The Mistress and Her Butler 3
Two months have gone since the school festival and Amu is getting used to the student life in her high school.
"Miss Hinamori, please submit your math homework"
She tilted her head up and found Rima's face.
"Here you go. Anyway, please call me Amu"
She handed Rima her math homework book and smiled.
"Thank you…Amu" Rima replied with a small voice.
Rima has been acting nice to Amu since the prom night. Well, to be honest sometimes she irritated her by answering all the questions given by the teacher that she couldn't solve causing her to feel as if her IQ digit is below 60. The good thing is she has stopped bullying students she hates so now everyone is able to enjoy a peaceful student life.
"Everyone, please welcome our new transferred student" said Yukari Sanjo, the math teacher.
Amu saw a male student whose face is as pretty as a girl with a golden hair standing in front of the white board.
"I'm Tadase Hotori. I got transferred from Seiyo High School today. Nice to meet you all" he gave the audience the so-called prince charming smile.
Amu gasped at his words and averted her eyes from him. She could hear female students except Rima in her class whispered to each other in amusement. She recalled the memory of her previous student life. She has known Tadase since elementary school and they were always in the same class. He was the head of student council and her first crush. However, since he was her school's idol and it seemed like all female except teachers were having a crush on him she didn't has any courage to get his attention. All she could do was just admiring him from a distance and wished that someday he'll come to her and ask her to be his girlfriend. It was quite a bitter memory of her past.
"Please seat beside Miss Hinamori"
Amu felt as if she was attacked by an electric eel. There's no way she could concentrate on all the lectures when her once-upon-a-time crush is sitting right next to her everyday.
"It's been a while, Hinamori-san" Tadase said with a big smile.
"I thought you didn't know me" Amu replied clumsily.
"Why would I?. We've been in the same class from the elementary school, weren't we?" he winked at her.
"Yes, but you've never talked to me" she moved her gaze away from him.
"That's because you've been avoiding me all the time"
His words silenced her. To be honest she wasn't doing that on purpose. It was because she didn't want him to notice her blushing red every time their eyes met.
"By the way, are you free this Saturday?" he asked.
"Err….maybe"
"Great!, let's have dinner at the new opened first class Italian restaurant in Ginza. I have lots of stories about our teachers in Seiyo Junior High to tell you"
"O-Okay" she answered nervously.
"I'll have my driver to pick you up at five thirty this Saturday"
"Thank you" she replied.
"I've come to pick you up, Mistress" Ikuto showed up from the front door.
"Good timing. Tadase-kun let me introduce my dedicated butler, Ikuto Tsukiyomi"
Ikuto turned his gaze at Tadase the bowed to him politely.
"Nice to meet you Tsukiyomi-san. I'm Tadase Hotori, please call me Tadase"
Tadase stretched forth his right hand and Ikuto shook it.
"Nice to meet you too, Tadase-san"
Amu noticed that she just saw a look of displease in Ikuto's eyes.
"Shall we go, Mistress?" Ikuto took her right hand gently.
"So, I'll see you tomorrow at the restaurant" Tadase said.
"See you tomorrow" Amu replied while waving her hand.
Tadase waved back at her with the smile on satisfaction.
"Who the hell is he?" Ikuto asked with an annoyed voice when they were out of the class.
"My ex-classmate" Amu answered shortly.
"Are you guys in a relationship?"
"Of course not!, why would you think we are?"
"Because he just invited you for a date"
"It's only dinner, Ikuto. He said that he'd like to tell me news on our ex-teachers and ex-classmates" she explained briefly.
"He could just tell you during the lunch break. Why the heck is he supposed to arrange dinner just to tell you that kind of news?"
She could tell that he's upset from his roughed tone.
"Well, I don't think that doing inspection on private things is a job of dedicated butler. If you really don't want me to go then why don't you say it clearly right now?" she glared at him.
"I believe that a dedicated butler like me has no right to interfere in his mistress relationship so I prefer to remain silent and leave the decision on my mistress" Ikuto shot an icy look on Amu.
He released her hand roughly and walked away.
A big and heavy sigh escaped from Amu's mouth. She knew that she had no right to be mad at him but deep inside her heart she was hoping for him to stop her from attending the dinner.
Day: Saturday
Time: 3 pm
Location: Cherry Blossom Private Beauty Salon
Amu stared at Ikuto's figure reflected to the big mirror in front of her. Almost an hour has passed and they haven't exchanged any word at all. She regretted for acting childish by spitting out such lascivious words at him.
"I heard that you got bad mark on the kanji test" Ikuto broke the silence while arranging her hair.
She has to admit that she felt relieved to hear his words again.
"Who told you that?" she asked irritatedly.
"Nagihiko"
"Why the heck he knew?. He's not even in the same class with me"
"Well, he's a dedicated butler of Rima so he should know that"
"A what?" Amu raised her tone.
"A real lady is not supposed to yell, Amu"
"Why her?. I believe there are many girls who deserve him more than Rima"
"Because he said that she has changed a lot after the incident at the prom so he voluntarily offered himself"
Ikuto made his finishing touch on Amu's hair and smiled in satisfaction.
Amu glanced at her own shadow reflected in the mirror and was amazed. Ikuto sure is a talented hair dresser and she had no doubt that all of beauty salon owners in Tokyo will crave to hire him as their hair dresser.
"Thank you, Mister Perfect" she teased him because she knew that he hated that nickname.
"My pleasure" he replied with a displeased tone.
He helped her to stand up and stared at her from head to toe. Amu was wearing a black dress with mermaid line because he said that it's her dress code for today. He had called the restaurant to confirm the dress code for her and also prepared the dress. What a talented butler.
"Stay still"
Ikuto moved to Amu's back and placed a platinum pendant of heart shaped blue sapphire on her neck.
"Take that as a token of my apology because I yelled at you yesterday"
"I can't, it's too expensi…"
He turned her around so she is now facing him and placed his forefinger on her lips.
"I insist. You should go now, Tadase's driver and his black BMW are waiting for you at the main gate" he said while letting his finger down.
"Thank you"
Amu was about to leave the place when she felt something circled her waist and her body was dragged into a toned body.
"Come back home before midnight, Cinderella" Ikuto whispered before he bit her earlobe.
Amu's body jolted in surprise. She pushed him aside forcefully.
"You perverted pussy cat!" she yelled.
He laughed out loud while she grunted at him then rushed her way to the main gate.
Amu and Tadase have been talking about our ex-teachers and classmates for nearly one and a half hours. Amu thought that it was like a dream come true to sit in front of the guy she admired.
"Hinamori san"
"What is it, Tadase kun?"
"Are you in a relationship with someone right now?"
"No. Why?"
"Because I saw you ate lunch together with Tsukiyomi san"
"Oh, Ikuto is just a friend of mine. There's no way that I'm in a relationship with that guy. He's our school's Mr. Perfect. You could see it from his golden necktie holder. It's only given to the student with outstanding academic performance. However, for your information the real Ikuto is a sadistic pervert who loves to tease and make fun of me" Amu muttered.
Tadase let out a relieved sigh.
"Hinamori san, would you be my girlfriend?"
She was really surprised that her jaw nearly dropped. In fact, she accidentally dropped her fork to the floor. She apologized to the waiter who picked it up and brought her the new one.
"I'm sorry to tell you this suddenly but to be honest I got attracted to you since elementary school but I didn't have any courage to talk to you back then" he continued.
Amu bit her lower lip and took a deep breath.
"Tadase kun, I'm afraid that I could not accept your feeling right now because I have promised my dad to become a real lady and until I achieved my goal I have decided that I would not be involved in any love relationship"
She could sense sadness from his gaze but she just wanted to tell him her true feeling and hoped for him to understand.
"Do you hate me, Hinamori san?"
"What?. Of course not. I'm a member of your fan club back then and I really admired you but I'm sorry to tell you that my first priority now is to learn how to become a real lady and make my dad proud"
Tadase smiled.
"I understand, Hinamori san. But I will not give up my feeling towards you"
"Tadase kun…"
"I'll do my best to achieve good grades in academic performance so that I could be your eligible boyfriend"
"Good luck" she smiled at him and looked at her wristwatch.
"It's time for me to go back to the dorm" she said.
"I'll call my driver to drive you back home"
Tadase pulled out his cell phone and was about to dial the number when Amu stopped him.
"No, you don't have to. I'd prefer going back by train" she said.
"But…"
"Please, Tadase kun. I haven't used the train ever since I was transferred to our school and I missed it so much".
"Okay, if you insist" he gave up at last.
"Anyway, thank you for tonight's dinner. The food was all delicious and it was nice talking to you" she gave him her best smile.
He smiled back to her.
"Your welcome, Hinamori san. I'll see you at school on Monday" he bid her farewell.
After spending about half an hour in the train plus half an hour walking from the nearest station, Amu finally arrived at her dorm. She was about to enter the main gate when she heard a beautiful sound of violin from the school garden. She turned around and ran hastily searching for the source. When she arrived there she saw a guy dressed in Concierge Class uniform was playing violin. She walked closer and stopped breathing for once to delete her sign of presence. Unfortunately she stepped on a tree branch and produced a loud cracking sound. The guy stopped playing and stared at her.
"Ikuto!" she said with a surprise tone.
"What are you doing here, Amu?" he asked.
"I heard a sound of violin so I came here"
"It's dangerous for a lady like you to walk around at night all by yourself. I'll escort you to your dorm so wait there"
Ikuto placed his violin into the case and locked it.
"I didn't know that you can play violin"
"My dad was a violinist so he taught me"
"Really?, I thought your dad is genuinely a business entrepreneur"
"Well, actually Easter Company belonged to my mom because he's the only daughter of the owner. However, my dad chose to throw away his dream to be a famous violinist and decided to run the company because it was his requirement to marry my mom" Ikuto concluded.
"I see. So when your dad retired you'll be the owner, won't you?"
Ikuto let out a heavy sigh and looked toward the sky.
"I don't think so. I have my own dream"
Amu stared at the taller figure in front of her. Moonlight shine down revealing Ikuto's face. He was gazing at the moon with a sad look.
"So, err…what's your dream?"
Ikuto walked closer to her and suddenly he cupped her face with his hands. She was surprised that she froze.
"So you're interested in me, aren't you my dear mistress?" he smirked at her.
"Kya!, get away from me!"
She pushed him away and took a deep breath to control her immersing heartbeat. She has no doubt that if she has cardiac disease she would have been carried to the emergency room of the nearest hospital by ambulance just now.
He gave her his evil laugh and she noticed that he enjoyed teasing her.
"You know what, Tadase asked me to be his girlfriend today" she said.
He stopped laughing and gave her a serious look.
"So, you guys now officially in a relationship?"
She could detect the irritated tone from his voice.
"I rejected him" she replied calmly.
"What?"
"I said I rejected him"
"Why?, I thought that he was your crush"
"I didn't think I've told you about that"
"Yaya told me"
Amu gave a big sigh. She swear she'll tickle both feet of that little gossip girl until she can't laugh anymore when she arrived home.
"I admired him but I don't think that I'm in love with him" she answered while staring at the night sky above her.
"How can you tell the difference?" Ikuto raised an eyebrow.
"Love is love and admiration is admiration. That's it and that's all" she concluded forcefully.
"I didn't know you were so bad at explaining things" he sneered.
"At least I made an effort to explain things not to hide things like the so-called Mister Perfect here" she stuck out her tongue at him.
"Let's get out of here before the securities find us"
Ikuto grabbed her hand and began to run.
"Ikuto…let go of…"
"My dream is to be a member of an orchestra and travel around the world. But it'll remain a dream because I don't think that I could make it come true"
His words silenced her.
They kept running until they arrived at Amu's dorm main entrance.
"Thank you for escorting me to my dorm, Ikuto. Good night"
"Good night and have a nice dream"
He waved at her.
To Be Continued
