Chapter 7: Strangely Comfortable

I woke up feeling groggy.

Last night, I forgot to unpack my things and even forgot to take a shower.

I frowned.

I wasn't supposed to sleep right off after dinner.

I took a moment, sitting in the corner of my small bed. My head was aching just a bit.

As I remembered what happened last night, I slowly grew red. Last night was really, very embarrassing. Even if I wanted to forget about it, the impact of my actions was too big. If grandpa ever heard about it, he'd make me take mannerism class all over again. Who knew hunger can make a person do something so impossible? I honestly didn't know people can do what I did last night.

I shook my head, sighing.

I had to at least clear my head and think rationally today, else I'd do nothing but stay in the bed and cover myself with my blankets. Besides, thinking about my crushed pride and ego will definitely get to me in more ways than one.

Today was Sunday and I had to go to my job place. I smiled. Finally I can work normally like a 'normal' person. I didn't have to think about worthless, embarrassing moments today. Who knows what I have to do in my job.

I got up quickly and grabbed my towel. I had to rummage through my bag to get my towel, clothes and other things I needed for today. I tip-toed to the bathroom next to the door leading to the living room, I had to sneak a peek left and right, trying to see if somebody was already awake. God knows what would happen if I had to meet those two right now – I mean the jerk and his not-so-cute little brother.

After I stepped inside the bathroom, I sighed in relief. Come to think of it, I haven't really checked out everything including the bathroom yesterday.

I was impressed by the sight. Despite the small space, the bathroom had a decent tub and shower. Truthfully, I expected a bathroom full of moss, insects and smelly 'something'. I've heard rumors about normal bathrooms. They say it'd have a very large pot full of something slimy while an old lady would be holding a big spatula, the old lady would laugh maniacally as she stirs the big pot. Scary.

Thank the owner of this house for cleaning it regularly…. or maybe thank the older occupants of this house-apartment.

I was even more surprised to find the tub already full of hot water. As I dipped inside, I slowly relaxed my body and thought about last night.

Last night, I almost had nothing to sleep to – that means a bed – because of the jerk.

That stingy bastard.

Flash back…..

We were done eating. Hotaru sighed, looking really satisfied. Ruka was massaging his stomach, he probably ate too much. The kid was smiling, if you can even call his nonchalant face smiling. The jerk finished his meal without any expression at all.

I've been contemplating about what did earlier – accidentally biting the jerk, embarrassing myself, apologizing for something I didn't even know what about….. ugh. I don't want to think about it. Aside from being flushed to death because of embarrassment, immediately apologizing because the jerk told me so was ten times more humiliating than what happened today. I didn't even mean what I did and why did I even comply, apologizing like that. Just what in the world was wrong with me?

I sighed.

I still couldn't look Hotaru in the eye. Who could?

I barely noticed Hotaru glance at her watch. "I need to go, I still have something to do." She stated, looking at me.

"Remember to wake up early tomorrow. Use the paper I gave you at lunch to go to Geenley's. And don't get lost." With that, she hurriedly walked out of the house.

I had to silently thank her. I wouldn't know what to do if she just left earlier, though the price of her staying was my horrible moment.

Just as I was going to walk off to my room, I vaguely noticed Ruka running after Hotaru after saying good bye.

As I stood up, I was stopped by the jerk.

"Where are you going?" He asked. I should probably note that his voice wasn't exactly kind.

I frowned. What does he want now?

"None of your business." I venomously answered. Hey, though I was embarrassed as hell, I was still angry. Maybe not just with the jerk but with myself as well. Also how dare he threaten me with food? Stupid jerk.

"That's fine and all. Just where do you think you're going without cleaning up your plates?" he said, narrowing his eyes for a bit. He sounded a bit demanding. And what was he talking about? Clean up what?

"Just what are you talking about?" I asked, truthfully not knowing what he meant. I also narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms, trying to appear annoyed.

He pointed at the plates I used. "Clean this up." He simply ordered. Really, what is this guy trying to say? Isn't he supposed to do that? Thinking back at home, after eating I always leave it as I finish, so what was wrong with leaving the dishes here?

"You're the guy. Why don't you include my plates? It's not my job to do any washing." I said, confused. He must be growing angry since he glared, and I didn't even know why.

"Don't you have any manners? You used it so you clean up. That's common sense." He said impatiently. I blushed at the word manners. At home, what other people always say are 'doing this and that, don't do this and that' it was always about manners and etiquette, after hearing those, I thought I had already mastered what were the 'do's' and 'don'ts', though I didn't really want to remember what happened earlier- the embarrassing incident. So what the hell was this guy talking about?

"Common sense? I never heard of something like that." I reasoned. Wanting to drop the subject, I slowly stalked away to my room.

"You know, my brother was sleeping on the other room so maybe you should just sleep on the couch." He suddenly said. I stiffened as I realized what he just said, thenI felt myself get angry.

"Excuse me? Are you threatening me? Again?" I menacingly asked. How dare this guy! First he threatened me with food, now he just threatened me with a comfortable room!

"Do you really have to ask?" he paused, raising his brow."I'll consider it if you clean this up." He suggested, pointing at my plates. The nerve of this guy.

"Did somebody ever tell you that you're worse than a sadistic bastard?" I sarcastically asked. Even though I was still annoyed by this guy, I grabbed the dishes and put it on the sink. Despite my anger, I didn't drop the plates harshly.

"Only you." He neutrally answered. God, this jerk is confusing. First he talks to me like I'm some kind of a clueless kid, and now he's talking to me normally (at least, by his standards).

Flashback end….

Just thinking about how things happened last night, I immediately cringed in annoyance. I knew that I lived a relatively sheltered life(maybe a little too sheltered) but I'd never thought that even with all the lessons I had in that kind of environment, I would still be lacking in common sense and mannerism. I mean, people couldn't have lived that differently than I had right? I didn't know the answer to my question but one thing was clear, I would never ever let that stupid guy make fun of me ever again. I'd do whatever it takes to live my short-lived normal life to the fullest.

The moment I decided that I had enough of the warm, cozy water in the tub; I stood up and grabbed the soap. Now that I think about, I thought I heard something dangerously close to sounding like a knock on the door earlier. I shrugged. It was probably nothing but my imagination.

When I was done washing off the soap, I lazily grabbed the towel and dried myself. If I were to continue moving at this pace, I'd probably be late for work – soon-to-be work. And so, I quickly covered myself with the towel and went out of the bath only to bump into something – rather someone and found myself rubbing my bum trying to get rid of the stinging pain.

"Ow!" I cried. When I looked up, I saw the red-eyed jerk, casually leaning his elbow on the wall next to the bathroom door.

"What in the world were you doing out here!" I shouted, half annoyed. How many times have I dropped on my bum? Just yesterday I think I fell two or three times and now I fell, so early in the morning! This is definitely on purpose. Just what in the world have I done to get my butt punished like this?

When the jerk didn't speak, I looked at him once again. He was frowning and crossing his arms. He looked angry, not that it surprised me. I was awfully getting used to see his grumpy face every minute, and it's only the second day I met him. Talk about a brooding monkey.

"What do you want?" I asked in a neutral voice, slowly standing up and dusting my towel. I didn't want to start my day frowning and go around having a bad mood.

I didn't even remember that I needed to avoid the jerk and his brother because I decided that meeting them in the morning would be gruesomely awkward and ultimately embarrassing because of last night.

The jerk looked really annoyed but he glared at me and proceeded to the bathroom without saying a single word.

He is weird. The least he could have done was apologize for bumping me.

For a minute, I stared at the roughly closed bathroom door and walked towards my room without any delay.

I quickly changed into a pink-black striped blouse, denim pants and my converse shoes, which I wore yesterday. I tied my hair to a low twin tail and grabbed my brown sling bag. I wore my silver watch. It was still seven thirty; I have to get to Geenleys in eight. Maybe I could order something there before going to work.

As I ran towards the front door, I glimpsed something on the kitchen and I quickly halted.

The kid was already there, sitting on the chair and eating his loaf. I really wasn't surprised to see him eating on the table. What surprised me was the third plate, which contained one loaf, a hotdog and a sunny side up.

Did that guy actually include a meal for me?

I crossed the idea that maybe he eats two sets of breakfast every morning. He'd be fat if that was the case. I mean, I know he's not fat. He's got a six pack abs for Christ's sake!

I was just standing there, staring and dumbstruck by the idea that the jerk wasn't actually a genuine jerk.

"Get out of my way." Somebody suddenly said as I stood at the door towards the kitchen, gaping a bit.

Instinctively, I stepped out of the way and the jerk walked right towards the table.

Did I mention that he only wore a towel? Almost instantly, I grew red and thoughts about how a guy walks right in front of a girl wearing nothing but a towel…. ugh was this guy that confident about his body or what? Doesn't he know what the word 'shame' meant?

Suddenly, he took a look at me and raised his right brow.

"What are you still doing there?" he asked. I was confused, but nevertheless, immediately sat down. Did this mean that I had to eat with them every morning? Considering what happened last night, I thought this jerk was actually mad at me- like I was. Didn't he hate me or something? But why was he including me in their meals?

I didn't know what I felt about all this but I certainly feel as if my day got brighter all of a sudden. Am I going crazy, or just feeling sick?

Since either of the brothers spoke, I also began to eat the meal – my meal. We were silent throughout the breakfast and it felt really comfortable. I mean, I expected it to be awkward but this was really unexpected….

Immediately, I remembered the times when I ate alone at home. The absurdly long table at the dining room was adding to the lonely feeling I'd been feeling every time I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner at home. My mother, father and grandpa were seldom always there – maybe the exemption of my grandpa, always coming home every Sundays and Wednesdays. I knew that handling a large company such as ours was a really difficult job, hell knows how difficult it is to maintain wealth such as ours, but my mom and dad were always at the side of their work. This was one of the many reasons I wanted so bad to at least help them with the company. In the end I couldn't do anything anyway.

I haven't realized that I stopped eating – that is – until the kid spoke up.

"What's wrong with her?" he asked his brother, looking up and munching his hotdog at the same time. He didn't even bother to whisper. At the same time, the jerk had been frowning, looking at his younger brother.

"Dunno…. Stop that." The jerk answered and glared at his younger brother, he picked the hotdog from his little brother's mouth and put it back to his brother's plate.

"Sorry." The kid apologized and immediately picked up the hotdog, stubbornly putting it back to his mouth, munching.

As I saw the brotherly scene, I couldn't help but think they were a little cute. I smiled and continued munching my food. Maybe living here with these two wasn't such a bad idea after all. I smiled.

Suddenly, I remembered what happened last night. I remember Ruka saying that the jerk saved me and also remember being the actual ingrate. I frowned at the memory.

Slowly, I looked at the jerk. I contemplated saying something, anything. Then I dismissed all my hesitations.

"Um…." I started. The jerk stopped lecturing his brother and looked at me, raising a brow.

"What?" he questioned.

I took a deep breath and looked at him in the eyes.

"About last night, thank you for catching me when I fainted." I quickly said, blushing faintly enough for them not to notice.

We were silent for a while – except the little kid who munched his hotdog without much care in the world. I was expecting him to at least say 'You're welcome' or something. But as it turned out, he said something completely unexpected.

"I didn't regret saving you. After all, I had a great show last night." He declared. His annoying smirk was pissing me off, although I had to blush when he said 'a great show'.

Stupid! It's not like I 'performed' just to amuse an annoying person like you!

I thank him and this is what I get?

"Forget about last night and my apology. I was right, you're not worth the thanks." I clenched my fist, showing my anger instead of my embarrassment. After that, we didn't say a word.

When I finished eating the deliciously made breakfast ( I noticed earlier when I was busy brooding about the facts back at home), I remembered what the jerk had said last night and picked up my plates, putting it on the sink.

Apparently, the jerk was surprised when I cleaned up the dishes. Without meaning to, I slightly smiled triumphantly.

I was tempted to ask him 'What?' sarcastically but shrugged it off since I had to go, and I mean now.

The moment I stepped outside, I immediately didn't know what to do.

What did Hotaru say last night? Wasn't it about a map or something? I ran back inside the house, startling the two brothers. I grabbed the paper Hotaru gave me last night on my room and ran back out of the house. I couldn't care less about what the jerk and his brother were thinking about my sudden panic, because I still needed to run to my work place. Good thing it was near the house apartment.

While running left and right (I had always been good with maps since I was a kid, though Hotaru doesn't think so…), I recognized the streets and realized that our school was just in the corner near the house and my workplace. They were actually pretty close to each other…..

How in the world didn't I notice this earlier?

…

…

Whatever. I should be thankful for this since I didn't have money for a taxi and it's not like I could still ride my own limo and walk out of it like nothing happened. Did this area even have any taxi?

The neighborhood wasn't all that bad either. It's just that I didn't notice because I immediately get on my limo and heads home.

Home….

Truthfully, I already miss doing my daily exercise on a day like this, doing my home works and study with my snacks beside me on my room, doing my regular shopping on Sundays and most especially, resting at home. I could weep and slam my head on a nearby wall or something but I doubt I'd want to go back or regret running away from home. Probably, the most important thing for me right now would be concentrating on making my life as enjoyable as possible with life most people have. This feeling of freedom is somewhat surprisingly refreshing.

It's almost as if I could breathe for the first time in my life.

This chap was actually finished sometime ago but I could only update the story now. For that, I'm really very sorry.

I've also got a favor to ask to those who has time for this.

Can somebody please tell me about what you think is Mikan's personality so far in this story?

The reason for this is because I already decided what personality Mikan 'Should have' and 'Shouldn't have' but I keep thinking that I might be straying from what I originally want to make her out to be.

I'm sincerely hoping for someone to answer my question. T^T

Also thank you for everyone who read, reviewed, faved and followed the story. You guys are awesome! XD