Please don't stand so close to me; I'm having trouble breathing.
I'm afraid of what you'll see right now.
I give you everything I am, all my broken heartbeats, until I know you'll understand.
Rima stared out the window, her head propped up by her hand. Math wasn't the most interesting subject, let alone her best subject, in school. She let her mind playback to the argument her and Nagihiko had in the hallway. 'What an idiot.' She thought. He always had to keep torturing her didn't he? It was only a matter of time before she slapped him. Rima absentmindedly ran her fingers through her hair, 'And why did he just stop all of a sudden? Maybe he couldn't find another insult…but he could've backed away a little bit…' Warmth was felt on her cheeks. She flinched once she realized that she was blushing, 'Who am I, Amu?'
Rima shook her head. There was no way she was blushing because of Nagihiko. It wasn't as if she liked the boy, they were enemies for Kami's sake! The short girl sighed softly; this had been going on for a while now. For some reason, ever since that day in the garden, she felt interested in him. At first she thought it wasn't that kind of interest and to make sure of it, she quickly became cruller. Taking every word he said to use it as an advantage, avoiding him so that the interest wouldn't grow, losing her temper so that he wouldn't want to be near her; Rima tried it all. But there are some things that can't be controlled.
Rima didn't even know what she saw in him. He wasn't honest; he was lying to Amu about being Nadeshiko's older twin. He was very girly, seriously, what kind of guy keeps his hair that long? He wasn't kind, and Rima seemed to be the only one who saw the evil behind his smile. Slowly time slipped away and school ended. Rima sighed while packing her things, "Do we have to have a meeting today?" Tadase and Amu looked at her. "Why? Are you not feeling well Mashiro-san?" Tadase asked. "It's not that, I just don't want to." She replied bluntly. Amu sweat dropped, "Don't be lazy Rima." The blond pouted but closed the conversation and walked with them outside.
It was irritating to be there once more, in the exact place where this all started. The meeting dragged on for much longer than Rima anticipated. She moved her chair a bit to create space between the boy. Oh that's one more thing that annoyed her. Nagihiko simply had to sit next to her every, single, day! No one knew why, maybe it was because in a deck of cards, the Jack is always next to the Queen. Her gaze fell onto him as she observed him carefully. "..shiro-san…Mashiro-san!" Rima jumped and quickly looked over at Tadase, "Um…huh?" The guardians laughed. "You can't even pay attention at a meeting. No wonder your grades are slipping Rima-chan." Nagihiko said in kind (amusing) tone. Rima shot daggers from her eyes, "Not everyone can be a book worm with no social life."
Amu, Yaya, and Tadase watched them argue back and forth. Yaya was smiling happily and grabbed Amu, whispering into her ear. Amu's eyes widened and she grinned. Making sure that Rima and Nagihiko were still taunting each other, Amu reached over to Tadase and quietly told him the plan. The three crept away slowly from the garden. Meanwhile Rima kicked Nagihiko on his leg, "Can't you shut up for one second? And get away from me!" She pushed her chair further away from him. It was then that she realized they were alone…in the Royal Garden….AGAIN! "You just noticed?" Nagihiko smirked seeing her reaction. "That's it. I'm leaving too." Rima got up. She felt a hand tug her back down to the chair and she huffed. "You are not leaving me here with all this paper work." The dark eyed boy gestured to the stack of papers.
The evil chibi looked at him blankly and tried to get back up, only to be pulled down once more. Clearly she wasn't going to win this round and she sighed in defeat. Rima began her work, stopping every few minutes when she became bored. After what seemed like an eternity the files were completed and neatly organized. Unconsciously, the blond stretched and checked her phone. Her eyes widened with surprise. School had ended at three and it was only four thirty! Usually the guardian work had taken several hours to complete. Rima wondered why it was so quick today, 'Oh yeah! Since those three ditched the meeting was cut short.'
"Rima-chan." She heard that irritating voice and quickly turned her head to face it. "What is it Nagi-" Rima stopped mid-sentence. Suddenly Nagihiko had gotten a lot closer to her in the past few minutes, to the point that when she turned, their heads nearly collided. The familiar rush of blood was felt and she looked away, "What were you going to say?"
"Hm? Oh, good job today. You're not bad when you aren't yelling at me." Nagihiko smiled. Rima felt her stomach flutter. She lowered her head so that her bangs covered her eyes, 'Ugh! This is getting way out of control!' Her heart sped up immensely when his hand was placed on her shoulder. "Rima-chan are you feeling okay?" He asked, in an almost worried tone. But that was impossible right? He hated her. Still, she found she was not capable of saying anything right. "I-I'm fine purple head." She removed his hand from her. Rima looked at him cautiously so that he wouldn't find any hint of red on her face. What she saw startled her. Nagihiko's expression looked hurt. A hard pang in her heart made her wince.
Nagihiko was never upset, or at least she had ever seen him upset. Even when they were fighting there was that spark of enlightenment. She wanted to leave as soon as possible now. Rima hastily opened her phone and dialed her mother. Before she went out, Rima looked back at Nagihiko. He had just sat there, watching. The next thing she knew she walked up to him and mumbled, "Sorry Nagihiko…"
"Mom, thanks for waiting." Rima said as she went inside the car. Her mother looked at her from the rearview mirror, nodding. Rima shifted uncomfortably in her seat, thinking of what she had just done. It was stupid, and out of pure impulse. She began blushing and curled up into her ball form. She hoped that by tomorrow Nagihiko would just forget it and things would return to normal.
How wrong she was.