Hi there.

I must first profusely apologize for the delay of this update (4 years?). In short, many events had happened in those years (finishing up uni, graduating, finding a job, studying for a higher degree). Nevertheless, it's beyond ridiculous and I've to confess that I regret starting this story without finishing my main one. Perhaps it's better that I should just delete this story completely or release the story's outline, that way for those who are/were interested, you will know what happens in the end. However, I've a vow or rule of finishing what I started, so I'm going to attempt in reviving this story. I hope I can finish this by the end of this year. This story will only have ten chapters. If one day I cannot write anymore for some unknown reason, I promise you readers that I'll release that outline and not let you hang in suspension.

Secondly, thank you very much to the people who had reviewed. You readers have been incredibly supportive and nice!

Here are my replies to guests:

Guest 1: I'm happy to hear that my prelude had got you hooked^^.

Guest 2: Again, I do apologize for the super delay in updating. I hope you will like chapter 1.

YennicaTorez: No, I'm not being mean on purpose. It's just a lot has happened and it's getting harder to write. I do admit that I need to take responsibility of this story, so I'll try my best to revive this.

AkaneYuzuk: Yes, I do plan to finish this story. I got the outline all typed up. The ending has been planned and decided. As for being a beta, I don't know exactly the procedures, but I think you have to create an beta-profile. Then people would request you to become their beta. For me, how I found my betas, I just sent them a message asking if they would like to become my beta. When my beta agreed, I would then send them emails with attachments.

Hiya: Indeed, hi there. I'm very pleased to hear that you're a big fan of my work. You are actually the one who made me picked this story back up. After reading your review, I was consumed in so much guilt and I told myself that I had to get back in the game for this story. As you can see, I'm playing with so many twists in this story, so naturally I would think it won't be popular. Thus, it's a great surprise to hear from you that you like it. Again, I apologize for the delay. I'm currently trying to revive this story, I hope I can do it.

**This chapter is un-beta and so will be the rest of the story.

Chapter 1: Gullible

.

.

I blinked, trying to clear up the fogginess in my vision and mind.

"A couple of days ago, you were descending the staircase and lost balance as you stepped on a slippery spot… So you tumbled down the flight of stairs and hit your head hard on a statue's feet," he explained gingerly.

Well… that sounded incredibly embarrassing. How pathetic was I to let such a mishap happen?

"Am I usually that clumsy?" I asked, quickly inspecting my arms and legs for any injuries. Evidence was shown when I traced the faded grey lines tingling across my sore limbs.

"A little," he smiled—this time, it seemed more natural than his previous one. "Anyways, are you hungry? You had been asleep for quite some time. I'm sure you must be starving."

My stomach without my consent grumbled loudly, declaring my answer.

He chuckled and stood up, telling me that he would be back really soon, but before he had left, he wore a worrisome expression again and said, "Please try not to think about too much about the past. I strongly advise that you let the memories come…" He paused, looking away briefly. "…naturally to you."

As I tried to patiently wait for him to come back, I'd noticed the door was left ajar and it seemed…someone was peeking in through that tiny gap. I couldn't make sure as I occasionally saw tuffs of blond hair sticking out and disappearing behind the door.

"Who goes there?"

Shuffling steps were then heard and someone cleared his throat. Few minutes soon flew by and the person wouldn't show himself. Irritation was gradually crawling on my skin.

"Show yourself," I bravely said, forgetting the slight risk I was putting myself in. Whoever this person was, it was clearly not Kaname, and I didn't know if I could trust him. Honestly, I didn't know if I could trust Kaname or not…

In a matter of seconds, the mysterious person opened the door and stepped in. The lighting of the room immediately bounced off his glossy blond hair, but what stood out the most were his eyes. He had cerulean-colored eyes that were so bright and water-alike that I felt myself staring into a lake.

"Hi," he awkwardly spoke and waved his hand.

"Hi," I copied him, hoping he would soon explain to me who was he.

"So…you don't remember who I am, right?" he inquired and watched me shake my head from left to right. "Well, my name is Aidou Hanabusa. I'm a friend of yours—"

"And he will be your bodyguard for the time being," Kaname said, announcing that he was back. "You can think of him as your caretaker."

"I—what—Kaname-sama?" Hanabusa's words came out all detached and out-of-order. I couldn't understand him. "I will?" He pointed at himself, face flushing.

Kaname didn't bother to give him a look as he placed a black tray filled with stuff that had this alluring scent in front of me, making me want to drool. Without looking at him, Kaname said, "You know how busy I am sometimes and as much as I want to be by Yuuki's side, I can't be next to her twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week." He carefully dipped the spoon into the bowl that was filled with some sort of steaming liquid. "So, as our good friend, I would be utmost happy if you could look after her for me. And after all…" He stopped to gently blow at liquid on the spoon and peeked at Hanabusa with one eye. "You are pretty close with her, aren't you?"

It took a while for Hanabusa to respond, muttering an almost inaudible "yes".

Kaname's attention was soon back on me again as he smiled and said. "Now, open up." He brought the spoon to my mouth.

After being fed, I was taken on a grand tour of the house. Kaname had shown the main rooms—the kitchen, bathrooms, diner hall, parlor, library, and his study room—that I should know their locations and purposes.

For the next couple of days, a routine began to form with being awaked by the maids around eight in the morning, though I found myself awake without an alarm around six in the morning. It was as if I had an internal alarm or maybe that it was usually the time I woke up before I lost my memories.

Next, after being dragged out of the bed by the maids, I would be stripped out of my comfortable clothing and have them replaced with dainty, discomfort dresses. The maids had claimed that those were the outfits I normally wear but each time I looked at the mirror, I couldn't find any familiarity or attachment over them. It felt weird.

It would then take a while for the maids to put layers of white-clothing that were called chemise or blouse. Nearly damaging my respiratory system, there was also this other extremely uncomfortable garment called…a corset I think that required endless lacing and supposedly make my waist slimmer. The maids had often commented that my body was rather thin and bony. This confused me why would I still need the corset then…

My hair didn't have much luck escaping from their grasping hands. They tried to braid, curl, and tie my hair into all these complicated bun styles that I wasn't fond of. In the end, the maids and I managed to agree on only tying half of it up with a ribbon because they had claimed that my hair would look so plain without it.

Anyways, once the maids were done with dressing me up as a Victorian porcelain doll that I saw on a desk in my bedroom, which by the way I found it slightly creepy looking, I was finally free to explore the manor.

Unfortunately, I had to share my freedom time with Hanabusa, who didn't look very thrilled on being my body guard. Unless his expression of a bored face was what he called looking normal.

The activities that I was allowed to do were reading in the library, garden-gazing, playing chess against Hanabusa, eating and sleep. Those activities were fun for the first couple of days, but after finishing my sixth novel and winning chess about 20 times-they were drastically getting repetitive and fell into extreme boredom. Apparently, I wasn't allowed to participate in doing any tasks that required 'physical strength' such as cleaning and cooking.

The maids had told me I shouldn't be taking away their chores or else they would get in trouble which puzzled me because I could help them finish their tasks faster. Oh well, I guess I must be a big klutz who broke anything that fell into my hands. After all, according to Kaname, I did fall down a flight of stairs and the result was my status now. But still…I felt so unproductive and useless, I must have a vocation or some tasks that would help contribute to this household. Surely, it was not just sit there and look pretty.

Since Kaname was away majority of the time and Hanabusa was too occupied with a book he was reading, I decided to bother the gardener. He was a middle-aged man who was polite and kind to take pity on my boredom and let me help him beautify the garden more by plotting more flowers and tending to them. The old man looked somewhat familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. He reminded me of someone when he gave me instructions on how to take care of Kaname's most cherished flower, roses.

From a mere observance, the roses gave the image of loveliness and elegance, but scrutinizing closer, beneath the vulnerable petals were thorns. A rose was delicate yet deadly if one was not careful. The gardener had commented that life was like a rose and we should beware of the thorns.

,

,

Swinging my legs back and forth, the heels of my shoes occasionally glided the sparkling water that was underneath the wooden pier I was sitting on. Throwing my head back, I smiled in content as rays of sunlight warmed up my body. It felt really good to be in the outdoors, the flowery scent that was flowing from the forest mixed with the salty scent from the lake.

My body yearned for running down the endless paths that the forest offered, feeling the crunchiness of the leaves and branches when I stepped on them and the chilly crispy air blowing against me to cool down my face that was heating up from the exercise. My adrenaline would then be pumping as I continued to zigzag through the forest, making unnecessary noises to scare my prey that I was chasing down…

Prey? Huh? Why would I want to do that? It sounded like I was some sort of hunter or animal to behave in such manner. I must be spending too much time reading adventurous novels in the library.

I lazily peeked an eye open to check on Hanabusa, who was—once again—leisurely reading while leaning against a tree. Was a book more intriguing than spending time with me? I had asked him to sit next to me earlier, but he had preferred to be in the shade to avoid the sun. Maybe he was afraid of getting a tan, but I think a little exposure to the sun shouldn't be that harmful, I mean look at that guy, he was pretty pale just like Kaname. Those two needed to go out more if they wanted to look healthier.

I sluggishly exhaled and peered down at my reflection on the lake.

Auburn hair that reached to my chest, russet-colored eyes that was a result of reddish tints swirling in the chocolate-brown orbs. Bangs that were constantly messy and hard to maintain swiped to the right side of my face. Nose and lips were average-looking, nothing that exquisite or anything. And the maids were right…I did look a bit 'malnourished'.

What had I been doing for the past days or weeks that caused my body to look like this? And what did Kaname see in me? Clearly I was not physically attractive or dexterous.

Small droplets of water began to fall from the sky and disturbed the lake's tranquility and dampening of my self-esteem.

"Drizzling?" Hanabusa finally spoke up and placed a bookmark in his book. "Looks like we have to go back."

I pouted in disappointment, I was hoping to spend another hour or two here. I held up a palm to feel the moisture of the rain. It felt cool, nice to touch and triggered something in my mind…

I felt myself turning round and round, spinning in circles with my hands extended and head facing upwards towards the rain. Giggles erupted from my throat despite the dizziness that was invading my mind.

"Do you like the rain this much?" a voice asked.

I turned to see Kaname smiling at me with an umbrella to shelter himself from the rain.

"No, I love it." I heard myself reply. "Don't you? It's so refreshing….it can temporarily wash away my worries and troubles…" Then I heard myself whispering, "It's also the only time that I can cry without people noticing…"

My head began to pound again when I tried to see the rest of the flashback. So for the next few scenes, I saw glimpses of Kaname approaching me and wiping the rain off my cheeks with his sleeve. He then said something along the lines that next time I cried, he would be there for me. Then…I felt something wet yet warm brushed against my lips.

"Yuuki, are you alright?" Hanabusa suddenly asked.

I had to open my eyes to see him, I didn't even know I was closing them in the first place. I then noticed I was all scrunched up with my knees to my chest and hands were pressing against my head. I must have looked like I was in pain.

"I…I…am alright," I managed to breathe out.

"Come on, let's get out of here. I don't want you to catch a cold, Kaname-sama would kill me if you did!" He quickly took off his grey coat and held it above my head. "Can you walk?"

I tilted my head forward, signaling that I was capable of moving my limbs. How wrong was I. For the first one-third of the way back, I was able to keep up with Hanabusa's running. My body, that I could feel it was out-of-shape due to the soreness that was spiraling down my thighs and calves, did not appreciate the little exercise I was doing. My breathing, that was very limited thanks to the corset, soon picked up a raspy rhythm, causing me to lag behind Hanabusa. At the end, I had to swallow my pride and hop onto Hanabusa for a piggyback ride home.

By the time Hanabusa and I reached to the manor, we were both drenched wet from head to toe. We went our separate ways to clean ourselves up.

The maids did not catch sight of me, they were too busy fixing up dinner which I was grateful because the last thing I wanted was them dragging me to the bathroom and let them clean me like I was a dirty dog who naughtily played in the mud. After all, I had my own hands and feet, I liked to do things on my own.

As I approached my room, I began to loosen the ribbon that was tied around the collar of my turtle-necked blouse and freed some of its buttons. I couldn't wait to take a nice hot bath to feel the bliss of letting my body relax. I thought that my body deserved a little pampering and I needed some time by myself to try to regain my memory back.

Even though Kaname had told me not to pry too much into the past, I was curious and I wanted to remember. Memories were part of myself, my identity. I found it painful not to remember what were my hobbies, what I did for a living, and my family...

I sighed in frustration, fumbling for my dress' back zipper as I entered my dark room and lightly slammed the door shut.

"Come on, come on, work with me," I muttered, anguish to get the annoying sticky outfit off me.

Success. My fingers found the tiny zipper and ungracefully yanked it downwards. Now I just had to get my arms out of the sleeves and...Kaname was comfortably settled on the sofa, having a rectangular object in his hand-probably a book, this household sure liked to read-and he was looking at me? Our gaze barely survived half a minute, he suddenly dipped his head low and continued reading.

...How long had he been there?

"Hi...?" I broke the silence between us.

"Good evening," he replied, his vision still fixated upon the book. "I just got back from my business trip and was wondering about your well-being."

"Oh...thank you for the concern, I'm doing fine," I politely answered. "I just got back from the lake with Hanabusa. It started out such a nice day, then it rained badly." A pout slipped out of my lips.

He only nodded in reply and my hands absentmindedly tucked few strands of hair behind my ears. Silence crawled back as I waited for him to verbally reply. I shuffled my feet slightly and wondered why he didn't look up. Was that book he was reading that fascinating?

To avoid further awkwardness, I walked over to the wardrobe and fished out my dressing gown. Turning on my heels, I soon hid myself behind the dressing screen and struggled to get the corset off.

It was terribly annoying, the laces were small and tight, making it hard to unravel. Groaning inwardly and feeling defeated, I asked Kaname for assistance.

He stayed silent, hesitating. "I'll go fetch a maid to assist you with that."

"Please? It has been suffocating me since this morning…" I let out a few coughs to convince him.

I almost thought that he had left to find a maid, but soon I felt a cool hand touching my back. Then with one swift moment, all the strings were cut loose and I let out a sigh of relief.

My eyes casted down and I spotted something black on the floor. I felt my hair stood on its end as I watched the little critter crawling with eight scrawny legs towards me. It triggered a memory of being in a dark room and a bunch of those little critters rapidly coming at me. It was disgusting and I shook my head, trying to get it out of my head.

I let out a small shriek when I remembered how they invaded my shoes and made their way up to my legs. I grabbed the nearest thing and hopped onto it.

Whatever that thing was, it wasn't very supportive and I felt myself tumbling along with it to the ground. Landing on the ground somehow suppressed that awful memory and I took in my surrounding.

I heard a steady rhythm of heartbeat and felt warmness. It was comforting and made me want to wrap my arms around it. I lifted my head up to see none other than a pair of wine-colored eyes, staring deeply into mine as if piercing my soul.

My left hand soon traveled to his face, searching for familiarity. As I softly caressed his face, hoping to stir any memories of the past, his face contentedly leaned towards my hand. When I stopped, his hypothesizing eyes were back on me. I felt my cheeks warm up under his gaze and averted my eyes to somewhere else.

His lips.

I stared at them. Lovers kiss, didn't they? Or at least in the romance novels I'd been reading. If we were really lovers, then there would be some spark or a special feeling when we kiss.

Ever so slowly, I felt myself leaning closer to him. I wanted to know if I would get the same feeling like in my rainy flashback. That soft touch, warming my heart.

Our lips almost met if it weren't for him turning away at the last second.

"Yuuki…" he quietly said. A tint of pink was splashed across his cheeks, making me wonder if that was how my cheeks were looking. "You will catch a cold if you don't finish changing…"

.

.

Next Chapter: Unavoidable

"Minako!"

I was suddenly whipped around and came face-to-face with a silver headed man.

"Mina, what happened to you? I haven't seen you in months, are you okay?" the man urgently asked before pulling me into his strong arms.

"Mister…" I uncomfortably muttered against his shoulder. "I think you got the wrong person."

I felt the man's body stiffen.

He quickly released me from his tight embrace and gave me a hard stare with those amethyst colored eyes.

"My name is Cross Yuuki," I slowly told him.

.

Author's Note: That wraps up chapter 1 where Yuuki was pretty much... gullible. Has anybody noticed that her personality is slightly different...? As for the next chapter's preview, what do you think Zero and Yuuki's relationship is like? Anyways, I hope you readers liked it. Reviews and constructive criticism are always welcomed.

Please note that the next update might take a while as I'm currently dealing with some personal affairs. I don't know how long will it take, the wait should be shorter than my other story since the chapters won't be heavily long. Again, I'll try my very best to update more regularly. One chapter down, nine more to go.

February 12, 2014