Baack with chapter 3! In the beginning, Tsukushi mentions VIIA which is her special school. I made it up but it stands for "Virginia Institute for the Intellectually Advanced. But yeah! Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 3: Reunited

A lot of change happens in twelve years. Tsukushi Makino knew that as well as anyone else. Just last month she was in her advanced school in Virginia, and now she was in Eitoku in Japan.

It was boring. After being actually challenged for so many years, this regular school bored her. The phone conversation she had with her father replayed in her head.

"Tsukushi," he said, "Eitoku wants you to go to their high school. And you're going to go."

"What? But I like VIIA! Plus it was specifically made for people like me. What does Eitoku have to offer."

"I'll admit that you could teach the teachers there, but it looks good on your Japanese pedigree to show that you've attended Eitoku. You never went to any of their other schools, and you won't be going there for college, so it looks best if you go now."

Tsukushi knew that there was no changing her father's mind, so she decided to negotiate as best as she could. "I don't want to sit in those mind-numbing classrooms. If I go, tell the school that I don't want to have to attend classes and can come and go as often as I please."

"You have to stay until lunch and you have to take major tests," her father said with an air of finality.

She knew that that was going to be the best offer she would get, so she agreed.

And came to Japan, and Eitoku.

"Tsukushi-chan."

She was mildly annoyed that she had been interrupted. Turning around, Tsukushi came face-to-face with four boys. She noted with some interest that they weren't wearing the school uniform. Even she wore the blouse and the skirt.

They seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place them. It was funny, with all her genius brains and knowledge, the one thing that she actually struggled with was remembering people.

"I'm sorry," she said calmly. "But who are you?"

The boy with long wavy hair scoffed. "Ouch, we spend almost all day looking for her and she doesn't even remember us."

"I'm really hurt, Tsukushi-chan," a boy with dark hair said. "We recognized you immediately."

"Well," she shrugged, "I have trouble remembering people."

She gazed harder at the two boys who had not said anything. One had soft brown hair and delicate features while the other was taller and broader than the rest and had unruly, short curls.

"Lizst?" the boy with the brown hair asked.

"Chopin," she replied.

The situation was just awkward now and Tsukushi could feel her hands start to tremble. She needed to get out.
"I say that this is an unfair situation," she said, standing up from the piano bench. "You all know who I am but I have no idea who you are."

"I'm Akira Mimasaka," the one with the long hair said. "That's Sojiro Nishikado. Rui Hanazawa. And Tsukasa Domyoji."

Oh. Now she remembered who these people were. Memories of an almost forgotten childhood in Japan crawled across her mind.

"Now I remember who you are," she bowed. "Please forgive me for not remembering. If you'll excuse me, I have to go."

She maneuvered her way through the four large boys and stepped out into the hall. It wasn't lunch but who really cared if she left early.

"Well that was. . .weird, I guess," Sojiro said as he pushed his food around. The cafeteria hummed with life around them.

"She was really shy, remember?" Akira pointed out. "Oi, Tsukasa, are you good? You haven't said a word since you called out her name."

Tsukasa had been, in fact, in a sort of daze ever since the encounter at Music Room 3. He stared at the food in front of him, hardly even blinking.

Sojiro groaned. Then, to the surprise of everyone who was conscious, Rui lifted the book he was reading (which was rather thick), and smacked Tsukasa with it.

"Wha-What did you do that for?" he spluttered.

"You weren't responding to anything so I had to use extreme measures," Rui shrugged before opening his book again.

"I wasn't – Hey! Weren't we just in the music room with Tsukushi? How did we end up here? Where is she?"

Akira and Sojiro looked at each other before bursting out into rambunctious laughter.

"What's so funny?" Tsukasa demanded.

"You seriously don't remember anything?"

"No."

"Ah," Akira wiped a tear from his eye. "Well, Tsukushi didn't remember us until we told her who we are and then she left."

"She left? Where did she go?"

"We think she went home."

"She didn't remember us?"

"No."

"Not even me?"

"Baka! Why would she remember you over us."

"She was closer to me and Tsubaki."

Sojiro rolled his eyes. "She didn't remember any of us until we said who we were."

Tsukasa crossed his arms and settled into his seat. She really didn't remember them? Wasn't she supposed to be a genius? His cheeks heated up as he recalled how he had gone dumb when he saw how beautiful she was.

She had left, eh? Well, he would just have to talk to her tomorrow.

Talking to her tomorrow did not work quite as Tsukasa had planned. She would always avoid them at the lockers and if they went to Music Room 3 Tsukushi would find some excuse to slip away. And she would never join them for lunch and be gone after then,

To be honest, it was really beginning to annoy him.

"Remember how shy she used to be?" Tsubaki said, after he was griping about the whole situation on the phone with her.

"Yeah, but she was like, four at the time. She's sixteen now! I thought she would be more sociable," he grumbled.

"Tsukasa, she just moved basically half-way across the world after being in a super specialized school ever since kindergarten. I'm sure she's still getting readjusted."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Whatever."

"Baka. Anyways, I'm coming home next week."

"What for?" Tsukasa was secretly thrilled at the thought of the Tsu trio being reunited just like when they were children.

"The Makino's are throwing a big party to celebrate Tsukushi's return to Japan. You know, 'Look how beautiful and refined our daughter is'. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't marry her off in the next two or three years."

"Eh!? Marriage!?"

Tsubaki laughed at her brother. "She is the heir to the Makino Conglomerate. They're going to want to marry her off soon to someone eligible. Hey, do you remember when-"

"Tsubaki if you say what I know you're going to say I will hang up and leak those photos of when you got drunk on the beach when okaasan thought you were at a business convention."

"I really hate you sometimes, you know that."

Tsukasa rolled his eyes. "Sure you do."

But even after he had hung up the phone, the thought of Tsukushi getting married bothered him. Tsubaki was right when she said that she was beautiful and rich. He had to get close to her so he could protect Tsukushi from fortune hunting sharks.

Definitely not because he wanted to marry her.

I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review! idk if any of you guys watch Horimiya but um, its amazing and i am v sad that the last episode is airing saturday :'( But on the bright side Fruits Basket season 3 is going to start soon! Oh gosh, just watching the trailer had me sobbing so I know that it's going to leave me a wreck.