I AM SO SORRY! I finished the story a long time ago but my friend wanted to beta it. It took a whole week until she could give it back to me. And even when I got it back, I didn't feel like uploading the chapter for a few days. Gomenasai minna-san! I was just too lazy. I hope you like this chapter and don't worry, the third chapter is ready. It just needs some correction. By the way, I want to give credits to my dear friend . Sh really helped me with my grammer and she also beta-ed the previous chapter.
Disclaimer: I'm glad that Miss/Mrs. Higuchi Tachibana owns this manga and not I, for it won't be in safe hands.
"We've been standing out here for like…" Hotaru said as she looked at her watch, "Five minutes," she put her hand down and looked at me.
"I know Hotaru; It's just that I'm nervous since I'm going to meet my roommate," I replied while fumbling with my hands.
We were standing right in front of my future dorm room. It took us no more than five minutes to find it since Hotaru knew the whole place like the back of her hand. However, I was too nervous to get in due to the fact that I'll meet the person with whom I will share a room for a whole year. Heck! I am even sweating.
"Okay Hotaru, I have decided to open the door now," I told Hotaru as I reached out to knock the door. But when I did so, there seemed to be no answer. No one came to open the door from the inside. I knocked again, but there seemed to be no one in the room yet.
"Guess no one's in the room yet," I said, "Maybe I should use the key's the receptionist gave me," as I reached to find the keys in my pocket and suddenly found them in Hotaru's hand.
"You're too slow," said Hotaru as she unlocked the door and revealed the room.
It was very spacious, clearly showing that the room was divided in to half. On both sides of the room, a double-sized bed was situated. Beside it, a huge desk for academic purposes was placed. There were also separate wardrobes at each side of the room for the two occupants. The bathroom was in the left side of the room whereas the television was on the right. There was a couch in front of the television which was at the same time in front of the bed. Lastly, there were two large windows with a spectacular view of the Sakura trees the university owned.
I stood in awe as Hotaru went in and surveyed the room. Then suddenly a voice came from behind me that made me startled.
"Could you please move?" a feminine voice asked me as I turned around, "As you can see, I'm trying to enter the room."
I inspected the person before me. It was a girl who had nearly the same height as me. She possessed a dark raven hair and red crimson eyes that burned like fire. Her hair was short,its tip her shoulders and she had short bangs that adorned her face beautifully. When I looked at her, I felt that she resembled someone I knew. Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to remember the person at the moment. Thinking she was my roommate, I gave her way to the room and started to introduce myself.
"Oh, excuse me. I was just inspecting my room. My name is Sakura Mikan. Are you my roommate, Hyuuga Aoi?" I asked her, hoping her answer to my question would be yes.
"Cool, nice to meet you and yes, I'm Hyuuga Aoi," she said as she stared at me, "I'm glad I have a person like you as a roommate. You seem really nice."
"Thank you. I hope we would become good friends," I replied as we shook hands in agreement and turned my head to Hotaru, "This is my best friend, Imai Hotaru."
Aoi stared at me wide-eyed but then, she returned back to her original expression, smiling and beaming at me, "Of course. I know her. She's the infamous Ice Queen in the university and she's the girlfriend of my brother's best friend, Nogi Ruka."
Now, I was the one who stood wide-eyed in disbelief. Hotaru, my stoic, emotionless, cold-hearted best friend, has a boyfriend? Never in my life have I ever imagined it to happen, though I did believe it was going to happen at a certain point in life. Recovering from my shock, I looked at Hotaru for an explanation, finding a barely evident blush forming in her cheeks.
"Hotaru, I demand and explanation for this now; I was and am your best friend for…" I said while counting with my fingers, "Twelve years?! Why the hell did you not tell me about this from before?"
She looked at me, anger clearly shown in her eyes, "I didn't tell you before because I thought you would think that I abandoned you or that I won't become that close to you anymore," she said as she hid her eyes under her bangs.
After I heard what she said, I felt so glad to the point that tears started to form in my eyes, "Thanks, Hotaru. Thank you for always being concerned about me," I said as I hugged her with all my might and hid me eyes under my bangs, too, "I'm always a crybaby, always wanting your attention."
After that, we realized that we left Aoi alone, watching us like we were in some kind of theatre. We quickly separated, and I apologized to Aoi for leaving her alone.
"No, it's okay. I was enjoying the beautiful scene," she said, smiling brightly at me while I sweat dropped at her reply.
Then, a knock was heard from the door. I rushed to the door and opened it, finding a worker in front me with "House Moving Corporations" imprinted on his shirt. A few other men were standing in a corner, wearing the same shirts.
"Excuse me, ma'am, but is Sakura Mikan in here?" he asked, speaking with a heavy Kansai dialect.
"That's me," I answered.
"Well, I'm here to deliver your luggage and help you with the arrangement of your furniture," he said as he bowed and motioned his men to come closer, "Do you want the luggage now or later?"
"No, it's okay; I want it now. Please, come in," I told him with a reassuring voice.
He then came in with his men, and I explained to Aoi and Hotaru the reason to why they came in. They understood what I said, and we started to help the workers unpack the luggage. Apparently, they had Aoi's things as well, so we decided to unpack and arrange everything with the help of the workers.
"Phew, I'm glad we're all done," I said as I looked at Hotaru and Aoi and congratulated them for a job well done.
"Yeah, I never thought that we could finish the job in only two hours," Aoi said, flashing a smile at us.
We then plopped ourselves on our beds and couch and heaved a sigh of satisfaction for a few minutes. But, Hotaru decided to break the uncomfortable silence once again.
"Mikan, Aoi, would you guys like to come over to my room for a sleepover?" Hotaru asked with a mischievous glint clearly shown in her eyes.
I backed down while Aoi, once again, widened her eyes in shock, "Hotaru, are you serious? You never asked me to sleep over unless there was something critical going on. Besides, I can smell something fishy going on." I answered back, dubious of what she was going to do.
The glint in her eyes went away as soon as she heard my reply, and her expressionless face returned once again, "Trust me, Mikan. I will not harm you in any way whatsoever. It will be a simple and plain sleepover with, of course, fun," she smirked slightly.
"I don't know; I'm still suspicious. Of course you won't hurt me but I feel like you're planning something," I looked at her, skeptical.
She sighed, closing her eyes then glaring at me, "Now, Mikan, do you really doubt me that much? Honestly, what do you think I will do when we sleepover? It's just to celebrate your first night here," Hotaru told me, arching an eyebrow while looking at me.
"Fine," I sighed, "I'll come, but what about Aoi?" I asked as I turned around to look at Aoi.
"Finally, it took you a while to remember I was here," she giggled, "Sure, I'll come. It's not like I get invited to a sleepover every now and then."
"Good, I'll go and prepare my room for the sleepover," Hotaru said as she headed towards the door.
"Fine, I'll come and help," I suggested and got up from my bed.
"No, you stay here with Aoi till I come back," Hotaru said, looking at Aoi while Aoi nodded with approval, "Remember, it's meant to be a surprise."
"Okay, but when is the sleepover?" I asked.
"Right now, the time is five thirty…" she said as she contemplated while looking at her watch, "So, how about eight thirty?"
"Alright," Aoi and I said simultaneously.
After that had been said, Hotaru proceeded to the door and left the room, leaving Aoi and I alone in the room. After a few moments of silence, Aoi decided to break it by speaking up.
"Umm, Mikan, I'll go drop by my friends and have a chat with them. Would you like to come with me and meet them?" asked Aoi, looking down at her clutched hands.
"Oh, it's okay. I need to go out and get some fresh air. I'll probably go and see the Sakura trees outside. If you need me, just meet me there," I told her, reassuring her with a bright smile.
"Sure," she said, "I'll go then, bye, see you at Hotaru's," she got up from the couch and smiled at me.
"Yeah but, remember, Hotaru's room number is 458," I told her while she nodded, and in a matter of few second, I found myself alone in the room.
(Natsume's POV)
I was seated on one of the branches of my favorite Sakura tree, leaning on the trunk for support. I watched the Sakura leaves, never ceasing to marvel at their beauty and color. This had been my most favorite place since I came to the university and it still is. It was the perfect place to sleep in and hide from my maniacal fan girls. I sighed in agitation as I remembered the times when they chased me like dogs willing to get their prey.
I cleared the thought away, wanting to think of something more…pleasing. Then, I remembered the auburn-haired girl whom I met a few hours ago. I wondered why she wasn't startled amazed by my striking features. I think her name was Mikan. She was a different girl. I never met a girl like her before other than my twin sister, Aoi. Why, she didn't even bother to know my name. I wonder, was she faking her personality or was it real? Moreover, that creepy Ice Queen helped her. She actually helped her. And when Mikan was running towards her, the Ice Queen actually allowed her to hug her. This is really suspicious. Maybe I should investigate on this girl named Mikan. I'm freaking rich, so, sending a person to spy on her won't be hard, right?
Suddenly, my train of thought was interrupted when I heard footsteps approaching the tree. I got ready for action, just in case those footsteps belonged to one of those crazy fan girls of mine. Then, the footsteps stopped and then a loud thud was heard. I looked down and saw that the person who was walking was Mikan. I sighed with relief, inwardly thanking God that it wasn't those fan girls. Then, she started speaking to herself.
"Wow, it's such a beautiful place. I love the Sakura trees here. It's a really nice place to rest and think. Just what I needed," she murmured then closed her eyes.
I decided to speak too, since I wanted to tease her, "Oi, little girl, what are you doing here?" I said as I jumped down from the branch, facing her as I sat on the ground.
"Oh, it's you," she said, a bit startled, as she opened her chocolate eyes to look at me, "I was just looking around the place and decided to rest here."
I nodded, showing her that I had heard her answer.
Silence ensued between us for a few minutes until she decided to break the ice.
"Excuse me, but in what field do you study?" she asked with curious eyes.
"Why do you care?" I answered her question with a question.
She sighed then looked at me, concern and pity found in her eyes, "Are you lost or…" she hesitated, but then continued, "Do you feel lonely?"
I flinched at the question but managed to keep my cool expression and replied dumbly, "What do you mean by that?"
"You once again answer my question with a question," she snorted, "Do I need to explain what I mean?" she said, her face changing into a cold and serious one.
I looked at her and was surprised at how she easily knew I was lonely and lost. Everyone considered me a mean and cold-hearted person. They never bothered to ask themselves why I was like that. And this girl here, having known me for only four hours, has managed to immediately find out what was wrong with me. After a few seconds, I averted my gaze back to the girl in front of me.
"Well, I am, do you have a problem with it?" I replied with a seemingly angry tone.
"So we're very similar, I guess," she answered.
"How are we so similar? You're a happy fool living in her own world whereas I'm a very cold-hearted delinquent who could harm you," I said as I arched my eyebrow, staring at her.
"I used to be like you, lonely and isolated from the world, but now, I want to change. I was much worse and cold-hearted than you. I had a terrible past; I can assure you that. To be near me at that time meant that you would be in a very dangerous situation," she said with a sad smile on her face.
"If we are similar, then why are you talking to me and staying here with me? I'm dangerous. So why put yourself in danger with me?" I asked her, curious to know her answer.
She stood up and brushed the dirt from her skirt then looked at me and replied, "I was in the same state as you before," and then looked at me with beautiful smile, "And plus, I refuse to believe that you're a bad person. You seem to be very kind even though you don't want to show it. Well, anyways, I need to go now. The sun is setting already. Bye," she said and then run off. I stared at her back until I could see her no more.
I was sitting there, shocked and frozen in my spot. She managed to find out who I really am without any effort. She knew that I was in pain, and she decided to soothe me by saying what had happened to her. She easily broke down the wall that I so carefully built to prevent people from knowing my real character.
My heart was rapidly beating as I was thinking about her. What is this feeling? I asked myself. I quickly stood up when I saw my best friend, Ruka, heading towards me.
"Hey, Natsume," Ruka said, "Do you want to come with me to the cafeteria to meet Koko and Mochu?"
"Whatever," I said as I walked ahead of him to the cafeteria while he hastily ran to my side to catch up with my pace.
But one thing kept ringing in my mind: Am I in love?
So, I hope you liked it, and please review! Like I said, it's ok to criticise me.
See you in the next chapter of "Our Interwined Fate"! *winks*