Chapter 9
Rima walked down the stairway as usual, munching her delicious strawberry flavoured pocky stick when she noticed a strange figure lurking in the shadows behind the staircase. Intrigued by the unusual fixture, she took a step closer, anticipation building up in her and then rolled her eyes heavenward when she saw who it was.
Aidou.
She lifted one perfectly manicured eyebrow up at him, interest twinkling in her eyes as she took a pocky stick and offered it to him.
"You want one Aidou?"
She mischievously waved the pocky stick in front of his nose, taunting him before putting it into her mouth and enjoying the treat before his bare eyes. A low guttural
growl erupted from the figure still in the shadows.
"Rimaaaa…"
He hissed unhappily, making sure his word was dripping with intense hatred and desire to rip her throat out. Rima shrugged her shoulders and leaned close to him.
"What you gonna do about it huh?" Seriousness had ebbed into her voice as she edged closer to whisper into Aidou's ear.
"Your secret's out and you have to deal with the punishment."
Then, as if nothing had ever happened, she happily skipped out of the dark corner of the staircase and waved to Aidou.
"See ya later, loser."
A smirk emerged from her pixie like features as she bit down hard on her remaining pocky stick.
"Grrrrr…"
Aidou fumed madly. He wanted to rip her throat out so badly, but he couldn't, because he was punished by Kaname.
"Rima you twerp you let the cat out of the bag…Just when I was about to clear my mess…"
Day #2 as Yuki
"Misaki, it's no time to laze around yet. We still have one more lesson to go. We still have our horse-riding lesson. Remember?"
Yori eyed her companion who had already flung herself onto her bed when they got back to their dorm.
"Yuki…"
She sighed and went over to shake the sleepyhead some more.
"Get…Up…Yuki…"
Misaki felt as if her brain was in a blender, swishing violently about in her skull. No matter how hard she tried, this weariness never seemed to leave her out of its grasp. It continued to envelop her and drown her in this dark pool of fatigue. Ugh, I'm so tired…I need a break from all of this… Misaki gathered her remaining strength and channeled it into changing her horse-riding clothing.
"All right, let's go!" Yori shot an encouraging smile at her friend and pulled her out of the bed and into the lush green fields of Cross Academy.
"Whoa…"
Misaki could barely say a word when she saw the greenery that surrounded her. Tall trees with humongous leaves of all shapes and sizes sheltered them from the afternoon heat. However, it was not for long, as they had to go into the horse enclosure and master the tricks of horse riding. Misaki looked on at the majestic horses with awe. There were five horses in total, grazing in the enclosed area. One horse in particular appealed to her the most. It was brown with little light coloured brown specks spotting its entire body. Never in her life had she even imagined that one day she would be privileged enough to learn how to ride a horse. Mom will be so proud of me when I return home…I bet Suzannah will be eager to hear how riding a horse actually feels…
She looked at the leather gloves she was equipped with and sighed. If only Seika High was rich enough to provide its students such opportunities…The curriculum here is more relaxed and less hectic as compared to our school. A gentle breeze caressed her face and playfully tousled her brown strands of hair that hung loosely around her face. Her fringe was already going in all sorts of directions and almost poked her in the eye.
At the edge of her vision, a familiar blonde stepped forward towards the horse that he had selected. Usui… As much as she wanted to, she couldn't hang around him because she wasn't herself anymore. Things would turn fishy if she started to follow him around too. Both she and Yori were quite a distance away from Usui. Misaki saw Usui's lips move, but she was too far away to hear what he was saying.
"Oh my goodness…Yuki, look. He's going to ride the wild horse. The one that only Zero can control…" Yori pointed at Usui shakily. "Is he crazy?"
Misaki looked on from afar. Usui was stepping closer to the increasingly uncomfortable mare. It was already displaying signs of unease and discomfort by thrashing its head wilding about and rapidly stamping its legs against the ground, leaving indentations on the grass. In spite of that, Usui continued to approach the animal cautiously and confidently. His expression never betrayed any signs of uncertainly or anxiety. He was all for it.
Misaki's breath caught when he was just inches away from the panicking horse. The horse trainer was still keeping an eye on both the human and animal, ready to spring in between them if any unpleasant event was to occur.
What was Usui doing now? Misaki squinted her eyes against the sunlight that was shining directly at her face. Usui's mouth was moving as he continued to close the gap between him and the horse. The classmates around her let out a collective gasp. Everyone was also kept on edge while watching Usui. He's talking to the horse? When did Usui know how to do such things? I guess there is still so much about him that I don't know…
"Oh my goodness, he got onto the horse!" Yori exclaimed in surprise as she frantically jabbed her finger in Usui's direction. Usui sat on the horse saddle casually, but his eyes were still focused on controlling the horse. The horse trainer gave him an all clear signal and retreated to a safe distance so that Usui could ride the horse.
"That exchange student is so awesome!" The female classmates around Misaki chimed and looked on with admiration.
"That's why foreign students have that charm that our own students don't possess you know," another voice chirped excitedly.
"Doesn't he look like Prince Charming?"
Prince Charming? Pftt don't make me puke. Misaki thought to herself. Since when did the outer-spaced alien transform into a Prince Charming? She looked on as Usui made the horse do simple stunts on the obstacle course that had been set up for their lesson today. It never struck to her how Usui actually fit this kind of scenario. His blonde spiky hair was being ruffled by the wind, his emerald eyes focused on the obstacle ahead of him and giving commands to the horse he rode. He possessed some kind of elegance that Misaki couldn't even comprehend. It was as if she was looking at a different person. What kind of person is Usui exactly?
"Yuki…I hate to break you out of your daydream but you're up next already," Yori nudged Misaki and she motioned to the beast that was waiting for her.
Right. There were five horses…
Misaki rolled up her sleeves in preparation for the face-off between her and the horse.
She approached it head on, ready for a battle but someone behind her was stopping her from reaching the horse.
"Yuki…you're going to scare the animal if you do it like that…Approach it gently…"
Yori reminded her before stepping back into the crowd.
"Right."
Her evil Seika High Aura that she exuded before had obviously freaked the living daylights of the horse. It whined and thrashed about wildly.
"Whoa Yuki, this horse is usually tame and has a good personality. What you did there really spooked it," the horse trainer remarked jokingly before directing her to get on the saddle.
Having relatively shorter limbs made the climb up the horse's back difficult and it took a long while before she managed to get on the animal's back. Panting madly, Misaki took hold of the reins and inhaled deeply.
Then what am I supposed to do now? Panic rose within her, slowly constricting her like a snake. She wasn't taught how to ride a horse. Her hands began to quiver slightly and she felt nervous. Oh no…I really am clueless about this sort of things…
"Yuki."
The familiar voice untangled her twisted stomach. She looked into the crowd to see who it was who had called her. No way. Is this a dream? Am I awake yet?
The silver haired boy separately himself from the crowd and began to demonstrate her the basics of controlling the animal. Monkey see monkey do right? I guess I can handle that. Not before long, she was able to give instructions to the horse and direct it to where she wanted to go. The tension that had build up within her collapsed and she could breathe more easily now. When her time was up, she happily trotted back to rejoin Yori.
"Good job Yuki!"
Misaki smiled. "Thanks Yori, but I wouldn't have done it without the help of Zero. Speaking of Zero, where is he?"
Misaki turned around to try to spot him but he wasn't there anymore.
"Well he usually skips this class because he's sort of good at all of this already but somehow today he decided to pop by and help out…"
Misaki's face fell.
"Oh…is that so…"
Hm. Now she had to figure out not one but two guys.
Day #2 as Misaki
Her classmates around her were erupting in cheers as they saw how Usui singlehandedly tamed the wild horse that only Zero was capable of. Now Zero's having some competition around here… Yuki thought to herself. But Usui is really good. From the looks of it, he has been doing this for a long while now… Usui was still a mystery to her. He looked like he belonged to some rich aristocrat family and yet at the same time, he didn't. It didn't make sense to Yuki at all. It was obviously clear that Usui was brought up well. Maybe it was because he was good at concealing this. Yuki nodded to herself. Yes, he's hiding his roots for some reason.
However, the most surprising part of her lesson was when she realized that Zero decided to make a rare appearance to coach Misaki. For some weird reason, her heart felt like it had been ripped out of her chest and thrown down a cliff. It still hurt now.
Am I jealous? Jealous of the attention that Zero gave to Misaki? No that's impossible. I can understand his intentions. Misaki doesn't know any knowledge about horse riding and it would be fishy if the trainer realized that she was acting weird as me.
Luckily for her, since she was a new student and the lesson was already ending when her turn came, she was excused from the activity. Thank goodness… Yuki heaved a sigh of relief. She made a mental note to thank Misaki when they got their bodies back.
It was only the second day as Misaki and she was already missing her own life. Her thoughts floated to how Yori was still unaware of the entire situation and how long it would take for Yori to find out that the real Yuki wasn't with her.
In the distance, the clock tower chimed.
Once, twice and then thrice.
Yuki sat up in her bed fully awake now. Her heartbeat escalated as she wondered whether Misaki was already at the parade square. Without a second thought, she dashed out of her room to find Misaki.
Yuki's dorm
Misaki was already passed out on the bed the time Yuki sprinted into the room.
"Misaki, wake up, you have night duty!" Yuki anxiously tugged at Misaki's shoulder and pulled her up with her strength.
"What…? What's going on…?" Misaki muttered as she pried her eyes open. She looked at the window on her left. The sky was already dark and the moon hung lazily among the sea of stars.
"Night duty!" Yuki repeated herself frantically and fumbled in her drawer to retrieve her armband. She hastily attached it to Misaki's uniform and dragged her out of bed.
"Go go go go!"
