A/N : Hey everyone! Sorry for taking so long to update, but I hope you'll like this next chapter of the Haunted and the Heartless.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Skip Beat…it's a tragedy.

Chapter 2 (The Encounter)

"You can have a seat right over there Mogami san." I stood next to my new sensei as he gestured me towards a seat in the front of the class. I could feel everyone's eyes on me as I stumbled my way into the empty desk; a few students snickered.

"eh? That's the new girl? Total disappointment." I heard someone whisper from behind me "Why couldn't it have been a cute girl?"

"She's not that bad." I heard another say "…nothing extraordinary though, where did the teacher say she was from again?"

I was used to this kind of commentary. It usually happens when you're the new kid in school (which for me is often, considering how much I move) and what they were saying wasn't anything I hadn't heard before.

"Kotonami Kanae San would you mind sharing your text book with Mogami san so she can follow along?" Sensei asked.

I glanced over at the girl seated right next to me. She had long silky black hair and striking blue eyes. She glanced up at our sensei as he said her name and then twisted her gaze towards me. Her eyes narrowed, agitated. To answer sensei's question, yes, I think she did mind sharing with me quite a bit.

She let out a huff and reluctantly scooted her chair closer to mine, moving the textbook in-between the both of us. I noticed she didn't look up at me while she was doing any of this.

"So pretty" I thought despite myself. I couldn't help watching her hair gracefully fall over her shoulder when she leaned over to write in her notebook.

Sensei had started his lecture and all the whispering from the other students had died down quite a bit. There was, however the occasional snicker in my direction. I chose to ignore it.

"Do you mind?" Kanae san murmured under her breath. She still had her head down, hand moving as she wrote, not looking at me.

"What?" I whispered back a bit surprised she was talking to me.

"I said do you mind? Mo is there a reason why you are staring at me?"

"Oh," I said face growing red "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…won't happen again." I turned around quickly to look elsewhere feeling more than embarrassed of myself.

Nice job Kyoko, is it really so hard to behave normally in public? No wonder you're friendless.

I was debating whether or not I'd be doing myself and everyone else a favor if I'd just designate in my chair, when something caught my eye.

To be honest I never would have spotted him if had been following along with sensei's lecture, because he stood so still, lingering in the shadows. My eyes had unintentionally moved in his direction, by the windows on the left hand side.

That's where he stood, a tall dark figure looming in the corner of the classroom. His head inclined, eyes focused, gazing out towards the city. He seemed to be daydreaming; only it didn't quite look like he was dreaming about anything pleasant, if his clenched jaw and furrowed brow was any indication. He looked frustrated, concentrating on something really hard.

I watched as sensei walked right passed him, writing something on the board, not noticing the full grown man just hanging out at the front next to him.

I stole a quick look at Kanae san again, wondering if she'd noticed any of this. For all I knew this could have been normal behavior at a school in the city. Maybe strangers stood up in the middle of class all the time. This was Tokyo after all.

Looking back at the strange man, I knew he was too old be a student, I quickly disregarded that idea, He was too tall, too broad shouldered to be described as a boy, let alone a 16 year old student. But I couldn't bring myself to believe he might be apart of the faculty here either, yet he stood with such authority. It was like something you'd only see in the presence of an elderly gentleman who had experienced so much of world in his lifetime that it emanated off of him.

Honestly, the more I looked at him the more out of place he became. Taking in his cloths for example. He wore a white long sleeved shirt that was open quite a bit at the collar, the sleeves flaring out with ruffles at the ends. His pants were strange too; they looked like breeches. He had his shirt tucked into them, with his long black leather boots to match. To be honest he looked like an 1800's pirate. It didn't make any sense.

Who are you? I wondered and as if he heard me, the man looked over in my direction. I couldn't see his face completely because his dark hair fell slightly in his face, blocking my view of his eyes. Only I knew he was staring at me. I could feel it and I couldn't quite understand it, the weird feeling I was getting while we observed one another.

Instinctively I wanted to look away. I'd spent most of my life being avoided by people, especially the opposite sex; it wasn't natural for anyone to take an interest in me now. Not even some strangely dressed man lingering around in my history class.

I squinted my eyes and leaned forward, watching him lift an eyebrow as if he were asking me a silent question himself. He pulled his tense body away from the wall and took a step towards me. His step felt more like a glide however, like he floated forward. When he moved from the shadows of the corner and more into the sunlight of the window, I got a better look at him. I could see his face more clearly now, catch the color of his eyes…his eyes. They were such a strange color.

His gaze didn't falter for a second. I could see his mind racing like my own., studying me with intensity. He was mesmerizing. I didn't know why. It's not like I knew him; I knew that. At least I thought I didn't, but the recognition in his eyes made me question that fact.

Why was he looking at me like that? And where had I seen those eyes? They weren't brown, as I had originally thought before. Maybe green now that I examined them. A flash of light passed over his irises at the same time I came to the realization.

His eyes were gold.

Gold just like the color of the eyes I had seen last night. I felt my intake of breath as it all began to register. Gold, his eyes were gold. But that would mean.

I had to get out of there. The same fear I'd felt not 24 hours ago was threatening bubble over. My heart was racing.

"Please tell me you can see him." I said to Kanae san still sitting next to me, oblivious to my sudden terror.

"What?" She said looking just as annoyed as she did 10 minutes ago, or had it been longer than that? I wasn't fully aware of the time passing.

"that man," I said again "do you see him?"

"What man, sensei?" she asked still confused. So I pointed in his direction. There was no way she could have missed him.

I watched her blank expression as she looked where I told her and then back at me. "what is wrong with you?" she murmured in disgust.

"But he's right there!" I practically yelled. I didn't want it to be true, for my suspicions to be right. But, she couldn't see him and I had feeling no one could.

"Mogami san, Kotonami san, is there something wrong?" Sensei had stopped writing on the board and was now looking at the two of us wide eyed. The rest of the class was staring to.

"No it's nothing." Kanae san grumbled, probably thinking what a freak I was and who could possibly blame her? I looked back at the golden-eyed man at the window, still watching me amidst all the chaos he was causing.

"Mogami san?"

"huh yes?" I tried to focus on sensei's words but it was hard trying to hear him when my attention was otherwise occupied.

"Mogami san where are you going?"

Going? I looked down at my feet; I hadn't even noticed I'd moved out of my desk. "I'm sorry I …" I exclaimed flustered. I tried to sit back down as fast as I could but I ended up tripping over my own feet and falling flat on my face. I could hear my fellow classmates polite snickering turn into a very hearty laughter, at my expense of course.

I have a feeling that my plans of making new friends where quickly dwindling down to the reality of 'not likely'.

I wanted to crawl under a rock. Most of all I wanted to go home. Only that was the problem I've never really had a home, not since dad died. Shakily, I began to pull myself off the floor, my little friend in the window I noticed, was still observing me.

"Miss Mogami are you alright?" Sensei moved forward to help me up.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, just a little dizzy." I exclaimed quickly while brushing off my uniform.

"Maybe you should go to the infirmary." He wearily looked at Kanae san. "Kanae san why don't you show her to…"

"Oh no you can forget it, I'm not taking her anywhere!" She glared at me, arms crossed.

"Kanae san is that anyway to…"

"I'll take her."

Everyone's attention moved to the back of the class where the anonymous voice was coming from.

My volunteer was a boy. He sat with his legs propped up on his desk, while raising his hand for us to acknowledge.

He looked bored, unlike everyone else, he wasn't laughing at me, nor did he seem in anyway amused. I watched as he gave both sensei and I a lazy look before pulling himself from behind his desk. A few girls gasped at him walking by and I could see why when I got a better look at him. He had blond hair and a pair of blue, almost grey eyes, a classic pretty boy.

He didn't stop walking until he stood directly in front of me, not looking up at sensei as he spoke again, ""I'll take her."

"Fine by me." Kanae huffed, the rest of the female population in the class however, didn't seem to agree with her. I felt a magnitude of daggers being thrown at my back from the many glares I was receiving.

"Well thank you Fuwa san for volunteering." Sensei walked to his desk and took out two pieces of paper. Hall passes I guessed.

"Please make sure she is properly taken care of." The boy took both hall passes from Sensei and grabbed my hand simultaneously as he led me out the room. I barely had any time to register what was happening. He opened the door and casually pushed me through it.

I staggered a bit, but righted myself easily. "He didn't have to be so rough" I thought.

When I looked back at him to say as much, I realized he wasn't right behind me anymore. He had turned around looking through the closed doorway window, eyes narrowed. I leaned forward to see what he was looking at, but I couldn't see anything.

"uuuh you ok?" I asked even though I was the one who had fallen on her face not 5 minutes ago.

He glanced over at me uninterested and then looked back in the classroom.

"are you going to take me to the infirmary?"

Still no real response.

"Ok then." I started walking on my own down the hall.

He finally pulled himself away from the door seeming very anxious yet annoyed like I was bothering him. "You're going the wrong way," He moved from the doorway and grabbed my hand again leading me in the opposite direction at a quick pace. I looked at our hands and blushed. I know it's silly, but hey he was attractive and I was a teenage female with hormones. I blame Mother nature.

"Whoa slow down!" I exclaimed when he turned a corner so quickly He almost took my eye out from one of the lockers. He kept the same pace however.

"I said slow down!" I yelled again, now frustrated. All I felt was his hand tightening around my fingers even more; it was actually starting to hurt.

"Shut up and hurry." He retorted with his face forward.

WHAAAAAT I couldn't believe this guy! who did he think he was? If he wasn't going to stop then I'd have to make him. It was while we were rounding another corner that I took my left foot and kicked him clear in the shin.

"Ow! What the hell?!" The blond boy fell to the ground, one hand grasping his ankle, finally coming to a complete halt. "What are you doing?!"

"I told you to slow down and let go of me!" I wrenched my hand from his grip and glared at him.

"I was taking you to the infirmary."

"While running a marathon, what's the rush? And you where hurting me." I held up my red hand to his face as evidence. He got off the floor and brushed off his pants grumbling to himself.

"Sorry." He said only it didn't sound like he was. "Sometimes," He went on "I forget how long my legs are."

What was he complementing himself for? "Well isn't that great for you," I said trying not to show my aggravation all over my face "But us short legged people need to walk at a normal pace."

"Right." He smirked then and as much as I hated to admit it, he looked hot doing it. He ran his fingers through his blond locks and it reminded me a lot of something you'd see a pop star do during a performance. (A/N pun intended). I could see as I gave him the once over, why all the girls were giving me the evil eye before I'd left the classroom with him.

"Like what you see?"

I realize I'd been staring at him for a good minute and the smirk on his face only got bigger as my face turned bright red. I have got to stop staring at people I've just met.

"It's ok," he continued "Most girls can't resist my cool exterior." he placed a hand over his forehead dramatically as if his attractiveness was a burden he alone had to bare and then winked at me.

The statement would have been funny…if he hadn't seemed so serious about it.

"Must be a hard life to lead." I said sarcastically "now if you'd excuse me." I moved pass him to keep walking. I'd find the infirmary on my own.

"Whoa, and where are you going?" He grabbed my arm and spun me around.

"where do you think? Let go of my arm."

"Touchy aren't we?" He commented but still didn't let go of me. I forcibly pushed off his hand and glowered at him. I could feel a vain threatening to pop out of my forehead. This guy was getting on my nerves and I didn't have the time or the patience for any of this. I was still psyched out by the invisible man in the class window and the probability of him being in my room last night.

"Look I don't even know who you are, so I'd appreciate it if you'd stop grabbing me and just point me in the nearest direction of the infirmary so I can get on my way."

"My name's Sho Fuwa." He said it as if it was suppose to mean something to me. I guess to some other girl it would have, but I'd met guys like Fuwa before at previous schools. And my motto was to 'avoid his kind at all cost.'

"And most girls," He went on "Don't mind my touch." He lifted one hand and stroked the side of my face. "They don't mind it all actually"

I flinched from his hand and took a giant step away from him. "So what was that back there?" I asked because 1, I realized he was flirting with me and that made me completely confused and uncomfortable. 2, because I desparately needed a subject change and 3, because I was genuinely curious.

His face turned blank and he frowned slightly, his cool composure faltering. If I'm not mistaken he looked a little miffed that his little gesture hadn't caused more of a reaction out of me. I waited a minute, but when he didn't respond I clarified. "the classroom door, you were distracted by something. What was it?"

It took another second for him to answer "it was nothing …thought I saw something in the window is all"

The window?

"Like what?" I prompted

"Huh?"

"What do you think you saw Sho?"

"I told you it was noth…" But then he trailed off and looked over my shoulder. I could feel the tension radiating off of him, so I turned to see what caught his attention. And if I'm not mistaken, I was positive I saw something pass through the hall…something dark

"Did you see that?" I said turning around quickly eyes wide.

"I didn't see anything,"

"you didn't see that…that big dark thing move passed us?"

He laughed then "Maybe you bumped your head a little too hard when you fell down earlier Kyoko."

"My head is fine." I snapped, though I knew I must have sounded like a crazy person.

The prospect of not being alone in this craziness however, appealed to me a little too much. I'd spent most of my life running from these 'odd occurrences' in my life and something told me from the look on Sho Fuwa's face that he was lying, feigning his ignorance. Not that I had anyway to prove my theory.

"I know what I saw." I said with determination in my voice. I wasn't about to be swayed on this. We stood staring at each other for a good minute not saying anything, when suddenly the bell rang.

I jumped slightly from the unexpected sound and then watched as the other students began crowding the hallway.

"I hope you're wrong."

"What?" I didn't catch what he said.

Sho leaned in closer to my ear and said in almost a whisper. "I said I hope for your sake you're wrong." Then he backed up turned around stalked down the hallway.

A/N: I'm looking forward to writing the next chapter. That is when in gets interesting and when everyone's favorite leading man is introduced. (wink wink)

So I hope to hear from you guys about your opinions, speculations, and theories on where you think the story is going. It's always great motivation when I see reviews and who knows you might influence my next chapter.

Thanks for reading!