Chapter 7

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Don't find love, let love find you. That's why it's
called falling in love, because you don't force
yourself to fall, you just fall.

(Anonymous)

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Mikan's hand scrambled for her phone, her eyes were everywhere but the rat in front of her. "God… pick up Hotaru. Pick up… Pick up… Pic—"

"Beep. Beep. The number you dialed cannot be reached, please try again later."

"I heard you scream… what's the matter?" Hotaru ran towards the girl and stopped in front of the dead animal. Her question from earlier was well answered. "This… This is disgusting."

"Oh, Hotaru!" Mikan turned, hugging her best friend in the verge of tears. She looked over Hotaru's shoulders and saw a teacher rushing to her. "Um…"

"What happened in here—Oh my God! What in heaven's name is this?!"

Mikan let the tears fall as she buried her face on her hands. Hotaru took hold of the situation after handing out a handkerchief for her. "I think she's being ambushed." She opened her bag and pulled out a metal stick. She pushed the box over to let the rat completely out of the box as she removed the note stuck on the box' cover. "See? Someone's playing a trick on her."

"What a dirty trick it is, then." The teacher folded the paper and placed it in her pocket in presumably for an investigation. "Sakura-san?" She turned to the girl and rubbed her shoulders. "My name is Serina-sensei, homeroom teacher of the advanced class."

Mikan looked up and wiped her tears, smiling. "I've heard of you, you taught Music two years ago, right?"

"Yes I did." Serina called for maintenance and placed a hand on both Hotaru and Mikan's heads. "Hotaru, do me a favor and send Mikan home." The blonde then turned to Mikan in a voice she used with Hotaru yet gentler. "Mikan, go home and rest. You had enough for the day."

Mikan smiled, wiping the next pair of tears that rolled on her cheek. Her stomach was almost giving up on her. "Sounds like a plan."

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"Who could be after you?" Hotaru opened her Mac and looked at every celebrity blogs in Japan. "It can't possibly be someone from show business. No one could've pulled it off. Your locker is in perfect shape and the only way in is…"

"…is my combination code! But Hotaru… you're the only one who knows my combination code."

"Mikan," Hotaru closed her Mac book down and looked at her friend like she was talking some sense into a four-year old. "Your combination code is you goddamn birthdate. Everyone in school knows that. You have to think who."

Mikan rested her head on her palm and drummed her kitchen counter with her fingers. Hotaru as drinking of what was left of her lemonade as Mikan, well, she just lost her appetite for the rest of the day. "I think I have a hunch who."

"Well?"

"Natsume Hyuuga and Ruka Nogi fan club president Sumire Shouda."

"Mikan Sakura," Hotaru looked up at her with one of her devious Cheshire grins. "I think we just found our culprit."

--

"Tell me why I'm wearing a strapless dress which is only a hem longer than my panties?" Mikan cried, pulling the red fabric down in attempt to cover herself.

Hotaru however, was still clothed decent as she was clad in a trench coat, a blouse and a skirt. "Because we're going to a club where girls strip naked all night."

"You're kind of missing the part that I'm sixteen and I already have a job."

"No," Hotaru opened the door to the bar and smiled at the bartender. "I'm conducting an investigation for you. We're going to figure out if Sumire's really your secret admirer."

"Sumire's a girl. And with this dress, I doubt that I can seduce the shit out of her, Hotaru. Plus, I'm not… I don't look like I'm lesbian. This… This isn't right." She pulled her dress down for a bit and seeing that the lower she pulls it, the higher her brassiere is showing. She adjusted it to the right length and totally gave up on it. "I'm still a minor. A pretty, innocent minor."

"Idiot, Sumire's not even here." Hotaru pulled Mikan by the stairs, showing a VIP card to the bouncer. "You're going to go up there, drink all you want and call me when you're sober." Hotaru turned for the door after ushering Mikan to go up in the VIP room.

"Isn't that illegal? Hotaru! We're going against the law! We'll get… we'll get in prison." She said, her voice shaking either from the cold or nervousness. Better yet, her unsteadiness was from paranoia. "How old are we supposed to be before we're allowed to drink like crazy?"

Hotaru turned around and smiled before leaving. "Thirteen."

--

Mikan didn't have any idea what she was doing standing in the middle of a VIP party, getting not-so secret stares from the people in the room and doing nothing but fidget the hem of her dress.

Mikan, seeing that there's no other way out, realizes that fidgeting her clothes is a new found habit of hers.

"Hey, baby." Mikan decided to ignore the drunkard who's supposedly picking her up not until a pair of arms snake around her waist. "Are you lost? Hmmm… I can show you the way…"

"I'd rather you leave me alone." She placed her hands over his and removed them harshly from her body. "I prefer to stand here and fidget than let you touch me."

"Oh. Touchy." He smirks, walking near her again. "I just want to have fun."

Mikan insists on poking his eyes with her stilettos but she's wearing her Jimmy Choos and she knows this drunkard isn't worth the beating so instead she walked near to him just as he is walking near to her and she leans into him and in a sultry voice she tells him to fuck himself in the corner.

"You're making me really mad, you know." He removed the knot in his tie and proceeds to harass her. "You won't like it if I'm mad—no one does."

"I don't really care." As soon as he comes an inch closer to Mikan, someone kicks his crotch and sends him kneeling in excruciating pain. "You're here again, virgin?"

"Don't call me that!" Mikan looks up from the man in his knees to her savior's crimson eyes. "You… Don't you think stalking is a bad habit?"

"I'm not the one stalking here. This is my party and last time I checked, you're not in it." He gave her one good look and sighed deeply. He turned and looked at the seat where he was seating and the girl who was sitting next to him. To Mikan, she looked porn-worthy and really… trashy/slutty. Mikan then takes the idea that Natsume just might be a pimp at night. "You're ruining it, virgin."

"Call me that and no doubt, I'll puncture my stilettos in your pretty eyes." He seemed to like the idea of her and embarrassment. For once, Mikan actually missed him calling her Cinderella. Besides, virgin isn't a pretty word to be shouting at club parties. "Don't worry, I'll leave like last time."

Before she struts over the exit, Natsume Hyuuga pulls her wrist and takes her out himself. "You're not really ruining anything." His voice seemed a little too sincere. "You're doing me a favor, Cinderella." And that perverted, Natsume-like smirk's back on his handsome face that makes Mikan want to kiss him again.

The exit the VIP room and enter another room. "Where exactly are you dragging me?"

"The VIP room."

She looks behind her and stares at the sign above the door they just went out from and she knew, even without double checking it again and again, it says VIP ROOM.

"Oh that?" He chuckles, quite amused. "That's the fake VIP room. Where we're going is the real VIP room. It's a room only for Hyuugas. But no one else goes here but me so it's a room for Natsume Hyuuga." He turned the doorknob and he let Mikan look at the room for a while. It was… more hotel-lounge type than party-like-a-rockstar type. More class than flash. It was definitely Natsume Hyuuga's VIP room.

The radio turns on and an old song by Aerosmith goes off the speakers. Natsume offers a hand and smiles handsomely. And Mikan, being the little girl who used to dance around the room carrying a picture of last year's Seventeen model, just had to accept. And for the first time since she's seen him, she's beginning to like him.

She places her hand on his and he drifts her off to happily ever after. She leans her head on his shoulder and he smells her hair. Just like that. Mikan can imagine being the princess and Natsume… well, he can be the prince for tonight. And if he's lucky, maybe she'd let him sweep her feet away.

She starts thinking about the Natsume she hates and the Natsume she likes. The Natsume she likes was the one who throws comebacks at her which he doesn't really mean to say but still glad he did, he was the one who can make her heart make a whole song in one sentence, he was the one who'd look at her in the eye and tell her he loves her for being hard to get, he was the one who'd make her mad but still make her feel that the world's in zero gravity, and he was the one who'd call her Cinderella and he'd be her prince and they'd be dancing to an old Aerosmith song about some dude who doesn't want to miss a thing.

But the Natsume she hates. Well, he's a lot different than the one she likes. The Natsume she hates was… perverted. Enough said. He was most probably the most egoistic person she had ever met aside from Hotaru Imai. He was the one who toyed her feelings and thought of girls as some kind of disposables. He was the one who never gave a damn about what she liked or what she loved unless if it means getting into her pants. And… and…

—Nothing.

"Mikan…" Natsume said. Mikan looked up from his shoulders and into his eyes. She smiled and she thinks of nothing else to hate about him, her mind just blanks off just as when he leans his face into hers. Not very soon his lips lands on hers. It wasn't like his previous kiss. It was something soft and true, so true that she was actually starting to believe him. "And I just want to stay with you in this moment forever, forever and ever."

"Natsume…" She whispered. Her cheeks were hot just as her lips were. He sways her softly in rhythm as he whispers the lyrics back to her.

"Stay with me, Mikan." He placed two hands on each of her shoulders and looks at her in the eye. "Once I become prime minister… quit show business and stay with me."

Stay with me. The words echo in her mind and she thinks about the dreams she made, the wishes she dreamt of and the success she wished for. And she thinks… that Natsume Hyuuga was being so goddamn selfish. "I… I can't." She swallowed the lump in her throat and removed the hands on her shoulder. "I'm sorry… Just… Just leave me alone, okay?"

He looks at her in disbelief. He had done everything, right? To get her heart… what is it about her heart that makes it so precious? He still couldn't see it. But as she looked at him with a wretched face and a broken soul, he knows exactly what was so special about her.

His feet stay immobilized on the dance floor and the music still singing in the speakers. For the first time in his life, he's letting a girl leave him dumbfounded. He shouldn't have wasted his time on her. He didn't want to be attached to her. But here he is, standing like a jerk that he is as Mikan walks her way to the door.

Mikan took another look at Natsume. "I'm really sorry…" But she knew very well that it doesn't matter anymore.

And as she closed the door behind her, a little voice at the back of her head says she's been doing a lot of escaping lately.

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I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
Far away and dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever
Well, every moment spent with you
Is a moment I treasure

I don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
I'd still miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing

Lying close to you
Feeling your heart beating
And I'm wondering what you're dreaming
Wondering if it's me you're seeing
Then I kiss your eyes and thank God we're together
And I just wanna stay with you
In this moment forever, forever and ever

I don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
I'd still miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing

I don't wanna miss one smile
I don't wanna miss one kiss
Well, I just wanna be with you
Right here with you, just like this
I just wanna hold you close
Feel your heart so close to mine
And stay here in this moment
For all the rest of time

Don't wanna close my eyes
Don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
'Cause I'd still miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing

I don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
I'd still miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing

Don't wanna close my eyes
Don't wanna fall asleep, yeah
I don't wanna miss a thing

(Aerosmith, I Don't Want To Miss A Thing)

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Author's Notes:

Awwwww. Nattie's in woooove. But I kind of agree with Mikan, he is being kind of selfish. What do you think would happen next?

Please stay tuned and review. :)