Ashynote As promised! Merry Christmas, everyone. Don't forget to leave a review!

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Sette Incomprehensible


"You have a lot to tell us. Spill. Now."

Way to go for breakfast. I could practically feel Misaki, Anna, and Nonoko's excitement and it did nothing to improve my mood. After I woke up this morning to a throbbing head (courtesy of Hyuuga and his amazing tutorial skills), I ran down immediately to the cafeteria and saw all five of them clustered around one table. I felt glad to join them, but now I was starting doubt if joining them was the right idea after all. I suppose my only consolation was Ruka's mild curiosity and Hotaru's comforting nonchalance (I never thought the day would come when I'd appreciate her being so diffident). I stabbed my pancake moodily, chewed on it slowly, and then began.

This was bound to be Spanish Inquisition if I slip just one tiny bit…

"Alright, what do you want to know?"

"Everything!" Misaki bristled with suppressed emotions. "We want to know everything!"

"Please exclude me and Ruka," said Hotaru dryly, sipping on her coffee. "We don't exactly keep updated on your miserly date life with the miserly Hyuuga."

"Oh, please." I rolled my eyes. "Hyuuga may be miserly, but our date life is not because we don't exactly have a date life in the first place."

"Yeah because it's only beginning, Mi-chan." Anna looked at me with a playfully sardonic gaze while innocently sipping on her carrot juice.

"What? I— no!" I put down my fork and reached for the juice instead. My blood pressure was rising at so early in the morning. "Come on, Hotaru, you don't believe I have a date life with that Hyuuga prick do you?"

She seemed not to hear. "It is interesting, though," Ruka told Hotaru, who only shrugged in return.

I turned to face Misaki, deciding to ignore their disbelief, and pointed my fork in her direction. "You." Hotaru held down my hand but I ignored it. "If you're gonna ask questions then you might as well be specific."

She gave me cursory glance and breathed out in exasperation. "Come on, little girl—"

"Don't—" I raised the fork again, "—call me little girl."

Misaki threw her hands in the air in mock surrender."Okay, okay," she said through a mouthful of salad, "I'm not getting there, I'll stop, just tell us what happened during your practice with the echo harp and I promise I'll shut up."

She gave me a semi-apologetic gaze and I put down my food again to reach for the comforts of the orange juice. Deciding how best to answer without giving away too much, I settled with a boring reply. "It was… uneventful."

Anna rolled her eyes, Hotaru snorted into her coffee, and Ruka and Nonoko chuckled. Misaki only looked enraged.

"Oh, come on!" Misaki slapped a hand into her forehead and pointed an accusatory finger in my direction. "You do not spend hours with a guy who likes you and say it was uneventful!"

I almost spewed out my juice. "Hold up, whoever said he liked me in the first place?"

Everyone just stared but no one answered. I breathed out and only said, "In any case, it doesn't even matter if he likes me or not or if you believe me or not — because you don't seem to — because nothing interesting even happened at all!"

"Right. Yeah, right. You just don't want to tell us." Misaki taunted me with her annoyingly challenging gaze and I found myself goaded into speech.

"Well it was uneventful!" I put my juice down with a smack. "We practiced for an hour then we went back to the dorm! I have ConCom exams today, in case you guys forgot, so I had to study and I didn't know a thing so he helped me and he tutored me for a couple of hours and that was it. Uneventful."

When I finished, everyone — including Ruka and Hotaru — looked at me in mild surprise.

"What?" My eyebrows knitted in wonder. "What? Why are you staring at me like that?" Did I say anything…?

It was Ruka who broke the silence. "Well that's a first."

"First Yome, now Hyuuga," seconded Hotaru, who began fixing her things as she spoke. "She seems like a magnet for trouble after all. Come on, hun, we have to go." She stood up and dragged Ruka's hand up. "See you guys at the auditorium tonight."

Ruka put down his drink, looked at me apologetically, and said, "Excuse us, ladies," before departing with a charming smile.

I turned to face the others. "I don't get how Hotaru gets the Prince Charming of this school. She isn't even half as nice as Cinderella!"

"Speak for yourself," said Nonoko, "you're the one who managed to snag Romeo One and Romeo Two, and you didn't even have to try as hard as Juliet." She looked at me with a sly smile before fixing her things. It was only then that I noticed Anna and Misaki were doing the same.

"Wait, where are you guys going?" I watched them rise from their seats and turn to leave. "It's Saturday!"

Nonoko smiled at me sadly. "Sorry, Mi, we have make-up classes with Serina."

"And I've got to help with the battle preparations," said Misaki. My eyebrows hefted themselves high on my forehead and Misaki sighed. "You never read your orientation letter, did you? Every week GASA holds a battle between students from the three halls."

"Halls?"

"You know, Dewy for piano, Vance for strings, Sakura for brass, percussion, and harps…"

"Oh. That." I nodded absently as Misaki started to leave. "Okay, be safe then."

She stopped and put a hand to my face. "Sweetie, sorry to leave you on your first weekend. Tell you what, after your exams with Jin-jin, we'll eat out then run off to the auditorium. Battle starts at seven anyway. I'll make it up to you tonight. We'll watch the battle. Hotaru's battling Ruka on piano and Natsume's battling Koko on strings. It'll be fun. Okay?"

I nodded and smiled and Misaki smiled back at me. "Enjoy your day. Ciao, Juliet!"


Seeing as I had no one to be with until my exams later at three and considering how little I know about the school campus I decided to roam around and first, so right after my breakfast I gathered my things and went back to the dorm.

On the way to the ninth floor I began to wonder who the third person in our floor was. Out of my two floor mates, I only know of one, and that was Natsume, and the thought consumed me until the elevator bell dinged. I stepped out onto the landing and made my way to my room when I saw Koko standing right outside my door.

"Good morning, clumsy," he greeted me, his usual goofy smile plastered to his face. "Glad to know you managed to get back here without a bruise."

Despite the obvious insult, I smiled back at him out of sheer reflex—it only seemed natural to smile with him around, and it was definitely hard not to.

"What are you doing here?" I fumbled for my keycard and let him in.

He answered with an airy wave of the hand. "Oh, you know, I only thought it was proper to visit my floor mate on a bright Saturday morning."

Oh, so that answers my thoughts.

Wait. HE was floor mate number two? "You're floor mate number two?" I repeated my thoughts out loud.

He smiled and nodded as he crossed the threshold into my sitting room. "Plus, I thought it would be nice to remind a certain someone about her date with me this Saturday, considering how she seems to have forgotten about it.'

A date?

I doubled back a bit as I dropped my bag on the table, and then I remembered. "Oh, yeah! That one, gosh, sorry I forgot! He sauntered casually into the room and sat down the sofa.

He smiled yet again. "Well? Questions? We have all day but—"

"No," I cut across him. "No, we haven't got all day. I have exams at three."

His bright eyes sparkled with renewed amusement. "You don't read what's posted on bulletin boards, do you?"

I shook my head. "Why?"

He stretched and lifted his legs to lie down on my sofa instead. "Because all make-up exams have been postponed until next Saturday. You don't have exams today, silly."

He looked at me sideways and I felt my day spin right on its heel. "Really?" I asked him, eyes wide open in excitement. "You're not kidding me at all?"

He nodded and said, "Yes, really, and no, I'm not kidding you at all," and in a flash of mental blackout, I ran over and dove into the sofa to hug him. "Oh gosh, Koko, thank you, you saved my day! I know nothing of ConCom and I thought I was gonna fail because I knew nothing and gosh! Thank you so much, Koko!"

I felt him wrap his arms around my waist and laugh. "Such a child," he whispered as he buried his face in my hair. I was too happy to care, but I didn't think I was supposed to hear what he just said.

The hug took longer than necessary, and I began to pull away.

He wouldn't budge.

"Koko," I told him, poking him in the sides. "Koko, you can let go now."

His hold tightened. "No," he protested childishly. "Don't want to. Right now you're my teddy bear."

I laughed and started tickling his sides. "Teddy bears don't like getting crushed!" With all my force I made to release myself from his hug and stared down at him when I was finally freed. He smiled and stared at me with something in his eyes that I couldn't place, but before I could think of what it was, he jumped to his feet and dragged me by the hand.

"Come on, Teddy, we're going out!"


"Koko, where on earth are you taking me?"

We were at the basement of Xavier Dorms, a place I never knew existed, and with Koko still leading me by the hand. We ran along rows and rows of cars and motorbikes. Koko just smiled in reply.

"What are we doing here anyway?" I asked again. "Are we even allowed here?"

Yet again he smiled, but this time he answered my question. "Technically speaking, no, but I don't think Dad would mind."

The word made me wonder. "Dad?"

We stopped in front of a zircon blue Audi and Koko fished out keys from his pockets before smiling at me. "Koko 101," he said as he led me to the passenger seat and opened the door for me, "I'm the son of Tatsumi Yome."

It took me some time before his words made an impact.

"They're from the four richest families in Asia…"

"…Dad would mind…"

"Oh!" I gasped as I figured it out. By the time I did, he had already revved the engine and we were sweeping out of the underground garage and into a tunnel straight ahead. "Why did you never tell me? And why did you instantly reveal it to me now?"

We were speeding down the tunnel really fast, and even though I hated speed I found I could trust him. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly in hesitation and, perhaps, an inner battle of wills. "You know your questions are rather… contrasting."

I nodded, even though he probably couldn't see me. The tunnel was long and dark and seemingly endless.

"I didn't tell you… because I didn't want you to think so differently of me. I tell you now, because I want to avoid those story-line clichés of you finding out at the last minute, when you've finally fallen in love with me, with you running off somewhere to go cry and maul me with words, like 'I trusted you' or 'You never told me' and all that crap. It just gets so old, you know? And besides, you're this kind of girl I know I can trust one way or another and a girl like you is pretty rare. I don't want to miss the chance to get to know you."

I took in his words and unconsciously blurted out, "That wouldn't change the fact that I like you."

The quiet purr of the engine was all I could hear after my pronouncement and I couldn't speak at all. What have I just said? Oh, god, this is not good! I felt heat creeping up my face and I couldn't speak until Koko decided to break the silence.

Honestly, thank God for Koko.

"So, where d'you wanna go? This road leads to Tokyo Central, you know…"

A smile made its way to my face as I looked at Koko and he spared a joyful glance at me.


We rode all over Tokyo that day. We went to eat lots of new food and he made me eat ice cream (loads, actually), past delis and shopping centers (Koko even bought me a few hats just for the heck of it) and Koko never let me spend a single cent. Everything was on him and halfway through I was already forcing him to let me pay or I'll throw a bunch of money on his doorstep by the time he sleeps tonight and I think that frightened him a bit, but it didn't work at all.

On top of that, I got to ask tons of questions about him, and I found out so much more than I would ever have wanted to know. He played the piano first too, like me, and our instrument evolution (as he put it) was exactly the same. Every instrument I played, he played too. I also learned about his judo and capoeira skills. He was also home-schooled and GASA was his first-ever experience of social life.

"That's why people thought I was this secluded jerk," he told me while we walked down an alley on the way back to his car. "I knew Natsume and the others because our families constantly gathered on parties, but they were closed parties. We're all related one way or another, you see… and that's why the only people I ever talked to at the Academy were those three."

He rammed ice cream on my nose after that, and I had to chase him back to his car for revenge.

We kept at the question and answer thing while drove along various streets of Tokyo and I found out that he loved the colors brown and yellow. He liked pasta and hated fish. He only drank tap water and he hates fruit juices because it reminded him of children's medicine. He once threw a tantrum because his mom took away his teddy bear and wouldn't give it back. The list went on and on and on and I was having so much fun knowing stuff about Koko, but it was punctuated when I saw what was obviously the head of a Ferris wheel.

"Carnival!" I yelled, my head sticking out of Koko's car. I looked higher and saw the head of a giant Yo-Yo ride and in sheer excitement I turned around to look at him and found our faces inches apart. He was looking over too, and it seemed I faced him too soon because we were a hairsbreadth away from actually kissing.

We stared at each other for a split second before looking away awkwardly.

"So… um… d'you want to go to the Carnival?" Koko asked when we had both recovered our poise. "We still have an hour before six."

"Yeah, I'd love that," was all I could say.


We came back to GASA ten minutes past six, and he went back to the dorms with me.

"Now we're even," he said as we went inside the elevator.

I smiled at him tauntingly and he gave me a wary eye. "Seriously, Koko?" I teased him. "Sitting on a cat because you thought your poor Jerris cat was cushion?"

"What?" he said defensively. "Jerrball was a Persian cat and she was almost a Persian rug if she only grew a few more inches of fur. You'd have thought she was a cushion too if you were in my position then."

"And Jerris wheel?"

He rolled his eyes. "Now, don't start on that one."

I laughed. "You said 'Jerris wheel', not Ferris wheel!"

He turned red and on cue, the elevator opened. "Come on. Give me a break. I was nine."

I laughed and he scowled and our contrasting faces were what greeted the landing. He took out his keycard and I took out mine and we went to our own doors, but not before I said thank you to him.

"Thanks for rescuing me, Koko. I had the best day so far."

He smiled an achingly sweet smile at me and said, "No, Mikan. Thank you for letting me in."

Then he went inside his room and disappeared. I couldn't make enough sense of what he said.


"What do you mean the battle's postponed?" I moaned into the receiver. Misaki was apologizing profusely on the other end.

"Look, there were some technical problems. The judges didn't come and the auditorium's out for repairs. Sorry, love, I'll make it up to you tomorrow."

"Oh, fine. I'll just study for ConCom, try to remember most of what Natsume told me last night," I mumbled. "You owe me for this one, Misaki."

"Wait, you're studying for ConCom? I thought your exams were today?"

"It was postponed too."

"So where did you go?"

"Koko took me out for the whole day. We just got back."

My statement caused all sound to disappear from the other end. I had to slap myself for being so damn honest and then I heard mutterings and a small slamming sound.

"Misaki? What was that?" I asked. There were more mutterings and I realized something. "Misa, am I on loudspeaker?"

Misaki's voice was wan. "Mikan… that was Natsume. He walked out and slammed the door after hearing what you said."


That night, I wasn't able to sleep at all. Maybe it was because of the coffee, but a huge, nagging part of me told me it was more bent with the existence of Natsume Hyuuga and the fact that I didn't know what to make of his fluctuating signals.

I groaned and twisted in bed and eventually ended up staring into the space above me. For some reason my hands found the button on my clock and a faded red light flashed across the stretch of black ceiling, displaying the time. It was four in the morning. The darkness in my room was starting to lift because the sun was starting to rise, dowsing the room in a bleary sort of light.

What the heck was I supposed to do with a sleepy head? It was almost morning. I could already feel Natsume's lessons draining away from my head.

I sat up in bed and massaged my eyelids, sore from playing close-open, but I promptly froze when I heard the unmistakable sound of something hitting my window. The sound was like claws raking through glass, and occasionally it made a popping sound.

I was never a fan of horror movies and I hated them to the core because they frightened me to death. I tried so hard not to visualize lost souls searching for someone to help them, or kids bloodied and trampled over or beaten to death, or worse—

Those thoughts were not helping.

I stayed still for a while wondering what to do until—

CRACK!

—the windows shattered. The windows shattered!

THE WINDOWS SHATTERED!

I found my voice stuck in my throat and some sort of rock dropped down in when I saw a shadow creep over my bedroom door. Dammit, now I wish I closed the freakin' door!

I had half a mind to run over to the door and bolt it shut and the fear gripping me was so strong that I actually managed to move my feet and I ran and ran as fast as I could to slam the door shut until—

—"OUCH!"

A hand was sticking out from the door I had just almost slammed shut. I kept throwing my weight at the door to close it. "Get away, whoever you are! I'm calling Saya, I mean it!"

"Mikan, dammit, it's me, Koko!"

Oh—what? Koko?

I quickly moved away from the door and watched as the latched moved inward to reveal a very flustered Koko standing outside my doorway, holding his hand to his chest.

That had to hurt.

"Seriously, Little Girl bites hard," said Koko as he clambered over to my bed, lying down with his eyes closed.

"What are you— Little Girl?" I crossed my arms as I stood over him and glared, even though he couldn't see. "Even you call me Little Girl? What is wrong with the world? Seriously, does everyone call me that here now?"

Koko gave a small laugh. "Actually, you are known as Little Girl."

I recoiled from the knowledge. "Excuse me, what? Why am I this little girl, why am I called a 'little' girl?"

Koko sat up and stared at me from head to toe. "Well, aside from the obvious thing that you're almost only five feet tall, everyone also knows you only chose GASA because you were too young to enter Juilliard's."

My eyes popped open in shock. "Everyone knows about my life?"

He shrugged. "Yeah. Pretty much. GASA's a small community and it's rare to find a new person getting enrolled because no one seems to get past the screening exams."

"So you all research on my life right after you find out I got in?"

"Not really. I just know. The others found out after you came, but I knew ever since."

What? "How did you know ever since?"

Koko, whose eyes were trailed on the floor, widened. "Oops, wasn't supposed to tell you that."

I didn't bother asking, either. Then I realized what I was really going to ask him in the first place. "Koko, what on earth are you doing in my room at four in the morning?"

It took no less than a blink of the eye—no sooner had I asked the question when I found myself on my back on bed with Koko holding me pinned to it, although it wasn't necessary, really. His jewel-like gaze already held me in place, because it was swirling with a flurry of emotions that strangely distorted the color, making his eyes look less of topaz and more of a golden-brown that was both mysterious and frightening.

"Mikan…" he whispered pleadingly.

For a moment I wasn't aware of anything else, only that his face was so dangerously close to mine and that we were a hairsbreadth away from each other's nose tips. The seconds ticked on, so painfully slow, and all we did was stare and stare at each other and I realized something, which I think had always been there in the back of my mind: Koko and Natsume were so similar. It was in those few seconds that I felt Koko's gaze were as strong as Natsume's should he wish to unleash its power. But I wasn't able to think much because I was too hypnotized by Koko's eyes boring holes in my mind, distracted by the distance of our faces, and afraid… much too afraid, because the Koko I was seeing was not the Koko I've come to know during the few weeks.

Koko moved his head back and I thought I could breathe— until my mind went blank and all I felt was the powerful lips moving against mine and I had no more thoughts whatsoever.

It was my first kiss. My first kiss.

If the moments when we stared were long, the kiss went on longer. Koko's lips were strong and urgent and my mind was completely numb to everything but the sensation his kiss made… all I could feel was the lurching feeling in my stomach that seemed to twist and untwist and twist again.

I gasped when he deepened the kiss and he moved his hands from beside me to hold my face, and I lost it— I answered back the kiss with what I knew…

I lost track of time. That kiss… my first kiss could have gone for hours, I couldn't tell…

With another gasp, Koko pulled away from me and stared at me with alarmed eyes.

"Shit…"

He looked around and stood up and stared at me with open eyes.

"Mikan… I'm so sorry."

He backed out and ran out. The door slammed shut behind him.

I remained on the bed, back to where I was since after Natsume's tutorial, staring at the ceiling.

Koko…

I felt the tears lingering and I let them fall, not knowing the reason for them at all.


"Oi. You okay?"

The sound of his voice made me sit up straight and look around. For the second time in an hour, someone entered my room without permission, and for some reason it had to be him.

Natsume stood languidly on my door frame, his feet crossed lazily one over the other, and peered at me through his piercing red eyes.

I looked at him, forgetting for a moment about my tears, and said, "Why are you here?"

He raised that trademark sardonic eyebrow. "Why are you crying?"

"I am?" Oh, right, I was crying. Quickly I wiped my eyes clean. "Maybe it's the exam jitters… you know. Frail, little girl."

"Right. You cry a week before exams but yet you scream at me like I'm no one important at all."

I shot him as dark a glare as I could muster. "You're not important, Hyuuga. Don't be so full of yourself."

"I'm part owner of this school, so don't be so sure of yourself either."

I didn't want to fight so I stood up and walked out of my bedroom to open the windows in the living room and to keep my thoughts away from what had just transpired. I thought of looking around the room and let my wonder and awe consume me. Vaguely I saw Natsume follow me with his gaze, but I tried not to care.

Xavier Hall Dormitory was the most furnished, luxurious dormitory in all of GASA and I could see why. The first time I entered my room my jaw dropped, and until now I couldn't believe my luck. The dorm was ten stories high. Three rooms per floor which meant only thirty students are given the chance to live in this majestic place. And majestic it most certainly was, because the room was huge: it had a study room, a bed room, and a living room, all for the comfort of the dormer.

From the windows I saw the sun starting to peek from the cover of skyscrapers that littered the city; I check the wall clock: 5:13.

It must have been a long kiss then.

Unconsciously, I touched my lips as I turned around and saw Natsume still looking at me from the door leading to my bedroom. "Why aren't you leaving?"

"What happened to you?"

I pretended not to know. "Nothing. What are you talking about?"

He snorted. "Sakura. There are only three of us living on this floor and your room is right across mine. It doesn't take an idiot to hear how a window suddenly breaks and it doesn't take much either to hear the slamming of a door."

"I meant why are you here?"

He breathed out in annoyance. "I thought I made it clear to you what I think of you: you, to me, are an extremely clumsy person and you need a walker every second of your living life because you can't even stand on your own two feet without running the risk of you falling down and hitting your head on concrete."

"Flattering, thanks Hyuuga." I pulled him by the arm and dragged him out to the door. "Thanks for caring."

"I wasn't caring, little girl, I was concerned."

"Same difference." I made to close the door in his face once he was out of my room, but his hand stopped me.

"Don't do anything more rash than necessary, Sakura, for the life of me."

My eyes involuntarily twitched. "Why do you care, Hyuuga?"

His red eyes hesitated for a while and it looked like he was steeling himself to say something. He was silent for quite some time and I waited, but all he came up with was a lame, "Because I don't like performing alone."

His reason was so lame I smiled. "Don't worry, Natsume-kun. I won't die."

A flicker came over his eyes and he nodded, his acceptance surprising me.

"I'll hold you to that, Sakura. Just… stay safe, won't you? I really don't like performing alone."

He made to move forward and I wasn't in the right head, but it still took me by surprise when he pressed his lips to my forehead.

"Stay safe, Mikan."

I felt the heat rush up my cheeks at the sound of him calling me by name. My heart sped up, my eyes lost focus, and my lungs seemed to have lost all air… If anything, it had a stronger effect on me than Koko's kiss…

I couldn't wrap my mind around it.

First, Koko… and now Natsume Hyuuga kissed me… too?