Fight for Love!


30th Fight: Mouth-crash

"Aoi!"

He halted. I halted too, covering my mouth as I did so. What did I just call him...? He wasn't Aoi and who in the world was Aoi? Gosh! I was starting to confuse reality with my imagination. I wiped my tears with my arms which had gone sticky because the oily soup had dried up. When I opened my eyes, I saw Natsume staring back at me with a shocked look. He probably thought I was crazy for calling him some random name.

No, it was not a random name. Aoi seemed to be a person whom he held so dear and precious that he had even called his or her name during his sleep. If Aoi was a girl, could she be his girlfriend? An ex-girlfriend whom he could not forget? Or the girl whom he was trying to woo? If Aoi was a boy, could he be Natsume's best buddy? What if Aoi was a sibling or a close relative of Natsume?

No matter what kind of relationship Natsume and Aoi had, I shouldn't be bothering about it. Neither should I be deeply affected by it. But I didn't understand one thing - why was I so obsessed with the name 'Aoi'? It wasn't like I knew who the person was at all.

"Did you... just... say... Aoi?" Natsume's voice cracked. "Did you?!"

I was dumbfounded as I stared at his tense up facial expression. He didn't have to shout at me, right? Why did he look so angry? Without hesitation, I bowed to him apologetically.

"I'm sorry! I... I saw someone... whom I know... there," I lied and pointed at a void deck of another flat. "Her name is Kaori."

I lifted my head a little to look at him, only to see him frown, looking as if he didn't trust me at all. I straightened my body and hung my head low. My excuses were so bad. How I wished I was born a good liar!

Suddenly, I heard a soft chuckle. More like someone who was trying to stifle his laughter. Pouting, I looked up and glared at the source. That Natsume! What was so funny? Was my lie so ridiculous that it worthed a laugh?

"You look so horrible. Come here." Natsume signalled me to closer closer to him. "Don't make me wait."

My cheeks grew warm at his gesture. I couldn't say that it was a warm or rude gesture but the way he was signalling me to come closer made me feel weird. I felt like a child being called for a hug by an adult. Nevertheless, I walked closer to him in a shy manner and stood right in front of him with my head low.

"It's your fault for making me look so horrible," I muttered, not knowing if I sounded angry or meek because all I could concentrate on was the rapid beating of my heart. "Ap... Apologise, you idiot."

"No, I won't. Your seduction technique failed so badly that you needed to apply cold water on your burnt areas."

What?

I thought my heart just froze. Gee, thanks. So much for being shy around this jerk!

I stomped my feet and snapped, "Firstly, if you hadn't interrupted us, I could have won him over! Secondly, I have no burnt area! Thirdly, I don't know what your problem is and I..."

"I swear you shouted Aoi," he interjected with a smirk.

I snorted at his remark. "It's Kaori. Ka-o-ri!"

"A-o-i."

"Ka-o-ri!"

"Do you know who Aoi is? You couldn't be coincidentally shouting a name whom you have no idea who the person is, could you?"

I rolled my eyes and said, "Like I said, the person whom I called earlier was named Kaori. Aoi and Kaori sounded way too different to be similar. Surely, your hearing can't be that bad."

"My hearing is perfect," the egotistic boy proclaimed as he rubbed his left ear lobe. "And I heard 'Aoi'."

I puffed up my cheeks and glared at him. It seemed like there was no way I could escape lying to him.

"Who is Aoi?" I asked, more like challenging him if he knew the person.

Okay, I knew that he knew that person but I wanted to know what kind of connection I had with that person. The name 'Aoi' had been bugging me for weeks, even in my nightmares. This case reminded me of a supernatural movie I had watched on the internet. The movie was talking about a boy who suddenly had weird memories which were not his own; those memories belonged to someone else and the boy slowly turned insane because he was not sure who he actually was anymore.

I shuddered.

"Why do you want to know?" he asked me back.

"Because I want to know."

I just wanted to know why I was so obsessed with that name, that was all.

"Do you know Aoi?" he asked again. "Anything about her... you can just say."

My eyes widened. "Oh, so Aoi is a girl."

"Do you..." he paused and shook his head. "Of course, you wouldn't know. You don't know. It had been so long. Aoi doesn't exist in you anymore."

Okay. This was getting creepy. I needed to get an exorcist to drive 'Aoi' out of me.

Natsume continued, "Forget about what I have said. Forget about everything we have just spoken here. The few minutes we spent here chattering and talking rubbish will be forgotten, alright?"

I frowned. What was he spouting? Why was he trying so hard to... drive me away?

"Wait here," Natsume ordered me sternly. "Don't go anywhere."

I crooked an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Just wait, alright? You look disgusting and if you walk down the street looking like that, good luck."

"Well, I don't care!"

"Just wait here, flat-chested boxer. I'll be back soon. My father is starving."

With that, he ran into the flat and disappeared inside. Sulking, I sat on the slide and waited for him to return. I waited for quite some time, probably for ten minutes or so, and I thought I was being lied to. He called me to wait for him and I had no idea why he wanted me to do so. Knowing Natsume, he might be trying to humiliate me in the public looking sticky and soaked. Had I known better, I would have just left.

Just then, I heard footsteps behind me and before I could turn to look who the person was, a hand forcefully grabbed my sticky wrist and pulled me forward.

"Let's go."

I stared wide-eyed at Natsume who was already in front of me, pulling me along. "Go where?"

"You'll see."

"Let me go!"

"No. Stop being stubborn for goodness sake!"

"Stop being weird for goodness sake!" I retorted.

"Just be a good girl and follow your senpai!"

I shook my hand violently and even used my free hand to hit his hand in order to set myself free. I screamed and yelled at him to let me go but he refused! He was way stronger than me, obviously.

"Where are you taking me, Hyuuga-senpai?! You, kidnapper!"

"Somewhere where you can get yourself clean up! Now, shut up!"

When I felt myself being pulled even closer to him, I closed my eyes and shrieked, "Nooooooo-"

Probably shrieking was the worst move ever...

... because he stopped me with an equally and horribly bad move.

A kiss.

I couldn't express how I felt at this moment in words. All I could say that my heart stopped and my eyes were opened ridiculously wide. I even held my breath, hoping that I would choke myself awake. Yeah, not to death. Be realistic, Mikan. Everything was probably a dream. I must have slept on the slide while waiting for him. Dreaming of him kissing me was perhaps my hidden desire. Well, who wouldn't want to be kissed by the 'famous' Hyuuga who was a Second Degree Black Belt? I hated Natsume Hyuuga but that didn't mean his kiss wasn't a prize to boast either.

Boy, I really hated him. If this was a dream, I would rather wake up and be freed from such horror. Hidden desire or not, I would rather kiss my own foot and boast my achievement to the world. Oh, hold on. There were already people who had kissed their own foot. Well, it was still achievement anyway. I bet Hotaru and Yoichi hadn't tried doing it before.

Finally, he removed his lips from mine and stared hard at me. Still petrified by the kiss, I returned his stare without saying a word of disgust. I was definitely too disgusted and horrified to say anything.

"Yes, remain this way. Be quiet and follow me," he said in a low voice and withdrew himself from me, licking his lips at the mean time. "You tasted like wasabi."

My stomach just did a somersot when he said that with the licking-the-lips action. Again, I was probably too disgusted to retort him like always. I hung my head slightly low, feeling an odd sensation in my chest and a surge of warmth in my cheeks. Even my lips were tingling with excitement and disappointment, as if they were craving for more of his warm lips again. Why, oh, why did my body respond so differently from my mind...?

"Let's go," Natsume muttered and dragged the obedient me to wherever which he had said that could get myself clean up.

So, we went to a public swimming complex. What the heck...?!

Was Natsume serious? There was no way I could get myself clean by soaking in the swimming pool! As if the securities would allow me to enter into the pool too. Here I thought I was dense; well, everyone kept calling me slow and dense. And Natsume was the other weirdo who was equally dense. I mean, it was common sense that dirty people weren't allowed to use the pool.

"Take out your student ID," Natsume ordered me.

Rolling my eyes, I scoffed loudly, "Are you crazy? You want me to dip into the swimming pool like this? It's illegal!"

Natsume rolled his eyes too. "Do you want me to mouth-crash you again?"

"Mouth-crash?"

"Yes, mouth-crash like just now." He smirked. "You were pretty quiet after I did that to you."

Oh, he meant the kiss. So, that was called mouth-crash, huh? Fine with me, because I would never regard that as a kiss too! Never!

"Argh! Fine," I groaned and took my soaked purse out of my side pocket.

Thanks to Natsume, it was time to change my purse again. I zipped open the purse and took out my student ID card before handing it to Natsume. Natsume took out his too and then flashed our cards to the security guard who was standing at the entrance. As students from East Autumn High School were granted free access to any public swimming complex, the security guard let us in but upon seeing my 'disgusting' appearance, he frowned at me and gave me a stern warning.

"Take a shower before entering the pool, young lady."

"S... sure..." I stammered and turned to look at Natsume in realisation.

Oh, Natsume. The shower! I guessed I had just gotten his intention. He was not dense. He was plain clever. Why didn't I thought of it earlier? Oh, stupid me.

Natsume dragged me pass the security and took me to the shower rooms. Pointing at the ladies' shower room, he handed me a bag which he had been carrying all the while and signalled me to go in to have a quick shower. Still a bit lost, I took the bag and hurriedly entered the shower room. Thankfully, there weren't many people in the shower room so I occupied one of the empty cubicles and quickly undress myself. I threw my smelly clothes on the floor and turned on the shower, allowing my clothes to be soaked with clean water as for this moment. Then, I rinsed my body and hair before opening Natume's bag.

I found shower gel. Oh, that was so thoughtful of him!

When I took out the shower gel, a few empty plastic bags fell out. I guessed those plastic bags were for my dirty clothes then. There was also a small green hand towel to dry myself. However, as I dug further into the bag, something floral caught my attention. A floral dress which I thought I had seen before...

Aoi?

I pulled the dress out of the bag and scanned the fabric and the design. I was not wrong. This was the dress which I had dreamt of on a mysterious girl named Aoi. But something wasn't right. The dress which I was holding here was larger in size than the one I had dreamt of. I bit my lips as I continued to analyse the dress and piece the mystery together. Everything did not make sense at all. Oh well, Natsume Hyuuga was always a mystery. If I couldn't understand him, how was I going to solve this whole creepy 'Aoi' case? I would rather save myself from unnecessary headaches than figure out what kind of connection Natsume had with the Aoi girl.

I put the dress back into the bag and used the shower gel on my body. Thank goodness, I finally smelt great. I squatted and poured some gel on my clothes, hoping to get rid of the udon soup smell and the oil stains. After scrubbing my clothes under running water, I wrinkled them dry and put them into the plastic bag. I rinsed myself too before drying myself with a towel. Just when I was about to reach for the floral dress, I realised something horrible. I fell on my knees and buried my face in the towel, sighing tiredly.

"As if he would bring them..."

I was so stupid. Stupidity wasn't genetics, I swore. Both my parents were intelligent people but I wasn't. Here was the proof of my stupidity: my washed undergarments.


Hi, everyone! Thanks for reading up to the 30th chapter.

Special thanks to the reviewers:

- mystery555
- Guest
- Ayame-hime 11d7
- PureInnocence3
- Dwmalove

Lastly, I would also like to thank those who had story alerted and favourited this story. :)


Brief preview of the next chapter:

31st Fight: His Treasured Junk

"Na... Natsume..."

Natsume's hands slowly travelled down from my waist to my hips, causing me to shiver from his touch. His hands travelled lower and lower, as if he didn't care if we were caught being in this position in public. I cared but I was too weak to even nag at him.

"Ah, you're wet."

I felt his fingers dig into the dress... no, an elastic piece of article on my hip and pulled it. Then, he let go and the rubber thing smacked against my skin. My eyes widened in realisation. I tore myself away from him and hugged my tummy, giving him the hardest stare I could do.

"That's my... my underwear! How dare you?!"

"It's wet."

*No matter what, my dear readers, this is a 'T' rated fanfic. Keep those wild imaginations and anticipations to yourselves, okay? ;)

Please don't forget to review this chapter and tell me how it is! Thanks! :D