"I saw you."

Orihime blinked at her best friend. They were having lunch in the rooftop. Orihime bit her onigiri while looked at the karate girl with a confused look. They were still waiting for the other girls when Tatsuki used the chance to ask the auburn haired girl the question.

Tatsuki sighed, "the other day at the school's backyard."

Orihime swallowed and forced an awkward giggle, "eh, what?"

She didn't plan to hide anything from her best friend, besides Tatsuki had already knew about her rejected confession, but she wasn't ready to tell the girl about the second confession. She knew Tatsuki very well, if she told her what had actually happened that day—about the word Uryuu had said to her—Orihime was sure that the tomboy would find Uryuu and beat him. Orihime didn't want that happen. She would be lying if she said she wasn't hurt by Uryuu's word to reject her but however Orihime didn't have the heart to see him suffer.

Tatsuki rolled her eyes, she was sure Orihime knew what she meant, "The other day after school, you were with Ichigo right?"

Orihime tilted her head, "Eh?"

So Tatsuki didn't know? Orihime was relieved because her best friend didn't know what had happened between her and Uryuu that day. She didn't want to keep any secret from her best friend but she knew the raven haired girl might literally killed the boy if only she knew what had actually happened. Uryuu might have hurt her feeling but Orihime still didn't want him to get hurt.

"I-ichigo?"

Tatsuki sighed as she crumpled the sandwich paper wrapper with her fist, "Kurosaki Ichigo, He is in our class too."

"Aah," Orihime blushed, "You called Kurosaki-kun by his first name?"

"Well," Tatsuki eyed her best friend curiously, she knew that Orihime was hiding something from her and she would find out about it right now, "He's kind of my childhood friend, we're not that close anymore since he stopped coming to the dojo. So... What are you doing with Kurosaki Ichigo?"

Orihime chewed her lower lip. She didn't know what to say. If she told Tatsuki the truth it meant she had to tell her about Uryu as well. She wondered how should she told Tatsuki about Ichigo. She was not a good liar after all.

The karate champion let out a heavy sigh, even though she could see her friend was hiding something, somehow she didn't want to force Orihime to tell her, "Listen, I don't know about what's going on, if there's any, between you and Ichigo. But despite the popular belief, Ichigo is not a bad guy. So, I wouldn't tell you to stay away from him for I know he wasn't dangerous for you. But," she continued with a lower tone, "I would want to know if something happened between both of you, after all, you and Ishida had just..."

"Nothing! Nothing happened!" Orihime said quickly, waving her hand to deny the suggestion offered by her friend, her face was redder than tomatoes and she laughed awkwardly, "He fell off the three!"

"And what were you doing there?" Tatsuki asked with narrowed eyes.

"Nothing, you know I liked to wander around alone," she giggled nervously, hoping that her friend would drop off the topic, "I was trying to find a place to think, but it was actually Kurosaki-kun's favorite place..."

"So, nothing happened between you and him?"

"Nothing!" Orihime said quickly, "I swear."

Tatsuki didn't say anything as she opened the wrapper of another sandwich. She wouldn't ask anything further. She didn't believe that nothing happened though but she wouldn't cornered her best friend—not for now. After all, she wouldn't really mind if anything really happened between her bestfriend and her childhood friend in the future. As long as Orihime was happy, then she was fine with it. Ichigo was not a bad guy and she had this strange feeling that he would be a great boyfriend for Orihime, he would be able to protect her. She wouldn't tell Orihime that tough.

Orihime didn't knew what was in Tatsuki's mind at the time, she just wished that the karate champion would not find out yet about Uryuu and her. It was awkward enough to see him in the sewing club everyday after the blunt rejection, she didn't need the whole school to gossip about it. She doesn't want to make Uryuu hated her more than he already had.

She took a deep breath. If only she knew loving someone would be this hurtful.

.

"Playstation 4? That's so cool?"

The black haired boy shrugged, eyes glued on his phone, he was busy typing text message to one of his older girlfriends, "My old man won it from the pachinko."

"Your old man was doing pachinko?" The noisy boy furrowed his brows "he doesn't look like a gambler. Not like my old man who is addicted to horse race."

Mizuiro rolled his eyes, "He is not. Just once in a while. He got lucky this time, though."

Keigo grinned and clasped his hands together, "then can we play it after school?"

For the first time the shorter boy looked away from his phone, not before sending the text message, "Well, it is okay. I have no date today. But I only have two games at the moment."

"It doesn't matter!" Keigo said excitedly before turned to his other two friends, "You two have no part time today right?"

The tanned boy gave him a thumb up, "I am free."

Keigo grinned and turned to the other boy who had been silent since the lunch time, "what about you, Ichigo?"

"Huh?" Ichigo quickly turned to face his friends, clearly not listening "what did you say?"

His friends looked at each others before turned to him, Ichigo was acting unusual. The clown of the group started whining about Ichigo who would never listen to him but his tallest friend looked behind his shoulder to see what had been so interesting for Ichigo to stare this whole time. Chad's lips formed a faint smile and he sent Ichigo a knowing look. Ichigo knew what his friend meant just by that look. His face turned red and before he could defend himself, the playboy had grinned and started teasing him.

"Orihime Inoue is really beautiful, isn't she?"

"What?!" Ichigo's face was as red as tomato as he scolded his friend, "I didn't watch her having lunch with Tatsuki!"

Chad chuckled, "sure you didn't."

"Chad," Ichigo warned his friend, "I just..."

"Wow, so the rumor was true?" Keigo had stopped whining, now looking at Ichigo with a curious look.

Ichigo had a bad feeling about it, "What rumor?"

Keigo grinned, "so, this morning I heard some student talked about Orihime Inoue get confessed by someone after school in the school backyard yesterday."

"Huh?"

Keigo shrugged as he continued, "Well, Inoue get confessed quite often but... Now tell me, Ichigo, where were you going after school yesterday?"

The orange haired high school boy gulped as his friends looked at him expectantly. He was not a really good liar but he didn't think it would be wise to tell his friends about what he had been witnessing yesterday. He wondered if he could just tell his friends half of the truth. As long as he didn't have to tell them the whole story maybe it would be okay.

He sighed, "I went to the school backyard."

"So you did see her!"

"Shh! You're too loud!" Ichigo smacked Keigo's head, his face was beet red, as he quickly stole a glance toward the auburn haired girl. It seemed she didn't hear it, but the rooftop had always been full of students enjoying their lunch so Ichigo was afraid that someone would overhear their conversation.

"So?" Keigo grinned, tried to lower his voice, "you saw her, didn't you?"

"Well," Ichigo gritted his teeth, annoyed by Keigo's tone, "I did see her... But it wasn't like what you think!" he added quickly, "I didn't confess or anything!"

Mitsuiro had put down his phone for the first time that day, interested in the whole situation, "so, what did you do there, with Inoue?"

Ichigo scowled, "we just talk."

"About what?"

"Don't press your luck, Keigo!"

Keigo started to whine again, "Ichigo! We are best friend, we don't keep secret amongst us!"

"I don't remember being your best friend," Ichigo said coldly, "besides, there was nothing important happened, we just talk okay? And no, I won't give you the detail and it is final!"

"So," Chad tried to hide his smile but failed, "it is private?"

Ichigo decided that his friend would shut up and leave him alone if he said it was private. So he nodded, "yeah. It is private."

.

"Did you hear? About Inoue and Kurosaki..."

"Secret meeting after the school..."

"He had been stealing glances to her during lunch time!"

"Impossible. What about Ishida?"

"Maybe she is two timing?"

"Why did she choose the punk over the prince?"

"I can't believe it..."

It didn't take long before the rumor reached the dark haired sewing club captain. When he entered the club room after classes, the members looked at him with different kinds of looks, some looked like they pity the boy while the other looked happy and hopeful—they thought that finally now they had a chance with him. He tried to keep a flat face, those people knew nothing. He hadn't been two-timed—or worst, rejected—by the school idol, in fact, he was the one who had been rejecting the girl. He was sure there had been some kind of misunderstanding about the rumor but he had no plan to tell anybody the truth. It didn't bother him at all, those people could say anything, he wouldn't care.

"So, I have an announcement here," Uryuu's voice was calm as usual, the club members looked at him curiously, wondering what kind of announcement he had, "since I would be busy with the student council, I would have to leave this club. I would still look over the club as an advisor, as I am the founder of this club, but the position as the captain would be given to Inoue-san."

Orihime who had been busy avoiding Uryuu's eyes startled at the mention of her name. The whole eyes in the room were on her now. She pointed herself, "M-me?"

Uryuu nodded, "Yes, since you've been my vice this whole time and I know you can do well as the captain. Is it okay with you?"

Orihime tried to make an eye contact with the boy, "well, uh, of course..."

Uryuu massaged his temple as he heard the girls started whispering to each other. He knew it. There were going to be more rumors about them now.

.

Orihime sighed as she left the club room. The club activity today had been cut short so she still had much time before her part time. So, Uryuu had left the club. He would not be the captain anymore, which meant she could come to the club without worrying about seeing him there. She knew that Uryuu didn't leave the club because of her, but for some reason she still felt bad. Uryuu left the club when the situation had become awkward between them. It was her fault, if only she didn't confess to him... Maybe they could still talk normally now.

She let out another sigh.

"Oomph!"

Orihime's lost her balance and almost fell down to the floor if not for a strong hand caught her arm and pulled her back to the hard surface she had bumped into before. She touched the hard thing with one hand as she balanced herself as her other hand rubbed her nose. It was kind of hurt!

"Are you okay?" grunted some familiar voice.

"Umm," Orihime looked up and saw a grumpy face of a boy, "Kurosaki-kun!" She frowned, still rubbing her nose, "your chest is so hard! I think I broke my nose!"

Ichigo fought the urge to snort, instead he rolled his eyes, "you didn't broke your nose."

"How do you know! Maybe it is broken!" Orihime protested, but before she could say anything more, she realized that his hands were still on her waist and arm, she tilted her head, "well, Kurosaki-kun, you can let go of me, actually..."

Realizing their position, Ichigo quickly let go of the girl, he took a step back with a very red face, "y-you should pay attention when you're walking! You could bumped into people o-or lamp post!"

Orihime giggled, "I did both of those many times. It is a wonder I haven't broken my nose!"

"It is a wonder you're still alive..." Ichigo grunted, he realized that now people were staring at them and he cursed.

"That is not nice, Kurosaki-kun... Cursing is not cool..."

"Now it remind me I have something to talk to you," Ichigo mumbled, eyes wandering to make sure people were not eavesdropping, "do you have time now?"

She did. In fact a lot of time since the club was ended earlier today, there are still few hours before her shift in the bakery. She did have time, but should she go with him? Orihime rubbed her chin, thinking about the possibility of Ichigo being a kidnapper or serial killer. She had been taught by Tatsuki not to follow strangers—she taught her karate too, just in case—since there are so many sick people out there. Ichigo didn't look back to Orihime. She could see he was strong but she could defend herself, besides, Tatsuki said that Ichigo was her friend. Tatsuki's friends must be good people so she decided, it was okay to go with the orange head.

She nodded, "Yup, I have time!"

"Good, let's go!"

With that Ichigo grabbed her smaller hand and pulled her leaving the school building, ignoring so many pairs of eyes following them.

.

"You mean Ishida Hospital? It is owned by Ishida Uryuu's family."

The beautiful high schooler looked at her friend in disbelieve, "really?"

Her best friend nodded, "yes, I think his father was a surgeon or something... It is rumored that he often visits the hospital to learn a thing or two, he will inherit the hospital in the future after all..."

The girl looked at her friend hopefully, "does he have black unruly hair?"

The best friend lifted an eyebrow, "black hair, yes, but unruly... ah, there he is. That guy," she nudged her friend with her elbow, "that guy is Ishida."

She turned to look at the guy and a warm feeling fill her chest as she saw him.

She found him.

Her prince...