Chapter 04: Shining Girl's Feelings
A/N:
First of all, if anyone's still waiting for this story's next chapters, thank you. I am sorry for not being able to update this for two freaking years. I got so busy with my school entrance exams (first was for my Senior High School exams, and now for my College entrance exams).
I didn't really expect that there are people or a few that took interest with my story, thanks again for those who read this when I first posted it, and to those still waiting for the update of this crappy story I made(atleast in my view it is really crappy.)
From here on, I'll be avoiding writing multiple POV's in each chapter. As much as possible I'm avoiding to return to my childish writing style 3 years ago. (I was still a 9th grader back then.)
Chapter 6? Here you go!
n * Classroom
"Mr. Yuuki Masato."
Now that we have a plan, the only problem is how we'll be commencing it. He watched the birds fly though he was on a seat far from the window. Masato was as if, not in this world. It's been weeks since he last saw Maki, he was wondering how is she doing right now, that her parents again, wanted her to quit the music industry. It must be painful for her, of course, she's feeling the same as me, my sister and her friends. In addition to the fact that in µ's, only Nozomi, Eli, and Kotori and Maki herself knows about the disbanding.
"Mr. Yuuki and Ms. Kira!" The Professor exclaimed.
It was as if Masato came back from another world to his own body. While behind him, Kira Tsubasa, fell on her chair as she was taking a nap when the professor called their attention.
"Kindly leave my class, now!" The two, without any other excuses, stood up and went outside their classroom. Their classmates are surprised because normally those two would've put up a fight and correct the professor on his numerous wrong informations written as notes on their whiteboard.
"Yes sir." They both said in unison which made them look at each other for a second.
Upon closing the sliding door, Masato decides to go to the library to wait until the class ends, Tsubasa follows him.
n * Library
"Masato… Are you alright?" Tsubasa sat beside Masato. It was only the three of them in the library, Masato, Tsubasa and the old librarian.
"Yeah, probably." He was resting his right cheek on the table, this is when Tsubasa knew that he wasn't really alright. "Let's cut classes." She initiated as she stood up.
Hearing those words, Masato rose his head from the table and looked at Tsubasa in a weird manner. "Huh? Are you serious?" were the only words that came out from his lips.
Tsubasa nodded.
"Aren't you worried about your grades?" Masato raised a brow.
"Who cares about those? What's important is the true learning!" The short girl was offering her hand to the red head who sat in front of her.
She's still the same after what happened, maybe I should try and make it up to her. Masato chuckled and looked at her. "Alright, alright." He stood up and held her hand. "Do you even know where to escape this school building?" Masato tilted his head as he looked at Tsubasa, he waited for an answer but he realized that she doesn't really know where to escape the school building because all she knows is that UTX High School's Security is very high, maybe as high as the school building itself.
He sighed. "Tsubasa, follow me."
They soon arrived at the back of the cafeteria. He made his way on the part of the wall covered with a dirty white curtain; he then, turned the locked knob a few times and it opened.
"Wow, how'd you do that?" The short girl applauded out of amazement.
"Let's just say, I learned this passage from Erena— oops." He jokingly covered his lips.
"What? From Erena? Do you mean she—" Masato grabbed her wrist and went to the other side of the passage. He closed the door and covered it again with a white curtain.
"Let's go."
Despite still having a few classes, the two went to a nearby mall. They don't mind if anyone sees them together, even on their school uniform as UTX Students—even if it results to a scandal.
Did he have a change of heart? Tsubasa thought to herself. The young man walking in front of her isn't the Masato she grew up with, it was as if, he was a different person—far different from the rude Masato she is with every single day, also to the Masato's she has always seen as a big brother to Anju. It was the first time she's seen him like this.
"Tsubasa, remove your blazer. UTX's name is on the line." Seeing him, Tsubasa saw him put his blazer on a bag that still has its price tag on it.
"But, they'll still recognize this as the UTX uniform…"
"Did you know? There are many schools that has almost the same uniforms?"
"Well, if you say so…" She started unbuttoning her blazer then folded it neatly, finally handing it to the red head.
They decided to eat at a fastfood chain with a little to few people going in. As Tsubasa watched him eat, she realized that they looked like a couple having a date. With this, she remembered something from her childhood, the first time she met Masato.
It was ten years ago, when Tsubasa got lost on the same mall. She was crying endlessly as she got separated from her family.
"Hey, are you lost?" Masato, who was still black haired back then, asked. Her emerald eyes gazed at his flame colored eyes.
"Hey~ Are you lost?" He asked again, but Tsubasa's still staring at his eyes. "I think she's deaf." Masato whispered but was immediately pinched on the cheeks by Tsubasa.
"I am not deaf!" She said between her sobs as she continued pinching him on the cheeks.
"Okay! Ouch! Shhtohp ittt! Forehead girl, it hurtshh!"
Tsubasa suddenly burst out laughing.
"So why are you crying?" With his hands on his pocket, he asked again.
"I got separated from Mommy and Daddy…" She hugged her bear-like bag and soon, started tearing up again. "H-Hey, don't cry!" Masato patted her head and smiled at her. "Smile! I'm going to help you find them!" He removed his zipped-up hoodie and placed it over Tsubasa.
"Stay here, I'm going to go get something." He ran off somewhere, in a few minutes, he returned with a jar of candy.
"I bought this for you! I hope it makes you happy!" Tsubasa's face lightened up, as if all the sadness she was feeling a while ago disappeared due to the rock candies that sparkled inside the jar. They sat on a bench nearby.
"I'm Yuuki Masato."
"I… I am Kira Tsubasa! Nice to meet you!"
"Tsubasa! We've been searching the mall all over because you got lost!" To their surprise, it was Tsubasa's parents.
"Mama… Papa…" Still hugging the big jar of rock candies, she ran towards the two. When she was about to turn her back to call Masato over to introduce him to her parents, he wasn't there. It turned out that he too, was missing and was picked up by a security guard and was brought to the Lost Kids post.
…
"Hey, Forehead Girl." Masato flicked Tsubasa's forehead, which woke her up from her daydream. "You seem really strange today, are you sick?" He stretched his left arm further to feel Tsubasa's forehead on her arm to check if she's hot or not. Tsubasa quickly turned into a red tomato even redder than his red dyed hair.
"I-I'm alright! I-I'm not sick!" She forcibly removed Masato's palm from her forehead. Tsubasa also thinks that the Masato she is with is kind of strange, he was never this sweet to other people.
"Is that so? Let's go then, we'll relieve our stress on the arcade. Don't worry, it's my treat."
They played numerous games on the arcade, basketball hoops, fighting games, strength hammers, whack-a-mole, it was a serious dream come true for Tsubasa—a date like time with Masato, her long time crush, her first love. Lastly, they went to Karaoke.
§ * Karaoke
"Say, Tsubasa."
"Hmm, what is it?"
"Have you noticed something between me and Anju?" Masato crossed his legs and continued leaning on the sofa.
"Uhm… Both of you look like a Prince and Princess?" She tilted her head upon the weird question thrown out to her.
"You see, I'm adopted." He sighed before continuing. "Don't you think it's strange for an older brother to be only a year older than her little sister? And both of us are even in the same grade. My hair and eye color aren't even the same as hers or my parents'." He added as he sipped from the glass of cola in front of him.
"Where'd you get that?" Tsubasa's eyes widened upon hearing about the revelation.
"Well, I saw some papers a year ago while our maid was doing some cleaning on their room. On those papers, I had the different surname than Anju's." Masato smiled at her.
"Why… are you telling me this?" Still in shock, Tsubasa dropped her mic as she stood up asking him a question.
"Because, you are one of those persons I can trust." He continued smiling.
There was an awkward silence, to break it, Tsubasa decided to sing Private Wars.
While singing, she has decided—she'll confess again.
§ * Dark streets
After paying the bills, both went out of the karaoke. It was already dark.
"Masato." She grabbed the wrist of the man walking a few steps further than her.
"What? Is there something wrong?" With his opposite hand on his other pocket, he turned to look at her.
"When are you going to accept my feelings? I love you, I really love you. Since that day you found me on the mall, as we grew up together along with Erena and Anju, my feelings never changed." Tsubasa confessed. There are tears forming on the corner of her eyes, ready to run down her cheeks.
"Tsubasa, I'm sorry but I really can't—" Masato's words was immediately cut by the short girl.
"About that girl from your childhood again, right? And your stupid pinky promise with her?" Her grip on his wrist slowly loosened.
"You don't even know where she is! Or if she found another person to fall in love with!" Then, it fell down. Those tears continuously flowed and ran down her cheeks. "I'm going now." She walked away and left him in shock.
Masato sighed as he watched the small figure fade into the dark night. Looks like I failed, huh? He thought to himself.
He made his way to where they came from, the school cafeteria's backyard. Snuck, then grabbed the things they left earlier, school bags, books, and others.
§ * Yuuki Apartment Unit
Outside the unit, he saw something on the mail box. Hmm? What's this? He placed it on his pocket before typing the unit's passcode.
As soon as he entered their apartment, he was welcomed by a warm hug from a young girl still wearing her uniform, his little sister— Anju. "Masato-nii, where have you been?" She buried her face on her brother's chest.
"I just went out for a bit, with Tsubasa." He explained as he walked with his sister to their living room. Before doing his usual habit of sitting on the sofa, he made his way to the fridge to grab a cold bottle of water.
"Hey Anju, am I a bad person? Lately everyone's getting angry with me." Masato opened the bottle and as he drank, he didn't mind the water gushing out of lips.
"Hmm…" Anju opened the fridge and grabbed a small container of a chocolate pudding. She soon sat beside her brother. "I wouldn't say you're a bad person, but probably a person overflowing with problems." She took a spoonful of what she was eating. Anju placed the pudding on the coffee table in front of their sofa, then made Masato's lap a pillow.
"Masato-nii, I know you're doing your best for our dreams and for A-RISE. But please remember, you have to take a break. Also stop being insensitive with other people's feelings. Learn to think about them too." She smiled at her brother.
"Looks like you're right. I should take a break for a while, maybe we should just make a move when they start doing something forcibly—" Anju rose from the sofa and stood up, then started pinching his cheeks.
"Mou! Stop talking about that problem for now!"
"A-Ah, yeah I'll stop! I'll stop!" Masato grabbed her wrists to make her stop the pinching.
It's a bright Sunday morning, Masato was sleeping soundly on their apartment's living room— just until someone rang the doorbell. He slowly stood up and grabbed his phone to check the time.
What the actual… it's still as early as 7 am! He scratched his stomach before wearing his slippers and made his way to the doors. The red head sighed before opening the door.
"Good morning!" It was Nishikino Maki.
"Good morning, get lost." He was about to close the door but Maki tried to push the door forward to enter.
"L…Let me in!"
"G-Get lost!"
"Ah, mou!" she pushed the door with all of her strength, and she successfully entered the unit.
"Wow, how dirty." She glared at the unsightly look of the living room.
"Trespassing on another person's house then calling it dirty. How rude." Masato crossed his arms and leaned at the wall behind him. "Now, what brings you here, and how is it so important that you even disturbed my peaceful Sunday morning?" he added while covering his lips.
"It's not really like I wanted to go here, or something." Maki retorted, "And why do you have to cover your lips?" She added.
"Why do you even need to know? Just answer my question, geez. This spoiled brat."
"Well, I've come here to tell you something. About that thing." Maki cleared up a space for her on the sofa and sat on it. "It looks like they're making their move. By cancelling A-RISE's guesting on Music shows— soon, they might do it on µ's too." She added.
"What? They're cancelling live appearances!?" Masato exclaimed, he clenched his fists but soon loosened its grip. "We have no choice, right?" He grabbed the envelope he hid under his pillow last night, it was not an ordinary envelope— it was an invitation to a grand ball. The red head showed it to Maki.
"After that sickening ship, now a grand ball?" Maki glared at the invitation.
"At least we found a good opportunity to launch our counter attack, right?" Masato smiled at the scarlet haired girl in front of him.
"Quit doing that smile, it's seriously creeping me out." Maki transferred her glare from the invitation to Masato.
"Masato-nii, why is someone here this early? Is it Ere-tan or Tsuba-chan?" She was scratching her eyes when she went out of her room. She was on her pink pajamas.
"It's Maki." Anju was wearing a perfect smile, she then moved a few steps backwards and closed the door. I guess if I told her it's not Maki, then she wouldn't be fixing herself that bad.
"Good morning Maki-chan!" faster than the speed of light, the door opened and revealed a well-dressed Anju. Soon, they heard the door opened— it was Tsubasa and Erena, along with Kotori and Eli.
"I'll be back in a jiffy." Masato walked straight to the shower room and went out after 30 minutes.
"I'll assume all of you got this invitation?" He sat on the sofa adjacent to the three girls from µ's, beside Tsubasa, Erena and Anju.
"Eh? I didn't get one." Maki tilted her head as to wondering why she isn't the only one who didn't get an invitation.
"Of course you wouldn't receive this, it's from your family." Tsubasa pointed something on the invitation's envelope. Japanese characters for Nishikino.
"If what I'm thinking is correct, as soon as you go home, you'll be told that there'll be a party and you'll have to dress up." Anju crossed her arms under her big chest as she leaned on the sofa.
"Maki, it would be good if you go home right now. Your parents might get suspicious." Eli looked at her, as if telling her to take care of herself.
"Eli's right, also, they might have something under their sleeves. It should be good if you return there right now." Kotori, despite her sounding nervous, told Maki to go home.
"I get it. I'll send e-mails if I find out something." She stood up and made her way to the door. Masato followed to escort her until she got out of the building.
· * Golden House Events Palace
The night came and enveloped the city, outside an event venue that shone bright with its decorations, countless guests start to enter endlessly. Slightly a bit far from it was a limousine that brought two idol groups to the venue, µ's and A-RISE—along with A-RISE's composer, Yuuki Masato.
One by one they went out of the car, as they walked towards the gigantic entrance to the ball, some members of µ's can't hide their excitement as this is their first time attending a fancy grand ball. Namely, Honoka, Umi, Hanayo and Rin. While Nico still pretends she has gone to some before so she's not that hyped as the others.
"Rin! Can you believe it? We're going to a b-b-ball!" Hanayo's nervousness grew as they approached the entrance.
"What are we going to do on ball-nya? Are we gonna play ball?" Rin tilted her head.
On the other hand, Honoka was looking at the giant statue outside the venue, she was so amazed on how expensive it looks, and as it sparkled as if it was made of something like gold. "Kotori-chan! Umi-chan! Looksies!" she pulled Umi and Kotori to look at the statue with her.
"Honoka, it looks like it's made of real gold!" Umi said in surprise after touching a part of the statue.
"What do you even expect from the Golden House?" Kotori chuckled as she watched the two have fun with the attractions.
Tsubasa made her way to the entrance without even waiting for everyone. She walked past every one of them on her black frilled dress, it was as if she ignored their existence. Erena and Anju are surprised on what she is acting.
"Hey Masato, did something happen between the two of you when you skipped classes the other day?" Erena whispered to the young man wearing an all-black tuxedo with a white necktie.
"Well… It's something long, maybe you should ask her about it." Masato, too embarrassed to talk about it, made his way to the entrance—to follow Tsubasa.
"Tsubasa, let's talk." He grabbed on her wrist.
"Let go of me." She tried freeing her wrist from his grip, but she can't—or she doesn't even want to. He pulled her and brought her somewhere far from the entrance, behind a large tree beside the main building.
"Are you still mad about it?" There, Masato removed her grip from her wrist.
She can't even answer him. What should I do? What should I tell him? Tsubasa had endless thoughts.
"Tsubasa, I'm sorry if I can't accept your feelings. I didn't mean to hurt you but, if I accept those, both of us won't become happy." He smiled at the smaller girl whose eyes began welling up with tears.
"You don't have to say those things again." She covered her face and started crying.
"C'mon, now. Don't cry." He wanted to pat her head just like what he did back when they first met, but he doesn't want to give her false hope. Instead, Masato removed those hands covering her face and wiped her tears with his handkerchief.
"I miss the Tsubasa I grew up with. Will you please come back?" He held her hands as he looked in her green eyes that sparkled like emeralds in the night sky. The short haired girl sighed and smiled at him.
"I'll come back, but my feelings would never change." She turned around and went back to Erena and the others. Like that night, he watched her back again as she walked away from him, but at least, the feelings they had are not the same as they had that night.
He soon started walking towards the group.
"Hey everyone, I've been wondering, where's Maki? I haven't seen her since we were on our way here? You said she'll be here, but looks like she isn't." Honoka pouted.
"Be patient, you'll see her soon enough—oh, there she is." Eli applauded along with the other guests as the lights were turned off.
They soon heard the sound of a mic. "And here she is, the Scarlet Princess of the Nishikino family, the one and only heiress to their hospital! Nishikino Maki!" there was a light on the main stage, and there, stood a girl on a mix of black and scarlet colored gown, that shone along with her hair. Nishikino Maki stood on the stage as she was told to by her parents. This was the only help she could offer to help the others with the plan.
Masato watched as Maki slowly walked on the stage forward. She was sparkling; she was aesthetically beautiful. The view gave him more confidence on their plan. If they can't perform new songs on music shows, then I'll let them perform on an expensive stage as this. I'll let them perform on this stage and be broadcasted to the whole Japan! He smirked and made his trademark movement when he turns the tables. He looked at Eli, signaling her to proceed with the plan. The blonde gave a nod and pulled everyone to the backstage.
"Tsubasa, Erena, Anju. The three of you should go to."
"That goes without saying!" The three smiled at him, showing their excitement to perform the new song he made for them. Let it be heard, Shocking Party. He thought to himself as he watched the stage get dark again.
"What? What's happening? Call the maintenance team immediate—" The lights opened and a sound of a pop music was heard. On the stage was three girls, Erena, Tsubasa and Anju—A-RISE.
To be continued?
A/N: Sorry for updating this story not with the main pairing. m(_ _ )m I just found my files today, and this was what was written on the note I created two years ago. I hope you had fun with the slight Tsubasa x OC.
