700 Days of Summer Ch 11
A/N: Hi everybody, sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, been busy with driver's ED and with family matters. So now I am finally back to this story and hopefully I will get it done soon. Special thanks to Scooby82101 for checking this over.
Aki's POV:
The end of August had come and with that comes the start of school. Thankfully it was the last year of high school, so I was not too bothered. Besides everything was familiar from the hallways all the way to the gym; things had not changed. There were some minor differences such a different but other than that, nothing really noticeable. Hell, Yusei was still in every class I had. If not for the fact that it was senior year in school, it felt pretty much like junior year. But let's face it, I was not thinking about school...kind of.
I was thinking about Divine...And don't you even think about reading into that more than you need to.
Me and Mikage were on our way to Divine's office after school let out to talk to him about dating Misako. We grew so excited about it; we set it up for them before we got the approval of Divine. Maybe we should have done that before hand… We knew Misako would be ok with it but as for Divine, we had no idea. Yusei and Jack didn't come with us because they were busy with something, apparently Crow wanted to talk to them privately. Great, the time when I least want to be alone talking to our teacher is right there! I have to admit; on my way there I got a bit nervous. No doubt I would have to tell him that I found about it through the letter I found, so I did not know how he would react. Would he be angry, annoyed, or depressed? I had no idea, all I knew was that it was not going to be pleasant. With every few footsteps down the hall I gulped nervously at his possible reaction. Mikage probably noticed this and told me not to worry as hopefully the outcome would be good for both him and her mom. I smiled a bit at her then to which she smiled back. I chuckled at the prospect that I was the nervous one for once.
A few more footsteps later and we made it to the door which leads to his office. When I opened the door, I saw many cubicles belonging to the teachers at the school. The two of us walked down slowly not to disturb them and find Divine. We looked left and right until we finally saw his station. On the walls of the cubicle lied many quotes from writers like Jane Austen, Shakespeare, and Charles Dickens. On the computer to my surprise was an old flower crown that I had made. When I was a kid, I used to make them a lot and I gave them to a lot of people, including Divine, so seeing one again was a nice surprise.
Divine must have noticed someone was nearby and turned around. He smiled seeing our faces again on the first day. He could only briefly see us this morning so I bet this a nice surprise for him. He was gonna get another one in a minute.
"Ahh Aki and Mikage do you need something?" Divine asked me. I sighed nervously knowing that talking about him going on a date was not going to be fun.
"We need to talk to you about something privately." Divine looked at me worriedly, smile disappearing and instantly stopping his work. He stood up and we walked with him to his classroom after leaving the office. With every footstep going through the teachers' offices and into the hall, once again I grew more and more nervous. Every footstep was in sync with my heartbeat and while I tried to take my mind off of things by looking around the halls for something else, I had no luck. The halls were abandoned save for us, the cold silent grey halls emphasized my footsteps and with that my heartbeat. When we got to his classroom and he unlocked the door my heart felt like it stopped for a second or two. We entered and Divine walked slowly to sit down at his chair behind his desk. Right there I looked at Mikage on my left who looked just as nervous as I was. Well, we had to say it. So when he sat down and got comfy, I walked up slowly to him and prepared to speak.
"Umm Divine, a long time ago, in fact I think I was six or maybe even older, anyways I..." I noticed Divine looking at me strangely, could you blame him? I honestly did not want to tell him because I had no idea if he was going to be angry or depressed about what I was going to tell him. I have seen Divine get a bit angry before but never at the level to which I was anticipating. I took a deep breath to calm myself down and looked him in the eyes.
"When I was young I snooped around your office even though I shouldn't have and I found a box which I opened and found a love letter to this girl named Harmony and for years I had no idea who Harmony was until recently I found out that it was Mikage's mom and we just wanted to know if you were in love Misako!" I said in fast forward, never stopping for air until the end. I bended over a little to catch some air before looking back at Divine who was looking at me shocked. I couldn't tell if he was even angry or not, he just seemed surprised, his face did not even change expression from the shock.
"So is it true?" Mikage asked nervously, I knew embarrassing someone was the last thing Mikage wanted to do so she said it cautiously. Divine looked down nervously as Mikage did sometimes and nodded. I began to feel bad, I thought I might have hurt his feelings in some way. Mikage however was rubbing her chin strangely.
"Do you still love her?" I looked at her shocked as Divine was a while ago. I understood that Mikage wanted to know if he still loved her, but she said it so firmly and right to the point about such a strong subject which is not like Mikage a lot of the time. I guess since it was about her mother and she wants both of them to be happy that she would ask him that but it just did not sit right with me. Divine looked at us both nervously without saying anything. He looked quickly around the room, I could tell in his eyes that he wanted to get out of there and avoid answering the question. But I am guessing he could not found a way out of the question as he sighed after looking around. I asked him the question again and he mumbled his answer though we could still hear him.
He said yes.
I stepped back a little to give him space and I looked to Mikage who was as surprised as I expected. How else could you react to your own teacher loves your own mother? I don't think you have many options. But then, I saw Divine's head tilt up and smile at us. What was going on?
"I guess it was only a matter of time before somebody found that letter and my secret included." This was strange, it was the Divine I usually talk to though he just went to looking rather depressed before suddenly looking happy.
"But why? Why would you not tell her and come to think of it, why are you so happy about this?" I asked, confused as hell. Divine sighed, preparing to tell his story.
"You see, back then I really did love her, but as much as I did, I was too cowardly to confess. And even near the end of our last high school year when I gained enough courage I still decided not to as a long distance relationship would not work and she should find someone who will cross her path. Besides even now I lost all the courage to tell her all those years ago." I looked at him surprised but I completely understood him. It did make sense and he sacrificed his own happiness for hers. It was right there I knew he really was perfect for her. I looked at Mikage and nodded a bit, signaling her that it was time to tell him.
"Ummm, Divine, we kind of...set up a bit dinner get-together for you and my mother for tomorrow night." Mikage said nervously, though she did manage to say something unlike Divine whose words escaped him, his jaw dropping slightly and all the color drained from his face.
"W-w-w-Why would you do that? Why did you guys have to put me and her on a date!" Divine said spazzing out, unable to say words. He knocked over papers and books from his desk and he stood up suddenly and turned around breathing in and out in his hands.
"She said "get-together", you know just hanging out. It's not a date. Look just have fun, chat, have dinner together, you know all that stuff. Just don't think of it as a date." I said attempting to calm him and thankfully he calmed down a little but I could still tell he was nervous.
"Yes, you're right. It's just a friendly get-together and not a...the more I say it the more I'll think about it like that." Divine said trying to catch his breath. I smiled at his answer, we were getting closer to our goal, and I thought to myself that he would thank me in the end.
"Okay then, well get ready, see you another day." We said waving goodbye and walking out the door...
"WAIT!" We instantly turned around.
"Please don't tell Misako about what you learned." We smiled and we agreed and sighed in relief. We waved goodbye before exiting into the hall. We went downstairs, running, looking for Yusei and Jack who thankfully were right at the bottom.
"Where were you guys?" I asked them, a bit of annoyance in my voice.
"Crow needed dating advice." I smiled like a schoolgirl at the very thought of Crow finding someone he likes. I grew very curious naturally.
"Well spill, who is the lucky girl...or boy?" I asked excitedly. Jack and Yusei looked at each other shrugging. I sadly knew what that meant.
"We have no idea, he would not tell and any descriptions he did give of the girl were pretty broad categories such as black hair." I shrugged as they did. Back then I thought, oh well, at least we got Divine and Misako's date ready. Which reminded me...
"Guys, the date is ready and they are going out tomorrow night!" We did a small celebration and high fives were divided among us. We were obviously proud of ourselves and happy for Misako and Divine.
"Ok now that we did phase 1, phase 2 is under way. Me and Jack will stay at home and watch over Kaoru." Mikage said but when she finished, Jack looked disappointed. Mikage obviously noticed this and put her arm on his shoulder.
"I know you would love to go with me to the restaurant, I think that is really sweet. But, Kaoru won't get along very well with anyone but me and my mom." Jack smiled and kissed his girlfriend on the cheek saying he will stay and help.
"Now Yusei and Aki will use Aki's special spy microphone to capture what they are saying and we will see if all of this was worth it." I giggled slightly at Mikage's plan with the group looking at me confused.
"We know that things will go fine, don't worry so much." I said, Mikage sighed and smiled a bit at my optimism.
"Well, hope for the best, expect the worst Aki. You never know." Mikage responded, I apologized and agreed with her and we all started to head back home to prepare for the next night. Tomorrow was going to be a big night for not just us but Mikage's mom and Divine.
Mikage's pov:
My mother, unlike Divine, seemed very calm about it. Then again she never was one to worry nor did she have a crush on Divine that we know about. I could tell just by her expression that she was excited without a care in the world while getting ready. I wish I was like her more sometimes; I am not part of this date and even I am worried. While I was in her room watching her get ready, I had never seen her dress up nor apply make-up so prestigiously before. It was as if she was an artist on a canvas, like she was getting ready for a gallery opening. I had not seen her look like this before...what happened? I wonder if she realized how long it's been since she gone out with someone like this... Whenever she and her friends hung out they always go to places you did not have to dress up for, mom's make up bin and fancy dresses laid untouched for years. To me it seemed amazing but to my mother it probably would not seem like that big of a deal unless I told her like this.
Nonetheless, she still looked amazing. Her hair was brushed until not a single piece of hair was sticking out, her makeup was applied with lipstick making her lips as bright as the sun, and her dress flowed down elegantly with frills on the bottom and a matching black corsage on one of the straps. She was amazing, back then I always wished I could look as good as she did.
"Hey Mika, do you think I'm going overboard?" My mother asked me. I instantly shook my head as soon as she was halfway done on the last word.
"You look perfect mom." My mother smiled and stood up, doing a little twirl to see how she looked before turning back to me.
"I have to admit, I am pretty excited about this. It really is going to be fun catching up on old times with him. But, it's kind of weird as well I am going on somewhat of a date and you came up with the idea, no offense." I grew a bit worried though I knew how to handle her suspicion.
"Well when I saw how well you two got along, me and Aki thought you guys should be together in peace without us interrupting and having fun." My mother turned to me and thanked me before starting to head out the door and downstairs with me following. On the way down I began to hear the loud sounds of various cartoony sound effects. No doubt, it was Kaoru watching the TV. I looked at the program to see she was watching one of those monsters of the week power rangersish shows. Actually she was watching a DVD as my mom set up a rule of no regular TV as she thinks that watching all those commercials will make us annoy her by wanting everything they see...that and she says nothing is ever good on anyways.
My mother kept spinning around, looking at her dress as if it just arrived in the mail. I almost wanted to stop her before she got dizzy right before her dinner.
"I honestly can't recall the last time I wore this dress. I think the last time I wore this dress was..." My mother stopped before she finished. She sat down and her hands were shaking. I looked at her confused before instantly remembering what she was thinking. I came to her side immediately and put my hands on hers. I remembered why she never wore this dress again.
She wore it on the night of the incident. She wanted to go out with her friends but my dad stepped in and then... I began to shake up too remembering what happened. My mother must have noticed this and looked at me, attempting to put on a smile.
"Thank you Mika, I really shouldn't think about this too much. It's only a dress and even if I keep remembering that, hopefully something as fun as this will take my mind off of it." My mother wrapped her arms around me, trying to warm up after suddenly feeling so cold. I needed that too. Kaoru must have noticed since she jumped in too. My mother chuckled when she tried to squeeze in between us.
"Awww, thank you Kaoru." My mother told Kaoru who put on a very proud smile. I knew Kaoru had no idea what we were hugging about but still something as nice as that always helped. We stayed like that for a bit until we heard the doorbell ring. My mother got up, instantly knowing who it was and opened the door. I looked over to see Divine in a blue polo shirt and beige trousers, I can tell he really did not want to think of it as a date too much so his getup was something that was polished enough for the restaurant but still something that made him not feel like he was trying too hard. I could also tell by his amazed expression that he thought my mother looked beautiful. I know the face anywhere and I smiled when he did. My mother turned around and picked her purse from the table nearby.
"Alright, Mikage, I will be back soon, keep a good eye on Kaoru and there is money for pizza on the table." My mother told me and I nodded my head in response. She smiled and began walking off.
"You look beautiful you know. You still look as beautiful as you did in high school." Divine complimented.
"Oh stop it you butt-kisser." My mother jokingly said, the two of them laughing a bit. But before I shut the door and as soon as my mother drove off with Divine...
"Ok Jack it's safe to come out now!" I yelled with Jack getting out of his car in the parking lot, staying there until the coast was clear and started running up the steps to our apartment. When he finally got to the top he was out of breath from running too fast. I smiled at his energy before shutting the door so no bugs would come in. I got my phone out of my pocket and sent a premade text to Aki:
Phase 1, complete! Now it's up to you two.
I put my phone away before I saw Jack entering into the living room where Kaoru lurked. I thought to myself, oh boy...
"Hello, Kaoru, how are you?" Jack said to Kaoru, trying to be friendly to Kaoru. But if there was anything I knew about Kaoru and people other than her own friends and family.
"AGHHHHH!" I heard Jack yell and I ran to the living room immediately. When I got there I saw Jack on the ground holding his knees, obviously in pain. I looked at Kaoru to see she hit Jack on the knee with what appeared to be a baseball bat, more specifically the baseball bat I used to use when I played junior baseball...for 3 weeks at most. I had been wondering where that thing vanished to, my last guess was that Kaoru took it. I was naturally not happy at Kaoru's attack on Jack.
"Kaoru, why on earth did you do that?" I said sternly with arms crossed.
"He came out of nowhere, I thought he broke in!" My sister said in excuse.
"Kaoru...did you not here him come through the door?" Kaoru shook her head, but a quick tilt of my head up showed the reason how.
"Kaoru you had the TV on really loud. Turn it down." Kaoru nodded and pressed the button on the TV repeatedly to turn down the volume. After she did she apologized and Jack forgave her though I could still tell he was still in pain.
Kaoru then however turned off the TV completely. We looked at her confused. She then began to put on an overly sweet smile on her face, the smile of a liar. I could always tell when my little sister had something up her sleeve and this did not look good.
"Can we play a game please?" I heard her say in a sugar coated tone. I just hoped things were going better for Yusei and Aki.
Aki's POV:
We were a table away from them. Well on the left of them so they would not see us but still it was rather close. The mini-mic was planted in the jar of flowers in the middle of the table so we could hear their conversation. I'm glad no one was paying attention as we walked past the table where we slipped the mic in. Our ears had separate pairs of ear buds so we could listen in. Meanwhile the whole restaurant's atmosphere was rather smooth and calm. Two candles on the sides of the jar while the room was rather dimmed with piano music in the background. Luckily we blended in rather well and we had disguises on. For me it was a blonde wig that covered my rather short hair with a big pair of glasses to finish. For Yusei it was not so easy for him but I made him straighten his hair for this night. You wouldn't recognize him without his signature hair; sometimes even I barely recognized him.
But tonight it was not the time for seeing; it was the night for hearing. I knew we had to be quiet as to not draw attention so we had to keep comments to a minimum. The two arrived later and luckily the table with the microphone was the only free table so they sat down there and we began to hear their conversation.
"Wow, Mikage picked a lovely place." Divine said, smiling as he began to sit down.
"Yeah, it's quite surprising, but the atmosphere is one thing, food is the big part of it." Misako said as she took her seat as well.
"True remember when we went to that French restaurant with your family?" He asked. Misako chuckled putting her hand to her head.
"Oh god yes, I had no idea what they were thinking. That movie, "Ratatouille" is bullshit, France is not the food capital. Italy is! No country that puts that much butter on the food deserves the title "Food capital!"" Divine chuckled along with.
"Indeed." The two were chuckling knowing that their stereotypes were kind of wrong but at that moment they were just having fun, nothing else mattered.
"So tell me how has life been for you over these past years?" Misako asked as the waiter came and poured them some water.
"Thank you sir, um, not much in actuality. I went to college, left, became a substitute teacher before becoming a legitimate teacher. Nothing else really." Divine said.
"Really? Oh come on, there must be something." Divine looked up, thinking. I knew there was a certain secret he was keeping but I could tell he was hesitating to say it. As he did the waiter came back asking if they wanted drinks which they declined.
"Well I met you again." Misako rolled her eyes, obviously not the answer she expected
"Well how about you...actually, never mind." Divine said smiling before his expression changed to guilt knowing what her past years involved.
"Don't worry, it's fine, we can just skip that part. Well obviously I had kids, Mikage is just a little angel and sometimes she helps me out through some bad situations." Misako said.
"She seems to do that a lot." Divine said with the two chuckling, clanging their glasses of water and drinking the contents.
"Yeah, I am amazed at how kind she is." Misako said, putting her hands under her chin.
"Well she does have a wonderful mother to teach her." Misako chuckled again and blushed slightly.
"Oh stop it! But, thank you. Although interestingly enough it seemed a lot of these manners came from Sato." Misako said sighing, mentioning her husband.
Divine looked at Misako a bit surprised. Wouldn't it make more sense for the mature woman who had always been with her daughter to be educating her those rules make more sense?
"Yeah well believe it or not he used to be such a wonderful guy. He always taught Mikage to do the right thing, he was very cautious a lot of the time, it's just that after he lost his job and..." Misako was saying before Divine placed his hand over hers. She looked up surprised.
"Please don't feel sad, I'd hate to see you cry." My mother smiled at Divine as she lifted his hand off.
"I'm not the crying type but thank you." Divine smiled nervously at her.
"Thank you, and it looks the waiter is ready to take our order." The waiter came and took their orders. Nothing special, except that they both ordered Italian food. That is it. Besides we did not care about the food, we cared about the people. So far, the date was going well and I was happy for them.
"Actually, I have to ask, do you have a girlfriend?" Divine froze for a bit and I already knew why. His crush was asking if he had a girlfriend which would lead into the inevitable.
"Well...no..." Divine said shyly. Misako looked at him, interested in his response to her next question.
"Well then is there anyone in particular you have a crush on?" Divine gulped nervously, that kind of un-subtlety pretty much meant that he couldn't escape talking about the subject.
"Well I...believe it or not...I do." Misako's eyes expanded as did ours. Was he about to confess to her?
"But I am not telling you who." Divine said smugly. Misako snapped her fingers in frustration. I would be too. Still it was a great escape for him.
I then looked at my watch and noticed it was getting late. When I looked back at their table, I noticed they were almost done with their food. I told Yusei it was time to leave and head back because we borrowed Jack's car so that when we headed back we would pick him up too. From our investigation the date had gone on well and we were quite happy with those results. We paid the bill and we left the building, no distractions. We got in the car and started driving. While Yusei was in the driver's seat, I called up Mikage to let her know we were coming back. However when she picked up I noticed she was out of breath and I could hear the same noise out of Jack. I told Yusei to step on it.
When we arrived we saw a Mikage with messed up hair, knocked over furniture, blocks spread out across the floor and an exhausted Jack Atlas. We had a lot of questions naturally, the main one being...
"What the hell happened?" Me and Yusei simultaneously asked. Mikage quickly turned towards us, trying to fix her hair.
"Well Kaoru wanted to play a game with me and Jack. We thought it would just be something like tea party or something like that." Mikage said franticly meanwhile Jack rolled over on his face and moaned.
"So when she started stacking up some blocks, that's what we thought we were going to play. Just some ordinary blocks." Now I was getting confused. They were blocks, what could happen?
"What game did you play?" Yusei asked nervously.
"Godzilla." Mikage said flat out. Suddenly it all made sense.
"Well anyways, me and Yusei have some good news." I said.
"What is it?" Mikage asked while fixing the room up.
"The date between Divine and your mom went well." Mikage looked at us very happily and even Jack gave a (weak) thumbs up.
"That's wonderful. What happened on it?"
"We'd love to tell you, but we'll tell you late, right now we need to get Jack home along with ourselves." Mikage smiled after she finished the last bit of cleaning.
"Alright, tell us later." Mikage said.
"Great. Jack, get your ass up, we are not carrying you...again." I said to Jack but luckily he seemed to get up fine. We rushed to the door to get home.
While on the way home, I thought about today. This was going to be a big change in Mikage's life if everything goes through. When I talked to her later she told me how happy she was that her mom found a possible new boyfriend. Sadly though, while I was thinking about Divine, at the same time I was thinking about Mika's dad. I don't know why as Divine might be her stepdad but I just had this strange feeling. I just ignored those feelings at the time although it did make me wonder
How was Mikage's father doing? Was he doing any better since Mika visited him? I had not heard about him for nearly 8 years since that point. What had happened to him? I tried to ignore it and go to sleep that night but to no avail. Why had I not been thinking about him like that right there?
A/N: Please let me know what to improve on and thank you for reading!