Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice.

Chapter Five: Sunday Musings

When Natsume received the message from Luca two weeks ago, asking if he wanted to join a goukon organized by him and two girls from his university days, Natsume had politely declined. Natsume had always found it difficult to say no to Luca, for Luca truly was the nicest person he knew.

But when Mochu had called him a week ago, demanding to know why Natsume wasn't joining the goukon, his response had been more honest, direct and blunt: "I have no interest in such frivolity."

"Natsume, you sound like a grandpa."

It was entirely true: goukons had never appealed to Natsume—not in his university days, and certainly not now in his late twenties. He had been to one during his freshers at university, and he had hated how awkward and forced the interactions were. It was an uncomfortable and gross experience that Natsume did not wish to repeat. But Mochu was relentless—Mochu clearly knew that Luca was too nice to pester Natsume himself, so he did all of the dirty work: he cajoled him, telling Natsume that they needed him to balance the numbers, and promised that the attending girls were all cute.

"I don't care," Natsume had stubbornly maintained.

"C'mon man—look, if you come, I promise to buy you that new game wanted. Okay? Deal?"

This made Natsume consider Mochu's offer.

"Look—you don't even need to speak. In fact, I think we'd all appreciate it if you didn't speak and just kept to yourself, so we'd all have a better shot at getting lucky."

Natsume still did not give an outright 'yes', but when Koko joined in the hounding, calling and texting non-stop, Natsume finally (and very reluctantly) conceded.

And that Sunday morning, the morning after the fated goukon, Natsume was feeling quite good: Mochu now owed him a new game, and Mikan Sakura now knew of his feeling towards her.

Last night, when he had seen her standing outside the restaurant, Natsume could not believe his eyes. It was exciting enough to see his crush outside of work, but to also see her looking so good in black was a whole new experience for Natsume. And then, Natsume could not believe his luck when they walked into the restaurant and he realised that she was one of the members of the goukon, and that she was sitting in front of him. For a moment there, he did consider whether he might have been a priest in his past life: he had felt like the luckiest man on earth.

Natsume had never been the spiritual sort, or even the sentimental type. But he couldn't help but think that this was all meant to be—that he had blindly just walked in the path that fate had so carefully designed for him. All his past moments and experiences had led him to that goukon with Mikan Sakura… that Sunday morning, as he drank his coffee, Natsume felt very philosophical.

He was glad that his feelings were in the open. He could not have spent another week without her knowing. A few days ago, he had sworn to himself that tomorrow will be the day that he confessed his feelings, but tomorrow always came without the confession… until yesterday, that was. Well, it wasn't so much as a direct confession as it was an unfortunate expose, but he did not really care about the manner in which it was done, for now he just felt relief that it was out in the open and not bottled up inside of him.

Of course, had he had the choice, he would have preferred it if Mikan Sakura had found out in a different way (definitely not in front of all his gawking friends), but he supposed that this was the will of the fates too.

Natsume had stayed over the night with Koko at Luca's place. It was nine in the morning, and Luca was already out on his daily run, whilst Koko was only just making his way to the kitchen, groggy and barely awake, in search of sustenance.

"You're looking very pleased with yourself," Koko remarked, as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

Natsume did his best to be nonchalant. "It's a nice day."

"Yeah, right." Koko joined him at the table. With a loud sigh, he sat down heavily on the chair. "We didn't even drink that much last night, and let me tell you, I'm exhausted… how Luca can just perk right up and go for a run so early in the morning is beyond me." He then returned to the subject of Natsume's poorly concealed great mood, "I don't get it. Why are you so happy? You just found out your crush calls your Mr. Meanie behind your back."

That did put a damper on his mood, but only ever so slightly. He decided to be honest, "At this point, I'm just glad she knows."

Koko took a long sip of his hot coffee before commenting, "You're surprisingly optimistic when you want to be."

"I'm not optimistic, I'm relieved." Natsume corrected, "Like I said, at this point I'm just glad she knows."

"Well, you do know that now comes the really scary part—her answer. The ball's in her court now."

"Yeah," Natsume murmured, "and I don't think my chances are looking too good."

Koko loved it when Natsume was vulnerable. Not because it made him feel powerful or superior in comparison, but because these moments were so rare in their friendship. Whenever Natsume showed any sign of vulnerability, Koko always took it as an opportunity to step up and be the very best friend he could be to support Natsume.

"You know what's funny? All this time, whenever any of us tried to imagine what kind of girl you would end up with, I always had this picture, this vision in my mind. And guess what? This Mikan Sakura is actually pretty close to my vision. I would even go as far as to say uncannily identical—face, personality, even the voice."

"You only met her yesterday. You don't know what she's like."

Koko shrugged, "I know you well. And I can imagine what it must take for someone to make you feel this way."

Natsume stayed silent, thinking again about the invisible hands of fate that sunny Sunday morning. He did not know what tomorrow would bring when he would reunite with Mikan Sakura at their workplace – the only thing he was sure of was that their relationship would never be the same again… for better or worse, he did not know.

A/N: I'm sorry it's such a short chapter! The next chapter is much juicier and much longer :)

Until then!