Disclaimer: I do not own D.N Angel.
A/N: Sorry for the delay in this chapter. I'm very busy with schoolwork so please understand! Enjoy this chapter!
ffgirlmoonie: Thanks for the review and enjoy this chapter!
DNAngelfanatic07: Oh my, the way you said it in your review, it feels like its hinting something between Satoshi and Risa…(slaps self). Anyway, enjoy this chapter!
Berlioz II: I have to say I'm not this "sadistic" to do that. Imagine the heartbreak Saehara will feel and what if he committed suicide later?! Okay, I'm only joking, but I'm not going to write that because I've got another idea mapped out. But your idea seems kind of good though. Such a pity… Anyway, enjoy this chapter!
Anon: I'm glad that the chapter, although short, was enjoyable for you. I'll try to write this chapter a bit longer, but I cannot gurantee though. That, I apologize. Thanks for your review and enjoy this chapter!
Darkened Immortal: I'm going to go on to more Mio x Miyu and Daisuke x Riku this chapter so I hope you'll like it. I haven't been giving them as much love as Satoshi and Risa, have I? Yay, you finished your homework:) Enjoy!
'DalisaY-17': Thanks for the review and enjoy this chapter!
Anime-17: Mio is also one of my favourite characters. I really think it's a pity she died because she is really cute. Enjoy this chapter!
Littlelink048: Well, sometimes, people can't see what's in front of them until later, so I guess that's the case for Miyu as well. Enjoy this chapter!
1000 Sparkings: I know that song too! I took my inspiration from that song because it's like one of my many favourite songs! And because it was Nana Mizuki who sang it. I adore her and her voice. Okay, before I spazz again, I just have to say: enjoy this chapter! (Goes on to spazzing)
Chapter 21: True Feelings
Mondays were never a good thing. Risa sighed deeply as she walked to class, not anticipating the day ahead. When she reached the classroom, she slid open the door but saw no one except for Satoshi.
"It's rare to see you come to school this early, Risa-san." Satoshi mused as he placed fresh flowers into a vase at the teacher's table.
"I only came early because I had classroom duties," Risa snapped as she took off her coat and placed her bag on her desk.
"Too late," Satoshi replied as he sat on his chair. "I've finished everything."
Risa looked around the classroom and saw that it was true: the blackboard and whiteboard had been cleaned, the floors were swept and the cabinets dusted.
"You did everything on your own?" Risa asked.
"Of course," Satoshi replied simply and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he felt a pair of arms wrapped across his chest from behind, and a familiar scent of milk and honey entering his nostrils. His eyes opened and turned slightly.
"Stop this, Risa-san," Satoshi responded reluctantly, "I'm not used to this."
"But you like hugs, don't you?" Risa reasoned and giggled slightly when she saw him blushing.
Satoshi didn't know what to say and do except to turn his face away from Risa to hide away the redness on his cheeks. Suddenly, the door slid open again and Daisuke and Riku entered, their faces showed a badly suppressed excitement.
"You look so happy, Riku." Risa noted, "What happened?"
"It's snowing!" Riku burst out happily, almost on the verge of jumping up and down. Immediately, Risa and Satoshi went to the window and saw tiny balls of white fluff descending from the sky.
"It's true." Risa said softly as her breath misted the window. "Ne, Satoshi-kun," The blue-haired boy turned to face Risa, "The snow is really pretty, right?" Satoshi nodded and directed a handsome smile at her, and Risa's heart skipped a few beats.
"Satoshi-kun?" Riku said questioningly. She turned to Daisuke and said, "Do you know what happened, Daisuke-kun?"
"I don't," The red-haired boy shrugged, but smiled a few seconds later and said, "But I'm sure something wonderful must have happened between those two."
"Yeah, that must be it," Riku said and nodded in agreement. "No wonder Risa looked so happy since Mio-san's birthday party."
Flashback
"Risa! Where are you?" Riku shouted in the Hiwatari Mansion. Her loud voice was topped with the many callings for the said girl and Satoshi.
"They're over here!" Mio's voice prompted Riku, Daisuke and Miyu to the kitchen. When they arrived, they saw her standing outside the storage room with the door opened.
"Risa?" Riku said confusedly as every one of them walked over. They saw that Risa and Satoshi were asleep in a supposedly uncomfortable position, but their faces showed otherwise; they were sound asleep despite their position.
End of flashback
"And we had such a hard time waking Risa," Riku said with a defeated sigh.
"Maybe something happened then." Daisuke mused.
"WHAT?!" Riku suddenly shouted, her face showed pure horror.
"Not…not what you are thinking about, Riku-san," Daisuke sweat-dropped as he said.
"I…I see." Riku said softly, embarrassed by her sudden outburst.
Meanwhile, Satoshi and Risa were still admiring the snowing scene as if they hadn't heard Daisuke and Riku. They eyes followed every fluttering snow and they grinned wider at the sight of every pretty snowflake.
However, there was no denying of the most obvious thing when there is snow…
Christmas was approaching and the year was going to end.
…
…
…
The cold of the early November snow spread quickly within the school. Everyone felt their holiday spirits rising as a second tick by, even though they were scribbling madly on the last of their exam papers. Suddenly, the teacher announced the stopping of pens, the warning consequences of cheating, and the end of exams. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief as they sat quietly at their desk, waiting for their papers to be collected so that they could have fun outside from school and escape stress, no matter how temporary it may be.
The moment they were dismissed, students rushed out of the classrooms in clusters, chattering and discussing happily at the activities they were going to have the following afternoon, while others grimaced when their groups discussed about the questions from earlier on, clearly, agonizing over the loss of a few marks.
Mio sat at her desk and sighed softly, relaxed at the thought of finishing exams. "So was the exam tough?" The voice from the back prompted Mio to turn. She saw Miyu standing there with his hands in his pockets, his smile kind and warm.
He made her blushed.
"It was quite tough," Mio admitted with a slight slouch and wondered why her cheeks felt so warm all of a sudden. "But I managed to pull through!" Mio regained her composure and gave a bright smile.
"That's great!" Miyu commented and beamed at the smiling yellow-haired girl. Mio stared at him; a sudden longing filled her chest when her heart skipped a beat. She forced a smile as a polite reply and turned back to her desk, pretending to pack her bag.
"Ne, Mio-chan," A familiar voice called her this time and it wasn't Miyu. Still, she turned around and saw Risa's cheerful face. "You want to go out with us?" The brown-haired twin asked. "It's the end of exams and we ought to enjoy ourselves now." She reasoned yet again.
"Sure." Mio agreed with an excited nod. At least now, she has her friends to occupy her thoughts of Miyu.
"Kinomoto-kun, come with us." Risa offered to the amber-eyed boy. Mio froze on the spot, but succeeded in maintaining her composure after a short while. She forced a bright smile and added, "Come along with us, Miyu-kun!"
Her smile was the best persuasion, and Miyu was quickly swept off from his resolution of not associating with her. He knew his true feelings, and that scared him. Rejection scared him. He didn't want to take a risk. If he confessed, not only would he lose the girl of his dreams, but a precious friend would be lost as well. There was a fifty percent chance of losing and gaining, and he wasn't ready to risk that fifty percent.
Now that Miyu was traversing their way with Daisuke, Satoshi, the Harada twins and Mio to the amusement park, leaving snow tracks behind the path they've walked, he firmly believed that love was a powerful thing indeed. And also a very perplexed one as well.
He sighed deeply but silently and secretly glanced at Mio. His air of sangfroid somehow vanished when he looked at her; his heart skipped beats again, a feeling not stranger to him developed in his chest, spreading itself excitedly across. It wasn't the same feeling he felt towards Riku previously, because this feeling was stronger and he knew. Perhaps he only liked Riku without realizing that it was only the friendly type. Perhaps it was just a "like"; only that.
But Mio was different. She jerked a heartstring in him.
"We're here!" Risa's excited voice broke him from his train of thoughts. He brightened up, not knowing if it was the euphoria in Risa's voice or the statuesque of the amusement park. With the series of refits over the past few months, the amusement park was almost an idyllic site. Even from the outside, all of them could see something waiting for them within the theme park. They quickly bought the tickets and entered, their eyes almost shining at the place of fun and many laughter.
"Where should we go first?" Riku asked with hesitance, looking at every ride there was. The group was torn apart between choices; everything seemed as though they promised a time of great fun.
"How about we go onto that rollercoaster first?" Risa pointed behind, and everyone turned to the direction of Risa's finger. They beamed gladly and approved immediately. Everyone except Daisuke.
"Th…that?" The red-haired boy said weakly. "It looks terrifying." All blood was drained from his face as his knees went jelly, if not for the bones within.
"You're afraid of that, Niwa-kun?" Risa asked, tilting her head to a side in question. It wasn't mocking and Daisuke knew, but he still couldn't shake off that uneasy feeling inside him. As he saw the people on the current ride being turned upside-down, he got goose bumps even though he saw that they were screaming with excitement and joy. One has to take more than a few laughs to get him onto the rollercoaster.
"Daisuke-kun, are you afraid of that rollercoaster?" Riku asked, her expression worried as a frown tainted her gentle features.
"No, it's just…" Daisuke said quickly, sensing a small disappointment in his girlfriend. With a deep sigh, he said, "Alright, let's go onto that rollercoaster."
Risa and Mio cheered happily and ran towards the huge gigantic ride with Satoshi and Miyu chasing after, abandoning the red-haired couple behind. As they walked slowly, Riku stole a glance at Daisuke, her heart skipping a beat.
"You know, you don't have to do this."
Daisuke turned and looked at Riku with a surprised expression. The girl didn't falter but only stared back at him with an angelic smile. "It's okay if you don't want to go onto that rollercoaster." Riku said again.
"I…" Daisuke was speechless, somewhat touched by how thoughtful Riku was. With a determination swelling inside him, he said firmly, "I want to go onto that rollercoaster." He took Riku's hand inside his palm, "I'll…I'll try to be brave."
10 minutes later…
"You shouldn't have gone up to the rollercoaster if you didn't want to." Riku scolded the dizzy red-haired boy as he collapsed onto the bench.
"I see stars." Daisuke muttered as he placed a thin piece of cool wet tissue over his face, a mixture of lemon and fresh mint fragrance wafted into his nostrils.
"Sorry, Niwa-kun!" Risa apologized profusely. "I didn't know you were afraid of rollercoaster."
"It's…it's alright." Daisuke replied weakly and took off the towel from his face to smile at Risa, assuring her.
"Here," Mio handed him the bottle of cold mineral water she had just bought from the shop nearby. Daisuke received it with a small mutter of thanks and unscrewed the cap. He drank the water and gave a relieved sigh.
"I guess we would only continue after you're fine, Niwa-kun." Satoshi said with the same monotonous voice, but every one of them could sense his goodwill.
"I'm fine." Daisuke reassured them. "I'll just rest here for a bit. All of you can just continue me." He flashed a sincere smile at them. However, they didn't relent; too keen on making sure the red-haired boy was well, insisting that all of them shall go together.
"I'll stay here with Daisuke-kun, then." Riku suggested. "All of you should go and have some fun. When you have enough of those rollercoaster, you can meet us at that fast food restaurant over there." She pointed to the other direction.
There was guilt in them, but after much reassurance from both Riku and Daisuke, the remaining four friends went ahead with the rollercoaster, deciding to go onto the really frightening ones before all six of them gather again for less scarier rides.
When Daisuke and Riku had entered the fast food restaurant with a cool breeze greeting them, they found a nice six-seats area and settled on them. They ordered burgers and milkshake for lunch before Satoshi, Miyu, Risa and Mio arrive.
"Riku-san, are you sad that you couldn't ride those rollercoaster because of me?" Riku stopping chewing on her burger to turned sideways to look at Daisuke and his guilty expression. "I know you really like the excitement. I'm really useless at being weak-hearted at these things, ne?" The red-haired boy had a slight frown on his face and turned back to the front, not wanting to face Riku and the shame of his fear; even people younger than him love those rides.
Suddenly, he felt a warm hand on his face, willing him to look at Riku. The red-haired girl didn't look angry, but only smiles brightened her face.
"I'm not disappointed at all, Daisuke-kun." Riku said as her hand caressed his cheek. "Fears of rollercoaster are common. You're not the only one." Daisuke could only stare at her, speechless. Riku let down her hand and leaned against his shoulder. "If I can even share a single second with you, I don't mind not going up those rides at all." Her pleasant voice drifted into his ears, as if like an angel whispering sweet secrets. "So don't mind it, okay?"
Daisuke nodded and Riku felt it. She closed her eyes briefly, listening to her own heartbeat that lost its rhythm.
Yes, this was what true feelings would feel like.
Mio: Aww…that's so sweet!
Riku and Daisuke: (Blushes)
Risa: I wish there would be more such moments between Satoshi-kun and I.
Satoshi: (Mutters) Don't count on it.
Risa: What did you say? (Vein pulsing)
Satoshi: Nothing.
Dark: A few flaws but quite a good chapter for the likes of you.
Hajimari: What the hell?! And besides, who let you judge my story anyway?
Dark: No one. I just gave myself permission.
Hajimari: That's illogical.
Miyu: Anyway, readers, we all hope you have enjoyed this chapter.
Mio: Please review! Ne, Miyu-kun, wouldn't it be sweet if the both of us have more romantic scenes?
Miyu: … (Blushes very red.) (Faints)
Mio: Miyu-kun! Miyu-kun! Please hang on! Miyu-kun!