Ah! The next chapter, finally! Wait, it's only been… three weeks, right? Ah, well. I was out with the flu yet again last week, a different one that I picked up from school… and today I woke up with a stuffy nose and a scratchy throat… TnT I just can't catch a break!
Rakuen No Tobira—That was more of an exclamation XP I think you'll like the ending to this chapter if you love Jou-kun!
YamiServant—Heh, I think we all would have let him get further than that! And as for a higher rating… naah, I don't think there'll be any lemony-ness in this story, but there'll still be moments like that, don't worry!
panmotto—Hee… your feeling may be confirmed! Keep on reading!
SukiLovesAnime—Sorry it took me longer than a week this time :) hope you like this chapter!
twilight eyes 8120—I definitely don't think of Seto as a natural romantic, a natural womanizer more like XD hence his pervertedness in this story. If his phone didn't ring? Hmn… I'll leave that up to your imagination ;).
AllisonWalker—I shall read your story sometime soon! I'm actually starting to catch up with what I need to read… and your first statement was quite an accurate prediction , as you'll soon see –grins-
Aoi Dragon—Heh, I like portraying Seto like this, though it's kinda difficult to keep him sounding high-class and snobby rather than low-life, horny bastard XD. Just wait until Jono starts to interfere... hee hee...
SladesDaughter—Um… no, this did not really happen –sweatdrop- I really wish I could have something like this happen, but alas… I am perfectly happy with fantasizing about the bishies in all the manga I read! After all, all stories are fantasies, right? Well, most of mine are, hence why there's always an OC.
Kikoken—Yes… -pushes your eyebrow back down-
ykkgrl—Once again, my theory was confirmed by you XD in a lot of stories I read, the main girl is ditzy and rather annoying sometimes… you're not the only one to say that. Poor Kumi-chan… -shakes head- I'm glad you're reading!
ShibiChicken—Yes, be confused. Mer. Happy Valentine's Day to you, too! Mine was boring XD. I got a cookie! And shame on you for picking on this story through a review of another one of my stories! This story really isn't that deep… I still can't figure out why you'd take so much time to even weed that out… makes me feel special, though!
Hikari, Lady of Light—You are not alone in that you can picture Seto doing something like this! Well, apart from me, obviously… there were several others who said they can imagine our snobby, sexy bishie being a little naughty XD. Just wait for Jono's character to really stand out!
BishounenzAngel—Wouldn't we all, my dear… wouldn't we all.
FalsE FortunE—I'm glad you found my story! Yay! And yet another flame for Kumi-chan… at least it's not making you dislike the story! And just keep reading to find out why Jono got so upset :). Thank you for reviewing!
Cobra Strife—Dude! Hi! I'll email you soon! And there's nothing you can do about it! …. Yeah :). Setokku says konnichiwa.
Arabella Silverbell—Awww…… -glomps- Most flattering review ever! Unfortunately… my day job happens to be high school… and my job at the supermarket earns me money to buy manga! …I write at school, though! … most of the time… well, anyway, here's the update!
Arrna—Yes… I am evil… oh so evil… I really started getting frustrated at myself for writing fictions that revolved solely around the OC and Seto XD.
Mariku's-heart64—Moshi moshi is the Japanese greeting when you pick up the phone. I really wanted to put that in there rather than just saying "Hellooo!" Ya know? It just comes off much cuter in Japanese… And I did read "Reflection"; you need to update that!
SirisAnkh—Well then… maybe I'll call you Ankh! Har. Well, anywhoodleedoodles, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Silver-twin—I'm posting now! –grins- Well, now I know who's side you're on. –points- Jono lover!
Jade Wyvern—Three times? You flatter me! And again! –eyes shine- I'm one of your favorite authoresses and reviewers? –sighs- I wanna cry…
Holy cows! 21 reviews… I'm starting to fear for my life; don't mob me if I don't update soon enough! Anyway, I hope everyone likes this chapter! It's definitely one of the longest ones so far! Thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews!
Chapter 11:
It was a bit after sunset when Shinobu finally asked me if I'd tell him specifically what happened, but I refused; my mind told me that if I did, there'd be no stopping him from running out the door to rough up Seto as badly as he could. I had a spare shirt on, and we were both still sitting on the floor, my desk lamp casting a sort of eerie light around my room as the sunlight diminished.
"Kumi-chan," he said kindly. "I'm already pissed off; I just… well, just tell me again that he didn't see or feel anything beyond your underwear."
I looked him dead in the eyes, and I felt a pang of guilt because I wanted to giggle at how serious he was. "He didn't see nor feel anything beyond my underwear, Shinobu-kun; I promise. Though…" I paused as a slightly frightening prospect hit me. "I'm sure that he would have tried to get further if he had the chance."
"What made him leave? Did you fight him off?"
"No; his cell phone rang, and I guess he had a prior engagement or something he forgot about."
Shinobu threw up his hands in exasperation. "As if you weren't humiliated enough! What kind of a reason is that?" He stopped at my slightly puzzled expression, choosing instead to wave his hands in front of him. "Not-not that it wasn't good timing, of course." He sighed, shaking his head at the floor. "I really wonder if that bastard has a good doctor, 'cause when I find him—"
"Don't say anything!" I cut in, grabbing his clenched hand. "I—I don't want …"
He gave me the strangest look I had ever seen, like I was some mutant that had just landed and asked him where I could find some good Pochy. "You want me, to just sit around and act like nothing happened?" he said, prodding the floor with his finger.
"Yes," I said pleadingly.
"Why?"
"B-because… because…" I couldn't bring myself to say it, but Shinobu picked it up real fast.
"You still like him, don't you?" he asked incredulously.
I didn't meet his eyes, and nodded.
"Jesus, Kumiko, what do you want me to do then? What if he starts doing stuff to you at school, you want me to just sit back and let it happen?"
"No!" I interjected, looking up at him. "I—I mean—"
I could tell that he was getting frustrated. "Are you sure he didn't hit you upside the head, too, 'cause you're making no sense at all. That son of a bitch molested you in your own house and you want me to—"
"Don't call him that!" I yelled, pounding my fist on the ground.
"Well, why not? He's a selfish, arrogant, perverted kid with no respect for privacy! The only reason he didn't just rape you right then and there was because he had a fucking meeting that he just couldn't miss; he left you crying all by yourself to mope and try to figure out what his stupid brain was thinking—"
"Shut up!" I cried, covering my ears. "I don't need you to baby-sit me right now! I'm 16 years old, damnit!" Angry tears were spilling down my cheeks, and I wanted so badly to slap him and knock some sense into his head. "You think that if you go and mess him up real good, I'll feel better? No! It's your stupid sense of pride getting in the way! Don't talk to him, don't beat him up, don't do anything that might hurt him! Got it?"
My broken gasps were the only sounds in the room for a short while, neither of us saying anything nor looking at each other. The light in the room was nearly completely gone, but I knew exactly what his expression was. I knew it would be one of anger and… more anger. I didn't care, though. I didn't want him talking about Seto that way. I didn't need him treating me like a baby. I was considerably startled when he sighed very softly, so softly I almost didn't catch it.
"That's exactly what my little sister said to me."
With that, he stood up and gazed down at me for a moment; I was still staring at the floor, stock-still. "Sh-Shinobu-kun… I didn't mean—"
"I heard what you said, Kumi-chan. I won't do anything to him, but don't think that means I'll let him do whatever he wants with you. I'm not making the same mistake twice." He was gone.
When I heard the door shut, I slammed my fists on the floor, collapsing in a heap. I shook with sobs again, pissed off that he brought up his sister in the middle of that to make his point, unloading such a heavy subject when I was already distressed. Why did he have to compare me to her in the midst of all this? Why?
…that happened way too fast. How did we even start fighting? I didn't even want to try to figure it out right then. I wiped a hand over my face and decided to make myself something to eat.
My classes before lunch were a blur. Seeing as how Seto is in a few before lunch, I was faced with watching his broad shoulders from my seat. I didn't want to think about what would happen after lunch when I'd have to sit by him, so I didn't. When the bell rang, I got out of there as fast as I could, and was thankful that he chose not to follow me.
Outside, I sat in my usual spot. I had made myself some bento the night before since I couldn't sleep—my mind was too clogged. As I picked up my chopsticks and broke them apart, I stared at them, remembering the first time I had really talked to Seto. God, was that embarrassing. I half-wished that things had just stopped there, but I felt a jump in my stomach that told me I really felt otherwise.
He came over to my house, that's one thing. Granted, that's not much to brag about, but the fact that he… I still got shivers, even though I thought of that and nothing else the night before. The idea still seemed so foreign to me. Again I asked myself the question that had robbed me of my sleep:
Does that mean he likes me back?
And once again, the answer came: of course he does. Why else would he do that? Well, he didn't really try to be romantic about it, it was just sort of… boom, spur of the moment sort of thing. Yet I don't think he would do something like that if he thought I was totally repulsive, so… alright, I'm not repulsive… right? There is a possibility that he thinks I'm at least decent-looking, but I don't know.
The only way to know for sure would be to ask him.
Oh God, I could never do that; I screwed up bad enough just trying to cover up the fact that I like him. And I came so close to admitting to him that… man, I'm really glad I didn't say it, though. Why would I even think of saying that? 'Hey, Seto, I love you.' He'd probably laugh at me.
"Kumi-chan?"
I jumped and looked up to see Shinobu standing in front of me. "You ok?"
"Huh?" I looked down at my chopsticks; I must have been sitting and staring at them for at least a few minutes. I stuck them in the top of one of the sushi rolls and cleared my throat. "Yeah, I was just thinking." Even then I felt a bit ticked off at him, and I wasn't in a talking mood, either.
"Mm." He didn't make a motion to sit by me, and I started to eat again. "I want you to tell me if he does anything, alright?"
"Sure." I knew I was being extremely rude, but it was helping my mood.
"I'm serious, Kumi-chan. Come over to my house if he tries to follow you home again. Take care of yourself." He went back to his friends and sat down without a backward glance.
I paused slightly, staring at the ground as I chewed. If he tries to follow me home again? I never thought about that… Well, what did I expect? He can't really do anything to me at school… right? I ate the rest of my meal, trying not to think about it.
When it was time for math, I took a deep breath as I was about to go into the classroom, taking my time in opening the door. This was it. I didn't know what to expect, nor what was going to happen. Should I take the risk of sitting by him? What if I just went to my regular seat? Would he take it upon himself to come and sit by me, or would he make me sit by him like he did the other day? What if he ignores me completely?
"Hey, are you going to go in, or what?"
I jumped and turned around to see four or five people that had gathered behind me, and a couple were trying to hold some sniggers in. "U-uh, yeah, sorry," I murmured, going in quickly.
Seto didn't look up, as usual, but it felt like there was an unavoidable cloud of energy that was pulling me towards him. He still looked as magnificent as ever, and the butterflies in my stomach were quite different than what I felt before the whole incident at my house. I gently set my bag next to the seat by him and sat, immediately taking out my book and a pencil, taking as long as I could without being too conspicuous. The teacher showed up earlier than usual.
"Everyone who needs extra help can come up to the front to ask me questions; everyone else, have a work day." She looked really tired, perhaps that was why she didn't feel like teaching. I cleared my throat quietly—I was one of the people who needed extra help, but I had a sneaking suspicion that Seto wouldn't warm up to that idea very much.
His hand once again yanked my desk towards his, but he did nothing more than that as some students got out of their desks to go to the teacher, others turning to their friends to talk about the homework or to just chat. I stared at my book, trying my hardest to understand it. I hesitantly picked up my pencil and put the tip to a fresh sheet of paper. I couldn't think of what to do after that.
"Use the equation for the volume of a sphere," came Seto's voice. I blushed at realizing he was probably watching me as I stupidly tried to comprehend the mass of words in the textbook. I tightened my lips and wrote it down, thankful that my hand wasn't shaking as much as my heart was pounding.
"A-and then…"
"Take the derivative."
Ah, I knew how to do that. "Right… and then dV/dt can be replaced by 3pi, right?"
"So you understand a little bit of it, then."
"Yeah, once I get into it, it's not that hard… really, it's just setting it up." Wow, we're having a normal conversation… maybe I imagined everything that happened?
We went through some more problems, and I started to get a little bit of a stronger hold on what to do. I felt a little calmer now that we were just talking, but that was ruined just as fast as I had realized that it was there. In the middle of a shadow problem, he dropped his voice.
"You haven't mentioned what happened yesterday," he murmured, and I tensed up as I felt him put his hand on my thigh, leaning a little closer to me.
My face flushed, my pencil still frozen in the middle of the Pythagorean theorem. I had no idea what to say, so I didn't do anything. I could feel his gaze upon me, and he chuckled darkly. "I really do feel horrible for just leaving you like that." His voice sent shivers up my spine; even through the soft words I could sense a hint of malevolence. "I'll have to make it up to you sometime…" His hand moved a bit further up my leg; I gasped and straightened up, my hand clamping down on his to keep it where it was.
"Don't," I whispered, shutting my eyes.
He snickered, instead tightening his grip. "What's wrong, Kumiko? I thought you liked me."
I wanted to yell that he wasn't being fair by asking me that, but I couldn't get my voice to work.
"I suppose I was right about the fact that you've never done anything with a boy before; it's written all over your face." He lifted his other hand to toy with my hair. I still wasn't looking at him, nor at anything else—my eyes were shut tightly, my brain refusing to function. "I know you want something to happen, else you would have kept wearing your hair up. Your stupefied silence is only reassuring how nervous you are about it, now that we're here."
"That's… that's because I don't know what to do," I managed to get out. "But…" I weakly pushed his hand off my leg. "It's… it's…"
"Too fast, right?" he finished for me. That hand now free, he put it on my cheek and made me look at him. It brought me right back to the day before, seeing his face that close to mine. "It may seem too fast, but you're just getting nervous about your first time. Seeing as how you've never gotten any play before, you obviously can't handle simple things like this."
Does that mean he's experienced? I must really seem like a jitter-stricken little girl to him… but I don't want to do anything yet! I always imagined this sort of thing, but now that it's happening—what the hell is wrong with me?
The bell rang and I took a sharp gasp of air, suddenly discovering that I had been holding my breath. I stood up and yanked up my bag, putting my stuff in it as Seto calmly got up as well. I yearned dearly to get out of there, but as I was leaving, Seto was all ready as well, and his arm was around my waist before I realized what was happening. "Here, I'll walk you home."
My hands tightened into fists out of nervousness, and I walked along stiffly as he led me out. This was exactly what Shinobu just warned me about! His house was in the complete opposite direction of mine, and Seto would definitely notice if I tried to go there instead of my house! Great plan, Napoleon! We were almost out of the gates when Seto was roughly pushed away from me, and I felt another strong hand grip me by the arm.
"So sorry, Kaiba; didn't see you walking there."
I was startled when I looked up and saw Katsuya returning the glare that Seto was giving him, perhaps with even more vehemence. "What do you think you're doing, blondie?" he hissed.
"We had plans to go out for a snack after school, is all. I don't think we had you in mind when we were talking about it, though, so we'll just be going now." He led me out, still holding onto my arm, though with a little less urgency. I didn't dare look back at Seto, nor up at the boy who had just saved me from him, but I could not deny the overwhelming sense of relief that had washed over me.
"U-um… Katsuya-kun, I think you can let go now," I murmured out after a few blocks.
"Oh, right." He did release his grip, and I stopped, taking a deep breath before looking up at him.
"Why did you do that?"
"What?"
I sighed slightly out of annoyance. "Why did you just help me out back there?"
He scratched his head. "Well, Shinbin was talking about how worried he was about you at lunch, and… well, he had to stay after school for something, so I…" He shrugged, looking away and huffing a little bit. "I did it because he was freaking out so much about it; if something else happened to you, I would never hear the end of it."
I raised an eyebrow. Shinobu was never one to express his feelings so openly like that, and I highly doubted that he would have said anything about it unless he was prompted. A lot. And what was with the weird nickname? "Why did you keep my hairtie?" I asked suddenly.
The question obviously caught him off-guard. "W-what? I don't have anything of yours."
"I saw you pick it up last week and stick it in your pocket," I said sternly.
He narrowed his eyes, as though trying to remember. "Oh, that. Is that why you've been wearing your hair down since then?"
"Huh?" Why is he trying to change the subject?
"I mean, if it's your only one…"
"Oh, no, I have lots of others," I said, shaking my head. "I chose to wear my hair down. Why?"
"'cause… well, I, uh…" He ran a hand through his hair, still not meeting my eyes. "I lost it," he murmured.
I really didn't know what to make of him as he awkwardly shifted his weight, but it was weird for me to see him looking so insecure. I always saw him towering over me, angry and menacing. He still towered over me, but…
"What?" he asked when I didn't say anything. "I'm sorry, alright?"
I blinked. "Sorry?"
"Ts, whatever. I called Shinbin on his phone when school ended and told him we'd meet up at the pizza place when he was done. He should be there in about twenty minutes or so."
"I thought he didn't know you were with me."
"I told him I saw you when I called," he rushed out, starting to walk. "Jeez, you're still as nosy as you were back when we were kids. I feel like I'm in a freakin' confessional. Are you gonna come or not?"
Quite frankly, I was intrigued. So, I followed him.
Say, outta curiosity, who is rooting for whom? Poll idea! In your next reviews, lemme know if you like Seto or Jono, and which guy you think will end up with Kumiko! –cricket- ………….. well, only if you want XP.