Fake Romance
By: money127
Congratulations on reaching the 11th chapter of Fake Romance! Enjoy!
Previous:
"Ring ring ring…" my phone rang at 10am the next morning, when I was still enjoying my sleep. Although it was Friday, I and Sakura got excused from school. I didn't know why, but I had the feeling that Grandmother had something to do with that. She always butts in…
"Helloooooooow?" I asked as I yawned. "Who's that?"
"Natsume," I heard my Grandmother's voice in the phone. "Are you and Mikan ready to pick up Ruka and Imai-san yet?"
"Of course we're ready, grandmother." I said calmly, even though I was panicking like the house was on fire. But then again, if I told Grandmother the truth, maybe the house would be on fire, or even worse… on a volcano. "Grandmother, Mikan and I need to hurry, so I'll hang up now. Good bye, Grandmother!" I said and hung up.
I ran out of my room and started banging on Sakura's door.
"HEY! WAKE UP! WAKE UP, Sakura, wake up!..." I continued banging on the door, until Sakura finally decided to open.
"I thought you said that we had a day off…" Sakura said, as she rubbed her eyes.
"No time for explanations. Brush your teeth and get ready to go to the airport." Sakura blinked a few times and then slowly made her way to the bathroom. I need to hurry her up A LITTLE BIT: "We don't have time for this! Hurry up and move your sexy legs faster!" I yelled and she immediately ran off. I guess that worked well… I am good!
I went to my room and started to prepare myself too.
After 20 minutes of tooth brushing, hair combing, clothes picking and shoe tying, Sakura and I were finally sitting in my car, driving on the road, ready to pick up Ruka and his girlfriend, Hotaru Imai.
"Now can you please explain to me why I'm not in bed sleeping right now?" Mikan sure was angry…
"Long story short, my best friend and his girlfriend are to arrive to Japan. I forgot all about that… Sorry, by the way. And that's why you thought that today was a day off, but it's not. Today, you and I are supposed to pick them up at 11am and that's why Grandmother gave us a day off to pick them up and spend the day with them. Originally, you're my fake girlfriend, because Grandmother wants to show you off to my best friend… So you better put on your best face got him… Ruka likes girls that are optimistic and goo…"
"Wait!" Sakura interrupted. "What's the name of your friend again?" she asked. Her voice seemed more serious than usual.
"Didn't you listen to grandmother back in the main house? Well… you sure are deaf… Never mind, his name is Ruka Nogi. You know, the Nogi World the one that has surpassed Disney World and Disney La…" I said.
"I KNOW WHO HE IS!" Sakura interrupted me.
…
Silence
…
After a few minutes I heard Sakura inhale deeply.
"I don't feel so well. Can you drive me home?" Sakura said.
It was a little suspicious though. She was very fine just a few minutes ago. And she was shouting a few minutes ago as well…
But then again, she's a girl, right? Who knows how their body works?
"Sorry, but we're late already. I can't waste my time on driving you home." I answered truthfully.
"You can leave me here and I'll take a cab." She replied in an instant.
"Look, what's going on?" I asked her. There was something very suspicious about how she was acting.
"Nothing! I just don't feel well and I want to go home. Just stop and I'll get myself a cab."
There was no point in arguing with her anyway, so I stopped the car and let her out. She slammed the door and I drove away. I was too late to question what was up with her.
Ruka Nogi was what girls called a perfect prince and what guys called a cool guy to hang with. I personally thought of him as a little bit too feminie looking dude that had blond hair (his mother is French) and long eyelashes. Ruka was around my height, and we hung out with each other a lot back when he lived in Japan a few years ago. Then he moved to France and now, after what seemd like forever, Ruka was back in Japan with his new girlfriend, Hotaru Imai.
Hotaru Imai was pretty famous in our community of rich people. Being the successor of Imai Corp. and also making money on her own, she was know to be an ice queen/money machine. Grandmother gave me a small profile of her back when she was desperately trying to convince me to find a richer girlfriend than Luna. She was apparently a brunette with a height of 173 cm. Just like most of rich girls from our community, she was a B cupped, long and slim legged, narrow wasted and pretty faced girl. She was acceptable in my opinion. Or at least until I met her in person…
"Yo! Ruka!" I yelled in the direction of Ruka and Imai girl. Ruka waved back at me, and after a minute we were standing next to each other, smiling widely.
"Been a while, huh, Natsume?" Ruka said, "Natsume, this is Hotaru. I think you know who she is…" He gestured to the brunette next to him. "Hotaru, this is Natsume, my best friend." He gestured to me.
"I'm very glad to meet you." She said in an icy voice. I didn't feel this cold since I went to Russia. Good times, good times…
"Pleasure to meet you too…" As a very awesome gentleman, I replied…
"So,…" Ruka said while he looked around. "…where is your fiancée?"
"What fiancée?" I asked. I am not intending to marry yet!
" Don't play dumb, Natsume. Everyone knows that you finally found a girl that suits your grandmother's taste. So, where is she?" Ruka asked again.
"Oh, Mikan?" I asked. "She's sick, so she asked to go home."
"Mikan?" Ruka asked. He sounded kinda weird for a guy that was just smiling. Even that girl… Hotaru's face change from ice to something very mysterious.
"Yes, Mikan, Mikan Sakura. You know Sakura real estate's right? Well, she's the daughter of the CEO… You know her?"
"No, not at all. Mikan is a nice name." Ruka said.
"You told me that you didn't like that name." Ruka's girlfriend smirked.
"Well, I like it now, considering that she's now Natsume's girlfriend…"
"And future fiancée." Hotaru's smirk widened. Ruka immediately looked over at Hotaru.
"ALRIIIIIIIIGHT…" I said, "Let's get you two in my car and we'll go on a small tour around the city." I exclaimed.
Ruka and Hotaru came back to normal (I think) and we had a lot of fun… Well, except for the times the name Mikan was mentioned by Hotaru-san, which was almost every ten minutes. Fun, fun, fun… totally NOT!
At around 8pm, I arrived back to my commoner home. Sakura was nowhere in sight, so I prepared some left overs for a late dinner. It's not like I didn't go to a restaurant with Ruka and Hotaru-san… But she kept on mentioning Sakura this and Sakura that, and my poor friend Ruka kept on trying to change the topic (and annoyingly, I have no idea why). And Hotaru-san kept on mentioning Sakura… I, as the third person in their conversion, was trying to make the dinner pleasant for all of us, and thus didn't have time to eat. And my God, I ordered lobsters! Such a waste of good lobsters...
After dinner I started to plan what to do with Ruka and Hotaru-san over the weekend. As his best friend and a Hyuga heir, it was my job to brag all about my life here and my girlfriend to Ruka. I needed to find a place that reflects my life the best and makes Sakura stand out the most…
As I was starting to get some ideas, my phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Natsume?"
"Hey, Ruka. You called just in time. Listen, where do you want to go tomorrow? It'll be Saturday tomorrow and I'm totally free. So is Mikan, by the way." I said, even though I already planned out where to go myself…
"Listen, Hotaru and I are very tired and I think we should rest for the weekend. I'll just meet you at school, OK?" Ruka said in an awkward voice.
"Uhm… Ok… Sure… Fine, you go take a rest. Take care, man…" I said and hung up.
Well, that was a waste of my precious time….
I waited for Monday impatiently… And that's what I did for the rest of the week. Cool, right? NOT!
"Hey, woman, HURRY UP! We will be late for school, if you don't go down here this instant and cook something to eat!" I yelled at Sakura on Monday morning.
"Coming!" she yelled as she ran downstairs with her bag.
"Cook, cook, cook!" I yelled.
"I will, I will, I will! See how annoying that is?" Sakura said, as she started cooking something that I knew would taste good.
"I'll let you off this time, but PLEASE remember to behave yourself in front of Ruka!"
"We're going to school, you idiot!" She said and looked back at me.
"Ruka and Hotaru-san transferred to our school… idiot…"
CLANG! I heard a pan drop and looked at Sakura to see her on the floor with the pan right next to her.
"Are ya OK?" I asked and ran to her.
"Yeah… I guess… I'm just a little too tired… I think I'll have to stay home today…." She said as she stood up.
"Are you OK? Do you want me to call my family's doctor?"
"I'll call my own doctor…" She said.
"Are you sure? Should I call that doctor for you?" I asked her and tried to touch her forehead.
"I CAN DO IT MYSELF!" She yelled at me and slapped my hand away. She looked mad for a little while, her eyes were burning… But then she calmed down, "Can you please clean this up for me?" she said and went out of the kitchen.
"Sure thing…" I said and started cleaning up.
Sakura can sure put her work in my hands… But that's not important... She was not just acting rudely, she was also acting weirdly. Something was definitely going on, and there were some people who I was sure knew what that was. And I am going to find out!
"Hey, man!" Ruka said when I arrived to class.
"Hey." I said to him. Hotaru-san was standing next to him at the door. She didn't greet me, I didn't bother, too.
"So, where's the famous fiancée of yours?" Hotaru-san asked. Ruka seemed to get tenser.
There was something going on…
"She's sick today, so she wanted to take a rest at home…"
"Is that so?" Ruka said. He seemed much more relaxed than before.
Things were getting more and more suspicious…
Ring, ring, ring… Ruka's phone rang. He pulled his phone out and went out of class to answer the phone.
"Hey," I called out for Hotaru-san, "Do you, by any chance, know Sakura Mikan?" I had to be careful with what I say. I didn't know what was going on after all.
"No, why?" Hotaru-san smirked. She looked like she was playing some kind of mind game or something.
"Oh, nothing…" I said and gave up on getting information from Hotaru-san. She probably had no idea what was going on herself...
"If you're curious about the relationship between Ruka and your girlfriend, why don't you pay me around $1,000,000 and we'll talk in private?" Hotaru-san offered. Her eyes were filled with dollar signs.
For a while, I considered the amount of money. $1,000,000 wasn't that much, but I didn't want to waste it if there was no important relationship between Sakura and Ruka. I could use them to buy the lobsters…
"No, thanks…" I said as Ruka came back into the classroom. Playing safe and eating lobsters was much better!
"How did you get my number?" I heard Sakura's voice in the kitchen when I came back home that afternoon.
I went closer to the kitchen and hid myself behind the wall. Do I have to always overhear stuff?
"Where?" She said.
"At the Hyuga Plaza? Do you even know where that is?" She asked.
Everyone in town knows where my family's plaza was. Unless… the person just arrived in town… Ruka…
"At the Coffee Talk?" Coffee Talk was a café in the Plaza, very good and very expensive for commoners. Only rich people drank there. Ruka definitely fell into that category…
"I'll meet you there in… 10 minutes. Bye." She said and hung up. I ran upstairs to my room immediately.
After a few moments, Sakura went upstairs and by the time I went out of my room, Sakura was dressed and out of her room.
"Hey Sakura!" I greeted, like nothing happened. "Where are you going?" I asked. I knew the answer, I think, but I just had to make sure.
"None of your business…" She said on her way down stairs.
I stared at her for a while. She was wearing a nice yellow dress that was a little too long in my opinion (considering that it was covering her knees). Sakura probably picked up my stares as she sighed.
"We're out of milk…" She said and put on her shoes, "Bye." The door slammed behind her and I heard her car drive away.
I went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. There were two boxes of milk still there. She should have thought of a better lie… I went upstairs again and drove off to Hyuga Plaza 2 minutes later.
As I parked my car, I spotted Sakura's car too. The girl was just too obvious! And she thought she was smart…
The Coffee Talk was on the 7th floor of the plaza. It was a nice place, only separated from the rest of the shops by trees which made it very easy for me to spy on Sakura and whoever she was meeting with (probably Ruka).
I looked for a yellow dress that Sakura was wearing in the café. The yellow dress, which was very recognizable by the way, was found next to a blond guy, who, I knew, was Ruka. I went to around the shop and found the closest tree to their table. I hid behind that tree and listened carefully to whatever I could hear coming from their direction.
"I don't think that Natsume should know about our relationship…" I could hear Ruka clearly.
A relationship he said? I felt my shoulders get heavier. Could it be that Ruka was secretly dating Sakura?
"Which one?" Sakura asked. So there was more than 1 thing going on between them. My shoulders got heavier and heavier by each second.
"Both, I guess." Ruka said.
"Why?" Sakura asked. The girl was asking too many questions. How old is she? 5?
"Well, I don't know… I just think it may be a little awkward, you know…" Ruka put his hand on his neck.
"I guess…" Sakura said.
"How about a welcome hug?" Ruka said and stood up. Sakura hesitated. "Come on,…" Ruka said, "… stand up." And showed his 'oh so charming smile'. Sakura stood up and hugged Ruka.
"Welcome back, Ruka-pyon." The weight on my shoulders was too much to bare already.
"Don't call me that anymore…" Ruka said as they pulled away.
"Don't worry. I won't call you that in front of Natsume-kun."
"Now how about some coffee?" Ruka said as they both sat back down. He raised his hand and called for the waiter. I stood up from my hiding spot and went away. I've had enough for this afternoon. My legs were starting to hurt, because I was sitting for too long and my shoulders were hurting for a reason I have yet to discover…
At 8pm, after I finished washing the dishes, Sakura finally came home. Took her very long to buy milk, huh?
I heard her going upstairs. My shoulders were hurting again, and just out boredom, I decided to find out the relationship between Ruka and Sakura. Just out of boredom… Yeah…
"I never knew you were close to Ruka." I said loudly.
"What are you talking about?" she asked from upstairs.
"Don't play dumb with me! So what did your fiancée say about you going out with me? Was he jealo…"
"HE ISN'T MY FIANCEE!" Sakura yelled at me. The girl was overreacting.
"Oh really? Then what's up with Ruka-pyon?" I asked.
Sakura sounded surprised. I think I hit a jackpot. Yey me!
"He is my ex-customer..." She said. The weight on my shoulders disappeared. Ruka was just one of her fake boyfriends… "… and my ex-boyfriend."
…
The weight on my shoulders came back…