Romance Is Overrated

Chapter 2: The Lie That Keeps On Growing

…

"YOU WHAT!?"

"I DIDN'T MEAN IT I SWEAR!"

Yashiro Nene, 16, full of life and trying to get by these days as best as she can… has just found out that her own friend literally lied to her crush!

"I was going to kill him myself but decided you deserved to do it Nene-chan." Aoi smiled, which wasn't very nice considering the sinister undertone.

"I SHOULD! I barely even know Minamoto-senpai! We don't even know if he actually has a girlfriend!" While it was true that Minamoto-senpai was her type, keyword: was, the lie is still something that can easily be disproven!

"Listen Nene-senpai! This is a good thing." Mitsuba argued.

Nene wasn't convinced. "And how exactly?"

"Cause him some jealousy!" Mitsuba exclaimed, hoping his friends would see what he saw.

Except they didn't.

"Mitsuba-kun, he already has a girlfriend…" Nene said in a depressing tone. She hated remembering that, heck her own friend was literally drinking tea with her rival.

Mitsuba deadpanned, right how could he forget that?

They all sighed not realizing the Yugi twins were walking by.

"Oh look Amane, it's your crush." Tsukasa pointed at Nene.

Amane glared at him. "Shut up Tsukasa." His heart hurt seeing Nene so upset.

As if fate was playing a prank on them Minamoto Teru and his younger brother Minamoto Kou were walking by as well.

"Teru-nii I swear I didn't do it!"

"Then who did it?"

Aoi went wide-eyed noticing what was about to happen. "Act natural!" She quickly said.

Nene and Mitsuba immediately noticed what was going on and panicked but continued conversing normally.

"There you are." Minamoto stopped in front of the friends' group.

At that moment Amane stopped as well to hear what was going on. Tsukasa was curious about the potential chaos that could arise from all of this.

"Yashiro Nene right?" He asked.

Nene quickly nodded. "Yup that's me!" She beamed, it made Amane's heart melt at the sight.

"Great, your petition for the gardening club has been accepted, we just need you to finalize the process so you guys can start." He smiled at her, normally his smile would have wooed anyone but Nene's heart already belonged to another.

However, Mitsuba and Aoi had other plans.

"Oh, Nene-chan you should totally go with Minamoto-senpai to sort out any paperwork for the finalization of the gardening club!" Aoi pushed Nene towards Teru.

Nene was confused but one look from Mitsuba said it all.

"Yeah Senpai! You totally should."

"I'm afraid I can't right now, I'm accompanying Kou to find a new club to join." He pointed towards his little brother.

Mitsuba immediately grabbed his arm causing everyone to look at him in surprise. "I can help him look! The gardening club is really important to us!"

Nene was impressed.

Aoi sweatdropped at the whole scene.

Teru was happy at the possibility of Kou finally leaving him alone for a bit while Kou was freaking out about some random dude trying to drag him away.

Amane was planning murder while Tsukasa loved all the chaos.

"Come on Minamoto-kun, let's find you a club!" Mitsuba practically dragged Kou out of there without anyone thinking that was weird except Kou himself. Nene and Aoi knew the reason but everyone thought that was normal.

"Anyway Yashiro-san, let's go finalize the club." Teru led the way for Nene who, pretending not to notice Amane, walked with Teru trying to act like she was nervous just being in his presence.

It worked as Tsukasa had to hold back Amane from committing a crime.

Aoi smiled and waved at Nene and walked the opposite way of where the Yugi twins were standing.

"I'm going to kill him." His fists clenched in anger.

Tsukasa smirked enjoying the show, not that he wanted his twin to commit murder, no! He merely liked seeing all the drama play out.

"Let's go Amane, Sakura is waiting for us!" He dragged his twin towards the broadcasting club.

…

"And then Amane almost killed him." Tsukasa took a bite out of his cupcake as he finished explaining to his friends why his twin looked like shit.

Sakura and Natsuhiko sweatdropped.

"He should have just confessed."

"He really should have."

Tsukasa shrugged. "Amane has always been that way." His twin was too shy despite being known as the most social person ever.

Amane groaned at his own stupidity. "It doesn't matter! I'm not even her type anyway…" He frowned, what did Teru have that he didn't? Why did Nene have to like him! Worse of all, she's suffering because of him!

Sakura sighed. "You know sometimes opinions change."

Natsuhiko beamed. "Does that mean you like me!?"

Sakura deadpanned. "No."

Natsuhiko felt an arrow go through his heart. "Ah… always so brutally honest my lady."

Tsukasa chuckled. "I'm surprised you're not mad at us over the prank we pulled last week."

Natsuhiko glared at Tsukasa. "I'm still mad! I really thought Amane-kun and Sakura were a couple."

Tsukasa wrapped his arm around Natsuhiko's shoulder. "You deserve it for being a bitch and eating my cookie."

Natsuhiko didn't say anything as he was too terrified to even respond.

Amane and Sakura sweatdropped but also didn't comment.

It was funny to think they were pranking Natsuhiko for a whole week. Amane and Sakura hardly acted like a couple, Natsuhiko really was dumb enough to fall for that.

He was glad the whole school didn't find out as it would be tough to explain it was just a prank.

As for why Sakura even agreed in the first place. She was curious as to how pranking worked and surprisingly enjoyed it.

Probably because it had to do with Natsuhiko suffering for a while.

"Anyway, we're going to do some broadcasting today." She announced which grabbed Natsuhiko and Tsukasa's attention.

"Really?" They both said in unison.

This was Amane's cue to leave. "Well, you guys have fun."

"Ah, Amane! You should stay." Tsukasa grabbed his arm.

Amane patted his head. "Hey now, what did we agree on?"

"That I need to have my own interests?"

"Yeah, and what else?"

"That they shouldn't involve you all the time."

"Good."

Tsukasa pouted. "But Amane! You don't even have a club, you should stay." He whined when Tsukasa whined there was no stopping him.

Amane frowned. "We agreed, remember?"

Tsukasa continued his pouting before finally letting go of his twin. "Fine."

Amane smiled and sighed in relief. "You guys take care of Tsukasa, he's a baby."

"I am not!"

Amane walked out of the club with a grin and proceeded to try and find something to do since the boys aren't going to be playing soccer today. He couldn't help but walk towards the garden where Nene is usually at. Ever since middle school, he can't stop thinking about her.

He had to find out her name through… detective means.

He's not a stalker!

Don't listen to what Tsukasa has to say!

When he walked towards the garden he was greeted with the sight of Nene laughing at whatever joke he told her. That's right Minamoto Teru was there along with her two other friends and even Kou. Seems he's getting along with Mitsuba for some odd reason.

Amane hid behind a tree.

"That's really nice Minamoto-senpai." Nene smiled, clearly happy to have him in her presence.

It made Amane's heart weep in sadness. If only that was him instead of that idiot.

Despite the fact that Nene was enjoying this conversation she felt… incomplete.

Incomplete in the sense that she wishes she was talking to Yugi-senpai instead of Minamoto-senpai. Don't get her wrong, Minamoto-senpai is a nice guy but her heart already belonged to another.

Aoi seemed to notice this and decided to cut the conversation short. "Anyway Nene-chan and I have to get to work, these plants don't take care of themselves you know!" She giggled.

Teru nodded in understanding. "Right, right, let's go Kou, also you guys have to have one more member by the end of the week."

They nodded knowing everything would be fine. As they watched both Minamoto siblings leave Nene sighed in relief.

"Thank you Aoi-chan."

"No problem!"

"You guys owe me you know! I had to drag Minamoto-kun around for ages." Mitsuba scoffed remembering his time with that awkward boy. He seemed nice but… his cute self should never be seen with that hella lame traffic safety earring boy.

Nene glared at him. "We don't owe you shit Mitsuba-kun, it's your fault we're in this mess!" Had he not lied this wouldn't have happened. Aoi nodded.

Mitsuba understood Nene's anger towards him but what about Aoi? "Wait why is she getting off the hook!? It was her idea to begin with ya know!" He pointed at Aoi accusingly.

Aoi gasped. "It's not my fault you spilled the beans to the broadcasting club!" She pointed at him back.

Mitsuba deadpanned. "I DIDN'T MEAN IT! THE TEA WAS TOO GOOD!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE TEA WAS TOO GOOD!?"

"IT WAS!!"

They argued back in forth as Nene felt her sanity go down. They didn't even realize Amane was still hiding behind the tree hearing everything.

"Mitsuba you shouldn't have said shit." Nene felt her eye begin to twitch, if she thought she had even a tiny chance with Yugi-senpai, it was utterly destroyed.

Mitsuba gave Nene an apologetic look. "I'm sorry Nene-senpai, I swear I wasn't even going to name names! It's just… I don't know… they seemed sincere when they said they wouldn't tell anyone."

Nene sighed, understanding Mitsuba's reasoning. "It's okay I forgive you."

Aoi looked lost in thought for a bit. "Wait… I didn't know Yugi-senpai was in the broadcasting club."

Mitsuba looked at Aoi and then thought for a bit himself. "I didn't know either actually… I mean his twin was there too."

"Yugi Tsukasa?" Nene hadn't heard that name in a long time. Tsukasa was always constantly hoarding all of Amane's attention during middle school.

"Maybe they're both part of the club now?" Aoi suggested as it was pretty logical.

Mitsuba and Nene nodded, opting to just leave it at that.

Ding ding ding

"A special announcement from the broadcasting club."

All three froze feeling sudden dread overcome them. Amane who was still by the tree wondered what they were going to announce this time.

All four were unaware of what was to come.

"A special confession to Minamoto Teru."

Amane felt his blood run cold upon hearing his twin. Don't tell me they're going to-

"Oh no…" Mitsuba wanted to die.

"From Yashiro Nene!"

Nene felt her whole world fall apart.

"Yashiro Nene is in love with Minamoto Teru!"

Nene wanted to die, she wanted to die so badly. This isn't what she wanted! She didn't want this at all!! She didn't even like him at all! Who she really likes is-

"Please accept her confession Minamoto-senpai!"

Amane was going to kill Tsukasa the moment he saw him leave.

Nene wanted the earth to swallow her whole while Aoi was practically choking Mitsuba to death.

"WHY DID YOU TELL THEM!!??"

"I'M SORRY!!!"

Minamoto Teru was confused by the whole ordeal. "I don't think that's very nice of them." He sighed as he had to schedule a meeting with them over such announcements.

Kou looked at him in surprise. "Um, Teru-nii… isn't that the girl from-"

"The gardening club? Yeah, but considering how the broadcasting club is, it's most likely a prank and not a very good one." He sighed again as a migraine was incoming. If they were telling the truth it would be a pain. Nene seemed like a nice girl so it won't be nice to break her heart.

The next day rumors started spreading, everyone stared at Nene constantly. Aoi and Mitsuba had to practically shield her all the time.

Kou made his way towards the trio. "Hey guys."

"Not now hella lame traffic safety earring." Mitsuba pushed him away.

Kou glared. "Hey calm down I'm just here to help!" He looked at Nene who looked like utter death, he would be lying if he didn't flinch a bit. "Teru-nii is really sorry about what you're going through! He's going to talk to the broadcasting club and have them punished."

Nene felt relieved, at the very least Teru doesn't feel humiliated. "At least he's not taking it badly." She said as she sighed while Aoi and Mitsuba comforted her.

Kou ended up sitting at their table. "So it's not true?"

Nene shook her head. "No, it was a lie Mitsuba made up on accident."

Mitsuba sweatdropped. "I said I was sorry."

Kou looked at them confused. "Why would he lie about that?"

Mitsuba shushed him away. "Please don't ask, I'm feeling horrible as it is."

Kou opted to just ask him later.

As the four sat in silence someone came running towards their table. "Hey guys did you hear?"

They all looked at the girl confused.

"Yugi Amane is fighting his brother!"

They all went wide-eyed at the news. Nene was completely confused as to why Amane would even fight his brother. They got up and followed the girl towards the scene.

Sure enough, both twins were being held back, each with bruises all over them.

"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THAT?"

"It seemed like a good idea!"

Tsukasa wasn't taking this seriously and that much was obvious. Nene always knew he seemed like the masochist type.

Amane was extremely angry and Nene didn't like seeing him in... pain? Was it pain?

"You're a fucking idiot!" He yelled, not even bothering to look at Tsukasa or even fight the hold that was on him.

Tsukasa didn't really say anything nor did his smile seem to go away.

They were both sent to the office and everyone was urged to go back to class. Nene wanted to desperately hug Amane but she knew she couldn't.

That was his girlfriend's job after all…

…

Sakura and Natsuhiko both waited for the Yugi twins to come out of the nurse's office. When they did they both looked at them in concern.

Amane glared at them when he opened the door. "I don't want to talk to you guys right now."

Sakura understood and didn't say anything but Natsuhiko was offended. "Hey! We didn't know he was going to pull that shit."

Sakura stopped him. "Don't, we should have kept an eye on him, you know how he is."

Natsuhiko still protested. "But Sakura! It's not fair for Amane-kun to blame us."

She merely shook her head ready to take on the punishment for not looking after Tsukasa properly.

Tsukasa was starting to feel the weight of his actions.

"Damn this is all your fault!" Natsuhiko yelled at Tsukasa. "Why did you have to ruin shit? And for what gain?"

Tsukasa looked off to the side, not really saying much.

Amane rolled his eyes. "Let him be, he's starting to realize what he did."

Tsukasa stayed silent until a smile appeared on his face. "Notice how a girl fight didn't happen?"

Amane stopped dead on his tracks and turned to look at Tsukasa. "And?"

Tsukasa shrugged. "I guess that means Minamoto-senpai doesn't have a girlfriend and is, in fact, single, heck I think I overheard someone saying he was going to talk to your precious Yashiro-san later today." Tsukasa felt like he was going too far in pushing his twin but he liked seeing the world burn sometimes.

Amane's fists clenched, his rage starting to build.

Tsukasa continued. "If they get together they'll probably thank me for-"

Amane punched Tsukasa again and was about to continue until Natsuhiko held him back while Sakura grabbed Tsukasa from retaliating.

"Tsukasa just stop," Sakura said but he didn't plan to stop.

"No, this is stupid, he's not even mad at me at all! He's mad at himself for being dumb."

Amane's flinch at his brother's words as confirmation that he was indeed right. "Just shut up, regardless you shouldn't have done that!"

Tsukasa shrugged. "You don't know that…" He muttered.

Because unlike his brother and his friends. Tsukasa knew there was something off about this whole ordeal that he was sure to expose soon.

In the meantime causing some chaos along the way isn't a bad idea.

2 hours later…

Nene found herself staring too much at the field her dearest Senpai would always play in. Apparently, the boys weren't feeling it lately so it meant she couldn't see Amane. She always thought he was part of the team but it seemed she was wrong again. She sighed, still feeling embarrassed about the lie Mitsuba let out that only kept growing and growing.

She had a conversation with Minamoto Teru earlier today about everything. He was relieved to hear that it was a lie as he didn't want to reject her since he didn't feel the same way. Nene felt happy that someone was considering her feelings at the very least, had it been real she was sure she wouldn't have felt that bad about the rejection.

"So who do you like then?"

When Teru asked her that question she was caught off guard honestly. She wasn't sure if being truthful was the way to go or merely saying she didn't really like anyone. At that moment she felt like a proper boy perspective would be nice to have.

So she told him everything, he seemed impressed and slightly weirded out but tried not to judge which caused Nene a slight amount of joy.

"Why don't you confess your feelings?""He has a girlfriend."

Even if she wanted to she couldn't make the situation even more awkward then it had to be. From what Mitsuba had said the girl seemed nice.

Seemed, she wasn't sure if she was part of the whole debacle that Yugi Tsukasa started.

Teru gave her words of encouragement she greatly appreciated and went off to continue her day. She hadn't seen Aoi or Mitsuba this whole time and wondered if Aoi had killed Mitsuba and is asking her childhood friend Akane to help her hide the body.

It seemed like a possibility.

She continued watering the plants unaware of the boy staring at her.

Amane started to feel more like a stalker every day. He had come here to apologize on behalf of his brother but couldn't help but continue to stare at her. He hadn't seen her for a while now.

He gulped and decided to get this over with. "Hey Yashiro-san."

His sudden presence caused Yashiro to yelp in surprise and almost drop the watering can. "Oh my god, Yugi-senpai don't scare me like that."

He panicked. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" He really didn't mean to scare her.

Nene sighed and smiled. "It's okay, was just caught off guard is all." She suddenly started to feel self-conscious. Did she have dirt all over her? Is her hair presentable? Did she even look remotely cute at all!?

Amane was relieved to hear that. "Thank god, thought you suddenly hated me." He laughed nervously, he really shouldn't have said that, why would she hate him anyway?

She blinked, confusion all over her face. "Of course not, I could never hate you Yugi-senpai."

An arrow hit his heart as he tried to force the blush that was threatening to appear on his face to go away. "That's good to hear!"

She smiled at him. "What brings you here today?" That was awfully formal, Nene was sure she was panicking too much right now, her crush was literally here right in front of her.

He chuckled. "I'm here to apologize on behalf of my brother, he didn't mean to do what he did and the rest of the broadcasting club members had no idea he was going to do that so please don't hate them either." He bowed down in hopes this was enough to make her feel better.

Nene blushed seeing Amane so apologetic despite the fact that it wasn't his fault. At least she knew now that it was just Tsukasa- his girlfriend wasn't involved at all. "It's okay! I've already talked to Minamoto-senpai anyway."

She didn't notice Amane's flinch and sour expression. "That's good… did you confess?"

Everything seemed to slow down as he looked at her awaiting an answer. The cherry blossoms fell down around them and the wind was blowing her hair.

Should she be truthful or should she continue to lie?

…

This chapter was for anyone who was wondering about Amane and Sakura's relationship xD

My HanaNene mood just continues to grow as I type this!

I'm glad people are enjoying the story ;w;

Never gotten this much feedback on a story beforeI love you all~

I also have a love-hate relationship with Tsukasa xD

Thanks to everyone that followed and favorited:

Karla Ayala

MaskedSerenity

Reviews:

Hiyori:

Those two are dense dorks lol

And yes more Mitsuba mayhem to come!

Guest:

He showed up for a bit here but I promise he'll start becoming more of a main soon!

Until next chapter ;)