Chapter Two: The Story Behind

"Division Schizomycophyta."

Karin glared at her Biology book, the same glare that she always gave to people and would be translated in human words as 'What the hell are you talking about?'

With that kind of look, most persons would immediately explain themselves, afraid to further piss off the Kurosaki woman. But, it was proven that her trademark stare, applied to non-living object, was futile.

"Division Myxomycophyta. Division Eumycophyta." In a few seconds, her poor book, which was innocently lying on the study table in front of her, had flown over her and landed on the floor.

"Who cares about those now? Why not just call them bacteria, slime molds and true fungi, instead of those stupid whatever-phyta names. It is easier to remember them that way."

She sighed. "Screw those scientists. I have to blame them for it." She might not have noticed it but she had been blaming people lately for no significant reason.

She stood up from her seat and picked her book from the floor, still complaining about the scientists. "They are not helping, at all, by giving things the complicated names. They only make my life difficult. What do they think? I am not a genius like them."

Genius. That word had made her stop, as she stared blankly at the book on her hand. "I am not like him."

She sighed unconsciously. It seemed like it had already become her habit. She walked back to her chair, threw her book on the table and sat down.

She'd been trying to occupy herself by doing something that would rid herself from the thoughts of him since it was Saturday. No school, no soccer practice, no other things to do.

In the end, her efforts of distracting herself had still ended up in vain. A thought of him had still managed to slip in her mind.

Angling her head to face the ceiling, she voluntarily let her mind be filled by him.

xx

A good-looking, arrogant jerk. A spoiled, rich kid. A person who was great only in form, but had no substance. Truth to be told, that had been her impression of him before. She'd been confident that the guy was only for mere display, and that everything he had was only brought to him by his good fate. And fate alone.

She would always say that he was just lucky that he was born with the face that most women would be attracted to, and even luckier to have a far relative who was really rich and kind enough to take him when he was orphaned at a tender age. Nothing to be awed about, he had never put any effort to have them.

However, all those convictions about him had been altered. It was as if the world had discovered her beliefs about the guy, and disagreed with her. Thus, in front of her, all evidences that he was far better from being just a good-looking, spoiled brat, was presented.

There, she realized how wrong she'd been

нιтѕυкαяιи • мαкε ιт εvεи • нιтѕυкαяιи

FLASHBACKS

FEW MONTHS PREVIOUS

"I am actually inspired to go to school now. He really deserves to be our leader, what do you say?" Karin heard one of her female classmates say, as she entered their classroom.

It had been a week since the new school year had started, and since she'd begun her junior year in high school.

"Yeah, right! Did you notice that the students are more organized now? I, myself, have promised that I'll already try not to come late in class. I just thought that he wouldn't like that." Another female classmate answered, and both of them giggled.

Out of curiosity, Karin asked, without even much of a greeting, "Who?"

She wasn't fond of prying on other people's conversations. But, hearing that the subject had something to do with their school in general, had just piqued her curiosity.

The girls turned their heads when they heard someone talk to them. On seeing that it was Karin, they both smiled.

"Good morning to you, too, Karin-san." Kazumi, the girl with a long, wavy, dark blue hair greeted. "We're just talking about our SC President, Hitsugaya-senpai."

"Hitsugaya-senpai, eh? That famous prince again." Karin scoffed. "I wonder why I'm not surprised. That rich kid has been the talk of the school ever since he had transferred here last year."

Naomi, the other girl with the shorter brown hair nodded. "That can't be helped. The guy has the looks, after all." She sighed, smiling wistfully. "And, now that he has the supreme student title, he has just become more popular."

"Pfft. It was no surprise that he's been elected as the student council president for this year. I bet all the females, including you two, had voted for him." Karin stated, pointing a finger at her two classmates. "And, even if that wasn't the case, it still is easy to have someone pull the strings for him, considering how rich his adoptive father is."

"It doesn't matter, though. He has been doing pretty great since the first day." Kazumi replied, trying to defend the guy.

"Yeah, of course. All the girls in our school will do everything that he asks, is why," Karin retorted, "They all are trying to impress him and get his attention. I wonder what they see on him, though." Really, the only thing that she found interesting about his physical appearance was his hair. Who wouldn't notice that anyway? Even from a distance, that white hair, which was like daring to disprove Newton's Law of Gravitational Force, was always distinctive. That aside, she found nothing appealing about him. Well, honestly, she was not very familiar about his features. She hadn't had the chance to look at him closely, and as if she was going to waste her time to catch a chance to stare at him just to prove to herself that he indeed was handsome. She had more important matters to deal with, thank you very much.

The two females, whom she was talking to, just looked at each other understandingly. They both smiled, and shook their heads.

They had already known Karin ever since their first year in high school. If it was safe to assume, they had already been able to memorize her.

She was the kind of person who would put everything that she had, who would always give her very best for the things that she loved. On the other hand, she was utterly clueless and uncaring for the things that didn't interest her one bit.

xx

At the end of her classes, Karin went to visit the library since her soccer team had decided to take a day-break from practice and her sister, Yuzu, had asked her if she could look for the book that she needed for her History research, explaining that she couldn't look for it, herself, because their cheerleading team had planned to have an overtime practice to perfect their new formation and stunts. Being the good sister that she was, Karin had told Yuzu that she would look for it.

Upon arriving at the library, Karin noted that no one was inside. Aside from the librarian, that is.

Karin shrugged. It wasn't that surprising, really. Most students were currently doing their after school club activities, and those who were not part of any club had probably gone home.

She walked on the aisle in between the two bookshelves, looking for the book that Yuzu needed. She stopped when she saw it. Unfortunately, it was on the highest division of the shelf. Even if she already stood on her tip toe, she just barely touched the bottom edge of the book.

"What the... C'mon."

She was still on the same position, when a hand reached for the book and gave it to her. She turned to face the person.

"Thank..." Her voice faltered when her eyes met a pair of stunning teal ones, "...you."

"Uh," came his simple reply, before he walked past her, scanning each shelf for something.

Karin shifted on her position just to watch him walking. It was the first time that she'd come that close to him. She was finally able to have a clear view of his face. That was only a quick glance, but Karin had easily concluded that he indeed was attractive. Not that she was attracted, she was only being honest. Besides, it was not the first pretty guy face that she'd seen. What with her brother's and her soccer team captain's charms.

Karin made up her decision to stay a little bit longer and read something. She continued walking to look for a good book to read, Yuzu's book on one hand. When she found a book about photography, she immediately took it and sat on the nearest chair, failing to notice the person who was already sitting across the same table.

She flipped the pages of the book with enthusiasm. Both of she and Yuzu were fond of those photography books, an interest that they had inherited from their late mother.

It was when she took her eyes off of the book and looked straight across, did she notice that she wasn't alone. Toushirou was also there, reading something. How would she know? He had been so silent.

She stared at him, while he was busy reading. She didn't realize that she had been looking at him longer than necessary, until she heard him sigh.

"Is there any problem with my face?" He asked, looking up at her.

Karin blinked and suddenly felt embarrassed on what she had been doing. Thanks to her sarcastic rebut, she had still managed to hide the awkwardness. "Your fan girls are surely going to kill me should I say that there is a problem with your face. I can't also argue with them, to be honest. The evidence is too strong." She said bluntly, looking straight at his eyes. "I was just wondering if those are real, or you're just wearing contact lens."

Toushirou raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised by Karin's words. "No chance," he replied before he went back reading his book, "Unless, I'm weird enough to wear eye contacts and eye glasses at the same time."

For the second time since their conversation had started, Karin felt the desire to smack herself for her stupidity. Of course, he was clearly wearing a pair of specs. He had always been wearing that.

"You could be, for all I know," she covered up, shrugging.

Silent settled between them after that. Though, it hadn't taken long when Karin spoke again.

"Did you bleach your hair?" she asked curiously, and as if she was only talking to a close friend.

But, it looked like she was the only one who was trying to be at ease on their small talk. In his reply, Toushirou didn't even bother to hide any stain of irritation. "That is none of your business, Kurosaki."

"I was just... Hey, wait! You know me?"

"I have the records of all the students here," he explained simply. "Besides, who wouldn't be familiar with the well-known Kurosaki woman, who has been able to break through the no-rose system of Karakura Soccer Club?"

It was Karin's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Touché, Mr. President. Though, what a shame, I don't know much about you."

"As if I want people to know everything about me," Toushirou answered her shortly.

Karin was about to say something when Toushirou stood up. "Aren't you still going? I think it's almost time."

"Oh, yes." She immediately closed the book and stood up. She returned the book on its proper place in the shelf and walked to the librarian to borrow the History book that Yuzu needed.

Toushirou went out first, followed by Karin. He had walked only a few meters, when a white envelope slipped from his bag. It went unnoticed by him so he continued walking. Karin, who was walking after him, was the one who saw it.

She bent down to pick it. She hadn't intended to see what was inside, but it changed as she read the words written on the envelope...

Hitsugaya Toushirou, SEIREITEI UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE EXAM RESULT

Seireitei University. That prestigious college university which had a real high standard when it came to accepting their students. There was a lot of incoming college students who wanted to enter the university, but not all of them were fortunate to pass the entrance exam. The university had also been able to keep their reputation of not accepting bribes. To them, money was never a case, so long as you had the brains. She'd heard from a few people, who had already tried to take the exam on the said university, that it was really hard. To be able to get on the top fifty passers was already a superb achievement. Scratch that, to be able to pass even if not in top fifty, was already something that a person could brag about.

So when Karin took the paper inside the envelope and unfolded it, to say that she was shocked was an understatement. Looking at figures written, she just almost crumpled the paper out of disbelief and almost shouted, "The hell! It's a joke!"

To sum up everything that she'd read, Toushirou Hitsugaya got a general average of 96.88% in the entrance exam, the one who'd gotten the highest score at that. Not much of a shocker, really.

Heck! Who was she fucking kidding!? It was the shocker of all the shockers! She'd never thought that that popular rich kid was actually intelligent. Actually, intelligent didn't even begin to describe him. He was a freaking genius!

Karin was still staring intently at the paper when she heard someone speak.

"So? Has the paper talked to you yet?" The voice was not amused.

Karin looked up at the speaker, shock still written all over her face. "Wow, Toushirou, you are a genius," she told him, his name easily slipping from her tongue.

A frown was what she got from him. "It's Hitsugaya-senpai to you. And, if you're done with that, can I already have it back."

"Oh. Hehe. Sorry." Karin sheepishly grinned, tucking the paper back inside the envelope, then handed the thing back to Toushirou.

"But it's been only a week since this school year has started, and you had already taken an entrance exam for college? Wow, you are an early planner, huh?"

"Hn."

With that, they made their way out of the school together. It was the first real encounter that they had, and unbeknownst to Karin, she was just starting to uncover the great things about him

xx

"Captain, you told us that we were going to have a special practice game today, didn't you?" Karin stared at her captain, arms folded in front of her chest, voice unhappy.

"Yeah." The team captain replied simply, a grin on his face.

Karin narrowed her eyes, diverting her stare to the guy who stood next to their captain. Raising a hand to point a finger at the guy, she looked back to meet her captain's eyes. "So, what is this genius kid doing here?"

It had been a week since she and Toushirou had had that small conversation. Just two days after that, the whole school had also discovered about his entrance exam result in Seireitei University. The teachers had been proud of him and eventually nicknamed him 'boy genius.'

"We don't need someone to calculate the area of our soccer field nor the circumference of our soccer ball just to plot a new play for us." Karin stated, unaware of the glare that the subject of her statement was giving at her. "Or did you call him to narrate the history of soccer to us?" Karin placed a hand on her waist and raised a daring brow. "You do realize that soccer is not about theories, right Captain?"

The person who spoke next wasn't their team captain whom Karin was expecting. Rather, a usual nonchalant voice was heard. "Quit goofing around, Abarai. Would you just tell why you called me here? I don't have all the time to waste dealing with nothing."

Renji laughed, earning himself a glare from each of Karin and Toushirou. "I just realized how similar you two are when it comes to holding your patience." Still grinning, he looked at Karin and continued to talk. "Alright, alright, when talked about a special soccer practice, I meant you're going to see how a real soccer star plays the game."

With what had been said, all the soccer members got curious. They looked at each other, then to their captain.

"A soccer star?" One of them asked.

"Uh-huh." Renji answered.

Before someone could ask who their captain was talking about, Toushirou butted in. "I don't remember myself agreeing to this, Abarai." He glared at the red-head, clearly irritated.

"C'mon, Toushi—"

"Hitsugaya."

"Alright, whatever. You're the student council president, and it's your responsibility to help all the students here, including us. It is the only help that I'm asking from you," Renji explained.

"It's not part of my responsibility to play with your team," Toushirou argued.

The other members listened to their exchange, wondering what they were talking about.

"It is, too. If not, then at least, do it for me as your former team mate, no? And for them." He pointed to his team mates. "It will help them, for sure."

Toushirou stared at the others for a while. He sighed and shook his head, before he walked away.

Renji thought that he hadn't been able to convince him, but when he saw Toushirou drop his things on the bench, he smiled. Toushirou walked back to them; his coat, tie, and glasses had been taken off, and his white long sleeves were rolled above his elbow.

"Then, let's make it quick."

.

Karin was pissed. She didn't know if their captain was just playing a prank on them. He divided the members into two teams, and what had surprised her more was when he had put all their good players on her side, while all their freshmen on the other team with Toushirou. When she'd argued to him, saying that the other team didn't stand a chance against them, Renji had just told her, "We'll just have to see it."

Karin glared at the back of Toushirou who was running in front of her.

'Soccer is not about brains, genius,' she thought, 'Let's see, how you're going to deal with this.'

Elicited by her annoyance, Karin kicked the soccer ball, aiming nothing but Toushirou. She wanted to put him on his place, but she hadn't prompted herself on apprehending his action to answer her shot.

With a light, quick motion, Toushirou easily performed a bicycle kick on the ball. The ball went past Karin and straight to the goal.

Karin drew her breath sharply. She turned to look at the goal where the ball had stopped, then back to Toushirou who was already walking away casually.

"What had just happened?" she looked around just to see everyone gaping, surprised like she was.

When she caught a glimpse of her captain, he was smirking at her, his eyes clearly saying, 'I told ya.'

The game ended with the score of 4-3, favoring Karin's team. But, it wasn't really the scores that counted. On the other team, Toushirou had single-handedly outmaneuvered the whole game, seeing that all the freshmen were not yet good enough to deal against Karin's team. Those three scores that he had made by himself against them was already more than enough proof to say that he really was a soccer prodigy.

When Renji asked Toushirou on what he could say about them, Karin didn't hear any offensive remark like what she'd been expecting to get from him.

"They're all good," Toushirou said instead, not a color of covering up his words was subtly suggested.

xx

"He was the ace player of our soccer team during middle school, and also the captain of the kendo club that time. But, his dad wanted him to pursue his studies so he'd be able to manage their business someday. During our last year in middle school, they decided to move to America and they just moved back here at Japan last year." Karin remembered her captain's words about Toushirou after that game when the other members had asked Renji if how he'd known their SC President.

xx

It was weekend. Karin was jogging at the park when she heard someone sobbing. She looked around and found a young girl at the bench, age four-to-six years old based on her assumption. She was about to walk to her and ask what was the matter, but someone beat her into it.

"Are you lost?" A familiar voice asked the girl. Though, Karin noted that there was something uncharacteristic on his tone. It was sweet and soft.

As Karin's eyes confirmed that it was really Toushirou who was sitting beside the girl, she also noticed that he looked different at that time. Instead of his black coat over his white long sleeves and black pants, he was wearing a light blue shorts and white collared-shirt, together with rubber shoes and white socks, and a black band around his wrist. He was also not wearing his glasses like that time that he'd played soccer with them, which only showed how beautiful his eyes really were. If he looked like a young executive with his school uniform, he would be mistaken as a sports wear model with his present attire.

"It's alright, hun. Onii-chan will help you so stop crying, hm?" Karin heard him again. The young girl nodded, her expression calming down.

Toushirou's next action totally caught Karin off guard. He ruffled the girl's hair affectionately and...

"Oh my... Is he... smiling?" And not just a smile, but a kind, genuine smile. Here she thought, the only facial expressions that he could do were glare, frown and a roll of his eyes. However she refused to concede, she was already ogling him.

And as though his endearing voice and his smile were still not enough, Karin even saw Toushirou carry the girl like he was a loving brother to her.

Adorable. That was the only word that she could think to describe it.

It'd been a few minutes since Toushirou and the kid had left, but Karin was still rooted to the same place. She walked to the bench where the two were seated earlier, and sat down.

"So he really is not a cold-hearted brat, after all." She breathed.

Good-looking. Well-mannered. Genius. Soccer star. Great kendo player. Kind-at-heart. Almost perfect. Who would have thought that such person was actually existing? And who would have thought that it would turn to be the person that she hadn't expected the most?

Karin stood up, still thinking about him. She walked without watching where she was going, until...

"Nee-san! Watch out!"

Out of surprise, the only thing that Karin was able to do was to fix her, now wide, eyes at the boy who was riding his bicycle while it was coming towards her.

Luckily, before it could hit her, someone had already grabbed her by the waist, and she suddenly felt something warm against her back.

"Nee-san, I'm sorry." The boy stopped his bike to apologize.

"It's alright. It's not your fault." Karin's body went stiff when she heard her savior's voice, not to mention that he was still holding her, "This woman was not watching where she was walking."

"Uhm... Uh, I see, Nii-san. I'll go then. I'm sorry again." So he left.

The arm let go of Karin's waist, but she felt both hands grab her shoulders and turned her around to face him. "That was close. What the hell were you thinking, Kurosaki? You seemed to be spacing out." His expression was a mix of annoyance and concern.

"N-nothing. I wasn't spacing out," Karin lied. Well, as if she'd tell him that she had been thinking of him. "I was just... Uh, never mind. I have to go. Thank you."

Karin immediately ran away from him, ignoring the sudden change of her heart beat's rhythm.

That was only the start. The start of finding herself lost at the thoughts of him. The start of being distracted on the things that she was doing. The start of talking and arguing to herself. And, the start of blaming everything to him.

END OF FLASHBACKS

нιтѕυкαяιи • мαкε ιт εvεи • нιтѕυкαяιи

"Karin-chan. Karin-chan." With the soft voice calling, Karin slowly opened her eyes.

She had fallen asleep while studying her biology subject, or to be more exact, while thinking about him. She looked up to see her twin sister standing next to her.

"Hey, Yuz," she greeted.

"I came here to ask if you want to come with me to the grocery store, or you just already want me to buy something for you."

Karin stood up. "Oh, I'll come with you. Hold on a minute. I'll get changed."

She walked to her closet and searched for something to wear. While she was doing so, she suddenly asked, "Neh, Yuz. Do you think it's just normal for a person to keep thinking about someone?" She didn't know why she'd asked that, but she'd already done.

"Huh?" The other Kurosaki was surprised. Maybe, she hadn't just expected her twin sister to pop such random question. "I think it's just normal."

"Oh."

"...if the person is in-love with that someone."

It had made Karin turn to her twin sister, yelling defensively, "I am not in-love with him!"

"Karin-chan, I am not saying that you are in..." The moment that Yuzu stopped on what she was supposed to say, as if she just realized something important, Karin had known it was not a good sign. She was proven right when she saw that familiar smile on her sister. The angel's devil smile.

"Karin-chan..." With Yuzu's overly sweet voice, Karin gulped. She didn't like whatever was running on her sister's mind.

"Kyaa! Karin-chan! You're in-love?" That was more of statement than a question.

"I never said that!" Karin shouted at her sister, who was already clapping and jumping excitedly.

There was no way that Yuzu was still going to listen to her. "Who is he? Who is he? Tell me, Karin-chan!"

Knowing that there was no more hopes left to her, Karin face-palmed and shook her head.

Kami, help her. Why had she been so defensive about it? It had just gotten worse. She needed to stop making those irrevocable outbursts.

Seriously.