Chapter three

Minako stared out of the window of her apartment to the views of Tokyo sprawling out below her like a dreary grey nightmare. The metropolis was never ceasing, people and cars milling around like dying ants on the ground far below her.

The grey weather and the grey city matched her rather grey mood. She hated the way she was at the moment, hated the way she was playing right into Mamrou's scheme, whatever that may have been. Why did she have to do this? Why did she have to follow Mamoru's plan? Why did she have to hurt Haruka in such a way? She loved the other girl, didn't she? She did, of course she did, but… Gods why was she so confused?!

If she really loved Haruka she would have told her without all this attempted seduction. She would have just confessed her feelings with sincerety, told the girl from her heart as a whole rather than partially through this whorish façade.

But it wasn't all because of Mamoru, was it? In actuality all Mamoru had done was give her a prompt to go ahead with what she would have done anyway. The only difference was that, had she been left to her own devices she would have gone about it in a more appropraite way, if indeed there was such thing as an appropriate way to do things where Ten'oh Haruka was concerned.

She really did have feelings for Haruka, Minako told herself, so why did she feel the need to do this? Why did she feel the need to only show Haruka the mask she put on for everyone else? Why did she act in the way that Mamoru and the others had conditioned her to?

Or did she really love Haruka? Did she just want to hurt the other girl? Were her feelings just as fake and synthesised by circumstance as the rest of her? Why, why, why?

She turned and punched the wall, falling to the floor then staring up at the ceiling in despair. What was going on with her? Why was everything so confusing? This was one of those times that she just wished she was a normal girl, but that could never happen, and nor could she confess to anyone what was actually happening; she'd be throwing away any chance she had in life.

Minako started, shocked as she heard a tapping at the door. Maybe she was just hearing things, but no, there it was again. She stood up trying to make herself look normal and putting a false smile on her face again. She was growing deadly sick of this act, but sadly it had to be kept up for her to retain her fame.

There was knocking on the door again just as Minako opened it, and she was glad to be able to let her act slip as soon as she saw whom it was that had come to see her. Tomoe Hotaru stood at the door, decked out in her usual Victorian-style dress and heavy black and ghostly white makeup.

"Hello, Minako-chan, may I come in?" Hotaru asked, and Minako quickly stepped aside to allow the girl into her appartment.

"Hotaru-chan, what are you doing here?" Minako asked as they stepped into her living room and sat down. Had it been anyone else that had called on her then Minako would have felt rather on-edge, but she was fine with Hotaru visiting. In fact she was somewhat glad of it; she had known Hotaru since junior high, before either of them had become famous, and could not think of a better person to talk to at a time like this.

"I came to see how you were," Hotaru replied. "You seemed rather down when I was talking to you yesterday, I was wondering what's up."

Minako sighed; she couldn't tell Hotaru exactly what was going on, she'd just incriminate herself if she did that. Instead she resigned just to get part of it off her chest. By saying that she wouldn't be making herself out to be the complete bitch she knew she was being, and she'd also be putting Hotaru on her side instead of Haruka's for a while if the whole situation were to get any worse, which she honestly hoped it wouldn't.

"It's Haruka," Minako sighed, dropping her head into her hands.

"What?" Hotaru frowned. "Haruka as in Ten'oh Haruka?" Minako nodded silently. "What about her?"

"I told her," Minako whispered.

"Told her what?" Hotaru asked. "Minako, are you crying?" There was no response. "Minako… hang on a minute. No, you didn't…"

"I did," came the barely audible reply. "You know I like her, Hotaru, and a couple of days ago I just came out and told her. I shouldn't have ever kissed her in the first place, that whole thing with her at Yaten's a while ago was just a disaster in itself, and now I've got that behind me I go and do this. How could I have been so stupid?! Now she hates me, she absolutely hates me, and its all my own goddamn fault!"

She was sobbing hopelessly by then and all Hotaru could do was hold her close to stop her crying.

"Minako-chan, she doesn't hate you."

"Yes she does," Minako choked out. "She told me as much when I… but I… and yesterday she just…" she couldn't speak any more.

"Minako, calm down," Hotaru whispered. "Please calm down. Everything is going to be okay. She doesn't hate you, Minako; she's probably just as confused as you are, that's all."

The two sat in silence for a while until Minako finally cried herself to sleep in her friend's arms.


Minako couldn't remember having ever dreaded going to school as much as she did that day. She supposed that this must be what children who were being bullied felt like, completely terrified to go to school because they knew that there was someone there who absolutely hated them. Except in her case it was her own blasted fault…

Her blue and purple makeup, far less garish than her usual attire, was a clear sign of the mood she was in, though only to those that actually knew her. She truged slowly into class and sat down at her desk waiting for her peers to arrive.

One of the first to show up was Kou Seiya, somoene to whom Minako would have avoided talking at the best of times after the whole situation with his brother, Yaten, a few months beforehand. If anything that proved that she shouldn't drink at all, especially not when she was around Haruka. In fact now she thought about it, maybe that whole affair had something to do with why Haruka hated her so much.

"Morning, Minako," Seiya said, taking his seat, which was, sadly, the one directly behind Haruka's and thus extremely near her. "You look rather down, past catching up with you? I can tell that someone has rejected you; it's the only thing that bothers girls like you. Was it Ten'oh? If so it serves you right after what you did to my brother. You broke his heart, Minako, you realise that, don't you?"

On most days Minako would have attempted to ignore him, but after everything that had happened a few days beforehand she wasn't even going to consider it.

"Why don't you just shut up?" she yelled, standing up and startling her classmates, msot of whom had arrived by that time. "Do you think I want to be reminded about that by you of all people when I'm under so much stress? I've had it with you, Kou, I really have, now just leave me the Hell alone!"

She took a deep breath as a hand was placed on her shoulder and Hotaru appeared beside her.

"Calm down, Minako-chan," Hotaru said quietly. "He's not worth it, you know that, so just ignore him."

Minako nodded, sitting down again and waiting silently for class to begin. At first she hoped that Haruka wouldn't be in; she really didn't want to talk to the other girl, she was too ashamed of what she had to do. On the other hand she wanted to talk to Haruka, to get her feelings off her chest in all honesty.

When the girl finally did arrive, she blacked out Minako completely when she tried to speak, not even acknowledging her. Minako thought that it would have been better if the other girl had just slapped her; it would have hurt less, she was sure of that.

It seemed like an eon later that the bell finally rang for their first break, and when it did Minako hurried away, not wanting to even try to talk to Haruka.

Haruka, on the other hand, didn't really care about whether she was hurting the smaller girl or not. Minako couldn't have possibly been serious, could she? After all, it was Minako and she was never serious about anything, was she?

"Haruka, I need to talk to you," Hotaru spoke, her dangerously quiet voice catching Haruka by surprise and stopping her as she left the classroom.

"What about?" Haruka asked, wondering why the girl looked so annoyed. Hotaru never got annoyed about anything; she was like a doll, she didn't show emotions, and it she did it was only in extreme situations. Why was she acting like this now?

Haruka knew Hotaru pretty well seeing as they'd been in the same class all year and in third year of junior high. The girl was a friend of hers, not a close friend but a friend nevertheless, but she had never seen this side to her before.

"Come with me, we need to talk in private," Hotaru replied, grabbing Haruka by the wrist and effectively pulling her down the corridor and out into the grounds.

"Why are we back here?" Haruka asked upon realising that they were in an out-of-bounds area of the school.

"I said we needed to talk in private, didn't I?"

Haruka had come to the conclusion by then that she had never heard the doll-like girl talk so much. What was happening that had made her so serious, and what did it have to do with her?

"Okay, what is it, 'Taru?" Haruka asked.

"It's about Minako," Hotaru replied and Haruka mentally groaned. What was it with the girl? Now she'd even got Hotaru in on this, was she just out to make her life a misery?

"What about her?" Haruka made sure Hotaru knew that she was completely disintered in this.

"Is it possible for you to stop being so cold?" Hotaru snapped, the tone in her voice surprising Haruka. "Minako's being serious, she really is!"

"What?" Haruka laughed. "It's Aino Minako, she doesn't know what it means to be serious about someone. She just likes breaking people's hearts."

"Look I know she's got a bit of a reputation and I know she should never have done that to Yaten, but by acting like this you're showing that you're just as bad as she is. You have just as little regard for other people's emotions as she does at times," Hotaru explained. "She loves you, Haruka, she really does, but you're just too blind to see it. I'll give you some time to clear your head; hopefully you'll do the right thing."

With that Hotaru walked away, leaving Haruka shocked. She had never even considered that the other girl was even remotely serious. She couldn't be, could she? It was Minako. But if Hotaru was saying that… And Minako really was a complete mess, wasn't she?

Minako was a mess, and this time it was all her fault.


Minako stirred her icecream around in the bowl over and over again while she waited for Hotaru to arrive. Normally she wouldn't have had time for something like this but she had convinced her manager to let her have some free time. Hotaru hadn't turned up yet but that didn't really matter that much; it was giving Minako time to clear her thoughts after all.

Minako looked up, ignoring the whispers of people around her, and was somewhat glad to see that Hotaru had finally turned up. The violet-eyed girl sat down opposite her, and Minako noticed that whatever muttering there may have been in the background, it had intensified tenfold now that Hotaru had appeared. After all, who would have expected Aino Minako and Tomoe Hotaru of all people to be meeting outside hours like old friends? In fact as far as the public were concerned the two had never met.

"How are you?" Hotaru asked and Minako just shrugged. If anything she felt even worse than she had before; Haruka had disappeared after breaktime and Minako wondered if it was something she had done to further annoy her. Of course she didn't say any of this to Hotaru; she didn't want to worry the girl any more than she already had, so she just nondded in response to Hotaru's question.

"Don't lie to me, Minako," Hotaru sighed, "I know you're upset, I would be too. Anyway I think it'll be better soon; I talked to Haruka for you. That's why she skived off half-way through school; she probably just went to cool her head off."

"Thanks, Hotaru," Minako replied and quickly steered their conversation to smalltalk. She may have been smiling on the outside, but inside she was hurting even worse than she had been before.