Author: Shuichu Sarahari

Editor: Shuichi Sumiyoshi

Story: Bestranged Love

Rated: M

Chapter: 8/?

Disclaimer: I don't own H-K or associated with author.

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"This is the final exam. There will be fifty words to define and use in a sentence. You must score a seventy-five or higher percentile to pass, or else you fail. Should you fail, and I will personally get you expelled from Osaka Gakuen. You may begin when you receive the exam." He walked around the room handing out the scripted test. As he passed Nakatsu, his expression changed to an evil smirk almost laughing at his hopeless look.

"You have one and one half hours starting, now!"

Everyone in the room turned over their test. The heavy atmosphere was tangible as the unprepared looked down in horror. Fifty English words stood between them and their graduation. Sano looked down at his test. The words were actually pretty simple. The words were written in Japanese on the left side of the page with a space for the English equivalent and a space to write a sentence. The first word was easy: neko. Sano wrote "cat" in the first blank and proceeded to write a sentence. The rest of the test went on without a hitch until the last word. Sano understood the word in Japanese, but the word in English escaped him. He knew he had studied the word with Mizuki the night before, but for his career at Osaka, he couldn't remember what it was.

Mizuki was on the other side of the room. She was also looking down at the last question. She, Sano, and only a few other people had progressed so far in the test. The word was "building." Mizuki knew the word in English, but the problem was that she didn't know the word in Japanese. Her Japanese was good enough to be considered fluent, but the problem was that she never learned some very simple words. Oh no! Do I ask the teacher what the word is in Japanese, or do I just guess… I really don't know what to do! Sanoooo, please help me! Mizuki tried to calm herself down, but nothing she did would tell her what the word meant. She shut her eyes and breathed in deeply. She exhaled slowly, trying to reclaim control. The teacher gave them a word list before to study. It had seventy-five words on it and there were fifty words on the test. One of the remaining twenty-five was that one last word. She looked at the kanji of the word and thought about it for a while. She still had a half an hour left. Finally she decided on the word and guessed "building." She wrote it down on the test and wrote a sentence. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned in her exam. The teacher looked at her skeptically because she finished so quickly, but he took the exam and dismissed her.

Sano watched Mizuki leave the room and glanced down at his test. He knew what the word meant, but he just couldn't translate it into English. He was in a building, and he knew what it was in Japanese. He thought back to his tutoring sessions with Mizuki the night before. What did she say? "billed-ing?"Oh for the love of god! Why can't I remember what Mizuki said? Wait… if she said "billed-ing"… "building?" Well I guess this is all or nothing . I'll put this down and just go." Sano risked everything and wrote down "building" and a sentence with it. He also handed his test in to the teacher and left the room.

Sano headed down the hall and back to his dorm room. He didn't really know what to do now. That was the final exam of the year in English, so he didn't really have any homework to work on. He felt lonely and hoped that Mizuki would be in the room when he got back. He opened the door to find Mizuki asleep on his bed.

"Hey, you really should at least go to bed on your own bed. Hey! Mizuki!" Sano yelled and tried to wake up his sleeping roommate. She refused to walked up at his call and continued to sleep. "You really drive me crazy sometimes. I know who you are; you know who you are. Please tell me why you're doing this to me." Sano climbed into his bed next to the sleeping girl. "You take up the entire bed, too. What am I going to do with you?" He tried to move her over enough to get into the bed too, but he couldn't manage to make enough space. He took her blanket from her bed and spread it out on the floor. He wasn't going to be cold while he napped at least. It was only nine thirty in the morning. He didn't have any classes till after lunch, so he slept.

The final bell of the day rang in the distance. Everyone packed up their books and said good bye to the teacher. Sano walked up beside Mizuki.

"Hey, would you like to come with me somewhere? I was going to go off campus for dinner tonight, and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me. It isn't going to be anything spectacular, but I wanted to spend some alone time with you without the blonde maniac." Mizuki looked up at Sano. Her eyes were sparkling with desire.

"I'd love to, Sano! This is the first time you've ever invited me to go somewhere with you. I'm so happy!" She could hardly contain her happiness as she followed Sano back to their dorm room. "Where are you going to take me, Sano? Is it going to be out by the park? Is it going to be in the middle of the suburb?" She babbled on for a few hours, trying to get information out of Sano.

"Mizuki, calm down. Dinner is in about an hour. You'll find out when we get there." Sano kissed Mizuki on the top of her head and sat down at his desk. "I've already told you, I'm not going to get let Nakatsu get you. You're going to be mine till the day we graduate. You already made your promise to me, and I've made mine to you." He took out his books to do a little bit of homework before they left.

"Sano, thank you for everything you've done for me. Someday I really hope to repay all of your kindness." Sano stopped working for a moment. I wonder if… No, I don't think that she would. She's a girl, and I know this, but she doesn't know that I know. And. I don't think she would think I'm gay either. Sigh, sometimes I hate being a guy. I wish I could just… Tonight! I'm going to tell her tonight and see where it goes.

"No problem, Mizuki. I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you. Come on, I'm done with my homework for now. Let's get going." Sano closed his book and put on a jacket. He took Mizuki's hand in his and walked out of the dormitory. "I'm taking you to one of my favorite restaurants in the area. It's an Italian restaurant on the edge of the town. It's not very well known, but it's very good. I hope that you like it."

On the way down to the school gate, Nakatsu spotted the two walking off campus. He ran towards them shouting. "Hey! Where are you two going hand in hand, Eh? You're forgetting about me!" Nakatsu was out of breath when he finally reached them.

"Nakatsu, I'm sorry, but I'm taking Mizuki off campus with me and me only. This is a special occasion for us, and I need to talk to her by myself." Nakatsu's mouth dropped open. His face flushed with anger. He was still in love with the image of Mizuki he had and couldn't give her up. His world was falling apart.

"Sano, you bastard. You know how much Mizuki means to me, and you're still doing all of this. I can't believe you would do this to me. Never talk to me again!" Nakatsu ran off towards the school crying.

"Sano, I feel really bad for Nakatsu now. I think we should go back and invite him to go with us." MIzuki sounded worried about her friend. The only problem was that Sano seemed to be very annoyed by her concern.

"Mizuki, I brought you out here to be alone with you. This is to talk to you and you only. If I wanted to go with Nakatsu, I would have invited him to go with us. Mizuki, please don't feel bad about this. This is for me and you tonight, okay?" Sano took Mizuki's hand and continued out towards the main street. Cars rushed by as the two walked down sidewalks. Horns honked and curses could be heard through the open windows of some drivers. They finally arrived at the restaurant, and Sano opened the door.

"Here we are, Mizuki. Please forget about Nakatsu for just a an hour or two for me, okay? I really want this to be a special time for us. This is the first time that I've taken you out on a date, right?" Sano offered a chair to Mizuki before sitting down himself. "Mizuki, there's…" Mizuki suddenly interrupted Sano.

"Sano! There's something that I've been meaning to tell you for a long time!" Mizuki blurted out. She looked scared.

"W-what is it, Mizuki?" Sano seemed a little worried. He didn't know what she was going to say. What if she was going to confess without him getting to say something about it first?

"I… I've been living a lie, and today I'm going to correct it. I… I'm not really a guy! I came here to Japan so that I could meet you here, but I'm really a girl. I couldn't go to Osaka high school unless I applied as a boy, so I disguised myself so that I could come and see you. After I met you and we became friends, I thought maybe we could be life long friends, but I can't keep lying to you. I don't think you know, so I decided today I would tell you. I really hope you forgive me." Mizuki looked down at her knees after she finished talking. Is Sano mad at me? Or did he already know? Oh my god, I'm so scared right now. I want to go home and never see him again. Why did I blurt that out just now?

"Mizuki, I've known that for a long time. That was what I was going to tell you tonight. I was going to confess that I knew your secret this whole time. I just didn't know how to tell you. I didn't want to tell you earlier because I thought that you would leave me in fear, but I was also afraid that you didn't like me. Thank you for telling me in earnest though." Sano took Mizuki's hand in his and kissed it. "Let no secrets come between us again, alright?" Mizuki nodded. Just as Sano let go of her hand their food arrived. "Eat up, it's on me," Sano said, taking a fork and digging in. I hope Nakatsu is alright. I agree with Mizuki. We were a little rough on him, but I really did need to have this talk with Mizuki.

The two arrived back on campus at around eight in the evening. They returned to their dorm room to find everything on the floor. Papers were scattered on the ground, torn up and stomped on. They walked into the bathroom to find someone had written, "I hate you both!" on the mirror with toothpaste.

"Mizuki, I think I know who did this, and I'm not sure what to do. Do you have any ideas?" Sano sounded very worried.

"Sano, I really don't know… I think I know who did it too. Should we report this? I don't really want to have to clean the room after all of this, and our notes are ruined. Ah! So much work gone!" Mizuki's eyes filled with tears. Sano wrapped his arms around Mizuki.

"It's going to be alright. There's nothing wrong. You've just had a stressful day. Everything will work itself out." Sano sat down on his bed which he found out to be drenched. With this his temper broke. "GOD DAMMIT MIZUKI! IF ONLY YOU NEVER HAD A SECRET TO HIDE! IF ONLY YOU WERE A NORMAL PERSON WHO WENT TO A NORMAL SCHOOL, THIS WOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED! THIS IS ALL HAPPENING BECAUSE OF YOU!" Sano stormed out of the room, and Mizuki burst out crying.

"Sano! What did I do! Sano! SANOOOO!"

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Haha, what a strange story. I hope you guys like it. It's been four years since I even thought of writing this. Love you all.

Review are always fun

Shuu-chan.