Chapter 3: Rejection Tuesday afternoon (part 2)

"Who?" I thought and looked up. Somehow everyone remained silent and I didn't wonder why.

But I gasped a little. "Hyuuga?" I thought. His face and school coat was covered with egg and flour. In one of his hands he caught and egg. With his stance and the serious look in his face, I could say he was really angry. He crushed the egg in his hand and threw its little bits of egg shells to the floor. There was dead silence in the area. Every single student quivered in fear, even me.

"You are all cowards and idiots!" he screamed in a serious tone. "You are all such cowards to attack a defenseless person like that!" for every word he said became louder and angrier. "What did she ever do to you? Did she make your lives miserable for you to treat her this way? And you were taught in a school who's supposed to be raising students who are models to others. I guess the school is really lowering 1its standards when it comes to student behavior." He lectured them. They all bowed their heads with embarrassment. I stared down the floor as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. "Such idiots." He spat with disgust. He turned to face me and wiped my face clean with his handkerchief. He glared at all the students who were around, grabbed my hand and dragged my away.

The boys shower room was big; it was twice as big as the girl's. I guess it's because of the number of men's varsity team that we have. Hyuuga pulled me to the locker area. We stood there for a while; silence engulfed the two of us. He pulled me close to him and wrapped his arms around me. I felt safe in his arms. I could feel the warmth and I could hear his heartbeat; shockingly his heartbeat was in sync with mine. I didn't mind that fact but savored the safe feeling from his hug. The tears started to swell up again.

"If you want to cry…" he didn't continue. I pushed him away and turned my back on him so that he couldn't see me cry. I kicked one of the lockers and I knew it was a bad idea. Pain shot up from my toes to my spine. I heard Hyuuga chuckle. He spun me around and pushed me down on the bench. I covered my face so he couldn't see. He sat on the bench in front of me. "That wasn't very wise." He commented. I gave him a growl in between my sobs. He chuckled again while he placed my leg on his lap. I wiped away all the tears and looked up at him.

"What are you doing?" I asked. He didn't answer. Instead he removed my shoe. "What are you doing?" I asked louder trying to pull my leg away but he grabbed it gently. He started to rub the sole of my foot. The pressure that he used was very soothing. I closed my eyes to relax a little.

"That locker is ten times harder than your foot. You shouldn't have kicked it." He said plainly not looking at me.

"I know that." I grunted. We were silent again. The tears never came back. I didn't mind he was touching me. In fact it made me comfortable to be with him.

"Ehem." Someone said in between clearing his throat. It was Hotaru and along with her was Ruka, Hyuuga's best friend. I pulled my leg back quickly and stood up. I got a little bit of balance since I'm only wearing one shoe. I grabbed my shoe from under the bench he was sitting and wore it. "I-We brought clothes." She said showing us a pair of clothes. I smiled at her and grabbed the girl's clothing. Natsume did the same and grabbed the one Ruka was holding.

"We should get the two of you cleaned up." Ruka said smiling at all of us. Hotaru nodded and dragged me to the girl's shower room.

The girl's shower was like I said smaller than the boy's. it smelled better though.

"Thanks." I said to Hotaru before stepping into one of the shower cubile. She yanked her hand stopping it from closing. I opened it again and gave her a confused look.

"After your shower, we will talk." She said sternly. I nodded in confusion and she left. I closed the door behind me. I hooked my towel and my other school uniform on the side of the cubicle wall. I stripped down all my clothings and took a shower.

I turned the knob for the warm water and wrapped myself with the pink towel I hung earlier.i put one every clothes that were hung and after that I stepped out of the cubicle. As I walked back to the locker room, I was drying my hair with the towel. As I neared the room I could hear people bickering.

"No!" I heard Hotaru scream. I leaned on the wall so that she amd whoever was there couldn't see me. I remained quiet. I didn't mean to eavsdropped but I think this isn't a good time to show up.

"Look Imai. I didn't-" It was Hyuuga but Hotaru cut her off.

"Imai? Since when did you lose your respect towards your cousin?" Hotaru asked with annoyance in her tone.

"Cousins? Hotaru never told me." I thought to myself and listened more intently. Hyuuga took a deep breath.

"Look Hotaru-chan." He started again stressing on her name. Hotaru snorted in disgust. "I didn't mean to put her in harm. It was more of a twist of faith." He explained.

"Didn't mean to hurt her?" She said with disbeleif in her voice. "If hurting her wasn't your intention, then maybe you could have thought about what could could happen to her before doing such despicable actions!" She said now with anger and stress on the word despicable.

"Such a big word." Hyuuga commented with a smirk. Hotaru growled under her breath.

" You know what-"

"That's enough." I said cutting her off and appeared from the shadows. They all looked shocked. They weren't really expecting me to be the kind to eavsdrop.

"From now on, you will leave Mikan alone. You come near her and I'll shoot you and bunny boy over there more than twice with my baka gun." Hotaru threatened. He and Ruka stood there like ice blocks. "Come on." She said and dragged me away. I heard the two of them let go of a big sigh of relief. I looked back and the last thing I saw was Hyuuga. His posture was the same as always, erect and firm. His face showed sterness but his eyes were the opposite. They were soft and sad. They looked defensless. His pupil was dark and lifeless as if his soul was sucked out of him. I felt sorry for him. I gave him an apologetic look but I knew I couldn't help him with that. I wanted to put my arms around him like what he did earlier and I knew I couldn't do that either because I was a coward that I couldn't fight against Hotaru.

And as Hyuuga disappeared from my sight, I knew I regretted every step I took away from him.

Homeplus: done! Yes! I told you I'd finish it soon after part1. Yeah!

Mikan: great job! Well, review please!