Pride and Prejudice – Part 19

By: Ghostwriter

----------{@

Standard Disclaimers Apply.

[23 February 2003 21:51:26]]

Just finished Part 18. Roaring to go, so I decided to start on Part 19 now. When I will finish it, I have no idea.

***

Akane ran blindly, unaware of the surprised attention she was getting. The only place she could think off was the basketball gym. She headed in that direction. Dimly, she could hear him call her name.

Him – Mitsui, the betrayer.

He had kissed Chieko! Passionately! The same way he had kissed her just two days ago!

How could she have ever thought that Mitsui-the-ego-has-just-landed could possibly really be interested in her? How could she have been so stupid? How could she have allowed herself to be hurt this way?

She had followed Chieko and gang out towards the secluded pavilion.

And she had witnessed his ultimate betrayal.

She never thought there can be emotional pain this bad. It was as though he had plunged a dagger into her soul over and over again. He couldn't have hurt her unless she gave him permission to.

And she had.

"Akane!" His voice grew clearer and stronger. Akane refused to turn around – the sight of him will only intensify the pain she was feeling right now. Blinded by the rivulets of tears that streamed down from her eyes, she tripped over a snow covered log and went sprawling onto the ground in the most undignified manner. She struggled up, but bright lines of fire – physical pain snaked around her ankle when she moved it even a little.

"Are you alright?" Mitsui asked worriedly as he knelt down beside her and tried to reach for her.

"Don't come near me! I'll hurt you," Akane cried as she inched away from him and tried to stand up. She winced in pain and stumbled when her ankle gave way to her weight. Mitsui instinctively caught her.

Akane started shrieking like there was no tomorrow.

"Let go of me you conniving scumbag!"

By now, everyone nearby had already gather curiously around the two of them. And among the crowd were Akagi, Kogure, Hanamichi, Miyagi, Rukawa and Ayako, who were on their way back to the school building from the basketball gym. Hearing the commotion, they forced their way to the front of the crowd.

"I just want to get you to the clinic before you die of pneumonia!" Mistui tried to explain.

"Don't pretend that you care," the familiar stinging began again beneath her eyelids as she blinked the tears away. She was soaked to her skin and shivering from the cold. Of all days to start snowing.

"Katsura!" Hanamichi cried in horror at the sight of the shivering girl. So shocked, he forgot to address her the normal way – with a highly insulting nickname.

Ayako wisely pulled Hanamichi back and continued to observe the ongoing drama.

"I'm not pretending!" Mitsui was having trouble controlling his fury. He swears – someone had just jinxed his day.

"How could you treat me this way? I thought that you were my friend!"

"For your information, I treated you more than friend!" Mitsui shouted. "Can't you see how crazy I am about you? Are you blind?" he continued as he grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her.

Akane gazed at his face and replied bleakly, "You lie."  With that, she looked away.

The look on her face – the total hopelessness drained the fight out of Mitsui. "You have to believe me, she staged the whole thing," he pleaded

Akane remained motionless.

Ayako decided it was time to do something. She nudged Miyagi in the ribs. "Give me your coat, you thick headed male and help me get her to the clinic."

Miyagi shrugged out of his coat and handed it to Ayako. She wrapped it around the motionless Akane and tried to help her up. In the end, Hanamichi couldn't stand the pressured atmosphere anymore and carried Akane away. Mitsui was about to say something, but closed his mouth and stood up. He walked away without a backward glance.

"Mitsui-kun!" Principal Miyamoto accosted him. "May I remind you that you have detention today?"

Mitsui gave him a deadly glare that sent chills down the older man's spine and showed him the one finger salute before walking off.

***

Mitsui took aimed and released the ball. It rebounded off the hoop.

It was turning out to be the most unproductive practice he had in his entire life. Almost ninety five percent of his shots missed.

His teammates weren't helping either. Hanamichi glowered at him the whole afternoon, waves of anger radiating from him, scaring the entire team so much they kept him at least three feet from themselves. Akagi and Kogure had stayed back supervise them today because Ayako had gone off with Akane to the clinic. Kogure would look at him and sigh while the rest of the team looked at him disapprovingly. No one went near him and even Rukawa was giving him frosty looks of disgust.

Even the emotionless fox was disgusted with him. That said a lot.

By the time the dismissal bell rang, the entire school had already known about the supposedly "playing with her heart" scheme and also about Mitsui's passionate encounter with Hamada Chieko. Of course, the source of rumors was the one who set the whole thing up.  Some of them slapped him on the back and congratulating him for picking up the babe of the year where else others walk past him and eyed him with such excruciating distaste. Somehow, almost nobody believes that he really feels for Akane – due to his rather colorful career before he reformed.

Someone tapped him on his shoulder. Mitsui turned.

The tall redhead looked down ominously at him. "You," he jabbed his index finger at Mitsui, "me" he pointed at himself, "one on one," as he pointed at the hoop.

The air around down crackled with unseen tension as the two stared at each other – eyeball to eyeball.

Mitsui was feeling an overwhelming sense of frustration. Naturally, he obliged the hotheaded redhead.

"You're on"

In the next fifteen minutes, the Shohoku team witnessed something they never thought possible in their entire lives.

Hanamichi dunked the ball in so hard, the force knocked Mitsui to the ground. He released he grip on the hood and straddled Mitsui at the waist and raised his fist – ready to strike his senior's face.

Mitsui did not fight back. If fact, he almost welcomed the imminent blow. Maybe physical pain will lessen his guilt. He shut his eyes, and waited.

But it never came.

"Do'aho," Rukawa's icy voice came from above. Mitsui opened his eyes to see Rukawa restraining Hanamichi's fist. "It's not worth warming the bench for some b*st*rd like him."

The memory of their punishment – sitting out of a game – and the promise never to fight again was enough to cool tempers. Slowly, Hanamichi got up and walked away towards the lockers. The crowd around them slowly dispersed and Kogure threw him a sympathetic look over his shoulder before he walked away.

Mitsui got up and walked towards the benches and picked up his duffel bag. Without a word, he left the gym.

"Where do you think he is going, Akagi?"  Kogure asked as Mitsui closed the door.

"Where else?" Akagi replied.

"Do you believe him? That he didn't really mean to break Akane's heart?"

"I believed he really cared – cares for her," Akagi answered brusquely. "In fact, he cares for her a lot. But in matters such as these, it's better for us third parties not to interfere. It is between the two of them."

***

Ayako cast one last look at the sleeping figure on the bed. She looked so much younger and softer in sleep – less confident and more vulnerable. Akane shifted slightly in her sleep.

He doctor had diagnosed her with a dislocated ankle. But Yumiko, Haruko and her agreed that the pain in her heart hurts her a great deal more. They had escorted her to the clinic and back. Worried about her condition, they decided to sleep over at Akane's apartment. Yumiko had suggested to Akane that she can stay over, but Akane insisted in her coming home.

Ayako had barely closed the door before the doorbell began ringing incessantly.

Yumiko opened the door and glared ominously at the tall boy that filled the doorway.

"I need to speak to A… "Mitsui began

Without waiting for him to finish his sentence, Yumiko had slammed the door in his face, leaving Mitsui to gape at the closed door.

Minutes later, two burly security guards appeared and "showed him the way out."

***

"He's still waiting outside," Ayako said as she lifted the curtain and peered out of the window. Mitsui was standing beside the dim streetlamp in the snow.

She moved to join Ayako at the window but automatically dropped the curtain when he looked upwards at her window, as though he sensed her looking at him. "Tell him to go away. I won't see him."

"Don't you think you should give him a chance to explain?" Ayako asked gently. "Innocent until proven guilty?"

The other girl kept quiet. Ayako continued carefully. "The fact that you're angry at him shows that you care. And the fact that he is standing down there shows that he cares too."

"I don't want to see him."

"By doing that, you're allowing that Hamada Chieko to win," Ayako tried appealing to the older girl's pride.

"If this was a contest and he is the prize, then I don't think I've lost anything valuable. Please go away now. I need my rest."

***

He thought she looked at him from her window. The thought warmed his heart a little. Maybe there is hope after all.

But that little spark of hope extinguished along with the lights from her room, flooding his heart with despair.

The gate to her apartment complex opened a girl walked towards him. He knew it wasn't her. As the girl drew closer, he successfully identified her as Ayako.

Maybe, just maybe she's willing to see him now?

The first words out of her mouth effectively put an end to that.

"She won't see you Mitsui-senpai. Maybe you should just go home. She asks you to leave. Maybe you should go home for the night." Ayako said gently.

If he wasn't such a male chauvinist, he would have cried. But knowing Akane, she wouldn't have forgiven him so easily. Her pride wouldn't have allowed her. The evidence against him was damning, indeed. If he had caught her in a passionate embrace of another man, he too would have jumped to the same conclusion.

But if she truly felt, no feels, for he cannot allow himself to think in the past tense and give up hope yet; if she truly feels for him, she will eventually allow him the chance to make amends, wouldn't she?

"No, I think I'll stick around a little while more," he smiled weakly at her.

"I'm sorry that it has come to this," Ayako said sorrowfully, her eyes infinitely sad. "I really hate to see you two hurting so much; hurting yourselves as well as hurting each other."

"Believe me," he whispered as he glanced up at her darkened window again, "Nobody can feel sorrier than I right now."

***

Unknown to them, she was still watching from her window. She saw Ayako talking to him and him looking up at her window. She saw Ayako leaving and him continue to stand in by the streetlight.

He continued to look up at her window, as though he know she was looking at him. Seeing him standing there desolately by the lamplight made her heart ache. But seeing him also brought back the still-fresh memory of his betrayal.

Tears welled up from the back of her eyes and she allowed them to trickle down her cheeks as she continued to maintain her silent vigil from her chair by the window as he kept his from below.

Neither of them slept that night.

***

A/N: I'm so sorry peeps. I've just finished my extended hiatus and am back to writing fanfics. I'm so so sorry. I understand if you don't follow this series anymore, but I resolved to complete it as soon as possible.

You won't believe it; I started writing this chapter in February 2003. It's April 2004 now. Life has not been good for me with multiple exams last year.

I love you. Your reviews inspire my guilt to force me to keep going. I love ya.

Visit my blog at www.crapcity.blogspot.com. I will be using that blog for my writing activities.

Visit www.nuttyscribbler.blogspot.com to know about my real life.