The Orphan Flower

Miyako

Intelligent

Yolei

And why don't I have a big character role?

Kid like the others

Open-minded most of the times

"So…" Juri began to grin as she nudged Izumi on the arm. "What was this about "let's skip out and not go to the party thing?" Apparently, it was the next day, and since school was off, they decided to hang out at Juri's place.

She shrugged. "I said we should stay for a little bit so we wouldn't get Mimi mad at us for not coming."

Her friend still kept on a happy expression. "Well, staying for the whole party was pretty long, what changed your mind?"

"You know very well. And don't think you can just start bugging me about it or else I'll start annoying you about yesterday with the mistl-"

"Ok! Fine, I'll stop!" she panicked and covered Izumi's mouth to stop her from continuing the sentence. She definitely didn't want anyone else to hear them.

"Thank you." she sighed in relief now that they could stop talking about this.

"I still think you should tell him how you feel." the brunette continued, this time with a sincere smile. "I'm not going to force you, but-"

"Wait wait, what's with the rushing to confess thing? Who says that I have to hurry up and tell him?"

"Well, if you two have the same feelings and you don't tell each other how you feel, then your heart will start to bother you, and you can't let that feeling go. You know what I mean?" as she pretended to be in a dreamy daze, but laughed at her poor imitation.

Sometimes, it's hard to figure out what goes through Juri's mind each day. You never know what topic she might bring up. Weird girl.

…………

"I hate having to do this." Hikari muttered as she filed papers into their folders. Unlike with her situation, she couldn't relax for the holidays mainly to take care of the family business.

"What? filing papers? C'mon it's not that bad." her brother assured her, who was also helping out as well. "It's not like we're doing this forever."

"It's not that." Shaking her head no in response. "It's well…when we were little I used to love hearing things about arranged marriages until I realized that not everyone ends up marrying someone they like."

He stared at a couple of papers before asking anything. "You're right… but why should you worry? It's not like mom and dad are thinking of having you marry to someone you don't like. They wouldn't force you."

"Tai…look at this." as she handed him a sheet of paper about an arranged marriage. He took it out of her hands and read through it before looking surprised. "I don't believe it…"

"See, this is why I don't like to be friends with anyone I know that has to go through this." she sighed. "Plus, if they find out that we're the next to inherit this stupid program, they'll hate us for sure."

"How long have you known that these two were…"

"Since I moved into the family, and at that same time, when he first arrived at our school. I had a bad feeling that something in the future will hurt Izumi by the way they acted together so I stayed away from her afterwards." remembering in the very beginning how she started to act coldly to her. "I did this…for a good reason."

…………….

"Hello? Oh is this Hikari? Hello Hikari, may I please speak to your mother? Yes, thank you." Takuya's mother spoke as she dialed the number on the phone.

"I'm home." Izumi announced as she walked into the house, but stopped to hear the conversation that was echoing into the kitchen.

"When is the appointment?" his mother continued, writing down the time schedule on a small notepad. "Yes, it's for the arranged marriage of Takuya and Mimi. February 14th? Alright, sounds reasonable. Thank you. Good-bye." as she returned the phone into it's place with a click. "Welcome Izu-" she was about to respond but was surprised to see that the blond had already hurried up the stairs.

"It's…a no wonder why…Mimi was only being nice to me…just to get closer to Takuya…" she thought repeating the words Mrs. Kanbara had said on the phone. Staring at her bag and her other belongings, she thought of one thing. Leave out of the house.

Moments later, Mrs. Kanbara could already hear footsteps coming down the stairs to see the blond standing at the kitchen doorway. "Izumi, dinner will be-"

"I'm sorry Mrs. Kanbara, but I won't be staying here for dinner. In fact, I won't be coming back here again. Thank you for your hospitality, and for everything you've done for me. I'll find a way to repay you back somehow."

His mother could hear her hesitating as she tried to explain it to her. Walking up to her, she patted her head and smiled. "As long as you know what you're doing, go ahead. Feel free to come back anytime."

"T-Thank you." she whispered before walking out the door, almost bumping into Shinya. "Sorry Shinya."

"It's fine." he smiled to show he wasn't hurt. "Hey, where are you going?" As he was referring to her bag.

That was the question she didn't want to hear, but luckily it was someone else asking her this and not Takuya. "I…I'm leaving for a trip, so I won't be back for a while." she lied hoping not to bring any worry in him. "S-So, see ya!" she waved with a fake smile and disappeared as she stepped out of their property.

He was almost sure that he had seen hurt in her eyes.

……………….

Matt who was sitting on the couch reading a book while his brother was playing video games, was enjoying the free time until an annoying ringtone came on. "This had better not be a fan girl." he grumbled checking the caller id and picked up tiredly. "What do you want goggle head?"

"Hey Matt, I was just wondering, is Izumi at your place? I tried to call Juri's area but when she picked up she said she wasn't there." Takuya explained on the other line.

"Wow, desperate I see." he added dully.

"I'm serious."

He sighed. "Sorry, but she's not here, I'll let you know if we do see her."

"Okay, thanks."

And with that, he pressed end on his cell phone and once again heard another annoying sound. The doorbell. Which happened to be on the first floor of course. They were both on the fourth floor. He started walking downstairs as he didn't hear any of the housekeepers answer it. "I-Izumi?"

The blond girl was already drenched with water thanks to the rain that still continued on, and she was starting to get a cold. "H-Hey Matt.. I k-know this is k-kinda sudden b-but could I s-stay ov-" and was shoved into the house as he lead her towards the bathroom. "Here's the bathroom, go wash up, there's a cabinet of towels on your right, and there should be some spare clothes in the closet on your left." he pointed and glanced at her. "I'll be waiting right here when you're done."

…………….

About a half hour later, she walked out of the bathroom with dry clothes to see that indeed, he was waiting. "Thanks."

"No problem. Your our sister, of course we'd help you." and paused. "What was your problem again?"

"Uh… it's kinda a long story." she muttered.

"We've got time, and if you're worried about who's in the house, dad is on a business trip, our step mom went with him, and Willis is staying at a friend's house in the countryside." he quickly said to her, as he glanced around for others he had forgotten. "Oh, and our housekeepers are the only others who will be here besides us."

She nodded but didn't recognize someone he had mentioned. "Willis? Who's that?"

"Stepbrother, he's T.K.'s age. Don't worry about him. He's a nice guy" as they walked over to the kitchen. She sat down on one of the chairs while he was getting food. "So…" he began. "How's Mimi?"

Glancing up in his direction, she gave him a look. "She's fine I guess." and looked down. "What does she have to do with what's going on now?" she wondered.

"I thought so." he muttered, closing the refrigerator and set the ingredients on the table. He looked at her. "I'm sure you already heard about that marriage she's assigned to. Tell her congrats when you see her."

"I can't tell if you're being supportive or against this marriage." Izumi said and coughing slightly to not show that she was a little upset about the issue. "Besides, why can't you tell her yourself?"

"He wouldn't have the heart to." T.K. added, appearing next to Izumi. She gave him a confused look, as he continued. "He doesn't want to interfere with them. That would bring even more problems." as he took a sip of his soda. "Isn't that what you were here about?"

She went silent and mumbled something about how they knew her pretty well. "Did she really want to interfere?" she kept asking herself, and looked over at Matt who was busy talking to T.K. about something, "Or, am I the type of person who is like Matt. The type to keep quiet?" No she didn't think she was quiet enough to do that.

"Hey Z." T.K. announced interrupting her thoughts. He seemed to have a habit of doing that to people. "So have you thought about our offer to you that time?"

"That offer?" she thought again, and remembered the day when the three of them were visiting the grave. Before the Christmas party. "Well, the new year is going to come up…" she started. "I'm up to it." she smiled. She wouldn't mind starting a new beginning.

The two boys looked at each other. "Well, you better get ready."

…………….

After a month of January off for vacation and a week off the first week of February, it was the second week which meant school was back in session. It was a new year for everyone, but it didn't mean that everything was the same.

Now, whenever Izumi would see Takuya, she would try to avoid him. Everything she saw about him, heard, even the mention of his name was painful enough to hear. She even decided to avoid Mimi for her own sake, not knowing the real truth behind it.

"Izumi." The pink haired girl called out after class had ended. The blond turned to her, with no look, just an expressionless face. "Can…we talk?" And sighed with relief as she saw her nod.

……. moments later

It was silent between the two girls as they were standing in front of the school together while students were walking past them since they were excited for the weekend. The situation became worse for Izumi as she noticed Takuya waiting for them. "Probably waiting for Mimi I bet…" she noted.

"Hey." the brown haired boy greeted, as Mimi smiled and waved in return. They both turned to look at Izumi with a bit of a sad look on their faces. "We need to talk to you about something." Mimi began.

"You see, on February 14th, we" Takuya began but was cut off by the blond.

She smiled weakly. "It's your wedding isn't it?" as she saw the two with surprised glances.

"Izumi, we wanted to say that-" the pink haired girl tried to explain.

The blond shook her head no. "I'm sorry, if you're going to invite me to the wedding I can't come."

The two weren't surprised, until she continued…

She pulled up another fake smile. "I'm leaving Japan, to Italy. So, I'll give you an early congrats for you two. You deserve it." as she saw her savior (T.K.) waving towards her to run to the car. "Well, so long." she muttered and ran towards her brother with tears starting to form from her eyes.

Mimi stood there shocked. She knew how much Izumi loved, no still loves Takuya. Even a girl like her couldn't force herself to like a guy like him, especially if she was also in love with someone else. "Takuya…"

"She's leaving." he repeated remembering the exact words the blond had said before them moments ago.

………..

"February fourteenth is only a couple of days away." T.K. said aloud in the car.

Matt couldn't help but add a sarcastic comment. "Yes T.K. I'm sure we haven't noticed that something was going to happen that day."

He shrugged. "I didn't mean it that way, I just thought that it could've been better if we left early, you know?"

It was only the eleventh, so it wasn't a bad idea. "He's got a point…Who said that we had to wait on that day?" he told himself. "Alright, we'll leave the day before the fourteenth, but we'll just tell everyone we're leaving on the fourteenth."

"That's something I'll agree on." his brother nodded, and noticed Izumi agreeing to the plan as well. "That's good because…"

Izumi and Matt looked at him to finish his sentence. "Because?…."

He grinned and waved his arms in the air. "That means we don't have to go to school!"

"Idiot…."