A scowl was seen on our favorite brunette's pretty face. Her feet were dipped inside the crystal clear warm water, almost hallway to her thigh. She had her brows mashed together as she squinted her eyes a little, staring ahead of her. Damn, she hates the sunlight.

And the temperature.

And the scorching hot sun rays.

She hates everything about summer.

And she hated how she had to dress less than usual.

Right now, with her hair tight up in a messy bun, she was wearing a one-piece bikini under a cropped sleeveless t-shirt that revealed most of her flat tummy, and a pair of shorts shorts. She didn't have a choice, did she? It's either wearing less than usual and followed everyone's theme for summer that's 'wearing less and show more', or continued wearing the same and sweat like a pig under this ridiculously scorching hot weather. Not being an idiot, she chose the first.

But man, she hated sunbathing.

And anything that rhymed with it that involved exposing her whole skin to the cruel and evil sunlight.

Mikan grabbed for the gladiator shades beside her and put it on. Now she felt a bit better. Just a bit. Ohhh god, she inwardly groaned. How many hours more does she have to stand this? Can someone just kidnap her right this instant and deep-fried her already? The quicker this ends, the less torturing it would be.

"Hey, you're not gonna get in the water, are you?" a voice came beside her.

She turned her head, looked up and saw her blonde friend. His soft prince charming looks were replaced with a taunting hot sunbathing prince looks. He had this huge smile plastered on his face as he looked down at her with his blue eyes. God, why she suddenly thinks his eyes gotten deeper blue and sexier than normal?

Must be the weather.

Yepp, that must be it, Mikan silently agreed in her head.

After all, her body was not used to warm and hot weather like this so the weather must had caused or more likely, stirred something inside her that made her suddenly so conscious of everything.

Especially towards the opposite gender, Mikan frowned.

And Ruka, on top of that! Mikan's inward frown gotten deeper.

They had fixed their friendship and now Mikan and Ruka were back to good friends. Only Ruka though. The rest of the flocks was still strangers to Mikan's life.

"Are you blind? I'm already in the water," Mikan replied, her hands motioning to where her feet were.

Ruka chuckled and took a seat next to her. "It only counts in the water when all your body inside the water, Mikan."

Mikan smiled at the mention of her name. "You finally got my name right."

Ruka looked at her before turning back his attention to the sea. "Figured it's time."

Mikan's brow rose a little. "Oh so all this time, you're only calling me Sakura because it's not the time yet?"

Ruka shrugged.

That simple answer and gesture of his leaving Mikan, on her back, rolling on her sides on the beach sand, while holding her stomach hard. Ruka couldn't found where the funny part was, but still, he let her laughed out loud. He had not seen her letting her guard down around anyone, for a while now. Scratch that, he had not seen her like that, so open, for a while now.

After her laugh had resided a little, Mikan sat up and with bits of laugh available still, she poke him by his forearm. "I don't know Ruka Nogi could shrug! Oh man, this is a first! I'm overwhelmed!" she clapped her hands giddily.

"Oh how you hurt me with your sarcastically comment, my lady," Ruka spoke with a hint of old odyssey, together with a wounded look he plastered on his handsome face, his hands on his chest, emphasizing his act on how hurt he was.

"Oh quit it, Ruka." Mikan playfully smacked him on the shoulders. "Don't make me laugh again with your snide remarks."

Ruka smiled at her response.

Then something suddenly caught his attention. As if the brunette could grasp what he was thinking based on where he was looking, Mikan sighed.

"Yepp, this sucks big time." Her fingers aimlessly play with the bangle around her right wrist.

Honestly, with this thing on, she felt like a runaway refugee.

His face turned cloudy. "The academy put them on you?"

Mikan nodded weakly. "Apparently, since I accidently loose control over a simple fight with Hyuuga last two days, they decided it's a jolly good idea to put me on restraints," she said sarcastically, emphasizing on the word 'jolly'.

Hyuuga and her had their usual training practice last two days. And Hyuuga picked up pretty fast with the learning. Thinking that she ought to level up a bit since that Hyuuga brat was taunting her about being lacking behind, totally forgetting about the alice controllers she had on, she miscalculated her power and everything just blew up.

Seemingly, the academy didn't like the idea of her loosing control and almost destroyed half of the northern forest.

Firstly, she did not loose control. She just miscalculated her powers.

Secondly, she did not destroy half of the northern forest. Only a quarter of it.

It wasn't much of a big deal!

The academy has a lot of money. They can always pay someone to fix it!

Mikan growled, thinking of the decision the academy had decided on her. All her alice controllers she had been wearing all this time—seven or eight she couldn't remember—were taken off of her and they were replaced with this stupid bangle around her wrist that restraint usage all of her alice.

Simply said, she couldn't use her alice anymore.

Not until the academy took it off of her. That is, after this stupid beach activity that Narumi had planned for their class is over.

She didn't care if she did not have fully access of her alices because she can still survive with physical fight and she could give a good one as well but what pissed her most is her inability to use her nullify alice! Her thoughts were her own privacy. Now she even had to watch out what she's thinking incase stupid Koko suddenly became bored and decided to play 'let's read Mikan Sakura's mind since I couldn't read it before and I highly think it's fun!'. Man, Mikan really wanted to smack that idiot.

"But you're going to be okay, right?" Ruka looked at her worriedly.

"God, I'm tough as anyone you had ever seen, Ruka. Of course I'm gonna be alright. I'm not weak and you know that."

Well, truthfully said, she felt a bit weak. Since Jun and Kazuki weren't here with her. What's gotten into those guys anyway?

"Oi Ruka, Imai's looking for you."

The both turned around towards the owner of the voice and saw a familiar looking figure stood just a few feet far from them.

Raven hair, crimson eyes. Mikan scowled. Hyuuga.

And he was walking close to them.

Mikan snapped her head around and faced the sea.

Shucks. No no no.

Her stupid brain started to act all up again.

Must be the weather. Right, must be it.

Oh man, can't believe she's trying to self-hypnotise herself again.

She only looked for just a second! For goodness sake, she only looked at him for one second only!

And yet, with that just short one second, she could remember what colour his skin was, how ripped his body look with just a pair of shorts and no shirts on. And how his messy raven hair made his face looked even hotter under the hot weather.

Mikan mentally cursed.

She needed Jun right now. She needed to be around Jun. To feel secure and safe. Hyuuga's presence was distracting her. And that messed her up really bad. With no access to her alices at all right now, she's not herself. She's not Ellys. She's just like how she was years go, just Mikan Sakura and nobody else.

Ellys Emerys was all poise, elegant, head held high, compose and total control of her own emotions.

Mikan Sakura, well, she's nothing like Ellys.

And Mikan Sakura had a history with Natsume Hyuuga.

Ruka suddenly stood up and cursed, "Seriously, she couldn't even let me be happy for one second, no? What am I? Her dog to fetch things?" He kept complaining while began to jog away towards the beach house.

Leaving Mikan with Hyuuga. Alone.

The curses inside Mikan's head had gotten louder.

Jun needs to be here fast.