I Like You, Natsume-oniisan
Chapter 37: On the Rooftop
"You wouldn't believe it, Hotaru! Yuka-sensei is my mother," Mikan said as she chewed on her sandwich.
"Ohhhhh..." Hotaru's eyes twinkled in delight and then her feign excitement suddenly died down. "Haha! Very funny! April's fool is over, Mikan."
"I'm serious!" Mikan snapped.
"Yeah and I wouldn't believe it," Hotaru said.
"Do you remember that time when the nurse jabbed my arm a few times and I was bleeding like crazy?"
Hotaru nodded.
"So, Luna-kouchou used my blood, together with Yuka-sensei's blood, to do a weird DNA profiling thing and it's proven that I am her daughter!" Mikan continued with a beam.
Hotaru did not know what was going on at first but Mikan kept explaining things to her, making sure she understood every bit of her story.
"You look happy so I take it that you've accepted her as your real mother," Hotaru assumed.
Mikan scratched her head and slowly nodded.
"Yeah. It took me two days to accept the actual fact. I was... you know, in mixed emotions. I was happy to know that my mother is alive but when she asked me if I would want to live with her, that made me very confused because I don't feel like leaving Mum and Dad too."
"Do you feel angry?"
Mikan stared at Hotaru questionably and asked, "What do you mean?"
"You do know what I mean, Mikan. Yuka-sensei abandoned you and you nearly died because if no one picked you up, you would be burnt in the incinerator!" Hotaru explained with lots of emotions in her voice which was quite rare to hear that coming out from her mouth. "And right now, she wants you back."
"Hotaru," Mikan sighed. "Do you remember Yuka-sensei's confession to the class? She gave birth to a child at the age of sixteen and her sensei, who was the child's father, was dead. She couldn't support the child so she had no choice but to abandon her. I can't blame her for that. However, it may be true that I feel a little angry and upset whenever I think about how my real mother abandoned me and how I might die without the help of that kind soul who picked me up from the garbage bin. But come to think of it, if you were in her shoes when she was sixteen and had a child, what will you do?"
"There is such a thing called abortion," Hotaru replied, emphasising the last word. "And I know I won't do it until I'm married."
Ignoring the last comment, Mikan began shrieking in disgust, "Don't you think abortion is cruel? A foetus is still a living thing! It is like taking away one's life! It's like committing a murder!"
"Calm down, Mikan. By the way, you won't be charged for murder," Hotaru commented.
"But you will feel guilty and... and..."
"I know. I was just saying."
"Wait... why are we talking about abortion? Oh, oh, oh! Back to Yuka-sensei's topic, what do you think I should answer her? Should I live with her or remain with Mum and Dad?"
"It's up to you." Hotaru gave a small gentle smile. "If I were you, I might want to live with my real mother because it would definitely feel good to reunite with her again."
Mikan nodded understandingly and muttered, "I see..."
"Hello!"
The two girls looked up and saw Ruka walking towards them. Speaking of Ruka, he had finally returned back to school since the week before and, of course, had received his injections. He sat down next to Mikan and placed his cup noodles on the ground.
"How did you manage to find us on the rooftop?" Hotaru narrowed her eyes at him. "Stalker?"
Before Ruka could reply, Mikan quickly answered for him, "I told him just now that we'll be having lunch at the rooftop."
"Oh?" Hotaru turned her narrowed eyes at Mikan, as if to tell her that she had betray her, of course, in a playful way. "Ah! I forgot!"
Hotaru began rummaging her bag and took out a piece of paper. She was scribbling something on it and quickly stood up. Mikan and Ruka tried to see what she had wrote but she immediately put the paper back into her bag.
"Sorry," Hotaru spoke. "I need to hand in my corrections to Natsume-sensei now. I will be back soon. Enjoy your lunch."
Hotaru waved and ran down of the exit staircase, leaving Mikan totally speechless. Since when did Hotaru owe Natsume corrections? Hotaru always did her corrections on the spot and would hand in to Natsume immediately after she was done with them.
"I thought Imai-san won't make any mistakes," Ruka said.
Mikan laughed, "Nobody is perfect, Ruka-pyon. She may be super intelligent but I tell you, she sometimes messed up with her calculations, especially mental calculations. That's why she always uses a calculator to confirm her answers."
Ruka laughed and then slurped his noodles. Mikan grinned and carried on eating her sandwich. After ten minutes had passed, the two of them did not say a word to each other until Mikan got so fed up that Hotaru was taking too long to come back.
"That liar! She ditched us!" Mikan grumbled. "I knew she has no corrections at all!"
Ruka patted Mikan's back and said, "Chill... Maybe she is held back by Natsume-sensei. You know, he can be very pricky when comes to corrections."
Mikan added with a playful smirk, "Not only to corrections, he's pricky to everything in the world."
"Haha! You sounded like you don't like him at all."
Mikan stopped smirking. Her happy expression vanished and was replaced with a disturbed look. She did not know why her mood suddenly swung so much. She even felt that something was missing all of a sudden. Something was not feeling very right at all.
Ruka who noticed the sudden change in her behaviour immediately apologised, even though he had no idea what he had done or said wrong.
"I'm sorry. Was it because I said that you sounded as if you don't like Natsume-sensei?"
"I'm all right. I'm fine. I suddenly felt that the wind was slightly colder than before. But now, it's okay," she reassured with a big smile. "Ru..."
"Do you happen to fall for him again?"
Mikan titled her head to one side and asked, "Pardon?"
"Ah... nothing," Ruka quickly shook his head.
Since that day Natsume had dragged Mikan out of Ruka's house by force, Mikan had been acting weirdly whenever she was with Natsume in school. Ruka noticed it but he did not say a word about it. Neither did he want to ask Hotaru for the reason too because Hotaru would definitely not tell him a thing. He thought that Mikan was falling for Natsume again because she would stutter and blush in front of him. He might be wrong as it was only an assumption.
"I was just wondering if you're free this Saturday so we can hang out together."
"You mean, just the two of us?"
"Yeah. Can you make it?"
Mikan thought for a moment and then answered excitedly, "Sure! Where are we going then?"
"Hmm... Secret," he gave her a wink. "But you will have to meet me at Kim Chi Restaurant around twelve noon."
Mikan nodded. Wow, she was going to eat in a restaurant filled with Korean delicacies! While she was thinking about the foods, she was interrupted by Ruka's voice.
"So, about your reply to the confession..."
Mikan held her breath. She felt doomed. Because of many unexpected things had cropped up suddenly, she had not had the time to think about it. Worst of all, she had totally forgotten about it. She could not tell him about she had forgotten about his confession because it would goes to show how disrespectful she was to him.
"Can you tell me your answer this Saturday during our hangout?"
So, the hangout was a date. It would be her very first date. Furthermore, she had to answer him if she accepted to be his girlfriend or not.
"S... Sure," Mikan stuttered with a flustered face.
She had no idea why she could not say 'yes' to his confession, although she had claimed to like Ruka a little.
Something was amissed.
For the first time, she could not admit who she liked at all.
All of a sudden, the school bell rang, signaling the start of afternoon classes. Mikan and Ruka cleared up their food wrappers and walked back to their classroom. On the way back, Mikan saw Yuka walking out of the restroom. Yuka saw her too and gave her a warm smile before walking down the stairs.
"Ruka-pyon."
Ruka looked at Mikan and responded, "Yes?"
"I need to see Yuka-sensei for a while," Mikan blabblered as her gaze was still on the stairs.
"But afternoon classes..."
Mikan laughed, "It is okay. I will be right back."
With that, she raced down the stairs to catch up with Yuka. When Yuka was about to reach the ground level, Mikan called out to her, causing her to halt to a stop.
"Yuka-sensei!"
"Yes?" Yuka blinked at Mikan who was panting heavily with a flushed face.
After catching her breath, Mikan continued, "Before I forget or become indecisive again, let me tell you this."
"Alright. Please say it."
"I want to stay with the Andous..."
Yuka's face fell. She knew it. She knew that Mikan would not accept her as her real mother after all the bad things she had done to her sixteen years ago. That was what she thought so.
"Can I have your address?"
"Excuse me?" Yuka asked while frowning at Mikan.
Mikan grinned and explained, "I need your address so that I can shift my things over to your house this Friday and live with you."
Yuka was confused.
"Didn't you say you want to live with the Andous?"
"No, I said that I want to stay with the Andous until this Friday to spent my last few moments with them before living with you." Mikan's smile was replaced with a pout. "You didn't listen to what I say, did you?"
"Wh... What?" Yuka was speechless. "Li... Living with me? Really? You've accepted me?"
Mikan nodded while Yuka's eyes began to water. She felt so happy. No words could describe how happy she felt when Mikan had actually accepted her and even agreed to live with her. She hastily took out her pen and paper and jotted down her own address before handing it to Mikan.
"Thank you," Mikan said.
"I should be the one who must say 'thank you' to you!" Yuka sniffed. "I thought... I thought you won't even accept me anymore after all I had done to you. I'm so horrible..."
Mikan gently stroke Yuka's hair and whispered, "It's okay, Mother. I understand what you've been through the last time."
"Thank you, Mikan. I love you so much. For the past sixteen years, I missed you terribly and the thought of losing you always haunted me in my sleep," Yuka sobbed softly and embraced Mikan.
"I know and I understand."
Yuka quickly pulled Mikan away and said in horror, "Mikan, I nearly forgot that you've afternoon classes! Quick! Go back to your classroom before your teacher comes in."
"Haha! No biggie. I can run quite fast or even climb up the pillar to my classroom," Mikan boasted and made a victory sign.
"Yeah, right. When you come to live with me, I will train you to fly in the sky," Yuka joked as she pushed Mikan up the stairs.
Mikan giggled at her statement and walked up the stairs. Yuka chuckled too and walked in the opposite direction.
"Mother?"
Yuka turned around and saw Mikan had stopped climbing up the stairs and was looking at her.
"Can I see Father's grave?"
There was silence for a while before Yuka chuckled again.
"Sure. Maybe this Friday too."
Here you go! The first snippet! I deeply apologised for a slightly long one though a snippet is supposed to be a very short story.
Snippet #1
"What a chilly morning," a middle-school boy clad in his usual blue track suit said in a shaky voice as he walked past the large plain with his arms wrapped around his body.
It was freezing cold, no wonder no one was seen wandering around in the midst of a cold Sunday morning. He felt stupid for waking up so early in order to jog around the estate before the sunrise. Furthermore, his mother did warn him not to wander out on his own when the sky was dark. Thanks to the cold atmosphere, he had lost the will to exercise; he chose to take a stroll instead.
"Ehhh… mmm… mmm…ehhhhh…"
He froze upon hearing weird sounds coming from a dilapidated house at the end of the plain. As he walked closer to the house, the sounds got louder and clearer. It sounded like a baby or an animal crying in pain. Curiosity got the better of him as he ran towards the house and tried to open the door. Unfortunately, the door was locked. He hurriedly ran to the back of the house in the hope to find an opened window so that he could climb through it.
Just then, he saw an opened window which was directly above a metal garbage bin. The weird sounds were extremely close when he stood near the window.
"These sounds… are they from the house?" he muttered cluelessly to himself as he brought his right leg upward and placed it on the garbage bin. "But no one lives here, right?"
As he struggled to climb onto the bin, he accidentally kicked on the side hard, making a loud and slightly hollow 'bonk' sound. Because of it, the weird sounds turned into a loud wail which startled him so badly that he fell off the metal bin. He winced in pain as he rubbed his back. Why was there a loud wailing sound coming from the garbage bin?
He stood up and his trembling fingers touched the lid. Whatever inside, he prayed, was not anything dangerous…
Closing his eyes, he opened the lid and held his breath. The wailing sound was so clear, clearer than when the lid was closed. He slowly opened his eyes and gasped at the cute little thing with a brown soft toy in the little arms.
"A baby? Wait… what?"
Without thinking twice, he picked up the crying baby and the teddy bear from the bin, and covered the bin with its lid before running away. The baby was cold, he could tell just by wrapping his hand around the tiny fingers. He removed his shirt and wrapped it around the baby.
When he arrived at the nearby orphanage which was next to a church, he violently shook the gate as he silently prayed very hard for someone to help this poor little thing in his arms. However, since it was so early in the morning, nobody attended to them. He fell onto his knees and hugged the baby. The baby had already stopped crying and was sound asleep.
Having no choice, he put the baby down next to the gate and took out a small piece of paper and a pencil from the pocket of his track pants. He scribbled a short note and then stuffed it into the shirt which was used to cover the baby up. With that, he quickly left, walking back home half-naked in the chilly morning.
The next day, he came back to the orphanage after he was dismissed from school. The good thing was that one of the nuns had found the baby outside the orphanage right after he left and the baby's condition was normal much to his relief.
"Narumi-san, thank you for saving this girl," the nun said as she bowed to the middle-school boy who was blushing due to the formality of the nun.
Without further ado, he stepped back and bowed as well before leaving the orphanage with a heavy weight lifted off from his back. Along the way, a young woman who was in the hurry accidentally bumped onto him.
"I'm sorry!" she said breathily to him and ran off.
He shrugged and continued to walk ahead while the woman ran across the plain and to the back of the dilapidated house. She opened the lid of the garbage bin and her knees immediately weakened. Stumbling backwards, she fell on her bottom while her tears trickled down her cheeks.
"Sensei…" She touched her abdomen and cried loudly. "I'm sorry… I've no choice but to… kill our baby."
Special thanks to the reviewers of Chapter 36:
- MortalLover-0926
- aurora0914
- NanaShinozaki
- HQ-pyon
- BambiFor3v3r
- Natsuki-sama
- seraphim. 159
- mooshy3712
- jennifer8-Mikan Hyuuga
- AnimeMango
- SapphiRubyCrys
- yuki-chan
- Rina-Chan
- Scarlet Ammo 19
- Michelle Potter-Black
- me enamore de ti
- Sariko-chan723
- jhaquelin
- Guest (1)
- MinaSakura
- vampgurlkisses
- CuteChibiNekoChan
- lisaopine
- Guest (2)
Lastly, I would also like to thank those who had story alerted and favourited this story. :)
Don't forget to leave a review! Thank you! :)