Here's Chap 4, Enjoy!

Chapter 4

Sei

Youko stood from her sit and approached the man."Naru!" she enthusiastically called. "You're finally here." She uttered as she clung her arm on his. A pang of jealousy crept all over me as they approached our table, Youko put on her cunning smile. I felt a pain in my chest. Who the hell is this man to her?

He is tall, maybe the same age as us three. His windblown dark brown hair is perfect. And NO, I'm not attracted to him in any way possible, even if he's, I admit, dashingly gorgeous.

We stood up to greet Youko's friend and Eriko immediately moved to my side.

"This is Yukawa Naruki. He's the friend I'm talking about." Youko announced. "This is Torii Eriko and Satou Sei, my best friends." She introduced us to him.

"Pleasure to meet you." He offered his hand to Eriko.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too. You can call me Eriko." she shook his hand then said, "Thank you for inviting us here." She has this dreadfully sweet smile plastered on her face. I can see it clearly, she's undeniably attracted to him.

"Nice to meet you. Call me Naruki."He turned to me and offered his hand. I hesitantly shook his hand.

I smiled at him and said, "I'm Satou Sei. Thanks for the invite." There was a tension between us, like an invisible force trying to repulse us both. I release his hand cautiously.

We took our respective seats; Youko and Yukawa-san sat on the opposite side.

"Could you please scoot a little?"requested Eriko. I raised an eyebrow and obeyed her request while she took a seat next to me.

"Thank you." She murmured to me. "So, how long have you been friends with Youko?" she queried pertaining to Yukawa-san.

"We're friends since childhood. We were about six or seven years old back then." He replied.

"Yes, we first met on a party right?" asked Youko, trying recall the memories.

"Tells us how you met!" Eriko exclaimed like an overly excited kid. Bleh! I secretly stick my tongue out in annoyance.

"I can't remember if it was a birthday party or something like that."

"I'm pretty sure it was a social gathering." reminded Youko.

"Mm, you remembered? Anyway, it was really boring because I didn't saw any kids like me in the party, only adults talking about serious stuff. So I wander around the event hall until I saw a cute girl, about my age, who is standing alone in an empty area. Without thinking, I approached her and tried to talk to her but she is really shy, so I ended up having a monologue. But after that, she got close to me and we were inseparable."

"That's so adorable. But I didn't know that Youko's shy when she was young." Eriko giggled.

"Yep. She really has changed a lot. Even her hairstyle changed."

"Yes. I remember I had long hair when I was little." She smiled sweetly.

"Actually, I have a picture of her with me when we were kids. Wanna see?" he took out his leather wallet and pulled out a picture.

"You still have that?" Youko asked.

Yukawa-san handed the picture to us. In the photograph, a boy stood beside a little Youko who is smiling sweetly. Her long glorious hair flows down to her waist and her bangs doesn't part at the center, rather it is combed sideward. She was charmingly cute.

"Thanks, Sei." to my surprise, Youko spoke.

"What is it?" I curiously asked.

"You said she was charmingly cute." pointed out Eriko.

"Oh, did I?" I said touching my lips.

"Told you she was cute. But now, she's drop dead gorgeous." Tss. What a flirt!

"Stop it, Naru. You're exaggerating." she giggled.

He looked at Youko in the eyes as if they're having a conversation just by staring at each other. The intimacy made me sick. I really, really hate to admit it but they make a perfect match.

What the hell are you thinking Sei? Don't be stupid. You can't give up so easily. Besides, they're just friends... I think. Shaking my head, I tried to make myself believe that they are just friends. Frustrated, I drank my iced tea straight up.

"Are you okay?" whispered Eriko who is leaning to my side. I nodded without saying a word. "I don't believe you."

"Is something the matter?" Youko asked us.

"No. I'm just asking Sei to accompany me to the powder room."

"No I di– ow!" she nudged me hard on my side with her elbow. Eriko, how many times do you need to hit me? I mentally cried.

"Please excuse us for a bit." Unable to complain, she dragged me away from the lounge, while the two are just staring at us curiously.

"Slow down, Eriko. Where are we going?" I probed but she didn't respond.

As soon as we're far from them, she halted. She let go of my wrist and turned to face me.

"Okay, spill it." Eriko demanded.

"Spill what?"

"Don't play dumb Sei. What are you doing back there? First, you complimented Youko on how she looks but didn't even notice me."

"What? Jealous again?" I wriggled my eyebrows.

"No, and don't change the subject. I'm not done yet. Second, you interrupted me while I was asking Youko about her love life as if you don't want to talk about it. And when Naruki-san arrived, it was like you don't want him there. You're smile is so fake when he introduced himself to you. So, you're really in love with Youko huh?" I'm guilty in every word she said but the last one alarmed me.

"H-how did you know?"

"S-so you're really in love with her?" her eyes widened while pointing her index finger at me.

"B-but I thought you already knew? How come your reaction is so over the top?"

"I'm just testing you. I can't believe you fall for that." She laughed.

"You tricked me y-you dekochin!" I pointed my index finger on her forehead and she covered it with her hands.

"When did you become conscious about your feelings for her?"

"…-ther." I murmured.

"What? I can't hear you. This is a club Sei, not a church."

"I said, just recently when we stopped seeing each other!" I yelled.

"So, it's just recently huh. What made you see her as more than just a friend?"

"What are you, a private investigator?"

"Just answer me already."

"Ugh." I sighed deeply, "… I…I got scared that she'll find a hot boyfriend and she'll stop taking care of me."

"Aw, you poor thing." She patted my head with her hand but I pushed it back. "I won't ask you anymore if you have already told her, 'cause it seems that you haven't. But I strongly suggest that you should, because based from what I perceived, she's really close with Naruki-san, and I can see that he likes her very much. One more thing, her birthday's near, it should be the best time to tell her."

"But I don't even know if she likes me that way. Well, I have a hunch but that's not enough to tell whether she likes me or not. What should I do? Eriko~!" I whined like a child.

"Figure that out yourself. Let's go back now. They might be wondering what's taking us so long."

"What a good friend you are." I said sarcastically.

"It's not like I don't want to help you or anything, it's just that I also don't know what to do. Mmm…Maybe you should do what I did when I confessed to Eiji-san. Be straightforward."

"Okay, I'll take that as an advice, great Eriko-sama." I smirked at her.

We went back to the VIP Lounge but we were taken aback from what we saw, Youko covering her mouth with her hand and Yukawa-san's lips are touching it; his left hand is wrapped around her waist while his right hand is gripping her shoulder. Another thing that made me furious is that Youko didn't even bother shoving him. I got enraged when I saw Yukawa-san's inappropriate action, but Eriko quickly grasped my hand to stop me from attacking him.

"Ehem." Eriko disturbed their little fun time.

I'll be uploading chapter 5 maybe next week (I don't exactly know when...). I'll leave you guys hanging for now, 'cause I still have to review for final exam. I so hate programming!