Chapter 11

Matsuri's Big Date

A/N: Hello again. Sorry for the super late update yet again. As I said before, I have my job and my updating will be slower than usual, so be patient, my friends. :) Anyway, this chapter and the next focuses on how Mai and Reo are doing after the break up. I know it's sad, but don't worry. They will get back together. So, enjoy the story! ;)

Reo's P.O.V

That night, I couldn't sleep. Things were way too upsetting for me since Mai and I broke up. I was even replaying that horrible scene in my head as I was breaking up with her. There has to be a reason why Matsuri is in love with me and why she's so jealous of Mai. I don't even know if Matsuri will even tell me. She's just all over me for her own desires and to make Mai jealous. I look over my phone again and it shows nothing of my beloved. I sigh as I turn my phone off, set it aside and try to sleep. But I still feel restless.

"Agh! Why does this have to happen to us?" I groan as I put my pillow up to my face.

Though I don't know the answer to that, I do know that this has to stop and find a way to get Masturi to tell me why she only wants me and not let Mai have me. As I put my arm down, I feel my elbow bump into something as I turn around to notice a silver haired person sleeping by my side. Oh, yeah. She asked if she could sleepover tonight and I almost forgot about it.

"Mm . . . Reo-sama?" she says as she turns over to me with a worried expression. "Is something wrong?"

"No," I reply, quietly. "It's nothing."

Matsuri just nods and goes right back to sleep. I, however, remain awake, trying to think of something for Matsuri to realize that I'm really not her type, make her explain why she's in love with me and stop this whole nonsense.

The next morning, I sit up from my bed, feeling very tired for not getting much sleep last night since I'm having nightmares of Mai and I drifting farther apart from each other and then Matsuri coming in between us. I rub my eyes as I look around my room. To me, it feels very empty . . . without Mai around. I look over to Matsuri, who is sleeping peacefully beside me, with her hand on mine. I just turn away, not wanting to look her in the eye. I wish it was Mai's hand instead of hers.

As I let out a loud sigh, I can feel Matsuri shuffling for a bit. I turn towards her as she sits up from the bed, rubbing her eyes. As the blanket drops from her body, it reveals a green short night gown, kind of too short to be exact. I quickly turn away, not wanting to see any more.

"Morning, Reo-sama," she says softly.

"Oh, g-good morning!" I quickly reply, still looking away from her. "H-how did you sleep?"

"I slept very well," she says as I can feel her playing with my hair. "It's so nice of you to ask that." Something in her voice is just lovestruck and . . . annoying. "How did you sleep, my darling?"

"Uh, fine . . . I guess?"

"That's good." She then wraps her arms around me from behind, which makes me quiver a bit.

"Ah! M-Matsuri! What are you doing!?"

"Oh, but isn't this what you and Mai-sama do these days?" she teasingly asks. She takes a whiff of my hair. "Ah, what a sweet smell."

"I haven't even showered yet!" I yell.

"I don't mind." She takes a sniff again. "As long as it smells sweet, it should be fine. Besides, I can smell some of the remaining shampoo you use." Sniff . . . Sniff . . . "Ah, that's it. Right on top of your head."

I shove Matsuri away and jump out of bed while glaring at her. "Look, you have no right touching my hair like that!"

"Ah, only Mai-sama is the only one to touch it, correct?"

I can feel myself blush as I slightly turn away and nod.

"I see." She gets up from the bed and takes a few steps closer to me.

I slowly back away from her. "W-wait. What are you doing?"

She strokes my hair as she give me kisses on my neck. "I love you, Reo-sama. I don't know what to do without you. You're the most important person to me." She wraps her arms around me while resting her head on my shoulder. Her saying that reminds me of a certain person.

"Thanks," I mutter as tears start to form.

Matsuri looks up at me and takes notice of my sad expression. "What's wrong, Reo-sama?"

I sniffle as I wipe off some of the tears that are forcing their way out. I don't want her to know that I miss Mai so much. "N-nothing, Matsuri. I'm fine."

She turns me around and looks at me in a serious way. She gently wipes away the tears as she tips my chin to her level. "Don't cry, sweetie. I'm here for you."

"B-but *sniff* I . . . I don't know if I should be with you. I-I mean, something tells me that this isn't right for me. T-there's someone else that's still inside my heart . . ."

The silver haired girl puts her finger to my lips. "Shhh . . . don't even mention her name, okay? You have me now. So, please . . . stay by my side." She presses her lips against mine, making me unable to move for a long time.

What choice do I have? If I refuse to be with Matsuri, she'll expose Mai as a pedophile with those stupid photos and I'll never see her again. So, I reluctantly return the kiss, with my arms wrapped around her neck. This lasts for about 5 minutes until we have to pull apart to catch our breath.

"Reo-sama . . ."

"M-Matsuri . . ."

The silver haired girl smiles as she caresses my cheek. "Hey, I know what the two of us can do for the day."

"What is it?" I ask.

"I'm gonna take you on a big date today."

"What?" I raise an eyebrow. "It's only been a week. You can't possibly be going this far into our relationship, right?"

Matsuri shrugs. "It's fine with me. No worries." She lets go of me and turns her back to me while stretching out her arms. "First things first, let's bathe together, Reo-sama. I want to be the one who washes your hair."

"O-okay," I say as I nod slowly.

It took about a few minutes for us to heat up the water and get in the tub together. Since the bath is big enough to fit both of us, we sit in the hot tub to soak our cold bodies in it. With that, Matsuri takes some shampoo that I usually use and gently wipes my hair with it. Her gentle touch somehow makes me feel very relaxed.

"Does this feel good, Reo-sama?" Matsuri asks softly.

"Yes," I reply. "Just now, it felt really good."

"Here?" She rubs the top of my head.

"Mm-hmm . . . ah, feels really good." W-wait! What am I saying!? Usually, Mai was the one who washes my hair and I say the exact same things to her whenever we take a bath together! Ugh, this is all getting awkward now!

"I'm glad." She takes the shower hose and rinses the soap off. "Ah, now your hair smells refreshing. I can take a sniff at your hair anytime I want."

"Please don't," I mutter.

Matsuri just giggles. For the rest of the bath, I end up washing her hair, with her on her knees just to help me reach her head and then for the both of us relaxing on the hot tub for another half hour. When we're done, we get out, dry ourselves off and put on bathrobes as we head over to my closet to pick out some clothing for our date. Matsuri picks out a green summer dress with black high heels to go with it. I just pick out my usual casual summer outfit and put that on.

Once we do some final adjustments, both of us head out of the apartment and start walking on the sidewalk. She takes hold of my hand as she puts on a smile on her face, feeling very happy to be with me. I smile weakly back at her as I turn away from her. Being with Matsuri just isn't the same anymore.

"Now," she says. "Where shall we go first, Reo-sama?"

"Um . . . anywhere is fine, to be honest," I mutter. I really don't care where we go since I'm with her.

Matsuri puts her finger up to her chin as she thinks about it. "Hmm . . . we've done plenty of shopping, so we don't need to do that. How about another movie?"

"Okay, but what are we watching this time?" I ask.

"Oh, I know a good horror movie we could watch. Then, if it gets too scary, both of us can cling to each other." She giggles at the thought. "Wow! Me clinging to Reo-sama will be like heaven to me!"

"No," I say, bluntly.

"Aw! But all we've seen are some comedy and dramas so far."

"I'm not seeing a horror movie with you. Besides, you know how much scary movies affect me."

"Well, we shall use it to your advantage so that you'll get to cling to me all you want! Isn't that fun?"

I shake my head as I turn my back to her. "Alright, how about this: forget about this date and just leave me alone."

"Reo-sama!"

I'm about to walk away until I feel her hand grab my wrist. I swiftly turn to her, glaring at her.

"What is it now?" I growl.

"Forgive me, Reo-sama, but I'm not going to let you ruin this for the both of us. Look how much we did for the past week: we shopped together, went to the movies together and even shared some food with each other, or what do they call it . . . indirect kisses?"

I turn away to avoid contact with her. "W-well, a week is enough for us, so let me be alone for one day, okay?"

Matsuri frowns. "Fine, but after this date. I know some places that we can go to today. So, please . . ."

I could've sworn there's some warmth on my cheeks. "A-alright. Let's go."

The silver haired girl smiles. "Excellent! Let's go!"

Taking my hand, she leads me to wherever the heck we're going. I, on the other hand, doesn't care at all.

We arrive at an aquarium near the mall. I don't think I've ever been to aquariums like this before. There's this huge tank that's about the size of this building and all around me, there's other tanks, containing loads of fish and other sea creatures. There were neon lights shining down upon us and music to go with it. I take a look around for a bit as Matsuri smiles at me.

"Do you like it, Reo-sama?" she asks.

"It's . . . amazing!" I say. "This aquarium is absolutely amazing!"

"Hehe! This aquarium is the most popular of all the other aquariums," she explains. "I've been here before, so I just wanted to show you this place myself."

"But . . . there's so many sea creatures around, I just can't pick what to look at."

"That's why we have this guide to help us through this aquarium." She whips out a small book out from her bag and hands it to me.

I flip through some of the pages and notice that there's pictures of each sea creature with facts at the side and where it's located in the aquarium. "Wow! This will surely help us get through the aquarium!"

Matsuri giggles again. "I know, right? Now then, where would you like to go?"

"Turtles!" I instantly shout out as I run ahead of her, to where the sea turtles are.

Once she catches up to me, both of us watch some big ones swim by us. Looking up, we notice that there's a mother sea turtle with her babies swimming along with her. I smile at this as the big family swims by us as well. Suddenly, I feel a hand on my shoulder. When I look up, I realize that Matsuri is the one who did it and she has a smile on her face. She looks down at me and giggles while I smile back a little. To be honest, this is really enjoyable, getting to be at a place where I haven't been to before, but with Matsuri, it's a little different. I still wish it were Mai instead of her.

The next thing we go to is where the sharks are. There were about different kinds of sharks when we arrive at their section. There were mostly great whites swimming around, but there were also hammer heads, whale sharks, cookie-cutter sharks and more. They look a little scary to me, so without thinking, I link arms to Matsuri's, making her gasp in surprise.

"Reo-sama?" she asks as she looks down at me. "Is everything alright?"

"Sharks tend to scare me a little," I admit as I pull in closer, making my body touch her arm.

"Aw, you don't have to be afraid, sweetie," she says gently. "See? They don't look like they're going to attack us or anything. So, we're all safe, okay?"

I just give her a slow nod as both of us continue to watch the sharks swim around. After that, we spend the rest of the hour exploring the aquarium. We got to see some crabs, a school of fish, whales at the huge tank in the middle of the aquarium and dolphins up at the top. We were free to touch them whenever we want to since they are gentle and playful to us. We even get to see some cute baby seals crawling around with their mothers watching over them.

After about an hour and a half of exploring, we exit the aquarium. To be honest, this was the most fun I've had so far today. Matsuri smiles at me as she takes notice of my happy expression.

"I see someone enjoyed her little adventure," she teases.

I just turn away. "Hmph. Well, it was just an aquarium. I've seen some sea creatures before anyway."

"Yes, but the look on your face earlier tells me that you've been enjoying this entire time," she wraps her arms around me. "Oh, I'm so happy to be with you, Reo-sama! This date is going absolutely perfect!"

"U-um, yes," I mutter. I clear my throat. "S-so . . . where do you want to do now?"

"Hmm . . ." She puts her finger on her chin for a moment. "Well, it's almost lunch time, so do you want to grab some food at a restaurant or something?"

I shrug. "Works for me."

"Excellent! I know just the place where they have yummy ramen! Come, Reo-sama!" She takes my hand as she leads the way.

"Welcome to Kosabi's!" Matsuri says with enthusiasm. "A place where they have great ramen and other Japanese food!"

I look around the restaurant a little. The room smells like teriyaki sauce and in front of me is a bar with about 3 people preparing some beer or whatever to their customers. There were round tables and booths around me with an arcade right down the corner. The decorations were a little bland. I mean, there's some sailor's material hanging on the wall, like life rafts, paddles and some parts of a boat hanging on there as well. There is a huge plastic sword fish hanging on the wall in front of me, which gives me the jitters. Though this restaurant is too ordinary, the smell of food is good.

A young man comes to the podium. "Good morning, ladies. Table for two?"

"Yes, please," Matsuri replies.

He grabs two menus. "Right this way, please." He leads us to a tall table with two chairs and sets down the menus.

Both of us sit down as the man says, "Your server will be here shortly."

Matsuri thanks him as I just take a look at the menu. There were so many choices of sea food and sushi that I can't pick which one. Matsuri looks at her menu as she browses through as well.

"Hmm . . ." she mumbles as she looks up at me. "What are you gonna get, Reo-sama?"

"I don't know," I reply. "There is so many great food that I just can't choose."

Matsuri giggles. "Oh, Reo-sama. You're so adorable when you say that."

I can feel my face get warm as I turn away. "W-what does it matter? The food here is just so delicious, that's all."

"Do you want me to pick it out for you?"

"No, I can do it myself, thank you."

"Okay. If there's something you like, I'll order it for you." Matsuri says with a smile.

I just nod as our server comes and places some napkins in front of us. We order some drinks and tell him we need about one more minute to decide. He nods and walks off. After a few seconds, Matsuri gasps in excitement.

"Oh!" she says. "Let's both get the chicken ramen deluxe!"

I raise an eyebrow as I take a look at its picture. It has a huge bowl with noodles, peppers, some vegetables and grilled chicken breast scattered in the ramen. "Really? Isn't that a bit too much for just one person?"

"I'm not talking about us individually, silly!" the silver haired girl giggles. "I mean, order just one so that we can share it."

"Share it?"

"Yes, sweetie. This is the most yummy ramen around. Almost everyone orders this."

I look at it one more time. "Okay. Let's order it."

Matsuri smiles as she signals our waiter and order our food. After he writes it down, he takes our menus and walks off. There is silence after that, except for us hearing the people chatting away while the music is playing. I think about asking Matsuri her reason why she's in love with me, but I feel that it may be too personal even for her. I keep wracking my brains to ask her something else, but nothing comes to mind at the moment.

"You know," Matsuri says.

"Yes?"

"You kind of remind me of my best friend," she says. "Whenever I look at you, you kind of look just like her, only she's not as feisty as you are."

I raise an eyebrow, clearly having no idea what she's talking about. "Your best friend? Is that why you're in love with me?"

"No, it's more than that," Matsuri says, looking down at the floor. "We used to be childhood friends back then. We were inseparable: we used to build sand castles together, play on the playground together and even come over to each other's houses. We even are in the same class together. We were like sisters to each other."

I look at her sympathetically.

"That is until 8th grade." Matsuri's long bangs cover her facial expression. "I started to develop feelings for her and I had no idea why until I realized that I had fallen in love with her. Now, I thought it was a little awkward since a boy and a girl are supposed to fall in love, but since I was with her for a long time, I guess I got into liking girls more than guys. But then . . . right before I had the chance to confess my feelings to her . . ." She lets out a sniffle. "She showed me her boyfriend. She was dating him for about 3 weeks before I realized I was in love with her. I was too late to confess my feelings to her and just . . . let her go. Since then, I can never fall in love with another girl again. I just don't know whether or not she'll reject me or find another girl to love."

"Matsuri . . ." I say softly, taking in what she's telling me. Somehow, I'm affected by her touching story.

"By the time I entered St. Michael's, I found you," Matsuri looks up at me with her eyes filling with tears. "The first time I laid eyes on you, I thought about my best friend. How you resemble her cute features and your petite figure. It was like I got a second chance to have a relationship with her, only there was one problem: Mai-sama. Once again, I was too late to even try to talk to you nor have any time to spend with you because of Mai-sama. So, I had to find the right moment to confess my feelings until that one day where she was gone for the whole two weeks."

I gasp as I remember back when I was in third year. "Y-you mean . . ."

"Yes. Back when we were third years, I finally had the chance to confess my love to you, but you'd rather be with Mai-sama since you've been with her longer than me. So, I tried formulating plans to break you two up, but none of them worked until I came up with the photos that I took a while ago. By that time, I could have you all to myself once I made you break up with Mai-sama."

My eyes were shaking from this. "B-but why do such a thing? I mean, can't you contact your best friend and tell her your feelings then?"

"No." Matsuri says. "She's already has someone else and I can't be left heartbroken forever."

"Matsuri, I know it's been hard for you, but doing something like this isn't right," I try to explain. "Mai and I were meant to be and I'm sorry if you don't have a lover right now. You must try to learn to move on and then maybe you'll find a lover of your own."

Matsuri just smiles. "Heh, I've already found my lover. And that lover is you, Reo-sama. I'm not letting Mai-sama take you away from me again."

For some reason, that sympathy just turned into fear. I thought Matsuri just opened up to me because she wanted to tell me the reason why she was in love with me, but now it's like she's just turned evil again.

"I . . . I see," I mutter, looking down at the floor. What can I do?

Soon, our food is served at the middle of the table. I take a little of the noodles and slurp them in as Matsuri digs in on her side. After about a few minutes, she take some of the noodles and puts them in front of me.

"Here, Reo-sama," she says. "Have a taste."

"But . . . we're eating the same thing," I say, raising an eyebrow. "It doesn't make any sense."

She lowers her arm as she realizes that I'm right. "I see. Well, let's just eat up so we can get back to your apartment."

"Sure."

Without another word, both of us eat the ramen until there was just a third of it left, so we had to bag it to take it back home.

When we arrive back at my apartment, I set the leftover ramen in the fridge and turn to walk to the bedroom. I sit down on the bed, thinking about what Matsuri had told me at the restaurant. I had no idea she had a best friend that resembled me for her to fall in love with me that way. I have to figure out her name and try to convince her to be with Matsuri so that she won't be so lonely anymore.

But my thoughts get interrupted when Matsuri comes sit beside me and looks at me with a serious expression. Taking my hands in her own, she says, "Reo-sama, I want you to do me a huge favor."

"What is it?" I ask, not liking where this is going.

"Give me your engagement ring."

I gasp at what she's saying. "What!? Why the heck would I do something like that!?"

"Never mind. Just give me the ring," she demands.

"W-what are you planning to do with it?"

Matsuri just winks at me with a smile. "Let's just say that I have other plans up my sleeve." She holds up the photos she took from her bag a second ago and waves them while taking out her phone as well.

This tells me that she's going to frame Mai if I refuse, so I just reluctantly go to my desk drawer and take out the ring I kept from the day Mai and I broke up and hand it to her. She proceeds to put on the ring and examines it.

"Perfect," she says with a sly smile on her face.

I just tremble in fear, preparing for the worst.

A/N: Whew! It's been a long time since my last update. So, thank you all for being patient and I apologize for the late update once again. I just couldn't find the right time to write this chapter because of my job and all. But, thanks for all your support and keeping me going on this story. I'm not abandoning this story at all, my friends. :) Not one bit. I promise to finish this one before moving on to anything else. I'm very glad that this fic is one of the best Mai x Reo fanfics ever. So, thank you all for the compliments.

Oh, I also took the suggestion from a reviewer named Somebody on Matsuri's background, so I decided to add that in there so I won't forget. Thank you for the suggestion, Somebody.

In meantime, feel free to give out any suggestions, questions or concerns and don't forget to review. ;)