Introduction (7 nov 2020)

So, this website is again back to normal and updates to stories remain permanently visible, instead of popping in and out of existence all the time. I do get the impression that not every reader has yet had the chance to re-read the first chapters, which are basically the original first chapter, but split up in two parts. However, the second chapter, aka part 2, has also been partially re-written. Still wondering what you think of these changes, for those who did already read the first chapter, when it was still a single, lengthy chapter. Maybe people who read the older version of chapter one, could re-read the first 2 updated chapters and let me know if you liked the original and long single chapter better, or prefer the new situation, with the chapter being split in two parts, and the drama in the hospital having been reduced somewhat.

But first things first, how is Ruka going to react to Kazuya's confession about kissing Mizuhara? Let's go find out, shall we?

I hope you will enjoy reading this, and I'm definitely looking forward to hearing what you think of this chapter, as well as the other chapters in this story.

Note: If you want to comment on this story, or any of my other stories, you're welcome to leave a review, preferably as registered member, as this allows much more interaction between writer and reviewer. If there are parts you felt lacking, or disliked, please let me know this as well. Things can appear amazing in my perception, while others might think very differently. I'm eager to hear such feedback as well, since praise is always nice, and can confirm being on the right track, criticism is often what helps more to improve.

Chapter Prologue:

Kazuya managed to get away from the other girls, to have a private conversation with Ruka. At first this looked like it was going to be a romantic rendezvous, as it started with a kiss, but then Kazuya revealed what had happened before this…

Trouble in Paradise (part 3)

"I-I kissed Mizuhara…"

"Ehhh…?" was all Ruka could say, as she felt a cold shiver running down her spine.

'I've got to say something! Anything! But nothing I can say will make this right!' it raced through Kazuya's mind. 'If only I had the power to turn back time, and undo everything that happened the past hour!' he thought. 'Well, maybe not everything, kissing Ruka had felt really good, actually…"

"Ruka? A-Are you ok?" Kazuya hesitatingly asked, as she still remained silent, while staring right into his eyes.

'What kind of a stupid-ass question is that, Kazuya!? Of course she's not ok, I just told her that I kissed her biggest rival, shortly after Ruka and I finally started to get a little closer. That's far beyond the lowest of lows, that's just pure cruelty!' Kazuya blamed himself.

"D-Did you l-like it?" Ruka suddenly asked; "Kissing Chizuru-san, I mean…"

'I want to say that I didn't, but that would be a lie… But if I say I did, Ruka probably would never want to see me again, and I don't want that to happen! Definitely not like this!' Kazuya pondered. 'But this whole overly complicated situation started with lies in the first place, so telling even more lies isn't going to make things better! I have to be honest, it's the only way!'

"W-Well… ehhh, I can't s-say that I didn't…" Kazuya reluctantly admitted, "… after all, Mizuhara is a top rank beauty, anyone would enjoy kissing her."

"I see…" Ruka replied, as she lowered her head.

'This isn't helping, praising Mizuhara is going to make it sound even worse!'

"I suppose that kiss with me was just to say goodbye then, right?" Ruka said; "Because if you are that close with Chizuru-san now, you obviously don't need me anymore, not as 'trial girlfriend' or as real girlfriend. You finally have what you wanted all along now..."

'That's not true, I always thought I wanted Mizuhara, and at some point in time she was really all that I wanted, but it's different now. Ruka, how can I make you see that!?' Kazuya frantically wondered.

"You know why I became a rental girlfriend? I don't think I ever told you, did I?" Ruka started.

Kazuya shook his head, as he didn't recall Ruka having said anything about her part-time job before.

"Well, I just wanted to feel real emotions, since my heart condition made this much harder than for 'normal' people. So when I heard my classmates talk about their boyfriends, and love, becoming a rental girlfriend seemed like the perfect way to meet lots of different people, maybe find love, and feel alive again," Ruka said; "But after doing this for a while, it became clear that people who rented a girlfriend, usually had their shallow reasons for it, like showing off their date to friends, family, or they just wanted to have a little casual fun. There was never any real connection…"

Ruka paused, took a deep breath, then continued her story.

"I began to realize that this wasn't going to work, no matter how hard I tried, and I was about to give up. I was going to quit my rental girlfriend job and just live my life 'normally', accepting I'd never be able to feel these strong emotions…" Ruka continued, "… and then you showed up…"

"Ruka-chan…" Kazuya said, as he listened to her story attentively.

"At first you seemed like just the typical client who would go for a rental girlfriend, as you were just showing off, and pretending Chizuru-san was really your girlfriend. I could no longer stand such lies and that's why I called you two out on your fake relationship. I thought that would be it, but then you turned out to be very different…"

Ruka sighed briefly, then started talking again.

"Instead of cowering when you got exposed, and run away, you stood up for Chizuru-san, trying to protect her from harm, if her secret would come out. Your passion and kindness when doing that, it touched something deep inside of me, in a way I didn't think it was possible…" Ruka added, as she put her hand on her heart.

'There is still so much I don't know about you, Ruka. I should have been more considerate, even when we were just in this 'trial' relationship.' Kazuya thought, as he was processing Ruka's story.

"You gave me new hope, Kazuya…" Ruka said, "… and even though at first I felt like always coming in second place behind Chizuru-san, we had some really amazing moments together, especially when the dream of being your real girlfriend started to become true, like during these past few days. I will always remember that, and I want to thank you for giving me all these wonderful new experiences. Even if I now have to admit it was just a beautiful dream, as it has become painfully clear to me it can never really be more than that…"

A few tears had appeared in the corners of Ruka's eyes, when she spoke these last words.

"Goodbye, Kazuya…" Ruka added, as she turned around, and first slowly walked away, then started to run, as she struggled to hold back her tears.

'I had never imagined there was so much about her…' Kazuya thought, somewhat overwhelmed by Ruka's explanation, while he was going over her words again and again. 'I always thought she was just a cute girl, who for some odd reason just happened to have fallen in love with me. But I see now there is so much more to it…'

"Ruka? Wait!" Kazuya yelled, as he ran towards the street.

Ruka was nowhere to be seen though. Kazuya tried to call her, but she didn't pick up the phone. The text messages he sent met with the same fate, no response at all. 'Well, I can't blame Ruka for being mad, disappointed or hurt. Probably all of these! After leading her on for such a long time, then finally giving her hope, and then take it away just like that. Maybe it would have been better if we had never met in the first place. I just keep hurting you, even when I try to be your boyfriend…' Kazuya sighed in his mind, as he put his back against the wall, and slowly let himself slide down, till he was sitting on the pavement, his head resting on his pulled up knees. 'I really screwed things up with this… I'm so sorry, Ruka…" Kazuya thought, as he started sobbing.

"Hey, are you ok?" he suddenly heard Chizuru's voice call from a distance, as she came running across the street towards him; "What happened? Are you hurt? Where's Ruka?"

"I-I totally messed up this time…" Kazuya replied, as he looked up, with tears in his eyes.

"Hey, don't do this in public!" was Chizuru's first response, while looking around, then starting to feel sorry for him; "Look, can you please try stop crying and tell me what happened?"

"O-Ok…" Kazuya started, as he quickly dried his tears and cleared his throat; "Y-You see… Ruka told me why she fell in love with me. You were right, back then, when she confessed to me, there is more to her than meets the eye. And hearing her story made me care even more for her. But before I had come back to my senses, and could tell her that, she had already said goodbye, and had run off."

"Hmmm, I do remember Ruka saying to me that I couldn't possibly imagine how long she had been looking for you…" Chizuru reminisced, "… did her story mention something like that too?"

Kazuya nodded, then took out his handkerchief to blow his nose.

"Look, I'm sorry for kissing you and causing all this trouble," Chizuru said, as she looked at her feet for a moment.

"If there is anyone who should be apologizing, it's me..." Kazuya started, "… I've asked so much from you, and got you involved in those difficult situations with my friends and family, in the first place."

"True, though I think in the end we're both to blame for that," Chizuru stated.

"Just one thing, I was wondering… about that kiss, why did you do that now?" Kazuya asked.

"I-I guess I was afraid of ending up all alone, now that you were starting to spend more time with Ruka lately…" Chizuru started, "… I started missing our 'dates' more than I had expected. And I was pretty sure at some point you were starting to fall in love with me… During those rental dates we had, you'd often try to undress me with your eyes."

"I most certainly wasn't!" Kazuya objected, but then he felt Chizuru poking his side, and noticed the glare on her face; "Well, maybe just a little…" he hesitatingly added, while looking down.

"It's ok, after a while you get used to clients staring at you, or even falling in love. After all, when I'm on a 'date', I am their girlfriend…" Chizuru continued, "… so it's easy for a client to forget it's all just an act. But you, you were different."

"Although initially I hated it when you dragged me further into your personal life, by introducing me to your family, later you also tried to be there for me. The movie would never have been possible without you…" Chizuru added, as she turned her head towards Kazuya.

For a moment Chizuru seemed lost in thought, as she briefly remembered her last moments with her grandma, and how Kazuya had done absolutely everything within his power to make sure grandma got the chance to see the movie they made. Chizuru eyes started glistening, but she managed to hold back her tears, even if it was just barely.

"I began to think there could be more between us…" Chizuru paused briefly, as she swiped aside a lock of hair, that was hanging over her face, to behind her ear again; "But I had to know for sure, and you kept giving mixed signals, so I figured I had to try something different... When we kissed, at first you seemed to be into it, thus confirming my assessment of how you'd feel about me, but then, even before Mami showed up, something suddenly felt 'off', as if you weren't fully there. At first, I thought it was because you were not feeling ok, but now that I know you were faking that sudden illness of yours, it clearly must have been something else. My best guess is that your heart wasn't into it. I'm right, am I not?" she added, looking into Kazuya's eyes.

"So you did notice..." Kazuya admitted, "… halfway, I did start thinking about Ruka. I'm sorry…"

"I figured that much." Chizuru said; "It had to be her, or Mami. And don't say you're sorry, I am glad you let your true feelings show this way, instead of pretending."

"Uh, ok... Where did Mami-chan go, by the way?" Kazuya wondered.

"Oh, after noticing you had just been pretending to be in bad shape, I think she mumbled something about being bored with all this fake behavior and took off in the cab that brought us to the doctor's office," Chizuru explained. "I just can't figure out that girl… one moment she does still seem to care a lot about you, the next, she behaves so totally cold, it even gets scary…"

"Your guess is as good as mine..." Kazuya commented, "… I know she hasn't been the same after we broke up… But, anyway, I'd like to thank you for kissing me…"

"Huh?" Chizuru responded, very surprised.

"It made me realize I was still holding on to the dream of Mizuhara, the perfect girlfriend," Kazuya started; "A dream that helped me through some difficult times, and I want to thank you for sticking with me for so long. That kiss finally started to make me realize that what I could have with Ruka, is more than a dream, it feels real."

"I guess we both learned a lot from this moment then…" Chizuru agreed.

"But it doesn't matter much now anyways…" Kazuya sighed, "… Ruka probably never wants to see me again after this…"

For a moment both youngsters didn't say a word, contemplating the things that had been said. Then Chizuru quickly got up.

"This isn't the Kazuya I know…" she started.

"Eh? What do you mean by that?" Kazuya asked, surprised.

"The real Kazuya would never give up!" Chizuru explained; "Just like with the movie, no matter the odds, how time after time it seemed like we wouldn't make it, you always went the extra mile, or further, and made things happen somehow. Is that suddenly all gone now?" she added, with a very serious, almost angry look on her face.

"But… we don't even have a plan…" Kazuya objected, "… and besides, Ruka won't answer any of my calls or text messages."

"Stop making these excuses!" Chizuru yelled; "Weren't you listening to what I just said? It's not about how easy or hard it might be, what matters is if you want to go for it! So, do you!?"

'Mizuhara…' Kazuya thought, amazed by the resolve Chizuru had just showed to him. 'She's right, I can't just give up that easily. I've got to reach out to Ruka, tell her how things really are! But how?'

"Yes! I'm in!" Kazuya replied.

"Well, come on then!" Chizuru said, as she reached out her hand to help Kazuya up. "Do you have any idea where Ruka might have gone off to?"

"Not really, and she won't respond to my messages or phone calls…" Kazuya sighed, as he let his head hang down.

"Hmmm, she probably would ignore my calls as well, since I caused all this…" Chizuru thought out loud, "… so then it's time for Plan B!"

"Huh? What's that?" Kazuya wondered.

"You'll see…" Chizuru said, with a mysterious smile on her face, as she took out her phone, and started typing a message...

(To be continued…)

Epilogue (11 nov 2020)

So, after all these revelations, hidden feelings getting unveiled, will Kazuya be able to reach out to Ruka, and talk to her? Or is their relationship already over, so shortly after it finally started taking off for real? And what is Chizuru trying to do? Stay tuned for the final part of this story arc…

Please let me know what you think of this story and leave some feedback in the form of a review. If you are logged in on this fanfiction website, and post a review as registered member, I can even reply to your comments. Looking forward to some more interaction with the people who read my stories!

Btw, since I am not a native speaker, there will likely be some silly mistakes in this story. And in punctuation, maybe I made the same mistakes as in previous stories, or even made new mistakes. Hope you can bear with me and see through that. Helpful tips and suggestions are welcome.

Stay safe, and maybe until soon!