Chapter 8

Disclaimer: as I always say, I do not own Shaman King or any of its characters and related media.

Warning: this happened in an alternate universe and OOCness might be encountered while reading this. Thank you.

Author's Note: hi! I'm back! Summer classes officially started and my poker faced teacher (promise once you saw him you will understand why we call him that) showed us how much he loves us when he gave us the schedule for the whole summer class which earned 'oohss' and 'ahhsss' from all of us. We have a reason for doing that promise. The schedule is a really a killer, every week starting next week we will have 3 mock defenses whose gap is less than a week from each other, midterm would be at the end of the month and he wants a running system! OMG! The best part of it all is every meeting we will have a quiz, actually at that time I wanted to ask him if he saw quizzes as some kind of vitamins for us, but of course I didn't, I still love my life.

Well, I've posted this earlier than my scheduled timed because I don't know how free my free time is this week and the holiday provided a good time for typing. I hope that you'll love this new chapter. It's the longest one that I've written since chapter four, I guess I should make up for the short chapters that I've put up especially the last one. Last two chapters to go for this fanfic and I really wish that all of you will still be with me and patiently stay till the end of it.

Now, let us just go to my not-so-freedom wall to greet everyone!

~Not So Freedom Wall~

As always, a big THANK YOU to everyone who cared to read this and made an extra effort in reviewing. Thanks again guys!

Complicatedmind21 - thank you for reviewing! It's been a long time since I've heard from you! Break a leg on your OJT! Go girl!

HaoAnna? its too late na to add it here, but I'm thinking about it, sa 'Mouse Loves Rice' ko siguro sya ilalagay or in a different story.

Natasuya – Thank you for the heart warming critical review! It's been nice that after some time you eventually liked this story, it was OOC from the first time that I've written it and I always forgot to give any warnings for this, ha! Ha! Ha!

I know that my being from not a major English speaking country is never an excuse for my mistakes but rest assured that I'm still currently working on my grammar. I am aware that my biggest mistake would be with my tenses; my English teacher in high school made me fully aware and complain about it (next to my penmanship) I know it would be too much if I ask you to bear with since you've already done a great deal of it

A review as long as what you've written is always good to read, thanks for giving one and I hope that you will still be in touch with this story till the end.

Babsi-Flocke – thank you for the review! I guess I spoke too much last chapter, I didn't mean anything bad about my comment, it's just an observation from the view point of someone who also reads a lot of stories here in . I wish nobody gets offended or take it so seriously.

Elpatolocosisi - Thanks for the review! It's cute that it is winter there in your place; never in my life have I experienced winter. We don't have that here. I use to tell my papa that the only gift that I really wanted him to give me was a plastic full of snow. I often joke my father if he could FedEx a box or plastic full of snow here; he would just laugh at me. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Anna is so much open here in this fanfic that's why she tends to say things bluntly on many occasions here.

Yehey - no, we are not trimester, but we have a mandatory summer class for my year level and thanks for extending the good luck wish for me, I'll use it on Monday! Everyone naman yata needs a dose luck. Oo nga eh, Anna is still in her OOC syndrome; I've been meaning to put a warning here regarding OOCness here before but I always forget it. It might be a little too late since two more chapters to go for this but I'll put it now and by the time you read this, a warning may already be post up. Wow medyo nag-iimprove nap ala ako!

Midori no hime – thanks for the review! I also love Pride and Prejudice! I'm flattered that you love Yoh's jealous act.

DF14-BLACK SNOW – thanks for the review! It's so nice to hear that think it's cool and amazing! I wish I could live up to that. Here's a new chapter for you!

Asakura YohAnna – you're welcome! Andami naming thank you ang binigay mo sakin, kakatuwa naman yun! How sweet it is for you to give me 10 stars! Thank you! Salamat! Arigatou Gozaimasu!

By the way, I don't know how can I send you a pm for reviewing in my other fanfic 'Mouse loves Rice', so I just wish that you will read my new chapter so I could thank you personally. I don't have a 'Not so Freedom wall' there because it's too heavy, I can't move it to the other fanfic. Ha! Ha! Ha!

And about the title, the real meaning of that to me is really a secret, but just to give you an answer, I first came across that in a song. It's actually in Chinese when I first heard it but I found several translations of it and one is in English, which made me love it more. I don't know your taste in music but I found the lyrics cute and then eventually something came out of it and tadah! It became the title for my new fanfic!

And since were on the topic, this is shameless flagging but free publicity is still free publicity. So if you guys have some spare time and you don't have anything more to do, you can take a look at my new story here, it's a collection of one-shots entitled 'Mouse loves Rice'.

~majrocks~

"There is a fine line between love and hate. Love frees a soul and in the same breathe can sometimes suffocate it."

Cecelia Ahern

~majrocks~

After giving it much thought, Anna finally formed a decision. That night, she made sure that her last business deal in this trip to Aomori would be a success. And she didn't leave any stone unturned so she can finally claim her vacation. Her free time would be spent finding and managing to talk with Yoh Asakura.

She had researched about his life on the internet and had learned many things about him.

She knows they are still at the park, taking all of Yoh's missing scenes, she remembered hearing it from Jun when they were at the hospital. It will only mean that they'll stay here until they finished filming his movie.

When she arrived in her hotel room Redseb was already asleep so she didn't have time to discuss her decision with him, good thing he woke up early the next day. He even woke earlier than her and had already taken a bath.

"Good!" Anna said once she saw that her cousin was ready now.

"Good? You mean, Good morning." He corrected her.

Anna smiled meaningfully at him, "I'm not mistaken Redseb, I really said good. Meaning, it's good that you're already awake and had a taken a bath. You are now ready for our little trip."

"It's a miracle! You're inviting me to go out and tour the city!"

Anna's expression suddenly changed and her face turned serious, "Har! Har! Where do you want me to tickle myself? Surely you didn't forget what you promised me that you'll do everything to help me make it up with Yoh right?"

Redseb absentmindedly scratched his head, "Did I really promise that?"

"Cut it! Will you?"

The blond boy raised both of his hands in defeat when he saw that Anna was boring holes in his body with her glare, "Okay, fine. I remembered it all. Why? Have you already decided to go to him?"

She nodded in agreement with him.

"Well, we should not waste any more time. Where are we going?"

"In the park. I'm sure that's where he is."

"I'm with you cousin…" Redseb reminded her.

"You better be…"

~majrocks~

Pirika looked at her self in the mirror, "Perfect!" she said before going out of her car to meet yet another chatmate. She was halfway down their table in the restaurant when she felt her heart throbbing fast as she approached the guy that she was meeting. The silhouette was familiar, she just wished that he is not who she think he is. When she finally approached the table, her suspicions were confirmed.

Both of their faces registered shock then disbelief.

Pirika just sat down uninvited in front of his chair and glared at him, "Don't tell me your black-dragon?"

Ren ran a hand through his hair before answering, "What if I am lady_midnightblue?"

Pirika made a face of frustration then sighed, "What have I done to deserve this? Are you stalking me?"

Ren looked at her as if she had grown an extra head, "Are you out of your mind? Why would I do such a waste of time?"

She glared intensely at him then readied herself to leave, "This is a cruel joke, I'm leaving!" then walked away.

Ren just shook his head then started to leave after her.

She was pissed off; she readied herself just for this occasion and it turned out to be worse. She was so busy thinking of this misfortune that she didn't notice that she was already on the street and a car was on the verge of hitting her when a pair of strong hands gripped her shoulders and she was forced to turn around to come face to face with somebody else's chest.

She looked up to see who her savior is and blushed as she saw how handsome Ren looked under the glistening rays of the sun and the wind passing through his hair.

She blushed deeper when their eyes meet and locked for what seems like eternity with his hands on her shoulders, almost hugging her.

The tender moment was ruined when a woman bumped into Ren's shoulder and complained that young people today didn't know the meaning of privacy anymore and will shamelessly flirt in front of the whole city as if characters in a movie.

They automatically distanced themselves from each other then silently walked in opposite directions.

~majrocks~

"What the hell is that woman doing here Jun?" Yoh cannot believe who he saw outside his tent trailing behind his manager, "Haven't I strictly asked you to never let that woman know where I am?"

Jun gave him an apologetic look, "You know I did that but things have changed now. You've had an accident and to add insult to injury you were dumped by the girl who caught your fancy. At this time all you need is Ishi (A/N: in my original plan this is supposed to be Tamao but her character here would no doubt raise eyebrows so I have to invent a character to fit the role)"

"It's like you're telling me that I'm deppressed" Yoh reasoned.

"Exactly! You are depressed and are in a state of denial, saying that you are alright, that you can handle everything when as a matter of fact you're not. Have you seen your face in the mirror? Try to look at one so you can see that you don't look like a matinee idol anymore; you look like hell!"

"The only reason for that is because I didn't get enough sleep. I'm awake almost all night ----"

Jun cut his next words, "Because you were thinking of Anna Kyouyama. And look at the result; a bunch of eye bags! Pirika has been bugging me about it and I'm sure she must've cursed you in every language that she knows because you were giving her a hard time hiding your dark circles. She was complaining that she must've used all of her foundation and concealer but it's still not enough to cover everything!"

Yoh ran a hand through his hair, "But Ishi is not the solution!"

"And who is? Is it that Anna who just let her nomadic companion slug you? To tell you the truth I didn't like that incident a bit and I hate her for letting that happen to you. Does she have any idea what would happen to your career if you would lose that face?"

"That's enough Jun, Anna was innocent of all this. It's the guy who punched me, and if you want me to face Ishi warmly, I will. I'll try to entertain myself so I could forget her."

Jun smiled the patted his head, "Good, that's my boy," she turned on her back and called the pink haired woman who was patiently waiting there.

The lady walked gracefully near Yoh and hugged him tightly, she was about to kiss him on the lips when he tilted his head so the kiss landed on his cheek.

He didn't know why, but it seems that it feels wrong to have some other woman kiss him now.

If Ishi was surprised at his actions, she didn't show it and just wrapped her arms on his neck, "Honeybabe! I'm so worried about you! I've learned from Jun that you had an accident. The moment she called me about that, I didn't think twice and hurried to go here. How are you feeling, my baby?"

He felt uncomfortable when the beautiful pink haired model played with the strands of his hair.

"I'm okay now; I just need some rest so I could fully recover. But it's hard to achieve that this time because we need to hurry and finish all my scenes." Yoh explained.

"Don't worry, even if you cannot rest, I'm sure the pressure would be lesser because I'm here beside you now. And after the shooting, we will have a holiday! Jun said that she can cancel a few of your engagements in Tokyo" she looked at him smiling and wrapped her hands tighter on him.

"That's great" he should have said enthusiastically but it came out as a dry response. If Anna said that to him he was sure he would jump to heavens for joy.

Anna's pretty face flashed through his mind and he tried to shake that thought away.

He tried very hard to enjoy himself in Ishi's company but he can't help but check the clock every now and then. He still has twenty minutes before another take. But for him, it seems that twenty minutes was so far away.

Ishi looked at him expectantly so he has no choice but speak, "How was showbiz in Tokyo?"

"Doing great"

"Have you decided if you want to enter show business?"

"Uh-oh!" she shook her head no, "No matter what kind of offer Jun's manager friends are offering me, I'm not giving in. show business is not for me."

"What makes you say that? Do you want to just be a model forever? Take note, a lot of your brothers and sisters in the fashion world are widening their horizons. Why don't you follow them?"

A naughty smile adorned her lovely face, "Hmm… let me think. Maybe I could think it over if they would offer me a love scene in a movie with you as my leading man…"

She gave a sexy laugh.

If it was any other guy, their libido would be stimulated right away at the blatant invitation. But Yoh didn't feel anything for her. There is only one girl that he wants to spend everything with.

And that girl slapped that feeling in front of his face! That reality left him to be frozen male specie for now.

Jun suddenly appeared and signaled Yoh to come to her, which he did.

When he comes face to face with her, Jun whispered in his ear, "She's here…"

"What?"

"I said, she's here"

Yoh still couldn't understand her but when she rolled her eyes in exasperation; he finally understood what she meant, "You mean Anna's here on the set?"

Jun nodded and moved her gaze on the entrance which he followed and saw the blond girl.

For a while, his heart made a violent thud against his chest. He could feel it jumping for joy and he was about to run in her direction when someone came into view and his excitement immediately disappeared; replaced by disappointment.

The guy who slugged him was with her and she was holding on his arm!

His eyes went into slits and he had the urge to punch him but he restraint himself. His fans were near and what he wanted to do would generate bad publicity.

"What are you two doing here?" he didn't wait for them to come near him, he walked to their direction.

The small smile on Anna's face quickly disappeared and she turned white for a second. Redseb didn't utter a word.

"Don't tell me that what he did to me yesterday isn't enough for your standards? Or maybe you want to see it happen again this time in full motion picture?"

Redseb was evidently controlling his self, his fist were already clenched.

"Try it again and I won't think twice in taking this matter with the law!" Yoh threatened as he saw his balled fist.

Anna came in between them, "Stop that, we came here to settle things up, Yoh. We didn't want any commotion or scene. I know what he did to you was wrong and we wanted to… to explain everything, to clear things… to apologize."

"I clearly remember telling you yesterday that you don't need to explain anything. It's just a punch Anna, what you did to me was worse than that. You didn't inform me that you already had a boyfriend, and that what irks me more!"

Anna looked at him as if he had grown an extra head; "There is a big mistake here, listen to me Yoh!" she badly wanted to clear things up especially now that he had misjudged her and her cousin's relationship.

But Yoh seems deaf to her request, his mind is already set on what he believed is true.

He closed his eyes, "I'm busy, Jun can you please escort them out…"

Anna glared at him; this guy is really trying her temper, "Is that it? You're going to throw everything now? Yesterday you wanted to visit me and give me roses. Now you're obviously throwing me out. Why are you having a sudden change of heart?"

"Change of heart? Are you implying that I have feelings for you? Are you thinking that I'm drop dead head over heels in love with you? Oh no! You're terribly mistaken. I went there to thank you personally, that's all. You're definitely daydreaming, we just played charades for a few days and you already assumed that I'm yours. Even if your rich, you can have all your money to yourself, I'm not blinded by them, growing up with a silver spoon on your mouth is not an excuse to be cheap. If you think you can have all the guys that that you want begging on your feet all the same time because you have the money and power, well you're about to be proved wrong." Anger, pride and jealousy were for the first time get the better of him.

Anna was hurt and humiliated, her expression was stoic but her eyes showed all her emotions.

One look at her eyes and Yoh wanted to eat his words. His heart was slowly breaking into pieces as he looked at her. He didn't know that acting tough in real life was so difficult.

In one split second he decided to say sorry and take everything back, he wished there is a director here to finally say 'cut', and this would just be a scene in a movie; but no director came to say 'cut' and this is a real life situation that he was forced to face.

He just stood frozen as Anna approached him and slap his face hard.

"Bastard!"

They were all stunned; the look on Anna's face was now murderous, like she can eat you in one serving. Redseb held his cousin's hand and lead her towards the door.

Yoh felt his knees weaken and asked Jun for an extended break of twenty more minutes, his green haired manager just nodded; he then sat on a nearby chair.

A few minutes later someone approached him, "Didn't I ask for twenty more minutes? Can't anyone understand that?" said Yoh thinking that a production assistant had approached him.

"Can we have a man to man talk?"

He was surprised when he heard a man's voice, when he turned around he saw Anna's companion standing in front of him.

He didn't know why he agreed to talk with the guy who he sees as a rival but something's telling him that he should talk with him and he found himself saying, "Okay, lets have a man to man talk."

~majrocks~

Yoh sighed before sitting and confronting the blond guy in front of him. He was taking some time to have the energy to control himself if the need arise.

"We are not yet formally introduced," Redseb broke the silence, "I think its best if I introduce myself first because Anna already mentioned your name to me. My name's Redseb" he said then extended his hand to Yoh.

Yoh was skeptical but accepted his hand nevertheless, "Hello Redseb. You're name seems familiar, I must have encountered it before."

"On Anna's cell phone…"

"What? Yeah, I remember… wait… how did you know?" Yoh suddenly has a bad feeling on where this conversation was heading.

Redseb smiled then continued, "Just a wild guess. I just thought that maybe you are the same 'Yoh' who texted us before that he is our cousin's boyfriend and would want to meet us someday."

Yoh's eyes widen with shock and he unconsciously rose from his chair, "No! This is not happening! This can't be? You are Anna's cousin? Oh my god! I didn't know!" his face showed a mixture of emotion.

Redseb just gave him a poker face, "This is happening. You have to accept it whether you liked it or not. Me, myself honestly didn't know you. So just try to imagine if you were in my shoes that time when we've met at the hotel, you might have done the same thing."

"I know what I did was wrong…"

"You're so damn right, and you've hurt my cousin Yoh, especially when you called her cheap. She's on the verge of tears in case you didn't notice."

A pregnant pause engulfed them before Yoh spoke again, "You can't also blame me for reacting that way. All the while I believed that you two are lovers, and besides you didn't do anything to correct me. No offense, Redseb I am not blaming you entirely."

"I am not in the position to correct your impressions at that time. As I said, I don't know who you are back then. Anna is the only person who knows who you are and when she tried to explain the situation, you walked out on her."

"Yes, I've been a total jerk."

Redseb's face grows more serious, "After you left, I realized how important you are to her and how I screwed everything up. I've apologized to her and promised to help her explain the truth to you. And that brought us here in your shooting site."

"You don't need to elaborate more," Yoh's face was still indescribable, "I can take it from there and enumerate my mistakes. Instead of hearing her explanation, I've thrown her out and say things that I shouldn't"

"You broke my cousin's heart. That's the screaming truth that's hard to mend now. But I couldn't just let it stay there so I came back to set the record straight. We are raised by a very respectable family. The girls in our family were not taught to count guys on their fingers and take several boyfriends at the same time. As a matter of fact, I hope this wouldn't feed your ego, but you are the first guy outside the family that Anna let in inside her heart. I've watched her grow; our age gap is not that big. She was just five years my senior and my closest cousin so I'm sure of that. It is the first time that I've seen her in this state, she really loves you."

"But obviously, I wasted it all." Yoh finished for him.

Silence once again prevailed in the atmosphere. Out of the blue a production assistant appeared, "Yoh, five more minutes before the next scene starts."

Yoh smiled then nodded, "Thanks Pino, I'll be preparing soon."

Redseb now stood on his feet, "I guess I've said all that I should and made my point clear already. I'm not in the position now to repair the damage between the two of you. Both of you have been badly hurt."

"And because of what I've done, Anna might not forgive me. Well, thanks though Redseb, you've done your part and explained everything with me."

"It's nothing."

Yoh gave him an apologetic smile, "It's been nice meeting you."

~majrocks~

Yoh's shoulders sank and he walked to the direction of the dressing tent with heavy footsteps. Ishi was still there waiting for him.

She pouted then put on a sad expression, "I've thought that you already forgot that I'm still here…"

Instead of accepting her embrace, he move his body away from hers, "Look, you have to leave now, let's just see each other some other time. Right now, I can't afford any interruptions and the director would skin me alive if he found this out."

Ishi nodded, "Whatever you say, honeybabe."

She was now on her way to the door when Yoh called her, "Ishi wait!"

"Yes?"

"I'm not your honeybabe," he knows that once again he had hurt somebody's feelings but it's for the best. It's better for her to know the real score between the two of them so she wouldn't wait for nothing. He knows that she'll be alright. Love was out of the question between the two of them.

He doesn't care whatever she would say about him, his numb now for experiencing the worst pain in his life. No other pain can compare to he is suffering now!

~majrocks~

I hope that all of you would still put up with me and my crazy excuse for a fanfic story till the end. Actually my original plan is to stop after Yoh agreed to talk with Redseb but at the last minute I changed my mind and thought that it's too short and would be better for the last two chapters if I end this one on this part. A friend told me that I watched too many soap operas and it's now reflecting in my work, I just laughed at her comment although I admit I agree with her.

And by the way, please don't forget to review, it means a lot to me!

.^_^.V