I updated. Finally. XD
I'm really sorry for the super-long delay in getting this chapter out, but I've just finished month-long exams. I hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive me? ^_^ The good news, however, is that I've also done the next chapter, so it should be out pretty soon. Not to mention the fact that the story is FINALLY going somewhere. :D
Having said that, enjoy~!
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"Maika, don't tell me you're going for the dinner dressed like that?"
She looked down at her dress, then at her indignant mother.
"But kaa-san, this is what I always wear to dinners! You've never said anything about it before..."
Her mother smiled mysteriously. "But this isn't just any dinner... come on, I'll make you up."
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Which was how she ended up in front of the Atobe residence, wearing six-inch stilettos, a long flowing gown with a slit that went far too high up for her comfort, and mascara so heavy that it took a great deal of effort to even keep her eyelids up.
"Have fun, darling – and be sure to tell me all about it when you come home!" Her mother said brightly, poking her head out of the window.
Maika whirled around. "Kaa-san, you're not coming?"
"Nope, got work to do!" She winked, and revved up the engine.
"But – " Maika watched bewilderedly as the car sped off, leaving a trail of smoke behind. "I – "
The front door opened, and she came face to face with a very stout butler.
"Welcome, Tawako-sama. The young master is waiting for you." The butler bowed politely, and two maids immediately swept her off to the gardens.
...what?
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Atobe ran a frustrated hand through his hair, nearly ruining the perfectly-styled curls as he did so. By Jove, she had to have the most abominable timing ever in the entire world.
Every single time he tried to lead up to it, she would inevitably bring up the most inane subject ever. I mean, seriously. Whether the grass would look better short or long? He didn't know whether to be insulted or amused. In fact, if he didn't know better, he'd have thought that she was purposely going out of her way to avoid that topic at all costs.
But of course, he knew perfectly well that she didn't have any inkling of what would befall her tonight.
Or would have befallen her already, if she hadn't been so persistently obtuse, he added sourly.
He swallowed his rising temper and whatever pitiful remnants that remained of his severely damaged pride, and soldiered on bravely. After all, faint heart never won fair lady.
He winced at the loud slurping noise emitted from the other side of the table.
Not that Maika was exactly the epitome of a fair lady, either.
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Maika bit her lips nervously. She was starting to run out of subjects to distract Atobe, and unless somebody did something – soon – she was going to have either start regurgitating whatever pathetic facts that remained in her brain after a cursory perusal of the history textbook (which pretty much amounted to all the studying she had done this year) or to use her last resort, which was to scream her lungs out until every single maid and butler in the Atobe household came rushing out to see if everything was alright. Which it was, of course, if you discounted the fact that she and Atobe were the only two living souls in a totally deserted garden (which happened to be full of rose bushes, as Atobe had conveniently demonstrated by plucking a scarlet rose for her) and that they were having a perfectly civilised conversation that, somehow, in one way or another, kept veering towards a particularly dangerous topic. She groaned mentally. If Atobe said like one more time in a way that involved a certain pair of eyes artfully directed at her, she'd slap him until he turned a very pretty purple. She'd make sure of that.
It wasn't that she didn't like (there she went, using that darned word again) those sentiments, it was just... She scowled darkly. It was just... very uncomfortable, to put it simply. And what the heck was she supposed to do if he out and told her that he, well, liked her? Of course, to be completely honest, that was just an assumption that was probably ridiculously implanted in her head thanks to her mother's not-so-subtle efforts to get them together. For all she knew, it could just be hormones messing with her head...
"Maika," His unquestionably masculine voice announced itself behind her, and she nearly fell out of her chair in surprise. Since when did he get so near her? He was far too close for comf – what is he doing?!
He tilted her chin so she was looking straight up at him, and her mouth immediately went into ultra-panic mode, throwing out the first thing that came to mind. "Look! A UF - mmph!"
A hand clamped down on her mouth, effectively rendering any insults she might have hurled at him completely useless. She settled instead for glaring at him.
"Maika." Stern grey eyes shot lasers at her, and for the first time in her life, she felt the full weight of the Buchou GlareTM , one which she hadn't thought anybody but Tezuka possessed. However, being buchou of Hyoutei Gakuen's tennis team had apparently honed Atobe's skill to perfection. She shut up almost automatically.
"Maika," He took a deep breath to calm his nerves, telling himself that it was perfectly silly for Atobe Keigo to be feeling nervous when confessing his feelings to a girl. "I need to tell you something."
"Eh?" She replied intelligently.
"I...uh..." You can do this, I know you can... "IthinkIlikeyou."
"...what?" He had obviously gone for some prestigious speed-talking classes which specialised in making oneself as ununderstandable as possible, and passed with flying colours. Or so she surmised.
"I." He paused, convincing himself that he could do this. He was Atobe Keigo, for goodness' sake! Atobe Keigo was never nervous. Calm and composed, that's it, calm and composed...
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
"I." Gulp. "Like. You."
There. He'd said it. Slowly and clearly, with perfect enunciation so that even the dumbest ass in the world would be able to decipher it – and Maika definitely wasn't that, if the way she managed to cook up insults as fast as he could send a tennis ball hurtling was anything to go by.
Although the glassy, blank look in her eyes was almost enough to make him retract that thought.
"Maika? Are you alrig – "
Her deer-caught-in-headlights look suddenly gave way to one of pure terror, and she was already halfway out of the garden before he recovered enough to give chase.
"Wait! Maika! Maika!!"
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The mistress of the house raised an eyebrow as her son, looking slightly wild and disheveled, entered the house – without Maika, she noticed – and stalked straight past her, heading for his room.
Her eyes narrowed. He wasn't going to get away that easily.
"Keigo, how did it go?"
He froze in his tracks and turned to face his mother with excruciating slowness. "Uh... do I have to answer that?"
"Keigo."
If there was one thing Atobe Keigo was the tiniest bit afraid of, it was getting into his mother's bad books. He had discovered from a very young age that she had a lot of power, and she was not the least bit hesitant to use it to teach her only son certain things that "were for his own good", according to her.
He sighed. "I don't know. She ran away."
"...she ran away?"
He wondered if he hadn't better follow Maika's lead if he wanted to survive the night in one piece – if that glint in his mother's eye was anything to go by, at any rate.
"Atobe. KEIGO."
He didn't wait any longer.
The heir apparent to Atobe Corporation, Inc., one of the most influential companies in Japan, fled for his life.
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"You have got to be kidding me." Maika's mother slumped down in distress. "She ran away?!"
Atobe's mother looked up in surprise. "Didn't she tell you?"
"I wish!" She snorted. "The day Maika tells me something about boy problems is the day the world comes to an end."
"Ah..."
They lapsed into silence.
"So... it's hopeless, then?"
Atobe's mother sat up. "Of course not! Nobody, and nobody messes with the mothers and gets away with it! We'll show them how matchmaking is done – and we'll come out triumphant in the end!"
Maika's mother frowned. It's easy for HER to talk - she's not the one having to handle a PMS-ing daughter...
"But what else can we do?"
"Let me see." The mistress of the Atobe household contemplated the question for a long moment, before her eyes suddenly lit up. "I've got it! How about some detective work?"
Her evil counterpart grinned devilishly. "Bring it on!"
"It's simple, really. Is there anyone Maika has been seeing a lot of lately?"
Maika's mother tapped her lips, pondering the question.
"More specifically, any boy?"
"Oh! That way..." She finally caught the drift. "Other than Keigo-chan, I don't really think there's anyone she's been talking to much – except at school, of course..." She trailed off, and her eyes narrowed. "Actually, Maika has mentioned someone..."
"Someone...?" Atobe's mother prompted, suddenly sitting bolt upright. Who could challenge – and defeat her dear Keigo?
"Yeah... his name was... aish, what was his name again? Te – Temuka? Teruka? Or something like that..." She chuckled sheepishly. "I usually just think of him as Homework Boy, since he always brings her homework when she's sick."
"Who?!" Heck, it wasn't even anyone from among their circles! Just who did this Teruka think he was, anyway? "Are you sure she likes him?"
"Wha – no!" Maika's mother nearly spat out her tea. "I mean, she does talk about him rather frequently, but it's always in the most derogatory of terms, so I'm sure she doesn't like him! Ehehehe..."
Although you can never tell with Maika...
"There is another boy, though... she's only mentioned him once or twice, but I remember him because I saw his picture. He was sooooo cute! I really wouldn't mind having a go at him myself," She grinned, forgetting for a moment that she was trying to solve the mystery of Maika's shadow boyfriend.
Atobe's mother spluttered in the midst of a dainty sip.
"WHAT?!"
Her next sentence was barely more reassuring.
"If I weren't already married, of course..."
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Five kilometres away, a certain honey-haired tensai sneezed into his handkerchief.
"...that's odd. I don't remember nee-san predicting a cold at all..."
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Tezuka did not want to know why there were dark rings around Maika's eyes.
Of course not.
No, really. It was none of his business, anyway. Besides, prying into another person's life was just plain impolite, as he reminded himself pointedly.
He settled for a sigh, sinking deeper into the chair as he tried to chase away images of Atobe and Maika doing –cough- things together until the wee hours of the morning – things that only he should be allowed to do to her –
Wait. What the heck was that?
He looked over to where Maika was sitting, zoning off into space.
Why did he care so much, anyway?
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Maika, on the other hand, wasn't paying attention to her surroundings at all, least of all the human ice block sitting beside her. She hated the feeling of not being in control of her life, and she was currently feeling supremely lost at the moment.
Why...
Why?
WHY?
She wasn't even sure what she was asking herself anymore – why he liked her, or why she ran away, or –
Why did she do that, anyway?
Logically speaking, Atobe would have been the perfect catch.
Sure, he's narcissistic, his ego's the size of the moon, but – for all that, he's not half bad. He's quite a decent guy, when you get right down to the basics.
Then why did she react that way?
She groaned. Another question to add to the flood that was already tormenting her. Great. Just great.
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"Why is it that I feel even more stupid than when I came to school in the morning?" She grumbled, packing away her things. "Gosh, what's the point of coming to school if it's simply going to make me more dumb?"
Tezuka watched her quizzically, wondering whether to answer a clearly rhetorical question just for the sake of saying something. It had been – to put it simply – unnerving to sit next to her the whole day without so much as a single inane comment coming out of her mouth.
He finally gave in to his burning desire that had been festering ever since the beginning of school.
"Maika, are you alright?"
She looked up blankly. "Yeah... why wouldn't I be?"
"..."
On the whole, he didn't think she'd take "Oh, because you weren't making stupid comments and disturbing me the whole time as usual," very kindly. So he listened to his self-preservation instincts and shut up instead.
She heaved a sigh of exasperation. "Wouldn't expect anything less from the resident iceman of Seigaku, of course." It was mean, but she wasn't particularly in the mood to sugarcoat anything at the moment.
Bad mood much?
He watched her quizzically, as she stumbled out of class – and smack into Atobe.
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"Oof!" The chest she walked into was too hard for its own good. "Look where you're going, you muscl – Atobe?!"
Their eyes met, and a deep, dark flush began to spread over her face.
"I – I – "
"Maika, I need to talk to you." His eyes flickered towards the emptying classroom, where Tezuka was noticeably still present. "In private."
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Tezuka nearly choked when he saw Maika letting herself be led obediently away by Atobe.
Someone's definitely unwell...
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"Atobe, I – "
"Maika." He looked at her for a long moment, so long that she began to flush as red as a tomato.
"Y-yes?"
It was supremely difficult to get out the next few words, but he managed it.
"It's Tezuka, isn't it?"
"It's – EH?! WHAT?! NO! Wait, what's Tezuka?"
"He's the reason you ran away last night." Atobe's face was turned away from hers, and he actually sounded – if only for a moment – mature.
It was amazing how her brain managed to come up with snide comments at the most inopportune moments, really.
He turned to face her, his eyes piercing her. "Isn't that the truth?"
"W-what? No!" She stammered. "I mean, it's not like I like him or anything, so why should I run away because of him? You're not making any sense!"
"Heh," He smirked. "So I still have a chance?"
She blinked. "A chance to what?"
Oh.
My.
God.
HOW ON EARTH CAN ANYONE BE SO EXCEEDINGLY BLUR?!
He exploded. "To make you like me, you idiot!"
"...what did you just call me?"
Funny thing, evolution. It chose to leave humans without a tail (the coccyx doesn't count), and a sense of balance that leaves something to be desired, but one thing it did make sure of was that every member of its species possessed the instincts that would ensure its survival...
Atobe Keigo took one look at the fire smouldering in her eyes, and following those age-old instincts, turned and ran for his life.
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So how was it? Gimme a holler if you're still reading this, ne? Review! =]