Chapter 1: The Bet

RUKA'S POV

"Ruka, go out with me."

"Damn, not this again," I thought to myself as I groaned and glared at my childhood friend, Akatsuki Kain. He's such a womanizer, the way he looks at girls with those eyes. UGH. I just wanna kill him so badly.

"Go away, bastard." This was the kind of response I gave him every time he tried to ask me out. Yeah, it sounds pretty harsh, but I had my reasons for saying no.

The first reason: I had a slight crush on someone else who was much more mature than Akatsuki. His name was Kaname Kuran.

The other reason was a bit more complex…

3 years ago when all of my vampire friends and I were 13, I'll admit something… I DID like Akatsuki (just a little!). But then he totally screwed it up by making that stupid bet with Hanabusa Aidou, Takuma Ichijou, and Senri Shiki. Basically, Akatsuki claimed that he could make ME, who was some kind of rebel against boys at the time, kiss him on the cheek. Hanabusa was all like, "Do it! Do it! I dare you!" Takuma also cheered, "Yay! A bet!" And Senri just stood there, nodding his head to every suggestion being made.

Of course, Akatsuki, being the confident bastard that he was, agreed to the bet. He even said he'd do it for no reward if he was successful. He said, "Getting a laugh from seeing Ruka, the boy-hater, fall for a boy like me is rewarding enough."

Akatsuki began his mission to make me fall for him by changing the way he acted around me. Usually he'd tease me about stupid things like reading vampire manga (I don't even know what's so bad about that!). But then he started doing things that made me feel like (this is so embarrassing) a princess… I mean, he caught me whenever I tripped (yes, I was clumsy [another thing he used to tease me about]) and cheered me up whenever I was upset about Takuma reading my damn vampire manga.

One day, I was doing whatever the hell teenage girls do (no, I wasn't reading a vampire manga), when Akatsuki showed up completely out of nowhere. He brought up an old legend that was told to us a long time ago by his grandfather.

It was the legend about the giant flower bed here at Cross Academy. It took up a lot of the space outside the Night Class' dorms, but it was very colorful and sweet smelling. Akatsuki's grandfather told us that there was one and only one red rose in the whole flower bed.

The old man said, "If you, by chance, find that rose, it's because fate made it happen. And fate only made that happen because there's someone very important to you in your life. It's like a sign of true love."

Akatsuki finished retelling the legend.

"And you're bringing up this topic because…?" I tried to sound and look as annoyed as possible, but to be honest, I really wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Because…" He paused dramatically and pulled something from behind his back.

"I got you this," he said with that damn smile of his. It was a red rose.

I just looked at it for a moment as my heart began beating faster and faster.

"Y-you found that in the flower bed?" My voice was shaky from all my nerves.

"Yeah, just for you, Ruka."

I blushed and looked at him. His face, his smile… Everything at that moment felt real and genuine.

Akatsuki stepped closer to me and tucked the rose into my long wavy hair. Again, he made me feel like a princess; like a girl he loved.

I wrapped my arms around him to give him a hug. "Thanks," I said quietly.

And then, I did something I should have never done.

I kissed Akatsuki on the cheek.

Later that day, I happened to pass by the guys while they were discussing something. I didn't hear the whole conversation so I couldn't quite tell what they were talking about. All I heard was something about Akatsuki winning some bet. I was really curious, so I decided to ask Akatsuki what everyone was talking about. When the boys saw me, they all immediately stopped talking. I asked Akatsuki what bet he won.

"Uhh… You know… Guy stuff…" I could tell Akatsuki was hiding something from the way he was acting.

Unsatisfied with that answer, I went to my one and only friend-who-happened-to-be-a-girl, Rima Touya, for help. I told her everything I heard from the guys' conversation and she told me she'd try to get information out of Senri.

As I waited to hear back from Rima, I thought about Akatsuki and how long I've liked him for. I was never friendly with any boys (and actually most girls too), but to me, Akatsuki was someone I could always talk to and joke around with. He always teased me, but it was the type of teasing that I enjoyed.

I smiled to myself, realized I looked like an idiot, and then noticed Rima coming back.

"So…?" I asked sounding very curious.

"Senri told me everything, and you're not going to like it," Rima said as she bit her lip.

Rima explained all the things Senri told her. I learned that the bet had to do with me, Akatsuki only pretended to like me, the rose wasn't from the flower bed, and that I was a fool.

I felt my face heating up. I was embarrassed, upset, angry, but most of all, I was hurt.

I took a walk by myself outside. It was cold, but I didn't care. I needed to cool down anyway.

Without knowing it, I walked past the one guy I did not want to see.

Akatsuki said hey, but I refused to look at him.

"Ruka, what's wrong?" He looked like he was concerned but I didn't buy it.

"You can stop pretending now!" I yelled.

"What're you talking about?" Now he looked shocked by my yelling. I never raised my voice to anyone before.

"You already won your stupid bet, so please just stop acting so nice to me!"

Akatsuki's facial expression changed from shocked to somewhat upset.

"Look, Ruka, this wasn't meant to hurt your feelings. The guys and I were just playing around." Him saying that was suppose to make things better, but things only got worse.

"So you played with my feelings and thought that it wouldn't hurt?"

He said nothing.

At this point, I was close to tears, but I wasn't about to show that to Akatsuki. I wanted to walk away, but not before saying something.

I was so hurt, all I could say was:

"Whatever…"