It Breaks My Heart

-cupcakes

Chapter 10

"Hotaru?"

There, I saw Hotaru Imai standing in front of me – with her dark purple eyes and her almost raven colored hair. She's still the same after 4 years, no wait – her eyes… it's as if the world has turned upside down! Her once emotionless eyes were now glowing with happiness.

I have always thought that I will be able to forget her because of the way she treated me before; all those name callings, ignoring, especially the physical violence! All my memories (with the ground or the ceiling) started flashing back.

(Yes I still loathe that baka gun, I will find a way to have those bastards banned, which I hope I could do.)

But then when I saw her, I realized that my hatred for her was like a sand castle, so difficult to build but with just one wave of water (or one kick from a brat on the beach!), it's gone, and you will have to do it all over again and I don't think I will waste my time to build another sand castle of hatred, I don't want to go through a painful process again.

I heard Mr. Narumi chuckle lightly, "Mikan's having her moment again!" I snapped back into reality.

"Oh was I thinking for so long already?"

Hotaru started walking towards me, "Yes Mikan. I've been standing there for a couple of minutes now. You were never really the type to think for more than a minute, so I thought something's wrong with you. But I guess you simply matured. Welcome home, dummy."

I ran and hugged Hotaru, "I missed you so much Hotaru! I'm sorry for leaving you guys! I know it was-"

"I should be the one apologizing Mikan. I'm sorry for taking our friendship for granted. If it wasn't for me, you probably wouldn't have left."

I broke the hug and faced her, "Don't blame yourself. I just over reacted that time. I'm sorry for making you worry."

She smiled at me and wiped the tears I failed to stop, "This is going to be a long talk. We have a lot of catching up to do, Mikan."

Mr. Narumi nodded his head, "Right. So why don't we all sit down? Oh by the way Hotaru, where's Ruka?"

I was puzzled, why is Mr. Narumi asking Hotaru for Ruka? Does this mean…

Both of them seemed to have heard my thoughts, Hotaru coughed, "Well, just like I said, we have a lot of catching up to do."

I giggled, "Alright then!"

After our 'a lot of catching up', Hotaru invited me over to her house for a simple dinner.

Yeah right! You call this simple? Everyone I know from the Alice Academy is here! I cannot believe that Hotaru doesn't know the difference between simple and grand.

To think that I have always thought of her as a genius.

"Hey Mikan, this party is for you! You could at least smile a little you know." the person sitting beside me, Nonoko, said while playing with her long blue hair.

I was about to open speak when Chef Anna cut in, "Nonoko, you are so silly! How can Mikan smile when you-know-who is not here?" both of them grinned at me but instead of glaring at them (which I have been accustomed to do to people who piss me off since I went to America), I laughed.

"I am so over that jerk!" I remarked.

Nobody replied, both Anna and Nonoko stared at me suspiciously, for some reason, I feel like they are able to see through me and they know I'm lying. Wait a minute… I'm lying about being over him?

I stood up from my seat and tossed my hair backward. "I'll just go and get some fresh air outside."

Without waiting for any response, I walked to the direction of the garden.

(Normal POV)

Mikan was speechless.

Hotaru's garden was breath taking! The landscape was wonderfully done, there were fruit trees and a huge variety of flowers everywhere and there stood a huge silver fountain in the middle of it all. The sun was at its highest and its rays shone through the clear water of the fountain.

She went under a tree for shading and rested her back on it. Mikan was glad that she and Hotaru had reconciled, she really felt as if she is special. She was surprised to know that everybody really planned the party for her, each of them even brought her gifts for her birthday. Is this the missing piece of my heart? If it is, then why do I still feel so…incomplete?

Natsume.

Mikan felt her heart skip a beat. She shook her head and said aloud, "That's not true!"

"What's not true?"

"It's none of your busi- WHO'S THERE?! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Up here." She looked up and saw Natsume. Not waiting for another second, Mikan walked away from the tree. Natsume didn't miss a beat, he jumped from the tree and walked beside Mikan.

"Stop following me!" Mikan glared at him and walked faster.

This made Natsume smirk, "Nice to see you too Mikan." his voice obviously filled with sarcasm.

When Mikan did not reply, he decided to drop his oh-so-cool act. "Look, I'm sorry for walking out and not even saying goodbye to you a while ago, if that's what you're mad about."

Mikan drew her breath in, "You are so full of yourself Hyuuga. If you think I am mad because of that, then you are absolutely wrong. Don't think that I have forgotten what you did!"

"Let me explain, everything was a huge misunderstanding…please, just let me explain!"

"I don't need it, for your information. Now if you please, I would like to go back to the house." She ran towards the door she went out from a while ago and went inside. Mikan bumped into someone, "I'm sorry." She muttered.

"Hey, no prob. This is your day after all, Mikan-chan."

She looked up and her face shone with happiness, "Tsubasa sempai! Misaki sempai!" Mikan hugged both of them and smiled.

"Are you guys married already?" she asked.

Both Tsubasa and Misaki blushed, "Err…no. Not yet." The shadow – manipulating Alice explained.

Misaki showed her ring to Mikan, "We're getting married next month. Isn't it great!?"

The girls squealed, "I'm so happy for the two of you! I've always known that there's something going on between the two of you!" then she hugged Misaki again.

Tsubasa patted Mikan's head, "We'd like you to be the Maid of Honor, if that's okay with you."

Without thinking that she lives in America and that she has a company to run, Mikan answered with enthusiasm, "Hai!!"

"Oh by the way, why were you hurrying inside?" asked Misaki as she put her arm around Mikan's shoulders and lead her to one of the couches, "Were you running away from someone?"

"I'll go and speak to the other guys first. You girls go have some of those girl talks." Said Tsubasa.

Misaki and Mikan nodded while looking at him, and the moment he turned his back, Misaki turned back to Mikan, "So?"

Mikan stiffened, "I… I saw Natsume."

Misaki's eyes widened, "He's here? But I thought he refused! If he was here, everyone, especially the girls, should be going crazy by now! Just wait here Mikan. Let me go and ask Hotaru."

"Okay."

A few minutes later, Misaki came back with Hotaru. "Natsume is not here Mikan." The raven haired girl said.

"But Hotaru I saw him when I went to your garden! He was up the tree!"

Hotaru smiled.

"Why? Why are you smiling?"

"That wasn't Natsume."

Mikan gave her a questioning look, "I swear! I saw it with my two eyes! That was him! He was speaking to me!"

"That tree was one of my inventions. When someone leans on the tree, it reads that person's mind and produces the object or in your case, the person, that that person wants to see the most."

"That's not true! I didn't want to see him!" Mikan was giving off a nervous chuckle, "Maybe…your invention just malfunctioned or something, instead of showing the person I wanted to see the most, it showed the person I wanted to see the least!"

Hotaru just smiled, "Well, if that's what you'd like to think."

Mikan laughed, "See?"

Misaki said, "I'm glad that Hotaru's invention just malfunctioned! I would have been so infuriated if I found out that Mikan still wants to see Natsume after what that bastard did to her."

"That would never happen Misaki sempai, I mean, me wanting to see Natsume, that would never happen."

Hotaru cut in, "Let's stop talking about him. Why don't we all drink for old time's sake?"

The three of them smiled at each other and nodded.

While they were drinking, Hotaru excused herself to go back to her room for a while. She called Ruka and told him what happened, "My inventions never malfunction, Ruka. You know that. I just had to agree with what Mikan said to get out of that topic."

"Then that means…?"

"Yes Ruka, Mikan is still in love with Natsume. Just the fact that 'Natsume' spoke to her, must mean that her feelings are so strong! Usually, the illusion would just stand there and do nothing."

"What are we going to do Hotaru?"

"We must stop them. I don't want Mikan to get hurt again."