eyes with a delicate smile. "My best friend forward slash the guy I've had a crush on since second year just asked his girlfriend to marry him."

Myeongwol made a sizzling sound. "Ouch."

"Hmm… I know… so it put me in a bitter mood so I decided not to get laid tonight," explained Niou. "Weird?"

"Yes, but weird is good, weird is…unique, weird is…"

"Fun," he finished for her. She smiled.

"Yes, weird is fun."

They sat side by side discussing anything and everything from first kisses to how horrible their lives were, at some point in their conversation the game of 'If you've ever…raise your hand'* appeared with the mist.

"Okay, if you have ever run into a door raise your hand," she said, they both did.

"If you have ever pushed a door that said PULL or vice versa raise your hand," they both raised their hands again.

"If you have ever argued with yourself, lost, and find nothing wrong with it raise your hand," two hands went up once more.

Horrid and lame jokes escaped their lips.

"Why did the plane crash?" asked Niou.

"Why?"

"Because the pilot was a loaf of bread." They laughed.

"I don't get it," she admitted as she giggled.

"Neither do I, but its funny."

"Okay, what did the ocean say to the crashing plane?" asked Myeongwol as she tried to compose her face.

"What?"

"Nothing, it just waved," they two laughed at the one ridiculous joke after another. Eventually the laughter died down, once again replaced by the pointless starring into the eyes.

Niou noticed a piano, sitting in the corner of the room, standing up he held out his hand for her's, she took it and followed him across the room. Niou pulled out the chair for her and she sat down, sitting beside her Niou began to play, his fingers skilfully glided across the keys. She smiled and rested her head against his shoulder as she listened, his music wasn't soft, not was it at all emotional, but it was compelling, powerful, each note echoed within you long after the key has been pressed.

Myeongwol smiled and stood up, walking to the middle of the room she began to dance a ballet on her tippy toes, it was un-choreographed and from the heart, her movements fluid and graceful as she dance. Slowly the music died down, Niou walked towards her and gently stroked her cheek before leaning in and kissing her.

She was surprised at first and Niou thought he had ruined it, but slowly she opened her mouth and kissed him back. He lowered her to the floor his hand exploring the smooth touch of silk against her legs, her hand found its way past his grey suit and to his bare skin.

When they broke apart for a few moments to breathe she asked cheekily. "Does this have anything to do with reason forty-nine?" Niou chuckled but didn't reply as he pressed his lips against hers once more.

* * *

"Oh! Everyone's gone," noted Myeongwol as she and Niou walked back into the ballroom, she placed the bouquet exactly where they had taken it from just to piss off the bridesmaids and the rest of the single females attending.

"It's getting late I guess," said Niou as he fixed the buttons on his shirt.

"Your flyer's undone Trickster," remarked Myeongwol. Niou looked down to check but to find it zipped up. "Gotch ya," she grinned kissing Niou as he looked back up.

"Damn," he cursed once they broke apart.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm going to have all these great memories," began Niou. "But I'm going to have one horrible one of you leaving through that door." Myeongwol frowned in thought then smiled.

"Close your eyes," she said, Niou closed his eyes. "Now count to ten."

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten," Niou opened his eyes to find her gone and himself alone in the room, a sudden feeling of emptiness passed through him. It all seemed like an illusion, the perfect time he spent with her, but lying on the floor, was one of the clear crystal snowflake shaped hairpins she wore, he picked it up and held it still warm pin between his fingers, it shone like a rainbow under the dazzling moon light. The warmth of it, proof, it really happened.

*a game me and my friends based on a list of 'copy into your profile if…' for the full list look for my profile

A/N: Depending on response i will keep this as a one shot or turn it into a series where he sets off to find her