Chapter 37
Normal POV
"Hotaru!" Mikan called her bestfriend from a distance as she ran to her. As she thought, the girls are in the cafeteria eating, as well as Anna and Nonoko. Mikan was covering her face but they noticed something.
"Mikan-chan, why are you crying?" Anna asked. Mikan wailed.
"Stop crying like a baby and explain." Hotaru said in her usual tone.
I looked at them with a painful expression.
"What's wrong?!" Nonoko asked more concerned.
"He.." I sobbed. "He...he saw my...uhm...pa-panty! Waaahh." She cried louder than before. Coming those words from her is unbelievable. Telling her friends this kind of thing is still embarrassing even if they're close to her but this is an emergency.
The two girls laughed together and Hotaru's trying hard to hide it while drinking her crab juice. Mikan slammed her hand onto the table gaining attention around them. There was a slight paused. But Anna and Nonoko continued laughing.
After they finished laughing, they straightened their face as Mikan glared at them, tears still rolling down her cheeks.
"Who, Natsume?" Nonoko asked and snickered.
"Who else?!" Mikan shot back angrily.
"Your point is?" Nonoko said. Mikan sniffed.
"He saw my ...Now I can't get married!" Mikan said sadly. Nonoko laughed again and Anna snorted.
"You know Mikan, probably Natsume has seen not only your panty but a lot of other girls' as well. Well, heck they are too willing to show it him. So there's nothing to worry about. He doesn't mind." Anna said trying to make her feel better.
"What do you mean I shouldn't worry? I don't care. It's not about what he thinks. It's about what I feel! I feel like I just lost my virginity!" She said and the girls started laughing out loud again. "Oh no, he's here!" She grabbed the magazine on the table and shoved it in her face to cover up.
Natsume entered the cafeteria like he usually does with that 'Yes-I'm-good-looking-aura'. Ruka and Yuu are with him. Some girls ran up to him and he was nice enough to acknowledge their presence saying, "Girls, excuse me." He's smirking and eyeing where Mikan is.
"Well, someone's in a good mood." Nonoko stated. She winked at Anna.
"Hey Natsume!" Anna called out. She stood up and waving at him, with a wide smile. She caught his attention. "Looking for someone?" She asked as she pointed at Mikan almost under the table.
'Are you selling me out now?!' Mikan thought angrily. She knows how much they like teasing her.
"Hey Polka." Natsume called and Mikan turned red. She wanted to disappear right here right now.
They waited until Natsume and the other two boys were standing in front of them.
"Mikan's quite upset, you know." Nonoko said.
"Not just upset, I'm very upset!" Mikan stood up defending herself. But everyone seems to ignore her.
"I think she wants you to take responsibility." Anna continued. Mikan scoffs. Even Yuu and Ruka are confused.
"What responsibility?" Natsume asked innocently.
"Ahh, you know, like..." Nonoko tried to say but Mikan butted in saying, "No, I didn't say he have to marry me!" shouted Mikan.
"There you have it, but I was trying to say Natsume should forget about what he just saw," said Nonoko while trying to suppress her laugh, others are doing the same thing. Mikan cursed herself when she realized what she just said.
"I didn't mean that. Who would want to marry that guy?! He's egotistic, and a perverted-playboy. If I'm going to marry him then no thanks, I'd rather fell off a cliff.
Mikan's statement caused gasped around the group. Natsume gave her a menacing look as he stood coolly. She stood there with her arms crossed, wearing her victory smile.
For a few seconds of silence and staring, Ruka broke it. "Come on, Natsume. You have a race to win." He said as he dragged Natsume away from the girls, though he didn't take his eyes off of Mikan. Yuu followed them and he gave Nonoko a nod which means something's not quite right.
As soon as the boys were out of sight, Nonoko turned to Mikan.
"That was...awkward." Nonoko said. "I can't believe you just said that in front of Natsume."
"I'm just telling the truth. It's about time he realized it, don't ya think?" said Mikan.
"But I think that was quite harsh. Didn't you notice how Natsume froze when those words came out of nowhere? I'm pretty sure no one has ever pointed out his negative traits before except you and it came out of Mikan herself, the girl he likes. He's offended and that's the first time I saw him react like that."
Mikan's expression didn't change. She won't take back what he just said to Natsume. He deserved that.
'That's what he gets for looking at my panties.'
Mikan's POV
It took a lot of time to persuade me to go watch the second round for the "Romeo-role competition" which is the race. Anna and Nonoko nearly dragged me into going to the stadium.
There are two reasons why I don't wanna go: 1. I don't want to see Natsume because I'm still embarrassed! 2. I don't wanna watch and find out who's going to win.
Somehow I feel quite a bit tense about this competition. If Rey would win this then that means he's going to play Romeo but a part of me is cheering for Natsume. I'm kinda torn half and half. I think Prince Rey fit Romeo's role perfectly well with his personality and all. And Natsume he have the looks and the aura to have the lead role.
Now I'm glad that this happened because thinking about it now, if I were to choose between them for the role, it's hard. So then may the best man win? I'm just hoping Rey would take this race fairly.
We got there on time thanks to Hotaru's Flying swan which was upgraded so it could transport all four of us to the Stadium. Yeah, it's still in the school grounds, that famous race tracks or dragstrip as they said.
"Come on Mikan, hurry up!" Anna said.
I'm not even excited but obviously, they are.
I thought we would have to watch it with the other students in the audience but Hotaru lead the way to a special room with glass windows wide enough for us to see the race. Ruka, Kitsu and Yuu were already sitting there as they munched some food. They even have people to serve them. Hotaru, Anna and Nonoko were already telling one of the servants their orders.
"What's going on here?" I asked. "We're going to watch the race, aren't we?"
"Yes." Kitsu responded bluntly.
"It's really comfy here, isn't it?" I said sarcastically. I'm quite shocked honestly. Is this how they hang out together? While other students out there are just watching the race normally, but these guys have their own special place to watch and even have servants. They're basically VIPs, of course.
Ugh I don't know why I still get surprise by these stuffs. Being with them for the past few months, I should be used to it by now but oh well, for 16 years I wasn't use to special treatments okay? Whereas them, they are like this all their life.
"What's wrong Mikan?" Nonoko asked.
"Oh nothing." I replied quickly as I sat next to Hotaru. That's when I saw two racing cars at the track. One is in red and other one is white. I'm kinda guessing which one is which.
"The red car is Natsume's and the one white one is Rey's." Yuu stated. He basically said what I was thinking.
That's when I realized that there are also big TV screens hanging up in front of us where we can watch close up.
"Welcome again my fellow students." said someone through the broadcast. It's the same voice as the one in the football match. "This is the second round of the three rounds that our precious Hotaru Imai-sama from Triple A prepared for the competition between Natsume Hyuuga-sama and Prince Rey."
"Enough with the chit-chat and get on with it." I heard Hotaru said but the commentator continued. Not that he could hear her.
"As we all know, they are competing for the role of Romeo in their class' musical and as well as to Miss Mikan-sama's heart. What a rivalry." There were roars in the audience outside and I looked down shyly. "Prince Rey won the first round so he got one point and if he wins this round again, he'll win overall. And that also means he's getting the Romeo role like he wanted. Will Hyuuga-sama let that happen?"
"This guy sure talks a lot." Ruka said.
"Get on with it, mate." Kitsu added. The commentator went on introducing the two as if no one knew anything about them well except me though. I think I'm the only one who doesn't know them 100%. I swear he's reading their autobiography, this is taking too long.
"Wanna bet?" I heard Kitsu's bored voice.
Ruka exhaled deeply. "Natsume, a hundred grand."
I gasped. How could he just put that amount of money in just a bet? Is he that confident that Natsume will win this?
"Is that it?" Yuu said quite confident. "I'm gonna make an intelligent bet. I say a million pounds for Natsume."
I almost choked with own spit. Here I am thinking that a hundred grand was too much but Yuu...
"You're stingy aren't you Ruka." Kitsu said grinning.
"Can't help it. I'm going broke because my girlfriend's, you know.." There was a slight paused as he looked over to Hotaru while she fiddle with her laptop. I saw Hotaru warned Ruka with her impassive glare. Ruka discontinued his statement.
"Well, I'm gonna go for Rey. Fifty grand." Kitsu must have notice the tension building up closely. "Don't get me wrong. This is not a betrayal."
"Dude, that's not even the point. Your bet is lesser than I thought it would be." Ruka said disapprovingly.
Kitsu: "At least I won't lose that much and if I actually win this I'd get more than I'm bargaining for."
Yuu: "Fair enough."
Kitsu: "Girls, wanna join?"
"Nahh." Anna and Nonoko said almost at the same time.
Kitsu turned to me and I said I'll pass immediately. But I was shocked when Hotaru said she's going to put 10 million pounds in the bet for Natsume.
"Do you actually trust Natsume to win the race?" I asked in disbelief.
"I don't trust him. I just feel like this is the wisest decision." Hotaru said and she went back to her laptop.
"That is it then. Let's see who's going to win, the previous Drag Racing Champion's brother or the current Drag Racing champion." Yuu stated.
"Prince Rei Serio made the Dragstrip built, you know, with all of his influence as the student council president. He wasn't all into academics, let's just say he was kind-of wild during his days as a student. He was dangerous as well as a responsible guy." He continued being the smart person he is, he could be a trivia king.
"That was 6 years ago right? I remember when we were still in elementary, he was so popular that me and Anna started a fan club in our division." Nonoko said.
I'm so totally listening into their conversations, it's so interesting knowing the stories of the school and the students.
"And you two also lead some kind of ritual with the other fan club members to bring him back to life right?" Kitsu said snickering.
Anna glared at him. "It's not funny. We were so young okay? We actually believed it would work but we kinda messed it up."
Kitsu laughed.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Don't even wanna talk about it." Nonoko said feeling quite down.
Kitsu gestured me to get closer to him. I obliged coz I really want to know. And he whispered, "They took Prince Rei Serio's uniform from his wardrobe, went to his funeral and started lighting some candles and burnt his clothes with these weird stuffs I don't know they've got as part of their ritual. This is inside a big hall with hundreds of people, mostly students okay, so then while they burnt the clothes, smokes started to come up and that triggered the smoke alarm and you can guess what happened next." Kitsu told me and I can't help but laugh a little. And as I looked at Anna and Nonoko, they are already pouting and giving us the glare.
"Where'd you even come up with that?" I asked the girls.
"The internet." Nonoko responded bluntly.
"That's why you shouldn't believe everything in the internet." Yuu said.
"That's in the past so we can now all move on alright." Anna said.
"Fine." Yuu agreed immediately.
"It's been a while since we actually used the school's drag strip. Last time was probably a year ago, before that happened." Ruka understandably changed the subject and his eyes pointed at Natsume in the screen.
That made me think we he meant by that. What happened last year? And I said that thought loudly without even realizing I said it out loud.
They all fell silent.
"It's about his sister-"
"And now, we are awaiting the start of the race and so as the two determined racers."
Ruka was about to tell me but the voice of the commentator interrupted him.
I looked at the two guys at the screen and they are already in their respective vehicles. The cameras and TV screens are so convenient so we can watch the race easily. We can see them close up at the screens as well as the whole race outside the window. We can't see their faces right now because they are wearing their helmets but I can practically tell that the two racers are steady, concentrating, waiting for the signal.
I was too preoccupied with what Ruka said and when I came back to reality, looking over the race, I can hear the roaring of the engines as well as the crowd cheer louder.
"All ready, get set, go!"
The lights in the middle of the dragstrip flashes to green, the engines rev up into the quarter-mile strip. The crowd roared. Yuu, Ruka and Kitsu were all shouting "YEAH! WOOH!" Like a normal teenage boys would do when cheering. The room was noisy enough but I can hear my heart beating so fast. Is it due to excitement or nervousness?
At first, the white car which is Prince Rey's was leading until Natsume gained speed. In at least 10 seconds, the quarter-mile race ended. I didn't even know it was that quick. I didn't have enough time to let that sink in.
"There it is! As expected, no one can ever beat the undefeatable Drag Racing Champion! Natsume Hyuuga is the winner everybody. It was too obvious with the gap between them." The commentator shouted through the microphone excitedly.
It took a moment for them to get out of their cars. And as soon as Natsume took off his helmet, his face was in close up at the TV screen and I could see the happiness in his face. I don't really know if it's really happiness but I could tell that he's turning towards Prince Rey and he have this aura that says: Too great, I won. Instead of: Too bad, you lose. If you get what I mean.
Prince Rey's expression was unreadable. You could just say he's still not admitting defeat and there's one more round to go.
They just looked at each other and Natsume started moving towards the place where we are. The boys are still celebrating and my friends were not even paying attention, I wonder. Is racing not their thing? But I thought they were eager earlier when they almost dragged me here. Anyways I just watch Natsume coming. And when he went in through the door, the camera couldn't get anymore shot of him so it transitioned in to Prince Rey walking away from the stadium with his guards behind him. I waited until Natsume would come.
As soon as the glass door opened, the boys went to him quickly as they congratulated him, telling him that it was a great race but we just stared at each other.
The stare went longer than I expected before he said, "I'm going to be your Romeo, Polka."
To be continued...
Finally an update! LOL who's still with me? I apologize since it's getting kinda pretty rare for me to update this story. I just can't discontinue this. And it's just today that I found some time to write this chapter. My life has been pretty busy recently so I don't know when I could update. Maybe soon. Next week. Next month but I'm going to try though. Anyways Thank You very much for all the readers out there.
And that's LetMeLoveAgain logging out. I'll be back for another chapter.