Yuki: My grammar isn't that promising, and lacks a lot of description in the story… Bear with it, all right? Please review after reading, thanks.

Chapter 1: The Prince as the New Student.

"Hey, Mikan!" Anna called from the field after playing soccer with her team mates. "Come here for a while." She waved to a certain brunette, walking down from the office. Mikan steered her eyes from the ground and saw her friend waving at her.

Running towards her, Mikan said, "Yeah, Anna? What's up?"

Anna wrapped her right arm on her shoulder. "Have you heard about the Prince?"

Mikan thought for a while. "Huh? Which prince? I'm sure there are two of them…"

"Jeez, of course Prince Natsume!" Anna added. "I've got this news about him going to the same school here!! Isn't this great!? The talented, cute and charming prince Natsume!"

Mikan sweat dropped. She disliked Prince Natsume, especially his arrogant attitude. He often hurt people's feelings instead of caring for his citizens. Prince Ruka is different compared to Prince Natsume. She preferred Prince Ruka because he is loveable and does not create any problems around him. The thing is, Prince Natsume will be the next throne to be the Emperor of Japan when he turns 20. Now, he's only a 16. Ruka Nougi and Natsume Hyuuga owned different surnames, because Ruka's father passed away 10 years ago and uses his mother's maiden name. And for 10 years, Natsume-ouji has become the Crown Prince after replacing Ruka-ouji.

"What's so great about him? Yeah, he may be good looking, but he has a rotten character!" Mikan Sakura said aloud. Anna knew that her friend disliked him a lot. "I wonder what makes him so special for you, Anna!"

"Like I said last time, Mi-chan! Everybody has different tastes. I'm sure Nonoko would agree with me!" Anna said with her eyes glittering.

Mikan stopped walking and faced her, "Weird, aren't royalties supposed to attend to this special academy which consists only royal members? Why pick the government high school for?"

"Maybe he loves his citizens so much until he had to come here!" Anna said happily.

"You really liked him, huh?" Mikan asked in confusion. "By the way…" She turned her head to the left and right. "I want to have a dinner with you guys later… Where are Hotaru and Nonoko?"

Anna pointed to a building labelled '3'. "They're inside the laboratory, working on something. I'll inform them, all right? You're going home now, right?"

Mikan nodded silently and waved good bye to Anna, "See you tonight at my place!"

X

Back in the palace, Natsume was lingering around the foyer, waiting for the confirmation of the pleading on going to the government school. An elderly man appeared with a white paper and bowed to him while handing him the object he was carrying. Natsume snatched from him and read thoroughly.

"It took me a week to get this confirmation?!" Natsume said in a relieved tone. "The government's so stupid…"

The man named Hoshi bowed, "Prince Natsume, it's not good to say about the government…"

"I speak whatever whenever I want to." He frowned and walked back to his quarters with several bodyguards. "I want to be alone!" The scared bodyguards stood frigid and swept away as soon as possible. Natsume flashed back the conversation he had with his mom last week. It was dreadful.

Flashback…

"What are you saying, mother?!" Natsume said as he slammed on the table hard, making the teapot to fall down from the place. A maid came and wiped the floor. "I'm not going to get married with this stranger!!"

The elderly woman who gently sipped her tea eyed on him, "As you can see, your late grandfather made a promise to his best friend who happened to help him a lot during his times. Your gramps owed a great deal of help from him. So, in order to repay his kindness, he agreed to make an engagement with their grandchildren."

Natsume furrowed his brow and glared at his mother, "I'm only sixteen, mother."

"It's the rules… You are to get engaged when you're 16." His mother said carefully. "Your secretary assistant will tell you about the rest later. You may leave now. I have other things to take care of."

End of Flashback…

"That gramps, why did he do this to me!?" He messed his hair and stormed to his room. A man stood there, it was his secretary assistant. "What do you want now?"

The man bowed and greeted, "Crown Prince Natsume, I'm sorry. I did not see you just now at the Queen's quarters, so I thought you might be here…"

Natsume folded his arms and leaned against the door. "I repeat, what do you want?"

"I was sent to give you the school uniforms in Seijyuu High and the text books. Everything's inside your wardrobe. If there's anything else missing, please don't hesitate to ask… I will excuse myself…"

He grabbed him by his shoulder when the assistant was about to leave. "Wait. I want to ask about my future wife…"

He turned his head and bowed again. "Yes, what would you like to know about her?"

"… Never mind. I'll ask later. I need a sleep now…" He released his grip and closed the door. "Stupid grandfather…"

X

Inside the Emperor's quarters, the King and Queen were having a talk about their future in laws.

"Do you think what your late father did was the right thing, dear?" The Queen asked worriedly. "What if she's not capable enough to fit as the Empress?"

The king took out a ring from a box and looked at it. "If it was dad who chose to do this, I'm sure that it'll be just fine…" He sat on the chair and sighed, "I've called dad's best friend through the phone yesterday. I asked him whether he has told his grand daughter about this. It sounds as if he has not done it yet."

"He hasn't? Have you told him about that the engagement?"

"Yes, he said he will tell his grand daughter, as soon as possible." The King said. "Late dad gave the other engagement ring to his friend with a letter telling him about the plan."

X

The next day at school, everybody was crowding at an area. Mikan was walking in the school yard, looked around to see what was happening. She was grabbed by the neck by Nonoko and Anna. "N-N-Nonoko… A-Anna…" She was choking slowly.

Anna immediately let her off. "S-sorry!! I didn't mean to do that!!" She shook the half-dead Mikan. "Mikan!!"

"N-no, never mind…" She massaged her neck. Her head popped in the crowd. "Jeez, why are these girls screaming at??"

Nonoko smacked her head. "You didn't know?! The Crown Prince is here!!"

Mikan had a vein popped from her head. "All these girls are actually his fan girls?!"

Anna and Nonoko nodded, simultaneously. "Practically the whole school girls are his fan girls. Only you and Hotaru are excluded."

The tangerine girl smirked, "So, it means we're unique!"

"But, Hotaru's here to take some photos of him to sell. She's really desperate…" Nonoko said. "But I'm going to purchase some!!"

Mikan frowned and walked away, leaving the crowd. "These entire ruckus just for a stupid arrogant prince. How unruly!"

Back inside the limousine, the Crown Prince snuck in a place secretly, leaving the car crammed with fan girls. He ran towards the forest heading towards the building '1'. He heard a girl getting angry about something and he accidentally eavesdropped.

"That idiotic prince, what does he think he was? A superstar?! Getting the centre of attention among those girls makes me sick. The girls are stupid too. Why would they stalk him for?!" Mikan mumbled, clearly. "I heard he was ignoring the crowd waving at him during the New Year Parade. What a nerve!!"

Natsume was pretty much shocked that a girl around his age was able to talk bad about the Crown Prince so openly. He smirked and walked directly towards her. "Brave for a girl like you to criticise me…"

Mikan stopped from walking further. She heard this voice before, but it was from the television broadcasting from the palace. She slowly lifted her head and was startled. The Crown Prince was standing right in front of her. "That jerk N-N-Natsume!!" She pointed rudely at him.

"A jerk? Me?" He cupped his chin and furrowed, "You could get jailed, you know."

"N-no way! I was only talking! There's no proof that you heard me! Everybody wouldn't believe--"

"They always believe and listen to what the Crown Prince says, woman." He cuts in. "A normal girl like yourself could not do anything at all to convince others when you're dealing with a royalty."

Mikan paused to digest what he had said. It was true; he is the hope of the country. And bad things he had done will be erased immediately to protect the good name of the royalties. "D-do whatever you want! I don't care already! I can't imagine the hardship of your wife after you get married!" She wounded up his anger.

His anger doubled when he heard the word 'wife' and 'marriage'. Those words… I hate it these days… Hate it! "You, idiot! I'll be fine as long as an idiot like you don't marry me!" He pointed at her and left the place.

The words were ringing in her head. She had just picked a fight with a royalty. Not an ordinary one but, the future Emperor! She dropped to her knees and widened her eyes. "S-shoot… I'm in a deep trouble…"

X

After school, Natsume got in the limousine after getting used to the school. He was in the class 2-A. As he was leaning on the seat, his secretary assistant said something to him. "Crown Prince Natsume, I need your attention about your future wife…"

His eyes flicked open and stared at him. "What about her?"

"For your information, she was studying here as well…" The man said. "As you can see, Prince Ruka was arranged to be the one to marry her, since he is the son of the late Ryoki, your father's elder brother. But since he passed away, you're taking his place to marry her."

Natsume heaved a sigh and nodded. "And then?"

"Would you like to see the picture of your future wife?" He asked. "She's really beautiful. I'm sure that you'll like her." Natsume accepted the picture. He lazily looked at it and within seconds, he widened his eyes. The brunette wearing a blouse top and cheery looking was the same girl he had met earlier. "Her name's Mikan Sakura."

X

"Jii-chan…" Mikan complained, "What is so important? We're celebrating mom and dad's wedding anniversary, you know…" She tried to please him, but failed. Everybody gathered in the living room with tensed atmosphere. She gazed at her family members with confusion.

"Mikan Sakura!" the old man said, sternly. "I have something to say, but you got to accept it. You can't refuse this."

Mikan stared at him and then to her worried father, Narumi. Her mom, Azumi Yuka was meddling with her fingers. "Jeez, what is it so depressing about? You guys looked to sad!!"

Her grandfather said, "You are to marry the Crown Prince."

Everybody silenced for a minute. Mikan was the one who broke the ice. "Wahahaha… Jii-chan, it's too early to celebrate April's Fool! That was a good joke, everybody looked so serious!!"

Narumi said, with a concerned look. "You saw the engagement ring before, right? It was from the late King…"

"WHAT!!?" Mikan shouted out, after remembering about the ring when she was 6 years old. The late king came into their house and handed the ring to her grandfather. "I DON'T WANT TO ACCEPT THIS ENGAGEMENT!!!"

Her grandfather was surprised to receive this response from her. It was worse than he thought it would be. "You can't do that. Only the Crown Prince Natsume could reject."

She grabbed both of her pig tails and shouted, "All those things I said about him, right in front of him!! Ah! Of course he wouldn't accept me, gramps!! Call them!!"

Her grandfather cleared his throat. "I just received the call from the King himself about this evening. He said that the Crown Prince saw your picture and then laughed for a second. He said he'd accept this marriage proposal."

Everybody in the house sat in rigid. Mikan blinked thrice and wailed, "N-no way!!!!!!"