So yeah; I re-wrote chapter four after realizing how asfghhorribleh it was written(?). Hopefully, this will be better.
Special guest is Araki Hisashi which is owned (by Yuu and) by TheBlackFlamingo101.
Disclaimer: Do not own a thing. Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi is owned by Nakamura Shungiku, Hotarubi no Mori e is owned by Midorikawa Yuki, etc, etc. I'm just a pervert fangirl.
"...I don't see why you insist on me wearing the uniform."
"You insisted first." Takano reminded casually, remaining on his spot. "Besides if you brought it I think it was because you wanted me to see it."
Ritsu gawked, biting his lower lip as he tried to glare at the black haired. "Of course not! It was because...I wanted my family to see it." Okay, so maybe it wasn't the truth, but it wasn't exactly a lie, either. "Anyways, why did you want to see me wearing it? It's just a uniform."
Takano chuckled. "You look nice on it." He was sure Ritsu could just sense his smile. "Although I had seen you wearing the school clothes before this one looks different on you."
"Different?" The boy looked at himself. It was just a simple, normal, black uniform; nothing out of the ordinary. "How?"
"You have grown and you're no longer a child, so it fits differently." The youkai just wanted to say something else but it was better if he kept quiet. "So, you're entering middle school this year?"
Ritsu nodded. "Hey, I have some other books you might like...want me to bring them tomorrow?" Maybe if he gave the books to Takano he could spend more time with him. His family was starting to wonder what was so interesting about the forest and Ritsu had lied and said he went to read. He was sure that if he told them that he had befriended a spirit they would think he was crazy.
The things he had to do to see his friend. Sometimes he wondered if he had gone crazy; he'd never believed in spirits, but now he had become friends with one and they were becoming almost inseparable when they got to see each other. It was nice, though, he had to admit; Takano and he could be together for a long time and it could still feel like it wasn't enough.
"This summer ended faster than what I expected." Ritsu commented out of the blue on the last week of that summer vacation. "I wish I had more time to be here." He smiled before glancing up at the blue sky. "It's really great here, you know? I envy you; it must be great living here."
Takano's eyes glanced at Ritsu before replying, "It's not that great. I'm not able to leave the place and there's no one like me here." He explained. "Sometimes I feel that because I'm different from them they're just giving me pity." He was different from them, he was a special case. He wasn't like them and he knew that he couldn't become like them ever.
Hn, funny. It had been years since he had thought about his life in the forest.
'...' He sighed, shaking his head. "No, forget what I just said; it's stupid to think like that." A part of him didn't want Ritsu to meet him in that way, but other part of him just begged to receive the attention that he had been deprived of for so long. He should be grateful for being able to be alive, but...was he really as alive as many thought he was?
"Everything okay?" Ritsu interrupted his thoughts, snapping him back to reality. "Takano-san, you just went silent."
The spirit shook his head. "No, nothing's wrong." He brushed off his worries. For some reason he got relaxed when he saw Ritsu's face- it made him feel special because someone cared about him so much. "Oi, Oda, you're going back in two days, right?"
"Yes, why?"
'I just don't want you to go so quickly; I'd like to keep you all by myself.' He wanted to say that; he wanted someone by his side, but instead, Takano just shrugged and said, "I'd like to show you around more."
Ritsu snorted. "Please, I already know all the forest. I even know your favorite spots, Takano-san.""Well, what else can I do? You come here every day and you know I'm not capable of going out of the forest. When you were younger you were easier to entertain." The black haired remarked. "I had to hit you with a stick so you would understand that you could not touch me." He added and grinned when Ritsu's cheek's rose in color.
"I...I was small back there!" He responded, getting up and he pointed at his friend. "And you weren't too nice when we met!"
"You weren't either."
Ritsu gave Takano a playful and annoyed look before crossing his arms. "You know, sometimes I wish I could stay here all year. That way I wouldn't have to leave you here and we could spend all the year together."
'I want to see him.' Ritsu tried to concentrate on the teacher's words, but his mind insisted on bringing an image of Takano to his head. 'I want to see him right now...' He exhaled, tapping the pencil on his hand on the school desk. His chest hurt, but it wasn't painful to breathe.
He closed his eyes, and bit his lower lip. Why was he feeling so frustrated? He could go and see Takano every summer, so why was he getting all anxious? Why could he not pry Takano's face off his mind? It was asphyxiating and without Takano by his side, he felt a bit slowly. 'Stop, don't think like a twelve-year-old girl with a crush! You're fourteen now!'
For the last two years he had been trying to keep calm whenever he met with Takano. His heart started racing and he'd get nervous and start mumbling. If he didn't know himself any better he would've sworn he was acting like a love-struck girl.
"Onodera, it's time to go," A classmate called, pointing at the room's entrance. "Oh, do you have to stay today?"
Ritsu nodded. "Yeah, I have to clean the class room." It was a lie; he just didn't feel like leaving yet. Maybe he could stay at the library and read something. Maybe he'd even find some books that he could show to Takano.
Just at the thought, his heart clenched. When he saw him he felt happy. He couldn't really explain it, but it felt nice whenever they talked...Ritsu had come to love the time they spent together more than the talks with other people. Takano seemed to always listen what Ritsu had to say, he was always by his side.
"Onodera, you're blushing."
He snapped back to reality and blinked a couple times before gazing up. Another classmate was looking at him with an amused look. "Oh, I...sorry," He grinned nervously. Seriously, he had been blushing? "I need to get...going to the duty."
"What, were you thinking of your special someone?"
"An-chan is coming with us next summer, Ritsu." His mother told him at dinner.
The boy looked up from his plate and titled his head to his side. "To where?"
His mother gave him a look that just said 'aren't you distracted recently? I've already told you!'. She sighed. "Since you two are fourteen now her parents and us guessed you must start spending more time together."
"..." Ritsu raised an eyebrow. "Wha-" He stopped his words as realization quickly drew to him.
The engagement.
But, he thought that the engagement had been called off long time ago. "...I thought the engagement was off." It had been four years ago since he had last seen the girl. Kouhinata An was his childhood friend, but nothing more; he had told his parents that and back then they had heard him, but this...? "I don't want to marry her, mom." Usually his father would try to reason with his mother but this time Ritsu's father was working late.
Her mother dropped the fork, and gave her son a look that demanded absolute obedience. "Why not? She's a charming girl who would make you happy! It's not some stranger; you two know each other and get along just fine!"
"..." The teen bit his lower lip and slid down his chair. "I just...don't see her as more than a friend." He admitted.
His mother sighed, rubbing her temples. "Ritsu, please. She's a wonderful girl." Ritsu glanced down. "Or have you perhaps met other girl?" When silence continued, she just let out an exasperated sigh, crossing her arms. "I don't care, but I demand you to stop seeing her because you are going to marry An-chan."
A knot formed in his throat. He was unable to tell his mother that the engagement was beyond stupid because nobody did that in modern times, that he wanted to be left alone, that An-chan was just a friend and that he didn't feel anything for her. "...I'll go to my room, excuse me." He rose from his seat and walked away towards the stairs.
He didn't feel anything for An-chan, and yet, somehow he was familiar with the feeling of loving someone.
...
"Ah, so you really came, An-chan."
The girl smiled gently, grinning. "I'm glad we're able to spend time together, Rit-chan." She glanced to the other side, amazed by the fields. "You're lucky to be able to here every summer; it's beautiful out here..."
"Well, I've been coming here since I've got memory, but yeah, it's nice out here. There are no big sounds, or drama." He leaned against the back seat, lolling his head to the back. Despite how much he tried to appear as a gentleman for An, there was a thing in the back of his head that assured him that this vacation was going to be a disaster. How was he supposed to meet Takano now? "It was not troublesome, right? I mean, you coming this summer with us, I'm sure you had plans."
She shrugged, smiling politely, "No, it's okay, as long as I can spend time with you."
Ritsu just smiled and excused himself, saying he was going to take a nap to rest. An nodded and returned to watch the landscape.
Onodera bit his lower lip. He was sure he didn't want this. He just wanted to spend as much time as he could with Takano. A faint blush started to show on his cheeks. So maybe he felt something for Takano, although he wasn't sure what it was.
The first thing that Ritsu did when he got was jump out of the car and run to the forest with a lame excuse of wanting to see if the forest was safe enough to show to An-chan. He ran as quickly as his legs would let him, knowing perfectly well where to go. Knowing the youkai, Takano was probably resting by a tree resting.
"Takano-san!" He called out loud, looking around. Ritsu was near the valley, so Takano had to be near. "Takano-san!"
A voice behind him responded in an annoyed tone, "What are you doing screaming like that?"
Ritsu let out a relieved smile, exhaling. "Ah, you're here..." He let out a relieved smile. "I'm glad you're here." He turned around, waving as he saw Takano sitting on a rock.
Takano arched an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"
"Well...remember how I said I was the only one who came with my family?" Takano nodded. "Ah, my mom invited this girl to come with us...and...I...she's..." He tried to find appropriate words. "You see, she insists I be with her all the time, so-"
"That girl's your fiancé?" Takano interrupted, raising his mask. His expression laid a serious tone on the conversation and Ritsu only managed to nod, looking aside. "Well, there's nothing I can do to stop you from not coming here..."
The brunette shook his head. "No, I want to come here with you," He said trying to explain his situation… "She's just a friend, but my mom insists on calling her my fiancé!"
Takano's brown eyes flashed quick surprise before shrugging. "Even if you say that, you won't be able to come as much, right?"
"Then I'll come on the night, if I have to." Ritsu deadpanned.
"It's not necessary."
The boy rose and eyebrow. "I will do it if it's necessary." He repeated. "I don't want to waste all my summer over there when I can be here."
Takano chuckled. "Do you really want to be here instead of over there?"
The brunette shrugged, shifting his sight to the ground. "...well, kinda..."
Before Takano could even say something else, another voice called out loud Ritsu's name.
"Ritsu!" It repeated, getting closer to where both men were. "Rit-chan, are you over here?"
It was An's voice. Ritsu gasped and whitened a bit. "It's An-chan!" He turned to face Takano. "Can she see you? I mean- you're visible to her, right?"
"I am not a ghost." Takano cut in, crossing his arms. "But I don't want to meet her." He admitted.
Ritsu huffed, looking at the taller one, "I'll come as soon as I can." He spoke with a serious tone before glancing to where An's voice was coming from. "I'm going, An-chan!" He cried out loud. With a last glance to Takano, he hurried off to meet his friend.
The word exasperated didn't even begin to describe how he was feeling.
He felt annoyed.
He felt trapped.
He...
…He was forced to stay by An's side 24/7. Now, being by An's side wasn't bad, Ritsu enjoyed her presence and their talks, but his mother insisted them to always be together. To make things worse, it had been two weeks since he had been able to go to the forest. At least he wasn't the only one who seemed out of patience to his mother's antics- An was starting to get tired of them too. She liked being around Ritsu, and she loved him, but being by his side all the time wasn't very enthralling.
"Do you think we can walk around town today?" An asked, snapping Ritsu out of his thoughts. The day was hot, and all the two teens had to refresh themselves was a small fan. "Or maybe we could to a stream."
"You want to go into the forest?" Ritsu responded with a surprised tone. An-chan had never mentioned the idea before.
"If it's possible, I'd love to!" The girl grinned, clapping her hands together. "You know around the place, don't you, Ritchan?" Ritsu gave a semi-nod in response. "Then we can go to the forest and refresh near a stream, right?"
"...I...I guess we can do that."
And so the two teens, headed off to the forest- one thinking of the other and the other thinking that he's finally be able to see the youkai again.
Half way through, An stopped walking, gasping in realization. "I forgot something Oh, Rit-chan, can I return really quickly to your house? I promise I won't take long!" She begged, clasping her hands together. "Please?"
The brunette shrugged. "Sure, I'll wait here, okay?" He offered, taking this as perfect excuse to meet Takano. "If you get lost, give me a shout."
An giggled and nodded, turning to the opposite direction and ran towards the house.
Once he was sure he was alone, Ritsu grinned from ear to ear. "Finally, I'm alone!" He exhaled. He looked at his surroundings. He wasn't that far from where Takano usually was; probably he'd have fifteen minutes to himself.
Fifteen long minutes.
"Beeeeeeh~"
Ritsu titled his head. Had he just heard a sheep? The teen glanced down and found a small sheep with blonde curls staring at him.
"What are you doing here?" He asked the sheep, kneeling to its level. Ritsu's green orbs fixed on how soft and silky the curls looked. "I had never seen a sheep around, are you lost?" He stretched his hand and was about to pat the sheep, when he was cut off by a reply.
"Touch the curls and you die."
"..."
"I mean it."
Wait. Had the...sheep...just...threatened him? He blinked once. Twice. The sheep was giving him a glare. A sheep. "Are you a...youkai?"
The sheep raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I thought you'd get freaked out." It repiled calmly, giving a step back before bursting into a mass of white smoke.
Ritsu blinked again just to check he wasn't hallucinating. He should've been used to this now! All these years of seeing Takano, Kisa, Yukina, and even Yokozawa, and he still got surprised that there were youkai around?
Once the while smoke had dissipated, the young man with blonde curls, pale skin, and gorgeous blue eyes who had once been a sheep asked, "Wait, could it be that you're Takano-san's kid?"
"...'Takano-san's kid'?" Ritsu repeated, raising an eyebrow. He approached the man, still unsure how it was possible for a sheep to transform. "You know Takano-san?"
"So it's him!" A third voice added suddenly. Hisashi looked up at the tree behind him, giving a small smile. Ritsu just raised an eyebrow, knowing that it was probably another youkai.
"...just...how many youkai are here?"
"Tons." The sheep replied instantly.
A figure jumped down the tree behind to the blonde, landing besides the blonde youkai. In contrast to the sheep, this one had auburn hair and piercing eyes. He also wore a wine-red yukata and wore fox mask to his side. "Hnmm, I thought he was younger."
"It seems he grew."
"Probably."
"Or Takano just lied about the age."
"You really think he could to that?"
"No. Just saying."
"...Uhm," Ritsu scoffed, earing the two youkai's attention. "I'm here, y'know?" He waved slowly. "You could ask me."
The masked-fox-man and sheep (as Ritsu had kindly decided to name them) looked at each other before just shrugging their shoulders.
"So you're the kid Takano befriended." The auburn haired said, examining Ritsu from top to bottom.
"Yes, my name's Onodera Ritsu, nice to meet you. May I know your names? Are you Takano-san's friends?"
The smaller one remained silent for a second before tilting his head slightly. "You could say that. My name's Hisashi, I'm a sheep youkai, and this guy's name is Yuu; he's a fox youkai who likes to play around with humans." Yuu waved, smiling from ear to ear.
"Ah, nice to meet you two." Ritsu bowed but then his eyes fixed on Hisashi's blonde locks. "..." They were kinda cute; he had to admit.
"You cannot touch them."
Ritsu blushed; had he been so obvious?
"Ah, don't take it personally~" Yuu chuckled. "He doesn't like anyone staring, or touching, his locks." He explained, patting Hisashi's head.
"...stop it." Hisashi pouted.
"Uhm, sorry to ask this, but..." Ritsu interrupted, "why did you call me 'Takano-san's kid'?" He asked. "He and I are just friends." He added quickly.
Hisashi laughed for a second, "Well, he talked about you alot."
"Plus, Yukina-kun and Kisa-san already met you, so you are kinda well known among the youkai here." Yuu added.
Ritsu's cheeks turned slightly pink. "He talked about me?"
"Well, yeah! He started talking about you more about six years ago, like how he enjoyed having you around and things like that."
"Oh wow..." Ritsu breathed out. He felt his heart beating quicker than usual. "I never knew he-"
"Rit-chaaan~"
The three men's attention was drawn to where the female voice came from.
"It's that girl you came with." Hisashi pointed to the path where the humans had come from. "She came back quite quickly."
"I guess we should go; we don't like seeing lots of humans." Yuu shrugged, grabbing Hisashi's shoulder.
"Don't play a joke on her." Hisashi added, as he walked away alongside Yuu.
His heart was beating quickly, and he was almost sure it had stopped for a fragment of a second. Takano-san talked about him when he wasn't around...his cheeks turned into a deeper shade of pink. Ritsu felt special.
An reached Ritsu's side. "Thank goodness you're still here! I brought a bento so we can eat it by the-Rit-chan?" She asked, leaning closer to her fiancé. "Are you okay?"
Green eyes blinked a couple times before reacting. "Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine, don't worry." He smiled kindly at her. "Are you ready to go?" The two started walking to their destination again, enrolling into a trivial conversation as they walked.
A part of him told him to forget it, but another one didn't want to ignore the fluttering inside his chest.
That was when I realized what I felt.
TLDR Author notes ;;
1)GUYS GO ON YOUTUBE AND SEARCH FOR 'GGRKS Sekaiichi' ... or google it (hahaha get it? Google it -ggrks- 8DD -lame-).
2)Sorry it took so long to update, but school got in the way and since finals are a week away for me and every single teacher is giving out projects asdfghj...
3) I finally figured how to end the story without it being TERRIBLY HEART-BREAKING!
4) Hisashi was originally going to be a youkai tied to a rock (reference to 'Always') but I decided to make him a sheep because of his curls c: No relation to Yukina, btw. Yuu is a fox youkai because if just seemed to fit him.
Miyuki Meiru- I think you should watch the movie! (: It's really beautiful and, if you want spoilers, you might find out why Ritsu can't touch Takano.
You Me and Obession- Cuz Yukina is another type of youkai.
Thank you for reading~ (: