08 Gate
Natsume stared down through the glass wall. He saw a very familiar looking figure, perching up on a side of the barricade. She was alone and that bothered him.
They had bumped into each other outside the school gate a while ago. It's strange because they used to talk a lot back then, no matter where they were; there would always be something to talk about. If there wasn't, they would talk just about anything at all. But now, not only in the class, even when they were alone outside the gate, they hardly converse anything except for some casual 'Hey' and 'Hi'.
But then again, they had not seen each other for quite sometimes too. Natsume frowned. Well, after that happened, that is. His chest suddenly felt tight and his stomach churned. Hell, he could still remember that night so vividly even till today. Everytime the scene played inside his head, his throat would feel constricted as though someone had shoved a stone halfway down his throat and decided to just leave it there. His level of guilt had never reached this high before.
Putting his elbow on the table, he placed his chin in one hand while the fingers from his other hands drummed on the table. He watched.
He glanced at his watch and turning his attention back to her, Natsume narrowed his eyes. She's being there for the past 10 minutes. What the hell she's there for? More importantly, why? He thought she's supposed to be with Horan.
He frowned, remembering the encounter at the gate a while ago.
He was at the gate, waiting to be picked up when suddenly Mikan came, standing next to him ever so casually.
"You're out early," she commented. "Going somewhere?"
Natsume nodded, unconsciously taking a step away from her to distance himself. He stopped in his tracks when he realized what he was doing. He looked at her and relief quickly came over him when she didn't notice how obvious what he was trying to do.
"But you're coming later, right?" she asked again.
He nodded again. He felt strange at himself on why he didn't utter a single word yet. He noticed the extra bag she was carrying, probably Horan's. They had been stuck to each other like glue all day today, he's aware of that. Hell, everyone was fully aware of that too. He thought his throat was dry for some odd reasons so he coughed a little before finally making an effort to speak, "Waiting for Horan?"
She nodded. "We have an errand to run. It's kinda urgent." She shrugged her shoulders before continued, "I would have done it myself but Yuzu insisted on tagging along."
Natsume inwardly grimaced hearing her calling him by his first name. It didn't sit well with him. In their circle, he was the only guy she had been calling by first name all this time. He felt his chest tightened. Now he's not the only one any longer. He mentally shrugged the thought off, reminding himself that he was the one to blame for it anyways; not only he's the one who started all this, he's also the one who's responsible for ending it too.
He looked at her, taking in everything that his eyes could see. He was sitting behind her—diagonally that is—so all he could look today was the back of her head all throughout class today. He tried to fight the longing crawling inside him.
Natsume rubbed the back of his neck. "Hey, about that night," he started just as Mikan's lips suddenly pressed to a thin line. Natsume halted his words when he caught a sight of her somber expression. He realized it was a delicate topic. But they had to talk about it. At least, he had to.
Just then, a very expensive foreign car came cruising by and stopped in front of them. The whole window was tinted extremely dark and the car was shining bright. The whole thing was screaming lavish money to Mikan. The backseat window slid down and a puff of strawberry blonde hair popped out. The girl beamed, "Sorry, I'm late. Did you wait long?" Her eyes shifted to the person next to him. "Your friend, Natsume?" She stared at her.
"A classmate," Natsume answered in a curt tone before brusquely strode to the door on the other side of the car and slid in in the backseat next to the girl. He rather not prolonged the conversation for fear that he would be further interrogated right at the open space of a public property.
Mikan smiled to smooth over the moment of awkwardness that Natsume had caused. "Mikan Sakura. We're in the same circle of friends," she added with a small smile. Well, since Natsume did not wish to mention anything about their past dating, Mikan decided she should not bring it up. Plus, she could probably guess why he did what he did.
This was that girl after all.
The blonde looked surprised seeing Mikan's reached-out-hand in a formal manner. She didn't expect the introduction would occur on the spot. Scratch that, she didn't expect she would offer a handshake instead of just informally introducing herself like what people their age usually did. Nonetheless, she nodded her head in understanding before clasping Mikan's hand for a brief handshake. "Luna Koizumi," she introduced herself as she retracted her hand.
Her gaze lingered on her a second longer when a thought registered her mind. She blinked in recognition. "Ah, you're Narumi Anjou's little sister."
The corner of her lips curled up slightly despite her eyes looking dour. Natsume wondered if that was a sign of displease that he's seeing.
"Sorry, I guess you don't like being labelled like that," she said apologetically, surprising Natsume in the process. Natsume silently narrowed his eyes at Luna.
"I know I don't." She shrugged.
A thought of realization passed Mikan's face but she didn't say anything. She knew what Luna meant but she did not wish to further the current topic. She didn't like it. At all.
"Anyways, a friend of Natsume is also a friend of mine," she grinned. "You're going somewhere? Natsume and I are heading to the town, let us drop you off."
Mikan shook his head. "Thank you for the offer but I'm still waiting for someone."
Luna waved her hand dismissively. "No matter, we can wait. We're not exactly in a rush." She turned to look at Natsume next to her. "Right Natsume?"
Natsume shrugged in response.
Just then a hand came wrapping itself around Mikan's neck, startled Mikan in the process, and a voice interrupted them. "Is this another one of your rugged pickups?" His rakish grin appeared as he looked down at her.
Mikan rolled her eyes at him; feeling glad more than ever to finally see him. "Took you long enough." She passed him his bag which he reluctantly took. She saw the ice cream on his other hand and inwardly wanting to slap him on the head. Yuzuru and his unbearable addiction to sugar.
"Damn." He eyed the ludicrously expensive looking car before looking back at Mikan. "Aren't you setting the bar too high now? You know I can't afford stuff like this," he muttered with a bemused smile. He peered down at the window.
"You're not hitting on her, are you?" he teased.
Decided to play along, Luna grinned. "Sorry, I didn't know she was taken."
His grin slowly grew wider. "She's not but she's off limits still," Yuzu chuckled, glimpsing at Natsume beside her.
Yuzu guffawed when he felt Mikan elbowed him at his ribs. He didn't say anything though. It hardly hurt anyways.
"Thanks for the offer, Koizumi-san but we'll be taking our leave now." She gave her a nod before sauntered off to the other side of the street, all the while pulling the string of Yuzu's bag behind her. The man docilely followed her, not after muttering his goodbye to both the occupants in the backseat of the car.
From the backseat, Natsume's gaze silently following the two, watching them walking together so closely, with Horan's arm still on her shoulder. He felt his eyes twitched irritatingly at the sight and he didn't like it.
Luna closed the window. Signaling the driver to start moving, she leaned her back against the leather seat. As their car passed the two of them by the street, Luna chuckled when she saw Yuzu tried to shove his half-eaten ice cream in Mikan's mouth.
"I didn't know you're friends with a celebrity's little sister. That's very unusual of you," she commented. Natsume hated anything that put him under the spotlight even more than he already was.
"She's Imai's best friend," he answered nonchalantly. It made more sense if he said it like that. Being Imai's best friend naturally meant Natsume would be friends with her too since Imai is both his cousin and Ruka's girl. Their fate already intertwined like that even before they jumped into the relationship. But if anything, he rather not they talked about this further.
"Hmmm," she pondered, "Somehow rather, she's sort of a celebrity now too, no?." She glanced outside the window at the people that they passed by. "She's pretty cute too. The internet loves her."
She turned around and looked at him, beaming. "So what's her like?" She's been seeing her in the internet lately so she wondered how she's like in real life.
Natsume had his gaze outside the window. His thoughts trailed to something else, particularly on a certain brunette who had her hair dyed and extremely close to a guy who she brought back from Brazil. He mentally sighed. "The usual."
His short answer made Luna quirked her brows at him. "Like what?"
Natsume turned and gave her a half smile. "She's just like everybody else. That's all."
God knows she's not.
TBC.
