Argh. Longer chapter this time! Sorry for the longer time it took to update.

Biology coursework is the spawn of the devil.

But now I'm off school, so if you're lucky the next update won't take so long!!!

I love everyone who takes the time to review, so please continue!!!

Naru and his duel personalities.

Mai slumped on her desk before the bell rang, trying to catch an extra five minutes of sleep. Her new job was taking the stuffing out of her, but she could not let Naru know that, under any circumstances. His head would just explode with all the smug satisfaction and Mai could just see his arrogant face smirking as he said: "Well, I told you that you had to manage a job and school work. You don't really need the money, so you should just quit."

But Mai did need the money. To pay the rent. Naru didn't actually know that she was living alone and supporting herself. While burying her head in her arm, she assumed that Naru was probably the only one who didn't know why she lived alone, and Mai thought it best that it stayed that way. Nobody talked about it any more.

For a while, she had been offered to stay with some of the teachers, but the thought of living with Mr Cullen and his mother was so terrifying that she had politely declined. So then her school fees had been waived and thanks to her new job she was on top of any bills or food.

Her job.

What did she actually do for Naru? It was the weirdest job she had ever come across. When she arrived, she went straight to the kitchen to make some tea for Lin and Naru. Then she would do some cleaning of the bottom floor of the house, (never the upstairs), and perhaps do some filing or something for Lin, who was always at laptop, another one to that in the study. Mai didn't know what he was doing, or Naru, because he always seemed to be working, and it wasn't homework. It seemed to be excessively difficult.

Lin was a very quiet man. Mai had only ever said "Hello!" to him, or "Here's your tea!" during the course in one day. Although Mai was proud that on the first day she had managed to say three things to him. "Oh! You're the new librarian!" to which he had nodded, and then walked off again as if he was scared of further conversation. Was Lin also working another job of some sort?

Mai was determined to find out what it was that Naru did, and had just lifted her head wit firm resolve when the door opened and Naru walked in, sickeningly on time, as he was immediately followed by Mr Cullen, who dragged his feet and slouched. His chin looked dirty with stubble and his hands were deep into his pockets. But the biggest shock was that Mr Cullen was dressed entirely in black. Including his fingernails. He walked past his class, unaware that they were all gawping at him. He walked like a teenager, who would rather be behind the science block smoking.

He threw himself into his chair, again like a teenager, and he pulled the register towards him.

Naru had by this time sat down and Mai was pretending to be as perky as usual. Masako, (yes, she actually belongs to the same class) was staring at Mai with narrowed eyes. Mai hadn't listened to a word she had said that afternoon. So perhaps she had to repeat what happened last time. But later. She had cheerleader trials this lunchtime, (like they're common in England…) and her main goal was to focus. And she'd have to get Naru to watch her.

Mr Cullen proceeded to take the register.

Naru turned to look at Mai. After the embarrassing encounter at the restaurant last week, Mai had changed ever so slightly. But Naru's analytical skills were not good enough, (oh my god!) for him to find out what it was. Ah yes. That incident with the chocolate. Stupid Takigawa had come to him two days before…

Flashback

Naru was walking home on his own. Lin was working later tonight at the library and Naru couldn't be bothered to wait for him. He had just walked out of the wrought iron gates when he heard a voice shout his name out. Naru paused, only briefly, pondering on whether to carry on walking and ignore the voice, or to wait and listen to some idiot who would never let him go until he had told him every aspect of his dull and meaningless life. Naru had just resolved to carry on walking when the person, who must have horribly long legs had already caught up with him, and was now standing in front of him, not even breathing heavily.

"What do you want, Takigawa?" Naru asked irritably.

"Well, you see...the thing is...there's this haunted house near me! It's been rumoured that a number of people keep dying every two months. Because I work on a mountain I'm learning to be an exorcist, and so is John. But we thought that perhaps you would know something about paranormal activity...?" he trailed off.

Takigawa was right. Naru did know a lot about paranormal activity. But could he really be bothered?

"Sorry, not interested." Naru easily side stepped the teenager and continued to walk, slightly surprised that Takigawa hadn't started to follow him yet.

"Are you scared?" Naru halted.

Now, at a time like this, any usual man would charge back and demand the challenge, in order to protect their hurt 'manly pride and dignity' of not being a coward, which apparently is a very bad thing to be if you are a man.

But Naru was an unusual man. Would he react the same?

"What time do I meet you?"

Apparently so.

And so he had been pulled along, tricked and consequently had theoretically 'blanked out'.

Mai was very good at noticing things, as long as they didn't involve her. She was currently unaware that Naru had been staring at her blankly for the last seven minutes and twenty three seconds, as he had been reviewing thoughts in his head. Masako however had noticed, and the boy sitting next to her was wondering if she could see when her eyes were practically closed from all her 'narrowing eyes'. Mr Cullen had by now finished the register, and the next bell had just rung. The students looked at him expectantly while waiting to be dismissed, half were expecting him to stuff his hand under his armpit or something, but instead he nodded at them all, saying, 'Check you later, dudes." And walked out of the classroom.

Every student, (of course every never ever includes Naru!) felt like being sick. Ew. Mr Cullen, trying to act like a teenager. Not even teenagers said those sorts of things. Was this the school's new attempt to try and connect with their students? Or was Mr Cullen just being Mr Cullen...

Meanwhile, Mai had picked up her bag from the floor and the two folders and textbook and made her way to history with Naru. They were currently studying medicine through time, ("What was this syllabus, another science class?" though Mai to herself) and today she had a timed essay in class, about who contributed the most in the fight against infectious diseases: Edward, Pasteur and Koch, (Mai never stopped giggling at that name, even though in German it isn't pronounced like one would think).

And now Mai was wheezing as she struggled to climb three flights of stairs holding so much stuff.

"I...hate...life..." she managed to get out. Naru eyed her critically.

"You should stop skipping out on P.E lessons. And buy a bigger bag." It was true, Mai's bag was miniscule. But she didn't want to buy a new one.

"No. I'll stick with this one."

"Why? It's not like you don't have the money, I pay you too well," Mai winced slightly.

"Yeah, but I need the money for something else." Naru frowned.

"Will you tell me what exactly?" he had been wanting to know this for a long time.

"Sure. I need the money for...stuff."

If Naru hadn't been brought up properly, he would have hit her. Mai quickly changed the subject.

"That reminds me, can I have the day after tomorrow off?" Another student also travelling to history happened to brush past unfit Mai at that moment, and heard the end of her sentence. He turned around.

"It'd been a year already? It only seemed like a month ago when..." he noticed her look. "You had to take that day off. So, you're going again soon then?"

"Yeah, day after tomorrow." Mai nodded again, her features slightly drooping with what could only be sadness, and Naru decided that perhaps his questions could wait just a little bit longer.

"You can take the day off..." he confirmed uneasily. Mai smiled slightly.

"Thank you." They walked into the classroom to face the dreaded essay.

Naru started straight away, his black fountain pen moving fast to form the loopy, almost unreadable scrawl on his paper. Mai watched the clock. She wanted the end of the day to come. But she had six more lessons left after this. Perhaps she should tell Naru about her past, it was plain that he wanted to know. But Mai wasn't yet comfortable with him knowing. She watched him write, and marvelled at the fact that he had very long eye lashes for a man, and how he would be incredibly handsome if he just kept his mouth shut. Damn his arrogant behaviour. And damn the fact that she liked him. Quite a bit, actually. She kept noticing how her heart would do the oddest things if he smiled at her, (but that was probably because he smiled so rarely,) or if his hand happened to touch her slightly, but that was probably because she was scared he was going to hit him...

"Ok, time's up. Pass your paper to the front please." Mai looked down at her page, and felt like dying. Her page was blank. She groaned and covered her face with her hands. Naru, who had just finished and put the lid on his pen, looked to his left and saw a despairing Mai and a blank piece of paper. He raised his hand.

"Yes Shibuya?"

"I'm afraid Mai can't hand in her paper." Mai looked at Naru in aghast.

"And why is that?"

" Because she caught her hand in a door yesterday and can't write." Mai, who realised her hand was currently being used to hold her head, dropped it onto the desk, trying to make it look like it didn't need a bandage. The teacher didn't speak for a moment, and eyed them both suspiciously. The other students were using this hold up as a chance to write a few more sentences and finish their conclusions.

"And why didn't Mai tell me this at the beginning of the lesson?"

"Because she thought she could try to write, but it seems that it was impossible to try," Naru followed up with utmost smoothness. Mai's face had turned from shock to wonder. Since when was Naru such a good liar? But the teacher hadn't finished interrogating.

"And how may I ask, do you know this?" she demanded. Mai's face faltered.

"Because it was me who trapped her hand in the door and bandaged it up afterwards. It was an accident, naturally." Every head turned towards the pair of students sitting by the door.

Everybody knew that Mai hadn't trapped her hand during school.

Which meant that Mai had been with Naru out of school hours.

"Oh. My. God." Began one of the chav's of the classroom, (and my there were quite a few.)

Everybody began murmuring to each other. Mai looked around in confusion, but Naru looked as he usually did- completely unaffected.

"Why is everyone whispering?" she whispered to Naru. He rolled his eyes.

"Basically, they think we're seeing each other outside of school." Mai shrugged.

"So? We are-oh." Realisation dawned upon her face, which was slowly reddening. "But that's not true!" she protested hotly. Naru laughed slightly at the sight of her agitation, and Mai stared at him in awe. He had actually laughed, and gee was it a wonderful laugh. But he was laughing at her. Mai gulped. Masako was going to hear about this. She didn't want to argue with her. They had been such good friends.

Meanwhile, the teacher cleared her throat to regain the class's attention.

"If you don't mind, I'd like your papers in. Mai, you may hand me in your paper once your hand is healed." Mai sighed in relief as the teacher had drunk Naru's lies. The bell rang as they packed up and left to the next lesson. Once they were clear of the classroom and teacher, Mai broke out into a smile and beamed gratefully at Naru.

"Thank you so much!"

"If you would only be cleverer then I wouldn't have to keep saving your back all of the time."Mai scowled.

"That's not a nice thing to say. And is there such a word as cleverer?"

"Yes."

"Well, thanks a lot," continued Mai really quickly, in case Naru asked her the dreaded question of why she actually hadn't written anything.

"So why didn't you write anything?" Damn.

What should she say? That she had spent all of her time secretly admiring him?

"My mind went blank." That was a half lie. "And I'd forgotten all the notes we'd made yesterday in class. Naru nodded, as if the fact that Mai knew nothing made sense. Mai was temporarily insulted, and was going to shout at him for believing that she was really that stupid, when she remembered that he was supposed to believe that.

Naru didn't speak for a long while, and Mai was left chattering to herself in order to fill in the silence.

The day after tomorrow came, and Mai was not at school. At registration, an oddly 'normal' Mr Cullen looked up frowning, as silence followed Mai's name. Then he looked at the board next to him, which had the date already written on it, took in the date and nodded to himself. He continued to take the register.

Inner Naru.

Naru threw his bag on the floor and stood up.

"Where the hell is Mai, and why does everyone but me know about it?" he cried.

Outer Naru.

Naru was emotionless.

At lunch time, Naru, Ayako, John and Takigawa sat at the table, silently brooding over each one's own thoughts.

They were interrupted by the arrival of Masako, who suddenly was standing right next to Naru, twirling her hair around her finger.

"Naru?" Naru didn't look up.

"What."

"Um, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"No." Ayako laughed, but as Naru wasn't watching, Masako sent her deadly evils.

"Please? It's about Mai." Naru suddenly looked up. Ayako, who was slyly watching Naru, smiled to herself. Takigawa snorted.

"Like a please is going to change his mind-" He stared in amazement as Naru had stood up, scowling. Masako did a simpering laugh.

"Let's talk 'in private...'"

"Whatever." He followed her out, fully aware that the majority of the occupants in the canteen were watching him. Now they would think that he was just waiting for a chance to two- time Mai.

Naru rolled his eyes, something that was becoming a common action in this school.

Once they were outside Naru leant against the wall behind him and crossed his arms.

"What?"

"Don't you want to know why Mai isn't in?"

Inner Naru

"Of course I do! Tell me!"

Outer Naru

Naru shrugged.

"Maybe." Masako sighed patronisingly.

"Of course you do. It's obvious. Anyway," she continued, flicking her hair back, "Mai's not in because, she's visiting her, boyfriend. It's their anniversary today, so they both took the day off to 'celebrate'" she laughed shrilly. Naru uncrossed his arms and stepped forward. It would explain the friend talking about last year.

"I see." Masako smirked at the look on Naru's face.

"So, I'll be seeing you then," Masako waved and walked away, leaving Naru frowning. He strode back to the classroom, forgetting about the others waiting for him in the cafeteria.

So Mai had a boyfriend.

Not that it bothered him.

But why did she seem so sad when she had mentioned it to him? And was it really worth taking off a day of work?

The next day.

A Saturday.

Mai knocked on Naru's door, abruptly on time, and looked up as the door swung open in the middle of her knocking. There was Naru, dressed in black, (as she had noticed he usually did outside school,) and in an especially bad morning.

"Hello!" chirruped Mai brightly. Naru just nodded and moved aside to let her in. Mai went straight to the kitchen to make him and Naru some tea. Once she had set it down on the table in front of Naru, she paused, to look at him. He really was in a bad mood.

"So," she began. "Ayako and Takigawa are going on a geography trip to the countryside this weekend..." Naru didn't reply, and for a long while Mai didn't move, and continued to stare at Naru.

Eventually he looked up to see why Mai was still standing there, and the full force of the power of his blue eyes were turned on Mai.

"Why are you still here?" he asked irritably. Mai frowned, anger beginning to peak through her happy mood.

"Why are you so moody today?" she asked bluntly, her hands on her hips.

Naru was silent for a minute, and neither looked away from each other. Eventually Mai surrendered, and made to leave. Obviously Naru was going to be difficult.

"Was it necessary to take the whole day off?" The young girl stopped dead and turned back around.

"Uh, yeah it was." He didn't even know where she had been! Did he? "What has it got to do with you anyway?"

"It doesn't. But if you ask me, it was a very stupid thing for you to do." Ok. What was he saying?

"I didn't ask you!" Mai shouted, temper flaring.

"What if someone had seen you outside of school?"

"I don't think they would have cared! And since when did you care?"

"Since you started skipping school for no reason!"

"You don't know where I went! I thought you would understand, but you don't know what you're saying!" tears of anger and hurt began to well up in Mai's eyes. She brushed them quickly away.

"How can I understand an idiot like you?" Naru said, calmly, but with traces of anger. Mai clenched her fists

"I hate you." she replied, trying to cool her temper.

"It is an honour to be despised by a fool," said Naru. Mai turned away and stormed out of the room, and left the house, crying all the way. Naru heard the front door slam but stayed at his desk, staring at the cup of tea.

The next day, Naru walked slowly into his living room and threw himself onto an armchair. Lin had seen his bad mood and had rightly decided to stay away. Mai hadn't come back since she left.

Finding the television remote nearby, Naru picked it up and turned the television on. Usually he would rather read a book, but Naru knew he didn't have the concentration to keep his eyes focused. The first channel was the news.

"Top news story today, an Earthquake has struck the area of-" Naru turned the television off again. He was already feeling terrible, and now he had to listen to news of an earthquake.

Suddenly Lin came running into the room.

"Naru have you heard the news?"

"Yeah, some earthquake..."

"It was in this country. The place worse hit was only an hour away from us." Naru sat up slightly, but he still wasn't worried.

"That's not possible. We would have felt some tremors."

"We did. Half of the pictures have fallen off the hooks. Our house has a good foundation so we weren't affected, but why didn't you notice?"

Had he been that depressed?

Wait.

He was half an hour away from school.

Mai was always late to school.

So where did she live?

Naru scrambled up from the chair as quickly as he could, and rushed past Lin, who stared after him, slightly confused.

"What is it?"

"Mai."

Cliffie!!!!

I'm sorry about that, but I know exactly whats coming next, so it wont take as long.

The next chapter is going to be fantabulous!!!

But slightly more angsty...tell me if you like what I've done so far!!

And I hope i've cleared up the whole Naru chocolate thing :D- and yes, he is an idiot for believing Masako, but what else was he supposed to think?

I know what you're thinking. An earthquake. How weird- although apparently I'm the only one who thinks that. But thats entirely because I know diddly squat about geography, and that if it's set in Japan, (which I just decided it was), then earthquakes are occurent there. Ah! it's coming back to me now! Year 9 geography! The Earthquake that hit that largest sea port, 1993 I think...Someone help me out please!!! Or am I talking about the San Andreas fault...

Good thing I dropped geography!

Yeah I know, it's random, but it's a perfect chance for Naru to actually want to save her, cause you know he wouln't usually bother. So there.