Me: DON'T KILL ME! I'M SO SORRY I DIDN'T UPDATE!

HIGH SCHOOL'S BEEN BUSY AND EVEN NOW I'M IN A RUSH. SO ENJOY THE CHAPTER.

I don't own Yumeiro Patissiere!


My Journey, My Story

Chapter 12: Reveal, True Perseverance!

After the match with Team Katsumo, we have 3 days before the rest of the first round winners are determined. We wait, but it seems like years before finally they're calling us back to draw second round match ups.

We all meet up in the kitchen classroom once again, Aunt Lemon standing at her white board. She's attached all the team names to magnets and they are on the board for everyone to see.

There are 7 names left. I scan the names, most of them I don't recognize, as the leaders are from grades above us. Although, one name sticks out to me. Team Maya has made it past the first round too.

Aunt Lemon tells us to quiet. The murmurs in the room slowly die down, until all eyes are on her and no one is speaking.

"Congratulations teams on making it past the first round!" Aunt Lemon says excitedly.

Everyone in the room cheers. I smile, happy to be here. "So, it's time to decide the match up for the second round, I need everyone to listen. Team leaders, please come and stand up at the front."

I'm still reluctant about standing amongst the intimidating leaders of the other teams, but somehow, Himoto pushes me forward and I stand in the front.

I can see Maya on the other end of the line. Her curly red locks rest on her shoulders and she's wearing a brave smile. I feel stupid, my hair is in a simple ponytail and I look unsure. Or at least, that's what Himoto tells me.

Aunt Lemon begins calling names. The 7 of us hold our breath each time. I look at each of the older team leaders, besides Maya and I, they all seem to be at least 3rd or 4th year.

"Team Maya," Aunt Lemon announces.

With a cocky smile, Maya laughs confidently, "Ohoho! No doubt, you'll be seeing me in the real grand prix!"

I roll my eyes. She's the exact same as she was when we were little. Over confident. Yet, she usually did win the things she said she would.

Aunt Lemon reaches her hand into her bowl. There's a pause as everyone strains to listen.

"Team Lynne," She says finally.

There's a little flutter in my heart, I step up and stare at Maya. She's staring down at me with her rival look. I send it back to her, equally glaring at her.

We step back after and Aunt Lemon continues to call names. But I don't hear her. I'm too busy staring at Maya.

She's got this look in her eyes. And all I can read from it, is "you're going down."

XxXxX

After the teams are decided and posted on the whiteboard, I go back to the three sweet princes.

"You're doing better up there," Himoto tells me, with a simple tap on the top of my head, "Improvement is a good thing."

"Uh... Y-yeah, I guess," I reply sheepishly.

Aunt Lemon begins writing on the whiteboard. In green marker she writes, 'perseverance'. "Okay teams, the theme for the second round is perseverance. You'll be judged in 5 categories, presentation, creativity, skill, difficulty, theme and taste for a total score of 500."

There's a murmur in the crowd. There's a different judging system for this round.

"Be sure to remember the theme, it's more difficult than last time. I hope you all learned from your first round what mistakes you shouldn't make. Good luck teams!"

That signals the end of the meeting. Everyone gets up and is beginning to file out. The sweet princes and I squish between people to make our way out. We want to think about our sweet now. Not leave it until last minute like last time.

"HEY! LYNNE!" I stop abruptly and groan at the sound. I wanted to get out of here without making a scene...

The sweet princes bump into me when I stop. "What's wrong with you?" Himoto asks.

I turn around, looking for the source of the voice and I realize I'm right up against him, "Ah!" I gasp. He's too close. But we're surrounded by people. I can't move.

People continue pushing through the door, so eventually the crowd lightens and he moves to the side. My face feels hot. That was embarrassing.

"Sorry," He mumbles quietly.

Maya pushes her way through the crowd left, "LYNNE!" She yells loudly again. Sitio, Shikufu and her other team mate are at her heels.

"Yes?" I ask tiredly. I'm itching to get out of here and start already. Why must she stop me?

"I hope you're to lose!" Maya booms confidently, "You may have been lucky to make it past the first round, but I can assure you, you're not getting any farther!"

I roll my eyes at her. She's overreacting, "Yup," I reply blandly, "Totally."

The best way to annoy her is to act like you don't care about what she's saying. It really gets her to blow up.

"Are you not scared?" Maya exclaims, tossing her hair behind her shoulder. "YOU SHOULD BE!" She shrieks loudly. So loudly in fact, I have to cover my ears.

"You should be!" Sitio repeats after her.

"She'll take you down!" Shikufu adds.

It's like she has a posse. "Yeah, sure. Now, I'll just be going now..."

Maya is about to retort, when Himoto intervenes again. "Come on, you're just being a bother. It's obvious we don't want to talk to you, so why don't you just leave?"

"Kazuye-kun!" Maya screams delightedly. Himoto's eyes widen, realizing his mistake. Maya lunges for him and latches onto his arm once again.

In his eyes I can see the panic. "Uh... Get off!" He stammers, trying to shake her off.

"Oh Kazuye-kun," Maya murmurs softly, rubbing her own cheek against his own, "You're too shy! You need to open up a bit my darling. Don't be afraid of public displays of affection!"

"B-but..." Himoto stutters aimlessly. There's no way he'll be able to free himself from Maya. I know from personal experience. In kindergarten, she'd do the same thing to the sweetest boy in class.

"Come on! Why do you hang out with Lynne anyway?" Maya continues, throwing her arms around his neck. Leaning in closely, she says, "I'm a lot better."

Seeing her so close makes something tick inside me. "I think we'll be going now," I grumble, grabbing hold of the collar of her shirt, "We've got work to do." I pull her off Himoto and toss her aside.

"Ow!" She yells dramatically, "That hurt!"

"Yeah yeah," I answer. There's this feeling inside of me that's making me feel angry, "Whatever."

Maya grits her teeth and hisses, "Ugh Lynne! Just you wait, I'll murder you in the competition!"

"You go do that!" I yell back.

"Calm down, Lynne-chan," Isho-kun tells me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Don't get too riled up."

Komanda-kun put his hand on my other shoulder, "He's right. You don't want to get into a fight."

I sigh and drop my tense stance, "I guess you're right."

Maya huffs. She's probably jealous of all the attention I'm getting from the sweet princes. That thought make me feel a little prideful. "Hmph. Sitio, Shikufu, let's go," Maya sneers.

Brushing past me and nearly knocking me to the floor, Maya begins sauntering away. She turns at the last second, before she's out the door, "I'll see you later Kazuye-kun!" She trills, blowing him a kiss.

I feel a chilly shock run down my spine. Her affection towards Himoto is starting to bother me. But, it's not because I have feelings for him or anything.

"Come on, let's get going," I say grumpily, Maya really has tarnished my mood.

The sweet princes glace at each other before reluctantly following me out.

XxXxX

Back in the kitchen room we usually use for practise, kitchen room number 3, we are all sitting around the counter, discussing what we're going to do for the grand prix match.

"Maya's never going to know what hit her," I smile happily; "We'll squash her like a bug!"

"You're being too overconfident, you never know. She did make it past the first round, she might be able to beat us," Himoto interrupts.

This sends a prickly feeling in my heart, "Are you defending her?" I ask moodily.

"What? No, it's not like that," He insists, "I'm just saying..."

"Please, you think she's better than me, don't you?"

Why am I so angry? I don't get it. It's a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach that bothers me. Every time I think of Maya being so close to Himoto... It sends me into a fit.

"No! I was just... Forget it!" Himoto snaps, crossing his arms and glowering at the wall.

"Now now," Komanda-kun interjects, "We've got to stay all together with this. No fighting."

Himoto grumbles, "She's the one making everything difficult."

That irritates me. I'm just in a really bad mood; Maya seems to be able to do that all the time. "Whatever."

Isho-kun tries to change the topic, "Um, well, the theme is perseverance, how are we supposed to show that in a sweet?"

"What does perseverance mean in the first place?" I inquire him, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you not know what perseverance means?" Himoto asks, his eyes wide.

That makes my face turn red. I think I just asked a stupid question. "Well, Mr. I know everything, what does it mean?" I ask, trying to call him being unknowledgeable.

"Perseverance means to push through even in difficult times. Kind of like in our first grand prix match, even with us loosing 5 pies, we kept going."

Damn. He does know what it means. Now I look like an idiot. "W-well, whatever. Unlike you, I'm not a walking dictionary."

"Isho-kun is correct though," Komanda-kun says, trying to bring the topic back to the competition. For some reason I'm having trouble concentrating today. I just keep arguing with Himoto. "We have to find a way to put perseverance in our sweet."

"I still don't fully understand what perseverance means," I grumble. I don't look at Himoto, because for sure he's going to make fun of me for it.

Isho-kun sighs and pulls his phone out of his pocket, "Here. I'll search it up on google."

He unlocks the screen and opens google. Typing in 'perseverance', over a million things are found. The first is the Wikipedia article on it, but really, I don't consider it reliable. The second title however, gets me interested.

Perseverance – workshop to team work.

"Hey, what's that?" I ask, pointing to it.

Isho-kun clicks on it and it takes us to an organization's website called, 'Teams United'.

"It looks like an organization focusing on team building," Komanda-kun announces to the rest of us, as he reads over Isho-kun's shoulder.

Isho-kun scrolls down, "And they're having a workshop tomorrow to improve team work and teach the true meaning on perseverance."

"What are the odds...?" I trail off, looking over the two at the small phone screen, "We should totally go to that!"

Himoto sighs, "I'm in. I guess. It wouldn't hurt."

"I'll go," Isho-kun agrees. As does Komanda-kun.

"It's settled then! We go tomorrow!" I cheer happily. After practising our skills for the day, we separate to go back to our respective dorm rooms and rest up for the day ahead of us.

XxXxX

The sun shines brightly as I step out of the dorm building. There's a fresh end of September breeze in the air and I can already tell today is going to be a nice day. I'm wearing a loose floral printed shirt and jean shorts, it's perfect weather. It's actually probably the last summer weather we're going to have all year.

I'm supposed to meet the sweet princes at the bus stop outside the campus at 12:00. The bus will arrive a few minutes after and we're going to the countryside for the workshop.

I walk along the cobblestone path and absently braid my hair as I go along. The weather is so refreshing; it puts me in an enlightened mood. All the anger and moodiness from yesterday is no longer present.

"Do girls always fiddle with their hair so much?"

My fingers stop their work at braiding my hair. I turn around, the braid half finished. It's Himoto.

Of course it is.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I pout my lips and continue the braid down my left shoulder.

He shrugs his shoulders carelessly and begins walking alongside me, "I just don't see the point in girls fixing themselves up all the time. I mean, if you were born ugly, there's nothing you can really do to make yourself look better. You just have to deal with it."

"Are you calling me ugly?" I demand, tying the end of my braid and dropping it to hang, brushing lightly over my heart.

"No," He says quickly, "That's not what I meant."

We make it past the school's gate and to the bus stop. We stand just beside the glass building used to shade people from snow, in the winter months.

"Then what did you mean?" I ask quietly. I look to the floor, I don't like the idea of people thinking other people are ugly. Everyone's beautiful in their own way.

Himoto sighs, probably regretting what he said. "I wasn't calling you ugly okay? What I meant is, I don't see the point in you doing your hair or wearing make-up or whatever. It's not like you need it."

I'm slightly perplexed. He means... He doesn't think I need make-up or anything?

"What makes you think that?" I scoff, waving my hand freely, "If I didn't, I'd look like a train wreck every day."

"I don't think so," Himoto mutters softly, making eye contact with me.

It's like my heart's stopped beating. "W-what do you mean by that?" I ask quietly.

"You're pretty without all that stuff, I guess," Himoto admits finally, "You're just fine the way you are."

I can feel myself turning red. He thinks that stuff about me? I haven't even known him for a long time, to think when we met, we would fight and insult each other all the time.

Now he's complimenting me? I'm confused.

"R-really?" I stammer, I feel so... Awestruck. My legs feel like they can't support me and they buckle. Himoto steadies me.

Our eyes lock. I don't know what I'm feeling. "Kashino..." Himoto murmurs.

I don't know what to say. I feel so out of it, but yet, I'm so in to it. I don't understand what I'm feeling at all.

"I..." Himoto begins to say.

"Hey guys!"

We both turn, Isho-kun and Komanda-kun are walking up to us. Isho-kun is waving his arms, getting our attention. "Hi!" He calls to us.

The moment is broken. It doesn't feel the same. It's as if everything has gone back to normal. "Hi Isho-kun!" I greet back.

Isho-kun and Komanda-kun make their way towards us and we're all together now. I notice Himoto has distanced himself away from me. Standing as far away from me as possible. For some reason, that bugs me, though I'm not too sure why.

Isho-kun and I idly chat with each other, Himoto drags Komanda-kun away and they are talking in the glass building. I keep looking over and Isho-kun notices.

"What's wrong Lynne-chan?" He asks me, also glancing back to look at Himoto and Komanda-kun who are sitting on the bench inside the building. They seem to be talking about something important. What's so important, I don't know.

"Nothing," I tell him. Smiling, I say, "It's nothing."

I know he wants to say more. But for my sake, he drops it. He goes on talking about a new candy art design he wants to try out. We talk about a lot more pointless things, before the bus rolls in and we take a seat. All four of us in the back. I sit on the end, beside Isho-kun. It's like Himoto's avoiding me all of a sudden.

And I don't understand why.

XxXxX

After 30 minutes, the bus finally gets to our destination. If it didn't stop so much to pick up and drop off other people, I swear, we could have gotten here 10 minutes ago.

We're pretty much in the countryside, aside for the Team United center that stands in front of us. We walk inside, feeling the chilly air conditioning as we pass through the doors.

There's a lady at a desk and we ask her which way the perseverance workshop is. She leads us to a large room with green tiled floor. There are a handful of people there as well, but really, it's a small turn out.

There's a cheery looking girl, who looks to be about 21, in the center. She has a Team United name tag on and from what I can tell, her name is Yasuno.

"Hi!" She chirps, "Welcome to Team United's Perseverance workshop! What are your names?"

"I'm Kashino Lynne," I introduce myself, smiling.

"Isho Hiro."

"Komanda Aito."

"Himoto Kazuye."

Yasuno grins at each one of us. I can't help but notice her teeth are blindingly white. "Well it's great to have you here! We were just about to start. I was talking about how when being in a team, it's important to trust each other."

We take a seat with the other people there and she continues, "So, as I was saying, a team can't function without everyone trusting each other. It can lead to disaster, believe me, I know. So our first activity is going to be trust falls."

She scans her little audience and looks at Isho-kun, "Do you mind demonstrating with me?"

"Uh..." He says at first, a little bit surprised to be called out, "Sure."

He gets up and stands beside her. Turning so his back is to her, Yasuno says, "All you have to do is fall backward. Don't worry, I'm going to catch you."

Isho-kun's eyes widen slightly. He's not too sure about this. "It's all a part of trust, you trust me don't you?"

I can tell Isho-kun wants to say, "I just met you!" but he's too polite to say it.

"Okay... Here goes nothing," He murmurs before falling back.

Yasuno catches him before he hits the floor, holding him in her arms, "There. That wasn't so bad, was it?"

He shakes his head and stands back up, "So, amongst your team mates, split into partnerships and practise trust falls."

The room erupts into chatter and noise as everyone begins to discuss amongst themselves. The sweet princes and I stand off in the front left corner of the room.

"So how are we going to split up guys?" I ask, placing my hands on my hips and leaning to one side.

"We should all learn to trust each other, so we should each try to be caught by everyone," Komanda-kun suggests, "After all, we can't just trust one member of the team. You have to trust them all."

Isho-kun agrees, "Very true. I'll pair up with Lynne-chan first."

I smile sweetly and nod, "I'm okay with that."

"And I'll be Ka-kun's partner," Komanda-kun nods his head affirmatively.

I turn to Himoto, who's staring pointedly at me. He looks kind of moody again. I'm not sure why. "Okay," He agrees begrudgingly.

XxXxX

"Are you ready?" I ask excitedly. I've got my eyes closed and Isho-kun is behind me, ready to catch me as I fall backward.

"I've got you," Isho-kun assures me, "Just fall back and I'll get you."

Taking a deep breath, I lean backward. It's a lot scarier than it looks. I feel myself falling and with my eyes closed I can't see anything. It really feels like I'm going to hit the floor, but in the few seconds I can feel that, Isho-kun then catches me. I open my eyes and stare up at him, "That was so cool!" I exclaim happily, before jumping up. "Okay, your turn!"

Isho-kun looks skeptical, I am very small. He's most likely afraid I won't be able to catch him. "Don't worry, I've got you!" I grin happily.

"Alright..." He smiles softly at me before positioning himself ahead of me. When he falls back, I hold tightly to him so I don't drop him to the floor.

"Gotcha..." I say slowly, my voice tense, concentrating on lifting him.

Isho-kun laughs aloud and stands up, "You're quite the lifter," he jokes.

Sticking out my tongue, I reply, "Why did you ever doubt me?"

XxXxX

The same thing happens with Komanda-kun. I think it's easy to trust him. He reminds me so much of Michael, I can't help it. Michael's been the best older brother I could ever have. Always watching over me and everything. Komanda-kun just makes me feel safer, if that makes any sense.

Next is Himoto and I'm slightly skeptical, because ever since the bus stop he's been especially moody and it seems like he's been avoiding me.

He's going to catch me first and I'm having trouble allowing myself to fall. With his mood right now, I feel like he won't catch me.

"I've got you, don't worry," He says softly from behind me. It doesn't feel very comforting. "Just fall..." He sounds a little bit exasperated. Great, I'm just bothering him even more.

"Is there a problem?" Yasuno asks, she comes towards us to address our issues.

Himoto points accusingly at me, "She won't fall."

I blush at this and stammer quietly, "I-it feels like he's going to drop me."

Yasuno places her hand on my shoulder comfortingly, "Not to worry dear! I'll be watching the whole time, there's no way he can drop you while my eyes are on him."

"Okay..." I agree finally. Sucking in a shaky breath, I close my eyes and lean backward slightly. It's the same feeling, those few seconds of empty falling. It feels scarier this time. "Eeek!" I gasp quietly. But then, Himoto's arms are around me, saving me from the floor.

I open one eye cautiously, to see his facial expression. As usual, he's wearing that same blank expression. "I told you I wouldn't drop you."

"Uh..." I whisper, unsure of what to say to that, "Thanks... I guess."

He pushes me back up to stand, "Don't worry about it."

XxXxX

It's my turn to catch Himoto and I am slightly nervous. Himoto is the tallest of the 3 sweet princes and I'm small. I'm not very sure of myself if I can catch him.

"Are you ready?" Himoto asks. He doesn't seem too worried. I hope that means he trusts me.

"Y-yeah!" I stutter nervously, "I... I've got you."

His shoulders shake, he's laughing, "You don't sound too sure."

"S-shut up! I've got it! Go fall!"

I stand ready to catch him, my eyebrows scrunched up in determination and I focus hard. When he falls I'm going to brace myself for it and catch him. After all, I have to be strong enough to...

"Lynne-chan!" Isho-kun calls. I turn away for a split second, before realizing my mistake. I gasp and turn back around, but it's too late.

Thud.

Himoto hits the ground on his back.

I cringe, thinking about what his reaction will be. He stares up at me from the floor. He doesn't look angry, more annoyed. His eyes close to squint at me, "What happened to 'I've got it'?"

"Ehehe..." I laugh nervously, feeling my face turn red. "Sorry."

He sighs and face palms. "You're such an idiot."

Well... At least he isn't mad.

XxXxX

"Alright, great job people!" Yasuno cheers as we finish the activity. We all go back to our seats and listen as she speaks. "This workshop is fairly short, so I'm going to do a little more talking and we'll have our last activity."

"So far, we've worked on trust. But the point of the workshop is to work as a team and persevere. And we haven't touched much on that, have we?" She turns around to write on the white board behind her, "Our final activity will use our newly formed trust to do a job. Here's what we're going to do."

Yasuno draws a long horizontal line on the white board, with 2 stick people on one side and 2 on the other. "For the last activity, you're going to be running across the field out back to the other side to hand something to your team mates." She looks around, "Who here is good at sports?"

I'm not. And apparently, not many others are either. "Exactly! And that's the point! You must persevere to run the whole length, even if it gets difficult! Let's see if you'll be able to do it."

I'm slightly nervous. If my condition flairs up...

"Come on, let's go!" Yasuno beckons us to follow her out the door. Somewhat reluctantly, I follow along with everyone else.

XxXxX

What makes me even more nervous is the fact that the field is full of flowers. They wave around in the breeze, making me panic a little bit. Isho-kun takes note of my nervous energy, "What's wrong Lynne-chan?"

"Uh... Nothing," I lie. I think he realizes it too. But he's not going to push me for answers.

"Alright teams! Split up into two!"

We split up as we usually do. Komanda-kun and Isho-kun, me and Himoto. I don't know why those ended up always being our partnerships, but they do.

Me and Himoto stay on the one side while Yasuno leads Komanda-kun and Isho-kun to the far end of the field. That's a long way to run. I gulp.

I'm going first, tagging either Isho-kun or Komanda-kun who will run and tag Himoto. He'll run over and tag the last person left until we're all opposite to our starting point.

Yasuno hands me a relay baton, "Okay! Ready, set, go!"

I take off, gripping the relay baton in my hands. I can feel my lungs starting to hurt. It's like their tightening inside of me. I can't breathe well. I knew it.

Wheezing painfully, I keep going. This is a lot tougher for me than for everyone else. I can tell, because they're way ahead of me. I guess the point of the workshop is perseverance, so this is good for me. In a way, sort of. Making it to the end, I hand the baton to Komanda-kun and collapse on the grass. Laying on my back, I try to suck air into my body. It's not really working.

Isho-kun looks over me in concern, "Lynne-chan? Are you okay?"

"Eehh..." I wheeze out. I'm trying to take gulps of air, because I know I need it. But my lungs feel so tight, it's like they can't hold air.

Isho-kun kneels down beside me, "Hey, what's wrong?"

I can't answer. "Urgh..." I mumble.

I know he wants to help. But he can't, because Himoto comes running and tosses him the baton. Hesitantly, Isho-kun takes another look at me before running away towards the other side. Himoto looks startled when he sees me, "What the heck's wrong with you?" He asks, alarmed.

Dropping down to his knees, he stares at me. It must be a beautiful sight, seeing me die on the floor. "A-asthma..." I choke out finally.

His eyes flicker slightly, "Don't you have an asthma inhaler?"

I weakly reach for my pocket, where I keep it. Himoto beats me to it and puts the disked shape inhaler to my lips. Pulling down on the trigger to open it, I take a deep breath to breath the medicine inside. Holding my breath for about 5 seconds, to let the medication do its thing, I finally gasp for air, able to breathe properly again.

Breathing heavily, I take the inhaler from him, "Thanks."

"What the hell was that?" He asks me, narrowing his eyes.

"I have really bad asthma..." I admit sheepishly, "Even simple things like running like that flair it up completely. Not to mention all the pollen in the air."

"YOU SHOULD HAVE SAID THAT SOONER!" Himoto scolds me, handing back the inhaler. I put it back in my pocket.

"Since I was 5 years old, I've gone to the hospital once because my asthma gets so bad. It's awful really," I sigh, "It's so annoying. I can't do anything strenuous. Like running long or any really hard cardio. I am dead if there is dust anywhere close to me. Flowers are no good either."

Himoto laughs to himself. Though I'm unsure why. "What's that for?" I ask, pouting my lips.

"It's funny, you act so strong, but then something as simple as that can take you down," He has laughter embedded in his eyes. He thinks it's just so hilarious.

"Shut up! It's serious! I've passed out a few times before because I couldn't breathe."

He stops laughing. "Sorry," He says quietly. There's awkward silence. "So how do you take care of yourself?"

"I just keep the asthma inhaler on me. That's all. But if I didn't have it and there was dust and pollen everywhere, I'd be dying."

"That's lovely," Himoto answers sarcastically.

My asthma really is serious. I look around the field, the activity is closing up. Something catches my eye in the forest of trees beside the fields.

2 flashes of blue dash into the forest away from us. Blue...? It's like Sitio and Shikufu's hair colour. I tell this to Himoto and he shrugs it off.

"You're out of your mind, it was probably just animals, why would they be following us?"

"I guess..." I reply slowly, but I keep staring at the trees. Could they have heard everything I said?


Cliffhanger ending. Yada yada yada. I'm sorry guys, I really am in a huge rush. I feel SO bad. I thank all my reviewers for their constant support. I want to mention you all by name, but I've got no time. Stupid me.

I'll see you guys later! I'm so sorry for not publishing on Saturday like I should have. I'm a very bad person...

Please Review!

Love,

Mikashi-chan :)