JC: There was a nice Athrun and Cagalli moment in the previous chapter. Athrun had actually visited Cagalli in her own home because he was worried about her. That was sweet of him. Cagalli had also told him about her real mother. This means that she trusts Athrun enough. Lovely feelings are growing, but it will take a while until everyone will become a couple. Just wait for it. For now, please read and enjoy. Don't forget to review in the end. By the way, another OC of mine will appear here. He had also appeared in my previous story as well.

Disclaimer: Gundam SEED is officially owned by Sunrise. I'm only borrowing the characters for my own enjoyment.

High School Life

Phase 05: Confrontations

Athrun arrived in school, looking a bit dazed. He was thinking about Cagalli again and the picture of her real mother and brother. He wondered if it was possible for her to meet the family she never knew. Somehow, he thought, Cagalli's life seemed like a TV drama series. As he saw Kira walking down the hallways, he called out his attention, and when Kira turned around, he suddenly saw Cagalli's face, much to his surprise. He blinked several times and shook his head to snap back to reality. Why did he see Cagalli in Kira? It was so weird.

Kira greeted him casually as usual, but he noticed his best friend staring perplexedly at him. "Um… Athrun, is something the matter?" he asked curiously, raising an eyebrow. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You look like her," Athrun replied shortly.

"Who?" Kira asked.

"Cagalli," Athrun said. "You look a lot like Cagallli." He quickly pointed out Kira's similarities to Cagalli immediately before Kira could say anything. Their eye shape, the face, and the hair style were all the same. The only difference was the eye and hair color, the height and the gender.

Kira told Athrun that it was probably a coincidence. "Oh, come on… So what if we do look alike? It doesn't mean that I'm related to her. She's not my twin sister or something," he said, chuckling to himself.

The brunette started walking ahead as Athrun paused to reflect on the matter. Cagalli did tell him about having a twin brother but they were separated from birth. He also remembered the hair color of Cagalli's twin in the picture. It was brown just like Kira's. It was more than just a mere coincidence already, Athrun said to himself as he watched his best friend. The more Athrun thought about it the more curious he got.

Before Kira could enter the classroom, he was stopped by a certain red-haired girl. She gently poked his chest and stared slyly into his amethyst eyes. Her flirting proved to be annoying in Kira's case, but he couldn't be rude to a girl—even if he wanted to push her out of the way so he could get into the room.

"You remember me, right?" she said, winking an eye at him. "I'm Fllay Alster." She traced an imaginary line on his chest and smiled seductively at him.

Kira had a bad feeling about her. "May I ask what you want for me?" he asked politely.

She grasped his shirt with one hand and brought his face closer to hers. "Do you have plans this Saturday?" she asked. "I want you to go out with me on a date." She was confident that Kira would agree right away. No guy had ever resisted Fllay Alster's charms before. It was pretty easy for her to attract any guy by a simple gesture or word.

Okay, Fllay has the hots for him, which was not good. Kira had no plans of getting to know Fllay, let alone going on a date with her. He wasn't interested in her. "I'm sorry," he said, averting his eyes away from her. "I can't and I won't. Please excuse me." He gently pushed her away from him, bowing his head as an apology, and entered the classroom.

Fllay was totally surprised. A guy actually refused to go out with her. It was a total first for her. Almost every guy in school wanted her as a girlfriend, but Kira was an exception. She cannot believe it. She felt embarrassed, humiliated, and furious all at the same time. She peeked into the room to see Kira, but she gasped when she found him talking to her rival, Lacus Clyne. It made her blood boil to see Kira enjoying his talk with Lacus. She swore she'll do something to steal Kira's heart. She was seriously set on making Kira all hers. She won't let anything get in the way, especially not the pink-haired princess of the school.

Dominion High

Ever since class started, Shinn had never taken his eyes off of Stellar Loussier, the newest blonde cutie in class. The tough and brave Shinn, famous for being a delinquent in school, was actually kind of soft around Stellar. He knew what he felt about her. It was the feeling called Love. Suddenly he felt something hit his head. It was a crumpled piece of paper. He knew who threw it, so he immediately shot a glare at his seatmate.

"You were spacing out again, Shinn," the guy teased, leaning back on his seat.

"Do that again and I'll give you a fat lip," Shinn warned.

The guy had short messy brown hair and sharp blue eyes. His name was Kai Kazuya. He was more or less Shinn's best friend. But unlike Shinn, Kai was not a trouble maker. He was a very sociable guy, so it was no wonder why he got along well with the others in class. Kai had recently discovered about Shinn's budding feelings for the new student. He offered to help Shinn win his love, because it seemed interesting.

Shinn played with his pen and leaned his cheek on his hand. "What's in it for you?" he asked. "I'm sure there's a catch. Are you trying to be blackmail me or something?"

Kai shook his head. "Nah, it's nothing like that," he said, and took down notes on the board in his notebook. "I would never stoop as something as low as blackmail. About your feelings, by the way, I suggest you would think over it really hard. Take your time and make the right moves when the moment comes. I'm sure you'll do fine with Stellar Loussier."

Grunting, Shinn rolled his eyes away from Kai. "Don't try to play matchmaker," he said with a shrug, "or else I'll murder you." Matchmaking could probably lead him to a series of trouble, especially if Kai will be the one doing it. Kai assured him that he won't butt in, but Shinn sort of doubted him. His best friend might not be a troublemaker, but he was known to be tricky sometimes.

Hallways

Fllay confronted Lacus in the hallways, jealousy fuming in her eyes. She smiled furtively at the pink haired girl. While Lacus was not in the mood for Fllay's insults, Fllay was serious. Lacus didn't want to stick around with her for another minute, so she decided to hurry along. However, before she could move away, the red-haired girl grabbed her wrist and squeezed it hard. "You're hurting me," Lacus told her, wincing a little in pain.

Narrowing her eyes, Fllay pushed her aside, making Lacus hit the wall. She then pinned her against the wall by pressing her hand on Lacus' shoulder. "Better stay away from Kira while you still can, Clyne…" Fllay said in a monotonous and cold voice. "I like Kira a lot, so hands off." She grabbed Lacus by the shoulders and pushed her to the floor. She laughed out aloud like a witch, thinking how pathetic Lacus was, and walked away feeling successful. At last, she pulled a fast one on Lacus. She hated Lacus with her whole heart and intended to make Lacus' life as miserable as possible.

Kira, who just happened to walk by, saw Lacus on the floor. Feeling concerned for her, he quickly marched right up to her. He knelt down to her level and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Lacus, what's the matter?" he asked. "Are you hurt or something?" Lacus slowly lifted her head and gazed upon him with her clear blue eyes. He saw tears coming out of those eyes, which made him frown. Lacus suddenly trembled in sadness, and Kira didn't know what to do. He wasn't that good in comforting people, especially a girl. But he sighed and decided to pull the pink haired girl closer to him. Making her lean on his chest, he brushed through her soft pink hair with one hand while his other hand snaked around her waist.

Lacus continued to sob quietly, clutching onto Kira's shirt. She didn't mean to cry like that. Normally, she would always manage to hold her tears. She was a strong girl underneath the angelic appearance. But what Fllay did to her was too much. Nevertheless, Lacus didn't hate Fllay for what she did. She wasn't the type to hold grudges. Truth to be known, she wished they could be friends instead.

Fllay was about to climb down the stairs when she remembered the notebook she left back in the classroom. She would certainly need her notes for homework later, so she turned around and started walking back. The moment she saw Kira hugging Lacus comfortably, she stopped and gasped in horror. "Clyne! You'll regret this!" Fllay grumbled under her breath. She was furious. Just when she thought she won over Lacus, it seemed like she was the one who was defeated. She cursed Lacus more and more. "Just you wait, Clyne. I will take Kira away from you. Mark my word." Angrily, she stomped away from the sickening sight, totally forgetting about her notebook.

Clyne mansion

"Miss Lacus…" the maid said as she knocked on the door. When Lacus opened the door, the maid politely bowed and greeted her. She then informed Lacus that she has a visitor.

Wondering who could the visitor be, Lacus climbed down the stairs and went straight to the living room where she saw a familiar blue-haired guy. "Good evening, Athrun," she said, a smile gracing her lips. "What brings you to my humble home?"

"My father wanted to see your father," Athrun replied. "They seem to know each other well."

"What is the name of your father?" Lacus asked.

"Patrick Zala," Athrun said. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I remember him… That's why your surname is so familiar to me. I've seen your father before when I was very young," Lacus told him. "Mr. Zala and my father are good friends."

"That's nice to hear."

Just then, two middle-aged men walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. Lacus sat beside her father and Athrun went to sit down beside his father.

"Lacus, Athrun, we are going to discuss something very important," Siegel, the father of Lacus, started off. "It's about your future. Patrick and I had a long talk about this."

"We have decided that you two should be engaged," Patrick said.

Lacus and Athrun gasped silently in surprise. They couldn't believe what they just heard. Lacus and Athrun were engaged to be married someday. Of course, they wanted to protest about their decisions, but their fathers made it perfectly clear that they were going to be husband and wife in the future. They couldn't disobey their fathers but they highly disapproved of this. As Siegel Clyne and Patrick Zala left them alone in the living room, Lacus glanced at Athrun, who looked rather depressed. She felt the same way as he did. She only thought of Athrun no more than a good friend.

"Athrun, I don't want to go through this," Lacus said.

"Do you think I'm happy about this too? Well, I'm not… You're a nice girl Lacus but you're my friend," Athrun clarified. Besides, he was already having feelings for another girl.

"Why must our fathers put us in a difficult trial?" Lacus asked. "I don't want to marry someone I don't even love."

Athrun and Lacus decided to keep it low until they can come up with a plan to get out of the engagement matter. In their mind right now, they will do what it takes to persuade their fathers. They were just friends and they wanted their relationship to stay that way. Athrun loved another girl and Lacus loved another guy, plain and simple.

"Wait… I can't keep this from Cagalli," Lacus told Athrun.

"Why not?" Athrun asked. "We can't tell anyone about this. It may only cause trouble for us."

"I know, but I promised Cagalli that I won't keep any secrets from her," Lacus explained. "After all, she's my best friend." And Lacus was always true to her words.

Athrun wasn't sure of telling Cagalli about their engagement. He was having feelings for her, and Cagalli might take their situation the wrong way. After minutes of thinking, Athrun made the final decision to keep it a secret to everyone including Cagalli. Lacus felt so sad, but if that was the way Athrun wanted then she'll follow.

Cagalli's House

Cagalli lay in bed as she held the picture of her real mom and the twins. It would always bring a smile upon her face. Even though she had never met her real mother before, she felt a strong love for the woman in the picture. Her real mother was a mystery to her. But she wasn't sad completely sad without her. Cagalli had wonderful parents who loved her with all their heart. Even though they weren't related by blood, they were the ones who took care of her since she was still a baby. Her family was great in her eyes. But still, she prayed that she would see her twin brother again. She felt that her twin was still alive and somewhere very close. "I wonder where you are bro… I want to see you," she murmured.

Placing the picture on her bedside drawer, she crawled under her sheets and stared at the ceiling. "If I do meet him, I wonder what I'll do," she said, turning over to her side. "And I wonder who the older one is. Well, I'm pretty sure it's me." She giggled softly and after that, she heaved a sigh. She spent some time thinking about school, her sports club, and finally about a blue-haired guy. Her face turned red as she pictured his handsome face in her head. And minutes later, she went to sleep.

To be continued…

JC: A new problem for our characters. Lacus and Athrun are now officially engaged thanks for their fathers. I don't really approve of arranged marriages. Fllay is also getting annoying and more jealous of Lacus. She doesn't stand a chance in winning Kira's heart. He's already falling for Lacus. Sorry for Fllay, though. By the way, Stellar is going to meet Cagalli and Lacus in the next chapter. I've also introduced my own character here. His name is Kai Kazuya. Well, that's all for this chapter. Please leave a review. No flaming.