Author's note: Whoa! It's been ages since I last updated! Sorry about that guys.. Guess I'm just very lazy to try getting out another chapter of my dead brain.. Hope you guys still in tune though.. But I have a special thanks for Yewberry Noon (I'm sorry if I misspell) for giving me the best review I have ever had! I'm so surprised and happy reading your comment XD It really gives me motivation to continue writing :)) Well, I hope this will satisfy your wait! Have a good read! :D

Disclaimer: If I am the owner of GH, Naru and Mai will be together, ASAP!


Chapter 7: Encountering Just another Problem

There was a huge commotion when I finally announced my somewhat-of-an-engagement with Naru to the people in the orphanage that night. Especially between the girls. "What? Mai-nee is actually marrying the Duke's son?" screamed them. "No way! How come? How envious! You're so lucky!"

The boys' cries of protests were worse. "No way! You are actually going to get married? It's the end of the world!"

I glared murderously at the boys. "Yes, my 'beloved' brothers. Unfortunately I do. I'm sorry for not meeting your expectations."

They laughed at that. Jake, the second oldest guy after Rein, said in between his laugh. "Sorry Mai. That's not what we meant. It's just that it really is a surprise. Because you have never really seemed to think about stuff like marriage, and then now not only that you suddenly have your hand of marriage taken, it was taken by none other than the Duke's only son himself! Anyone would wonder if that's really true!"

"But it is true!" I said in annoyance.

"Yes, of course it's true!" said Marie enthusiastically. "Why wouldn't it? Didn't you guys see that one time when he declared his proposal in the hall? It was the most daring and romantic proposal I have ever seen! 'I am here to take Mai as my wife', he said! Aaah, I'm still trembling when I remember that!"

"Yes, Marie, I bet it was the most romantic proposal you've ever seen. How many have you seen before, by the way? Zero?" said Seiji sarcastically. The other boys laughed at his 'smart' comment and did a sort of mass high-five. The girls were glaring at them in annoy but then decided to ignore them. Instead, they turned to me and started to flood me with questions.

"So, Mai, tell us the whole story! How did you two meet?" asked Jane with sparkling eyes. The other girls had circled around me and staring with the same sparkling eyes, and begging, "Tell! Tell! Tell! Tell!"

I edged back from the intense stares. "It wasn't really something worth to tell…," I desperately tried to get myself out of the situation. I really didn't want to tell lies to them, but seeing from the situation, it was not possible to explain anything about Naru's proposal without telling lies.

"Oh, come on, Mai-nee! Don't be so stingy!" whined the girls. "You haven't even told us anything about this! Aren't we sisters? How could you not share such a wonderful story like this? We want to know! Pleaaaaaaase!" They were begging so hard that I didn't have the heart to turn them down. But I wasn't sure whether I should say anything about this or not. I stole glances to Rein, Ayako-san and Bou-san for help. They seemed hesitated for a moment, but then Bou-san clapped his hand and smiled to us.

"Well, Mai," he said. "I guess it won't hurt anyone if you share the story a little. Though it is not something great to tell, so don't be too disappointed afterwards, girls." He winked playfully, but I understood what he meant. 'Tell them what they want to hear, but not everything' was what he wanted to tell me.

The girls were beaming excitedly by Bou-san's words and then looking back at me with anticipation. I let out a desperation sigh as I was thinking about where I should begin the story. "Well, it wasn't some kind of a great meeting or anything. I was in the market to fetch some stuff with Rein. And then we kind of got separated with each other—well, it's actually just Rein didn't come on time at the promised place"—I glared at Rein at this point but he just played dumb by whistling around innocently—"so I looked around to find him; and that was when I mistaken Na…Davis-sama with Rein, and there we met. He was with Yasuhara-san—the guy with brownish hair and glasses if you don't know—and they were just taking a walk around the market. Yasuhara-san offered me a help to look for Rein but I politely declined, and that was about everything there to it. The next thing I know, they came here the next day and you know the rest of the story."

I peered at Bou-san, Rein and Ayako-san, scared that I might have said too much or said something weird in the story. They didn't say anything but they were also waiting worriedly for the reactions of the others. There was a moment of silent before finally Marie raised a question, "So is that mean Mai-nee has only met the Duke's son two days ago?"

"…Yes."

"And you have only talked to him about searching for Rein?" This time, Keita asked with an unbelieving tone.

I started to get nervous. "Mostly… yes…"

"And he came to propose you on the next day?" Jake asked disbelievingly.

I gulped, feared that my answer would bring to the worst. "…Yes?" I answered rather unsure. Then I added in panic. "That is why I said that there is nothing to it! I mean, I don't even understand why he did that! When I realized, all I knew was that he was already proposing me! I mean, he wasn't even explaining himself so I don't really know what to think either! It's not like there is something else!" At that note, my voice was already half-shrieking and all high-pitched that it was nearly obvious that I was hiding something. My mind was panicking and spinning in full speed to find a way out of this blatant lie. But shockingly, instead of another round of heavy silent, an adoring moan came out of the girls.

I looked at them in surprise. "What was that for?"

"You are so lucky, Mai," sighed Jane in an envy manner. "To think that a noble can fall in love with you at first sight! One would never even dream that to actually happen! And to top it off, he came fearlessly to propose you right away! Can you imagine what kind of trouble he would have to get through by doing this? I never thought that the Duke's son would be this romantic. The saying that he's a troublesome brat was just a rumor after all." The other girls were agreeing with her and started giggling at the thought of a newly-found romanticist young nobleman so called Oliver Davis. Somehow the thought of Naru as a romanticist gave a shiver down my spine. No matter how nice Naru could actually be, I would never be able to imagine him as a romanticist. And if he ever did, then maybe a rain of icicle was probably on its way to the town.

The boys snorted at the girls. "No kidding? Seriously? Love at first sight? I mean, how more lame he could be?" Seiji sneered with a mocking smirk on his face.

"Yeah," said Keita. "And to top it off, he came to propose on the next day! I mean, this guy seriously has a problem!" They laughed very hard as the girls eyeing them with ferocious eyes.

"Hey, guys, come on! Don't be so rude to him," Rein cut in suddenly. "Every person has the right to do what they want to do. After all, he's just a romanticist; and a dandy one that is!" The boys' laughter got even louder while Rein threw me a mocking smirk. I just rolled my eyes at him. That idiot just can't let go any chance to mock me, I thought grudgingly. At this point, the girls were already very annoyed with the boys' endless mocking.

"Oh, please! You guys are just being childish. Childish and jealous because you can't be as mature as Davis-sama," said Jane as she flicked her hair rudely to the boys. "What is wrong with love at first sight? And an honest and immediate proposal is an appropriate way to court a lady. Only gentlemen know that, though."

"Oh now you're calling him gentleman after all this time you were saying that he's a noblesse brat? So much for being a lady," Seiji retorted back.

They were starting to glare menacingly to each other. Unable to accept the false imagination of the other girls and not to dare to let the fight get more heated than this, I immediately cut in. "Come on, everyone! Don't fight over something like that. It's not like he's like that. Rather than romanticist, I would say that he's just an egoist spoiled rich brat who likes to do everything in his own pace regardless of what others say. And he doesn't even care if it will trouble others! And didn't you see how he acted when he came here? He was acting like this whole place is his own, and, and his attitude! Can you believe that? He was all arrogant and obnoxious and just downright annoying! What is with him acting like he knows everything and like he's the smartest person alive? I really can't believe his attitude!"

Rein's chuckle surprised me. Without realizing it, I have gone ranting myself out. I looked at the others; everyone was struck silent and looking at me with unreadable expressions on their faces. My face reddened with embarrassment. What on earth have I done! I cursed to myself. I make it seems like Naru is the jerkiest person alive and I really hate him. Not that there is no truth in there, but still… "Uh…," I said again. "Bu-but, despite all that, there are still good points about him… I think… Any other ways, he has helped me today, and he also showed some kind of concern towards us, so I don't think that he's really a bad person, so I think that it won't hurt to accept his proposal… Or something likes that…" My voice was slowly quieted down and I blushed some more. Oh, how I wished I had just shut my mouth!

Before anyone could react to that, again Bou-san clapped his hand loudly and said, "Alright, alright! That is enough story-telling for the night! Everyone, get up and start help cleaning the room before get into bed! Come on! What are you waiting for? Up, up, and on you go!"

Everyone was startled by that and hurriedly scrawled up from their sitting spots to clean up the room and get ready for bed. I sighed in relief and started to help too when Bou-san came to me with a smirking face. I knew it wouldn't be anything good so I pouted and asked, "What?"

Bou-san grinned widely. "Nothing. You gave a good speech tonight." He laughed merrily as I pouted at him.

"Yes, yes, laugh all you want. Whose idea was it anyway to tell them all about it?" I said in annoy.

His laughed ceased a little as he said, "They'll haunt you for live if you didn't tell them tonight. Be grateful, I'm just trying to save your life. Though the way you tell the story was your own done, so don't blame me for it." He laughed again. I just scoffed at him. When his laugh finally quieted down, he raised his big hand to ruffle my hair. "You know, Mai? If I hadn't known better, I would have thought that you've truly fallen for that Davis lad. But then again, I don't remember you have any acting skills." With that note, he winked at me and went to take Jun, the youngest kid, to the boys' bedroom. I watched him leave in disbelief, feeling embarrassed and confused at the same time.

What is he trying to imply? "It's not like I fall for him or anything," I muttered under my breath. But somehow, my heart beat faster at the thought and I could feel my face became very hot. I screamed inwardly. It's nothing like that! It's nothing like that at all! It's just because it feels very awkward to talk about this that I feel totally embarrassed! It has nothing to do with the feeling of love! I tried to convince myself. After I feel satisfied with my own reasoning, I started to make my way to the bedroom.


After that night when I had told my 'roman' story to the other children, they just would never let me get out of it. Anywhere, anytime, whenever they could find the chance to, they would always nag me about it. The girls were crazy about the wedding; the party, the foods, the decorations, the flowers, the guests, the dresses—oh, especially the dresses!—they just wouldn't stop talking and asking me about it. But the girls were still bearable if I had to compare them with what the boys were doing. They kept on teasing me by reenacting scenes of idiotic lovey-dovey couple as if they were Naru and me. The problem was that their acts were truly hilarious that I couldn't help laughing together with them even though I was supposed to be mad at them. And that made me even more irritated by it. Bou-san and Ayako-san seemed to be having fun by all the madness that I had to go through so they didn't really try to do anything about it. And I was expecting the same from Rein, who loved to tease me as much as his love to apple pie, but strangely, I rarely get a glance of him. He just always seemed to disappear somewhere and would only reappear again when it was time to dinner or chores. That made me a bit worried but I rarely had a chance to be by myself, let alone to go looking for him, so I just took note to myself to ask him about it later on.

These euphoria and enthusiasm lasted for around a week before everyone started to calm down and only talked about it every once in a while, either it's giggling or mocking around by themselves. After another couple of days passed again without any single news from Naru or Yasuhara-san, the excited chatters and the happy giggles were slowly decreasing, replaced by a rather worried murmurs and uneasy questions. I tried to act as if nothing was wrong but I also started to feel uneasy with the silence and the stillness of the situation. Everyone was also trying to act naturally and happily around me, even though it was still pretty obvious that they were trying really hard to avoid any conversation related to marriage. Even Ayako-san and Bou-san were acting restless and I often caught them exchanging a worried look when they thought I wasn't looking. Rein was making it worse for me because not only he was disappearing more frequently; he had also absolutely refused to tell me the reason why he did that. Now not only I couldn't talk to him about Naru, I need to worry about him as well. Like my problems were not enough yet.

After a couple more days passed, and I was starting to think whether it'd be a good idea to go to Naru's mansion and see what was really happening to him, a big black fancy carriage was making its way to the orphanage's gate. It was Naru's, of course. I could remember it so clearly as if it was just yesterday I last seen it. With much anxiety rather than enthusiasm, I ran to the front porch and watched as Naru, Yasuhara-san and Koujo-san walked across the front yard. When they reached the porch, I called to him, "Naru?"

With grim expression, he greeted back, "Hello, Mai. Long time no see."

I gulped. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm afraid not," he admitted. "We need to talk. Are Takigawa-san and Matsuzaki-san home?"

"Ah, yes… They are inside. Please, come in," I answered as I gestured them to come in. When they were coming in, Bou-san and Ayako-san had already waiting in the hall. There was a heavy awkward atmosphere in the air as Ayako-san and Naru stared to each other.

"Davis-sama," Ayako-san began. Her voice was heavy with threat. "It's truly been a while. I wonder what kind of business do you might have in here."

Naru, with his usual cold expression, answered with as much pressure in his tone, "Afternoon, Matsuzaki-san. It is been a while, I suppose. With that in note, wouldn't it be best if we just get over the greetings and go straight to the point?"

"Rude as ever, aren't you?" said Ayako-san back with annoy. "I would have thrown you out of this place since the time I had glimpse of your carriage if it was not for Mai's sake. Very well, let us get to the living room." She turned her back to him and started to lead toward to corridor. Bou-san threw me a gesture of wiping of sweat as I grinned back at him, before we all started following her lead. Once we got to the living room, and we were seated across each other like before, Ayako-san started the conversation. "So, what is it that you want to talk with us, Davis-sama?"

"Regarding to the engagement of Mai and I," Naru began. "Due to the absence of my father, I had to gather the town council and other royal officials to make it legal. And of course I had to invite Duke Hara as well in the meeting. It was supposed to be an open discussion between Duke Hara and me to make a settlement of the previous engagement plan, but it seems that none of the officials were happy with it, and so they were very opposed to it. Not that I didn't expect that."

"So you should have another way to persuade them, don't you?" Bou-san asked.

"Yes, I did. But Duke Hara is more difficult to be asked in cooperation than I had thought it would," answered Naru in an irritated voice. "Most probably that girl had talked to him earlier than I did." Now that Naru had mentioned her, I remembered about the incident with Hara-sama and just how fragile and hurt she had looked like when she knew about Naru's proposal. In that meeting with the council, Naru must had told Duke Hara about his proposal to me, despite of his own knowledge of what his daughter's true feeling was. I could understand why he was really hard to cooperate with.

"You see, we had thought that, as long as we still establish all the cooperation agreement with Duke Hara, along with other privileges that he would have acquired from the engagement, he would agree to cooperate and cancel it. And once Duke Hara had agreed on this, then the council would have nothing to object about. Especially because in truth, Duke Hara is a very compassionate person, we had thought that we would not face any difficulties for this," Yasuhara-san started explaining. "But in contrary, this compassionate personality of his has become the reason why he refused to cooperate. He said that he cannot just cut off the engagement while Hara-sama is still bearing a great feeling toward Davis-sama. We spent a couple of days just to persuade him to attend the meeting, and a couple lot more days to persuade both Duke Hara and the town council to reach into a conclusion."

"…Which is?" I asked, ignoring my fear to know the answer.

"As the wife of the Duke's son, and also as the future Duchess," said Naru suddenly. "It is in the upmost important for her to have a proper status in the society. It doesn't mean that she has to be a noble-born; she can be a merchant's daughter, a worker's daughter, or even a mere commoner. It doesn't matter. What matters is that she has to be able to comply with her job as a Duchess and become a role model for the people. She has to be able to present herself as a true noble, and bears all the responsibility as one so that she can gain trust from the royalties, the town council and the civilians."

I blinked at him. "I… don't think I'm following…"

Naru peered at me with an unreadable expression, and then he sighed. "My point here is that, after a long discussion with the council, they agreed to give you a chance to prove yourself as an… 'appropriate' candidate to be the future Duchess, before they can agree to our engagement. They want you to be able to act as a proper noble, and have all the knowledge needed to be a Duchess. If they approve of your competency then they will not oppose the plan any longer. They gave you three weeks to become a fully proper Duchess candidate."

"Eeeeeeeeh? Be a Duchess candidate? In three weeks?" I stood up in shock and slapped the table so hard that everyone was startled—well, count out Naru and Koujo-san though.

"I haven't finished speaking," Naru said as he glared at me icily. I gulped from his glare and sat down quietly. "I figured that it would be impossible for you to achieve that on your own"—I pouted at that—"so I have offered my assistance in educating you as a Duchess candidate, and to provide all of the necessary need for your education." He paused and looked at me in the eyes. "With that being said, it has been decided that you are going to live in my mansion for the next three weeks."

"WHAT?" This time, Ayako-san shouted along with me.

"That was fast," commented Bou-san in a somewhat amused manner.

"I can't believe this!" protested Ayako-san. "Are you saying that she'll live with you in your mansion even though you haven't even engaged with her? This is ridiculous! I won't allow that to happen!"

"I have to agree with Ayako," Bou-san said. Ayako-san glared at him in disapproval for calling her very casually but he didn't paid attention to her. "You can't just casually make a girl live in your mansion by herself while she isn't your relative nor your fiancée or even your maid. There might be bad rumors arise from that. Why can't Mai just study here?"

"Yes, Naru. Why can't I take the lesson here? I mean, moving into your mansion just like that… Did the council even approve to that?" I asked in disbelief.

"They didn't agree of course," Naru answered calmly, not bothering earlier shouts of protest. "But I convinced them to. Even Duke Hara agreed to it. I won't let them have their way on me twice." He moved his stare to Ayako-san and Bou-san. "While regarding to Mai's moving to my place, I think that it would be the best and fastest way for her to learn how to live as a noble, and thus learn to become a proper Duchess candidate faster. After all, if she is in my place, she can be more focus on her objective rather than if she did it here."

Bou-san shook his head doubtfully. "But… I still think that this is a bit too outrageous. What would happen if the public knew? It might turn out bad."

Naru raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't matter. After all, sooner or later they have to know about Mai."

"That's… true… but I still can't risk it…," whispered Ayako-san. Worries were in her eyes. "What about I go with her instead? Maybe with that we can avoid any bad rumor."

"Well, I don't really mind, but what will you do with this orphanage?" Naru asked coldly. "Are you just going to abandon it?"

Ayako-san was dumbstruck. "N-no… But…"

"No, Ayako-san. Naru is right." A sudden realization hit me. Ayako-san looked at me in surprise. Naru also shifted his look on me as I continued, "You can't just leave the orphanage. The children need you. And you too, Bou-san," I said as I tilted my head to look at Bou-san. He gave me a faint smile. "I need to go alone. For the sake of the orphanage. It can't survive without you. But it might also be a little difficult if I have to take the lessons here. I have to go there."

Ayako-san stared at me as she considered my reasoning. She looked at Naru as if she was judging him, then she looked back at me, then she sighed. "Fine. You can go. But I will visit every now and then, okay?"

I looked at Naru with pleading eyes. He threw me a frustration look before saying, "Fine."

I grinned. "Then it won't be a problem, Ayako-san!" She chuckled at that.

"Hey, hey, don't forget to invite me too, Mai!" said Bou-san, grinning widely. "And I bet the other children would be thrilled to come too!"

"Yes, go ahead; turn my mansion into gathering venue. I won't be mind at all," snapped Naru sarcastically. We laughed at that. Even Ayako-san managed to snort a laugh. Who knew the almighty Davis-sama can be pretty childish too? But as we laughed at him, Naru said again, "That if you can even pay for the renting fee."

We halted the laugh.

"Whoooaaa, that hit a nerve," commented Bou-san.

I frowned at Naru. "You're being frustrating, you know that?"

"It can't be helped since I have to deal with the bunch of you," he answered non-carelessly.

"You…!" Ayako-san started, but was interrupted by Yasuhara-san.

"Alright! Alright! Let's stop it right there," he said quickly. He raised his arms in front of his chest to ask Ayako-san to calm down. "We haven't finished the discussion." She glared viciously to Yasuhara-san but she said nothing. Yasuhara-san sighed in relief and fixed his glasses before started speaking. "So, getting back to our original topic, as one of the condition before they can agree to Mai-san and Davis-sama's engagement, Mai-san need to fulfill the criteria as the future Duchess in three weeks. However, it might be a little difficult to only judge her through a single test, therefore the council decided to make use of a supervisor who will judge in a day-to-day basis. This supervisor will be the one who decide whether you have fulfilled the criteria or not after the three weeks."

I nodded as a sign of understanding, but somehow it seemed that Yasuhara-san was becoming hesitated to continue. He fixed his glasses again while glancing at Naru nervously. Weirdly enough, Naru seemed a lot more annoyed than earlier, and he sounded full of grudge when he said, "It was part of the condition that Duke Hara put before agreeing to this conclusion. We argued back and forth about this for days, and I just couldn't put my hand to it. It was this or no deal at all."

The mention of Duke Hara had made me even more nervous than before. I felt a very very bad feeling about this. "What is it about?" I asked. "What is so bad about a supervisor?"

"Oh, there's nothing bad about having a supervisor," said Yasuhara-san again. He smiled at me as if he was very amused of something, but not exactly a good thing. "What bad is about who will be the supervisor."

I gulped. Please don't, please don't, I begged desperately in my mind. My luck cannot be that bad! "…Who is it?"

Yasuhara-san took a deep breath. He peered at Naru who seemed more annoyed than ever, before finally blurting out, "Hara-sama."

Ayako-san and Bou-san gasped in shock. I turned agape. Oh, my dear God, this is going to be the longest three weeks I would ever have in my life. With that prayer in mind, I screamed.


In case anyone wondered, the last scream is some kind of a shock scream, not a scared scream, so please don't be confused. I wanted to make it like a cliff hanger but I'm not sure whether it's a good one. It feels a bit weird for me though... Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! I will be working on my next chapter as soon as I can... which is not a lot of promise, but at least I will still finish it... Don't forget to R&R!