Title: Flower Garden (A Hana Yori Dango AU)
Author: Yih
Author Note: Thank you so much for your support! Please keep reviewing!
6: Turning Tide (November 30, 2002 to December 3, 2002)
"Well?" Tsukasa demanded.
Tsukushi glanced briefly at him before looking toward F3, who had arrived just in time to hear Tsukasa screaming out his confession to her. The one she watched the most carefully was Rui. Their eyes met for a second before he deliberately turned around and started to walk away.
"Well?" he repeated insistently.
"Well what?" she replied, not really hearing what he had said.
"Do you like me?" he asked.
Tsukushi glanced back at him, then turned her gaze back to the receding back of Rui. With Rui, she always never really knew what he felt. But there was a part of her that truly believed that they shared something special. But she wasn't sure if he thought the same thing. Even if she knew Rui better than anyone else did, it still didn't mean that she knew him well enough to know how he felt--- felt about her. With Tsukasa, it was simple and easy. He had just told her he liked her. She'd never thought he would, but then again--- she'd had an inkling.
"Tsukushi!" exclaimed Tsukasa impatiently.
Rui was almost out of sight now. A small part was telling herself that she should let him go because Rui probably only was thinking of them as friends, since he hadn't exactly been thrilled about the engagement. Neither had she. She had never really imagined Rui as anything other than as a best friend. But another part of her, a larger part of her was telling herself that if she didn't going--- she'd regret this moment forever. "I--- I," she mumbled before she ran off about Rui.
Immediately, once he saw that Tsukushi was going to go after Rui, Tsukasa started to go after her. But Akira grabbed him by the shoulder and told him in a low voice, "Let her go. Those two understand each other's moods, and Rui's definitely in one of his moods right now."
"But, but---" Tsukasa sputtered, "she never answered my question!"
"Just ask her tonight!" Soujirou and Akira muttered simultaneously.
~
She lost him after he'd made a bunch of zig-zagging turns. But she knew precisely where to find him. So she went directly to where he liked to be alone, her favorite place as well, the stairway. She hid in the back so that when he finally sat down, she popped up in front of him--- blocking his way. He glared at her for a moment before dropping the expression and gesturing for her to sit down next to him.
"What's wrong, Rui?" she asked.
He glanced at her with his eyes from the side, not turning his head. "I'm just jealous that he's been able to say things so easily," he remarked offhandedly, catching her by surprise. She quickly faced him, her eyes staring at his seemingly calm demeanor. Even saying something like that, he was still unmoved. She sighed mentally and was about to turn away when he inquired, "What are you going to do since Tsukasa likes you?"
This time, she sighed out loud. She didn't know what to do. She put her face on her propped up knees, staring into oblivion. She hadn't even thought about it that carefully, but as she was thinking--- she didn't quite know what she was going to do about Tsukasa liking her. She'd never thought he'd actually like her. He was always being mean to her and always doing things to make her miserable.
As she was thinking, Rui watched the interesting expressions that passed over her face. He waved his hand in front of her face. His initial reaction was it was interesting when she didn't do anything, blink or even move her eyes. As usual, she was totally lost in her thought. And as usual, when she was totally lost in her thought, she began to mumble to herself.
"Never thought he'd like me... why does he have to like me? He's always throwing things... always pushing me around... always trying to boss me around! GRRR... so annoying... irritating. What a brat. But he's a good friend... he cares about me... so does F4... and he did tell me he likes me. Rui's right, at least he was able to tell me that..."
Rui smiled softly at her distracted rambling. He waved his hand in front of her face once more to make sure she was still lost in her thoughts. When she didn't blink or even move, he started playing with her hair. He did this every time she became oblivious to the rest of the world. When he was done messing up her hair, he pinched both of her cheeks, which finally managed to get her attention.
She pushed his hands away from him and her eyes widened once she caught her reflection on the glass of the nearby window. "You brat!" she exclaimed once she saw the mess that her hair was in. Not only had he taken her hair out of her French braids, he'd tied her hair into elaborate knots! "RUI!"
He grinned at her and bent down and kissed her on both cheeks that he'd pinched. "So what are you going to do about Tsukasa?"
Again, she was stunned. This was just a stunning day. But she couldn't help but smile at Rui's antics. Nothing had changed since he was a little kiss. Whenever she was upset, he had this strange propensity of kissing her. "I'm going to have to talk to him," she responded. "That's all I can do."
~
She kept forgetting that she could never trust Tsukasa not to pull some prank on her whenever she wasn't being cautious. And it was one of those forgetful moments when she left a specially prepared bento her nanny had made in her backpack, which she'd left carelessly outside of her classroom. Tsukasa had a habit of going through her stuff just because he was curious of what she had in it.
Well, when she opened the bento box, she discovered a huge cockroach in the middle of her precious food. She didn't scream, instead she turned very upset eyes at Tsukasa and threw the bento box at his face. She then got up from her seat and started to walk away when Akira called after her, "Don't be upset Tsukushi!"
She ignored him and continued walking when Soujirou commented, "He only does that because he likes you!"
Tsukasa immediately punched him. "Shut up!" he roared. "You don't know what you're saying!"
"The truth?" Soujirou joked. He skillfully dogged the next punch Tsukasa tried to throw at him. "Hey, it must be the truth if you're acting like this!"
Tsukushi still continued marching away, despite Akira's and Soujirou's best efforts to cheer her up. When Rui noticed that Tsukushi was no longer next to him, he too got up and followed where she was heading, toward the playground. He didn't stop her headlong flight. With interest, he watched her as she got up onto the monkey bars and hung herself upside down.
It was once she was in that position that she noticed Rui was standing there with barely a smile on his face, but the amazing thing was that there even was a trace of a smile on his face, since he normally didn't show much emotion at all. She almost fell off the bars when he spoke because she hadn't expected him to say anything. "If you want to cry, I understand. The food looked good except for the roach."
She nodded in agreement after she got over her initial shock. "You told me that your good friend said to hang upside down whenever I felt upset, and I was upset because Nana spent so much time making that bento for me."
"If you hang upside down too long, it will hurt your head," Rui commented.
In an odd way, it was basically Rui's way to tell her that she'd better get down before the teachers found out where they went. The monkey bars were too visible. Once she got down, her suspicions of his reasoning was confirmed when he led her to a more isolated spot in the playground. He sat down beside a tree and she sat down besides him. She placed her face down on her propped up knees and sighed heavily.
Glancing down at her glum face, Rui bent his head down and kissed her on the nose. "Don't let Tsukasa get to you. He can be a real fool sometimes. It's something you just have to get use to."
Gazing at him sideways, she thought that Rui was right. Tsukasa was a fool and she'd just have to deal with it. But Rui, Rui wasn't a fool. Rui was nice, if a bit odd. In the realms of the fantasies of her mind, odd was a good deal better than being a fool. In response to the kiss he gave her, she smiled at him brightly. "Thanks, Rui."
~
Always a making a late appearance, Rui finally showed up at the designated club for the night. What was abnormal about the circumstances was that Tsukushi hadn't arrived yet. When Tsukasa had seen Rui enter into the club, he'd been hoping really badly to see that Tsukushi was hidden behind Rui's taller form. But to no avail, she wasn't behind Rui. Tsukasa hadn't really wanted to see Tsukushi with Rui, but if it was going to make her arrive sooner--- he didn't mind it.
Where was she?! "Rui!" Tsukasa exclaimed as soon as Rui was close enough to hear him shout. "Where's Tsuushi?!"
With a passive face, Rui glanced at Tsukasa's flushed face. "I don't know. I assumed she was already here," he stated calmly. He took a seat next to Shizuka, not only because it was a free seat, but also because it was the furthest from Tsukasa. He wasn't really up to putting up with Tsukasa's antics. He couldn't deal with Tsukasa's problems and his own confusion at the same time.
"THERE YOU ARE!" Tsukasa roared, drawing everyone's attention immediately to the direction he was looking. Much to no one's surprise, there stood Tsukushi. "Where have you been?" he inquired brusquely. He didn't even bother to wait for her answer because he grabbed her hand and started dragging her to one of the private rooms. "I need to talk to you!" he stated bluntly. "Stop being so difficult! You owe me an answer!"
Tsukushi sighed and allowed him to drag her to one of the private rooms without further resistance, since he was right. She did need to give him an answer and she did need to talk to him privately anyways. Better now than later, she supposed.
Everyone's eyes widened with surprise except the unperturbed Rui. It was after Tsukasa and Tsukushi had disappeared that everyone turned to look at Rui, who was sitting there sipping at his milk tea with a nonchalant air surrounding him. A few seconds passed before Shizuka asked hesitantly, "Rui, are you okay?"
He glanced at her with unreadable eyes. "Why wouldn't I be?"
Soujirou's forehead hit the table with a resounding thump at Rui's statement. "Man!" he remarked loudly, his head still on the table. "Man, oh man." It was a minute or two before Soujirou finally lifted his head up and waved at a waiter. "Waiter," he called out, "I need a Vodka!" He then turned to Rui with a chagrined look on his face before saying, "When another man steals your fiancé away, you're suppose to react you know!"
Rui just stared at him and didn't say anything, which made Akira pat Soujirou comfortingly on the head as Soujirou moaned, "Where's my bloody drink when I need it?!"
~
"WELL?" Tsukasa shouted. "Do you like me or not?"
"In what way?" she joked.
He glared at her, not thinking her joke was funny at all. "In THAT way!" he exclaimed loudly. "In the way a boy likes a girl! So do you like me?" he demanded. He waited a second for her answer before rambling on self- consciously, "I can ask my mother to talk to your mother and get the engagement rearranged."
"I don't," she answered softly.
"Don't what?" he asked distractedly because he was getting excited about rearranging the engagement with him as her fiancé instead of Rui. She hit him on the arm and he glanced down at her. "Why did you hit me?"
She hit him again. "Did you hear what I said to you, dummy?" From the vague look on his face, she immediately concluded that he hadn't hear anything that she had said.
"No, what did you say?!" he half asked and half commanded in the typical Tsukasa fashion.
"I said," she began in a slightly humoring tone of voice, "that you think far too much of yourself, but I suppose you have to since no one else does!" She paused and took a deep breath. "And I have to tell you that I only lie you as a friend, nothing more. I certainly don't want to break my engagement with Rui."
"You love him?" he cried out incredulously, making a big leap to that conclusion.
She didn't answer him, instead she continued on what she was trying to say before he had interrupted her, "I'm sorry, Tsukasa. You're like a brother to me. I'm sorry that I don't see you in another way or even the way that you see me."
"And you see Rui in another way?" he questioned sharply. "Why?" he asked in an angry voice. "Why Rui? Why not me?!" He punched the wall and leaned his forehead against it. He never thought that Tsukushi would just bluntly reject him like that. He didn't even know what to do now that she had rejected him.
She placed her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "I really am sorry."
"Get your hands off me!"
"Tsukasa..." her voice trailed off as Tsukasa abruptly turned around and grabbed her by the shoulders. The look on his face alarmed her momentarily, but the fear faded even when he pushed her against the wall. Even when he was bending his face down to hers in a menacingly way, she didn't shrink away. All she did was say softly, "You'll regret this Doumyouji Tsukasa."
He sighed heavily and dropped his hands off of her shoulders. Instead of forcing a kiss upon her, he pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly against his chest. "I still don't know why the one you like isn't me. What did I do wrong? Why don't you like me?"
She wrapped his arms around him, hugging him back. "I don't know," she answered. "I don't know."
~
"I think we need to talk," Shizuka declared, looking directly at Rui. "Come on Rui," she urged. She held her hand out to him. He looked at her hand for a while before finally taking her offered hand. She pulled him up to a standing position and led him toward one of the private rooms.
Once they were in the private room, Rui let go of her hand and lazily spread his slender body onto the couch. "What do you want to talk about?" he asked.
"Can't you guess?" she queried lightly. When he continued to stare at her with vague eyes, she sighed. "Sometimes, you can be as difficult and as stubborn as Tsukasa in your own way." When he still didn't say anything, she was forced to vocalize herself, "It's about your engagement with Tsukushi."
"What about it?" he responded in as calm of a manner as always. Shizuka wondered if Rui's stoicism ever bothered Tsukushi as much as it bother her when she wanted a reaction out of him.
She took a deep breath; she certainly didn't want to lose her patience. "How do you feel about the engagement?" she asked. "Are you happy, excited or just the usual? Maybe even upset?"
"Why would I be upset?" he asked back.
She shook her head, thinking that she needed a drink if she really wanted to have this conversation with him. "How do you feel about Tsukushi?" she inquired. "Do you like her, love her?"
He blinked and shrugged. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "I never really thought about that."
Shizuka closed her eyes and willed herself to be patient. She wished she could be as forgiving as Tsukushi with Rui's behavior, but she wasn't. "Then you might as well let Tsukasa have her," she retorted dramatically. "Because at least he knows about his feelings for her."
Rui's face darkened with an expression that Shizuka couldn't quite name. She was about to ask him what was wrong when he said in a low voice, "I don't know how I feel about her my fiancé. I know exactly how I feel about her as my best friend. And that's all I'll say. You know I don't react well to change."
That was a much more in-depth answer than she had been expecting from Rui. She nodded. She knew he didn't adapt well to change. She knew Rui liked things to be moving slowly, which was why it amazed her when Rui had offhandedly introduced Tsukushi to her. It wasn't like Rui to just meet people and become friends with them. She smiled as she watched Rui close his eyes. Her little Rui hadn't changed much since he was little, but he had changed a little. That little was all due to Tsukushi.
"Rui?" she said softly.
"What Shizuka?"
"Tsukushi's really been good for you. I don't know if you're willing to admit this or not, but without her you'd be an entirely different person. She's like your world. The two of you have your own special world together. I don't know if you know this, but if you don't want her... Tsukasa definitely does."
"I know," he answered. "I know that. You don't need to tell me that."
Author: Yih
Author Note: Thank you so much for your support! Please keep reviewing!
6: Turning Tide (November 30, 2002 to December 3, 2002)
"Well?" Tsukasa demanded.
Tsukushi glanced briefly at him before looking toward F3, who had arrived just in time to hear Tsukasa screaming out his confession to her. The one she watched the most carefully was Rui. Their eyes met for a second before he deliberately turned around and started to walk away.
"Well?" he repeated insistently.
"Well what?" she replied, not really hearing what he had said.
"Do you like me?" he asked.
Tsukushi glanced back at him, then turned her gaze back to the receding back of Rui. With Rui, she always never really knew what he felt. But there was a part of her that truly believed that they shared something special. But she wasn't sure if he thought the same thing. Even if she knew Rui better than anyone else did, it still didn't mean that she knew him well enough to know how he felt--- felt about her. With Tsukasa, it was simple and easy. He had just told her he liked her. She'd never thought he would, but then again--- she'd had an inkling.
"Tsukushi!" exclaimed Tsukasa impatiently.
Rui was almost out of sight now. A small part was telling herself that she should let him go because Rui probably only was thinking of them as friends, since he hadn't exactly been thrilled about the engagement. Neither had she. She had never really imagined Rui as anything other than as a best friend. But another part of her, a larger part of her was telling herself that if she didn't going--- she'd regret this moment forever. "I--- I," she mumbled before she ran off about Rui.
Immediately, once he saw that Tsukushi was going to go after Rui, Tsukasa started to go after her. But Akira grabbed him by the shoulder and told him in a low voice, "Let her go. Those two understand each other's moods, and Rui's definitely in one of his moods right now."
"But, but---" Tsukasa sputtered, "she never answered my question!"
"Just ask her tonight!" Soujirou and Akira muttered simultaneously.
~
She lost him after he'd made a bunch of zig-zagging turns. But she knew precisely where to find him. So she went directly to where he liked to be alone, her favorite place as well, the stairway. She hid in the back so that when he finally sat down, she popped up in front of him--- blocking his way. He glared at her for a moment before dropping the expression and gesturing for her to sit down next to him.
"What's wrong, Rui?" she asked.
He glanced at her with his eyes from the side, not turning his head. "I'm just jealous that he's been able to say things so easily," he remarked offhandedly, catching her by surprise. She quickly faced him, her eyes staring at his seemingly calm demeanor. Even saying something like that, he was still unmoved. She sighed mentally and was about to turn away when he inquired, "What are you going to do since Tsukasa likes you?"
This time, she sighed out loud. She didn't know what to do. She put her face on her propped up knees, staring into oblivion. She hadn't even thought about it that carefully, but as she was thinking--- she didn't quite know what she was going to do about Tsukasa liking her. She'd never thought he'd actually like her. He was always being mean to her and always doing things to make her miserable.
As she was thinking, Rui watched the interesting expressions that passed over her face. He waved his hand in front of her face. His initial reaction was it was interesting when she didn't do anything, blink or even move her eyes. As usual, she was totally lost in her thought. And as usual, when she was totally lost in her thought, she began to mumble to herself.
"Never thought he'd like me... why does he have to like me? He's always throwing things... always pushing me around... always trying to boss me around! GRRR... so annoying... irritating. What a brat. But he's a good friend... he cares about me... so does F4... and he did tell me he likes me. Rui's right, at least he was able to tell me that..."
Rui smiled softly at her distracted rambling. He waved his hand in front of her face once more to make sure she was still lost in her thoughts. When she didn't blink or even move, he started playing with her hair. He did this every time she became oblivious to the rest of the world. When he was done messing up her hair, he pinched both of her cheeks, which finally managed to get her attention.
She pushed his hands away from him and her eyes widened once she caught her reflection on the glass of the nearby window. "You brat!" she exclaimed once she saw the mess that her hair was in. Not only had he taken her hair out of her French braids, he'd tied her hair into elaborate knots! "RUI!"
He grinned at her and bent down and kissed her on both cheeks that he'd pinched. "So what are you going to do about Tsukasa?"
Again, she was stunned. This was just a stunning day. But she couldn't help but smile at Rui's antics. Nothing had changed since he was a little kiss. Whenever she was upset, he had this strange propensity of kissing her. "I'm going to have to talk to him," she responded. "That's all I can do."
~
She kept forgetting that she could never trust Tsukasa not to pull some prank on her whenever she wasn't being cautious. And it was one of those forgetful moments when she left a specially prepared bento her nanny had made in her backpack, which she'd left carelessly outside of her classroom. Tsukasa had a habit of going through her stuff just because he was curious of what she had in it.
Well, when she opened the bento box, she discovered a huge cockroach in the middle of her precious food. She didn't scream, instead she turned very upset eyes at Tsukasa and threw the bento box at his face. She then got up from her seat and started to walk away when Akira called after her, "Don't be upset Tsukushi!"
She ignored him and continued walking when Soujirou commented, "He only does that because he likes you!"
Tsukasa immediately punched him. "Shut up!" he roared. "You don't know what you're saying!"
"The truth?" Soujirou joked. He skillfully dogged the next punch Tsukasa tried to throw at him. "Hey, it must be the truth if you're acting like this!"
Tsukushi still continued marching away, despite Akira's and Soujirou's best efforts to cheer her up. When Rui noticed that Tsukushi was no longer next to him, he too got up and followed where she was heading, toward the playground. He didn't stop her headlong flight. With interest, he watched her as she got up onto the monkey bars and hung herself upside down.
It was once she was in that position that she noticed Rui was standing there with barely a smile on his face, but the amazing thing was that there even was a trace of a smile on his face, since he normally didn't show much emotion at all. She almost fell off the bars when he spoke because she hadn't expected him to say anything. "If you want to cry, I understand. The food looked good except for the roach."
She nodded in agreement after she got over her initial shock. "You told me that your good friend said to hang upside down whenever I felt upset, and I was upset because Nana spent so much time making that bento for me."
"If you hang upside down too long, it will hurt your head," Rui commented.
In an odd way, it was basically Rui's way to tell her that she'd better get down before the teachers found out where they went. The monkey bars were too visible. Once she got down, her suspicions of his reasoning was confirmed when he led her to a more isolated spot in the playground. He sat down beside a tree and she sat down besides him. She placed her face down on her propped up knees and sighed heavily.
Glancing down at her glum face, Rui bent his head down and kissed her on the nose. "Don't let Tsukasa get to you. He can be a real fool sometimes. It's something you just have to get use to."
Gazing at him sideways, she thought that Rui was right. Tsukasa was a fool and she'd just have to deal with it. But Rui, Rui wasn't a fool. Rui was nice, if a bit odd. In the realms of the fantasies of her mind, odd was a good deal better than being a fool. In response to the kiss he gave her, she smiled at him brightly. "Thanks, Rui."
~
Always a making a late appearance, Rui finally showed up at the designated club for the night. What was abnormal about the circumstances was that Tsukushi hadn't arrived yet. When Tsukasa had seen Rui enter into the club, he'd been hoping really badly to see that Tsukushi was hidden behind Rui's taller form. But to no avail, she wasn't behind Rui. Tsukasa hadn't really wanted to see Tsukushi with Rui, but if it was going to make her arrive sooner--- he didn't mind it.
Where was she?! "Rui!" Tsukasa exclaimed as soon as Rui was close enough to hear him shout. "Where's Tsuushi?!"
With a passive face, Rui glanced at Tsukasa's flushed face. "I don't know. I assumed she was already here," he stated calmly. He took a seat next to Shizuka, not only because it was a free seat, but also because it was the furthest from Tsukasa. He wasn't really up to putting up with Tsukasa's antics. He couldn't deal with Tsukasa's problems and his own confusion at the same time.
"THERE YOU ARE!" Tsukasa roared, drawing everyone's attention immediately to the direction he was looking. Much to no one's surprise, there stood Tsukushi. "Where have you been?" he inquired brusquely. He didn't even bother to wait for her answer because he grabbed her hand and started dragging her to one of the private rooms. "I need to talk to you!" he stated bluntly. "Stop being so difficult! You owe me an answer!"
Tsukushi sighed and allowed him to drag her to one of the private rooms without further resistance, since he was right. She did need to give him an answer and she did need to talk to him privately anyways. Better now than later, she supposed.
Everyone's eyes widened with surprise except the unperturbed Rui. It was after Tsukasa and Tsukushi had disappeared that everyone turned to look at Rui, who was sitting there sipping at his milk tea with a nonchalant air surrounding him. A few seconds passed before Shizuka asked hesitantly, "Rui, are you okay?"
He glanced at her with unreadable eyes. "Why wouldn't I be?"
Soujirou's forehead hit the table with a resounding thump at Rui's statement. "Man!" he remarked loudly, his head still on the table. "Man, oh man." It was a minute or two before Soujirou finally lifted his head up and waved at a waiter. "Waiter," he called out, "I need a Vodka!" He then turned to Rui with a chagrined look on his face before saying, "When another man steals your fiancé away, you're suppose to react you know!"
Rui just stared at him and didn't say anything, which made Akira pat Soujirou comfortingly on the head as Soujirou moaned, "Where's my bloody drink when I need it?!"
~
"WELL?" Tsukasa shouted. "Do you like me or not?"
"In what way?" she joked.
He glared at her, not thinking her joke was funny at all. "In THAT way!" he exclaimed loudly. "In the way a boy likes a girl! So do you like me?" he demanded. He waited a second for her answer before rambling on self- consciously, "I can ask my mother to talk to your mother and get the engagement rearranged."
"I don't," she answered softly.
"Don't what?" he asked distractedly because he was getting excited about rearranging the engagement with him as her fiancé instead of Rui. She hit him on the arm and he glanced down at her. "Why did you hit me?"
She hit him again. "Did you hear what I said to you, dummy?" From the vague look on his face, she immediately concluded that he hadn't hear anything that she had said.
"No, what did you say?!" he half asked and half commanded in the typical Tsukasa fashion.
"I said," she began in a slightly humoring tone of voice, "that you think far too much of yourself, but I suppose you have to since no one else does!" She paused and took a deep breath. "And I have to tell you that I only lie you as a friend, nothing more. I certainly don't want to break my engagement with Rui."
"You love him?" he cried out incredulously, making a big leap to that conclusion.
She didn't answer him, instead she continued on what she was trying to say before he had interrupted her, "I'm sorry, Tsukasa. You're like a brother to me. I'm sorry that I don't see you in another way or even the way that you see me."
"And you see Rui in another way?" he questioned sharply. "Why?" he asked in an angry voice. "Why Rui? Why not me?!" He punched the wall and leaned his forehead against it. He never thought that Tsukushi would just bluntly reject him like that. He didn't even know what to do now that she had rejected him.
She placed her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "I really am sorry."
"Get your hands off me!"
"Tsukasa..." her voice trailed off as Tsukasa abruptly turned around and grabbed her by the shoulders. The look on his face alarmed her momentarily, but the fear faded even when he pushed her against the wall. Even when he was bending his face down to hers in a menacingly way, she didn't shrink away. All she did was say softly, "You'll regret this Doumyouji Tsukasa."
He sighed heavily and dropped his hands off of her shoulders. Instead of forcing a kiss upon her, he pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly against his chest. "I still don't know why the one you like isn't me. What did I do wrong? Why don't you like me?"
She wrapped his arms around him, hugging him back. "I don't know," she answered. "I don't know."
~
"I think we need to talk," Shizuka declared, looking directly at Rui. "Come on Rui," she urged. She held her hand out to him. He looked at her hand for a while before finally taking her offered hand. She pulled him up to a standing position and led him toward one of the private rooms.
Once they were in the private room, Rui let go of her hand and lazily spread his slender body onto the couch. "What do you want to talk about?" he asked.
"Can't you guess?" she queried lightly. When he continued to stare at her with vague eyes, she sighed. "Sometimes, you can be as difficult and as stubborn as Tsukasa in your own way." When he still didn't say anything, she was forced to vocalize herself, "It's about your engagement with Tsukushi."
"What about it?" he responded in as calm of a manner as always. Shizuka wondered if Rui's stoicism ever bothered Tsukushi as much as it bother her when she wanted a reaction out of him.
She took a deep breath; she certainly didn't want to lose her patience. "How do you feel about the engagement?" she asked. "Are you happy, excited or just the usual? Maybe even upset?"
"Why would I be upset?" he asked back.
She shook her head, thinking that she needed a drink if she really wanted to have this conversation with him. "How do you feel about Tsukushi?" she inquired. "Do you like her, love her?"
He blinked and shrugged. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "I never really thought about that."
Shizuka closed her eyes and willed herself to be patient. She wished she could be as forgiving as Tsukushi with Rui's behavior, but she wasn't. "Then you might as well let Tsukasa have her," she retorted dramatically. "Because at least he knows about his feelings for her."
Rui's face darkened with an expression that Shizuka couldn't quite name. She was about to ask him what was wrong when he said in a low voice, "I don't know how I feel about her my fiancé. I know exactly how I feel about her as my best friend. And that's all I'll say. You know I don't react well to change."
That was a much more in-depth answer than she had been expecting from Rui. She nodded. She knew he didn't adapt well to change. She knew Rui liked things to be moving slowly, which was why it amazed her when Rui had offhandedly introduced Tsukushi to her. It wasn't like Rui to just meet people and become friends with them. She smiled as she watched Rui close his eyes. Her little Rui hadn't changed much since he was little, but he had changed a little. That little was all due to Tsukushi.
"Rui?" she said softly.
"What Shizuka?"
"Tsukushi's really been good for you. I don't know if you're willing to admit this or not, but without her you'd be an entirely different person. She's like your world. The two of you have your own special world together. I don't know if you know this, but if you don't want her... Tsukasa definitely does."
"I know," he answered. "I know that. You don't need to tell me that."