Written by – Unknown Pain.
Disclaimer – Disclaimed.

The Beat of Love

"Music is my soul, my life, I can't live without it. Without music, life would be a mistake."

-Unknown Pain-


-Chapter XII – A Lovely Day-

I silently watched Natsume wipe his sweaty face with his towel. I felt my cheeks already burning as his gaze calmly met mine. The way his hair fell over his eyes made my heart go faster.

It was still a bit hard to believe that we had confessed to each other just less than an hour ago, and I finally could see and call him my "boyfriend".

Thinking about it automatically put a smile on my lips and made me feel all warm and happy inside.

"You're red," he pointed out casually as he brushed the towel softly against the side of his face.

My blush deepened at what he said. "D-don't say that," I returned lowly while turning away from him.

Natsume shrugged nonchalantly and let out a cool "hn" to signal that he didn't really care. He put his towel around his neck and headed towards the exit of the Dancing classroom.

"H-hey, wait!" I quickly called as soon as I realized he wanted to leave, and went after him. "Are you done practicing?"

Natsume nodded curtly.

He kept the door open for me until we were both outside. I followed him but blinked in confusion when he turned to the second building. "Aren't you coming with me to the third building's lounge room?"

He shook his head before facing me. "I want to take a shower first."

"Oh," I immediately felt disappointed and automatically, I bit by bottom lip while lowering my head. "… Alright," I said when I looked up again. I smiled to hide the disappointment; I didn't want him to think I was a possessive girlfriend or something. "Then I guess I'll see you later."

Natsume looked at me blankly for a moment without saying something. He then sighed and ran his fingers through his messy hair. "You're stupid, getting all disappointed over such a small thing," he grumbled lowly under his breath.

I blinked when he suddenly stepped closer and made me look at him by lifting my chin gently. "I'll come right after I'm done showering, okay…?" His voice was set into a rare, gentle and soothing whisper, making my heart beat faster.

He kissed me before I could even respond. It felt like I was floating as Natsume's warmth surrounded me, and without even thinking, I immediately embraced it by gently grabbing his t-shirt and deepening our kiss.

"If you're going to put each other's tongues in your mouths, I swear I'm going to puke."

We quickly parted away from each other as though it'd save us from the embarrassment.

I swallowed as I saw Hotaru standing near the corner of the second building.

Natsume muttered an annoyed "great" underneath his breath.

"H-hey, Hotaru…" I said slowly, not knowing what else I could say to her. I smiled nervously at the way her amethyst eyes shifted between my red face and Natsume's stoic one.

At last, her gaze stopped on me and her thin eyebrows lowered. "Hey." She greeted curtly, her voice not letting us hear any sign of emotion in it.

"Oi, Imai, what are you standing there for?" I widened my eyes in horror upon hearing Koko's voice. "Did something happen or…?" His words trailed off as he saw me and Natsume. Of course, Mochu and Ruka appeared right beside him.

I wanted to crawl into a corner and die.

"Dude, where were you?" Mochu asked with his forehead furrowed, and crossed his arms. "We were looking all over for you."

Natsume stayed silent.

"He was spending his time with his girlfriend," Hotaru answered for him.

Natsume narrowed his eyes at her dangerously while at the same time I called her name in protest.

"'Girlfriend'…?" the three males repeated a second later. They blinked their eyes a couple of times in surprise before their gazes turned to me.

I gulped at the way they stared at me in silence and braced myself for whatever they were going to say to me.

Koko's eyebrows lifted, "So that means… you two are dating?" His usual smirk appeared on his lips again. "Is that why you're here? If Hotaru hadn't interrupted you, you'd have gone to Natsume's dorm to have sex, am I— Oi, don't throw your towel at me, Natsume!" He sniffed at it. "Ew! Gross, dude! What the hell did you do with this? This smells like shit."

Mochu snickered in amusement as his younger friend threw it on the ground. Koko glared at him briefly but he simply ignored it.

Natsume let out a deep sigh of irritation and decided to leave us.

As Natsume almost reached the door, Mochu smacked Koko on the head.

"Ow! Hey! What was that for?"

"You made him angry, you stupid moron," Mochu said in an angry voice and quickly followed his leader.

"Oh, come on! It was just a joke!" Koko called as he rubbed the back of his head. He walked after him, insulting him a couple of times for hitting his head and ignoring him.

Hotaru shook her head in disbelief. "Bunch of idiots," she muttered under her breath, brushing her fingertips through her short locks.

Ruka blew out some air between his lips and picked up the white towel from the ground. "I guess it'd be best to follow them," he announced. As he passed me, he let me see a small, yet beautiful smile and nodded once.

I blinked in surprise and watched him disappear through the doors of the second building, getting confused. What was that for?

I turned back to Hotaru, not liking the expression she threw at me. "You… Are you mad at me?" I asked carefully.

Hotaru rolled her cold-looking eyes away from me as though I just said something stupid. "I'm disgusted."

"Why?"

Hotaru turned her back to me and started walking towards our building. She let me catch up with her. "I just saw you two sucking each other dry," she said with irritation.

My face immediately turned red again. "D-don't say it like that, please!" I uttered, placing my hands on my burning cheeks.

She rolled her eyes again. "So, you two are dating now?"

A wide smile made its way up to my lips as I nodded. "Yeah… I guess so." I opened the door.

"For real?"

"Uhm… yeah."

"So no more 'I-hate-him-but-I-also-think-I-love-him' crap?" Hotaru glanced at me from her eye corners.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "W-what… No, I guess?"

"Thank God," Hotaru sighed in relief.

I shot her a soft glare, "Well, I'm sorry for always troubling you then." Hotaru opened the door to the small-crowded lounge room. "By the way, you're acting as though you had already expected this to happen. Why is that?"

"Because," she returned and turned to me. "Only an idiot would be surprised. It was already obvious you two were interested in each other since day one."

She raised her right eyebrow as I stared at her in surprise. "You're the idiot. Of course," she mumbled lowly just before she headed to the couch and plopped on it, ignoring the two other camp students already sitting there.

I frowned at the insult, walking up to her. "Aren't you happy for me?"

"If you mean 'I'll rip off his balls and feed it to the sharks if he hurts you,' then yes, I am."

I giggled in amusement. Finally, her own lips curled into a soft smile, too. "Just don't let me witness something like that again." Her voice was slightly demanding and her face was back into her usual stoic one.

I nodded with still the same smile pressed on my face. "Alright." I hugged her tightly. "Thank you, Hotaru."

She let out a small sigh, probably finding this and me really troublesome, but still she returned the hug by placing one hand on my back.


"Are you done…?" Hotaru asked while I dumped my books into my locker. I nodded as soon as I closed its door and faced her with a smile. "Yup!"

"Let's go, then," she said. She made her way to the three sisters, who were waiting patiently for us at the exit.

I wanted to follow her, but I stopped as my phone started to vibrate loudly into my jean pocket. Wondering what it was, I grabbed the object.

A smile made my way onto my lips when I saw that it was a text message from my mother.

Hotaru turned around in the meantime, her thin eyebrow raised questionably. "What are you doing?" she asked me with hints of irritation present in her voice.

"Ah, wait… My mother just texted me; I'll be there in a minute." I responded without looking up at her.

My smile widened when I saw only three words she had put in the text message, "I MISS YOU!" I giggled lightly under my breath at the fact that it was in capital letters.

I realized that it had already been a week and a half since I had spoken to her.

With the same smile I typed that I missed her too and I'd call her after classes were over. Just after I clicked on the "send" button, someone strongly wrapped his arms around me.

I shrieked loudly in shock but calmed down when I saw familiar crimson colored eyes gazing at me.

"Gah, Natsume, you startled me!" I cooed after a deep sigh of relief.

Instead of saying anything, Natsume cupped my chin with his thumb and index finger and gently pecked me on the lips.

"I see you in class," he said almost in a whisper before releasing me again. I smiled and nodded twice. "Alright."

He continued his steps with his thee friends by his side. Ruka was the only one who greeted me with one of his famous smiles. Not fully used to it, it took me a while to smile and greet back.

Chieko, Chika and Chiharu stared at the raven-haired male with shocked eyes. As soon as Natsume noticed, he shot them an annoyed glare back, not knowing why they were staring at him like that.

Their gazes immediately shifted to me when I joined the group and asked if something was wrong.

"What was that?" Chieko asked with one of her orange eyebrows raised, her pink eyes still big. "Did my eyes betray me or did you and Natsume really kiss just now?"

I didn't understand the problem, "Yeah…" I nodded slowly in the meantime. "We did. Why?"

"They're dating," Hotaru explained easily, ignoring some stray locks hanging in front of her cold-looking eyes.

"What?" they all exclaimed in unison, gaping at me even more.

I blinked. "You didn't know?"

Chika shook her head quickly. "No. Since when?"

"Since yesterday…" I automatically blushed at the flashbacks of me and him back in the Dancing classroom.

They stared at me blankly as though they needed some time to get it all in their head.

"Well…" Chiharu finally began after a silent moment and pressed her lips into a beautiful smile. "I'm very happy for you, Mikan. You two make a good couple so congratulations!"

Her sisters congratulated me too right after that.

A blush touched my cheeks lightly and I smiled brightly, showing that I was really happy. "Thank you guys,"

"Can we go now…?" Hotaru asked in a deep voice. Before we could actually respond to her, she was already outside.

We quickly followed her.

"Geez, thanks for waiting," I said sarcastically as we finally caught up with her. Hotaru's blunt expression didn't even change when she said, "You're all too slow."

I pouted, insulted.

Chika was the only one of her sisters who reacted, "Whatever," she said through an annoyed sigh, and opened the big door to the Dancing classroom.

It surprised me that all of our classmates were there already. Even Narumi was already standing in front of the sitting crowd.

Chieko, Chiharu and I blushed in embarrassment as everyone turned their attention to us, while Chika scratched the back of her head. Hotaru kept on staring back with her usual stoic expression.

"Ah, you finally decided to show up," Narumi said to break the awkward silence that started to fill the room. He had his usual smile pressed on his lips but his left eyebrow was raised.

"Uhm, yeah… Sorry for being late," Chika responded, slightly sweat dropping.

Narumi's thin eyebrow lowered down and his smile widened. "It's fine. Come; please sit down so we can get started." We quickly did what he said.

"Today we're going to continue practicing our dance for the music competition," our teacher began as soon as he got all the attention again. "And now we're going to start with the Hip-Hop parts of the routine. So make sure you pay attention to the moves I'm going to show you, because this is going to be the hardest part of the routine."

As everyone stayed silent he began to demonstrate some of the moves. After he was done, it was our time to do them.

We all had to dance as a group at first. Because Natsume and I were the leaders, we had to dance in the front, which made me really uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I tried my best to concentrate on the dancing itself and tried to make sure to keep up with all the others. But before I knew it, I tripped over my own feet and collided into Natsume; we both fell on the floor, even knocking some others over as well.

The music stopped immediately and almost all my classmates surrounded us to see if everything was alright.

My boyfriend growled at me in annoyance as soon as our eyes meet. The others who fell as well because of me glared almost the same glare Natsume send me. "Watch where you're going, Polka,"

I stared at him with my eyes wide in shock and felt my cheeks burning out of embarrassment as soon as I saw that everyone had seen my little incident.

"I-I-I'm really sorry!" I uttered and quickly stood up to give Natsume some space to get back on his feet, too.

I eyed two of my other classmates who removed themselves from the floor as well. "I really am," I said to prevent them from thinking I did it on purpose. Luckily, they accepted my apology and sighed, nodding their heads to signal that they weren't mad.

Unfortunately, Natsume still had his crimson eyes narrowed at me.

"Are you all okay?" Narumi asked with a slight worried expression. We all nodded our heads as our answer.

His gentle-looking, amethyst eyes turned to me. "If this is troubling you, I can explain you the moves one more time."

After a moment of silence, I nodded my head slowly, scratching in the meantime my right cheek. "Y-yeah… I think that would be a good idea. Thanks." I really didn't want to screw up again.

I glanced at Natsume who still had an annoyed expression presented on his face; and I really didn't want to make him angry again.

Narumi smiled kindly and nodded his head once. "Alright. Please wait at the side; I'll be right with you." I did what he said and removed myself from the group.

He danced with them only once before he left them to give them their opportunity to practice the whole routine on their own, so he could help me.

Narumi began slowly so it would be easy for me to know exactly what I had to do. When he was done demonstrating the first beginning dance moves, it was time to copy him.

"You have to spread your legs more," the blonde teacher told me as soon as he saw my flaw. "That way it'll not only look tight and strong, you will stand strong too."

"Ah… Like this?"

Narumi nodded and smiled at what I showed him. "Perfect."

We continued this for a couple of times, before going over to the other parts, which were a bit more difficult.

I groaned in disappointment when I just couldn't get some things right. But Narumi was still being calm, smiling at me brightly as though he really didn't care if I was screwing up. "Don't worry about it. We've still got enough time to practice. And I'll make sure you can do this without any problems."

I smiled back and nodded twice in relief and appreciation. "Thank you so much."

He chuckled. "No problem!"

If only all my teachers were like him.

Narumi walked to the CD player and turned it off. He clapped in his hands to make sure he got all the attention he wanted. "Alright, everyone, go stand by your partner, please."

Slowly but surely everyone moved around to get to their partner. Chieko was the only one who stood still, looking hastily around her to find Sasuke.

But just when she was about to raise her hand and call Narumi, he appeared behind her and tapped her lightly with his index finger on her shoulder. She immediately turned around and as soon as she saw that it was her partner, she greeted him with a tight hug.

I, myself, walked silently to Natsume who had his expression still dark; he was still annoyed. It made me want to go to him even less.

It wasn't any surprise that he didn't say anything when I stood next to him.

"With this part you have to dance with your partner," Narumi said and eyed one of his students. "Can you demonstrate it with me, please?" She nodded easily and walked up to him.

After the demonstration was over, the blonde adult focused on me and Natsume, calling us over to the right side of the dance room.

"Because you two are the leaders, you'll have to do more," our teacher explained

I raised my eyebrows. "More?" I repeated in a slightly higher voice.

Narumi smiled, having heard my uncertainties in my voice, and nodded soon afterwards. "It's not going to be too difficult, so don't worry. Besides, you're with Natsume." His bright eyes turned over to the said male, who just went nonchalantly with his fingers through his messy locks.

"Come, let me show you what you two have to do," Narumi reached his hand out of me. Without hesitation, I took it.

It looked like Natsume wasn't accepting it: his eyes narrowed when Narumi had pulled me close to him. He didn't seem to notice it, though, because he was too busy explaining exactly what we had to do.

Some moments later, when Narumi lifted me, Natsume's face screamed terrible – I repeat, terrible things.

I only felt worse because of it, because I thought I did something wrong.

After watching us go through the dance moves he had demonstrated, the blonde adult complimented us and left us alone so we could practice on further.

Natsume made sure his glare was stabbing Narumi's back.

"Hey… A-are you still mad at me…?" I dared to ask the male as I turned to him again.

Natsume's short, left eyebrow raised questionably and only faced me; his face was still shining with dark annoyance. "What?"

"Are you mad at me?" I repeated myself, with this time my own eyebrows raised as well. "You know…because I bumped into you?"

Natsume's eyebrow lowered.

"Because if so, I'm… I'm really sorry!" I began again. "I really didn't mean to and I hope you're not hurt or anything? I'm really, really sorry." The words just rolled out of my mouth and I couldn't stop them from coming out; I just hated the fact that Natsume was so angry at me.

"Oi, calm down," the male returned as he got the chance. "I'm not mad."

I blinked twice. "You aren't…?"

He shook his head curtly.

I felt relieved and smiled immediately, but it disappeared soon when I asked him, "Then why were you glaring at me like that?"

"I was just annoyed."

"You were annoyed…? But then what was that look when I was dancing with Narumi?" I raised my eyebrows. "It looked like you were about to explode!"

Natsume turned away as though he was embarrassed, and ruffled his hair so that his locks would only cover more of his crimson eyes. "I just didn't…" He paused and faced forward with a small frown. "Like what I saw..."

"Oh," I let out softly. I looked at him for a moment in silence, before I realized something, "Wait," I titled my head to the right so I could see a bit more of his face. "So… Does that mean that you were jealous?"

He immediately shot me an annoyed glare. "No, I wasn't." But I already started to smirk, proud that I had caught him, and yet happy to know that he loved me so much.

"Yes, you were," I returned matter-of-factly and giggled. "That's really cute, Natsume."

The male tightened his jaw and started to growl deep inside his throat, not wanting to accept the fact that I was actually winning this.

Then, all of a sudden, he grabbed my wrist and in less than a second, I felt small tuffs of his breath tickling my lips.

"Why should I be jealous when you're already mine, anyway?" The way his voice sounded paralyzed me.

Natsume smirked victoriously at it and quickly caught my lips with his own. Though surprised, I immediately responded, letting my heartbeat go faster with every movement he made.

"Ugh, get a room or something,"

Natsume's eyes narrowed right away when he heard the infamous voice of…Sasuke. He let me go and while I turned around to face him and Chieko, Natsume decided to throw a dark glare at the him for disturbing us.

"H-h-hey you guys!" I greeted the two happily, trying to stop blushing in embarrassment. Luckily for me, Sasuke just ignored me and Chieko smiled back at me like nothing had happened.

Not a second after that, Narumi turned off the music and said that we could have a ten minute break. Everyone, relieved, sat down on the floor or sat against the wall, getting some rest while talking to their friends.

Chiharu, Chika, Mochu, Ruka, Hotaru and Koko went to us as soon as they found us. We greeted each other and decided to sit against the wall.

"Haa, I'm really tired," Chiharu began through a sigh, right after she had her back pressed against the wall.

Chieko and Koko nodded their heads at the same time in agreement. "I think we all are," Chieko said with a small smile and passed her right hand through her long, orange locks.

"Thank God class is over about in about a half hour." Koko said, who had decided to lean against the wall for support instead of sitting, pressing his right foot against it so he'd get a cool posture.

"You know," I started and touched Natsume's left arm softly to get his attention. "This is the right moment to thank Sasuke."

His forehead was already put into a frown of protest.

"Come on," I continued. "We wouldn't be dating if he didn't send me to you that day." I placed a small kiss on his cheek to encourage him more. "And you said you would do it."

Natsume growled deep inside of his throat, hesitating of course.

Sasuke, who sat not far away from him, had heard everything and rolled his blood-red eyes.

Chika was already chuckling in amusement. She had her sky-blue eyes turned to him. "Come, Sasuke. Face Natsume properly or else he can't thank you."

"Shut up!" both males shouted in unison, making not only Chika laugh but also the others of our small group.

Hotaru, who sat next to me, leaned a bit forward to see it. "This is going to be interesting," she said in her usual emotionless tone, but her amethyst-colored eyes were twinkling out of amusement.

Then there was a sudden silence between all of us. Everyone had their attention on Sasuke and Natsume, waiting for what would happen.

We all could see that they were feeling uncomfortable, making them annoyed as well.

"This… is awkward," Sasuke said in a deep voice, scratching the back of his head with a frown.

Natsume slowly opened his mouth and just when we all thought he was going to say those two words we all wanted to hear, he said, "I'm going to puke."

Chika, Ruka, Hotaru and Koko rolled their eyes away while the rest of us let out a deep sigh.

Hotaru pressed her back against the wall again. "I should've expected that,"

I nodded twice in agreement.

I blinked my eyes in surprise when the two suddenly glanced unnoticeably at each other. They turned away from each other soon, with both their lips curled up. I smiled; good enough for me.


"Hello?"

"Hey, Mom," I returned; I immediately noticing how bright her voice sounded compared to the other day when I called her.

"Hey, Mikan!" she directly exclaimed, giving me a smile on my lips. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, thanks. You?"

"Much, much better."

Relieved, I leaned against the wall for support. "That's great! I was really worried, you know?"

"I apologize. I still need to get some rest, though, but everything will be fine." She told me with the same enthusiastic voice. "How's camp going? The camp year is almost over, right?"

I nodded as though she could see it. "Yeah, it is. Everything is fine. We're busy with finals and things for the competition being held on the last day, so I'm quite busy. That's also the reason why I can't contact you as often as I'd like, sorry."

"Oh, no, don't apologize! I completely understand!"

I chuckled at that and stayed silent for a while, "Uhm, Mom…?"

"Hmm?" I could already imagine the way she raised her eyebrows in a questionable yet curious manner, like she always did.

I blushed at what I was about to tell her, "I'm… dating someone." There was a small moment of silence before my mother reacted with a cheerful, "That's wonderful! Who's the lucky guy?"

I giggled, relieved at the way she reacted. "Natsume Hyuuga. He's my classmate." I put a lock behind my left ear.

"When will I meet him?"

"Soon enough, I guess," I turned over to the male I was talking about; he peeked through the door of the third building's lounge room. His short eyebrows were furrowed impatiently.

I gave him a nod to signal that I'd be right there. "But, I've got to go. I'll talk to you later, okay?" Hearing that, Natsume disappeared again.

"Alright! Take care, and say 'hi' to your boyfriend for me!"

"I will. Bye!" With that, we both hung up.

After I put my phone back into my pocket, I made my way to the small-crowded lounge room; only Natsume and his gang, Hotaru, the three Mori's, and a couple of other camp students were there.

The room was filled with the music Chieko made with her light brown guitar. Everyone listened closely to it, enjoying every second of it.

I walked silently to Natsume and sat down on his lap. "My Mom said 'hi'," I whispered in his ear, not wanting to disturb Chieko.

Natsume's short brow raised questionably and his eyes turned to mine. Finally understanding what I said, he nodded once.

"Play Stay the Night by James Blunt!" Chika said excitedly to her older sister.

Chieko halted her actions and looked at her.

Chiharu agreed immediately, "Good idea! Oh and we're all going to sing with it, right guys?" She looked around her. Her smile widened when almost everyone agreed with her idea. Only Mochu, Koko and Natsume protested by groaning or just bluntly saying "no".

"Why don't we let this girl here sing," Koko said in a mischievous tone. I widened my eyes in shock when his eyes were on me.

"W-what…? M-me?" I reacted in a high voice.

"That's actually a great idea," Chika said and nodded once at the sandy-haired male, who snorted proudly.

"N-no, it isn't!" I directly returned.

"No, Chika is right," Chiharu began with her famous energetic smile glued on her pink lips. She turned to me. "I have never heard you sing before, Mikan. So this is a good opportunity to let us hear your beautiful voice." She giggled afterwards.

I swallowed nervously and shook my head slowly. "I… don't—"

"What's the matter?" Chieko titled her head a bit to the right with her thin, orange eyebrow raised questionably. "You don't know the lyrics of the song?"

"She's just nervous," Hotaru answered for me.

I frowned at her; it looked like I was on my own.

Chika chuckled in amusement. "Really cute," She flipped her brown hair over her left shoulder. "But don't be. We won't laugh; right guys?" Everyone immediately shook their heads, some even saying, "Nope, we won't," to convince me.

"It depends if she can sing or not," Natsume said bluntly. I threw him a glare which made him only smirk in amusement.

"Come on, Mikan," Chieko encouraged me. Soon all the others in the lounge room joined her.

"A-alright, fine!" I said with a small blush of embarrassment touching my cheeks. "But I'm only going to do the verses. You have to sing with me with the chorus."

"Boo!" Koko yelled.

I send him an annoyed glare which he easily ignored.

"Alright," Chieko said easily, smiling sweetly. "Deal."

I let out a small sigh of relief and nodded happily.

She started to play the intro and as soon as the first verse came, I started to sing the lyrics, "It's 72 degrees, zero chance of rain. It's been a perfect day," I sang softly, still being really nervous and scared everyone would laugh at me any second. But instead of that, they only looked at me, moving their heads with the rhythm and silently enjoyed it.

Getting more courage, I started to sing the next lyrics louder. When the chorus came and everyone started to sing with me, I was really enjoying myself.

Natsume was the only one who didn't sing with us. Instead he had pressed his chin on my shoulder and listened.

When the song was over, we all started to cheer and some of us even started to clap.

"Seriously, you have to let everyone hear your voice more!" Chiharu said excitedly with a gentle smile. "You've got a beautiful voice!"

I blushed in embarrassment as everyone agreed with what she said. I laughed and scratched the back of my head a little. "T-thank you."

After we talked for a little bit more and did our own thing, everyone left to see a performance of a camp student that began at eight o'clock.

"Are you coming too?" Ruka asked me and Natsume as he stood in the doorway. Without thinking twice, the male shook his head.

"You, Mikan?" Chieko asked with her eyebrows slightly raised.

"Su—!" Natsume suddenly tightened his grip around me, pressing me more against him. Confused at his actions, I turned around.

Natsume secretly shook his head, as though saying he didn't want me to go with them.

"Uhm, I… pass," I said slowly, still a bit unsure what he exactly wanted. I faced the others again with a smile so nobody would think anything of it.

"Oh, alright, then," Chieko replied as all of our friends left the room. "See you tomorrow!"

"Bye!" I returned.

As soon as the door closed with a soft thud, I turned back to Natsume. "What's wrong…?"

"Nothing."

"Then why didn't you want me to go with them?"

"Is it wrong to want some alone time with you?" he questioned me back in a cool, nonchalant voice and pressed his lips softly against my neck.

I blushed at his actions. "N-no…"

Natsume's lips cracked into one of his infamous smirks. He made me look at him, and kissed me gently on the lips. I responded without hesitation.

Natsume placed his left hand on my waist and slowly moved it to my upper leg, and went more and more down. I immediately stopped him as soon as I realized what he wanted to do.

"Wha-what do you think you're doing?" I asked sternly, blushing furiously.

Natsume lowered his eyebrows to get a dry expression. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Y-you can't— You can't do that."

His raised an eyebrow. "Why not?" His voice had some hints of disappointment in it.

I shook my head in disbelief and took a deep breath, hoping my heart would calm down already. "Because we're in a lounge room! S-someone might come in! And… besides, I don't want to,"

Natsume sighed deeply, obviously irritated, and ran his left hand through his dark locks. "Fine. What do you wanna do then?"

I removed myself from his lap and sat down beside him on the couch. "Uhm, let's talk?"

"About what?"

"Uhmm," I paused, tapping my chin thoughtfully. "Are your parents coming to the final performance?" Natsume held his shoulders up nonchalantly. "Don't know."

I brushed some locks away from my eyes. "I wonder if my mother will come, too."

"Ask her," Natsume suggested easily.

"Ah, yeah… Good idea." I immediately grabbed my phone and texted her about it. Not a moment later I got an excited message back with, "I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Her words made me smile right away.

"What did she say?" the male asked.

"She said she wouldn't miss it for the world," I answered with the same smile on my lips.

I eyed him for a small moment before resting my head on his shoulder. "I can't wait to see her again." I sighed softly.

"I think we're all like that," Natsume replied, his voice low but gentle.

The silence appeared between us, but it felt nice and calm.

I pictured the last day of the camp, where I'd see my mother again, and where I'd have to say goodbye to all of my friends. I furrowed my eyebrows; which also meant I had to say goodbye to Natsume…

"I'll miss you," I said without thinking, my voice soft. I suddenly felt sad; what if we would never see each other again?

Natsume didn't respond to what I said. I blinked in confusion and wondered if he had heard me or if something was wrong.

I lifted my head from my shoulder so I could look at him. "Natsume?" He had his head slightly lowered down. "What's wr—?" Before I could finish my sentence, he grabbed my arm and pulled me against him.

My eyes widened when his strong arms embraced me gently yet strongly. I didn't understand what suddenly got into him, "H-hey. What's wrong?" I asked again and tried to face him, but it seemed impossible.

"So noisy," he breathed onto my neck and let his head rest on my shoulder. "Stay silent for a while."

I frowned at the word "noisy" and wanted to continue, until I realized why and what he tried to say: he'll miss me too.

I smiled lightly and gently placed my arms around his neck to return the hug.


Sam – First of all, I want to apologize for the lack of details in the dancing scene. I'm Dutch and English is my second language, so I'm always killing myself if it comes to these kind of things. I tried to make the best out of it so I still hope you enjoyed it. Now you might be asking, "But what are you going to do if you're writing the chapter of the last performance?" Well, I've got an amazing beta-reader who is kind enough to help me write it! ;D

I also had a bit trouble with the last scene, where Mikan is going to sing. I just didn't know what to do, how to write it, how to make it interesting, blablabla. I found it unnecessary to put in all the lyrics, therefore I had decided to put in a small part of it to give you all a good picture of the moment. At that time, when I was about to write the scene, I was listening to Stay the Night by James Blunt. xD

Oh and guys, guys! I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and an amazing Happy New Year!

I hope you all liked this chapter. Thank you for reading, please review, no flames, and see you in the year 2013! :)

Much love,
Unknown Pain.