DISCLAIMER:

I do not own "The Wallflower" franchise, nor am I the author of this series. This credit goes to TOMOKO HAYAKAWA. Please support the mangaka!

Author's Note:

It's been a loooooooooooooong time hasn't it? For those who continue to support my work, many thanks! (Ranmaru version will be posted too ^_^ ). I know what you guys will think of the end…repetitive…but I have a twist in mind…:D

CHAPTER 21: UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER

When Kyohei finished the last piece of shrimp Sunako left behind, he couldn't help but smile. That girl truly was a mystery. He could never get what she was thinking. And nor could she…he grinned evilly. He walked to her bedroom and knocked on her door. She never locked it (except on certain times), and even though he was never granted permission to enter, he still did anyway. He lightly rapped on her door. "Sunako-chan!"

"Go away, stupid, stupid!"

He grinned and knocked again. "Thanks for the shrimp. I knew you couldn't resist me." He gave a loud laugh.

"They were only leftovers, stupid."

He laughed again and turned the knob. "Hey!"

He found her on the floor lying on her back. What weird idea came into her head again? "Can't sleep?" he asked her.

She ignored him and sighed. He never did want to leave her to her peace. "Go away."

He ignored her as well and lay on his back beside her. "Why are you staring at the ceiling?" he paused as he did the same thing, his eyes widened at his discovery. "Cool!" The entire ceiling was covered with luminous 'stars'. When he squinted his eyes he realized that the 'stars' were actually luminous skulls. "How'd you get it all up there? You can't reach that high."

She groaned. "Used my table to put all those up."

"I want you to do the same to my room."

"Forget it. You know how hard it is to reach the ceiling? I fell a couple of times just to get those stars up."

"Where'd you buy them?"

"The store I usually visit after school. They even have skull wallpapers! But they were too expensive so I ended up buying those luminous skulls instead."

"Buy some for me."

"Buy your own."

He laughed. "Give me some!" He turned to face her lying down beside him. Truth be told, aside from the many times she tried to torture or beat the hell out of him, it was nice simply being with her…minus the outburst and massive nosebleeds of course. Why couldn't she be like a normal girl? Kyohei muttered to himself. But then again, did he really want her to be like all those 'normal' girls? He realized he was so close to her that he inched away a bit, lest she break into another nosebleed as usual.

"Buy your own, stupid creature of the light. Why should you expect me to buy things for you when you never return my stuff?"

"I returned some of them. I only keep the cool ones." He laughed, remembering the time when he snuck into her room to watch one of her horror DVDs. When she found him, she violently threw him out but he had managed to steal the DVD he was watching. He even took the skull ring she bought last Halloween.

He heard her chuckle, which surprised him. "I want my ring back. Don't think I've forgotten about that. I tried searching your room for it but you must have hidden it somewhere else."

"Oh, you mean this?" he laughed and raised his hand high enough for her to see the skull ring on his finger.

She instinctively reached out to grab his hand. "That's mine!"

He jerked his hand away playfully. "Finders keepers."

"Give it back!" She continued to reach for his hand. When he suddenly grabbed hers, she stopped fidgeting and turned away. "Fine. Keep it. I don't want to anymore." She tried to tug her hand free but he refused to let go.

I'm going to faint. She panicked. She could feel a nosebleed about to occur. Why won't he let her go already? To calm herself, she looked at the ceiling and tried to pretend he wasn't there.

He watched her turn her attention away. Even in the darkness her face glowed. What the hell was he thinking? The incident with Yuzu really got into his head. Then, from out of the blue, he heard her speak.

"Did you say something? I didn't hear you."

She spoke again, but her voice was so inaudible that he had to lean closer. "Speak louder, Sunako! Stupid!"

She turned to scream at him. "I said let go of my hand, stupid…" Her eyes widened in surprise because the moment she turned her head to scream into his ear, he apparently thought of doing the same and turned his face towards her as well. And when they did, she felt his lips press against hers.

Then, as always, Sunako blacked out.

Sunako woke up the next day covered in blood. How she hated him! But did she really? She was upset when he brought the pretty girl home to meet everyone. She shook her head. No…it wasn't because of her…it was because she had made dinner for five and hated spoilt food.

"From now on, Hiroshi-kun, I am going to ignore him! To me, the creature of the light no longer exists!"

Will that make you feel better, Sunako-chan?

"I hate him to the core!"

He hasn't done anything wrong, Sunako-chan.

A vision of what happened between them last night flashed back at her. "He keeps tormenting me!"

He loves being with you, Sunako-chan.

Her eyes widened. "Impossible! He always steals my stuff, always demands so much, always barges into my room even though I don't want him to."

He saved you from Zaki. And he's always been there for you.

Sunako ran her fingers through her hair. She needed to think straight. Hiroshi-kun was putting strange thoughts into her head and she didn't like it. She left her room and walked into the living room where the boys sat waiting for her to make breakfast. They all glanced as she entered the room.

"Breakfast already? My Sunako-chan…that was fast…" Ranmaru greeted her.

Yuki stood up. "I can help you set the table if you want."

Her eyes immediately fell on Kyohei. He refused to look at her. And she knew the reason why. She knew he was afraid she'd strangle him for what he did last night. And how she wanted to! But not now. Not now that her mind was not functioning well.

Ranmaru's eyes followed where she was gazing. "Ooohh….if you want Kyohei to help instead of Yuki…"

Sunako frowned. "Leftovers for breakfast. I'm going out. I'll clean up afterwards so just leave everything in the sink." She knew if they tried to tidy up it would end up in disaster.

"Where are you going, Sunako-chan?" Takenaga asked curiously. He was looking at Kyohei as well thinking what Kyohei might have done again to make Sunako act so weirdly. Without another word, she left the room to get ready.

Takenaga turned his attention to Kyohei who was quietly attempting to leave the room. "Kyohei…what did you do this time?"

Kyohei winced guiltily. "N…nothing."

Ranmaru and Yuki looked at him excitedly. "Oooh….we don't believe you! First you bring a girl home, now Sunako is acting all strange."

"Yuzu is just a girl I met who reminded me of Sunako…" He sighed and began to tell them how he met Yuzu. He knew they'd never stop pestering him if he didn't anyway so he might as well get it over with. When he finished retelling his story, Ranmaru and Yuki couldn't stifle their laughs. "This is the day we've been waiting for! The day Kyohei realized it was Sunako he wanted and not anyone else!" Yuki beamed.

"Stupid. She just reminded me of what happened with Sunako and Zaki." Kyohei replied defensively.

"Ah…but you did not pursue the relationship with Yuzu because you felt that it was wrong to leave Sunako alone!" Ranmaru countered. He grabbed Kyohei by the collar. "Admit it. It's always been her!"

Kyohei pushed him away. "Of course not. I would never fall for someone like her!" he shouted.

"Nor will I for you, stupid radiant creature!" a voice out of nowhere shouted.

All eyes turned to Sunako who had just entered the room.

"It's not what you think, Sunako-chan! Kyohei really loves you!" Yuki said abruptly.

Kyohei turned to Sunako but she had a blank expression on her face. Why did she always have to enter at the wrong moment? And where the hell was she going? "Where are you going?"

She ignored him and walked out the door.

Shopping at her favorite place had always calmed her down. The ambience was perfect – dark and dreary. Not many frequented that shop (except during Halloween), but for many a fan of the dark and gloomy, it always welcomed such customers. Today was not an exception. The shopkeeper greeted Sunako-chan – he, too, was a fan of such designs which is probably why they liked each other's company. "You're quite early today, Miss Nakahara."

"Decided to drop by. This place always cheers me up." Sunako sighed happily as she browsed through the items in the store.

"You truly are a strange one…but as my favorite customer, I can't complain. Browse through our new section. We have some new items you might like."

Sunako walked happily to where the store keeper pointed. Her eyes glanced through the items and fell upon a black Grim Reaper like coat. She was about to reach for it until someone grazed her hand.

"Oh…did you want that, too?"

(END CHAPTER 21)