Author's Note: Another update. If some of you have noticed that on Chapter 3, Natsume said that he and Ruka aren't friends anymore and in the last chapter they were. Sorry! My mind wasn't on that. So this whole problem shall be cleared out here:

Mikan: Natsume, I thought you and Ruka aren't friends anymore.

Natsume: Did I say that? The day after I said that, he started talking to me again.

I hope that was cleared up. Anyway, hope you enjoy chapter seven!!!

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Chapter Seven: Win the Kiss

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Natsume's POV

9:00 am

Natsume's Apartment

"What are you dressed up for?" I asked, sitting down on my couch watching TV when Mikan came out of Hikari's room wearing a red mini skirt and a white top, she sat down on the armchair and put on red loafers.

"There's a festival in this college and everybody's invited, even though you're not a student. So I'm going. Can you take me there?"

"I'd rather die" I said, gulping down my bottle of cola.

"Ugh. Fine. I'll call up Kaito. At least he'll take me"

Damn.

"Let's go" I said, standing up – walking to my room and slipping on my leather jacket.

"Go where?"

"God. You just said that you wanted to go to that festival thing. So, let's go! Or have you forgotten already?"

"But I was just about to call Kaito…"

"Forget about it! Let's go!"

I'd rather become a nerd than let Kaito drive her.

XXX

Mikan's POV

We arrived at the festival, I could hear loud music play and smell the tempting smell of tempura. I could hear balloons pop and children whine. I could smell vanilla pudding and taiyaki. (Taiyaki is a fish-shaped pastry with bean paste inside, mind you). I could hear the splashing sound of what seems to be a swimming pool and people cheering. It seemed fun.

"You have to accompany me" I told Natsume, as he stopped his car.

"Woah, I said I'd take you – but nothing about accompanying you to this stupid festival"

"Give me your cell phone. I'll call Kaito"

"Damn you, Mikan! Let's go!" Natsume grunted.

I'm starting to get the impression that there's something about Kaito that Natsume doesn't like. I wonder what.

"Let's stop by this stall" I said, I could hear the sound of shooting. It was probably a 'Shoot the Ducks" stall where we shoot plastic ducks. That was one of my favorite games when I was little, and when I could see.

"How can you shoot the ducks, when you can't even see them?" Natsume smirked. He was so annoying.

I handed the gun to him. "You do it. Win me a prize"

"No" he said flatly. I forced the gun into his hands.

Suddenly, I heard a drum roll. Usually, drum rolls mean something exciting. I turned to where the sound of the drum roll was coming from. Then, I heard a man tap on a microphone.

"Who will be the pretty girl who these men will compete to receive a kiss from?" The man said. Oh great, it was one of those games that guys compete and do all these stupid stuff to win a kiss from a girl, and sometimes vice versa. It's such a stupid idea, its undignified.

"Oh… our pretty girl who volunteered has just had a trip to the clinic and was sent home. So we'll do a random choose. Whoever gets hit by the spotlight, and of course – it will be a girl…these guys who have volunteered to join this competition, will compete!!"

There was a another drum roll. Suddenly, my eyes felt heat shining against them. Light lit up the darkness I always see…wait… WHAT?!?!?!

"Girl with the brown hair, wearing the red mini skirt – please go up the stage!" The man said. Oh no. This was BAD!!! Plus, I'm going to embarrass myself because I don't even know where the stage was!!!

"Oh, it seems this girl is shy. People, let's give her a hand!"

At that moment, a crowd lifted me – cheering and laughing at my innocence brought me to the stage. Judging by the shape of what my face expression was…I was definitely NOT smiling.

"What's your name?"

"Mikan…" I responded softly on the microphone, but I could hear my voice echo in the large speakers. Oh God. This is the only time I need Natsume.

"Mikan, four of these men – Daichi, Ryouta, Takahiro and… Kaito will compete for your kiss"

"Kaito?" I said.

"Yeah, it's me Mikan!" a familiar voice said. I sighed with relief. Oh thank God Kaito was here. If he wasn't, I don't know what I'd do. He better win…

Natsume's POV

I ran in front of the stage. Kaito?!?! What the hell was he doing here?!?! Oh yeah, I forgot – he's damn interested in Mikan!! Oh god! I can't have him win!!!

"Hey!" I shouted. The man looked down. "Yes? And who are you?"

I pushed myself up the stage and stood up. "Natsume" I said.

"Are you going to compete for the kiss?"

"I'm gonna compete. But I'm not going to kiss that…cow!"

"What do you say, people? Should we let Natsume cut in?" the man cried, pointing the microphone at the crowd who stupidly shouted "YES!" Oh whatever. I just can't let that Kaito win that kiss. And don't you dare think that I want it too, it's just that Kaito's a FREAK.

"There will be three tasks. One easy, one medium and one hard – the first task is…"

Oh hell no. The first task was to eat a pail of rotten sushi. Man, that sucks.

We were handed several buckets of horrible smelling rotten sushi. It looked like the cafeteria lunch when I was in grade school. I glanced at the stupid idiotic cow, who's blind eyes now shaking with fright. Damn. I have to win this

I dunked my head inside the bucket, I almost puked at the putrid smell. I lifted my head and saw Kaito pigging out. God. I dunked my head back into the bucket, held my breath and dug in. I tasted the nauseating taste of fish and the decayed scent of seaweed. I looked what was before me, moldy rice and sordid looking vegetables with mounds of decomposed and disintegrating seafood. Tempura lay below the bucket, the breaded shrimp was covered with mold and muck. Gad.

I finished up the bucket and swallowed the last of hell. I looked at Kaito who finished before me. One guy backed out and vomited in front of us. I stared with disgust as he fell into the crowd, nauseated.

The judge went to us and checked our buckets and our mouths to see if we haven't swallowed any of that trash. "It seems that four of our competitors...well…three have made it. Two of them, Takahiro, Kaito and Natsume have made it to the second round! I guess Daichi and Ryouta couldn't take the sushi" he said, nervously laughing as he stared at Ryouta who was now walking unsteadily around the stage, and afterwards fell on the weak Daichi.

The commentator announced the second task. We were to hold our breath under a pool of ice For a person who can drink forty bottles of beer or cola in one sitting, well yeah – I guess I can do it.

They gave us trunks to wear and then they showed us the swimming pool that wasn't filled with water – but ice – half of the content was melted but I could see countless ice cubes swimming on the water.

"The two longest guys who can hold their breath, move on to the last round!"

We jumped in the pool. I could feel the rush of chill put pressure against my body. I opened my eyes, everything was blurry. I could feel the breath I was holding deplete every second. I was counting the seconds…five seconds have passed by and I'm going through the cold, bitter part of hell. I turned to my side, Kaito was holding his breath as well. I turned to my other side, and that Takahiro guy swam up to the surface.

"Ohh… it seems that Kaito and Natsume will move on to the last round!" a faint voice said from above. I rose up to the surface as well, looking at my reflection on the surface of the water – my face was pale blue and I was now chilling.

"Ready to give up yet, Natsume?" Kaito grinned – his voice shaking.

"Not at all, you moron. When you lose…you'll be crying home to your mommy and you're going to drink from a baby bottle!" I responded.

"I told you – you like her. I mean, who else would cut in to a competition just to kiss Mikan? Oh god, you're pathetic"

"I don't like her! I just can't stand seeing you carry your idiotic pride, get ready to go to hell"

"Yeah, I'll have the devil ready to pick you up!" he laughed and swam to the poolside and got up.

The third task was to jump off the building (of course with a harness) and land on the target point. Yeah, this is gonna be easy for me. I turned to Mikan, her face fell as she heard the commentator say that we had to do that task. "Natsume, it's not necessary for you to…"

"Oh shut up. Like I need your sympathy now, idiot" I said, walking to the building. I had to admit, this task was kinda…well not scary…just…fine…scary!! We reached the top of the building, I looked down and the people down there who were watching in awe looked like microscopic insects. I smirked, this was gonna be easy as smoking.

They handed us harnesses and we were tied to a pole. This was like bungee jumping. Who knows? With this task, I can finally end my miserable life.

Kaito was up first. He jumped down the building, I could rejoice at the way he was screaming, but he hit the target point with his stupid hand right one inch away from it. Damn him.

I was next, I looked down and took a deep breath. I jumped down, I could feel my skin stretching and the speed seemed to be killing me. How stupid I was to join this contest, just for a kiss. Wait, I wasn't for the kiss… Before I could sort out my thoughts, the rope swung the wrong way and I hit the wall of the building. DAMN!

Everybody crowded around me, especially Kaito who was smirking with amusement. I looked at the window and saw the side of my forehead bleeding. I grunted. "Oh…and it seems Kaito has won the competition! Go up the stage and claim your kiss"

What a loser.

Mikan's POV

I heard a huge thump on the wall and I ran immediately down the stage. "Hey you're supposed to kiss me!" Kaito said, as I pushed him aside. "Oh God, Kaito – you're so pathetic! Somebody's hurt out there and you're thinking of a stupid kiss?" I spat and ran down.

I followed the voices of the people and pushed my way through the crowd. "Natsume?"

"Damn you, Mikan. If you haven't brought me to this…festival…I'd never…"

I felt my way to Natsume, and I touched the side of his forehead. I felt blood. Oh god, yes it was all my fault. I started crying.

"Natsume! You got hurt because of me!! I'm so sorry!!"

"Nah. I got hurt because of that freak" Natsume said, I think he was referring to Kaito.

"Stop crying, damn it. You're making the pain worse" he said.

"Mikan, Kaito needs to claim your kiss!!" The commentator said impatiently.

"I don't care about that damn kiss!!! I didn't even want to kiss anybody anyway! And everybody's here not giving a damn for Natsume's injury. All you want is for me to kiss that moron and everybody will be happy while my friend is suffering!! You people should know better! You're all idiots!!"

xxFlashbackxx

"It's nothing serious" a dark-haired boy told me. The setting was in the park. We had been rollerblading and that boy's leg was drenched in blood.

"Of course it's serious! Can't you see the size of that gash???"

"I get these things all the time. Just forget about it okay?" he said, forcing himself to stand up but fell back to the cemented ground again, blood trickled down the floor and nobody was paying attention to him.

"This is all my fault!!"

"No it's not. Just shut up, okay?"

"Here. This is what my mommy used to do when I have wounds!" I said, kissing his wound. I tasted the saltiness of his blood, but I still smiled.

"Is that better?"

xxBack to Realityxx

I got this odd feeling that this wasn't the first time I had felt Natsume's blood before. I sighed. "If I'm going to kiss somebody, it's going to be Natsume!!" I blurted out. Oh God, I have gotten myself into something worse.

The commentator laughed and everybody started to cheer. "Kiss! Kiss!" they chanted. Hell no!! This was one hell of a problem.

"I guess I have to kiss you" I said to Natsume.

There was no reply. The chants were getting stronger and stronger. Somehow, I felt obliged to kiss him.

I neared him. I could feel his breath breathing down my lips. Oh no… my heart was beating as fast as it could. I took him by his shoulders and closed my eyes, well it didn't make any difference to what I was seeing since I was blind but it added pressure and intensity to the moment. I then landed my lips against his. I could feel the texture of his lips, it tasted like beer. It was kind of delicious. Oh I can't believe I'm doing this.

At the end of the day, he and I were walking back to the parking lot together. He told me he had bandages wrapped around his forehead so I needn't freak out.

"I'm so sorry I got you into this…especially the kiss…you know."

"Your lips tasted more disgusting than that bucket of sushi!!"

"Hey!! The crowd wanted it!!" I protested.

"Yours tasted like beer…" I continued.

"Well what do you expect?"

When we got back to the apartment, he threw something at me. It was soft and furry, I felt around it. It was a teddy bear. "Where did you get this?"

"In that stall" he replied flatly and entered the bathroom.

I embraced the teddy bear. Somehow, I don't regret taking him to that festival.

Author's note: Wow! It took long for me to write that chappie! But anyway, hope you like it!! I'll try to update faster since my school's on a week-long break!!!