I Like You, Natsume-oniisan
Chapter 15: Tummy
Hotaru gawked at the invitation card and scanned through the words.
"Mikan, what is the meaning of this?" she asked and threw the card into the bin. "Why am I invited? What is wrong with your brother's girlfriend? We don't even know each other! And I kind of dislike her! Why? You must be ditching the ceremony without me! You stupid ninja!"
"I can't ditch," Mikan said in a bored manner. "I have agreed to be her bridesmaid."
It took seconds for Hotaru to register the word 'bridesmaid' into her mind. She was flabbergasted and quickly picked that card out of the bin. She looked it again before lashing out on her.
"You're crazy! Why are you helping her? Didn't you refuse her? What about your feelings? You will feel hurt and you cannot escape from the ceremony with your lousy ninja skills!"
"I'm not going to escape," Mikan said with a beam. "I am going to face it. And I don't think I will cry anymore. My feelings for him will change and I know it."
"Really? If that is the case, I shall go too," Hotaru said and looked at the date of the wedding ceremony. "Hey, I have just realised that the ceremony is on the day before Runo's concert."
"Yeah," Mikan mumbled as she slowly pulled her blouse off. "Hurry up and change, Hotaru. Yuka-sensei will scold us if we are late for physical education lesson."
Realising that most of the girls had left the changing room, Hotaru immediately threw the invitation card into her locker and grabbed her outdoor polo tee and track pants.
"Did that idiot come today? I didn't see him this morning," Hotaru's voice was muffled as the shirt was covering her mouth.
"He told me that he is sick again when we were chatting online last night. After breathing in the dust from the storeroom, he suffers from some weird nose irritation and kept sneezing until his nose became all red and runny when he got home."
"Poor fellow."
"I know. I think he has a poor health to begin with. I don't know. I'm just making an assumption." Mikan shrugged.
Mikan was already dressed and closed her locker. Hotaru was done too and closed hers as well. They walked out of the changing room and assembled at the school field with their classmates. Yuka was already in the school field and was busying laying out cones around the edges of the field.
When she was done, she shouted across the field to the class chairperson, "Tobita-san! Lead the class for five rounds of running around the field. No going beyond the cones! Make sure nobody overtakes you too and everyone has to run in two straight columns."
"Yes, Ma'am!"
Then, the whole class started running around the field. The class chairperson, Yuu Tobita, was not an athletic type. Much to some people's annoyance, he ran pretty slow, slower than a person jogging leisurely. Furthermore, none of them could overtake him. Everyone was bored from running slowly, except for some people like Hotaru and Mikan who were enjoying the slow run or, more like, jog.
"Hey Mikan, look at Yuka-sensei's tummy. It's flabby," Hotaru snickered.
Mikan looked at Yuka who was doing some stretches alone and giggled, "It's protruding out a little."
"Her tummy reminded me of a mother."
"What do you mean?" Mikan asked while still looking at Yuka's stomach.
"Do you know that most women who have been pregnant before will have flabby tummies?"
"No, I don't know... Wait, don't tell me that Yuka-sensei has been pregnant before?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"But she is not married yet!"
"Hmm... You're right. She might be still a virgin. That means her tummy is filled with fats!" Hotaru sniggered.
"Did I hear someone bad-mouthing me or something?"
The girls stopped running and turned around. Yuka was right behind them with her eyes narrowing at them.
"It's nothing," Mikan said anxiously with a grin. "Nothing, real..."
"No, it's something," Hotaru interrupted. "About your tummy fats."
A few veins popped out from Yuka's forehead and her mouth twitched a few times before she coughed loudly. She rubbed her stomach and coughed again.
"Imai-san, do you have a problem with my stomach? It's just fats."
"Of course not," Hotaru replied with a small smile. "I was just wondering why your little tummy looks like my mum's. Since you are not married, I don't think you have been pregnant before unless..."
Mikan blushed and said excitedly, "Unless you are like Runo's mother in the legend!"
Yuka gaped and quickly shook her head.
"Actually, I..."
Before Yuka could finish her sentence, Yuu's voice cut in, "Sensei, we are done!"
Yuka turned around and smiled at Yuu and the students behind him. Yuu was already panting heavily and his face was drained in colour whereas the other students were looking perfectly fine.
Mikan and Hotaru looked at each other and shrugged. They had totally forgotten about Yuka's bulgy stomach. They returned and joined the class for other activities conducted by Yuka.
After the physical education lesson, it was Mathematics lesson. Mikan grumbled and groaned at the thought of seeing mathematics equations. Even though her mathematics did magically improve a lot, she still disliked this particular subject. She did not know why but she guessed that her hatred for the subject might be influenced by Misaki who hated maths as well. On the other hand, Tsubasa and Natsume were maths freaks. When she was in elementary school and junior high school, they would always scold her for her reluctance to touch mathematics just because she was weak in it. Of course, when she reached high school, her mathematics did improve. Well, only a little though...
"Psst, do you know how to do this question?" Hotaru suddenly spoke softly in the middle of Natsume's lesson and nudged Mikan's arm.
Mikan turned around and Hotaru flashed the question to her. After scanning through the question, she smiled. She took out a piece of paper and began scribbling the solution for that question with footnotes at the side of the paper. When she was done, she playfully drew a bunny picture at the bottom of the paper and shoved the paper on Hotaru's table when Natsume was not looking.
"Thank you," Hotaru mouthed to her and looked through the solution.
"I thought you are good in Mathematics," Mikan whispered.
"Yes, I am but your brother's teaching is a little too lousy that I could hardly understand a word he said."
"Then, what makes you think I can solve it? My solution might be wrong, you know."
"Yeah, you're right. But if you are wrong, I will learn the wrong thing. And if I learn the wrong concept, it will reflect in my exams. When my record card reflect the poor marks, I will kill you."
"Then, please give me back the paper," Mikan said as she extended her hand out towards Hotaru.
Hotaru brushed Mikan's hand away and stuck out her tongue playfully.
"No, and can you help me with one more question?" Hotaru asked again and flashed another question in front of her.
When Mikan was about to read the question, a hand reached out in front of her and snatched the book from Hotaru's hand. The two of them jerked and looked up to find themselves staring into the deep red eyes of Natsume.
Hi guys, thanks for reading up to Chapter 15. This chapter and Chapter 16 may seem to be filler chapters but they will be quite important in the future development of this story. From Chapter 17 onwards, more drama will be added in.
Next, I would like to thank those who had reviewed Chapter 14. Thanks for all those encouragements. Hope to hear more from you again! :D
Here are the reviewers:
- ACuteChibiNeko
- Scarlet Ammo 19
- vna
- Vehemens Ford
- nerdyanime123
- lisaOpine
- Cure Noble0
- jennifer8-Mikan Hyuuga
- Marcokaye
- Vegie 1526
- sakura-san29
- Guest
- Michelle Potter-Black
- meLOVES'NATSUME
- aurora0914
- Xhiera15
Lastly, I would also like to thank those who had story alerted and favourited this story. :)
Here are the common questions which are being asked by most of you or you might be currently thinking right now:
1) Why is Nobara so bad here (OOC)? Shouldn't you be using Luna or Sumire for this role instead?
Of course, there is a reason behind her 'bad' actions. If I were to use Luna or Sumire, I think it will be too cliché. I have plans for them too. If you're wondering why Luna and Sumire have not appeared yet, I would say that Luna will appear in the next chapter while Sumire will appear in the third part of this story. (Spoiler Alert!) Sumire's significance in this story is not that important but she has a huge impact on Ruka's life. In contrast, Luna is an influential person here and her actions will change Mikan's life... well, in a good way, I guess.
2) Is Runo somehow related to Ruka here?
Hmm...
Friend/Editor: They are cousins! \(^u^)/
(Please ignore the statement above.)
3) Will it be RukaxMikan later on?
Surprisingly, there are some reviewers who actually reviewed that they will root for this pairing in this fanfic. Honestly, I think that Mikan and Ruka could go well together in this story. However, I can't reveal much so I can't say whether Mikan will be paired up with Ruka or Natsume yet. I'm so sorry.
4) Why is Natsume behaving like a jerk?
That is because of the 'dirty' dark secret.
Please feel free to ask me any questions. I will try to answer them as far as possible.
And don't forget to leave a review! Thanks! :)