Undying Love – Of Intense Jealousy and Burning Hatred
Author's Note: *grins* Whee… another COOL update! ^___^ Heh. I apologize for NOT updating in a couple of weeks. =( *frowns slightly* My time on the laptop has been severely cut down, since my prolonged time on Microsoft Word and the Internet has GREATLY damaged my eyesight quite a bit. Therefore, I will ONLY have 30 minutes of laptop time a day. Anyways, time to talk about some more positive stuff. LOLz. =P When I came on earlier today… I was REALLY shocked; I had finally reached and surpassed my goal of 150 reviews! I would like to thank ALL of the reviewers who have greatly contributed to my reviews… thank you so much! *hugglez* Heh. I'm planning to aim for 200 reviews this time! Wish me luck! XD Remember to read and review! ^___^ Hope you like this chapter!
Chapter Dedications: I dedicate this chapter to the following people who have added me to his/her Favourite Authors list: Maria Colt, SilverStarWing, Ravengurlie149, Kirara1, Millenium Spirit Of Shadows, Magik Bunny Ball, CoolCat10, Sesshochan1, ditterdums, faye-faye14, alannalivandra, sweet-genie-16, Meiko M, Vireyda Magodaly, Ringtir, Sakura-Star3, and FluffyLuver4Eva! I would also like to dedicate this chapter to ALL of my wonderful readers and reviewers as well! Thank you for supporting me!
It was the end of the day, and Haku was currently at his slightly damaged locker, collecting the school items that he need to bring home. His locker was about 5 feet in height, and about 1 foot in width. All over his locker were tattered stickers and minor dents, clearly showing the fact that his locker had been worn over years of careless use. Haku's locker was located all the way in the second floor, in the very corner of the northwest side of the school, where it was greatly isolated from the rest of the lockers of the bustling students.
Though there were few people to talk to at his lockers, he was silently thankful that he was located near the most unused and unpopular doorway. All day, Haku was unfortunately followed by a large amount of students, many who bothered to stalk him everywhere he did, interrogating or flirting with him. The majority of his so-called stalkers, which can also be considered his unofficial fan club, were basically a group of crazy and desperate girls, making Haku their new male craze of the school.
Not that the people who were following him were all girls… but the boys didn't bother to seriously clinging to him as desperately. Instead, most of the boys tended to admire Haku from afar, for his natural knowledge of the different academic subjects that were offered at the school, and the amazing athletic skills that he had displayed earlier in gym class.
Unfortunately, there were quite a few boys that didn't accept Haku as easily. Being the new kid that Haku was, much of the male population had disliked and envied him greatly. Haku had only been in the school for one day so far… and he was already considered as one of the most popular males there. He was constantly adored and respected by his peers and teachers alike, and there were confirmed rumors that he was already dating the prettiest and most popular girl in the school, Chihiro, who was known to also be the hardest girl to impress.
Haku was basically everything that any male in that school would want to be; intelligent, charming, multi-talented, athletic, and popular. He was basically the full and perfect package, wrapped neatly in fancy gift covers and ribbons. He was the craze of all females alike, and one that would make the perfect boyfriend of sorts. With Haku's envied reputation, he ended up gaining more enemies than allies; jealousy was a very powerful thing, and it was certainly driving a certain jealous and angry male to a path that would purposely lead Haku to much pain in the future.
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It was currently 4 PM, and Haku was starting to walk home after a very exhausting day. He sighed softly; he wished that he had someone to walk with him. It was quite an unfortunate coincidence that Chihiro had cheerleading practice on Fridays, therefore; Haku was forced to walk home alone. Though Haku wouldn't be able to see Chihiro immediately after school, he certainly wasn't going to have to bear the pain of not seeing Chihiro at least one more time that day.
Fortunate for Haku, he and Chihiro had arranged dinner plans for that night. To his luck and relief, Chihiro would be eating dinner at his house, where she would reunite with Rin and Kamajii, two of her best friends from the Spirit World, who had helped her on her first encounter there.
Sadly, in Haku's current situation, he would soon have to leave for the Spirit World. As part of the deal and his promise to Yu-Baaba, Haku would eventually have to work in the bathhouse once again. Though as much as he hated the idea of working in the bathhouse, compared to spending all of his time with his only lover, Chihiro, he was one river spirit that never broke his promises; he'd make sure he completed to the agreement that was asked of him, no matter how much he detested it. Unfortunately, Haku certainly couldn't relive the pain and agony of leaving Chihiro once again; he needed to find a way to still be able to stay with Chihiro, and complete the agreement of Yu-Baaba's at the same time.
As a result, Chihiro would not only be reuniting with Rin and Kamajii for dinner, but they would also be planning of how to bring Chihiro and himself together, without interfering with the completion of the promise that was expected of him. Unfortunately, this task was going to be quite difficult; there was no possible way that Haku could stay on Earth any longer, if he ever wanted to work in the bathhouse again.
In other words, chances are, Haku would have to bring Chihiro with him to the Spirit World for a couple of days. If he didn't have a care in a world about the loved ones of Chihiro, he wouldn't mind completing the selfish task of keeping Chihiro all to himself in the Spirit World, as they both spent their days in eternal happiness.
Unfortunately, this certainly was not an opinion that was even to be considered. Haku knew how much Chihiro loved her parents and her friends; it would clearly be heartless and greedy of him to even consider taking Chihiro only for himself. Just as much as he loved Chihiro with all of his heart, so did others in the beautiful earth; her dear parents and best friends. It wouldn't be fair to the others who loved Chihiro all the same; they deserved her presence too.
And what about Chihiro, herself? It was obvious that she probably couldn't bear a life without her beloved parents and best friends; having Haku wouldn't be enough for her. Just the whole fact that Chihiro tried everything in her power to release her parents from Yu-Baaba's grasp six years ago showed that she had an unbreakable bond with them as well.
Not only that, Chihiro would end up being homesick from staying in the Spirit World for so long, and she would have to abandon everything that was once her previous life. She would have to leave all of the wonderful people that supported her in the town and in the school, and she would have to leave her home and her social status. She would have to adapt to the different spirits in the Spirit World, where she would be one of the very few humans there. She would be isolated from quite a bit of the Spirit World, leaving her to almost a complete isolation, if it wasn't for the very few spirits such as himself, who had accepted her for who she was.
Besides… what kind of life would she have in the Spirit World? Chihiro definitely couldn't bear the idea of working in the bathhouse all of her life, when she could have chosen the life of a popular girl with many friends and family to go home to each day. She was so young; Chihiro should be enjoying what childhood she had left, and not wasting it on working mercilessly in some bathhouse.
Haku also had to consider another fact; what would she be doing with all of this free time too? Rin, Kamajii and himself would be working in the bathhouses every single day, so there was little spare time for them to spend with her during the daytime. As far as he knew it, they were the only three spirits that were her friends, aside from Kaonashi and Zeniiba, one of them who had left three years ago.
Haku sighed sadly. It seemed that life these days was treating him quite badly, except for the fact that he had finally reunited with Chihiro after so many years. He was quite relieved to know that not only that their love for each other had lasted through all of those years, but also that it had strengthen to a love that was now unbreakable for all time.
In fact, Haku thought it was quite the miracle that Chihiro even remembered him; one of his greatest fears in the past was that Chihiro might have thought that her experience in the Spirit World was none other than a dream. Luckily, for him, Chihiro had brought back with her that magical purple hair tie that proved that none of that was a dream at all. He was also lucky that even though she was one of the most popular and prettiest girls in town, she hadn't had a boyfriend yet.
Haku frowned greatly at the thought of Chihiro, having a boyfriend that was someone other than himself. He wouldn't know what he would have done if Chihiro had a boyfriend already, someone that she already loved that wasn't him. One thing was for sure; he was a lucky guy to love someone and be loved back from a person as wonderful as Chihiro Ogino.
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Koji Yukita finally came out of the boys' change room, feeling refreshed and relieved, as he carelessly slung the leather backpack over his shoulder. He had just finished showering off the sweat that stuck on his well-toned body, after some tiring basketball practice, and had changed into a new set of fresh clothes. He waved his other good friends farewell, as he traveled along the nearly-deserted hallways alone, looking for a certain boy that he had earlier promised to teach an important and painful lesson to.
Today, Coach Ushida had released the boys' basketball team thirty minutes later than usual, to fit in extra practice for the championship game coming up. Ever since Koji had been the basketball team's star player and captain, the school's basketball team had won three consecutive years in the high school basketball championships, earning the school the unbreakable reputation of currently being the #1 boys' basketball team in the district.
Lately, there were many unfortunate and confirmed rumors that one of their old and competitive rivals, Deltium High, had been doing tremendously well in the last couple of months. Ever since they had received some foreign student in the beginning of the year, who was now their greatly successful star player and captain, he had brought up the basketball team from the fifth place spot overall to the second highest spot overall, nearly having an impressive record that was closely as remarkable to the one that Koji's team had.
As a result, Coach Ushida did everything in his power to keep the boys as long as possible each day, so that he could oversee and make sure that nothing would definitely stand in their way this year, including the new threat that had just appeared over the last couple of months. With all of the extra practices and drills, every player in the basketball had improved their skills to shear perfection, not that they weren't nearly perfect in their basketball skills to begin with.
Being the #1 team in the district wasn't for nothing; the boys' basketball team had quite a great and proud reputation to uphold, and they'd be screwed if they lost to Deltium High, just because of some new foreign student. Losing wasn't an opinion; a lost would mean that their currently-remarkable reputation would never heal again. Much was expected of the team, and certainly of him, Koji Yukita, star player and captain of his undefeatable team. He was the best player of the team, and he definitely wasn't going to let his team or his supporters down.
Surprisingly though, this huge basketball frustration wasn't the center of his problems or thoughts for the day. In fact, there was something that worried him more than his flawless basketball record; it was Chihiro and her new boyfriend. Well, to be honest, it wasn't Chihiro's fault that she had found herself a boyfriend that happened to be none other than the new student, Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi, or simply known as Haku.
Koji was thoroughly convinced that whatever Chihiro had decided about her new romantic relationship wasn't her fault at all. For the many years that he had personally known Chihiro, she was one girl that had a strong amount of common sense and proper morals. She would never make decisions without thoroughly thinking them over, first considering all of the results and consequences of her own actions. Whatever made her decide to date Haku wasn't definitely her fault; she had been highly stressed for the last couple of days.
Lately, Chihiro had to deal with the frustrations and pressure of the student council, who had been managing a lot more school events than usual, considering the fact that there were many new holidays that were coming up in the next couple of weeks. Not only that, Chihiro had to deal with the loads of projects and homework that the merciless teachers were giving out to all of the students, and the high school track team, who was going to be competing against all of the other schools in the district in less than two weeks.
With all of those things to worry about, it wasn't much of a surprise that Chihiro was strongly stressed, both mind and body. Whatever had convinced her to take the path of making a newfound romantic relationship with Haku was definitely due to cunning deception and a slight lack of judgment, caused by all of the stress and pressure lately.
And if he didn't know better, he'd think that Chihiro was also lacking quite a bit of sleep as well. Many times that week, Chihiro had been late to class in the morning and afternoon. Not that she was always on time, but she had been arriving late to classes even more than usual, and Koji was certain that it was due to a good lack of sleep, even though she had personally denied this obvious fact.
With all of these things to consider, Chihiro probably didn't have the proper judgment to be making such decisions as to consider the path of dating Haku. Who in their right mind would date some new student like Haku, anyways? It was obvious that between Haku and himself, Koji Yukita was the perfect candidate to be Chihiro's boyfriend. Considering the wonderful and successful past that was shared by himself and Chihiro, he was fit to be only one that met Chihiro's high standards, and one that could support her emotionally and psychologically.
Whatever caused her to even consider the ridiculous idea of even trying to establish any sort of relationship with Haku was definitely none other than some clever and well-hidden deception. It was quite obvious to anyone, that Chihiro wasn't in the best shape that she could have been today, and with her already-tired mind and body, it wouldn't take a lot of effort to slightly mislead her into a different path, one that considered a romantic relationship with the new student. It was also obvious that Haku was the one that dishonestly convinced her to take a new step in this unprepared relationship, deceiving her and taking Chihiro all for himself, when it was obvious that Haku wasn't fit to be her boyfriend to begin with.
One thing was permanently engraved on his list of things-to-do; Koji was going to make sure that today, he would hunt Haku down like the disgusting and deceptive beast that he was, and give him the proper punishment that he deserved for taking Chihiro away from the one person that actually deserved her love, Koji Yukita.
New Updates and Questions/Answers:
Hey everyone! =P This is a new section that I made that would notify you of any new updates or changes in the different chapters of the story, or would answer your questions that you have written in your reviews. I really do hope that this new section clears some of the previous confusion that you may have encountered with the story. Hope it helps!
For the new updates, I have currently changed some minor details in the last chapter. Instead of four different pairs of eyes that were spying on Chihiro and Haku under the cherry blossom tree, I have changed it to only three pairs of eyes, for my own personal reasons, which will slightly affect the story and the things that I have planned for in later chapters.
Where is that hard core attitude Haku had at the end of the movie? I know that I have portrayed Haku as one that is now fragile and "whimpish" in my story, but do note that unlike the movie, Haku has certainly developed a stronger love and care for Chihiro, believing that Chihiro is the only lover for him in his life. Unlike the love for a best friend, as slightly projected in the movie, I have developed the romance into something that makes their love more intimate and personal, something that is one of a kind and a lot more mature than a love that is developed during the age of 10. As a result of this love, I do believe that it is somewhat realistic that Haku would be more fragile, since he cares for Chihiro as the most important person in his life.
If there were 4 sets of eyes, then does that other person have 2 sets? Ahh… this question is partly the reason that I have slightly changed the previous chapter. I reread my own chapter again, and I realized that this issue was a little too confusing when I wrote it. Originally, the idea was that two sets of eyes belonged to Koji and Sakari, and the other two eyes belonged to two different spirits in the Spirit World that were plotting against Chihiro and Haku. But when I put this idea into words, it was easily misinterpreted. So instead, the previous chapter has been changed to only three different sets of eyes, two which belong to each of Chihiro's best friends… and one that belongs to the mysterious spirit that is plotting against the lovers.