Title: Flower Garden (A Hana Yori Dango AU)
Author: Yih
Author Note: Thank you so much for your support! Please keep reviewing!
5: Strange Rumors! (November 24, 2002 to November 28, 2002)
F3 were waiting outside the beach house when Shizuka finally rejoined them. Her face still had a stunned expression on it while she was walking toward them, but she carefully concealed most of by the time they turned around to see her. "Well?" Tsukasa demanded. "What's up with those two?"
Shizuka sat down on one of the steps and looked up at the stars in the sky. "They'll tell you when they're ready," she answered with a soft, mysterious smile that was her trademark. "It'd be wrong for me to tell you when they're not even sure of what they want to say yet."
Tsukasa looked absolutely frustrated and he was about to charge Shizuka and demand an answer, but Akira stepped in front of Tsukasa. "Don't," he muttered in a low voice, "just wait. I'm sure they'll come out and tell us shortly, until then you're going to have to wait."
"Must be something important," added Soujirou reflectively.
"Unlike you sissies," Tsukasa exclaimed, "I'm not going to wait for them to come out and tell! I'm going to go into the room and find out what's going on!"
He started marching forward at breakneck speed, which was the only way he was staying in front of Soujirou and Akira, who were frantically trying to hold him back. Just as Tsukasa was about to barge in, Tsukushi opened the door, which hit Tsukasa square in the face. It hit him with enough force to knock him to the ground, causing Soujirou and Akira to burst out laughing.
"Oh!" Tsukushi exclaimed. "Are you alright, Tsukasa?" she asked, kneeling down next to him. When she saw that Tsukasa had only been knocked off balanced rather than hurt, she giggled too. "What were you doing charging at the door like that?" she queried when she was finally able to get her laughter under control after Tsukasa glared at her indignantly for several long seconds.
"You could have given me a... bruise!" Tsukasa shouted lamely.
Tsukushi raised an eyebrow at his complaint. She was about to retort back, which would have started both of them on one of their endless arguments, but Shizuka asked softly, "Are you ready to tell them?"
Turning to Rui, Tsukushi asked silently with her eyes if he was ready. He understood as he had always understood her without speaking. He shrugged, it was up to her. "Well," Tsukushi began, "we thought our meetings were separate, but they were actually one meeting with his father and my mother. Basically, to make a long story short--- we're arranged to be married."
"WHAT!?" Tsukasa yelled. "You're engaged?! Why did you do such a stupid thing?" He reached to grab her hands and jerk her toward her, but Rui stepped into his pathway. He glared at Rui before resuming to scream at Tsukushi, "Why are you doing such stupid things?!"
"For your information, my parents arranged it with Rui's parents!" Tsukushi shouted. F2 and Shizuka watched with their usual fascination at their arguing, while Rui stepped back and stared up at the stars in the sky. All of them were use to these arguments, but usually Tsukushi didn't raise her voice above talking loudly. Then again, there was only so much one could take of Tsukasa acting like an irrational idiot. "You are impossible! Why are you always like this?"
Tsukasa was blustering because he couldn't think of any good comebacks. "You are such a stupid girl!"
"Is that all you can say?" she retorted.
"You are always doing stupid things! Like forgetting to call me back when I leave messages on your cell! Forgetting to meet up with me when I tell you too!" he yelled. "And you've gone and done another stupid thing again!"
Tsukushi rolled her eyes up heavenward. When Tsukasa was fixated on a topic, it was hard to get him off the topic. She did wonder though, if he even remembered what she had said about her being engaged to Rui. She wasn't so sure that he fully digested that bit of information. She sighed as Tsukasa continued ranting. The poor idiot was still in shock mode. As she glanced at Rui's back, she thought he was taking things calmly as always.
~
"What do you think?"
Glancing over to where Shizuka stood in the light, her silhouette reflecting a soft and graceful shadow, Akira made his way over to her. "About Tsukushi and Rui?"
"Yes," she answered. "Don't you think they'll make a good couple?"
"I suppose," Akira responded. "I can't really read Rui as good as you can read him, so I don't know about his feelings for her. But for Tsukushi, there's something special in her relationship with Rui. She definitely sees him differently than the rest of us. That's good for Rui."
"Rui likes her immensely," Shizuka stated softly. "That I know for certain."
"How?" Akira inquired.
She turned to him and placed her arms around his neck. "I know because when Rui was little, he was never really smiling. But after he met Tsukushi, he'd smile whenever he was watching her playing. You, Tsukasa, and Soujirou never noticed because you were always off doing something else more active, while I stayed and watched Tsukushi and Rui. It wasn't that Rui was fascinated by Tsukushi's story as much as he enjoyed it when she'd stay with him and sit by him and try to understand why he did it like you guys never did. Those two definitely share something special."
"That I'll agree with wholeheartedly," Akira murmured. He drew closer to Shizuka, until their bodies were touching. "Do we share something special?" He leaned down and kissed her softly on the forehead. "I think we do." He was about to kiss her on the lips when she drew away from him.
She laughed softly and continued rambling on Rui and Tsukushi, "We're suppose to be talking about Rui and Tsukushi, and how we're going to get them to acknowledge that they're perfect for each other. Don't you think they're perfect for each other?"
"Why do you always change the subject when I try to talk about us?" he asked in irritation.
She tilted her head, looking at him with a curious expression on her face. But she didn't say anything to him, instead she stepped closer to him. Taking his face into her hands, she leaned up and kissed him fully on the lips.
~
"Why don't you stop it, Tsukasa?" Akira queried, holding Tsukasa back so that he didn't do anything stupid.
Tsukasa jerked away from Akira's hold and said in a loud voice, "He's being such a baby!"
F3 looked at Rui, who was crying silently after Tsukasa had hit him, trying to get him to actually play with them. Unfortunately, like always, Tsukasa's roughhousing proved too much from little Rui to bear. Eventually, when Soujirou and Akira wasn't paying attention to Tsukasa, Tsukasa grabbed Rui by the arm and started shaking him quite violently. But before Soujirou and Akira could stop Tsukasa, Shizuka entered into the room when she heard the distressed moan coming from Rui's mouth.
It was always like this. As soon as Rui starting making that sound of distress, Shizuka would appear from wherever she was and take Rui by the hand, leading him out of the room. Akira watched how Shizuka gracefully entered into the room and how she said in her commanding, yet gentle voice, "Tsukasa! Stop that! Can't you see that you're hurting him?"
There was something mesmerizing about Shizuka's voice and it finally got into Tsukasa head that he was doing something dreadfully wrong with the way he was shaking Rui. He stopped and backed away, while Shizuka stepped forward and took Rui by the hand. Watching her take Rui away, Akira was compelled to follow for the first time after them. He vaguely recalled hearing Soujirou tell Tsukasa, "Calm down, okay?"
"But was being such a baby!" Tsukasa grumbled.
"You know he's like that," Soujirou muttered. "You shouldn't really be surprised. You know he doesn't like it when we play like that. You should have just stopped."
Akira didn't hear the rest of the conversation since Shizuka had led Rui to another part of the mansion. He studied the two of them carefully, especially Shizuka as she hugged Rui, comforting him with her gentle words. He was able to make out what she said, but barely, "Rui, you should tell them when you don't like when they do that. And remember what I told you out doing a handstand to stop your tears? Crying doesn't solve your problems. It only makes Tsukasa more angry at you."
Rui stared out at the bright blue sky, while Shizuka continued talking, "Don't you want to become better friends with them, Rui? You should open yourself more up to them. You know they'd really like you as a friend if you'd actually played with them or at least talked to them. Is that so hard to do?"
"I don't like what they do," Rui stated without a thread of emotion. It caught Akira off guard that Rui was actually speaking, since it was rare and if he heard Rui speak, it was only a word or two at most. "I like it better here, where it's not so loud."
"It's not that quiet," Shizuka remarked. "I talk quite a bit to you. I tell you things that I don't tell anyone else. Sometimes, I wonder if you even listen to me. Sometimes, I think that you don't care about what I say, do you, Rui?"
Rui turned to her and touched her face with his hand. "I listen to what you say. What you say doesn't bother me. Tsukasa bothers my peace."
She grinned at him and pinched his cheeks. "You are so cute, Rui! You're going to be a lady-killer when you grow up." At his perplexed look, she waved her hand in the air like it didn't matter what she had said. "You're too young to think about that anyways. You're only seven after all."
"You're only nine," Rui responded.
"Yes, but I'm much more wiser than you are," she said back. "Do you feel better now?"
He nodded. "Yes, I do."
Shizuka smiled and she was about to continue on talking about random things in her life when she as she was moving positions, she caught sight of Akira standing at the doorway. She gestured at him to come here, but his face turned red. He didn't leave, neither did he move forward. Eventually, she got up from her seat next to Rui and moved to where Akira was standing.
"Why don't you come sit with us?" Shizuka inquired.
"I think Rui needs to be alone," Akira replied.
She nodded and together with him, they left Rui to his blissful peace. It wasn't long after they left him that he fell into a pleasant sleep, leaning against the wall, the sun shining down on his slumbering form. "You understand Rui, don't you?" she queried. "You're Akira, aren't you? He's mentioned you before, differently then Tsukasa or Soujirou."
"I guess it's because I don't push him to play with us if he doesn't want to," Akira responded. "I'll even sit in silence with him when he goes off by himself when Tsukasa gets upset at him for not playing with us."
She gave him a breathtaking smile. "That's wonderful! Rui needs more friends! I'm so glad that you're his friend! Maybe next time, I'll invite only you and Rui over instead of the other two. Then maybe Rui can interact a bit more without Tsukasa here."
"That'd be fine with me."
~
The next day at school, rumors were already circulating around school about the engagement of Hanazawa Rui to Makino Tsukushi. Any news about F4 was big, but this was especially gigantic news! One of the F4 was no longer available! The only consolation to the mass of girls at Eitoku was at least it was the mysterious and slightly odd Hanazawa Rui, instead of the Doumyouji Tsukasa. Small consolation at that.
"Do you think the rumors are true?" Yuki asked, walking the campus with Makiko.
Makiko shrugged. "I don't know. They might be."
"You know how those rumors are," Yuki began, "it could be just lies. There hasn't really been any confirmation. This news just blew out this morning when we arrived. Though, you did tell me that there was a rumor that said Makino Tsukushi was engaged to one of the F4. What do you think?"
"I think it might be true," Makiko answered. "It might be true because there's this special relationship that Makino Tsukushi and Hanazawa Rui have with each other. It's not that they're openly friendly with each other or even flirtation. It's that whenever they're with one another, there's this striking peace and harmony. They always seem very happy in each other's presence."
~
"Is Hanazawa Rui really engaged to that Makino Tsukushi?"
"Yeah! I heard that too!"
"I think it really might be true."
"Really? I thought that it'd be Mimasaka Akira that she'd be engaged too."
"Or even Nishikado Soujirou. Either of them. It might not be Hanazawa Rui."
"That's what the posters say, though..."
The student pointed to the posters that Kazuya was tearing down frantically, exclaiming in a crazed voice, "My Makino Tsukushi can't be engaged to that--- that marble boy, Hanazawa Rui! She can't be engaged to any of the F4! She's my dear, sweet, and adorable Tsukushi! I've waited too late. I must confess! I must confess my feelings for her!"
Doumyouji Tsukasa had overheard everything that Kazuya had said and had also overheard what the rest of the students at Eitoku had said. The whole weekend had passed in a blur to him because he had basically locked himself in his room and had resorted to throwing things around. F3 and Shizuka and Tsukushi had tried to talk to him, but it was to no avail. He wouldn't open the door. Eventually, they decided the best thing for them to do was to give up and let him calm himself down.
Since he couldn't get his mind off the idea that Tsukushi was engaged to Rui, he had decided to come to school on time for once. Hearing all the students talk about the engagement was frustrating him to no end! How was it that they knew so soon? It wasn't like it was announced or anything! Everything in Eitoku seemed to spread like wildflowers! And to hear them ranting and raving on and on about the subject was getting to his last nerve. It wasn't helping that they were mentioning any and all of the F4, except HIM!
So when he saw Tsukushi getting out of her car, he immediately marched up to her in a rage. She smiled at him and waved, "Are you feeling better today?"
He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into his arms. He hugged her squirming body tightly. Before she could say anything, he pushed her away and yelled at her, "YOU STUPID WOMAN! Why did you get engaged to Hanazawa Rui?!"
"I told you," she exclaimed back, "that my parents arranged it, not me!"
"You must have done something to make them think of Hanazawa Rui!" he said back childishly.
"Is that why you locked yourself in your room all weekend?" she asked in an amused voice.
"Yes, no, I mean no!" he shouted. "You are such a dumb girl!"
"Why do you care anyways?" she inquired.
He looked like he was in pain. She waited patiently, tapping her foot as his face got redder and redder. "Because I LIKE YOU, you STUPID, crazy WOMAN!" he screamed at her face. "It's because I like you. Why did you get engaged to him? Why can't it be me?!"
Author: Yih
Author Note: Thank you so much for your support! Please keep reviewing!
5: Strange Rumors! (November 24, 2002 to November 28, 2002)
F3 were waiting outside the beach house when Shizuka finally rejoined them. Her face still had a stunned expression on it while she was walking toward them, but she carefully concealed most of by the time they turned around to see her. "Well?" Tsukasa demanded. "What's up with those two?"
Shizuka sat down on one of the steps and looked up at the stars in the sky. "They'll tell you when they're ready," she answered with a soft, mysterious smile that was her trademark. "It'd be wrong for me to tell you when they're not even sure of what they want to say yet."
Tsukasa looked absolutely frustrated and he was about to charge Shizuka and demand an answer, but Akira stepped in front of Tsukasa. "Don't," he muttered in a low voice, "just wait. I'm sure they'll come out and tell us shortly, until then you're going to have to wait."
"Must be something important," added Soujirou reflectively.
"Unlike you sissies," Tsukasa exclaimed, "I'm not going to wait for them to come out and tell! I'm going to go into the room and find out what's going on!"
He started marching forward at breakneck speed, which was the only way he was staying in front of Soujirou and Akira, who were frantically trying to hold him back. Just as Tsukasa was about to barge in, Tsukushi opened the door, which hit Tsukasa square in the face. It hit him with enough force to knock him to the ground, causing Soujirou and Akira to burst out laughing.
"Oh!" Tsukushi exclaimed. "Are you alright, Tsukasa?" she asked, kneeling down next to him. When she saw that Tsukasa had only been knocked off balanced rather than hurt, she giggled too. "What were you doing charging at the door like that?" she queried when she was finally able to get her laughter under control after Tsukasa glared at her indignantly for several long seconds.
"You could have given me a... bruise!" Tsukasa shouted lamely.
Tsukushi raised an eyebrow at his complaint. She was about to retort back, which would have started both of them on one of their endless arguments, but Shizuka asked softly, "Are you ready to tell them?"
Turning to Rui, Tsukushi asked silently with her eyes if he was ready. He understood as he had always understood her without speaking. He shrugged, it was up to her. "Well," Tsukushi began, "we thought our meetings were separate, but they were actually one meeting with his father and my mother. Basically, to make a long story short--- we're arranged to be married."
"WHAT!?" Tsukasa yelled. "You're engaged?! Why did you do such a stupid thing?" He reached to grab her hands and jerk her toward her, but Rui stepped into his pathway. He glared at Rui before resuming to scream at Tsukushi, "Why are you doing such stupid things?!"
"For your information, my parents arranged it with Rui's parents!" Tsukushi shouted. F2 and Shizuka watched with their usual fascination at their arguing, while Rui stepped back and stared up at the stars in the sky. All of them were use to these arguments, but usually Tsukushi didn't raise her voice above talking loudly. Then again, there was only so much one could take of Tsukasa acting like an irrational idiot. "You are impossible! Why are you always like this?"
Tsukasa was blustering because he couldn't think of any good comebacks. "You are such a stupid girl!"
"Is that all you can say?" she retorted.
"You are always doing stupid things! Like forgetting to call me back when I leave messages on your cell! Forgetting to meet up with me when I tell you too!" he yelled. "And you've gone and done another stupid thing again!"
Tsukushi rolled her eyes up heavenward. When Tsukasa was fixated on a topic, it was hard to get him off the topic. She did wonder though, if he even remembered what she had said about her being engaged to Rui. She wasn't so sure that he fully digested that bit of information. She sighed as Tsukasa continued ranting. The poor idiot was still in shock mode. As she glanced at Rui's back, she thought he was taking things calmly as always.
~
"What do you think?"
Glancing over to where Shizuka stood in the light, her silhouette reflecting a soft and graceful shadow, Akira made his way over to her. "About Tsukushi and Rui?"
"Yes," she answered. "Don't you think they'll make a good couple?"
"I suppose," Akira responded. "I can't really read Rui as good as you can read him, so I don't know about his feelings for her. But for Tsukushi, there's something special in her relationship with Rui. She definitely sees him differently than the rest of us. That's good for Rui."
"Rui likes her immensely," Shizuka stated softly. "That I know for certain."
"How?" Akira inquired.
She turned to him and placed her arms around his neck. "I know because when Rui was little, he was never really smiling. But after he met Tsukushi, he'd smile whenever he was watching her playing. You, Tsukasa, and Soujirou never noticed because you were always off doing something else more active, while I stayed and watched Tsukushi and Rui. It wasn't that Rui was fascinated by Tsukushi's story as much as he enjoyed it when she'd stay with him and sit by him and try to understand why he did it like you guys never did. Those two definitely share something special."
"That I'll agree with wholeheartedly," Akira murmured. He drew closer to Shizuka, until their bodies were touching. "Do we share something special?" He leaned down and kissed her softly on the forehead. "I think we do." He was about to kiss her on the lips when she drew away from him.
She laughed softly and continued rambling on Rui and Tsukushi, "We're suppose to be talking about Rui and Tsukushi, and how we're going to get them to acknowledge that they're perfect for each other. Don't you think they're perfect for each other?"
"Why do you always change the subject when I try to talk about us?" he asked in irritation.
She tilted her head, looking at him with a curious expression on her face. But she didn't say anything to him, instead she stepped closer to him. Taking his face into her hands, she leaned up and kissed him fully on the lips.
~
"Why don't you stop it, Tsukasa?" Akira queried, holding Tsukasa back so that he didn't do anything stupid.
Tsukasa jerked away from Akira's hold and said in a loud voice, "He's being such a baby!"
F3 looked at Rui, who was crying silently after Tsukasa had hit him, trying to get him to actually play with them. Unfortunately, like always, Tsukasa's roughhousing proved too much from little Rui to bear. Eventually, when Soujirou and Akira wasn't paying attention to Tsukasa, Tsukasa grabbed Rui by the arm and started shaking him quite violently. But before Soujirou and Akira could stop Tsukasa, Shizuka entered into the room when she heard the distressed moan coming from Rui's mouth.
It was always like this. As soon as Rui starting making that sound of distress, Shizuka would appear from wherever she was and take Rui by the hand, leading him out of the room. Akira watched how Shizuka gracefully entered into the room and how she said in her commanding, yet gentle voice, "Tsukasa! Stop that! Can't you see that you're hurting him?"
There was something mesmerizing about Shizuka's voice and it finally got into Tsukasa head that he was doing something dreadfully wrong with the way he was shaking Rui. He stopped and backed away, while Shizuka stepped forward and took Rui by the hand. Watching her take Rui away, Akira was compelled to follow for the first time after them. He vaguely recalled hearing Soujirou tell Tsukasa, "Calm down, okay?"
"But was being such a baby!" Tsukasa grumbled.
"You know he's like that," Soujirou muttered. "You shouldn't really be surprised. You know he doesn't like it when we play like that. You should have just stopped."
Akira didn't hear the rest of the conversation since Shizuka had led Rui to another part of the mansion. He studied the two of them carefully, especially Shizuka as she hugged Rui, comforting him with her gentle words. He was able to make out what she said, but barely, "Rui, you should tell them when you don't like when they do that. And remember what I told you out doing a handstand to stop your tears? Crying doesn't solve your problems. It only makes Tsukasa more angry at you."
Rui stared out at the bright blue sky, while Shizuka continued talking, "Don't you want to become better friends with them, Rui? You should open yourself more up to them. You know they'd really like you as a friend if you'd actually played with them or at least talked to them. Is that so hard to do?"
"I don't like what they do," Rui stated without a thread of emotion. It caught Akira off guard that Rui was actually speaking, since it was rare and if he heard Rui speak, it was only a word or two at most. "I like it better here, where it's not so loud."
"It's not that quiet," Shizuka remarked. "I talk quite a bit to you. I tell you things that I don't tell anyone else. Sometimes, I wonder if you even listen to me. Sometimes, I think that you don't care about what I say, do you, Rui?"
Rui turned to her and touched her face with his hand. "I listen to what you say. What you say doesn't bother me. Tsukasa bothers my peace."
She grinned at him and pinched his cheeks. "You are so cute, Rui! You're going to be a lady-killer when you grow up." At his perplexed look, she waved her hand in the air like it didn't matter what she had said. "You're too young to think about that anyways. You're only seven after all."
"You're only nine," Rui responded.
"Yes, but I'm much more wiser than you are," she said back. "Do you feel better now?"
He nodded. "Yes, I do."
Shizuka smiled and she was about to continue on talking about random things in her life when she as she was moving positions, she caught sight of Akira standing at the doorway. She gestured at him to come here, but his face turned red. He didn't leave, neither did he move forward. Eventually, she got up from her seat next to Rui and moved to where Akira was standing.
"Why don't you come sit with us?" Shizuka inquired.
"I think Rui needs to be alone," Akira replied.
She nodded and together with him, they left Rui to his blissful peace. It wasn't long after they left him that he fell into a pleasant sleep, leaning against the wall, the sun shining down on his slumbering form. "You understand Rui, don't you?" she queried. "You're Akira, aren't you? He's mentioned you before, differently then Tsukasa or Soujirou."
"I guess it's because I don't push him to play with us if he doesn't want to," Akira responded. "I'll even sit in silence with him when he goes off by himself when Tsukasa gets upset at him for not playing with us."
She gave him a breathtaking smile. "That's wonderful! Rui needs more friends! I'm so glad that you're his friend! Maybe next time, I'll invite only you and Rui over instead of the other two. Then maybe Rui can interact a bit more without Tsukasa here."
"That'd be fine with me."
~
The next day at school, rumors were already circulating around school about the engagement of Hanazawa Rui to Makino Tsukushi. Any news about F4 was big, but this was especially gigantic news! One of the F4 was no longer available! The only consolation to the mass of girls at Eitoku was at least it was the mysterious and slightly odd Hanazawa Rui, instead of the Doumyouji Tsukasa. Small consolation at that.
"Do you think the rumors are true?" Yuki asked, walking the campus with Makiko.
Makiko shrugged. "I don't know. They might be."
"You know how those rumors are," Yuki began, "it could be just lies. There hasn't really been any confirmation. This news just blew out this morning when we arrived. Though, you did tell me that there was a rumor that said Makino Tsukushi was engaged to one of the F4. What do you think?"
"I think it might be true," Makiko answered. "It might be true because there's this special relationship that Makino Tsukushi and Hanazawa Rui have with each other. It's not that they're openly friendly with each other or even flirtation. It's that whenever they're with one another, there's this striking peace and harmony. They always seem very happy in each other's presence."
~
"Is Hanazawa Rui really engaged to that Makino Tsukushi?"
"Yeah! I heard that too!"
"I think it really might be true."
"Really? I thought that it'd be Mimasaka Akira that she'd be engaged too."
"Or even Nishikado Soujirou. Either of them. It might not be Hanazawa Rui."
"That's what the posters say, though..."
The student pointed to the posters that Kazuya was tearing down frantically, exclaiming in a crazed voice, "My Makino Tsukushi can't be engaged to that--- that marble boy, Hanazawa Rui! She can't be engaged to any of the F4! She's my dear, sweet, and adorable Tsukushi! I've waited too late. I must confess! I must confess my feelings for her!"
Doumyouji Tsukasa had overheard everything that Kazuya had said and had also overheard what the rest of the students at Eitoku had said. The whole weekend had passed in a blur to him because he had basically locked himself in his room and had resorted to throwing things around. F3 and Shizuka and Tsukushi had tried to talk to him, but it was to no avail. He wouldn't open the door. Eventually, they decided the best thing for them to do was to give up and let him calm himself down.
Since he couldn't get his mind off the idea that Tsukushi was engaged to Rui, he had decided to come to school on time for once. Hearing all the students talk about the engagement was frustrating him to no end! How was it that they knew so soon? It wasn't like it was announced or anything! Everything in Eitoku seemed to spread like wildflowers! And to hear them ranting and raving on and on about the subject was getting to his last nerve. It wasn't helping that they were mentioning any and all of the F4, except HIM!
So when he saw Tsukushi getting out of her car, he immediately marched up to her in a rage. She smiled at him and waved, "Are you feeling better today?"
He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into his arms. He hugged her squirming body tightly. Before she could say anything, he pushed her away and yelled at her, "YOU STUPID WOMAN! Why did you get engaged to Hanazawa Rui?!"
"I told you," she exclaimed back, "that my parents arranged it, not me!"
"You must have done something to make them think of Hanazawa Rui!" he said back childishly.
"Is that why you locked yourself in your room all weekend?" she asked in an amused voice.
"Yes, no, I mean no!" he shouted. "You are such a dumb girl!"
"Why do you care anyways?" she inquired.
He looked like he was in pain. She waited patiently, tapping her foot as his face got redder and redder. "Because I LIKE YOU, you STUPID, crazy WOMAN!" he screamed at her face. "It's because I like you. Why did you get engaged to him? Why can't it be me?!"