10 A Visit From The Past
Mikan was stunned. She gawked at the man stood before her eyes. "Rei-senpai."
How long had it been? She had not see him since he graduated. That would be 4 years since she was 12 back then and he was 18. So now, he ought to be 22 years old. Mikan looked at him from head to toe. One thing for sure, he didn't look 21 year olds to her. Had 4 years aged him that much?
He gave an awkward smile, despite the cold face he always portrayed. "It's Persona now."
Mikan raised her brows questioningly at him. "What happened to Rei Serio?"
He shrugged and ushered her to take a seat in front of him. "Still there, I suppose."
Mikan took a seat and make herself comfortable while leaning against the soft cushion of the small sofa. Kaname came and brought her a cup of Americano. She thanked him and began sipping her drink. "What's the rush? It has been long since we last met and you already made Hotaru hates you." She chuckled and put the drink down again on the coffee table.
Rei-senpai waved his hand dismissively. "Hotaru had always hate me, ever since we met."
Mikan laughed. "That's not true. If not, she would already shoot you with her baka gun now for making her pissed." She turned to look at the still scowling Hotaru who now already perched up on a barstool near the counter top. "Though lately she rarely carries that thing around."
"You must be thoroughly blessed then," he commented and let out a small laugh.
"I can still hear that, you two baka," she growled. "Don't act like I'm not in the room anymore." She looked at the two with a menacing glare.
Mikan laughed at Hotaru's respond and turned to pay attention to her senpai again. "So what's up?" She picked up her drink and continued sipping.
Rei leaned across the coffee table. Elbows each on his knees, he clasped his hands together. "I'll go straight to the point then." He rubbed his palms against one another and cleared his throat. "I'm working in an entertainment company," he started and stopping for a while before finally landing the bomb. "And we want to recruit Ellys Emerys."
WHAT?
Mikan's brown eyes bulged out so big that it's amazing her orbs didn't fall off yet, and she choked, spurting out the coffee she was sipping. Rei, who kinda expected that, coolly dodged it by moving his head to the left. His timing was perfect, one second late he wouldn't be able to miss it. He watched as Mikan flustered, wiping her mouth from leftover coffee dripping from the corner of her mouth with her backhand and the other wiping the table with a tissue paper. She repeatedly apologized all the while.
Tossing the tissue away, she was about to demur when Rei quickly cut her off, "Come on Mikan, and please don't lie straight to my face when it was bloody obvious I hit the right spot."
Her back sluggishly hit her seat. She blinked rapidly at him. Her mouth was gaping but no words were coming out. Somehow, she felt like a fish being thrown out of its comfort zone, gasping for water. And right now, the fish felt like dying. Her mind was in war and she had no idea it could be buzzing this bad.
"Wh..what.." she continued stammering. Oh god, this isn't going anywhere. I need to calm down.
"How?" she finally let out, her voice croaking.
She knew she had done a perfect job hiding from public eyes. How can he found her?
"'Family Portrait', I knew it's yours." he replied casually.
Ah crap. That song.
Mikan inwardly groaned. That's the first song she wrote.
"I knew you since you were small, Mikan. Back when you were only humming songs! And to be honest, I'd recognized your voice straightaway," he began.
"Putting family matters aside," he continued which he knew what had happened to her family back then; they weren't close for nothing. "Mikan, all of your songs are great. It would be a shame for you to just hide your talent like that."
"You know what, senpai," she bit her lips and continued, "c-can I get back to you later on?" She choked out. God her head felt heavy right now. "I'll call you."
Rei looked at her before finally deciding to just give a sigh in response. "Alright then." He picked up his coat. After sipping his coffee one last time, he stood up. "I'll leave my number to Hotaru." He scribbled his phone number on a tissue paper and handed it to Hotaru. With one last bow of his head, he walked out of the door. The bell chimed as it closed.
Hotaru looked at the scribbles on the tissue paper. "Ugh, his awful handwriting hasn't changed at all," she commented. She looked at her brunette friend who had her knees pressed against her chest right now, head laying limply on them. "So what are you gonna do?"
She heard her low muffled voice groaned in response before she answered, "I don't know." Another grunt. "Things got so messed up lately." She grunted again. "How did senpai know it's me?" She looked up and looked at Hotaru with the most frustrated expression Hotaru had ever seen on her friend. "Did I slip somewhere, Hotaru?"
"No, you haven't, baka," Hotaru replied. Her cold amethyst eyes soften. "You did a good job in concealing your secret," she said in a soothing voice.
"Then, how could he find out?" Mikan retorted. She felt like bawling her eyes out right now.
"Didn't you hear? He said it himself. He knew it was your voice." Hotaru got down from the stool and walked towards where Mikan sat. She perched on the armrest of the sofa where Mikan was currently siting and calmly padded her head. "And besides, you were clinging with him so much back when we were kids, don't you remember? You two were so close that it annoyed me so darn much." She let out a low chuckled. "He's a close senpai. Make sense he could spot your voice anywhere, anytime. You guys were close."
Hotaru's right. Rei-senpai was like a brother to her back then. Well, especially there wasn't anyone else anymore at that time. There wasn't a single day that Mikan won't go clinging on him when she returned home. They had spent so much time together that it's hardly impossible for each of them not to know what the others were like. Mikan sighed and leaned her body against Hotaru's. She laid her head on her friend's lap. "What do you think I should do?"
Hotaru shrugged. "Your call."
She was silent. But then, so was the rest of the café. At last, she gave up and stood. "I'm going home." She took one final sip from her cup and gathered her stuff. On her way to the door, Hotaru called out. "I forgot to inform you; AA library for one whole week starting tomorrow."
Her paces halted. Her punishment. Ugh, her life had been a mess since she met that blasted Hyuuga!
"Do I still need to go to school then?" she growled out.
"Iie."
"Wakaru."
The bell chimed once again as the door closed.
"Sugoi ne, Mikan-chan's life," Kaname commented in amusement as Mikan disappeared from their sights. He gave Hotaru a warm smile when the latter just openly stared at him. "By awesome you mean, a total headache?" she replied dryly.
Kaname laughed. "Demo, Hotaru-chan's life, I think it's interesting as well." He winked.
Hotaru rolled her eyes—yet erupting another laugh coming out from Kaname—and decided to go back to her work. She halted, remembering something. She turned her head around. "Senpai, just now—"
Kaname waved his hand dismissively from the counter. "Wakatteru yo." He smiled. "I got my lips sealed as always." He made the action of sealing his lips with his hand for better understanding. Hotaru just shook her head at his childish act and continued her way up the stairs.
Seems like they're not recording any songs as well today. Oh well.
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Mikan tiredly dragged her feet on the floor and closed the door. Making her way towards the kitchen, thinking of grabbing a glass of water before she headed to her room, she yelped in surprised when she saw a familiar looking figure loomed in the room.
"Ahh otou-san!" she looked at her father with wide eyes, hands holding her now panicking chest. "You scared me!"
Izumi, donning a tailored dark blue suit with a matching soft blue tie with his blonde hair waxed in a neat business style, laughed at the sight of his surprise daughter. "I assumed you forgot I was supposed to be home today." He took out a chair at the dining table and took a seat.
Mikan frowned. "Iie. I remembered correctly you told me you'd be back by next week. Not," she pressed, "the next day."
Izumi took a sip of his drink that he just made before Mikan got home. "Souka," was his short reply.
"Otou-san!" Mikan fumed. "Why are you back so early?"
"Why? Can't I see my daughter at all?" Izumi made a disbelief hurtful face at his daughter. Then a realization dawned on him. He fought the urge to grin mischievously at his one and only daughter. "Matte, Mikan. Did you sneak in a guy when I wasn't around?" he looked around and made a sniffing sound. "The house smells like a man's perfume as well."
"Stop creating your own speculations, otou-san!" Mikan screamed in frustration.
"Hontou de yo. Take a sniff, the air smells different." Izumi continued teasing his daughter.
Mikan frowned and went to the fridge. She took out a bottle of mineral water and slammed it on the table. "By a male, you mean my own brother." She glared at her father and took a seat on a chair opposite of him.
Izumi laughed. "Stop crinkling your brows Mikan, you will get old fast."
"You never stop, do you?" Mikan mumbled in dissatisfied. She looked around again while opening the cap of the bottle and start gulping. "Where's You-chan?"
"Went out. He said he's playing basketball with neighboring kids."
Mikan choked. Neighboring kids!? "When did he ever meet them?"
Izumi shrugged. He stood up and grabbed his coat. "Mind washing your ol' otou-san's cup, would you?" He pecked the top of her head and headed for the stairs.
"Ah otou-san, you haven't answered my question yet!" Mikan yelled across the room. "Why did you get back so early?!"
All she heard was her dad's continue of whistling as an answer. Mikan rolled her brown eyes at her dad immature act. Having a young dad was like having another older brother to nag to every single day. She sighed. Picking up her dad's cup and washing them, she grabbed for her bottle of mineral water before going up to her room.
After taking a nice long shower, she finally remembered something. Now that her dad's home, she can finally get You-chan a phone! Wanted to dress up quickly, she put on her blood red baggie hoodie, a pair of shorts and a pair of Nike Air Max, grabbed her purse and phone, and quickly rushed to her dad's room. Being too excited, she barged in without even knocking. He wasn't there. She then quickly ran downstairs where she knew he could be at that one place.
She was right; she saw her dad lounging on the couch in the living room, watching National Geography—with only a pair of sweat pants on. Mikan had to stop herself from tearing her hair out at the sight of her dad. He's doing it again! Being in late thirties, he still had that youth look going on with his lean cut body and blonde hair down, all messy and tousled. And since he bloody knew that himself, no matter how much she nags at him to wear properly at home, he wouldn't even listen. Giving reason that it's his own house and such, Mikan finally gave up and never mentioned about it since.
Putting her best sweet smile, Mikan approached him. She cleared her throat. "Otou-san?"
"Hm?" Izumi looked up and saw her daughter fidgeting. He could guess what that means. "What do you want now, sweetheart?"
"Ano ne, You-chan doesn't have a phone. So can we get one for him?" she pleaded, eyes wide and puppy dog and all she thought that she can pull off. "It's kinda hard to reach him and he often got lost so a GPS one would really help," she added. "Onegai?"
"Yeah why not." He sat up and watched her daughter jumped giddily to his answer. "That kiddo, still hasn't fix his bad sense of direction huh?" he reached out for his wallet on the table and took out his debit card.
"Apparently not." Mikan sighed.
He handed her the card. "Mikan, please don't get a really expensive one. Remember, we are not millionaires," he reminded her.
Mikan snatched the card away and made a run for the door. "But otou-san is rich enough to drive a Pro White Bentley!" she stuck out her tongue, giggled and ran through the door.
"I'm teaching you how to be economical!" He shouted across the now empty room. He heard the sound of the door slammed shut and laughed. Mikan is just like Yuka. Slumping back on the couch, he sighed. She resembles her so much that it hurts.
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Youchi snatched the ball and made a run for the hoop. With one strong jump, he slammed the ball in. A satisfaction yell was heard as his feet touched the ground back. He snickered at the boys and threw them the ball again.
"Come on man, is that all you got?" he mocked them.
Tono, who had his hair up in ponytail, grumbled, "You said you never play before, Hijiri."
Youichi shrugged and smirked. "True enough."
Tono looked at him in disbelief. He jumped on Youichi and had him in a headlock. "You brat, you lied to us!" he pulled his grip tighter. "Let go, I can't breathe, baka!" Youichi choked. The rest of the guys came and poked him here and there, resulting in him cursing out loud at them all. They laughed at Youichi's response.
Then, everything just stopped. The guys stopped poking and Tono's grip loosened. Tono suddenly let go and Youichi fell on his butt to the ground. Cursing under his breath, he stood up and ready to smack each of the guys' heads. But then, he saw them only standing there, bodies and shirts drenched in sweats, hair all messed up and they were..what? Ogling?
He turned to look as well and immediately his face paled.
His onee-san was standing by the bleachers; hoods up, covering her brunette tresses inside the oversized hoodie and exposing a ridiculous amount of skin with her long legs. Wait, did she even wear pants under that hoodie? She's going to listen to his damn lecture about this later on. Youichi looked back at his teammates and growled. They were ogling his sister for god's sake!
He smacked each of their heads with more force than necessary. "Stop staring, idiots," he bit off.
The guys groaned in pain. Tono snapped his attention back to reality and went all denial. "We're not staring!"
Youichi glared at him. "Of course you're not. You were ogling," he added dryly. He looked at Yamamato, who's still in his own dream world. He smacked his head once again. "I said stop staring!"
"What's with you, Hijiri? Why you suddenly got all pissed off?" Tono asked, he looked at the silver haired lad oddly. Then his brows crinkled when something dawned on him. "She's your girlfriend?" He looked at Youichi in disbelief then smacked his back as if to congratulate him. "Dude, you're one heck of a guy! She's hot, man!"
Youichi frowned and bit his inner mouth. He's not gonna stay here and listen to a bunch of hormonal guys taking about how hot his sister is. He pushed Tono's hands away. Picking up his jersey on the ground, he headed towards his sister, ignoring his friend's constant yells of "Hey, introduce us man!" They kept whistling.
On his way towards the bleachers, he held up his hand in the air and gave them a middle finger from backwards, resulting them erupting in a howl of laughter. Just as he reached his sister's side, he glared at her a menacing one. "Do you even wear pants?" he barked angrily.
Mikan furrowed her brows. "Of course I am." She flipped the bottom of her oversized hoodie a little, revealing a pair of shorts that's really short.
Youichi's eyes bulged out. "That's not considered as pants, you dumbass! I'm gonna burn it when we get home!" he huffed. "I'm gonna burn down the store where you bought that damn…"he looked angrily at the pair shorts. "What is that you're wearing, anyway?" he finished off furiously.
"You-chan, what is wrong with you? They're just hotpants."
"What's wrong with me?" He looked at her in incredulous. "I had to stand there and listen to those stupid jocks talking how hot you are and they were ogling you for god's sake!" he hissed. Steams were coming out of his ears.
Mikan laughed at her brother's enrage state. "Is that why they were whistling?" She saw a group of guys in the middle of the court. Some wearing shirts and the rest were just half naked. There were eight of them she counted. And they were still looking at her. She decided to poke Youichi some more so she gave them a friendly wave and was responded by yet another amount of constant whistles. Youichi closed his eyes and bit his inner mouth again. God he wanted to strangle his sister right now. "Don't start, Mikan-nee."
Mikan giggled and pad Youichi's shoulder. "I'm just being friendly. They're your friends after all."
"I'm gonna kill them after this," he mumbled under his breath.
"Ma, ma, You-chan. Watch that temper of yours." She laughed. "I'm just teasing you just now, okay?" She held her hand out.
Youichi looked at her hand and then looked at her questioningly. "What?"
He watched as Mikan beamed. "I talked to otou-san and he agreed to let me buy you a phone!" she flashed out a flat card she took from inside her hoodie pocket and grinned widely. "You need a GPS one so you don't get lost later on." She wiggled the card in front of him.
"Are we going now?" he asked tiredly at her.
"Yes!"
"Can we go later? I smell like sweats and you need to change your clothes," he explained. He clicked his tongue irritatingly at the sight of her sister's exposing legs. "You need to put on a pair pants or something."
Mikan waved her hands dismissively, brushing off whatever he had said. "Nonsense." She grabbed for his hand and started walking. "This will only take awhile."
He was about to demur and just dragged her home, when her next words made him change his mind completely. "And I thought it's finally the time for me to tell you what you wanted to know."
What I wanted to know?
She means, what had happened these 5 years?
Talk about finally.
TBC.
Disclaimer: The song 'Family Portrait' is not mine.