Chapter One
Kureno
Kureno Sohma fingered the DVD that Momiji had given him a short while ago, telling him that it was a present from Tohru Honda.
He paused for a moment, then inserted the DVD into the CD/DVD ROM Drive of his computer, pulling out earphones from his desk drawers. He plugged the earphones into the computer just as the play started,just in case Akito decided to come by. After all, Momiji had written, "Watch it alone," on the disc. And almost anything that had to do with Tohru Honda seemed to drive Akito into a bad mood. Or worse.
As he was thinking this, he pressed play.
'Cinderella?' he thought as he watched through the beginning of the tape, 'Why in the world….' He was about to stop the DVD, when the screaming voice of Uotani Arisa almost made him fall off his chair.
'Arisa…' thought as he heard Uotani's words. ' "Come meet me, you idiot!" '
She looked so sad… angry, but sad. TOO sad. His first impulse was to think that Arisa was a good actress. He shook his head and replayed the segment again.
It took him a moment to guess why Momiji had given this to him. She was talking to him. She had taken the moment of the school play to yell at Kureno, even when she knew that there was almost zero possibility of him seeing this play. Was that how much she loved him?
Suddenly, he wanted to be there for her. He wanted to wrap his arms around her. Apologize to her for the sorrow he had caused her. But a little, tiny voice inside him held him back from leaping out of his seat and rushing towards the school Tohru Honda went to.
'What about Akito?' it said. 'What if…'
Akito would certainly come looking for him. And when, not if, he found him with Arisa… No. He couldn't do it. He couldn't risk it.
He sighed then looked up at the computer screen once more, and was surprised when he found the screen blank. He had been so deep in thought that he had failed to notice when the play had ended. He frowned, and then inserted the DVD back to the case. He put the case into the drawer along with the earphones.
He closed his eyes for a moment and came to a decision. There was nothing for him to do except wait. Otherwise, Akito would…
"Kureno-san, Hatori-san asked if you'd fetch him some medicine he recently ordered from the pharmacy." One of the maid's voices interrupted his thoughts.
"Understood," he said, trying to calm himself. Maybe the trip to the pharmacy would help him forget the DVD.