My Imaginary Ex
Here's what happens when you play pretend.

Chapter 2: Favors

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College, nine years ago

After I graduated from Alice Academy and transferred to my current university, I felt alone. Sure, there were familiar faces of upperclassmen that chose to stay in Japan instead of pursuing the prestige that came with the title of an Alice graduate, but they weren't really my friends. And I didn't have that much friends to begin with. I only had Hotaru, Anna, Nonoko and Yuu, my friends since elementary.

Natsume was one of those familiar faces, even though he was in my batch. I learned to shut up when I entered high school, so I didn't get to socialize that much except in class. He was only my classmate in homeroom and biology during second year, but I heard things about him so often because of his popularity. He, admittedly, had looks which girls could easily swoon over. But when I saw him in line at the cafeteria, I noticed that he hid his crimson eyes behind thick-framed glasses and styled his hair back. He looked…geeky.

"You look familiar," I accidentally blurted out, catching his attention. "Have we met before?"

"I'm from Alice, too." He said calmly after looking at me weirdly, grabbing a slice of cake. "Guess who."

"Natsume Hyuuga!" I said out loudly after inspecting him some more.

"Yes," he replied, cringing. "Not so loud. I'm trying to hide."

I nodded, taking my tray off the metal railings. I inspected the food and then looked up at the lunch lady, thanking her. I walked slowly to look for an available table. Finding one (not really minding the sticky thing that seemed to spill on one part of it) was a relief, since I didn't want to feel awkward having to ask some random stranger to share his table with me.

As I seated down, I saw Natsume take the seat in front of me without asking for me. How rude, I thought but quickly disregarded it. I hesitated to speak, my newly developed instinct to shun people from high school was kicking in. It was hard to not have my old friends around to accompany me, but I consoled myself with the thought of starting anew. And this could not happen if Natsume was around, now could it?

However? Natsume was definitely an eye catcher. And I'm sure he doesn't know me (much) since we were classmates only in junior year. At least I'd have someone, wouldn't I? Better him (though he was an awful lab partner) than anyone, right?

"Um," I started almost stuttering. "I'm sorry if I seem to be rude, b-but why are you here, Natsume?"

"Ouch, Sakura. I thought we were kind of acquaintances since we're both from Alice. But I'd leave if you asked me, too." He put down his utensils as an empty threat—I knew it was a joke, though. He frowned and stood up, looking quite serious. I grabbed his arm across the table with a pleading look (as he described later on in the conversation) and said, "N-No! Please don't leave, Natsume! The loneliness scares me."

He grinned and sat back down while I gulped in realization of what I had just done. I guess that's how we became friends.

Natsume was in a business administration course while I was under the fine arts program, so our worlds typically just didn't clash. Other than the same break periods, I mean. We really didn't hang out with each other. He'd drop by at the Sakura tree, where I usually stayed when I wanted to read a book, eat a snack or just rest, and asked if I was in the mood for a coffee or something, but we wouldn't hang out.

"He's cute," my friends would often whisper to me, giggling, when he'd pass by. "You sure you don't want to introduce me to him?" To which I always replied with a quick roll of my eyes and a huff.

One thing we had in common, I noticed after one coffee session at a nearby café, was that we both didn't like being in a really big group. We only had our group of close friends which we'd spend most of our time with, but that was mostly it. Nothing was tied down or really tight-knit. He was popular, so naturally I would wonder why on earth he does that.

And so, I asked him.

He looked at me as if I were crazy. "I have intimacy issues." I wasn't sure if he was serious or not with that reply, but I knew he was mocking me since I pointed that out to him before. "Just kidding, I just don't want a single person to know everything about me."

"Exactly, you have intimacy issues!"

In any case, those intimacy issues of his were put to the test when he met Sumire Shouda in some math class during the second semester. I really didn't know anything since I didn't see him if he didn't seek me out. But apparently, they started having lunch together.

The first time I met Sumire was when I was washing my hands in the comfort room while she was reapplying makeup. She was vain, I could tell, as I looked at her reflection. She twisted her head and looked at me with a queer expression, which was only replaced by something like nostalgia. "Are you Mikan Sakura?" she asked me.

She smiled warmly at me as I blinked my eyes in confusion at her. She was wearing a sleeved sundress that reached up to her knees and matching flats. She was pretty, yes, but her permed hair drew too much attention.

"Y-Yes," I was able to mutter, containing much of my surprise at her knowing me. "I'm sorry, are we classmates?"

"No, no. I'm sorry," she laughed and returned her lip gloss to its tube. "I'm Sumire. And I'm… well, I'm not sure if this is proper and all, but since I'm here, I'm going to ask anyway. Natsume Hyuuga asked me to Freshman Night next week. Are you okay with that?"

"Err," I started, trying to think of a response to that. I was really confused—why was she asking me permission? "Of course I'm okay with it, Sumire."

She drew out a breath of relief and hugged me. It was of course, awkward, but it seemed only fitting with her really friendly nature. "Thanks! I see you two sometimes hang out and I just wanted to check if you were fine with it. He didn't tell you that he asked me, did he?"

I still wasn't sure what she was talking about, and by now I was very aware that the other girls in the room were listening intently at our conversation. After all, it was related with the Natsume Hyuuga. Sumire turned and glared at them, raising a cocky brow. "What are you looking at?"

Note to self, never get on Sumire's bad side. "No, he didn't. And he doesn't have to tell me if he asks people out. It's not like I'm his mother or something, Sumire."

She giggled. "Thanks, Mikan! We should totally get together sometimes." With that she skipped out of the restroom, and I was left blushing when the other girls gathered around me and started to ask more about Natsume.

That same awkward day, Natsume left a note at my tree and on my locker. After I exited the room where my first class was held, I found him sitting at a near bench. He walked towards me, but I went first. "Um, I met Sumire today. Why was she asking me permission to go out with you?"

Natsume sighed and ran his hand through his hair as if in a stressed motion. "Mikan, I'm going to ask you a favor. She thinks you're my ex anyway."

Say…what?

"You know how I've had no girlfriend before, don't you?" he asked.

"Well, I did hear you had a reputation of rejecting all the girls who would drop down on their knees as if they had no dignity for you. But, really? When we were in second year, I heard you were three-timing a few girls and in third year, I heard you were going out with a certain Miyaka—"

"She was the president of my fan club, not my girlfriend," he quickly interrupted. "But anyway, can you just pretend to be my ex?"

How straightforward, I commented inwardly. That has probably the lamest favor anyone has asked me. "She's probably a believer of the first girlfriend theory, isn't she?"

"What's that?"

"It's the theory that the guy screws up with their first girlfriend and makes up for it with their second. It's apparently not fair for the first. I'm sure she's experienced that at least once," I stopped, recalling how pretty and nice she was. "Or more likely four times."

Natsume ignored my little comment. "Tch. Whatever." He walked away with his hands pocketed in his jeans. The nerve of that bastard! Asking me to help him pretend and then walk away? I didn't even say yes yet and he leaves me hanging like that!

"You're welcome, you jerk!"

In the weeks that followed, Sumire and I struck up an uneasy friendship. I liked her, but there was something that kept me from becoming friends with her. She would always smile and greet me in the halls or ask me to a snack when she was heading to the cafeteria. I was sure it wasn't because she actually wanted to be with me—she probably wanted to keep the 'enemy' close.

It was fine, really, since it allowed me to do Natsume's favor. I didn't tell her details immediately. No, that would make me look like I wasn't over my imaginary ex. She was the one who usually asked question anyway, so it wasn't much of a problem for me to make impromptu details.

"So you mean Natsume was absent for a whole week because of diarrhea?"

And I could use this to my advantage, couldn't I? He asked me if I could pretend for him, but he didn't leave any specifications anyway. And besides, that arrogant jerk deserves it.

"Earth to Mikan, you're not saying anything," I woke up from my little trance with Sumire's fingers snapping in front of my eyes. "I'll repeat my question since apparently, you weren't paying attention. Was he your first boyfriend?"

So she does believe in the first girlfriend theory! But by now, I can't recall what stories I've made up about his girlfriends… did he have just me or more? I shook away the thoughts and started to dive into another lie. "Yeah, he was my first love and all. It's corny."

"Of course not! High school love is so cute," she defended quickly. "Wait, did you meet before high school?"

"Uh," I tried to think clearly, but when millions of possible stories were surging in your mind, it was kind of impossible to pick. "I think I saw him in the elementary division of Alice Academy a few times, but I never really noticed him. He told me that he once gave me chocolates on White Day and then he said I threw it in my locker and pretended I never got it. But then in second year, when we were classmates in a few classes, I guess that's when I suddenly noticed him."

"Wow! So he pursued his childhood crush, how sweet of him," Sumire started to gush, but with a slightly jealous tone. Okay, time to tone down the whole puppy love thing, Mikan, I told myself. "Oh, but why did you two break up?" she asked a follow up question to that.

"Did he say anything about it?"

"No…" she started, trying to recall. "I've never really talked to him about something this personal."

Good! "Well, I went to prom with someone else."

"What!" Sumire reacted, slamming her palms on the table. "When you two were still together?"

Great, I've made myself sound like a villain. "Not really. We were sort of drifting apart and if ever he didn't want to be with me anymore, I told him to start now instead of at the end of high school. I went with one of our classmates while he didn't go with a date. He went with his friends."

I applauded myself for coming up with a plausible story. After all, that story was true…except for the fact that we broke up because we were never together. But the important thing was that the story clinched in for Sumire.

"But it seems that you two are okay now since you still see each other often," she told me.

"We're okay with it. Mostly because he didn't act like a total jerk about it. At graduation, I found out that we'd be going to the same college, so he said he hoped that it wouldn't be uncomfortable or anything. He…hugged me and left," I tried to think of some more details that I could add into the story, but nothing was clicking. "He can be really mean and obnoxious, but really, he's a good guy."

The next time I saw Natsume, I warned him about the things I told Sumire. It was fine for both of us as long as he didn't contradict it. He appeared to be listening to what I said, but I didn't think he was really paying attention. He just nodded and went off.

Two weeks after that, I found out Natsume and Sumire were together.

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It's so much more easier to write things like this since you have everything figured out. I am momentarily amused by this. I'm posting a oneshot in the week that's NatsumeHotaru. Erp.

Standard disclaimer applied.

Review, please? :)

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