Disclaimer: No. Never.

Warnings: Typos and grammar error; information about the place was insufficient (author of this fanfiction only researched through the help of internet: Wikipedia, Google Maps and Yahoo!) so the author sends her apologies if the info here is not accurate.

Don't find love, let love find you.
That's why it's called falling in love, because you don't force yourself to fall.
You just fall.

Chapter 2: Pre-fall

It has been three full weeks since Natsume Hyuuga saved her. It also had been weeks since she started working as his secretary in his company.

Mr. Hyuuga, it turned out, owned a company like the Yukihara's and the Sakura's. No wonder Mikan thought his name sounded familiar.

The brunette sighed as she put her head on the top of her arms which were both on top of her work desk. She had nothing to do today, which was quite unusual (because her boss was a workaholic monster; he never stopped working and giving her something to do unless he was sure that everything to be done that day was finished) and that only left Mikan bored… and hungry.

A few moments passed when she heard the door to his boss' office opened. His raven-head was in between that little space he made, peeking and looking at her with his emotionless face.

"I'm bored," he then finally said. "Let's go out."

The brunette knotted her forehead and looked at him. "Are we going to eat?" she asked.

Natsume raised one of his eyebrows and nodded after. He smirked when he saw the brunette stand up and danced a victory dance, as she raised both her arms in the air and wiggled her hips. Shaking his head, he went inside his office again and fetched his coat on his swivel chair, as he dialled a familiar number on the phone lying quietly on top of his table.

"Yes, sir? Do you need anything?" a voice on the other line inquired.

"Matsuhara-san, I need you to cancel all of my appointments today. Mikan and I are going out."

"But, sir. You have an important meeting with Ms. Imai this afternoon. And you know Hotaru-sama. She doesn't want―"

The raven-head massaged his temples. "Do something about it," he said, his voice firm and full of authority. It made no room for another excuse from his other secretary.

"Ye―Yes, sir."

"Good," he finally said, as he hang up the phone.

He went out of his office only to find his new secretary standing outside his door and ready to leave. "Are you that bored?" he then asked.

Mikan sheepishly nodded her head and grinned at him. "Where are we going anyway?" she asked, as they started to walk into the elevator.

Natsume only grinned at her in return before walking out of the elevator and into the parking lot.

The brunette was left inside the elevator, her hands in front of her chest, with a faint pink dusting her cheeks.

Mikan laughed, as fluffy howalons wearing fancy dresses danced around her. Fairies with bright-colored wings floated around her, brandishing their wands at her, leaving traces of fairy dust on their wake. Flowers a few feet high surrounded her, as they sing a sweet melody to her, making the brunette giggle once again.

She motioned to touch a white one, its petals dancing in the wind as it sang to her. She frowned when the flower's face and voice morphed into something that resembles Natsume. And it was telling her to wake up.

Wake up? She was not dreaming, was she?

Giggling, she slapped the flower playfully and looked at the fairies and the dancing howalons once again. Clapping her hands, she tried to dance with them, only to find the white flower following her stubbornly, continuously telling her to wake up.

The brunette felt something shaking her shoulders. She looked at it and found the flower's right leaf on it, shaking her and still telling her to wake up.

Frowning, Mikan opened her eyes and woke up as she stretched both her arms to take the sleepiness away from them. She then looked weirdly at Natsume before saying, "You were in my dream, Natsume."

"What?"

"You were a talking flower," she said and smiled at him. Having this dream was pleasant and it was the first time she had a dream just like this, instead of nightmares of what had happened to her when she left her home every night.

Shaking his head, he told her, "We're here."

Mikan Sakura stared at the scenery in front of her. They were now at the Suwakyo Bridge at Minakami, the largest and northernmost town in the Gunma Prefecture. According to her boss, it only took seventy minutes to get there from Tokyo.

"What are we doing seventy minutes away from Tokyo?"

Natsume smirked at her. "We're going bungee jumping."

The brunette could only look at her boss with widened eyes.

"Are you sure you can do this?" he asked, his voice dripping with worry. They stood on the side of the bridge, forty-two meters from the river below, which carried whitewater rafters, even kayakers. Needless to say, this place was a heaven for extreme sports enthusiast like Natsume… which she just found out just now.

She smirked, hiding her fear with a grin afterwards. "Of course! But after this, I don't want you calling me little anymore, Mr. Hyuuga."

The raven-head grunted. "Fine. Little girl," he said, before continuing on securing the harness on her body. "You can back out, you know. I won't laugh at you," he continued, as the brunette looked at a couple who jumped, hugging each other's body as they fell.

Mikan let out a nervous laugh. "And let you call me little again and again? No way, Jose! I'll do this. I'm just nervous. And Natsume, if ever I survive this, I―"

"You're rambling."

"Am I? Well, that's probably because I'm nervous. Yeah, I'm nervous. But that doesn't mean that I'll back out. No way. Never. Nooooo."

"Little girl," Natsume said, as he secured the last harness on her back. She didn't stop talking. "Little girl." Ugh. So noisy. "Mikan!" he finally said, calling her name for the first time.

"Did you just...?" the brunette then let out an exaggerated gasp. "Wow! For the first time ever, Natsume Hyuuga called me by my first name. This is an achievement, you know. I don't know why, but I'm happy right now―"

"Mikan, if you don't want to jump, don't. I'm not forcing you to."

The brunette was then silent for a while. "But I want to jump," she whispered afterwards.

The ravenhead sighed. "Look―"

"Can't you just jump with me?" she said, her voice was unsure and little.

"What?" he asked. She cringed. "You want me to jump with you? So you're afraid now? A few days ago, you were planning to kill yourself by jumping off a bridge and now, you're afraid of bungee jumping. Really?"

"No. No! Forget I said anything. I'll jump now!" she said and walked near the jumping area.

Closing her eyes, she calmed herself by counting numbers inside her head.

Natsume kept on saying some safety rules near her ear, but she couldn't hear anything. Her heart was working overdrive inside her chest, yet she didn't even know what caused it to.

Was it because of the raven-head beside her? Or was it the fear that was consuming her?

Ah, she decided. It must be the fear. Right. I was just afraid.

Really? Afraid of what?, something in her mind asked her. What it was, she didn't know.

Falling, obviously, she answered and rolled her eyes unconsciously.

Falling like literally? Or falling for him?

Gasping, Mikan opened her eyes in shock. No, it can't be! It's so soon! Plus, he's much older than me! I―

"Good luck on your first jump," she then heard him say, his voice gentle against her ear.

Feeling her heart thump against her chest once again, she nodded stiffly and looked at the scenery around her. It seemed to calm her, seeing the beautiful sight surrounding her. But gaaaah. He was not making this easy for her.

Few moments after and after taking a few deep breaths, she jumped. She finally jumped. And never in her life had she experienced this kind of feeling.

Her fear had transformed into exhilaration as soon as her feet left the rump... as soon as she felt the wind against her face, caressing her skin gently as she fell, only to be pulled back by the bungee cord attach firmly and securely on her back. Unable to take all of her emotions in, she screamed and it evolved into lively laugh until it died down and remained as a smile on her face.

Natsume smirked at her as soon as she was pulled back up the bridge.

"You like that, huh?"

She nodded, flashing her smile directly at him. Her heart, once again, thumped wildly against her chest as she saw that grin on his face.

Mentally shaking her head, he remembered his warning he told her on the night when they first met.

"Just promise me one thing: Never ever fall in love with me."

Mikan didn't know if he was serious that time or he was just playing with her, or he just wanted to make her feel comfortable. (But when she thought of it that night because she couldn't get even a wink of sleep, she realized that what he said made it more… uncomfortable. Being with him, living with him… working for him.)

But oh well. For her, falling like this has never felt so wonderful.

Ahhhh.

A/N: Hohoho~