Ohayo, minna-san! ^^

Sorry for the late update. Thanks so much to those who have commented/reviewed/followed/favorited the fic! All that you guys have done has been very encouraging for me!

Anyway, hope you will enjoy this update!

Chapter 20: Not a Fairy Tale

Lia smiled as she walked towards Kyoya's room. She saw not a single light on in the room and knew that he was still asleep. She thought of a prank to play on him and planned to apologize for yesterday. If he was still upset about it, that is. She knocked on the door and entered. Her hand searched the wall for the light switch and turned it on.

She stared in surprise at the empty, tidied bed. It was as if no one had ever slept in the bed. She walked out of the room and stopped a maid who was exiting a room further down from Kyoya's. She asked, "Did you see Kyoya-sama?"

The maid nodded. "He left the room and hour earlier. I think may be on his way to school now."

"Oh… Thank you…" The maid smiled and walked off.

Lia frowned. Kyoya got up an hour earlier? Now that would be interesting. Most probably he did not sleep at all the night before. She shrugged and went to get ready for school. She doubted that there would be a car outside waiting to bring her to school. She sighed. First day of school and she needed to tire herself out. There must be some kind of record for that.

"Lia-chan is late…" Hunny remarked as he stuffed another cookie into his mouth.

Kyoya barely looked up at that comment. Tamaki, however, started going on about how important punctuality is and so forth. Haruhi was too busy dealing with the twins that she ignored him. Though, Kyoya was sure that she was thinking that he, Tamaki, was a fool.

"Let's unlock the doors," Kyoya said. "We can't wait any longer for Lia. Our clients come first."

The twins nodded as they stood near the doors. As soon as everyone else had taken their positions, the twins unlocked the doors and ran to join them. They were in their positions by the time the doors swung open and the sound of girls squealing and giggling floated into the room.

Kyoya plastered a smile on his face as he got ready to play the plan he had. He was very sure that the plan would go well and he would, once again, foil the plans of his father. He got up the moment he saw his future fiancée enter the room. Let the games begin.

Lia ran towards the music room. She was late and she knew it. But she glanced down at her watch anyway and grimaced when she saw the time. Her class teacher had held her back and given her a rather long lecture on why it was important to improve her grades even though she was only a scholarship student.

She was glad when the teacher was finally done with the lecture and had let her go. But now, she wondered whether she should be glad as she was very sure Kyoya and Tamaki would be waiting to give her a lecture of their own. She was near the club when she spotted her friends. They stood as a group in a corner, giggling and talking excitedly. They stopped as soon as they saw her and ran over to her.

"Lia, did you know? Did you know? Did you know?" Kiyoko asked. She looked as though she was bouncing up and down in excitement.

"I doubt she does!" Midori retorted. "Even Tamaki did not know about it and he and Kyoya are supposedly the best and closest of friends." Then, she and Kiyoko started arguing about what Tamaki should know and shouldn't. Eri and Eiko occasionally contributed their own opinions.

Lia frowned, wondering what they were talking about. But then, she remembered that she had her club meeting to go for and excused herself, running towards the club room. She entered and then stopped in her tracks. She stared at the scene in front of her. Not at the sandy, beach theme the entire room had been turned into. Not at the sight of Hunny stuffing his face with coconut flavored candy or the twins dumping a crab down Tamaki's costume.

She stared at the sight of Kyoya smiling at a very pretty-looking girl with his hands covering hers. The girl was talking and blushed when Kyoya said something to her. Then, she said something back to him and the both of them laughed. As if feeling her eyes on him, Kyoya looked away from the girl and at Lia. Both their eyes met across the room, over the heads of the thirty plus girls that were in the room. They watched each other and Lia felt tears gather in her eyes.

Then, she turned around and fled from the room. She ran as fast as she could, not bothered about where she was going. Knowing that most of the students would have already gone home for the day or be elsewhere, she entered a classroom that was empty and crawled underneath the teacher's desk. She hugged her knees to her as she cried, burying her face in her lap to muffle the sound.

She felt as though her entire heart was ripped out from her chest and all that was left behind was a huge black hole. How could he do that to her? All this time, had he been playing with her? Toying with her emotions? Was he laughing at her every time she said that she loved him? Had he been with that girl all this while and now he was only showing his true colours to her?

She wished that he had run out to her, to explain himself. But she knew that he wouldn't. After all, this was not a fairy tale. She was not Cinderella or any of the other princesses and he was obviously not Prince Charming. This was the world of the rich and powerful. She had no right to even enter this place. Maybe this was him teaching her a lesson as he had always done.

She felt her phone vibrate and jumped, knocking her head on the desk above her. She rubbed the injured spot as she answered the phone, grimacing at the pain. She heard her brother's voice come over the phone and was pretty sure he was in trouble again and wanted her to help him explain things to their mother. She partially listened to the conversation but then stopped when he mentioned their mother.

"What?" She said, jumping and knocking her head on the desk again. She did not waste time to rub the sore spot as she crawled out, picked up her bag and ran as though her live depended on it. "Where are you?" Her brother told her and then she cancelled the call, slipping her phone into her pocket as she ran towards the exit.

On her way out, she accidentally bumped into someone coming out of a car. She mumbled an apology but barely looked at who it was she had bumped into. She needed to get to her mother's side. Her mother needed her now.

"No, if I wanted you to do that, I would have told you so," Mr Suoh growled, holding the phone to his ear with his shoulder as he typed out an email to a managing director over in America. The voice on the other end of the line protested but Mr Suoh cut him off, "I don't care if you have to redo the entire room! Just do it the way we planned it! If it is not perfect and according to the client's plans, we will lose not only this contract but many more!" He slammed down the phone and then hit the send button.

He rested his head on his hands and wondered how his son was doing. It had been some time since he had last talked to Tamaki. He was sure his mother would have kept up with his son more than him since her schedule for everyday was mostly free time, free time and more free time. Maybe he should plan a dinner just for him and Tamaki.

At that moment, the phone on his desk rang. He groaned and hoped that it wasn't the same contractor calling him back. He did not want to change the plans that had been approved by the client. But it was obvious enough that the contractor was insistent on having his own way. Maybe he should just fire the contractor and assign another one to the project in order to save the headache. He picked up the phone and listened as his secretary told him that there was someone here to see him.

Mr Suoh frowned. Was it his mother that was here to see him? She did occasionally drop by to 'visit' him. Though the visits never did end on a happy note most of the time. He told his secretary to send the person in as he straightened his tie and adjusted his suit a little. He heard a knock on the door and sat straight in his chair as the door opened. He opened his mouth to say a formal greeting but stopped when he saw the man who entered the room.

He had not seen his best friend in years as the man had been working overseas. Though, they had kept in contact by talking over the phone. There were more wrinkles on his face and his blonde hair looked more silver than the gold it once was. But his ice blue eyes had the same mischievous glint as the last time they had seen each other.

"Hi, Yuzuru Suoh," the man grinned. "Missed me?"

"Of course I did!" Mr Suoh said, getting to his feet. "How are you doing, Matthew Summers?"